SGU Episode 335

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SGU Episode 335
17th December 2011
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 334                      SGU 336
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Quote of the Week
Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Links
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SGU Podcast archive
Forum Discussion

Introduction

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

S: Hello, and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday, December 14th, 2011, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella...

B: Hey, everybody.

S: Rebecca Watson...

R: Hello, everyone.

S: Jay Novella...

J: Hey, guys.

S: ...and Evan Bernstein.

E: How we doin'?

S: Good.

B: Pretty good.

R: Super.

J: Yah, fine.

This Day in Skepticism (0:30)

S: So, Evan, December 17th, huh?

E: The year was 1919. Albert Porta, a respected American meteorologist, whose last name means "door" in Italian, I believe...well, he caused a widespread panic back in 1919, and he predicted that a conjunction of six planets, which was to occur on December 17th, would blast the Earth into oblivion. So apparently what was going to happen is that this conjunction of the six planets was going to cause a magnetic current that would pierce the sun and cause a great explosion of flaming gas and engulf the Earth. Bye, bye, Earth. And people took this quite seriously, as, after all, he was a respected American meteorologist, so he had some sway with the public.

S: Mmm-hmm.

E: There's reports of, you know, some mob riots and even a few suicides, reportedly—

B: Wow.

E: —based on this particular prediction he made. And, of course, it didn't happen, and then his reputation crashed and burned right after that, and nobody took him seriously.

J: The suicide thing always boggles my mind because if the world were to end, then why kill yourself before it happens, you know?

B: I'd want to see it happening. What a way to go, huh?

R: In some people's version of the end times, though, it's not something you really want to stick around for. There's locusts and horsemen...

J: But it never occurred to them, he might be wrong, you know? (laughs) You know, the stakes don't get higher.

B: Yeah, but what gets me about this stuff is that people never consider, "Hey, I wonder if this has happened before." And if you kinda look at when these types of groupings have happened, like, say, for four or more planets lining up, it happens like every fifty-seven years, so, hello, I mean, that's kind of pertinent information that seems like a lot of these people never consider. And I know he was going off on magnetism and stuff, which was really silly, but a lot of people focus on the gravitational increase, and, I mean, if you line up five planets and look at what the effect on the gravitational pull...I think it's less than one percent increase. I mean, if I just stepped really close to you, I'm having more of an effect than the five planets would have. It's just so silly.

S: Do you remember the planetary alignment in 1982?

B: I think I do.

E: That was big. Yes.

B: Was that in like May? Was it May 5th?

E: It was the May—

S: March. March 10th.

E: I thought it was the 9th.

B: That's close.

E: Oh, yeah, I think you're right.

S: March 10th. You know what that's called, when the planets line up?

B: Is it, umm...syz...

E: Syzy...syzygy.

S: Syzygy, yeah.

B: Yeah.

S: Syzygy technically is when three bodies line up — like the sun, the earth, and the moon — but it's also sort of loosely used to refer to planets. Although, they were all lined up; they were just all on the same side of the sun at one time.

B: A loose alignment.

S: Yeah, so-called grand syzygy. The next one is coming up May 19th, 2161, when all of the planets will be within sixty-nine degrees of each other.

E: Wow. There was a six-planet cluster just this past May, in fact.

S: But, Evan, no effect on earthquakes?

E: No, no effect...(laughs) Yeah, right.

S: (laughs)

E: No effect on earthquakes.

News Items

Pro-Measles Children's Book (3:34)

• Skepchick: Measles are Marvelous

Higgs Update (12:08)

• Bad Astronomy: Mass effect: Maybe Higgs, maybe not

Mercury UFO (22:53)

• NeuroLogica Blog: Mercury UFO

Hallucinating Color (29:39)

• National Geographic: People Can Hallucinate Color at Will

Who's That Noisy? ()

Answer to last week: Piranha

Questions and Emails ()

Menstrual Syncing ()

I was listening to the latest podcast, reached the "fact or fiction" segment of the program and was disappointed to hear Jay trot out that old newage-lady-togetherness-myth about women's periods syncing up. It's one of those things people like say, "Betty and I are such good friends, we even have periods at the same time!" It's also bullshit. Socially synchronizing periods do not exist, and because of the varying lengths of duration of the period itself along with time between, cycles that start out apparently synced will un-couple over time. There are only so many days in a general 4-6 week cycle, chances are at some point one of my room mates and I will sort-of-sync for a month or three, but not the whole length of the apartment's lease (And while this myth persists, even it has never had the ovarian fortitude to claim syncing room mates have periods the exact same duration). Too, as cycles un-sync, people will start to count the near-misses as evidence. First it will be on the same day, then only 2 days apart, then 4, etc. "Why, we must still be in sync, even though clearly they're slowly getting further and further apart!" No reputable, repeatable study has ever proved syncing-cycles. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=do-women-who-live-together-menstruate-together http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2429/does-menstrual-synchrony-really-exist Barbara United States

Swindler's List ()

Online Dating

Science or Fiction ()

Item #1: Scientists have successfully developed a vaccine against breast cancer that has been shown to be effective in mice. Item #2: Scientists have developed a plant spray that allows plants to survive freezing conditions unharmed. Item #3: Psychologists discover that adding a small gift to a larger gift decreases the gift evaluation of the recipient.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ()

Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.

Jean-Paul Sartre

References