SGUTranscripts - User contributions [en]

User:Drsmith

2012-10-28T10:42:55Z

Drsmith:

I'm a software developer living and working in Sydney Australia. I've been listening to the SGU for 3 years and have, at least, *heard* all their episodes. Who knows, I may soon get to read them too!
I also have wiki experience, having created the wiki site and >50% of the documentation for the company I work at over the last 6 years - using DokuWiki; getting MediaWiki experience is great.

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-21T09:59:46Z

Drsmith: initial transcription ep.102 completed

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 102
|date = Feb 8 2012
|contents = Biofuels
|category1 = General Science
|category2 =
|category3 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
|category2 = Paranormal
|category3 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 75
|date = Aug 12 2009
|contents = The Coriolis Effect
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 31
|date = Aug 4 2008
|contents = Digital Homeopathy 20 years after Benveniste
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = New Age
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 28
|date = July 13 2008
|contents = Exposing the logical fallacy of equating faith healing with medical care.
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
|category2 = Pseudoscience
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 26
|date = June 29 2008
|contents = New study sheds light on genetic vs environmental contributions to sexuality.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 25
|date = June 22 2008
|contents = NASA Plans Probe to the Sun.
|category1 = Astronomy & Space Science
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 24
|date = June 15 2008
|contents = New strategy for SETI - The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
|category1 = Astronomy & Space Science
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 17
|date = Apr 27 2008
|contents = T-Rex proteins closely related to chickens
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}

5X5 Episode 102

2012-10-21T09:53:37Z

Drsmith: removing transcribing flag

{{5X5 editing required 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 102 
|Contents = Biofuels 
|episodeDate = 8th February 2012 
|steve = y
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52012-02-08.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=101 
|forumLink = http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,40361.0.html 
|}}
== Biofules == 
{{5x5intro}}

S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Biofuels. A biofuel is any fuel that derives from organic materials, typically plant-like material. Technically fossil fuels can be considered biofuels, but the biological material they come from was sequestered into the Earth millions of years ago, therefore they are categorised fossil fuels. But biofuels refer to those fuels that are made from plants that are grown recently or today and there are certain advantages to this such as the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere from burning biofuels is essentially the same amount of carbon dioxide as was captured by those plants when they were grown. Therefore, in terms of the fuel itself, biofuels are carbon neutral.

R: Of course, one of the problems with biofuels is if you're taking a living plant, for instance, out of its ecosystem, what kind of effect is that going to have on the rest of the ecosystem, particularly if you're doing it in very large quantities?

S: Right, in order for biofuels to have a large impact on our energy use we would have to make it in extremely large quantities. That's going to have an impact on anything. For example, there are concerns that using farms to grow corn to make ethanol has had an impact on food prices.

J: A lot of experts are starting to think that algae may be a good new biofuel and there are a few reasons why they think this - I actually agree with them about it. One, algae isn't a part of the existing human food chain so its not going to be taking away any food resources if we use it to create biofuel. Also, algae can actually grow in waste water, which can solve a problem we've been having recently, which is an over-abundance of waste water and not an easy way to process it and actually get it back to a pure level. So algae, I think, would be a good solution.

E: Algae in seaweed farming has been shown to help preserve coral reefs. It increases diversity where these algaes and seaweeds have been introduced and it provides this added niche for local species of fish and invertebrates and there are reported cases and studies in which this has shown to be true, especially in areas such as Indonesia.

S: Yeah, there was a recent study Evan, they were looking at seaweed - which is essentially macro algae - as a source of polysaccharides which could be turned into ethanol for biofuel. This could be a viable option, however the impact of farming massive amounts of seaweed and pulling all of that matter and energy out of the oceans needs to be evaluated. As I said, we could have impacts on farmland if we grow grasses or use cellulosic stocks then we're maybe having impacts on forests or other ecosystems, if we're pulling tonnes of seaweed out of the ocean we're going to affect that ecosystem. So, while the concept of biofuels is a good one - growing fuel in a carbon neutral way at least to offset our reliance on fossil fuels - the entire process from beginning to end needs to be considered, including the impact on whatever ecosystem is supporting the growth of the plants that are being used to feed the fuel.

J: Steve did you know that in 2008 biofuel production was accountable for 3 to 30 percent of the increase in food prices?

S: Yeah, those are the estimates, so again, it gets back to the impact on farming.

B: Using seaweed seems really, really interesting. There are a lot of unknowns but the positives to this look really fascinating. What they did was use engineered forms of e-coli bacteria to digest specific sugars that are in the seaweed. There's lots of different sugars in seaweed, the most prevalent though is called agaenae but the problem is that normal microbes couldn't metabolise it. There are other sugars in there as well and they ferment readily but this one major form they couldn't do. So by bioengineering them they were able to actually increase the yield - the ethanol yield - to 80 percent of its maximum which is fairly significant; and that's approximately double that of sugar cane and five times that of corn. So there does seem to be a lot of promise in this one area of research.

