SGU Episode 338
Links
Skeptical Rogues
- S: Steven Novella
- B: Bob Novella
- R: Rebecca Watson
- J: Jay Novella
- E: Evan Bernstein
Introduction
(0:00)
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 January 4th 2012 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: Welcome to two thousand twelve.
S: Welcome to the...
R: You mean twenty twelve.
S: Twenty twelve everybody.
J: Twenty twelve everybody.
B: (laughs)
R: You guys have to make the switch.
E: No. Two naught one two...
(laughter)
S: The last year of existence.
E: That's it!
R: Yeah.
S: The world ends this year.
R: It's going to be a short one.
S: Yeah.
B: Make it a good one!
E: Yep.
J: Well, not, Rebecca it's supposed to happen in December, it's not going to be that short.
R: It's going to be nine days short, ten days short.
E: Twelve, twelve, twelve.
R: Is it the 21th I think?
S: Well, some people do 12-12-12 some do 12-12-21. You know, whatever. So this is a new year and we do like to tweak the format of the show a little bit with each new year, experiment with a few new segments.
J: I want a quickie with Bob!
S: yeah, so that's...
(laughter)
B: yeaaaah.
S: ...one of the segments.
E: You can have mine too.
S: Is uh...
R: Calm yourself, Jay.
J: I can't help it, I'm so excited.
S: ...is called a quickie with Bob where, at any point during the show, any one can shout out that they want a quickie with Bob and Bob will give us a very brief and not a brief for Bob, but a really brief description of a news item, a science news item with a provocative headline.
R: What's the cap? It's going to be like 30 seconds, right?
S: Or a minute, I was thinking one minute.
R: A minute, OK. Yeah, that's fine. I'll allow it.
E: You can call it out at any time during the course of the show? Or it happens only once?
S: But only once.
E: Once, right. Yeah.
S: Right, so don't abuse the privilege. Jay was just demonstrating for us, that one won't count.
J: Steve, can people do this at live SGU shows?
S: Well, we'll see, we'll talk about it, we have to see how it goes, give it a try. And another change is that Rebecca, you're taking over This Day in Skepticism segment. So... start us off.
R: I am, I am honoured that Evan has given me this great responsibility, he did a fantastic job over the last year with This Day in Skeptic History.
E: Thanks Rebecca. So thankyou...
S: Which Evan made up the segment himself, he just kind of did it and it evolved into a full segment.
R: It's a lot of pressure for me to carry on that torch.
E: Take care of my baby, Rebecca.
R: I'll do my best, Evan.
E: I know you will.
R: So... uh, for today...
J: I want a quickie with Bob!
(laughter)
S: Jay!
R: Jay, calm yourself!
E: You can't help it. You see, this is going to happen every week.
R: Oh, this is a terrible mistake.
E: That's the problem with this.
J: You know what, in like three weeks we're totally going to forget to do it, Bob will be like, nobody wants a quickie with me?
B: (laughs)
E: Can we say that if one person does it they can't do it the next week? Can we have that sort of as a rule?
B: I like that rule.
S: You can't do it two weeks in a row?
R: That's probably a good rule, yeah.
E: You can't call it two weeks in a row.
S: OK.
This Day in Skepticism
January 7th 1610 1610 - Galileo dated his first letter describing telescopic observations in which he saw the moon's cratered surface using his twenty-powered spyglass. also ... 1610 – Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able distinguish the last two until the following day.
News Items
Segment: News Items Psychic Predictions 2011 How did the psychics do in their predictions for 2011? Hacker Satellite System http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367042 Testing Violins http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/testing-violins/ Quickie with Bob Lost World discovered around Antarctic vents.
Who's That Noisy?
Segment: Who's That Noisy Who's That Noisy Answer to last week: Neil Armstrong
Interview
Segment: Interview Interview with Martin Rundkvist Chairman Swedish Skeptics Society Author of Aardvarchaelogy blog http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/ Topic: http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/electromagnetic-sensitivity-in-sweden/
Science or Fiction
Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ] Item #1 Study of butterfly mimics finds that Heliconius species are often tricked into mating with mimic species. http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/663192 Item #2 A new thorough examination of poisonous frogs finds that their color accurately signals their poisonousness to birds. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/663197 Item #3 A scientist has described a case of a fish mimicking an octopus that in turn was mimicking another fish. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-paradox-gift.html
Skeptical Quote
Segment: Skeptical Quote of the Week Skeptical Quote of the Week “Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.” David Suzuki
S: And until next week, this is your Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU productions, dedicated to promoting science and critical thinking. For more information on this and other episodes, please visit our website at www.theskepticsguide.org. You can also check out our other podcast the SGU 5x5 as well as find links to our blogs and the SGU forums. For questions, suggestions and other feedback please use the contact us form on the website or send an email to info@theskepticsguide.org. If you enjoyed this episode then please help us spread the word by leaving us a review on iTunes, Zune or your portal of choice.