SGU Episode 460
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| SGU Episode 460 |
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| May 3rd 2014 |
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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 |
The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it. |
| Links |
| Download Podcast |
| Show Notes |
| Forum Discussion |
Introduction
You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.
Hello and welcome to the Skpetics' Guide to the Universe. Today is April 30th 2014 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: Oh good evening my dear friends, how are you?
R: Helloooooo.
S: So nine years.
R: Oh, dear god.
B: Oh my god.
E: Nine years.
J: What, today's the day?
E: Longer than most marriages.
S: This is it. This is our nine year anniversary.
R: This is more than twice as long as the longest relationship I've ever been in.
E: You're welcome, it's been great. It's been a great nine years. It went fast. Did it seem fast to you guys?
B: Wow.
R: Yeah, we haven't even needed counselling our anything.
E: Not yet, no.
J: Yeah of course it went fast, but man I feel, I feel it. I feel the work, I definitely feel like we've been doing a lot of stuff.
R: Really?
J: Yeah.
R: I don't, whenever someone's like, oh I started listening to you guys when I was a teenager, and I'm how the eff old are you right now?
S: Oh it's worse than that, like when you have a 16 year old saying that he's been listening to us since he was 8, you know.
R: Yeah, it's creepy and weird. Stop doing that.
S: His whole life.
B: So what do you say guys, do we stop after a decade, do we keep going after that, what's the deal here?
S: Well, we've been renewed for another year.
R: Oh my god.
E: OK.
S: I thought I would inform you all of that.
R: At twice our salary.
J: I have an interesting question, guys. Do you think you're a lot better as a skeptic and an understander of science today than you were nine years ago?
S: Oh yeah.
R: Definitely.
E: Without a doubt, without a doubt.
B: I think I was way better back then.
S: Have you listened to any of the episodes from our first year any time recently?
J: Not very recently, but I have.
E: Not for a few years.
J: You can totally see how we learned a skill set here and how we learned not only how to be podcasters but just how to read news articles and digest them.
R: I'll never forget listening to the first episode for the first time after I'd already been on the show and I'm like, oh my god, these guys are total amateurs. It's just like, Bob you've got to turn up your microphone.
(laughter)
S: So do you guys want to do something special for the 10 year anniversary?
B: Oh yeah we have to, really have to.
E: Yes, yes.
S: Like another 24 hour show?
B: Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm up for it.
R: Oh, god.
B: Maybe 12 yours.
E: Yes, I'll vote.
R: 12, I'll do 12.
E: I'm good for 24 so anything less than 24 I'm obviously good for.
J: I'm not doing 24.
S: Lightweights.
E: Come on even Kiefer Sutherland is coming back for 24, let's go.
B: Better than that man, I'll do 30 hours, let's go.
E: 30?
J: Oh my god.
E: I'll do 30 and a half.
J: I think we could do a nice 6 or 12 hour show.
S: Alright I'll put it on the schedule.
(laughter).
B: It's just a matter of when, now.
S: Sometime in May 2015.
E: Hey Steve, would this be an appropriate time to say something to the listeners who have been with us for the best part of 9 years?
S: No, it would be totally inappropriate.
E: Well then I'm going to keep my damn mouth shut.
R: If it's anything other than "what is wrong with you?"
S: No this ride of course would be nothing without our loyal listeners, they've really been fantastic, at live events, sending us emails, participating in our social media, on the forums, yeah it's really been great.
B: Oh come on, we would have quit long ago if it weren't for them. We get so re-engergised whenever we go to a conference that it really helps you keep going and the incredible emails we get, I mean that's such a huge part of it.
S: Well let's go on and do show number 460 to close out our 9 years. Rebecca, you're going to start with This Day in Skepticism.
This Day in Skepticism (3:52)
- May 3, 1997: Death date of Manuel Elizade: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/08/world/manuel-elizalde-60-dies-defender-of-primitive-tribe.html
R: In 1997, on May the 3rd, Manuel Elizade at the age of 16 died. Do you guys know Manuel Elizade?
B: Yes.
E: No.
R: He is faintly known, but he should be maybe a little bit more well known because it is an interesting story. Elizade, Manuel Elizade Junior actually, was a Filipino, he was a member of a very wealthy Filipino family who claimed to have discovered the Tasaday people who he claimed were a sort of stone-age people who had had no interaction with the modern world, who had no word for war, and other various claims.
S: So you're saying they weren't a modern stone-age family.
(laugher)
R: In a way they kind of were, I guess. Yeah.
S: OK. They drove cars by running their feet out the bottom.
R: They had a Pterodactyl sink, yes.
S: A mammoth vacuum cleaner.
