Episode #165

[Danger Mouse]

Blink...

wow...now that's a cool 14 year old!!!

unfortunately, Melvin is by far more in the 'norm'.


do you have the answer to your kids question?
would be interested in what people said.

personally, i do think that the question is not answerable in any sort of reasonable way as the setup of the situation violates pretty much every law of physics that i can think of off hand so you cant justify any scientific answer as you have already ditched science in posing a non realistic question.
this means that you are free to say it is instantaneous (breaking the c limit) or revert to a semblance of scientificity and say it would move at c.

effectively, what he is asking is how fast events that havnt happened yet occur...  which i see as a non scientific question.

still, awesome kid :D

[DoctorAtlantis]

Which one is more the norm?

I'd be proud to have my kids ask a question like that.

But... he must really hate that couch.

[kem]

Sweet lord does Goldacre have a sexy accent.

You should have seen him talk at TAM.  yummy.

He's probably a real sweetheart, athletic and has lots of dosh. Guys like that...

[ganzfeld]

Great episode. It's always a joy to listen to Dr Novella talk about medicine and neurology.

[Evil Eye]

Blink...

wow...now that's a cool 14 year old!!!

unfortunately, Melvin is by far more in the 'norm'.


do you have the answer to your kids question?
would be interested in what people said.

personally, i do think that the question is not answerable in any sort of reasonable way as the setup of the situation violates pretty much every law of physics that i can think of off hand so you cant justify any scientific answer as you have already ditched science in posing a non realistic question.
this means that you are free to say it is instantaneous (breaking the c limit) or revert to a semblance of scientificity and say it would move at c.

effectively, what he is asking is how fast events that havnt happened yet occur...  which i see as a non scientific question.

still, awesome kid :D

What I respected was that he didn't just take my word for it that the question was wrong. He checked me!

http://www.bautforum.com/questions-answers/79115-speed-time.html

[Mrs B]

Sweet lord does Goldacre have a sexy accent.

I read that as Lord Goldacre.  :D

If there is a follow-up interview with Ben Goldacre I would like to hear all about his stance on Martin Walker's essay ('Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism: Ben Goldacre, Quackbusting and Corporate Science.'). Read excerpts or the whole thing here.

[mindme]

Regarding that hubble find, I followed the SGU link to:

www.skyandtelescope.com/community/skyblog/newsblog/28244844.html?pageSize=0

I noticed no where in that article did they use the old "scientists are baffled by" and "scientists are scrambling to explain" lines. But then good ol' Fox news doesn't let us down:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,423161,00.html

[Proto]

I was a disappointed with the way the discussion around the dismissal of Prof Michael Reiss from the Royal Society went on this episode.

To summarise my view - I have yet to hear a single specific allegation of fault against the guy that wasn't a media mischaracterisation of what he said - and yet to hear a convincing argument for his dismissal that didn't boil down to what he was - rather than anything that he did or said in his role. I honestly do not believe that this would have happened if he had not been an ordained Anglican. I am of course quite prepared to change my mind on this if someone is able to point me to facts that may have eluded me to this point.

Surely if we are to uphold the need for evidence (and the recognition of the Ad Hominem fallacy) then those standards should equally apply to this.

I had hoped the Panel would recognise the cultural difference that existed between the US and the UK - and recognise that trying to take the US model and apply it in all its tribal glory over here in the UK would have been seen as the backward step that I believe it represents.

Herein, IMO, lies the foothold for Creationism.

[Per Hultqvist]

Argumentum from Capslock

Lol, why isn't that one listed here : http://www.logicalfallacies.info/index.html?

[Per Hultqvist]

From the FoxNews link above:

Researchers working on something called the Supernova Cosmology Project had pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a very distant star cluster, 8.2 billion light-years away or more than halfway across the universe.

How can it be 8.2 billion light-years away when the universe is only 6000 years old...I don't get it...:-)

[maydont]

From the FoxNews link above:

Researchers working on something called the Supernova Cosmology Project had pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at a very distant star cluster, 8.2 billion light-years away or more than halfway across the universe.

How can it be 8.2 billion light-years away when the universe is only 6000 years old...I don't get it...:-)

lol....that's brilliant

[rev_matt_y]

I was a disappointed with the way the discussion around the dismissal of Prof Michael Reiss from the Royal Society went on this episode.

I was disappointed with it as well, and for the same reasons.  Unfortunately things that pop up in the news and are included in the podcast before all the details come out have bitten the panel more than once, but they are pretty good about following up and noting how new information has caused them to modify their opinion.  Which is kind of a hallmark of scientific thinking.  I often don't listen to the podcast until Monday or Tuesday after it comes out, so news items are often pretty out of date by the time I hear them discussed by the SGU.


I will note Dawkins' comment on this:
"Although I disagree with him, what he actually said at the British Association is not obviously silly like creationism itself, nor is it a self-evidently inappropriate stance for the Royal Society to take."

[Skulker]

I thought Steve and the rogues (does the term "rogues" include Steve?) handled poor Melvin very well on air but I think the uncut podcast and the IM logs would probably have been a lot funnier.
It must have been difficult to remain serious when dealing with an angry true believer.

[David C]

Sweet lord does Goldacre have a sexy accent.

I think i have a problem with british accents  :P I couldn't get that much from the interview. But I do get their humor, Mr. Been and Benny Hill allways crack me up  :D

[Thespis]

Has Melvin's email been posted anywhere? I thought Steve was going to link to it, so we can admire the logical fallacies and poor grammer.

That way we can compare it to Exspirituals prose.

It's in the show notes.