Skeptics Guide #1014

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #1014 December 11th 2024 Segment #1. News Items News Item #1 – Have We Achieved AGI https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/dec/10/ai-openai-sora-video-new-frontier News Item #2 – Bird Flu https://www.livescience.com/health/flu/a-single-gene-mutation-could-enable-h5n1-to-spread-between-people-study-finds News Item #3 – Weekend Warrior https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/health-benefits-of-the-weekend-warrior/ News Item #4 – Potential Technosignature https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.18595 News Item #5 – Simulation Again https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a63118352/52-million-lives-a-simulation/ Segment 2. Who’s That Noisy Segment #3. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Blood Thicker than Water Segment #4. Interview with Noah Lugeons https://audioboom.com/channels/4829847-the-scathing-atheist 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. Item 1: A new analysis finds that if existing plans to achieve worldwide net zero carbon emissions were implemented, it would use an area of land larger than the United States. Item 2: Scientists have discovered a new class of magnetism called altermagnetism, and find that it can potentially increase the speed of memory devices up to a thousand times. Item 3: Paleontologists describe a species of flying reptile that is not a pterosaur and is 15 million years older than the oldest pterosaur, making it the oldest known flying vertebrate. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week "Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn." attributed to Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richard's Almanac, 1755)