Topic: Episode #356

[Steven Novella]

This Day in Skepticism
News Items: Dinosaur Farts, Aura Reading, 48 Frames per Second, Baby Powder, Killing Bigfoot, TAM2012
Who's That Noisy
Science or Fiction

[wallet55]

Dino farts!

[Trinoc]

Thanks guys. WTN starts at 55:13.

My guess: someone playing one of the alleged earliest known musical instruments, such as a hollow bone whistle with holes in the side found at a Neanderthal or ancient modern human site.

Edit: Or more likely a replica, since I don't think they would like someone to blow damp human breath through a unique ancient artefact.

[seaotter]

Thanks for the podcast and the community!

[Trinoc]

SoF: I was sure I'd seen somewhere that Hubble collects so much light that pointing it at the Earth or Moon would burn stuff out, so I chose that one as the fiction. It's a pity the lightning one is fiction, but I doubt it will be for much longer.

[Trinoc]

Hang on ... Steve is getting his scientific heroines mixed up. Jocelyn Bell (now Bell-Burnell) discovered pulsars and certainly didn't get the credit she deserved in the form of a Nobel prize, though whether that was sexism or just a case of a supervisor taking credit is debatable. The woman who did the x-ray crystallography on DNA was Rosalind Franklin, and the main reason she didn't get the Nobel prize was that she had died, and Nobel prizes are not (supposed to be) given out posthumously. If she had survived then it would have made an interesting dilemma since Nobel prizes can be given to a maximum of 3 recipients^*, so which of the three who actually got it, Crick, Watson or Wilkins, shuld have been booted out to make way for her?

[^*so how an organisation like the IPCC can get a Nobel, never mind a charlatan like Fred Singer claim he is a Nobel laureate because he worked for IPCC as a token skeptic/denier, beats me...]

Two-dimensional molecules: Graphene for one. And I think organic molecules where every carbon has no more that 3 other atoms joined to it can also be flat, e.g. benzene.

[seaotter]

So coolness would have to be an inherant property of nature, rather than a cultural construct? Steve

I think you just blew your theme music. Or insured it!

[Evil Eye]

Re: Baby "powder"

http://blog.hiddenharmonies.org/2012/05/so-they-eat-babies/

[russau]

If you don't want customized serach results from google, try doing the same search in a "private browsing / incognito" window.

[quirk3k]

another good episode! I listened to it twice.

[mddawson]

One correction in this episode - the 'md' in my forum name are my initials which I have been reliably informed by work colleagues and 'Dogma Free America' stand for 'Mad Dog'.

[Moloch]

I submitted a WTN that sounded really similar, about a year and a half ago. I'm going to go ahead and assume this isn't my submission, so I'll guess for it.

Replica of Ice Age flute from Europe (German?) made out of bone (swan?).

If not then maybe an ancient flute from Japan made out of crane bone.

[Trinoc]

I submitted a WTN that sounded really similar, about a year and a half ago. I'm going to go ahead and assume this isn't my submission, so I'll guess for it.

Replica of Ice Age flute from Europe (German?) made out of bone (swan?).

If not then maybe an ancient flute from Japan made out of crane bone.

There's a lot of stuff on YouTube about the Divje Babe bone flute found in Slovenia. I haven't found the WTN clip, but this video is typical:

Prehistoric flute played live in Prilep

[Left Flank]

Re: Baby "powder"

http://blog.hiddenharmonies.org/2012/05/so-they-eat-babies/

This story in the The Telegraph probably comes from this report in the Chosun Ilbo, which was also aired on South Korean TV. The details are vague, but in this particular case, the Korean-language report (which is more detailed than the supposed English translation) says, that South Korean officials inspected packages mailed from China to Chinese expats in South Korea. The problem is, that the article claims that South Korean officials can inspect the pills using their senses, not chemical analysis, because whatever the substance is, it's mixed with traditional herbs. The article in Korean and English mention, if "Baby" means placenta or actual deceased persons.

I've heard urban legends like this above-quoted article mentions. I've also heard of black markets for body parts in decades past. My South Korean wife claims Chinese medical expats resort to this questionable remedies once they have exhausted conventional treatment for cancer and have learned the prognosis is terminal.

I also will stipulate that diplomatic relations between China and Korea are strained, because of incursions by Chinese fishermen into Korean waters in the Yellow Sea resulting in the deaths and injury of South Korean maritime officials and North Korea. Koreans and Chinese (and Japanese) trade nationalist slurs readily. But, what I find most disturbing is, that the only inspection done on these capsules is human. It's not uncommon for South Koreans to make scientific claims using informed language with "experts" in white coats and other bureaucratic officials, and then follow with heart-rending tales from laypeople.

Yes, I'm skeptical.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/05/08/2012050801334.html

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/05/08/2012050800242.html

[Stephen Dawson]

On the 48 frames per second stuff, it's kind of sad that a defect (a slow frame rate) has now been taken by some to be a virtue. But you see that over and over in the entertainment -- and home entertainment -- industry. Those, for example, who insist that vinyl is 'better' than digital, which the former's defects are manifestly measurable and hugely outweigh the latter's.

What is overlooked with HFR is that the introduction of 48fps will not, and need not, eliminate 24fps. 48fps display systems are completely compatible with 24fps. Any movie maker who wants to retain that unique 'film' look (largely established by barely subliminal frame judder) can easily do so with a 48fps production system. Just choose 24fps! It isn't going to disappear.

But by having 48fps available then new and improved creative options are available, including readier access to decent slow motion.

I've been writing about issues of film judder on and off for a dozen years. Anyone interested can see my most recent take on this story here: http://hifi-writer.com/wpblog/?p=3758.