SGU Episode 359
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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 Wednesday May 30th 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: And Jay Novella.
J: Hey Guys.
S: Evan Bernstein has the week off because he is sunning himself in Italy.
R: Ugh.
B: I am jealous.
R: But hey, look at the bright side: I'm back.
J: That's right.
S: Rebecca's back, that's true, it's a good trade.
B: Yay!
R: Back from beautiful Germany. The beautiful beaches of Germany.
J: Wha, beaches?
R: There are canals.
S: Canals.
R: There's a river, there's the Rhine.
B: You meant beer didn't you, not beaches?
R: Oh right, yeah yeah, the beautiful beers of Germany...
S: Deutschland.
R: ...that's what I meant. Yeah. Yeah, I was at a few conferences, the...
B: A few?
R: ...world skeptics' conference in Berlin and the European Atheists' Convention in Cologne. And both of them were very fun, I saw a lot of our friends, both from the US and from Europe and met a lot of really awesome people. Tons of people came up to me and said that they listen to SGU every week...
J: Oh, awesome.
R: ...so it was really cool to see some listeners in Germany.
S: Excellent.
This Day in Skepticism (1:22)
June 2, 1692 Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.
R: Hey, I have a depressing This Day in Science and Skepticism.
B: Ooh, I like it.
R: On this day on June 2nd 1692, Bridget Bishop became the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials, of course in Salem, Massachusetts. And she was hanged by June 10th 1692.
S: That's a quick trial.
R: Yeah, they didn't need much apparently. There are some differing accounts of who she was really and the exact evidence against her or maybe the exact reasons why she was chosen to stand trial for witchcraft. I've seen some suggestions that maybe she owned a tavern and, you which not many women did and maybe she dressed a bit lasciviously, and maybe she was a bit outspoken.
B: Skirt, the dress above the ankles, that kind of crazy stuff? Wow.
R: Yeah, exactly.
S: Like she had a bit of red in her bodice instead of all black and white, yeah.
B: Oooh, ooh.
R: Exactly. Yeah, but apparently those are not necessarily true, there's a very good chance she did not own a tavern, that she was confused with someone else with a similar name who was married to someone who owned a tavern and also red clothing was apparently fairly common amongst the puritans. So, who knows? But the fact of the matter is that she was accused of being a witch an apparently she was quite saucy on the stand and that was enough to convict her. She was said to have owned a lot of, a number of small voodoo dolls that were found around her house.
J: (laughs)
R: She was accused of poisoning a pig.
J: She had, wait a second, wait whoa whoa. All right, first off she had just random voodoo dolls like strewn around her house.
R: Well, she's accused of yeah.
J: And then somebody actually said, during the proceedings, accused her of actually poisoning a pig.
R: Yeah and as far as I can tell, the pig didn't die, I think the pig was just acting funny and they thought that the pig had either been poisoned or bewitched apparently.
S: And apparently she was cavorting with the devil so there you go.
R: Obviously, yeah. And actually to make a connection to my trip to Germany, at the atheist convention in Cologne, we were very privileged to see Leo Igwe speak and he campaigns on the serious problem of witchcraft in Africa, mostly you know, we've talked about this before, Christian ministers who blame children and old women for witchcraft and they drive them out of their homes, they beat them, they murder them. There are even whole villages set up sometimes to take these people in, it's crazy you know, I think about this happening in the US in the 1600s, well it's still going on in Africa, so it's still, this is still a serious problem four centuries later.
S: Apparently large, well armed men in their prime don't do witchcraft.
R: No. No.
S: No, just children and old people.
R: Oddly enough, yeah it's only the people who are least able to defend themselves.
S: Ah.
News Items
Medical Zombies (4:52)
Science of Reruns (18:01)
Leakey on Evolution (27:35)
Who's That Noisy? (34:35)
Answer to last week: L Ron Hubbard
Questions and Emails (35:52)
Local Darkmatter Followup ()
Dear Rouges, Thought you might find this paper http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.4033 interesting given your use of the Moni Bidin paper's claims of finding no evidence for nearby dark matter in science or fiction. Unsurprisingly perhaps, a more thorough analysis of the data actually shows evidence for dark matter in quantities consistent with current models. I enjoy the show very much. Cheers, Paul Hatchman
Interview with with Debbie Feldman (40:06)
Science or Fiction (62:27)
Item number one. A new study confirms the popular belief that old people can be identified by their smell. Item number two. A new analysis indicates that children are more imaginative in their play today than they were 20 years ago. And item number three. Updated data indicate that American brain size continues to slowly decrease over historical time.
Skeptical Quote of the Week (82:14)
The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)
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