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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 111 - 9/5/2007
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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe

The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe is produced by SGU Productions, LLC - dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science through online and other media. The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.

SGU Podcasting Awards: SGU on XM: You can listen to the SGU on America's Talk XM 166 every Saturday night from 8-9pm Eastern.

Podcast 111 - September 05, 2007

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Interview with Bill Nye the Science Guy; News Items: Airline Sacrifices Goats, King Tut, Is Race Real; Your Questions and E-mails: The Persistence of Myth; Science or Fiction; Skeptical Puzzle



Segment:   News Items     
Villagers Behead Witches     http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070830233738&Page=Q&Headline=Four+'beheaded'+for+practising+sorcery&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
Airline Sacrifices Goats     http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSEIC47086020070905
King Tut Exibit Controversy     http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13992421
Is Race a Social Construct?     http://www.world-science.net/othernews/070904_human-variation.htm
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.aspx?GUID={6FBC19C0-9A25-4D1B-8FE7-5247E30EED9C}
http://www.racematters.org/samemachinedifferentcolors.htm
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/040908_racefrm.htm
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/050128_racefrm.htm
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/abstract/125/8/675
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=00055DC8-3BAA-1FA8-BBAA83414B7F0000&pageNumber=1&catID=2
media.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2833

Segment:   Questions and E-mails     
Myth Busting Woes     Here's a link to a fascinating -- if depressing -- article summarizing several studies which seem to indicate that humans have a tendency to remember frequently-repeated myths as true, even if they were repeated in the context of debunking them! I thought of you folks when I read the article's final sentence: "Myth-busters, in other words, have the odds against them."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090300933.html?nav%3Dhcmodule&sub=AR

Scott Knickelbine
Madison, WI

Segment:   Interview     
Interview with Bill Nye the Science Guy     1) His website is: http://www.nyelabs.com/

2) Here is his Wikipedia entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Nye

3) Here is a link to the Bill Nye gets Booed entry from 2006: attebury.wordpress.com/2006/04/07/bill-nye-angers-some-creationists-during-lecture/

4) Here is his Planetary Society's website. Bill is the VP and he's on the BOD: http://www.planetary.org/about/bill_nye.html

5) Here is his "Ask Bill Nye" page, courtesy of Encarta: encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/columns/?article=BN_fingernails

6) He hosts(ed) the Science Channel's "100 Greatest Discoveries": science.discovery.com/convergence/100discoveries/hostbio/billnye.html

7) Here is an article about the sun dial on Mars (back in 2003): http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=625

8) POI interviewed Bill Nye in 2006: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/forums/viewthread/577/

9) And he was part of a CNN interview with Larry "suspenders" King in January 2007: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0701/31/lkl.01.html


Segment:   Science or Fiction     [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
Question #1     For the first time, astronomers have connected radio telescopes in real time from around the world to create a functional radio telescope with the diameter of the earth.
Question #2     Geneticists were surprised to discover a gene identical in mice and humans, but absent in all other primates.
Question #3     Cancer scientists have developed a way to detect metastasis anywhere in the body simply by examining one vein in the arm or cheek.

Segment:   Skeptical Puzzle     
Puzzle     This Week's Puzzle:

Once upon a time, there was a king, and he enjoyed reading books. His sole urge was to better express his personality through his readings. The impersonal life he led would cause him to travel far and wide. It was once said that he would always travel with his 3 favorite books. The first book was a bible, and the second book was a guide book.

Can you tell me the title of the 3rd book?



Last Week's puzzle:


Being set on the idea
Of getting to this place
He concocted a theory that would be a
Controversy in science's face

He says our whole conception
Of pre-history is wrong
He insists his arguments are not a deception
Rather a pursuit that is life-long

Three points in a row with one offset
Is apparently the key
To unlocking a secret that is a threat
To how we understand our history

He believes the past is misunderstood
That history has been systematically slaughtered
But if we tried to see his revisionist history
All our heads would be under water.


Winner: Ole Eivind
Answer: Graham Hancock

Segment:   Quote of the Week     
Quote     "There is joy in rationality, happiness in clarity of mind. Freethought is thrilling and fulfilling -absolutely essential to mental health and happiness."

- Dan Barker
 
 
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