Episode #811

Episode #811

News Items

• Number of Galaxies in the Universe
• Inverse Gambler’s Fallacy
• Protecting Lunar Artifacts
• Wear Masks After Vaccination
• CIA Declassified UFO

Who's That Noisy

• Answer to last week:

Question #1: Guided Apophenia

• Hi all, especially Cara with regards to this question. Reading https://medium.com/curiouserinstitute/a-game-designers-analysis-of-qanon-580972548be5 I realised that the concept of guided Apophenia is the evil counter to the skeptics approach of helping people to realise their failures of critical thinking through gently guiding them with rational questions. I’m interested to get your thoughts on what the counter to this approach could be. Is it through education about pareidolia and Apophenia? Regardless, perhaps Apophenia is a good candidate for What’s the Word? Cheers, Brodie

Science or Fiction [ Show Answers ]

• Item #1 Science

  Tantalum is a silvery metal, highly corrosion resistant, that is used in some electronics and as medical implants. https://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/element/73/tantalum

• Item #2 Science

  The oldest evidence of forging iron predates the iron age by 2,000 years and used meteoric iron as the source. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/8/130822-ancient-egypt-beads-meteorites-iron-gerzeh/ https://sciencenordic.com/denmark-greenland-inuit/greenlands-iron-age-came-from-space/1412749

• Item #3 Fiction

  Radium, the element most responsible for the death of Marie Curie, is also the most radioactive substance known. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-most-radioactive-element-608920

Skeptical Quote of the Week.

‘We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.’ - George Orwell