S: Yeah, there's definately a lot of research going on looking at ways of converting different parts of different plants into ethanol or biodiesel or essentially fuel and it does seem promising. I think the lesson here for the whole biofuel question is that its a complicated web of factors that all need to be considered before we understand what the nett effect it is having. In fact, for example, with ethanol derived from corn - which is not a great source of energy - by some calculations it costs more energy than you get out of the ethanol. In fact, some of that energy is fossil fuel which can be used as a fertiliser to grow corn. So if you're essentially pouring gasolene on cornfields to grow the corn and then turning the corn into ethanol, you may get less energy out of that process than is put into it. So the entire process from beginning to end needs to be considered for energy efficiency as well as land or water use efficiency, impact on the environment, and it shouldn't be considered a good idea just because it seems a like green idea, or because it is carbon neutral looked at in isolation. But it doesn't mean that someday we wont get to a point someday where we can mass produce a biofuel based upon a source that will not be disruptive to our farming or the environment and that will actually be a nett producer of energy. You know I'm not sure if we're at there yet, perhaps sugar cane which is more energy dense is more efficient but I don't thin corn-ethanol is - if it is it's just barely so - because it's all controvertial. So we'll see where this leads to in the future and how much of an impact it can have on our overall energy use.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

5X5 Episode 102

2012-10-21T09:51:52Z

Drsmith: initial transcription

{{5X5 editing required 
|transcription = y 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 102 
|Contents = Biofuels 
|episodeDate = 8th February 2012 
|steve = y
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52012-02-08.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=101 
|forumLink = http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,40361.0.html 
|}}
== Biofules == 
{{5x5intro}}
S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Biofuels. A biofuel is any fuel that derives from organic materials, typically plant-like material. Technically fossil fuels can be considered biofuels, but the biological material they come from was sequestered into the Earth millions of years ago, therefore they are categorised fossil fuels. But biofuels refer to those fuels that are made from plants that are grown recently or today and there are certain advantages to this such as the carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere from burning biofuels is essentially the same amount of carbon dioxide as was captured by those plants when they were grown. Therefore, in terms of the fuel itself, biofuels are carbon neutral.

R: Of course, one of the problems with biofuels is if you're taking a living plant, for instance, out of its ecosystem, what kind of effect is that going to have on the rest of the ecosystem, particularly if you're doing it in very large quantities?

S: Right, in order for biofuels to have a large impact on our energy use we would have to make it in extremely large quantities. That's going to have an impact on anything. For example, there are concerns that using farms to grow corn to make ethanol has had an impact on food prices.

J: A lot of experts are starting to think that algae may be a good new biofuel and there are a few reasons why they think this - I actually agree with them about it. One, algae isn't a part of the existing human food chain so its not going to be taking away any food resources if we use it to create biofuel. Also, algae can actually grow in waste water, which can solve a problem we've been having recently, which is an over-abundance of waste water and not an easy way to process it and actually get it back to a pure level. So algae, I think, would be a good solution.

E: Algae in seaweed farming has been shown to help preserve coral reefs. It increases diversity where these algaes and seaweeds have been introduced and it provides this added niche for local species of fish and invertebrates and there are reported cases and studies in which this has shown to be true, especially in areas such as Indonesia.

S: Yeah, there was a recent study Evan, they were looking at seaweed - which is essentially macro algae - as a source of polysaccharides which could be turned into ethanol for biofuel. This could be a viable option, however the impact of farming massive amounts of seaweed and pulling all of that matter and energy out of the oceans needs to be evaluated. As I said, we could have impacts on farmland if we grow grasses or use cellulosic stocks then we're maybe having impacts on forests or other ecosystems, if we're pulling tonnes of seaweed out of the ocean we're going to affect that ecosystem. So, while the concept of biofuels is a good one - growing fuel in a carbon neutral way at least to offset our reliance on fossil fuels - the entire process from beginning to end needs to be considered, including the impact on whatever ecosystem is supporting the growth of the plants that are being used to feed the fuel.

J: Steve did you know that in 2008 biofuel production was accountable for 3 to 30 percent of the increase in food prices?

S: Yeah, those are the estimates, so again, it gets back to the impact on farming.

B: Using seaweed seems really, really interesting. There are a lot of unknowns but the positives to this look really fascinating. What they did was use engineered forms of e-coli bacteria to digest specific sugars that are in the seaweed. There's lots of different sugars in seaweed, the most prevalent though is called agaenae but the problem is that normal microbes couldn't metabolise it. There are other sugars in there as well and they ferment readily but this one major form they couldn't do. So by bioengineering them they were able to actually increase the yield - the ethanol yield - to 80 percent of its maximum which is fairly significant; and that's approximately double that of sugar cane and five times that of corn. So there does seem to be a lot of promise in this one area of research.

S: Yeah, there's definately a lot of research going on looking at ways of converting different parts of different plants into ethanol or biodiesel or essentially fuel and it does seem promising. I think the lesson here for the whole biofuel question is that its a complicated web of factors that all need to be considered before we understand what the nett effect it is having. In fact, for example, with ethanol derived from corn - which is not a great source of energy - by some calculations it costs more energy than you get out of the ethanol. In fact, some of that energy is fossil fuel which can be used as a fertiliser to grow corn. So if you're essentially pouring gasolene on cornfields to grow the corn and then turning the corn into ethanol, you may get less energy out of that process than is put into it. So the entire process from beginning to end needs to be considered for energy efficiency as well as land or water use efficiency, impact on the environment, and it shouldn't be considered a good idea just because it seems a like green idea, or because it is carbon neutral looked at in isolation. But it doesn't mean that someday we wont get to a point someday where we can mass produce a biofuel based upon a source that will not be disruptive to our farming or the environment and that will actually be a nett producer of energy. You know I'm not sure if we're at there yet, perhaps sugar cane which is more energy dense is more efficient but I don't thin corn-ethanol is - if it is it's just barely so - because it's all controvertial. So we'll see where this leads to in the future and how much of an impact it can have on our overall energy use.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-21T08:54:30Z

