SGU Episode 358

Introduction

You're listening to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality. S: Hello and welcome to the Skepitcs' Guide to the Universe. Today is Wednesday May 23rd 2012 and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella.

B: Hey everybody.

S: Jay Novella.

J: Hey guys.

S: Evan Bernstein.

E: Good evening.

S: And we have a special guest this week, Joshie Berger. Joshie, welcome back to the Skeptics' Guide.

JB: Shalome.

S: How are you doing my friend?

E: Shalome, baby.

JB: Excellent, I'm so excited, TAM is right around the corner and I just can't wait to be a part of this all.

S: Well we're bringing you on today, first because you're a friend and a fellow skeptic and doing good work out there but also because you're going to, you came to us with an idea about how we could punch up TAM a little bit, add an extra event that seems entirely appropriate so why don't we, well actually we're going to start off with This Day in Skepticism and then we're going to get to that, we're going to talk about your TAM idea. So Evan, Rebecca's not here because she's at a conference in Germany.

E: That's what I hear.

This Day in Skepticism ( )

May 26, 1676 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek applied his hobby of making microscopes from his own handmade lenses to observe some water running off a roof during a heavy rainstorm. He finds that it contains, in his words, "very little animalcules."

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News Items

TAM Poker Tournament ( )

• http://www.amazingmeeting.com/TAM2012/

Space X Launch ( )

• http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

Studying the Universe ( )

• http://phys.org/news/2012-05-older-cosmologically.html

What Is Consciousness ( )

• http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/what-is-consciousness-another-reply-to-kastrup/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLRckO0zCJQ&feature=related

Who's That Noisy? ( )

Answer to last week: Holocaust Deniers.

Questions and Emails

Speaking to Mediums ( )

I love your podcast. I've been listening to it for a couple a months and I'm pleased to say that I am "converted" to Skepticism. Did you know that in Portugal our dead speak English? We have a TV show here called "Depois da Vida", that means "Life after Life". On each week the medium Janet Parker allegedly listens to dead people related to a guest celebrity. The person hosting the show does the translations between the two. Since the medium apparently doesn't speak Portuguese, we may conclude that the dead related to our Portuguese celebrities have to speak English to the medium. She then speaks in English to the host; the host translates it to the guest. Continue with your great work. Regards LuÃs Pratas Lisbon, Portugal.

Swindler's List ( )

Hearing Aids

Science or Fiction ( )

Item number one. An iridescent blue tarantula. Item number two. A cactus that can "walk" short distances across the desert in search of water. Item number three. A fungus that looks and behaves so much like a sponge it was named Spongiforma squarepantsii. And item number four. A snub-nosed monkey from Myanmar that sneezes every time it rains.

Skeptical Quote of the Week ( )

No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.

J: Richard Feynman!

Announcements ( )