SGU Episode 400
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| SGU Episode 400 |
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| 16th March 2012 |
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| (brief caption for the episode icon) |
| Skeptical Rogues |
| S: Steven Novella |
B: Bob Novella |
R: Rebecca Watson |
J: Jay Novella |
E: Evan Bernstein |
| Quote of the Week |
Our inner weighing of evidence is not a careful mathematical calculation resulting in a probabilistic estimate of truth, but more like a whirlpool blending of the objective and the personal. The result is a set of beliefs - both conscious and unconscious - that guide us in interpreting all the events of our lives. |
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| Forum Discussion |
Introduction
<beep> S: This is Rogue Leader, checking in from Sierra-Golf-Uniform Mission Control. I need a news item status report, please identify.
E: Echo Three to Echo Seven. Han, old buddy, do you read me? Uhhh, I mean, Steve, this is Rogue Four, copy?
R: Yeah, Rogue... Five? here, I guess? I don't—I don't know, I'm here. Why do we have to talk like this, Steve? Steve?
<beep> S: This is Rogue Leader, Rogue Five. Call me Rogue Leader. Can you please identify? That means use your code name. Over. <beep>
R: Yeah, I'm refusing your stupid order. Over.
B: This is Rogue Mandelbrot. Over.
<beep> S: Rogue Mandelbrot, I don't recognize your callsign. Use your issued designation. Over. <beep>
B: (exhales, indignant) This is Rogue Two. If any of the other Rogues want to call me Rogue Mandelbrot, feel free; it's much cooler than friggin' Rogue Two.
<beep> S: Rogue One, come in, Rogue One. Do you copy? Over. Has anyone talked to Rogue One recently? <beep>
R: You mean Jay, right? Is Rogue One Jay? We have names already, Steve. I seriously do not understand this.
J: This is Rogue One. I copy. I'm at 42,000 feet coming in over San Diego.
<beep> S: Rogue One, are you go for a news item? <beep>
J: Roger that, Rogue Leader. I'm covering the death of Duane Gish. Over.
B: Over what, his dead body?
<beep> S: Cut the unnecessary chatter on this frequency, Rogue Two. What is your news item? Over. <beep>
B: I'm talking about carbon nanotubes and solar panels and new battery technology.
E: Are they charging those new batteries with solar panels made out of carbon nanotubes? How cool!
<beep> S: That's a negative, Rogue Two. No one wants to hear about any news items on those topics from us ever again.<beep>
R: Rogue Two should push that idea out the airlock. Over.
<beep> S: Rogue Four, will you give me a news item status update, please? <beep>
E: Uhhh. Roger that. I've got plants talking to animals.
<beep> S: That's a negative on that one, Rogue Four. <beep>
E: I've got latest paranormal belief statistics from the United Kingdom.
<beep> S: That's a negative too.
E: I've got bee venom killing the HIV.
<beep> S: Mmmm, nope. Over.
E: Uhhh, 3D printing replaces 75% of a man's skull.
<beep> S: That's a negative on that one, Rogue Four.
E: Uhhh. (exhales) How about people can live to be 150 years old?
<beep> S: That's a go on that last one, Rogue Four. <beep> Rogue Five, I still need a status report on your news items. Over. <beep>
R: Yeah, I wanna talk about a sloth that got its makeup done. Uhhh, on a TV show. It's great.
<beep> S: A sloth on a TV show. Over. <beep>
R: Yeah, it's like—it's a sloth that they brought in from the zoo, and they put it in a makeup chair and they put makeup on it. That's what I'm gonna talk about.
<beep> S: Maybe we'll put that on the back burner there, Rogue Five. <beep>
J: Rogue One to Rogue Leader, come in.
<beep> S: Rogue Leader here. Go ahead, Rogue One. <beep>
J: Permission to fly my ship into Rogue Two. Over.
<beep> S: That's a negative, Rogue One. Cut the shit. Over. <beep>
R: This is overdone. Over.
E: (As Sean Connery) I'll take Rogue Four for a thousand. Over.
J: Oh yeah? Over.
<beep> S: We are ready to go with Mission 400. <beep>
(rocket launching)
(theme music)
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
This Day in Skepticism (6:54)
- March 16, 1912: Historical badass Captain Lawrence Oates sacrifices himself for Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in the most badass way possible.
