The Skeptics Guide to the Universe Forum

Not a great start to the World Cup for the Aussies.  We're currently at the bottom of the Standings. 



Obviously the rest of the cricket world is loving seeing the Aussies struggling. The Aussies have won the trophy more times than any other country (5 times) and has the most World championships (20 of a possible 42)

Tonights game against Sri Lanka is a must win for the Aussies. I doubt we can make the final 4, but I do think we can go close.

Many of us Aussies feel that the side is too old and many of the players are there, purely, on past reputations. Having Pat Cummins as captain for the white ball game is a mistake. He needs to concentrate just on his bowling, which has suffered with his increased work load.

I do think the Aussies can get on a roll and win the next few games to give themselves a chance of pinching a Finals spot.

History shows you write the Aussies off at your own peril. The South Africans and English learned that in 1999. The Aussies were dead and buried by their media early on, only to come roaring back and winning the Final.

Go Pies.



A great close Grand Final yesterday. Pies should have won by more, but a win is a win.

Pies 12.18. 90
Lions 13.8. 86

Mark of the year in a Grand final by Bobby Hill. We haven't seen that since 1970.



1970 Alex Jesaulenko



Too bad the Mark of the Year is awarded 5 days before the Grand Final 

Though Bobby did win the Norm Smith Medal and a Premiership Medal. He'd take that over MotY award 

Quote from: spinach on November 26, 2022, 03:12:11 AMOT: I read yesterday the next QC will have 48teams split into pools of 3 countries. Thus a lot of countries will come to the WC play a couple of games and then return home in just over a week. Ha ha what a bad idea this will get a lot of pushback when it occurs and ppl will go, how could anyone foresee this.
Even pools of 4 like now are too small. As its FIFA there must be money involved why they went with their 48 team idea.

The World Cup isn't just the 4 week tournament. It goes for a few years. Involves hundreds of matches and almost every country in the world.

It is all about the money. The TV rights alone generates many $billions.

There won't be groups of 4 at the next World Cup. It's worse. There will be 16 groups of 3 teams. With 2 going through from each group and a knockout stage of 32 teams.

48 is way too many. Even 32 is too many.  :-\

It was nice to see the Aussies turn around their pathetic 4-1 loss to the French and manage a 1-0 win against Tunisia  8)

Now we "only" need a draw against Denmark to qualify. How hard can that be, they're only the 10th best side in the world  :-\

Ariarne Titmus' coach Dean Boxall's reaction to her win in the 400m Freestyle final was priceless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Tt58B0iG4

This was the first ever individual Gold Medal won by a Tasmanian. Our 5 previous winners were all in team events.



I also loved Kaylee McKeown's On Air reaction to her win in the 100m Backstroke "Fuck Yeah. O0h Shit"  ;D

(45 seconds in) https://www.trendsmap.com/twitter/tweet/1419843463374376961

BTW the US American Teams boast that they'd win every Women's swimming Gold Medal didn't last long. The Aussies already have 3 of them  8)

It's 50 years ago today since that infamous problem on Apollo 13

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/50-years-ago-houston-we-ve-had-a-problem

https://www.space.com/apollo-13-50th-anniversary-webcast-digital-celebrations.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8kjDF0IJU

The BBC has been doing a brilliant podcast about the mission. It was supposed to finish up this week, but the presenter Kevin Fong is a British doctor and is unsurprisingly busy at the moment.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episodes/downloads

Ok I don't fully know what happened a week ago  ???, but thanks to Belgarath and any others who worked hard to get it back up and online.

Astronomers have produced the first ever image of a Black Hole, at the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy.

QuoteOver several days in April 2017, eight radio telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, Spain, Mexico, Chile, and the South Pole zeroed in on Sag A* and M87.

Knitted together, they formed a virtual observatory some 12,000 kilometres across — roughly the diameter of Earth.

"The data is like an incomplete puzzle set," said team member Monika Moscibrodzka, an astronomer at Radboud University. "We only see pieces of the real true image, and then we have to fill in the gaps of the missing pieces." In the end, M87 was more photogenic. Like a fidgety child, Sag A* was too "active" to capture a clear picture, the scientists said.

"What we see in the image is the shadow of the black hole's rim — known as the event horizon, or the point of no return — set against the luminous accretion disk," Gueth told AFP.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/first-photo-of-a-black-hole-revealed-astronomers-capture-image-of-cosmic-phenomenon/news-story/2c66b4258c6aab47439840df895f160f

Today (US time) is the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 (with crew Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders) reaching the moon. The first manned mission to the moon.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-8.html

It is also the 50th anniversary of, arguably, the most famous photo ever taken.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an6hE3g2LZM

Since no-one else has volunteered, I will kick off next year's game.

It will be similar to the currently running game with a few scoring changes to make every death (on the list) worth points to every player.
I will use the same list as Friendly Angel's. Adding 4 new names to replace the 4 deceased celebrities. If any person on the list dies between now and the end of the year, I will replace them with another name that can be placed anywhere you like on your list

Rank the 50 celebrities in order from 1 to 50. With 1 (Top) being the most likely to die and 50 (Bottom) being the least likely.
Scoring will be (51-R). Where R=where you ranked the celebrity.
Top of your list will be worth 50 Points. Bottom of your list will only be worth 1 point.

As per a suggestion by brilligtove there will be incentive to place younger celebrities higher.
There will be a bonus 20 points for whoever ranks the youngest person to die, highest on their list
There will be a bonus 10 points for whoever ranks the 2nd youngest person to die, highest on their list
There will be a bonus 5 points for whoever ranks the 3rd youngest person to die highest on their list
If more than 1 person ranks a celebrity highest then those bonus points will be divided between them.

