The Skeptics Guide #1001 - Sep 14 2024 (Ad Free)
Added 2024-09-14 16:16:11 +0000 UTCNews Items: Embryo Models, Carbon Fiber Battery, Zeta Class Supercomputer, UFOs as a Societal Problem; Who's That Noisy; Your Questions and E-mails: Residential Solar; Science or Fiction
Comments
We're continuously turning capitalism more and more vampiric. Everything is being commodified, from entertainment to education, weddings to grief, and now literally even numbers (digital "currency") and pictures (NFTs). One has to wonder, how long before The Lorax becomes reality?
Asymetra
2024-09-18 11:20:33 +0000 UTCI'm going to have to push back on why we invaded Iraq. "Bush On North Korea: 'We Must Invade Iraq'" https://theonion.com/bush-on-north-korea-we-must-invade-iraq-1819566701/
Asymetra
2024-09-18 09:38:04 +0000 UTCI became a skeptic in 2008. When I started listening to podcasts some years later, the first thing that I searched for was skeptic podcasts. There weren't many. The first one I found was Cognitive Dissonance, the SGU soon became the second one. Within a few years, more skeptic podcasts began to show up, some that had been around for years.
Asymetra
2024-09-18 09:36:21 +0000 UTCFirst, I was repeating what was said on the West Wing episode, not mounting an exploration of the claim. But to put that claim into context, they were discussing it as a longer term strategy, not an immediate tactic. Meaning - it depends on how you define "work". It may have had the immediate tactical effect they were looking for, but did 911 bring down the US? Will the Hamas Attacks end Israel? That was the point.
The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
2024-09-15 11:54:34 +0000 UTCMy favorite part was this weeks noisy! I don't know what that was, but it's musical and cool.
Dan Lee
2024-09-15 10:17:52 +0000 UTCPlease use the discussion about funerals as a segue to get Caitlin Doughty, aka Ask a Mortician, on the show. Funerals and the death industry in general is a perfect topic to cast a skeptical eye on. So much we take for granted about death and dying is completely cultural specific. And there’s a lot of things about American death practices that have surprising origins, like the American preoccupation with embalming. Cara has interviewed her on her podcast. She’d be such a great guest here!
Drock Drack
2024-09-14 17:59:24 +0000 UTCSteve, I have to disagree that attacks like 911 "don't work". The purpose of such attacks is to provoke a disproportionate response that will galvanize opinion in the attackers favor. 911 prompted the invasion of Afghanistan and, more bewildering, Iraq, which drew the US into two long, expensive wars that triggered the jihad Bin Ladin was seeking, led to the rise of ISIS, and turned global opinion against the US. The results continue to this day with anti-muslim rhetoric on the right in the US. Likewise Hamas' October 7th attack has been wildly successful. Consider global attitudes towards Israel a year ago and today! That shift of opinion was the goal of the attacks, not any direct harm to Israel. Unfortunately for the Palestinian civilians, their deaths are considered "collateral damage" by both sides.
DJ
2024-09-14 16:43:47 +0000 UTC
