Skeptics Guide #930

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #930 May 4th 2023 Segment #1. What’s the Word Catacoustics Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – AI Mind Reading https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/reading-the-mind-with-fmri-and-ai/ News Item #2 – 10,000 Steps Per Day https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/you-dont-really-need-10-000-daily-steps-to-stay-healthy/ News Item#3 – 30 Years of the Web https://www.npr.org/2023/04/30/1172276538/world-wide-web-internet-anniversary News Item #4 – When Will Aliens Make Contact? https://tinyurl.com/4mvpnejw Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Carnivore Diet Just read the SGU book and am starting on SG Future, excellent books. Curious if you have ever looked at radical/fringe diets and the people who are their main proponents. Someone close to me has signed onto the Carnivore Diet and closely followed Tennessee MD Ken Berry and New Mexico MD Shawn Baker. All meat and eggs, veggies and fruit are toxic, cures and prevents just about everything. Seems like just another instance of medical quackery and pseudoscience to me, but I can't convince this person that eating nothing but red meat and eggs is not a good idea in the long run. Steve Williams Eugene OR Segment #5. Interview with Brian Brushwood https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/worlds-greatest-con/id1572307941 Segment #6. 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: #1) Scientists find that wild chimpanzees are capable of combining calls into “compositional syntactic-like structure” with new meanings that derive from the meaning of the individual parts. #2) The latest dark energy survey finds that it comprises 76% of total energy density in the universe, and that it is uniform in space and constant in time. #3) A recent systematic review finds that telehealth can save on average 40% of the carbon footprint of outpatient patient care. Segment #7. Skeptical Quote of the Week “There is an ever-growing body of evidence that psychic abilities like telepathy, psychokinesis, astral projection, and channeling are not only real—they’re quite common,” “Those who ask questions find answers, Those who combat falsehoods find the truth, And those who see inside themselves will know the path ahead.” - Jedi Survivor


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