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The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe - Podcast 73 - 12/13/2006
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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
73
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December 13, 2006
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Interview with B. Alan Wallace
News Items: Tree Octopus, Irans Holocaust Denial; Your E-mails and Questions: Science and the Supernatural; Randi Speaks: Communication; 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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Science and the Supernatural
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Hello Everyone,
I enjoy listening to the podcast each week and it is, by far, my favorite of all the podcasts out there. I consider myself to be skeptically inclined and have been so since I was around 12 and first watched Cosmos on public television. I think that The Demon Haunted World should be required reading in school. I am a big Carl Sagan fan. I also like reading Rebeccas blog and I have also received a Skepchick calendar here in New Orleans.
My question for the panel to discuss is this: Is there any potential evidence, experience or phenomenon that you would deem supernatural, if you were to encounter it?
Why do I ask this? Well, I have not been able to come up with anything while I ponder it. Anything I come up with on my own would just have me thinking that whatever it was, was something that science had not yet explained.
Example: If the skies were to open up and a giant man were to appear claiming to be God, I would not automatically assume it was God. It may be a sufficiently advanced civilization attempting to fool us (a la Ardra on Star Trek: The Next Generation) or mass hallucinations. The only thing I think comes close would be if someone were to accurately and, in detail, predict the future 100 percent of the time. And still, I would try to find the scientific answer to why this was happening.
Ghosts, mind-reading, etc. If anyone were able to demonstrate any of these phenomena with reasonable evidence, I would still say there was a scientific and not supernatural explanation for them.
So, to the panel: Is there anything that would indicate to you that it was supernatural in origin or is everything explainable within the physical world even if we cannot explain it yet?
And by my wording I am in no way suggesting that anyone has been able to demonstrate any of these paranormal or supernatural phenomena. I am merely asking what if?
My question was inspired by the ending of Carl Sagans n
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Segment: Interview
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Segment: Randi Speaks
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James Randi
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The Uncompromising Observations of a Veteran Skeptic
Each week James Randi gives a skeptical commentary in his own unique style.
This week's topic: Communication
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Segment: Science or Fiction [ Click Here to Show the Answers ]
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Question #1  Fiction
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By reproducing the nano-scale structure of butterfly wings, engineers have designed the most efficient photovoltaic cells to date.
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Question #2  Science
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A German scientist has designed a nuclear power plant that will produce virtually no nuclear waste.
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Question #3 Science
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Study finds that genes may predict the chance of women cheating on their partners.
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Segment: Skeptical Puzzle
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Puzzle
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Last Week's puzzle
Take a mylar coat.
Put it in a machine and mix it up.
Lay it out.
What's left is something that was once believed to exist, yet has never been found.
What is it?
Answer: carmot (anagram of mylar coat with "lay" taken out)
This Week's puzzle
If I have 3 items that are multicolored, 5 that are black and white, and 2 that are red, black and white, what do I have?
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Segment: Quote of the Week
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Quote
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Coincidence is the science of the true believer.
- Chet Raymo
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