Drsmith: add list entry for ep102

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 102
|date = Feb 8 2012
|contents = Biofuels
|category1 = General Science
|category2 =
|category3 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
|category2 = Paranormal
|category3 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 75
|date = Aug 12 2009
|contents = The Coriolis Effect
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 31
|date = Aug 4 2008
|contents = Digital Homeopathy 20 years after Benveniste
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = New Age
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 28
|date = July 13 2008
|contents = Exposing the logical fallacy of equating faith healing with medical care.
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
|category2 = Pseudoscience
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 26
|date = June 29 2008
|contents = New study sheds light on genetic vs environmental contributions to sexuality.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 25
|date = June 22 2008
|contents = NASA Plans Probe to the Sun.
|category1 = Astronomy & Space Science
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 24
|date = June 15 2008
|contents = New strategy for SETI - The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.
|category1 = Astronomy & Space Science
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 17
|date = Apr 27 2008
|contents = T-Rex proteins closely related to chickens
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-18T12:29:57Z

Drsmith:

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
|category2 = Paranormal
|category3 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|incomplete = y
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = New Age
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Bad Science Reporting
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-18T12:29:16Z

Drsmith: categorising ep.98

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
|category2 = Paranormal
|category3 = Ghosts and Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|incomplete = y
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = New Age
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Bad Science Reporting
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-18T12:23:49Z

Drsmith:

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|incomplete = y
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = New Age
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Bad Science Reporting
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}

5X5 Episode 98

2012-10-18T12:20:22Z

Drsmith: link edits

{{5X5 editing required 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 98 
|Contents = Harry Houdini 
|episodeDate = 30th December 2010 
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52010-12-30.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=98 
|forumLink = 
|}}
== Harry Houdini == 
{{5x5intro}}

S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Eric Wise, or as he is more commonly known: Harry Houdini. Houdini is the most famous, I think, magician to have ever lived. Everyone knows who Harry Houdini was. He is a Hungarian born American magician, an escape artist, and he is also well known within the Skeptical Movement as a famous skeptic. And in fact, he started the tradition of famous magicians also being popular skeptics.

E: Yeah, he was born in Hungary but Houdini and his family emigrated to The United States in the 1880's and they eventually found their way to New York city. Eric was a natural athlete growing up, he used to run cross country races and was a trapeze artist at a very young age. He found he had an affinity for card tricks and simple sleight-of-hand magic and he started doing small tricks and parlours and roadside circus shows. But, his big break came in 1899 when he was recognised as being a highly talented escape artist.

B: Yeah, Houdini's manager Martin Beck was actually the person to advise him to focus on escape tricks because he was very impressed with his ability to get out of hand-cuffs. This led quickly to tours around the world where he challenged local police officers to handcuff him. He was actually called the handcuff king back then and he even revealed his methods of how he did his escapes in some of his writing he did to his magical brotherhood. And he used probably three main methods to get out of his handcuffs. One was just the proper force. He had a deep knowledge of handcuffs in general and exactly how much force and how to apply it to get out of a lot of them. He also used shoe laces. I'm not sure in what way they helped him but they apparently came in handy. Also, as a lot of people know now, he would regurgitate lock picks and keys at will, which is an interesting ability. Now this led to escapes from prisons and straight-jackets and ropes etc Houdini actually had to put these escapes behind him though once his audiences started dwindling and imitators started popping up. So he had to up the ante and he did this by making the escapes much more death defying. This included escapes from things like locked water-filled milk cans and perhaps his most famous escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell in which he was suspended upside down and lowered into a locked steel and glass cabinet requiring him to hold his breath for about three minutes before escaping. It's notable that Houdini never said or advertised that spirits helped him with his escapes like other magicians such as the Davenport Brothers did. Houdini never claimed any supernatural assistance at all although his ads did sometimes show that he was de-materialising to get through his acts.

R: Houdini had a really strong relationship with his mother and when she died he became obsessed with the supernatural. He began looking into psychics who claimed they could reach out to the dead in an attempt to connect with his dead mother and what he found people who were using magic tricks in the same way that Houdini used magic and it really angered him and at that point he switched focus and he became an outspoken critic of psychic mediums. He was even a member of a Scientific American committee that investigated a very well known psychic medium called Marjorie. Her real name being Mina Crandon. And it made big news at the time. Scientific American was offerring a price kind of similar to James Randi's Million Dollar Prize to anybody that could demonstrate that they had psychic abilities. The team found that Mina had no such psychic abilities, though that in itself could fill a whole other podcast. He continued throughout his life exposing spiritualists and mediums and this actually cost him the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle who is the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of books. A lot of people think of Holmes as being very logic based but it may surprise them to find out that his creator was anything but. Conan-Doyle sort of created Holmes almost as an insufferable, logical man, as opposed to Conan-Doyle who thought that there actually was something to the supernatural and the afterlife and fairies and things like that. Conan-Doyle was one of the people that really popularised the Conanly Fairies. But Houdini started speaking out against spiritualists and this really annoyed Conan-Doyle. It wasn't just his belief that spiritualists were real but his wife was a person who claimed to have psychic abilities and after Houdini pretty much debunked Conan-Doyle's wife the friendship was pretty much at an end.

J: There are few stories about Harry Houdin's death. Some people speculate that one of the causes of his death was that he was punched in the stomach by a college student which they thought may have ruptured his appendix. But that's not true. He was punched but that's not the thing that killed him. Houdini actually died of a condition called Periontinitis, which is the lining of your abdomen swelling to the point where it can kill you. And back in the day during Houdini's time that was a huge problem to have; it's serious today but back then it absolutely killed people when they got it. So, a couple of facts: one is Houdini was suffering from appendicitis but it wasn't the thing that killed him. Basically what happened was Houdini was getting more and more sick he went to a show, it was his last show on October 24th 1926 and at the time he started the show he had a 104 fever. He was reported as passing out during the show, he was later revived and finished the show but afterwards they brought him to the hospital and on October 31st at age 52 unfortunately Harry died from his illness. Now somethin kind of strange happened after he died - there's a lot of speculation here - but basically his wife was conducting seances for ten years after he died to try to contact Harry and I guess that the two of them had spoken about this and the rumour is that Harry had promised his wife that he was going to try to contact her from the grave. So for ten years, on Halloween, she had a seance and after ten years she announced that her last hope was gond and that she doesn't believe that Harry can come back and contact her or that anyone could. But what has happened since then is that people would conduct this seance kind of as a tradition and for fun. After all these years people still do this.

