SGU Episode 347

page in progress

Links

• Show Notes
• Download Podcast
• Forum Topic

Skeptical Rogues

• S: Steven Novella
• B: Bob Novella
• R: Rebecca Watson
• J: Jay Novella
• E: Evan Bernstein

• SS: Scott Sigler

Introduction

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

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. Today is Thursday, March 8th 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: My skeptical friends, how are you?

S: We are fine

R: Good!

This Day in Skepticism (0:31)

R: Guess what today is?

J: 'I'm just a guy' day

R: Every day is 'I'm just a guy' day. No, on today, the day that this will go out, March 10th, in 1797, Thomas Jefferson presented a paper on the megalonyx to the American Philosophical Society. The paper was called"A Memoir on the Discovery of Certain Bones of a Quadruped of the Clawed Kind in the Western Parts of Virginia" [1]. Not really a short title but-

S: Pithy

E: Doesn't really roll off the tongue exactly

R: No. It was one of the first, if not the first archeological paper presented in the US

E: Really?

R: By Thomas Jefferson

S: Yeah, some people give Jefferson credit for beginning paleontology in the United States.

R: Paleontology is what I meant to say. I said archeological (laughs)

S: See

E: Oh gosh

S: It's an easy mistake to make, vertebrate paleontology, I should say vertebrate paleontology.

R: Yeah, and he was vice-President at the time that he presented the paper. So, just imagine today's vice-President giving a paper

S: Well, Al Gore invented the internet, Rebecca, and he was vice-President

R: That's true, yeah, we do still. We have politicians that are interested in the sciences. But there aren't very many out there that are actual scientists. So it's nice to remember that, once upon a time, there was a real serious, scientist President.

S: Do you know what megalonyx means?

R: Yes, I do, it means "big claw" ?

R: and Jefferson thought that it was a lion, and, in fact, he thought it was a lion that still existed because Jefferson, like many people at the time. Did not believe in the theory of evolution. Specifically, he didn't believe that any species had ever gone extinct. And so to prove that he was sure that the megalonyx would eventually be found living. And when??? Lewis and Clark went out on their expedition he asked them to keep an eye out for this giant, clawed lion. Of course they did not find it, because it had long been extinct. and it was actually a giant sloth, which is probably the most fearsome sloth that has ever lived, which isn't saying much. No, it wasn't even big by giant sloth standards, it was about a medium-sized giant sloth. But it apparently lived all over the US, and in 1822, well in 1799 Dr Caspar Wistar is the person who identified the remains as being from a giant sloth. And in 1822, he proposed naming it megalonyx jeffersonii, in honor of Jefferson. Who was wrong, about the extinction thing. and the lion thing.

S: He was wrong, yeah he believed in this completeness of nature notion which is, I guess, that nature is complete. You know, it's just one cohesive fabric that all fits together intricately, and is static. He kind of just went along with the view of the universe at the time, you know. People thought that the universe was static, that the world was static, and that nature was static. Very different to the view that we have today, that is almost a ? paradigm shift that has occurred in the way that we think of nature.

R: Yep

S: Very cool

News Items

Robot Cheetah (4:16)

BBC News: Robotic cheetah 'breaks speed record for legged robots'

S: Right, well let's move on to some news items, Bob, you're going to tell us about the robot cheetah

B: A few years ago, I remember seeing a CG ad in a magazine featuring this incredible robot cheetah, it was probably one of the coolest robot designs I had ever seen. But it seems now that such a beast is closer to reality than I actually thought. Researchers have now created a robot inspired by cheetahs, that is the fastest land robot ever, running at 18mph, or, for those metrically inclined, 29km/h. If you see the video, it's really cool, it actually seems like it's running much faster than 18mph. What's one of the unusual things about about the robot itself is that there is no real legs, the legs are kind of, they taper down to these points, it's kind of running on the back edge of these pointy legs. So it looks a bit unusual, not terribly cheetah like. But the people behind this future quadruped terminator, are DARPA, we've talked about them many times - the US government's advanced research agency, and one of my favorite companies, Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Massachusetts. I'm sure you guys have heard of them, we've talked about them a couple of times. They have developed two incredible robots, one of them is BigDog, which is now- they've created a bigger cousin of him called AlphaDog, and this one is the best, it's incredible, it can carry 400 lbs of military gear, it can climb 35&deg slopes. And the cool thing about this robot that Boston Dynamics makes, is that it can balance itself so well, that it looks actually animal-like as it does it, on slippery ice, or you could even- you have these guys running up and kicking it, and it moves it's leg in such a way that it maintains it's balance (youTube video). The first time I saw the video of that robot, I literally giggled like a little girl, it's soo amazing, and so lifelike.

