Skeptics Guide #1002

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The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1002 September 18th 2024 Segment #1. Quickie with Steve Earth’s Minimoon https://www.sciencealert.com/earth-welcomes-a-new-mini-moon-later-this-month Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Dead Internet Theory https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/what-is-the-dead-internet-conspiracy News Item #2 – Classroom CRISPR https://phys.org/news/2024-09-kit-classroom-crispr-accessible.html News Item #3 – SCAM Market https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/09/13/2946197/0/en/Complementary-and-Alternative-Medicine-Market-Size-to-Reach-USD-664-Billion-by-2033-Says-The-Brainy-Insights.html News Item #4 – ADHD Increasing https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/why-is-adhd-on-the-rise/ Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Changing Names Dear Skeptics Guide cast, Congrats on 1000 episodes! I’ve listened to about 1-2 hundred of them but haven’t emailed before. In the 1000th episode, there was some discussion about fringe movements changing their name in an attempt to legitimize themselves, such as UFOs changing to UAPs or cold fusion becoming “low energy nuclear reactors.” It was mentioned that this is a good giveaway that something fishy is going on. I agree with this, but it did remind me of a part of climate denialist rhetoric. I know some would respond that this is exactly what happened when “global warming” changed to “global climate change.” Some would say global warming was unpopular so they changed it just to be more palatable. Or they’d say “global warming wasn’t happening, so they had to change the name,” equating that with “UFOs weren’t real, so they had to change the name.” I think we as skeptics have a good idea why the climate name change is different, but I would love to hear it vocalized on the show why exactly this is different from, e.g., UFOs changing to UAPs. Congrats again on 1000 episodes! Best, Kolton Question #2: Net Metering Follow Up 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: Extinct Birds Item 1: Pelagornis sandersi was the largest flying bird to ever live, with a wingspan of 6.4 meters, more than twice as long as a modern albatross. Item 2: Kelenken guillermoi, a member of the terror bird family of South America, is the largest bird to have ever lived, at up to 10 feet tall and 350 kg. Item 3: Homo floresiensis, the hobbit-sized human cousins, shared the island of Flores with a giant meat-eating stork that would have towered over them at 6 feet tall. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "Quackery gives birth to nothing; gives death to all things." Thomas Carlyle