R: As you do. It's difficult to say even now, this is why I like this story, because it's difficult to say whether or not Elizade was completely full of crap. There is a chance that the Tasaday people were real, there are anthropologists who Elizade allowed to interact with the Tasaday people and who came back saying, yeah these people were completely cut off from other societies. And there are many, many other people, many other scientists who say that this is ridiculous, that the Philippines are, yes there's dense jungle and it can get very difficult to get around, but still there were other tribes very close by the Tasadays that it would be basically impossible.
B: Three hour walk, right?
R: Yeah, about a three hour walk, and it would be basically impossible for these people to go for centuries, if not millennia, without interacting with anybody else, like elisalde claimed that these people didn't even think that there was anyone alive outside of their small sphere, they thought that they were the only people on Earth. And to a lot of scientists, that was completely and utterly ridiculous. Adding to the mystery, Elizade was a well-known party boy, it would be like George W Bush I guess, style, like...
S: He's going to be president?
R: Or, I'm trying to think of who else would be a good example of, you know, a well known, wealthy, politically connected family, he was like the bad boy partier.
E: Calligula?
R: Uh...
E: Not that bad, maybe.
R: No, maybe not that bad. Then, after claiming to discover the Tasaday, he and his wife became really fervent protectors of the local environment and of the Tasaday and other indigenous peoples, they went out of their way to put restrictions on logging companies an things to sort of protect these areas, which a lot of people saw as a kind of the universal good. Yeah, to this day anthropologists and other scientists still aren't sure if the Tasaday really were the "stone-age people" that Elizade claimed. As of right now, like over the past several decades, they've obviously been introduced to modern society if they weren't before, to the point where one of them actually tried to sue anthropologists who accused them of being fakes, possibly on Elizade's urging, but who knows? So at this point it's impossible to say, but back then Anthropologists complained that there were a number of things missing from the story, like no researchers had free and open access to the Tasaday, Elizade and the Markos administration severely restricted any kind of access and then some of the anthropologists that did have access said that there was a lack of things like middens.
B: Yes.
R: Which are like trash heaps which are the expected by-product of people who are living in one spot for many centuries, if not millennia. So things like that were suspiciously missing. I feel like the consensus is leaning towards like mostly a hoax at this point.
S: That's what it sounds like. Interesting.
News Items
Neuromorphic Computing (8:57)
S: Well Jay, tell me about neuromorphic computing, sounds interesting.
Mixing Supplements and Meds ()
Microbial Doom ()
Marketing Organic ()
Who's That Noisy ()
- Answer to last week: Debbie Berebichez
Questions and Emails
Question #1: Energy ()
I recently read an advertisement for a skin care product that claimed 'Suddenly, skin is full of energy . . .'It got me thinking; is there any means of getting energy into our body other than consuming calories?And when I say energy, I mean the capacity to perform work.Steve, I think I remember you saying this on one of your 'Great Courses' lectures but I wanted to confirm. Specifically I'd like to know if caffeine gives us energy or simply increases our metabolism.I also remember 'energy' was the word Rebecca selected at last years (2013) NECSS as being misunderstood by the general public. Please lift the veil just a little more.I hope this is not a topic you've discussed before and I've simply forgotten. If it is, please accept my apologies and move on to your next message.Thanks.David YoungHong KongPS: If your interested, the product name is the serum and it's produced by Cle de Peau Beaute Laboratories. They have a website but the product may be marketed differently in different countries. Here in Hong Kong the advertisements claim the product can add energy to your skin.
Elise Andrew ()
Science or Fiction ()
Item #1: Astronomers have discovered a lone globular cluster, flung from its parent galaxy, traveling through intergalactic space. Item #2: A review of published literature concludes that there is no evidence that modern humans were intellectually or culturally superior to Neanderthals. Item #3: A new analysis finds that about 20% of inmates currently on death row are likely innocent and could potentially have their sentences overturned.
Skeptical Quote of the Week ()
The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it. - Terry Pratchett
Announcements ()
- Intelligence Squared: May 7thDebate: Is Death Final:Against: Steven Novella and Sean CarrollFor: Eben Alexander and Raymond MoodyLive Stream here: http://goo.gl/WNV6nQ
- Register for TAM: Use the registration code: SGUTAM2014 for a $25 discount
- May 9th: Steven Novella in Chicago,Ritz Carlton, 7pm, meet and greet in the hotel lounge
S: 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 theskepticsguide.org, where you will find the show notes as well as links to our blogs, videos, online forum, and other content. You can send us feedback or questions to info@theskepticsguide.org. Also, please consider supporting the SGU by visiting the store page on our website, where you will find merchandise, premium content, and subscription information. Our listeners are what make SGU possible.
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