S: Right. Houdini basically set that up as like the final test because by that point he was a firm skeptic of the spiritual movement that was going on at the time and he didn't believe that people could contact spirits and so it was essentially his own personal test. It was like: Oh, if this was real, I'll come back. We'll set it up.

R: And he had given Bess a secret word so that she would know that the spiritualist that managed to get his ghost through was really him and not just the spiritualist performing magic tricks. And no one within Bess's lifetime was able to come up with the word.

S: Right, and it is interesting that Harry Houdini became the prototype for the magician skeptic. He essentially figured out that the spiritualists of the time that were doing seances were using escapists trick that he wasusing on stage in order to convince people that they were performing some paranormal or spiritualist act. This is still going on today and we see in magicians like James Randi and Penn and Teller and Banachek and others; they know that the frauds and the psychics and the mediums and the spiritualists are using tricks because they know all the tricks and I think that it's interesting that that tradition had really carried on so strongly: the notion of magicians investigating and debunking those who are using their craft in order to really deceive people rather than just do entertainment. We have to remember that Harry Houdini was the one who started it all.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

5X5 Episode 98

2012-10-18T12:13:47Z

Drsmith: minor formatting

{{5X5 editing required 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 98 
|Contents = Harry Houdini 
|episodeDate = 10th December 2010 
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|guest1 = RW: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman Richard Wiseman] 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52012-04-11.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=110 
|forumLink = http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,41293.0.html 
|}}
== Harry Houdini == 
{{5x5intro}}

S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Eric Wise, or as he is more commonly known: Harry Houdini. Houdini is the most famous, I think, magician to have ever lived. Everyone knows who Harry Houdini was. He is a Hungarian born American magician, an escape artist, and he is also well known within the Skeptical Movement as a famous skeptic. And in fact, he started the tradition of famous magicians also being popular skeptics.

E: Yeah, he was born in Hungary but Houdini and his family emigrated to The United States in the 1880's and they eventually found their way to New York city. Eric was a natural athlete growing up, he used to run cross country races and was a trapeze artist at a very young age. He found he had an affinity for card tricks and simple sleight-of-hand magic and he started doing small tricks and parlours and roadside circus shows. But, his big break came in 1899 when he was recognised as being a highly talented escape artist.

B: Yeah, Houdini's manager Martin Beck was actually the person to advise him to focus on escape tricks because he was very impressed with his ability to get out of hand-cuffs. This led quickly to tours around the world where he challenged local police officers to handcuff him. He was actually called the handcuff king back then and he even revealed his methods of how he did his escapes in some of his writing he did to his magical brotherhood. And he used probably three main methods to get out of his handcuffs. One was just the proper force. He had a deep knowledge of handcuffs in general and exactly how much force and how to apply it to get out of a lot of them. He also used shoe laces. I'm not sure in what way they helped him but they apparently came in handy. Also, as a lot of people know now, he would regurgitate lock picks and keys at will, which is an interesting ability. Now this led to escapes from prisons and straight-jackets and ropes etc Houdini actually had to put these escapes behind him though once his audiences started dwindling and imitators started popping up. So he had to up the ante and he did this by making the escapes much more death defying. This included escapes from things like locked water-filled milk cans and perhaps his most famous escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell in which he was suspended upside down and lowered into a locked steel and glass cabinet requiring him to hold his breath for about three minutes before escaping. It's notable that Houdini never said or advertised that spirits helped him with his escapes like other magicians such as the Davenport Brothers did. Houdini never claimed any supernatural assistance at all although his ads did sometimes show that he was de-materialising to get through his acts.

R: Houdini had a really strong relationship with his mother and when she died he became obsessed with the supernatural. He began looking into psychics who claimed they could reach out to the dead in an attempt to connect with his dead mother and what he found people who were using magic tricks in the same way that Houdini used magic and it really angered him and at that point he switched focus and he became an outspoken critic of psychic mediums. He was even a member of a Scientific American committee that investigated a very well known psychic medium called Marjorie. Her real name being Mina Crandon. And it made big news at the time. Scientific American was offerring a price kind of similar to James Randi's Million Dollar Prize to anybody that could demonstrate that they had psychic abilities. The team found that Mina had no such psychic abilities, though that in itself could fill a whole other podcast. He continued throughout his life exposing spiritualists and mediums and this actually cost him the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle who is the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of books. A lot of people think of Holmes as being very logic based but it may surprise them to find out that his creator was anything but. Conan-Doyle sort of created Holmes almost as an insufferable, logical man, as opposed to Conan-Doyle who thought that there actually was something to the supernatural and the afterlife and fairies and things like that. Conan-Doyle was one of the people that really popularised the Conanly Fairies. But Houdini started speaking out against spiritualists and this really annoyed Conan-Doyle. It wasn't just his belief that spiritualists were real but his wife was a person who claimed to have psychic abilities and after Houdini pretty much debunked Conan-Doyle's wife the friendship was pretty much at an end.