Obviously the bonus points will apply at the end of the year. I will add them provisionally as each celebrity dies, and adjust them if a younger celebrity dies.

I will be adding each players list to the spreadsheet linked below.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OPkAca9WNMmnUD-iz9LqF1zzRc7SIXWIUoXOezMT2v8/edit?usp=sharing

On with the game. Rank the 50 celebrities below from 1 to 50.

Allen, Woody
Asner, Ed
Attenborough, David
Barker, Bob
Beatty, Ned
Belafonte, Harry
Bennett, Tony
Brimley, Wilford
Brooks, Mel
Carter, Jimmy
Channing, Carol
Cheney, Dick
Clinton, Bill
Cosby, Bill
Day, Doris
de Havilland, Olivia
Dole, Bob
Douglas, Kirk
Downs, Hugh
Ginsburg, Ruth Bader
Gorbachev, Mikhail
Harper, Valerie
Holbrook, Hal
Kim Jong-Un
King, Don
King, Larry
Kissinger, Henry
Lansbury, Angela
Lasorda, Tommy
Lear, Norman
Lewis, Jerry Lee
Little Richard
Lockhart, June
Madoff, Bernard
Mondale, Walter
Mubarak, Hosni
Mugabe, Robert
Nelson, Willie
Newhart, Bob
Ono, Yoko
Osbourne, Ozzy
Pope Benedict XVI
Prince Philip
Queen Elizabeth II
Reiner, Carl
Sandusky, Jerry
Spector, Phil
Stiller, Jerry
Van Dyke, Dick
White, Betty

Here are their ages (at the start of 2019) and birthdates

I got this in my news feed this morning. The teaser video features a few skeptical figures we all recognise.

https://sciencefriction.tv/

QuoteFinally, a documentary about scientists who get misrepresented by the media.
Those TV documentaries you see, and the science experts they feature? Did you know that producers often edit them out of context, and twist their words, to make it seem like they promoted some pop sensationalism instead of the real facts?

Science Friction is going to expose these faux documentaries by name, and will give the scientists a chance to clear the record. The film is intended for theatrical release. The networks are not going to like us very much, so we are crowdfunding the production, right here on this page. The people want honest science reporting!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46TXZ_W7Kbg

 http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40624288

QuoteJodie Whittaker has been announced as Doctor Who's 13th Time Lord - the first woman to be given the role. No surprise. They had hinted that it was time for a woman Doctor. Even before Capaldi got the gig. I can't say I am familiar with her work. Which might be a good thing. No expectations. Hopefully the fan boys embrace her. The only disappointment for me was that I was hoping Hayley Atwell (Agent Peggy Carter) would be the first female Doctor. She had expressed a desire to do it. The only question is, Who will be the Doctor's companion? I would like to see a reversal of the early Doctor/Companion roles and have an elderly male as the side kick.

Emma Morano, the last person, (that we have proof of), born in the 1800s (November 29, 1899) has died today at the age of 117

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-16/worlds-oldest-person-dies-at-117/8446290

The worlds oldest living person now is 117 year old Violet Brown of Jamaica. Born 10th of March 1900.

QuoteNearly a century after it was theorized, Harvard scientists report they have succeeded in creating the rarest material on the planet, which could eventually develop into one of its most valuable.

Thomas D. Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences Isaac Silvera and postdoctoral fellow Ranga Dias have long sought the material, called atomic metallic hydrogen. In addition to helping scientists answer some fundamental questions about the nature of matter, the material is theorized to have a wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor.

This story probably arrived too late for the rogues to cover in this week's episode.
I could see them being excited, but cautiously skeptical about some of the claims.

QuoteA room temperature superconductor, Dias said, could change our transportation system, making magnetic levitation of high-speed trains possible, as well as making electric cars more efficient and improving the performance of many electronic devices. The material could also provide major improvements in energy production and storage. Because superconductors have zero resistance, superconducting coils could be used to store excess energy, which could then be used whenever it is needed.

Metallic hydrogen could also play a key role in helping humans explore the far reaches of space, as a more powerful rocket propellant.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/01/a-breakthrough-in-high-pressure-physics/

I hope it lives up to their high expectations, but it is a cool breakthrough either way.

I know the Rogues are going to devote most of this week's show to the Nobel prizes, but I was wondering what people's thoughts were on the Literature prize going to Bob Dylan.

QuoteThe Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016 is awarded to Bob Dylan
"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

I was torn. I'm mostly happy, as I love Bob Dylan's songs and it is good to see such a stuffy organisation getting a bit controversial and edgy with this pick.
Bob Dylan is definitely a poetic writer and I can see how they came to this decision.
But the book lover side of me was disappointed that many great authors have been overlooked.
A happy compromise would be if they had an award that they could bestow on any artist.

The other awards:

QuoteThe Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was divided, one half awarded to David J. Thouless, the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz
"for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".

QuoteThe Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 was awarded jointly to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa
"for the design and synthesis of molecular machines".

QuoteThe Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016 was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi
"for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy"

QuoteThe Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.

QuoteThe Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016 was awarded jointly to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström
"for their contributions to contract theory".

I can't say the movie "10 Cloverfield Lane" has me overly excited, but I am happy to see Dan Trachtenberg, previously from video podcast "The Totally Rad Show", has got the directing job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Totally_Rad_Show

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/cloverfield-sequel-trailer-jj-abrams-10-cloverfield-lane-1201680939/

Dan was the guy who directed that live action "Portal" short film (Based on the popular video game)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk

Dan is the guy on the left below.