Episode #42: Cell phone nuttiness, NASA and Crocodiles

The 42nd episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (19mb) and the

Can Haz Tantrum?

file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to Appreciate History

1737 – Thomas Paine was born. Paine was an Enlightenment philosopher, pamphleteer and one of the founders of the United States. He had all sorts of amazing achievements – including being elected to the French National Convention in 1792 (after the revolution) despite not speaking French – but the reason we’re talking about him tonight is his magisterial book, The Age of Reason. It was, among other things, a defence of deism and the an extended argument for freethought.

News

Tracy-Lee Dorney, of the Electromagnetic Research Foundation of South Africa, has turned her sights on MTN alleging that a trial 4G network is affecting her trees. Chances are she is confused and has blamed harmless technology for the effects of a common pest (Spanish Aphid). Ms Dorney’s application for the International Making a Huge Fuss Because I’m Ignorant of the Facts Alliance has been approved.

Researchers at NASA have developed a carbon nanotube biocapsule that could diagnose and treat an astronaut before he even realises that he’s ill. This could also, potentially, save millions of lives on Earth if used to treat diabetes or allergies.

Shieldcroc, a newly identified crocodile fossil found in Morocco, is the oldest known crocodile species in Africa.

Sponge-like organisms found in Namibian rocks are (possibly) the oldest known multi-cellular life, dating to 760- 550 million years ago.

Listener Quiz
Results from last quiz:

Do you think people landed on the moon in 1969 or was it all a hoax?

Yes – 100%

No – 0%

(Conclusive proof that our listeners are awesome!)

Link of the Week

Owen – Google Maps (there is a good reason)

Mike – Disgrace on Marc Hauser

Angela – Gizmodo

Quote

“Humans are good… at discerning subtle patterns that are really there, but equally so at imagining them when they are altogether absent.”
Carl Sagan – Cosmos


http://www.archive.org/details/ConsilienceEpisode42

Episode #41: X Prize, X-Rays and Lego Astronaut

The 41st episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (32mb) and the
file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to Appreciate History

Edward Jenner died on Jan 26, 1823. He was an English scientist and pioneered the development of the smallpox vaccine.

News

We geek out about the medical tricorder X-Prize. A challenge to make a hand-held device for automatically diagnosing common diseases. Scanadu is Owen’s favorite contender. Angela mentions the LifeLens malaria detecting smartphone.

A pair of Canadian teenagers send a Lego man into space!

X-Ray lasers take us a step closer to nuclear fusion by creating plasma from a solid.

This Just In: Condoms Work!

A very rare case of psychic fraud committed by Peaches (apparently that is her name). And we mention the even more fraudulent Sally Morgan.

Interview

This week we interview the unstoppable Leo Igwe, a humanist hero from our very own continent.

Here is the link to a video of Helen Ukpabio.

Listener Quiz
Results from last quiz:

66% for sample 2 (correct)
33% for sample 1 (incorrect)

This week’s quiz:

Do you think people landed on the moon in 1969 or was it all a hoax?

Link of the Week

Danny: One Hour Per Second

Owen: Skeptics in the Pub Global

Angela: Evolution Library

Quote

“I’m a doctor, not a tricorder.” The Doctor. Star Trek Voyager.

http://www.archive.org/details/ConsilienceEpisode41

Episode #40: Antarctic Sauropods, Russian Yetis and More Bees

Pictured: Russian Yeti

The 40th episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (20mb) and the
file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to appreciate history

Robert Woodrow Wilson born 10 January 1936, won the 1978 Nobel prize for physics with his colleague Arno Penzias for their discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background.

News

New sauropod fossil discovered in Antarctica. But it’s NOT THE FIRST!

Morpholigical specialisation in bees! And there’s a video! And another video!

The Russians found a yeti! And there’s a video of that too!

Listener Quiz

No new quiz this week.

Quote

“Faith is never an answer. It’s just a restatement of a question.” – Superboy (Superboy #4, written by Scott Lobdell)

Link of the Week

Mike: Carl Zimmer on NdgT.
Owen: Gauteng Skeptics
Angela: California academy of sciences – list of new species described in 2011. (12 in South Africa)

Announcements

Pretoria:

• Sceptics in the Pub, Saturday 28th January 2012, 12:30, venue to be decided

Appearances:

• Owen: Primordial Soup episode 20

http://www.archive.org/download/ConsilienceEpisode40/Consilience40.mp3

Episode #39: The Hitch, Zom-Bees and Quasicrystals

The 39th episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (31mb) and the 
file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to appreciate history

Arthur Ford died on January 4th 1971, he was an American pscychic medium who claimed to hear the voices of dead people.

News

Christopher Hitchens lost his battle to cancer in December 2011. As this is the first proper episode since then, we take some time to say goodbye.

Parasitic fly turning bees into Zom-Bees.