S: (teasing) like a little girl

(laughter)

J: Wait a minute, Bob, seriously, you watched the robot and you were like (giggles like a little girl)

(laughter)

B: Well, I wouldn't say giggle, when I see something really cool like that, that takes my breath away, I wouldn't say I giggled, I let out an involuntary laugh, whatever (laughs). So, and more recently, they came out with PETMAN (youTube video) which is this bipedal, headless human-like robot that's designed like a soldier, so they can test military clothing and gear - or so they claim. But this latest bio-inspired robot is primarily designed to run really fast. And if you wanna be inspired by a fast land animal, there's obviously nothing better than a cheetah. Can you guys guess what primary feature they copied from the cheetah to help them achieve it's speed?

R: Spots.

E: It's skin?

J: It's shape?

S: It's flexible spine?

B: Yeah, very good, it's the flexible spine. If you watch a video of a cheetah running at top speed in slow motion, it's really dramatic. You can clearly see that its spine flexes to a tremendous degree. And by flexing it's spine with each step, it increases both it's stride and it's speed. And the spine also acts like a spring for the back legs, that's one of the key components that helps it run as fast as, what, 60 or 70mph. And this is exactly what the robot cheetah does. It's flexible spine helps it run faster than the average human. Now, of course, top athletes still run much faster, I think the fastest a human's been clocked at is about 28mph, so about 10mph faster, but really, how long could it be until no human could ever catch this thing in a race. I was trying to think what are they really going to use this thing for? What they're saying, is that they're trying to design it so that it can run zig-zags and chase and evade, that's one of the big things they're working on. They also want to use this as a tool for emergency response, so maybe looking through disaster sites for survivors and things like that. I think they'd have to make kitten-sized ones for that. But other options include fire-fighting and advanced agriculture, even vehicular travel - which doesn't sound very comfortable to me, although it could be fun for a little while-

S: Well, like a horse, a robotic horse.

B: I guess.

S: That would be kinda neat.

B: But if the spine is going up and down as much as a cheetah, I'm not sure how comfortable that would be.

E: You could get a cheetah saddle

R: Yeah, He-man had one of those

(laughter)

E: Exactly

J: or springs, like shock absorbers

S: When he rode Cheetara, is that what you're saying?

J: (laughs) oh my god, you remember the name

E: 'Give me the power'

R: (laughs) I'm sorry, but can we talk more about the fact that Steve just referenced He-man/Cheetara slash-fiction. I'm pretty sure that's what just happened

S: Yeah

J: We watched all that as kids

R: You know that Cheetara is ThunderCats[2], right? She's the girl ThunderCats. So He-man riding Cheetara is a sexual image. God, you guys!

E: Wow

R: Don't make me spell it out

J: Oh my god, that's awesome

E: I wanted to strangle that little wizard thing, that thing was annoying as hell.

B: Oh my god, right? it was Wizzo or something, right?

(laughter) ?? R: Snarf? no, was the ThunderCats

E: Yeah, the 'Twinky' of He-man, right?

J: Twinky was so bad!

B: Horrible.

E: Terrible.

R: I'm sorry

S: Anywho,

B: In case you're wondering, for the immediate future, there's plans for a mid-2012 field-test for this guy, free-running though. Because, in the video, you'll see that the thing has an arm that connects a power-supply, and things like that. But they're going to have a free-running one this year, maybe in a few months, so I'd love to see a video of that.

