Skeptics Guide

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #983 May 8th 2024 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 - Electric Propulsion scitechdaily.com/nasa-unveils... News Item #2 - Blowing Off Steam www-sciencedirect-com.fgul.id... News Item #3 - Washington Post and Past Lives theness.com/neurologicablog/w... News Item #4 - Programmable Living Materials www.sciencedaily.com/releases... News Item #5 - Fighting Holocaust Denial stljewishlight.org/top-story/... Segment #2. Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Deep Fakes and Grief www.technologyreview.com/2024... Segment #4. Interview with Robert Barholomew www.psychologytoday.com/us/co... Segment #5. Science or Fiction Each week our host will come up with three science news items or facts, two genuine, one fictitious. He will challenge our panel of skeptics to sniff out the fake - and you can play along. Theme: Animal Eyes Item 1: The four-eyed fish has one pair of eyes for viewing above the water line and one pair for viewing below the water. Item 2: Reindeer are the only animals whose eyes change color seasonally, changing from a gold-turquoise in the summer to a deep blue in the winter. Item 3: Owls do not have eyeballs - their eyes are more mushroom or cylindrically shaped. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "The learned fool writes his nonsense in better language than the unlearned, but it is still nonsense." Benjamin Franklin

[@kkjhn41]

The Havana Syndrome interview reminded me of a joke that Lewis Black told about being on a long flight and reading an article about diabetes, "and when I got off that flight, I had diabetes". First you describe the kind of person who could be susceptible to an illness that really could be just about anybody, and then you list symptoms that are so general, the kind of things that everyone experiences at some time or another in daily life then you start checking them off one by one and by the time you're done you are convinced that you are seriously ill.

[@slianyong7550]

Your post pushed my thought processes to point directly to other general indicators... like the aspects of astrology and cold readings... looks like our brains are easily manipulated

[@Xsetsu]

Speaking of a future Virtual World and deep fakes, I seriously think "A Mind Forever Voyaging" needs to be made into a film. Given the proper care it could be made into a phenomenal piece of science fiction. It is such a different perspective on VR and probability that could tie into today's problems like climate change so well. It is some of Steven Meretzky's best work and Gary Whitta (Rogue One, Book of Eli, etc.) has already written a screenplay.

[@nicholaicheck]

[0:25] Robert Barholomew/Havana syndrome & Starship launch [4:51] Dr. Cara Santa Maria's interesting weekend [7:27] News Item #1 - Electric Propulsion [13:35] News Item #2 - Blowing Off Steam [26:18] News Item #3 - Washington Post and Past Lives [38:23] News Item #4 - Programmable Living Materials [47:35] News Item #5 - Fighting Holocaust Denial [57:32] Who’s That Noisy [1:01:33] Chicago Extravaganza [1:02:26] Question #1: Deep Fakes and Grief [1:15:16] Interview with Robert Barholomew [1:44:09] Science or Fiction [1:55:23] Quote of the Week

[@stephen6739]

Why random YT ads now enabled?😢😢

[@michaelpage1267]

yeah sooo many

[@jeffhacker3323]

for a couple things the skeptics would likely debunk

[@AbqHalsey]

News Item #2 doesn't work

[@PhysicsPolice]

KZbin doesn't allow links in comments. But you can google "S0272735824000357" and it will show up as the top result.

[@ii3325]

I hope no one with an unhealthy fixation on podcast people who don't know you get triggered in the comments. It's embarrassing. 😊