J: There are few stories about Harry Houdin's death. Some people speculate that one of the causes of his death was that he was punched in the stomach by a college student which they thought may have ruptured his appendix. But that's not true. He was punched but that's not the thing that killed him. Houdini actually died of a condition called Periontinitis, which is the lining of your abdomen swelling to the point where it can kill you. And back in the day during Houdini's time that was a huge problem to have; it's serious today but back then it absolutely killed people when they got it. So, a couple of facts: one is Houdini was suffering from appendicitis but it wasn't the thing that killed him. Basically what happened was Houdini was getting more and more sick he went to a show, it was his last show on October 24th 1926 and at the time he started the show he had a 104 fever. He was reported as passing out during the show, he was later revived and finished the show but afterwards they brought him to the hospital and on October 31st at age 52 unfortunately Harry died from his illness. Now somethin kind of strange happened after he died - there's a lot of speculation here - but basically his wife was conducting seances for ten years after he died to try to contact Harry and I guess that the two of them had spoken about this and the rumour is that Harry had promised his wife that he was going to try to contact her from the grave. So for ten years, on Halloween, she had a seance and after ten years she announced that her last hope was gond and that she doesn't believe that Harry can come back and contact her or that anyone could. But what has happened since then is that people would conduct this seance kind of as a tradition and for fun. After all these years people still do this.

S: Right. Houdini basically set that up as like the final test because by that point he was a firm skeptic of the spiritual movement that was going on at the time and he didn't believe that people could contact spirits and so it was essentially his own personal test. It was like: Oh, if this was real, I'll come back. We'll set it up.

R: And he had given Bess a secret word so that she would know that the spiritualist that managed to get his ghost through was really him and not just the spiritualist performing magic tricks. And no one within Bess's lifetime was able to come up with the word.

S: Right, and it is interesting that Harry Houdini became the prototype for the magician skeptic. He essentially figured out that the spiritualists of the time that were doing seances were using escapists trick that he wasusing on stage in order to convince people that they were performing some paranormal or spiritualist act. This is still going on today and we see in magicians like James Randi and Penn and Teller and Banachek and others; they know that the frauds and the psychics and the mediums and the spiritualists are using tricks because they know all the tricks and I think that it's interesting that that tradition had really carried on so strongly: the notion of magicians investigating and debunking those who are using their craft in order to really deceive people rather than just do entertainment. We have to remember that Harry Houdini was the one who started it all.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

5X5 Episode 98

2012-10-18T12:12:11Z

Drsmith: transcript complete

{{5X5 editing required 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 98 
|Contents = Harry Houdini 
|episodeDate = 10th December 2010 
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|guest1 = RW: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman Richard Wiseman] 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52012-04-11.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=110 
|forumLink = http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,41293.0.html 
|}}
== Harry Houdini == 
{{5x5intro}}

S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Eric Wise, or as he is more commonly known: Harry Houdini. Houdini is the most famous, I think, magician to have ever lived. Everyone knows who Harry Houdini was. He is a Hungarian born American magician, an escape artist, and he is also well known within the Skeptical Movement as a famous skeptic. And in fact, he started the tradition of famous magicians also being popular skeptics.

E: Yeah, he was born in Hungary but Houdini and his family emigrated to The United States in the 1880's and they eventually found their way to New York city. Eric was a natural athlete growing up, he used to run cross country races and was a trapeze artist at a very young age. He found he had an affinity for card tricks and simple sleight-of-hand magic and he started doing small tricks and parlours and roadside circus shows. But, his big break came in 1899 when he was recognised as being a highly talented escape artist.

B: Yeah, Houdini's manager Martin Beck was actually the person to advise him to focus on escape tricks because he was very impressed with his ability to get out of hand-cuffs. This led quickly to tours around the world where he challenged local police officers to handcuff him. He was actually called the handcuff king back then and he even revealed his methods of how he did his escapes in some of his writing he did to his magical brotherhood. And he used probably three main methods to get out of his handcuffs. One was just the proper force. He had a deep knowledge of handcuffs in general and exactly how much force and how to apply it to get out of a lot of them. He also used shoe laces. I'm not sure in what way they helped him but they apparently came in handy. Also, as a lot of people know now, he would regurgitate lock picks and keys at will, which is an interesting ability. Now this led to escapes from prisons and straight-jackets and ropes etc Houdini actually had to put these escapes behind him though once his audiences started dwindling and imitators started popping up. So he had to up the ante and he did this by making the escapes much more death defying. This included escapes from things like locked water-filled milk cans and perhaps his most famous escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell in which he was suspended upside down and lowered into a locked steel and glass cabinet requiring him to hold his breath for about three minutes before escaping. It's notable that Houdini never said or advertised that spirits helped him with his escapes like other magicians such as the Davenport Brothers did. Houdini never claimed any supernatural assistance at all although his ads did sometimes show that he was de-materialising to get through his acts.

R: Houdini had a really strong relationship with his mother and when she died he became obsessed with the supernatural. He began looking into psychics who claimed they could reach out to the dead in an attempt to connect with his dead mother and what he found people who were using magic tricks in the same way that Houdini used magic and it really angered him and at that point he switched focus and he became an outspoken critic of psychic mediums. He was even a member of a Scientific American committee that investigated a very well known psychic medium called Marjorie. Her real name being Mina Crandon. And it made big news at the time. Scientific American was offerring a price kind of similar to James Randi's Million Dollar Prize to anybody that could demonstrate that they had psychic abilities. The team found that Mina had no such psychic abilities, though that in itself could fill a whole other podcast. He continued throughout his life exposing spiritualists and mediums and this actually cost him the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle who is the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of books. A lot of people think of Holmes as being very logic based but it may surprise them to find out that his creator was anything but. Conan-Doyle sort of created Holmes almost as an insufferable, logical man, as opposed to Conan-Doyle who thought that there actually was something to the supernatural and the afterlife and fairies and things like that. Conan-Doyle was one of the people that really popularised the Conanly Fairies. But Houdini started speaking out against spiritualists and this really annoyed Conan-Doyle. It wasn't just his belief that spiritualists were real but his wife was a person who claimed to have psychic abilities and after Houdini pretty much debunked Conan-Doyle's wife the friendship was pretty much at an end.

