Topic: Episode #331

[Steven Novella]

Interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson
This Day in Skepticism
News Items: Moon's Magnetic Field, Europa's Ice Surface, False Confessions
Who's That Noisy
Your Questions and E-mails: BMJ Poe, Catholic Pox Parties
Science or Fiction

[Dave]

WTN is from an episode of Law & Order.

[Dave]

It's an exchange between Detective Kevin Bernard (Anthony Anderson) and a news stand vendor, who has the "chiropractor" line.

Season 19, Episode 21 "Skate or Die"

[chionactis]

I sent a message fairly soon after the episode was posted saying it was from Law and Order, but my search wasn't as thorough as yours, Dave. I said it was from an episode that aired on 06-09-10. But it does look like it's from that episode you mentioned, and that it originally aired at an earlier date. So if it does come down to a choice between you and I, then I think you should get it for naming the correct episode.

[Trinoc]

Oh good, some folks other than me are still playing WTN. I decided to stop playing for a while, at least unless nobody sends in an answer for several days. Google is getting too comprehensive, making it very hard to find a speech-based clip that can't be looked up. This week's took about 30 seconds to find so I'm not surprised several people got it straight away.

But now, a challenge! I accept in principle, but I can't say when. I want to wait until I find something good. Kinda busy at the moment.

[Anders]

Rebecca, belts were originally made for holding tools. The preferred method of not getting your pants around your feet was suspenders.

[seaotter]

Thanks for the podcast!

[Dave]

That's very sporting of you, chionactis! However, I think that Getting Law & Order will—and should—be enough. Frankly, I only dug deeper because I had to know who had the "chiropractor" line. I could find only one transcript, which had no line attribution. So, I actually went to Amazon and spent a buck 99 on the episode.

The interesting think that I found about this episode, is that all of the principal roles seem to have actual names like "Cal" and "Mary," instead of descriptive names like "Maitre'd" and "News Stand Vendor." That is, in my experience, unusual. It's good for the actors' resumes, but makes finding the name of a character like this more difficult.

[McLir]

The Neil deGrasse Tyson interview is a gift! Is it possible for you to post an unedited or fuller version of the interview. He offers so many useful pointers on media and communication. I know I'd like to hear anything more he says on the subject.

[Trinoc]

Point of order, guys: I got taken to task in last week's episode thread (by Steve, I think) for using "fossil" to mean something not of biological origin, and this week I heard someone (Bob?) talk about the Earth's magnetic field getting fossilized in the Moon's rocks.

[Trinoc]

Here's a link to Steve's "Alternative Engineering" piece. It's as relevant now as in 1999 when it was written.

http://www.theness.com/index.php/alternative-engineering/

[Trinoc]

A quick Google on references to the Retroactive Intercessory Prayer article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_on_intercessory_prayer#Retroactive_intercessory_prayer (OK, it includes a mild disclaimer in the last sentence).

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Medicine/RetroPray.pdf (A follow-up article in the BMJ close to Xmas 2004).

http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/forum/thread.cfm?thread=7491&sort=creatasc (A Christian forum where at least some of the respondents took it seriously).

http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/religion/prayer/research.asp (Lots of follow-up papers, at least some of which seem to take it seriously).

http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/5805/ (An analysis of email responses to the article, or possibly the 2004 follow-up).

http://www.jnrbm.com/content/8/1/7 (An honourable (but not credulous) mention in a Cochrane review on intercessory prayer in general).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer#Efficacy_of_prayer_healing (This time with no disclaimer: it seems to be taken seriously .. time for a Wiki edit?).

[tinyfrog]

Regarding the article on Retroactive Intercessory Prayer:

I had actually thought this was a real article (obviously I was wrong).  But, there is a certain logic to it that matches fundamentalist thinking.

Here's the thing: there is a Christian belief that God exists outside time.  (William Lane Craig uses this idea of "God exists outside of time" to support some of his Christian cosmological views.)  This means God could intervene in the timeline of history whenever He wants.  You could compare to this to say, if you were an author/editor of a book: you can open the book to any page and change things (even though the book itself has a timeline that begins on the first page and progresses through time until the last page).  You are outside of time, and therefore, can access and change anything in any part of the book at any time.  What I thought might be the motivation behind the study was this: to show that God is not bound by time.  Afterall, why should it matter whether you pray for someone while they're ill versus praying for them after their illness if God exists outside time?  If you had a historical narrative in a book and on page 100 some of the characters pleaded with the author to change events that occurred on page 90, that's *well* within the power of the author to change events on page 90 because the author exists outside of time and can change things in the past as easily in the present or future.  As bizarre as the experiment might seem to us (the non-time travelling species that we are), I think it could be fully legitimized with Christian "God is not bound by time" thinking.

[ufo]

First of all, thanks guys for my favorite science / skeptical podcast.   

Is it just me or does the intro sound to "Science or Fiction" sound like someone doing an exaggerated kiss?   Since it always comes after the interview or after "Randy Speaks", I always imagine Rebecca planting a big wet one on the lips of the interviewee or Randy. 

[Evil Eye]

WTN (complete guess) Christopher Walken in Last Man Standing?