SGU Episode 369

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Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

This Day in Skepticism (0:27)

• August 11, 3114 BCE - In the Gregorian calendar was the universal creation date used by several pre-Columbian meso-American cultures like the Mayans. That is the start of the calendar that many dummies fear ends on December 20, 2012.

News Items

Dino Mating (3:16)

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2172128/The-joy-T-Rex-How-dinosaurs-sex-tricky-weigh-tonnes-crucial-12-feet-long.html

Blowing Up Asteroids (9:02)

• http://phys.org/news/2012-08-armageddon-looming-bruce-willis-bother.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXxPRHkyAvY

Punching for God (17:20)

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/05/todd-bentley-banned-from-uk_n_1744107.html

Quickie with Bob

Curiosity Update (24:30)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcGMDXy-Y1I

Occ the Skeptical Caveman (28:43)

• http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sgu/occ-the-skeptical-caveman-a-new-webseries

Who's That Noisy? (36:42)

• Answer to last week: Vegetable Clarinet

Questions and Emails

Kinesio Tape (40:20)

Hi guys, Watching the London Olympics on TV I noticed many athletes, particularly swimmers and divers wearing what looked like some kind of band-aid. After a few minutes on Google I found that it is called "Kinesio tape" It seems it was invented "In the mid-1970s, Dr. Kenzo Kase was already a well-known Japanese practitioner licensed in chiropractic and acupuncture." It supposedly " Re-educate the neuromuscular system Reduce pain Optimize performance Prevent injury Promote improved circulation and healing" http://www.kinesiotaping.com/ Seems like mostly woo to me...how much of modern sports medicine in science based? Perhaps this could be a topic for discussion. Keep up the good work! Andrew

Name That Logical Fallacy (48:37)

Sir, In reading your comments on iridology, I noticed a lot of biased opinions. I have to ask "why does modern medicine concentrate their efforts on treating the symtoms rather than treating the root cause?" I have also noticed that during my lifetime. there seems to be a very high mortality rate from misdiagnosed diseases by those claiming to be using the best diagnosis machines available. Modern medicine is not science based at all but rather based on greed for money. That is why modern medicine practitioners make such fraudulent claims against alternative medicine. If you would not receive any monetary compensation for what you do as an MD would you still be doing it? Best regards, Gale Wollenberg

Science or Fiction (56:31)

Item number one. Claptrap - A trick used to "catch" applause from the audience. Item number two. Bogus - A machine used to make counterfeit bills or coins. Item number three. Straw man - Refers to men who stood outside courthouses with a straw in their shoe in order to indicate their willingness to be a false witness. And item number four. Nuts - From "nuts" meaning a source of pleasure.

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:10:52)

One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.

J: Malcolm Muggeridge!