J: There are few stories about Harry Houdin's death. Some people speculate that one of the causes of his death was that he was punched in the stomach by a college student which they thought may have ruptured his appendix. But that's not true. He was punched but that's not the thing that killed him. Houdini actually died of a condition called Periontinitis, which is the lining of your abdomen swelling to the point where it can kill you. And back in the day during Houdini's time that was a huge problem to have; it's serious today but back then it absolutely killed people when they got it. So, a couple of facts: one is Houdini was suffering from appendicitis but it wasn't the thing that killed him. Basically what happened was Houdini was getting more and more sick he went to a show, it was his last show on October 24th 1926 and at the time he started the show he had a 104 fever. He was reported as passing out during the show, he was later revived and finished the show but afterwards they brought him to the hospital and on October 31st at age 52 unfortunately Harry died from his illness. Now somethin kind of strange happened after he died - there's a lot of speculation here - but basically his wife was conducting seances for ten years after he died to try to contact Harry and I guess that the two of them had spoken about this and the rumour is that Harry had promised his wife that he was going to try to contact her from the grave. So for ten years, on Halloween, she had a seance and after ten years she announced that her last hope was gond and that she doesn't believe that Harry can come back and contact her or that anyone could. But what has happened since then is that people would conduct this seance kind of as a tradition and for fun. After all these years people still do this.

S: Right. Houdini basically set that up as like the final test because by that point he was a firm skeptic of the spiritual movement that was going on at the time and he didn't believe that people could contact spirits and so it was essentially his own personal test. It was like: Oh, if this was real, I'll come back. We'll set it up.
R: And he had given Bess a secret word so that she would know that the spiritualist that managed to get his ghost through was really him and not just the spiritualist performing magic tricks. And no one within Bess's lifetime was able to come up with the word.

S: Right, and it is interesting that Harry Houdini became the prototype for the magician skeptic. He essentially figured out that the spiritualists of the time that were doing seances were using escapists trick that he wasusing on stage in order to convince people that they were performing some paranormal or spiritualist act. This is still going on today and we see in magicians like James Randi and Penn and Teller and Banachek and others; they know that the frauds and the psychics and the mediums and the spiritualists are using tricks because they know all the tricks and I think that it's interesting that that tradition had really carried on so strongly: the notion of magicians investigating and debunking those who are using their craft in order to really deceive people rather than just do entertainment. We have to remember that Harry Houdini was the one who started it all.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

5X5 Episode 98

2012-10-18T12:10:42Z

Drsmith: Created page with "{{5X5 editing required  |transcription = y  |proo..."

{{5X5 editing required 
|transcription = y 
|proof-reading = y 
|formatting = y
|links = y
|categories = y
|redirect = y 
|}}
{{Template:5X5 infobox 
|episodeID = 5X5 Episode 98 
|Contents = Harry Houdini 
|episodeDate = 10th December 2010 
|rebecca = y 
|bob = y 
|jay = y 
|evan = y 
|guest1 = RW: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wiseman Richard Wiseman] 
|downloadLink = http://media.libsyn.com/media/sgu5x5/SGU5x52012-04-11.mp3 
|notesLink = http://www.theskepticsguide.org/archive/podcastinfo.aspx?mid=2&pid=110 
|forumLink = http://sguforums.com/index.php/topic,41293.0.html 
|}}
== Harry Houdini == 
{{5x5intro}}

S: This is the SGU 5x5 and tonight we're talking about Eric Wise, or as he is more commonly known: Harry Houdini. Houdini is the most famous, I think, magician to have ever lived. Everyone knows who Harry Houdini was. He is a Hungarian born American magician, an escape artist, and he is also well known within the Skeptical Movement as a famous skeptic. And in fact, he started the tradition of famous magicians also being popular skeptics.

E: Yeah, he was born in Hungary but Houdini and his family emigrated to The United States in the 1880's and they eventually found their way to New York city. Eric was a natural athlete growing up, he used to run cross country races and was a trapeze artist at a very young age. He found he had an affinity for card tricks and simple sleight-of-hand magic and he started doing small tricks and parlours and roadside circus shows. But, his big break came in 1899 when he was recognised as being a highly talented escape artist.

B: Yeah, Houdini's manager Martin Beck was actually the person to advise him to focus on escape tricks because he was very impressed with his ability to get out of hand-cuffs. This led quickly to tours around the world where he challenged local police officers to handcuff him. He was actually called the handcuff king back then and he even revealed his methods of how he did his escapes in some of his writing he did to his magical brotherhood. And he used probably three main methods to get out of his handcuffs. One was just the proper force. He had a deep knowledge of handcuffs in general and exactly how much force and how to apply it to get out of a lot of them. He also used shoe laces. I'm not sure in what way they helped him but they apparently came in handy. Also, as a lot of people know now, he would regurgitate lock picks and keys at will, which is an interesting ability. Now this led to escapes from prisons and straight-jackets and ropes etc Houdini actually had to put these escapes behind him though once his audiences started dwindling and imitators started popping up. So he had to up the ante and he did this by making the escapes much more death defying. This included escapes from things like locked water-filled milk cans and perhaps his most famous escape, the Chinese Water Torture Cell in which he was suspended upside down and lowered into a locked steel and glass cabinet requiring him to hold his breath for about three minutes before escaping. It's notable that Houdini never said or advertised that spirits helped him with his escapes like other magicians such as the Davenport Brothers did. Houdini never claimed any supernatural assistance at all although his ads did sometimes show that he was de-materialising to get through his acts.

