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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 116 - 10/10/2007
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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.
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Podcast
116
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October 10, 2007
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Interview with Marc Abrahams of the IgNobels; News Items: Geller on NBC, More Acupuncture, Cell Phones and Cancer, World with Time; Your Questions and E-mails: Energy Follow up, Slain by Woo; Science or Fiction; Skeptical Puzzle
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Segment: News Items
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Segment: Questions and E-mails
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Follow up on 30 Year Battery
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Corrections and additions to last week's discussion
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Slain by Woo
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I want to begin by saying I generally consider myself a very grounded, down to earth guy. I don't drink the "dojo kool-aid" as it were. However I spent time studying Juijitsu under an old Korean grand master, who had dabbled in qigong amongst many other styles. Physically for his age, his skill as a martial artist was exponentially better than his English, but on one particular night he selected my friend to demonstrate what you'd probably call "magic".
I don't have any video of him slamming a blade into his arm, and that's a strike against me I know, but with extreme focus he could render a person unconscious from a pace or two's distance. He would extend index and middle finger, place the other arm behind his back, and go through a very audible breathing routine as he focused. Within maybe 20 to 30 seconds, my friend would begin to teeter back on his heels and eventually slump to the ground. I was always the guy to catch him, and can say with absolute certainty that he was not only unconscious, but also not breathing (or breathing faintly enough I couldn't detect it with my arms around him). He would quickly sweep forward, slide his arms under my friends and around the back, then with two quick hits to the back, bring him to.
I understand the skeptic is on constant vigil and in a state of disbelief, especially in a realm so overexploited by hacks and liars such as martial arts, but it was entirely and completely legit. Having known this individual since kindergarten, I can say without doubt he was not buying in to something if it wasn't going to work. He wasn't folding to spare the teacher humiliation. He was out like a light.
So take it for what you will. I don't buy in to much myself, and consider myself to be entirely rational, but I can see in no way how it could have been explained by anything other than what it was. Other mutual friends of ours had seen it themselves, and though just as rational, were and remain just as sold. It will always be something people can write off, and maybe rightfully so, but in this particular case I can without hesitation assure you of it's legitimacy.
Either way, I figured a more down to Earth account of martial arts "magic" might do good to weigh in against the BS that is indeed out there. Love the show. Keep it up.
Joshua McCurry
youtube.com/watch?v=Fi3t1yVE-gk
youtube.com/watch?v=drz-CMespEM
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Segment: Interview
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Interview with Marc Abrahams
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Marc Abrahams produces the Annals of Improbable Research and the annual IgNobel Awards
http://www.improbable.com/
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Question #1  Science
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A theoretical physicist has proposed a testable model of the universe with two time dimensions.
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Question #2 Science
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New study suggests that humans evolved their upright body plan 15 million years earlier than previously thought - about 21 million years ago.
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Question #3  Fiction
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Harvard linguistic scientists have created a mathematical model of language evolution that predicts that the past tense will eventually disappear from the English language.
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Segment: Skeptical Puzzle
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Puzzle
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This Week's Puzzle:
Deserted some time ago
From a plain red place
As Pluto crossed the sky
Four horses led the way
Gazing down on all the animals
It seemed improbable that animals made them
Despite the insistence of the AA crowd
Foreign visitors were not responsible
What is it?
Last Week's puzzle:
For a feline and fowl he is known
This styling, for years, he had grown
Auras foretold his seizures
In the meantime his leisures
Would yield fame from these seeds he had sewn
Who is this describing.
Answer: Edward Lear
Winner: Flighty
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Segment: Quote of the Week
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Quote
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"Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand."
- Kurt Vonnegut, US novelist (1922 - 2007)
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