SGU Episode 389

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SGU Episode 389
29th December 2012
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 388                      SGU 390
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
R: Rebecca Watson
J: Jay Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
Quote of the Week
It has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We’ll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating.
Iain Banks
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Introduction

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

S: Hello and welcome to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Today is December 19, 2012, and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella,

B: Hey, everybody.

S: Rebecca Watson,

R: Hello, everyone.

S: Jay Novella,

J: Hey, guys.

S: and Evan Bernstein.

E: Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind. How's everyone?

S: Good. This is our 2012 year-end review wrap-up episode where we take a moment to look back at the year in skepticism and the SGU. Did you guys all have a good year?

R: It was all right.

B: Yeah, it was good.

E: It had some ups, you know, more ups than downs, I suppose.

J: Yeah. Significant ups and downs.

S: Jay, you just finished moving into your new house.

J: I did.

E: That's an up.

J: I did and my body is killing me, my god.

E: That's a down.

J: Yeah, we had half of our stuff already packed from our, a year and a half ago, that we couldn't even open 'cause we didn't have the space and we were saving money. We're opening up our wedding presents for the first time right now.

S: Yeah.

R: It's like second Christmas!

J: Yeah, it is. It's pretty cool. Like, there are things that I own that I had completely forgotten about.

S: I just like throwing out tons of stuff.

E: Yes.

S: It's amazing how quickly you accumulate junk in life, you know?

E: Especially with kids.

S: Yup.

E: Kids help.

R: You can't throw out kids. (laughter) That's illegal, Evan.

B: One thing I learned, though. Nothing like a divorce, though, to cut down on how much junk you have.

S: Is that right?

(Overlapping comment)

B: I've got squat now. (laughter)

R: Ups and downs. Ups and downs.

This Day in Skepticism (1:46)

• December 29, 1790: Thomas Fuller dies.

S: Well, Rebecca, you're gonna tell us about this day in skepticism.

R: Yes. On this day, which is December 29, in 1790, an obituary was posted for Thomas Fuller. Have any of you ever heard of Thomas Fuller before?

S: You mean Negro Tom?

R: Negro Tom, as he was known in his, yeah, in the obituary. Yeah, I had never heard of him before. He sounds really amazing. So, he was a slave who was brought to America when he was only fourteen. And he was born in Africa somewhere between Liberia and Benin. And late in his life it became well known that he was a, this mathematical genius. Apparently he was really good at doing complex mathematics in his head. He apparently couldn't read or write in English, but had self-taught him, self-taught himself? No, that's not right.

S: It's redundant and unnecessary.

R: But, he had

B: He was self-taught in—

R: He had taught himself a great number of arithmetical operations, riddles and mathematical games and things like that. For instance, some guys came to visit him to test what he could do, and they asked him a few questions to determine whether or not he was in fact a mathematical genius. First they asked him how many seconds there were in a year and a half, which he apparently took about two minutes to answer: 47,304,000. And then they asked how many seconds a man has lived who is 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old. And in a minute and a half he came up with the figure, 2,210,500,800. And one of the guys who was testing him said, no that's wrong. The actual answer is much smaller. And Fuller replied "Stop, master, you forgot the leap year."

B: Ooooohhh.

R: Then the sums matched.

B: Sweet.

R: So, yeah, he was a genius and he was often used by abolitionists who were pointing out the fact that slaves were just as intellectually, could be just as intellectually rigorous as white men. And, yeah, so he was an amazing guy. And in his obituary it concluded "Had his opportunity been equal to those of thousands of his fellow men, even a Newton himself need have ashamed to acknowledge him a brother in science. " Thomas Fuller.

S: Yeah, very interesting. I also read that it's probable that he learned his mathematical skills while in Africa. He didn't acquire them after being brought to Virginia.

R: Yeah, I mean, he didn't really have much opportunity to acquire them in Virginia.

E: So that means his brain operated in such a way with a strong disposition towards mathematical calculations.

S: Oh, sure, yeah. I mean, almost certainly he was a mathematical prodigy, and there are those people around today.

R: Don't mistake him for necessarily being a sort of idiot savant type, because it doesn't appear that that's the way he was. He seemed to be just a normal guy. Just with an incredible brain for mathematics.

E: Goes to show you don't need the environment. It's the brain that's really the key here.

S: Well, I think math is one of those things that is very hardwired. You know, your ability for math. But that's funny you bring up the idiot savant thing 'cause a lot of the pro-slavery people at the time dismissed his evidence of intellectual equality among Africans by calling him, dismissing him, as an idiot savant.

R: Right.

B: Oooh.

S: They could just dismiss the evidence away. It's like "Oh, he's not really intellectually equal to the white man, that's just a trick. It's like a trained monkey. It's just an idiot savant.

R: Yeah. No surprise, that they were coming up with any excuse they could.

S: Yeah, right. There was, but you know the Africans were trading with Europeans and the African merchants and traders were able to calculate sums in their head and do the trade. They had mathematics. It existed, so it's not as if he wouldn't have had access to anything like that in Africa. Very interesting.

Best and Worst of 2012 (6:04)

• The Rogues review the last year of the SGU, science, and skepticism

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Tim Farley (54:20)

E: Tim Farley did some really excellent work this year, in regards to his reporting and keeping us all up to date on what was happening with "Mabus," also known as Dennis Markuze, who was arrested multiple times in Montreal, and they were able to finally sort of piece together all the parts with great help of the skeptical community and great work by Tim, the police were able to track this guy down. Markuze has been inundating all of us - Rebecca, Steve, all of us - we've received the emails for years now. It's been as long as we've been doing the show I think. Finally it got to a point where something had to be done about it and they did arrest him, not once but twice, and Tim deserves a lot of credit for that work.

S: Yeah, absolutely.

J: Tim does a lot of stuff like that. He's definitely not a one trick pony, he's got a lot of things going on. He's one hell of a skeptic.

S: He is. I also think he's one of the underrated skeptics, you know, who does a lot of good work, and maybe he's not in a position that gets him a lot of attention, but he deserves more attention than he gets in my opinion.

In Memoriam (55:26)

• The Rogues remember those we lost over the last year

Who's That Noisy? (57:53)

• Answer to last week: Tetris theme

Science or Fiction (1:00:03)

Item #1. Biologists have discovered a species of small jellyfish that can float briefly above the surface of the water to evade predators. Item #2. Scientists have discovered a cyanobacterium that creates calcified structures inside its cell. Item #3. An entomologist discovered a new species of lacewing fly from a picture posted on Flickr. And item #4. A new species of primate was discovered - cute and cuddly looking, but with two tongues and highly venomous.

Skeptical Quote of the Week (1:16:48)

It has become my conviction that things mean pretty much what we want them to mean. We’ll pluck significance from the least consequential happenstance if it suits us and happily ignore the most flagrantly obvious symmetry between separate aspects of our lives if it threatens some cherished prejudice or cosily comforting belief; we are blindest to precisely whatever might be most illuminating.

Iain Banks.

References