Skeptics Guide #893

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #893 August 6th 2022 Live from NECSS 2022 With special guests Andrea Jonesrooy and Kelly Burke Segment #1. Perry DeAngelis and Friends of the SGU Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Earth Spinning Faster https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2022/07/28/earth-is-suddenly-spinning-faster-why-our-planet-just-recorded-its-shortest-day-since-records-began/amp/ News Item #2 – Scientific Rigor https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/nih-to-fund-scientific-rigor-initiative/ News Item #3 – More Space Debris https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/08/why-space-debris-keeps-falling-out-of-the-sky-and-will-continue-to-do-so/ News Item #4 – The Alex Jones Saga https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/jury-alex-jones-defamation-case-begin-deliberations-punitive-damages-2022-08-05/ Segment #3. Special Segments Item #1: Chorizo Hoax Item #2: Brainstorm vs Green Needle Segment #4. 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: Disinformation #1) Reported trust in the media in 2021 was highest in China at 80%, and lowest in Russia at 29%, with the US in between at 39%. #2) Analysis of social media posts finds that bots are far more likely to spread false information and are responsible for as much as 90% of its spread on the most popular platforms. #3) Research shows that fake news spreads 6 times faster and 10 times farther on Twitter than true news, and that people are 70% more likely to share a false tweet than a truthful one. Segment #5. Skeptical Quote of the Week "An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious - just dead wrong." Russell Baker (1925 - 2019 ), American Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer, host of PBS' Masterpiece Theater


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