SGU Episode 266

Introduction
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

Banning Wi-Fi

 * http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2215

Psychic Finds Wrong Body

 * http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/psychic-searching-for-kiesha-discovers-womans-torso-20100812-120mf.html?autostart=1

Kurzweil and Brain Complexity

 * http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/08/ray_kurzweil_does_not_understa.php

Magnetars and Black Holes

 * http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/spaceastronomystars

Who's That Noisy

 * Answer to last week - spiney lobster

Interview with Bruce Hood

 * Author of SuperSense

Science or Fiction
Item #1: A new analysis confirms that the so-called mitochondrial eve lived about 200,000 years ago. Item #2: New research indicates that for adults internet access at home is significantly associated with a decreased probability of being involved in a romantic relationship. Item #3: New images of the Moon's surface indicate that the Moon is shrinking - by about 100 meters in the recent past.

Quote of the Week
"'You know that chemistry has an impact on your daily life, but the extent of that impact can be mind-boggling. Consider just the beginning of a typical day from a chemical point of view. Molecules align in the liquid crystal display of your clock, electrons flow through its circuitry to create a rousing sound, and you throw off a thermal insulator of manufactured polymer. You jump in the shower, to emulsify fatty substances on your skin and hair with chemically treated water and formulated detergents. You adorn yourself in an array of processed chemicals - pleasant-smelling pigmented materials suspended in cosmetic gels, dyed polymeric fibers, synthetic footware, and metal-alloyed jewelry. Today, breakfast is a bowl of nutrient-enriched, spoilage-retarded cereal and milk, a piece of fertilizer-grown, pesticide-treated fruit, and a cup of a hot, aqueous solution of neurally stimulating alkaloid. Ready to leave, you collect some books - processed cellulose and plastic, electrically printed with light-and-oxygen-resistant inks - hop in your hydrocarbon-fuelled metal-vinyl-ceramic vehicle, electrically ignite a synchronized series of controlled, gaseous explosions, and you're off to class!' Martin S. Silberberg"