R: Houdini had a really strong relationship with his mother and when she died he became obsessed with the supernatural. He began looking into psychics who claimed they could reach out to the dead in an attempt to connect with his dead mother and what he found people who were using magic tricks in the same way that Houdini used magic and it really angered him and at that point he switched focus and he became an outspoken critic of psychic mediums. He was even a member of a Scientific American committee that investigated a very well known psychic medium called Marjorie. Her real name being Mina Crandon. And it made big news at the time. Scientific American was offerring a price kind of similar to James Randi's Million Dollar Prize to anybody that could demonstrate that they had psychic abilities. The team found that Mina had no such psychic abilities, though that in itself could fill a whole other podcast. He continued throughout his life exposing spiritualists and mediums and this actually cost him the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle who is the author of the Sherlock Holmes series of books. A lot of people think of Holmes as being very logic based but it may surprise them to find out that his creator was anything but. Conan-Doyle sort of created Holmes almost as an insufferable, logical man, as opposed to Conan-Doyle who thought that there actually was something to the supernatural and the afterlife and fairies and things like that. Conan-Doyle was one of the people that really popularised the Conanly Fairies. But Houdini started speaking out against spiritualists and this really annoyed Conan-Doyle. It wasn't just his belief that spiritualists were real but his wife was a person who claimed to have psychic abilities and after Houdini pretty much debunked Conan-Doyle's wife the friendship was pretty much at an end.

J: There are few stories about Harry Houdin's death. Some people speculate that one of the causes of his death was that he was punched in the stomach by a college student which they thought may have ruptured his appendix. But that's not true. He was punched but that's not the thing that killed him. Houdini actually died of a condition called Periontinitis, which is the lining of your abdomen swelling to the point where it can kill you. And back in the day during Houdini's time that was a huge problem to have; it's serious today but back then it absolutely killed people when they got it. So, a couple of facts: one is Houdini was suffering from appendicitis but it wasn't the thing that killed him. Basically what happened was Houdini was getting more and more sick he went to a show, it was his last show on October 24th 1926 and at the time he started the show he had a 104 fever. He was reported as passing out during the show, he was later revived and finished the show but afterwards they brought him to the hospital and on October 31st at age 52 unfortunately Harry died from his illness. Now somethin kind of strange happened after he died - there's a lot of speculation here - but basically his wife was conducting seances for ten years after he died to try to contact Harry and I guess that the two of them had spoken about this and the rumour is that Harry had promised his wife that he was going to try to contact her from the grave. So for ten years, on Halloween, she had a seance and after ten years she announced that her last hope was gond and that she doesn't believe that Harry can come back and contact her or that anyone could. But what has happened since then is that people would conduct this seance kind of as a tradition and for fun. After all these years people still do this.

S: Right. Houdini basically set that up as like the final test because by that point he was a firm skeptic of the spiritual movement that was going on at the time and he didn't believe that people could contact spirits and so it was essentially his own personal test. It was like: Oh, if this was real, I'll come back. We'll set it up.
R: And he had given Bess a secret word so that she would know that the spiritualist that managed to get his ghost through was really him and not just the spiritualist performing magic tricks. And no one within Bess's lifetime was able to come up with the word.

S: Right, and it is interesting that Harry Houdini became the prototype for the magician skeptic. He essentially figured out that the spiritualists of the time that were doing seances were using escapists trick that he wasusing on stage in order to convince people that they were performing some paranormal or spiritualist act. This is still going on today and we see in magicians like James Randi and Penn and Teller and Banachek and others; they know that the frauds and the psychics and the mediums and the spiritualists are using tricks because they know all the tricks and I think that it's interesting that that tradition had really carried on so strongly: the notion of magicians investigating and debunking those who are using their craft in order to really deceive people rather than just do entertainment. We have to remember that Harry Houdini was the one who started it all.

{{5x5outro}}

{{5X5 Navigation}}

Template:5X5 episode list

2012-10-18T11:05:44Z

Drsmith:

<noinclude>This template is used to display the list of 5X5 episodes on the [[Main Page]] and the [[5X5 Episodes]] page. Additions and amendments to this template will be reflected on those pages.

