Topic: Episode #352

[Steven Novella]

This Day in Skepticism: Titanic Disaster
News Items: Blow Up Space Junk, Aristolochia Nephropathy, Homophobia, Toilet Water, Monkey Bill Update
Who's That Noisy
Your Questions and E-mails: Grover's Algorithm, Gulf of Cambay Ruins
Science or Fiction

[seaotter]

Thanks for the podcast and the community!

[Dolomedes]

When Evan was talking about human waste, someone was yawning audibly. Who was that? I laughed. 

[Steven Novella]

Yawning is actually quite frequent - we often record late. I edit them out, but this one slipped by me.
btw - I'm pretty sure the yawning was me.

[seaotter]

Wtn: jay going for distance!

[Chew]

OMG! You never heard the "unsinkable" Titanic was a myth???

[seaotter]

Perhaps a mashup of the unsinkable Molly brown?

[chexuma]

Did Evan refer to Lady Gaga as "him or her"?

If so -- not cool.

[Neon Genesis]

Wasn't there another study they did on homophobia where they showed straight people gay porn videos and the straight guys who weren't homophobic showed no reaction to the gay porn while the homophobic straight guys had more erections towards the gay porn or something?

[Chew]

Wasn't there another study they did on homophobia where they showed straight people gay porn videos and the straight guys who weren't homophobic showed no reaction to the gay porn while the homophobic straight guys had more erections towards the gay porn or something?

Are Homophobes Aroused by Homoeroticism? : Dispatches from the Creation Wars

[clavicorn]

Apparently Orrin Hatch is up for reelection and is in some jeopardy--not from his left, of course, but from his right. Perhaps whatever Tea Party knucklehead opposes him could raise the FDA issue, except that the Tea Party probably wants to eliminate the FDA entirely.

[Trinoc]

Wasn't there another study they did on homophobia where they showed straight people gay porn videos and the straight guys who weren't homophobic showed no reaction to the gay porn while the homophobic straight guys had more erections towards the gay porn or something?

A lot of comments I've heard from homophobic men seem to assume that homosexuality is somehow infectious: expose straight males (particularly children) to images suggesting homosexuality is normal, they say, and they will be turned gay by them. Some years ago Guinness had an advert with a mime artist in it and a man I know warned me not to watch it "because it was aimed at gays" .. did he seriously think that watching someone he thought of as effeminate advertising beer would cause my drinking habits to change my sexuality? I can only assume he had some sort of positive reaction to the images which he found disturbing. Presumably this is why anti-gay campaigners are so keen on censoring it out of existence.

[seaotter]

It's an explanation that fits the otherwise irrational vehemence of the hate.

[Fast Eddie B]

There's a nice little free app for the iPad called "Building Titanic":



Like a coffee table book, good for about an hour or so of browsing with lots of historical info.

[rwh]

The transcript for this episode is done.  Thanks for the mention Steve, it was a nice surprise to be noticed so quickly after starting the project!

http://www.sgutranscripts.org/wiki/SGU_Episode_352

I noticed that, during the "Blow Up Space Junk" news item, Bob suggested off the cuff that China blew up a satellite with a laser:

Jay: Bob, did they shoot this thing with lasers? What did they do?

Bob: Hah no. Actually, yeah that is possible and China actually tested that a bunch of years ago, and they of course created lots of debris. Really pissed me off. But you know, you might think you could just clean it all...

But I thought that they used a missile for that.  I think this is it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test

Wikipedia calls it a kinetic kill vehicle, which they launched on a solid fuel missile.  I didn't realise this before, but I see from Wikipedia that the US performed a similar test in 1985 and also destroyed a malfunctioning US spy satellite with a missile in 2008, so I guess the Chinese aren't the only space junk offenders.

Cheers,

Rob