The New England SKeptical Society Podcast

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe

Skepticast #32: March 1st 2006 (Download MP3)

Topics:

Issue #1. News Items

More bad new for proponents of ID:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/02/28/teaching.evolution.ap/index.html

Conn. man sells holy hardware on eBay
MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) — Thomas Haley was unloading supplies for his job at Hardy's Hardware when he said something odd caught his eye: the face of Jesus Christ on a piece of sheet metal.

Now, Haley and a co-worker are hawking the holy hardware on eBay, hoping potential bidders will agree that the blurry oil stain on the sheet metal does, indeed, resemble Jesus.

"I mean, it hasn't done anything miraculous as of yet, but seeing it is kind of groovy," said Haley, 23. "Just seeing it brightens people's day."

Haley said he was unloading a supply truck two weeks ago at the Manchester hardware store when he turned a corner and was awe-struck by the holy likeness gazing back at him from the $15.49 piece of sheet metal.

Since then, Haley and 18-year-old co-worker Jonathan Jackson have shown the piece to a few other workers and customers, and even took it on a short pilgrimage to a nearby hair salon. They say several people agreed with their assessment, although a few suggested it looks more like legendary rock singer Jim Morrison of The Doors.

"Some people said, 'Are you sure it's Jesus?' and I think, 'Who else would come to give us a sign, Groucho Marx?' " Jackson said. "I think it's a good thing. Maybe it's trying to give some people hope."

The online eBay auction for the potentially pious sheet of metal started Wednesday, but no potential buyers had placed the minimum $19.95 bid as of Saturday afternoon.

The auction is scheduled to end March 1 unless someone pays the "buy it now" price: $10,000.

Haley said that whatever money is raised will be split between him, Jackson, another worker, and two customers. But he's still a little ambivalent about the sale. "I feel kind of bad just pawning off Christ," Haley said.

Issue #2. Your E-mail and Questions

E-mail #1 – G-spot and Oil

“Hello, I love your podcasts, keep up the good work. Two points / questions:

1) Re the G-spot article, you might be interested in a recent podcast by Audible's "In Bed with Susie Bright." She provided some additional insights that would seem to point out the flaws in the quest for "nerve endings" on the G-spot. It appears that it IS NOT on the surface, but well beneath the surface and triggered more by internal pressure - I'll have to experiment with my wife . She references another website with some info: http://www.gspotcenter.com

2) I don't know if this fits into your mandate or not, but I keep getting confused by the various opinions about the "End of Oil" crisis. In particular the wide variances in the "peak oil" point, (+- 30 years). Some say we crossed this point in Dec 2005. Others seems to suggest it's still way off. The frustrating thing for me is that we KNOW that we WILL run out of OIL within the next 100years. It seems odd that more action isn't being taken NOW.

- Rob vanNostrand, Nova Scotia, Canada

Here are links to some published articles on the G-spot. This topic was discussed in the previous episode with special guest Terrence Hines.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15205981&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum
The electrovaginogram: studyof the vaginal electric activity and its role in the sexual act and disorders. ,Shafik A, El Sibai O, Shafik AA, Ahmed I, Mostafa RM.

- This article suggests that perhaps the G-spot is not an area of increased sensitivity but rather the “vaginal pacemaker,” nerve cells which active vaginal contractions leading to heightened stimulation and arousal.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11518892&itool=pubmed_Abstract

The G-spot: a modern gynecologic myth.
Hines TM. - Terrence Hines original article on the G-spot.

E-mail #2 – More on the G-spot

To the NESS podcast team,
First of all, I'd like to say that I've been listening to your podcast for several months and I enjoy it greatly, even to the point of getting irritated when you haven't posted a new one in a while. It's refreshing to listen to people who are so dedicated to the scientific method, and to cutting through some of the malarkey that passes for information these days. Keep up the good work, guys!

With that said, I have to respectfully disagree with your recent show wherein you debate the existence of the Grafenberg spot and female ejaculation. Please pardon my boldness, but in the interest of science I'm going to get quite graphic here.

http://www.indiadiets.com/sex_guide/g_spot/Tips%20on%20finding%20G%20Spot.htm

I'm giving you a link to a diagram that demonstrates where you can find this spongy bit of flesh that's at the front of the vaginal canal. Whether or not you believe in the G-spot, it's there. It seems as though the effects of G-spot stimulation have been greatly exaggerated, so it's perfectly reasonable to deny its existance or utility based on that exaggerated notion. It's not a magic button that will instantly make a woman have an orgasm, any more so than the clitoris is. For most women, they need sustained stimulation in order to climax, and stimulating the clitoris and the G-spot in tandem can make for significantly more intense orgasms (depending on the woman, of course), and cause female ejaculation.

Many people believe that female ejaculate is simply urine or "leftover bathwater." I am fortunate enough to have the experience of not only being a woman who ejaculates occasionally (usually in response to G-spot stimulation), but also to be the sex partner of a woman who ejaculates regularly, and I can tell you that it's not the same thing. Female ejaculation can happen before or after the bladder has been completely voided, and it smells nothing like urine. It can be quite viscous, which urine is not. If it is actually urine, I can't see why it would have a different odor and texture during climax than urine released after climax.

I suppose this is only anecdotal evidence, which science can certainly not rely upon. That being the case, I would love to see a study done of the chemical composition of female ejaculate versus urine of the same women. If such a study has already been done, I'd love to know the results.

Thanks for your time!
If, for some strange reason, you want to read any of this on the air, please don't use my name. My family doesn't need to know why I know so much about this subject.

E-mail #3 – The 12th planet I'm an avid listener, I've downloaded all your podcasts and listen to them every day while I drive. I've learned a lot from you guys, especially with "Science or Fiction". Anyway, I have a question about Zecharia Sitchin, I haven't read his book"The 12th Planet" yet, however, I do know about some of the claims he makes. I wanted to know what you think about Sitchins interpretation of the symerian tablets and that we came from a family of aliens, annunaki or whatever, and some revolving planet Nibiru. I'm sure you can debunk it in minutes, I'm very skeptical about it...I heard about Sitchin in a book by Lloyd Pye "Everything you know is wrong" in the book he talks about the gaps in fossil record and that our closest ancestor, apes, only have a few genetic defects and we have thousands. How can it be that we have so many defects and our closest DNA ancestors have so little?

Thank you, Aram

Here is the official website of Zacharia Sitchin:
http://www.sitchin.com/

Issue #3. Science or Fiction

Each week our host will come up with three science news items or facts, two genuine, one fictitious. He will challenge our panel of skeptics to sniff out the fake – and you can play along.

Theme this week: Too good to be true? Item#1: Scientists have built a quantum computer prototype that was able to compute the correct answer to a calculation without having to run.

Item #2: A review of data at a recent symposium at the annual National Academy of Sciences meeting supports the claim that chocolate is healthy for the heart and has other health benefits.

Item #3: Material scientists from MIT have developed a process that can mass produce carbon nanofiber cables of any thickness or length. Such cables would be many times stronger and lighter than steel.

Answers below:

Answers:

Item#1: Science - http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060225/fob6.asp

Item #2: Science - http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060225/food.asp

Item #3: Fiction – although carbon nanofibers are now a reality, and are many times stronger than steel, so far there is no process that can produce them at usable thickness or

lengths.