We report on the inability of blind-folded violinists to tell the difference between Stradivarius and modern high-end violins. The paper was published in PNAS and reported on by Ed Yong. These are the samples:

Only naturally occurring quasicrystal on Earth seems to have come from space! And here is the diagram Angela promised for the golden ratio:

2011 in Review

Your favorite interview of the year:
Angela: Claire Lee interviews.
Mike: Steven Novella
Owen: Rebecca Watson

Your favorite news story:
Angela: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images of dark streaks on Mars that appear to be flowing water. and/or FTL Neutrinos
Mike: leaproach
Owen: Supermassive black holes orbiting each other

Listener Quiz

Please listen to the two snippets of violin music at this NPR link and tell us which one you think is the $3million Stradivarius.

Quotes

A selection of our favourite quotes by Christopher Hitchens.

Owen: What can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.
Angela: “And not scorning the three delightful children who result— who are everything to me and who are my only chance of even a glimpse of a second life, let alone an immortal one, and I’ll tell you something: if I was told to sacrifice them to prove my devotion to God, if I was told to do what all monotheists are told to do and admire the man who said, “Yes, I’ll gut my kid to show my love of God,” I’d say, “No. Fuck you.”
Mike: Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me. Of all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.
Angela: The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

Announcements

Cape Town: Sceptics in the Pub – Friday, 20 January 2012, 19:00, Beleza, Corner of Burnside and Kloof Nek road, Tamboerskloof

Joburg: Skeptics in the Park, 22nd January at 1pm at Zoo Lake. Monthly on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

http://www.archive.org/download/ConsilienceEpisode39/Consilience39.mp3 

Episode #38: Another Interview with Claire Lee, Particle Physicist

Claire Lee, Awesome Scientist

The 38th episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (7.1mb) and the file’s page on Archive.org is here.

This week’s episode does not follow our standard format. Our usual features have been dropped to accommodate a second interview with Claire A. Lee, a PhD student at the University of Johannesburg working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Claire’s PhD thesis is on the search for the Higgs boson through its decay to two W bosons.

Claire also has the honour of being the first person to be interviewed twice on Concilience!

Claire discusses the recent announcement made by CERN that “hints” if the Higgs Boson  have been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider.

Normal service will resume next week.

http://www.archive.org/download/ConsilienceEpisode38/Consilience38.mp3

Episode #37: Curiosity, Crayfish and Clause

The 37th episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (27mb) and the file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to Appreciate History
November 29 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.
It could record and play back sound, which set it apart from sound recording devices of the day.

Updates

Jacques Rosseau’s article, “The Lotters, Harry Potter and SA’s Judicial System“, addresses the Lotter murders and the claims of witchcraft and relations with holy figures and tokoloshes.

The failure of Russian Mars mission to leave low-earth orbit has spawned it’s own Phobos-Grunt conspiracy theories.

News

The Curiosity Mars explorer is on its way. Curiosity has a very cool landing system.

A recent trial of the Tenofovir HIV/AIDS prevention gel has been discontinued due to poor results, but it’s not all bad news. Here is a link to the CAPRISA 004 trial which showed extremely positive results.

Doctor Zen is trying to solve the mystery of the parthenogenic Marbled crayfish.

Modern parents are struggling to perpetuate the myth of Santa Clause in the Google age.

Angela has a mad

Angela received an email in response to a strongly worded blog post about children being killed during exorcisms.

Link of the Week

Angela: The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible

Mike: The LoLCat Bible

Owen: Google Plus

Extra: Link to the podcast of John Robbie’s interview with Kerry Cassidy in which he soft-balled her crazy UFO beliefs.

Quote of the Week
The Earth is an object lesson for the apprentice gods. ‘If you really screw up,’ they get told, ‘you’ll make something like Earth.’ – Carl Sagan, Contact

Announcements
1. Let’s Talk Geek episode #74
2. Johannesburg: SITP, Keg & Spitfire, Beyers Naude Dr, Blackheath – 7 December 18:30.

http://www.archive.org/download/ConsilienceEpisode37/Consilience37.mp3

Episode #36: JFK, the Pope and the Tokeloshe

The 36th episode of Consilience is out! You can download the mp3 here (26 mb) and the file’s page on Archive.org is here.

Teaching Angela to Appreciate History

On November 22nd, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot and killed be Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas. And, no, it wasn’t a conspiracy.

Updates

James Arthur Ray, the spiritual guru who caused the deaths of three people, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison.

Unfortunately, the ROSCOSMOS mission Phobos-Grunt is in serious trouble.

News

Pope wraps up visit to Africa.

The crazy Lotter case, complete with spiritual rape by tokeloshe.

Helen’s haunted house.

Dumb article concludes “Men over 54 lucky to be alive“.

The Borat Sagdiev Award for Excellence in Science

This month’s winner… Duncan Alfreds of News24.

Links of the Week

Owen:
Mike: a brilliant article by Jeffrey Bale entitled “‘Conspiracy Theories’ and Clandestine Politics“.
Angela: Operation Clambake.

Announcements

Johannesburg: SITP, Keg & Spitfire, Beyers Naude Dr, Blackheath – 7 December 18:30.

http://www.archive.org/download/ConsilienceEpisode36/Consilience36.mp3