For help on how to add a new row, see [[Template:5X5 list entry]].
</noinclude>

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="margin: 1em 3em;"
!No.!!class="unsortable"|Date!!Contents!!Categories
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 113
|date = May 9 2012
|contents = What's the Harm?
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 112
|date = May 2 2012
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 =
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 111
|date = Apr 25 2012
|contents = Facilitated Communication
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 110
|date = Apr 11 2012
|contents = Naturalistic Fallacy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 109
|date = Apr 4 2012
|contents = Celebrity Pseudoscience
|category1 = Pseudoscience
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 108
|date = Mar 28 2012
|contents = Cancer Cure
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Conspiracy Theories
|category3 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 107
|date = Mar 21 2012
|contents = Chilean UFO
|category1 = UFOs & Aliens
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 106
|date = Mar 19 2012
|contents = Availability Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 105
|date = Mar 7 2012
|contents = Representativeness Heuristic
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 104
|date = Feb 22 2012
|contents = WiFi
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 103
|date = Feb 15 2012
|contents = Creationism
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Science & Education
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 101
|date = Jan 26 2011
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Slippery Slope/Post Hoc
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 100
|date = Jan 13 2011
|contents = Testable
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 99
|date = Jan 5 2011
|contents = Graphology
|category1 = History
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 98
|date = Dec 30 2010
|contents = Harry Houdini
|category1 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 97
|date = Dec 20 2010
|contents = Repressed Memories
|category1 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 96
|date = Nov 9 2010
|contents = Magnets
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 95
|date = Sep 21 2010
|contents = Chelation
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 94
|date = Sep 12 2010
|contents = Nostradamus
|category1 = Prophecy
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 93
|date = Aug 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 3
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 92
|date = Jul 28 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 2
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
|category3 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 91
|date = Jul 13 2010
|contents = Chiropractic - Part 1
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = History
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 90
|date = Jun 29 2010
|contents = The Unification Church
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 83
|date = Dec 20 2009
|contents = Irreducible Complexity
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|incomplete = y
|episode = 81
|date = Nov 18 2009
|contents = Naturopathy
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 80
|date = Oct 28 2009
|contents = Polygraphs
|category1 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 72
|date = Jul 16 2009
|contents = Randi Million Dollar Psychic Challenge and Connie Sonne
|category1 = Pseudoscience
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 68
|date = May 22 2009
|contents = Near Death Experiences
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 67
|date = Apr 30 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Special Pleading
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 65
|date = Apr 16 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Scientific Theory
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 62
|date = Mar 19 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - How to Argue
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 56
|date = Feb 4 2009
|contents = Probability
|category1 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 55
|date = Jan 28 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Poisoning the Well
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 54
|date = Jan 21 2009
|contents = Skepticism 101 - False Dichotomy
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 53
|status = verified
|date = Jan 13 2009
|contents = Anecdotal Evidence
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 52
|date = Jan 6 2009
|contents = Atlantis
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 50
|date = Dec 15 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - The Argument from Ignorance
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 49
|date = Dec 8 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Argument from Authority
|category1 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 48
|date = Dec 1 2008
|contents = The 10% Brain Myth
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 46
|date = Nov 18 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Correlation and Causation
|category1 = General Science
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 45
|date = Nov 11 2008
|contents = Chi and other forms of vitalism
|category1 = Energy Healing
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 43
|date = Oct 29 2008
|contents = Holocaust Denial
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = History

}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 38
|date = Sep 24 2008
|contents = Skepticism 101 - Pareidolia
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 30
|date = Jul 29 2008
|contents = Evaluation of a UCONN study of therapeutic touch on bone cells in culture
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 23
|date = June 08 2008
|contents = Lame car design analogy to intelligent design from the Discovery Institute.
|category1 = Creationism & ID
|category2 = Logic & Philosophy
|category3 = Nature & Evolution
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 22
|date = June 01 2008
|contents = Researchers allow monkey to control robotic arm with its mind.
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Neuroscience & Psychology
|category3 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 21
|date = May 25 2008
|contents = Family claims women miraculously brought back to life after rigor mortis
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Science & the Media
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 20
|date = May 18 2008
|contents = SPAM Chainletter e-mails do not spread as virally as thought
|category1 = Technology
|category2 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 19
|date = May 11 2008
|contents = The Science of Science Fiction Movies
|category1 = Entertainment
|category2 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 18
|date = May 4 2008
|contents = Man Regenerates Finger - Bad Science News Reporting
|category1 = Bad Science Reporting
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 16
|date = Apr 20 2008
|contents = Surgery under hypnosis.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = incomplete
|episode = 15
|date = Apr 13 2008
|contents = Examining a fossilized snake - with legs.
|category1 = Nature & Evolution
|category2 = Creationism & ID
|category3 = General Science
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 14
|date = Apr 6 2008
|contents = Nomophobia - the fear of being out of cell phone range.
|category1 = Science & Medicine
|category2 = Technology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 13
|date = Mar 30 2008
|contents = Man convicted of molestation claims he was raped by Bigfoot
|category1 = Cryptozoology
|category2 = Legal Issues & Regulations
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 12
|date = Mar 23 2008
|contents = Faith-healing cult leads to child death from medical neglect
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 11
|date = Mar 16 2008
|contents = Art project to give the city of Portland, Oregon acupuncture
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Energy Healing
|category3 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 10
|status = verified
|date = Mar 9 2008
|contents = Steven Spielberg to create new paranormal online community
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 9
|status = verified
|date = Mar 2 2008
|contents = An Emmy award winning actress and her 911 conspiracy theory
|category1 = Conspiracy Theories
|category2 = Entertainment
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 8
|status = verified
|date = Feb 23 2008
|contents = Cryptozoology - Hunting for the Thunderbird
|category1 = Cryptozoology
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 7
|status = verified
|date = Feb 17 2008
|contents = Proposed center for exorcism in Poland
|category1 = Ghosts & Demons
|category2 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|episode = 6
|status = verified
|date = Feb 11 2008
|contents = Dr. Harris's Pain Relief Snake Oil Infomercial
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
|category2 = Alternative Medicine
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 5
|date = Feb 3 2008
|contents = Pope Benedict XVI takes on science
|category1 = Religion & Faith
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 4
|date = Jan 28 2008
|contents = Do celebrity deaths come in threes? The rogues take on numerology
|category1 = Myths & Misconceptions
|category2 = Paranormal
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 3
|date = Jan 21 2008
|contents = Multilevel Marketing and Pyramid Schemes
|category1 = Cons, Scams & Hoaxes
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 2
|date = Jan 13 2008
|contents = Ghost Photographs
|category1 = Paranormal
|category2 = Ghosts & Demons
}}
|-
{{5X5 list entry
|status = verified
|episode = 1
|date = Jan 6 2008
|contents = The National Health Service of the UK plans to regulate alternative medicine
|category1 = Alternative Medicine
|category2 = Pseudoscience
}}
|}