– Date – February 17th, 2015
– Send your cool ‘SCIENCE!’ shout-outs to
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Skepticism, Past and Future [2:00]
– The US is having a multi-state outbreak of measles and is at a 20-year high for the disease according to the CDC.
– Toronto Star eventually admitted “we failed” on their front-page HPV story after being drubbed by skeptics.
– Jacobson v. Massachusetts settled that mandatory vaccinations were constitutional in the U.S.
– Many states offer religious/personal exemptions to such laws, but many states are trying to tighten them given the current outbreaks.
– Read more about the history of anti-vaccine movements at the History of Vaccines website.
– Tim blogged about the Food Babe’s attempts to thwart skeptic criticism last week.
– DoNotLink was previously discussed on Skepticality #243.
– Skeptic History facts are posted daily on social media find out where on this page at Tim’s blog.
Wikipedia [9:10]
– Sherri Tenpenny Wikipedia page.
– Mark Forsyth Wikipedia page – Before & After.
– http://www.SusanGerbic.com.
– Get involved with the Skeptics on Wikipedia project today!
Skeptical Humanities [18:40]
– The Virtual Skeptics on Brian Williams.
– Williams claims on his helicopter experience has caused a fuss.
– This should be a good time to highlight the fallibility of memory.
– Check out Skepticality Humanities blog!
The Odds Must Be Crazy [29:40]
– This week's featured story is, "Clear as Glass".
– Story was submitted by Skepticality listener Bill Walker.
– Please visit the story link for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by contributing editor Mark Gouch.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Visit our new webhost, Skeptic Ink Network at Skepticink.com.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found on Twitter at @OddsMustBeCrazy, Facebook at TheOddsMustBeCrazy, and Google+ at thier profile.
– Wendy Hughes is on Twitter @Wendy91602.
– John Rael is on Twitter @skepticallyPwnd.
– Jarrett Kaufman is on Twitter @TurboFool.
– Barbara Drescher is on Twitter @badrescher.
– Brian Keith Dalton is on Twitter @MrDeity.
– Thanks to our friends Emery Emery and Heather Henderson for hospitality and support for the production of the segment. Visit them at skepticallyyours.net.
Chat With: Kyle Sanders [38:53]
– Kyle Sanders – Carbon Dating.
– As seen in Skeptic Magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, and others.
– Kyle works as an instructor pilot for the Air Force.
– Skeptical thought is quite closely related to teaching people how to fly.
– Air travel is MUCH safer than driving to work, in 2012 air travel had very few incents, compared to thousands on the highways just here in the USA.
– If you want safer roads, you should be excited by the idea of all self driving cars.
– Kyle started his path of drawing skeptical web comics after his first skeptical conference, Skepticon and watching Joe Nickell.
– Carbon Dating is making a drive to produce a new skeptical comic every day to promote critical thought.
– Kyle will be coming back to Skeptrack at Dragon Con in 2015.
Interview: Dr. Michael Shermer [52:00]
– Dr. Michael Shermer.
– Last time he was on Skepticality was to talk about his last book, 'The Believing Brain'.
– His book, 'The Moral Arc', is named after a popular speech given my Martin Luther King Jr. the 'How Long, Not Long' speech in Selma, Alabama.
– Things are getting better, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Interracial Marriage, Gay Marriage, means more morality.
– Even Alabama now has legal Gay Marriage. Sadly, we do not in Georgia.
– However, Atlanta, GA is quite a happy place for any in the LGBT community to live in.
– In Germany they are giving up Nuclear Power and moving to all renewable energy.
– In the USA, we have tended to be behind the times, lack of renewable energy, mobile phone payments have been common in Japan for a long time…
– How the world reacted to the Charlie Hebdo attacks, across the planet it was seen as a terrible thing.
– People seem not to believe, or can't believe that violence has been in a free fall in a massive way.
– Even terrorism does not claim that many victims compared to many other, common, risks.
– The Flynn effect is the interesting observation that since around the Industrial Revolution the average IQ in the civilized world has been going up drastically.
– There are almost as many guns as people in the United States.
– It is a well researched fact that the Death Penalty does not deter crime at all.
– Most people do not know, or haven't taken the time to read about why Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, his views and talk about Nuclear Weapons.
– You can get 'The Moral Arc' on Amazon, or more fun, you can get a signed copy from skeptic.com.
– Check out the MoralArc.com website for more information and sample chapters.
Outro Music [1:32:25]
– Outro music donated by Trent Brusky of Dropfox.