Kony 2012 (9:48)

Kony 2012 video

S: so, Rebecca, tell us about this Kony character

R: Yeah, this has sort of taken the internet by storm this week. A 30-minute video was published by the charity 'Invisible Children' which encouraged people to join together to campaign to bring Joseph Kony to justice. Now, Kony is the leader of the 'Lord's Resistance Army' , which is a Christian extremist rebel group who have claimed that their goal is to obtain a theocracy in Uganda, and they would base everything on the ten commandments. Which, yeah, sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately there are- I was just being ironic there, before we get some angry emails

E: There's 15 commandments.

R: (laughs) They don't do so well at actually following any of the commandments, even the good ones. They are most notable for their sheer brutality, and particularly for their use of child soldiers as the bulk of their ranks. The children are kidnapped, and the boys are brainwashed, and the girls are used as sex-slaves. The child soldiers are then used to conduct terrorist activities throughout Uganda, and the surrounding areas. And this has been happening for more than 25 years. So, enter 'Invisible Children', with a very slick campaign that quickly went viral on Twitter and Facebook. The video describes Kony's actions, and claims that 'Invisible Children's goal is to make Kony famous so that he can't hide any longer. It's a really beautifully edited video, and they direct people to donate money to their cause and spread awareness, you can write in and get a kit that includes some trendy bracelets, you know, one for you, and one to give to a friend to spread the word and more info on how you can participate. They call out several celebrities and politicians that you can pressure for awareness and to take action.
It caught on so quickly, that by the time I woke up yesterday morning, I had several emails from people asking me to watch and learn and donate. I did watch, but while I was really impressed, and also moved, I was a little put-off. Because the entire video was very split in terms of race. For instance, black people were either the victims of horrible atrocities, or the monster - Joseph Kony. And white people were universally the saviors, nearly every person in every image shown to be helping the cause was a white person. But I was willing to set that aside, with the understanding that maybe was maybe those whiffs of colonialism and the 'white man's burden' were just a side-effect of a campaign that was aimed at raising awareness amongst a group that otherwise might not care much about the African people. But I did a little digging, and as the day wore on, my research got easier and easier, because as the video gained steam online, so did an equal and opposite skeptical response. So, by the end of the day, there were articles in the mainstream press that were very critical of the Kony 2012 effort and a response from 'Invisible Children', and it had already gone back and forth several times, and it was actually quite impressive to see such an immediate skeptical reaction. That is to- I'll just state outright that I'm not talking about a cynical reaction, but a true skeptical reaction that was critically looking at the claims of 'Invisible Children'.
So, I'll give you a quick overview of some of the criticisms. One of what I feel are the lesser criticisms, is how 'Invisible Children' operates as a charity. There are some who feel that not enough funds go to actually helping the children who are affected by Kony, and there are a lot of people that feel that 'Invisible Children' isn't trustworthy. And they link to Charity Navigator, which is great for evaluating a lot of non-profits, but Charity Navigator gives them three out of four stars, which is pretty good. They give them two stars for accountability and transparency, but 'Invisible Children' answered that by saying that's because they only have four independent board members out of five, and they're currently interviewing for a fifth. 'Invisible Children' are also accused of exaggeration and fact manipulation. Though it's hard to see how you could exaggerate the crimes of Kony, or if you were able to, what problem that would possibly be. But they are accused of exaggerating his crimes, even though he is admittedly, objectively, a monster. But there are facts that the video really down-plays or misrepresents that are important. Like the fact that Kony isn't even in Uganda any more, and he hasn't been there for six years. And there's also the fact that the Lord's Resistance Army is comprised of a few hundred soldiers, not 30,000 child soldiers as the video represents. That number comes from the estimated number of abducted children over the past 30 years, not what they have currently.
A much more important criticism, I think, is that 'Invisible Children' created a film that was 30 minutes long, but they still didn't manage to fully articulate what they are asking their Western audience to do. To most people who are caught up in the excitement of the campaign, they're just helping bring a war criminal to justice. Which is an action that I think we can all agree is good. But it's also overly simplistic. Particularly because the tactics you need in order to bring a war criminal to justice are not simple at all. 'Invisible Children' aren't just asking people to be aware of Kony, their goal is to creat enough demand for Kony's capture, that the US government is pressured into acting. They're very clear that they want US intervention in Uganda, with US forces supporting the Ugandan military's efforts to capture Kony. And that's not necessarily a great thing. For instance, supporting the Ugandan military means supporting a group that has also been known to rape and kill indiscriminately. They're not necessarily 'good guys' in the way that the video represents. While Kony's soldiers were kidnapping children soldiers, the Ugandan government was forcing northern Ugandan people into concentration camps with horrific living conditions, and failing to provide adequate protection against Kony.

