The Budding Biologist - Skepticality

– Date – December 11, 2012
– Send your cool ‘SCIENCE!’ shout-outs to
.
– Theme song by Steve Seamans of the Daisy Dillman Band. Get the song HERE.
– Thank you to everyone who has been purchasing books, Skepticality stuff, or using our Amazon link to help us!

Hey Swoopy came back to announce the date and she and Derek were face to face!

Unnatural Virtue

– The Polygraph and its strange ways.
– An article by Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers reports that the federal government is expanding its use of polygraph screening.
– Have been abuses by federal agencies who work in secret when putting too much stock in things like the polygraph.
– There are three basic approaches to the polygraph test and none of them are reliable.
– Aldrich Ames, the spy who passed several polygraph tests while working for the CIA, had this to say of the polygraph: "Like most junk science that just won’t die…".
– Ames was responding to an article in Science on polygraph testing at the Department of Energy National Laboratories.
– The Skeptics Dictionary and Skeptic's Dictionary for Kids.
– A paperback edition of Unnatural Acts: Critical Thinking, Skepticism, and Science Exposed! is now available from Lulu.com. For more info, click here. The eBook is still available.

– The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has launched the website mormonsandgays.org. [news article]
– A 7-year-old boy was beaten to death by his parents last week after he failed to read the Bible and do his homework.
– A mother who beat her seven-year-old son to death for failing to learn the Koran.
– Heather's other podcasts: Ardent Atheist on Twitter: @Ardentatheists and Skeptically Yours on Twitter: @SkepticallyYour.
– Follow Heather on Twitter: @HeatherHenderso.

– Matt Caplin 'Medusa's Gaze and Vampire's Bite – The Science of Monsters'.
– Recently was featured on NPR via an interview with Ira Flatow.
– Looking for real world examples of tales and ancient folklore, myth and fantasy stories.
– Caplin tries to identify Charybdis the whirlpool in scientific/real ways fails.
– Chimera was just a jumble of fossils stuck in a tarpit.
– Cerebus the three headed dog suffered a similar fate.
– Dragons as trapped gases?
– Was Merlin a geologist, or a fictional character?
– Humans evolved an amazing ability to formulate tales and create.

– The Odds Must Be Crazy.
– This week's featured story is, "At the Corner of Coincidence Near the House of Commons"
– Story was submitted by reader Carl Nichols.
– Please visit the story link for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by Barbara Drescher.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Please visit The Independent Investigations Group Los Angeles.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
– Wendy Hughes is on Twitter.
– Jarrett Kaufman is on Twitter.
– Barbara Drescher is on Twitter.
– Brian Hart is on Twitter.
– Brian Keith Dalton is on Twitter.