Episode #1054
News Items
- Conspiracy
- Cancer Misinformation
- Improved Nuclear Thermal Propulsion
- Oldest Mummies
- Not the Screwworms
Question #1: Ethics in Research
- Hi folks, on your show of 19th July 2025 (sorry I’m a bit behind) the opening discussion was flu vaccines and in that discussion it was mentioned that no study could ever be done which gave a placebo to participants because we know the flu vaccine works. Would a way around this be to invite participants who wouldn’t normally get the vaccine, due to personal choice, but who wouldn’t mind either way if they did or did not get it. Surely there would be enough people who fall into this category. The question I suppose can be applied on a wider basis than just the flu vaccine. Alex
Name That Logical Fallacy
Hello, First, thank you for spending your valuable time and reading this. w Over the past few years I have seen people use this ‘reasoning’, in different contexts, more and more often. I grew up in the bible belt and went to Catholic school, and I used to hear comments like this much more often in the 80s. But, it seemed like it died out a little. But, now it seems to be coming back, regardless of political or religious views. These are the 80s versions, that I remember from, mostly, the extremely religious: ’He was killed by a drunk driver and I don’t feel sorry for him at all. He spoke out against prohibition.’ (arguing against prohibition, is not an argument for drunk driving.) ’He caught HIV and deserved it. He advocated for gay marriage.’ (arguing for gay marriage, is not an argument for HIV.) ’He was killed in an armed robbery and he deserved it. He was an attorney that defended an armed robber’. (Defending someone accused of a crime, is not the same as supporting criminal activity). ….and nobody forgets this one: ’I am not sorry she was raped. She was otherwise promiscuous and deserved it.’ (obvious) Where I am hearing this now: ’I’m glad those girls died in the flood, there parents probably supported government funding cuts.’ and unfortunately have family members spewing this horror: ’Kirk was against gun control, therefor he deserved to die via gun violence’ (being against gun control, is not an argument for assassination or mass shootings). Is this ‘false equivalency?’ or something? It kind of also has a ‘matte and bailey’ vibe to it. It is also straight up lying… ala, nothing about being against prohibition means that you support drunk driving. Again, thank you for your time, Mark
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
For the first time astronomers have discovered a 5 pointed Einstein cross, which modeling suggests is due to intergalactic dark matter. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adf204
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Item #2
Science
A recent study of the two most common anti-phishing training campaigns found no significant benefit or reduced susceptibility to phishing attempts.https://people.cs.uchicago.edu/~grantho/papers/oakland2025_phishing-training.pdf
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Item #3
Science
A recent analysis finds that current vertical lettuce farming has 20 times the yield per area and only one eighth the water use as traditional farming, but still has a significantly higher carbon footprint. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fes3.70117