S: So they're trying to manipulate the media to get the the US to intervene on one side in what's essentially a civil war? is that what you're saying?

R: er, yeah. That is a good way to put it. In the video, they name Kony as the sole bad guy, and they completely fail to place him into any kind of context and call the Ugandan government into account, particularly the President, who is Yoweri Museveni. He hasn't stopped Kony, despite being in power for more than 25 years now, which happens to be exactly as long as Kony has been waging this war. So, will sending in US troops to work with the Ugandan military be a good thing? Who knows? The video also glosses over the fact that Obama already sent troops to Uganda to do that very thing. In 2008, the US Africa command attempted to find and assassinate Kony, at his base in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But that plan was a complete disaster, and they didn't even come close. Kony had already left that base, long before they even got there. That mission and others have only resulted in more deadly counter-strikes from the LRA, as well as multiple ruined peace-talks. Despite that, Obama pledged 100 more troops to the region last year, due mostly to advocacy efforts like 'Invisible Children'. So, what happens if those new US advisors still aren't able to capture Kony? Will the next action involve military strikes? And what happens if they find Kony and he's surrounded by children holding guns. Does the US fire on them? There's a lot of really hard questions that are completely avoided.
There's a lot more to this story, and I've skipped some completely valid criticisms of 'Invisible Children' in order to make this as short as possible. I know it's already super-long. But hopefully that gives you some idea of how complicated these issues are, and how overly-simplified 'Invisible Children' has made it in order to get American's excited about a continued military intervention. Which is remarkable really, they're getting a huge amount of support from people who probably didn't support US intervention in other recent cases, because they make it seem like we're watching a genocide happen, like in Rwanda, but that this time we can stop it. If we only send troops. And just to briefly conclude, I'll say that a few people have written in in the last day specifically asking if 'Invisible Children' is running a scam. So I want to be really clear here. I don't think that they're running a scam, in fact I 'm confident that they're not. I think that they really believe in what they're doing, and that they believe that military intervention is necessary to capture Kony and bring about some kind of peace. Whether or not that's true, I think is up to each of you to do the research, go beyond the video that you watch, actually find out what's been happening in Uganda and surrounding areas, and then decide yourself whether this is something you want to support.

S: Right, but first, you need to be skeptical about the simplistic story that's being circulated on the internet, but it sounds like the real information was there as well.

R: Yeah, and the nice thing is, it happened pretty quickly, you know, within the day, there were mainstream publications that were responding with what I thought were very well thought-out criticisms, not just knee-jerk, like "oh, slacktivism, kids getting excited". No, they were true criticisms that I think helped to put everything into context.

Neuroprosthetics (20:00)

NeuroLogica Blog: Natural Feeling Neuroprosthetics

Quickie with Bob - QWERTY Effect ( ) 

ScienceDaily: The Right Type of Words: Words Spelled On Right Side of Keyboards Lead to More Positive Emotions

Skeptical Quote of the Week ( )

"You know the greatest danger facing us is ourselves, an irrational fear of the unknown. But there’s no such thing as the unknown– only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood." Captain James Tiberius Kirk

Announcements ( )

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.