S: Well, we do have a great show for you, our number 400. We're gonna start, as we usually do, with This Day in Skepticism. Rebecca.
R: Yeah. Alright, let's set the stage, you guys. It's early 1912. You are part of the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole, an effort led by Robert Falcon Scott.
S: Wait, wait. I thought Terra Nova went back in time to the time of the dinosaurs.
R: No, that was just a terrible short-lived TV show.
S: Oh, that's right.
R: Is that still on?
B: No.
R: No. Can't be. Yeah, okay. So, you arrived at the South Pole in December of 1911, only to find that the Norwegians beat you to it by a solid month. So you turned around and you march back, only to find horrific weather, scurvy, other illnesses, injuries and diminishing food supplies. And come March, one person is already dead, and if the rest don't make it to safety soon, everybody's going to die.
S: And that's when The Thing attacked, right? 'Cause they already killed the Norwegians. (laughter)
R: Yeah, yeah. That, I think, did happen in the recent Thing adaptation, but I'm not positive, because much like everyone else, I didn't watch it.
B: I don't know what it is, but it's weird
E: unintelligible) – the rest of the world, nobody saw it.
R: So, Captain Lawrence Oates, who was on the team to handle the ponies, had become weak and ill and frostbitten, and he told everybody else "Go on without me." And they refused.
E: They said "Alright."
R: So on the morning of March 16, 1912, Oates got up and walked out the tent, never to be seen again. And before he left, he said "I'm just going outside and may be some time." Thereby giving English folks for the following century the best possible thing to say when going out for milk during a particularly bad rainstorm. So his sacrifice was awesome, but ultimately all for naught, since everyone else in the party died twenty miles later. But it was still pretty badass.
S: So, how do they know he said that if everyone else died?
R: They kept diaries. You dummy.
S: They wrote that down, before they…?
R: Yeah, and in fact, according to Oates's diary, he loathed Scott.
S: Yeah, I remember reading that.
R: Despite his sacrifice.
E: He mother-fracked him up and--
S: Although, he also said at one point that, maybe I'm just in a bad mood because I'm in friggin' Antarctica.
R: Right. Maybe it's the frostbite talking. (laughter) But I feel like the person leading us is incompetent.
E: Maybe it's the slow embrace of death talking here. (laughter) This suuuccckks!
R: I think you could forgive him for being a little cranky.
S: Worst expedition ever.
R: It really was, like, oh, can you imagine, you know, embarking on this grand expedition that will very likely cost you your life and you make it. You make it to the South Pole, only to find out that some Norwegians beat you there. Ouch! And then dying on the way back. I mean, that part sucked, too.
J: Right before the guy dies, he's like, this really sucks! (laughter)
S: But they had that exploration spirit.
R: They did.
S: That excelsior spirit.
B: Excelsior!
E: Yeah, that
R: For whatever's that worth, which is exactly nothing.
S: So they got that going for them.
B: Which is nice.
S: Which is nice.
E: That's a nice footnote.
News Items
Meteorite Fossils (10:23)
Astrobiologists claim meteorite carried space algae
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Duane Gish Dies (18:46)
Acupuncture Meta-Analysis (26:04)
Quicky With Bob (44:14)
- Astronomer discovers closest star system to our sun
News Items Continued
Live to 150 (46:46)
Who's That Noisy? (54:44)
- http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,45351.0.html
- Answer to last week: Yvan
Science or Fiction (58:08)
Item number one. A new study finds that those infected with HIV have no increase in mortality if they are well controlled on medication. Item number two. Recently published research finds that screening colonoscopy did not increase survival. And item number three. Engineers have built a self-healing integrated-circuit chip able to repair itself and resume function even after significant damage.
Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:11:26)
Our inner weighing of evidence is not a careful mathematical calculation resulting in a probabilistic estimate of truth, but more like a whirlpool blending of the objective and the personal. The result is a set of beliefs - both conscious and unconscious - that guide us in interpreting all the events of our lives.
Leonard Mlodinow
Announcements
NECSS 2013 (1:12:42)
- April 5th-7th 2013
Rich Binder's Artwork 1:13:05
References
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