Skepticast #134

Hey, there I am — I got interviewed by Steve Novella for the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, and it's now available as a podcast.

Tags

More like this

I often joke that Orac is my alter-ego, regardless of how effective or ineffective the pseudonym is at protecting my "true" identity. I also, with some justification, joke that I'm a lot less interesting in person than I am on the blog as a means of inoculating people that I meet who know me only…
It's been brought to my attention that Perry DeAngelis, regular contributor to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, member of the New England Skeptical Society has passed away unexpectedly at far too young an age. I don't know any of the details, although as a regular listener to the…
I've become a big fan of podcasting and now like to listen to podcasts when I happen to be in my office while I'm working and in my car while driving to and from work. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of good skeptical podcasts, at least in comparison with the number of credulous ones. I thought I'…
I had been planning on blogging about a couple of recent studies identifiying multiple genes that appear to be associated with autism and autism spectrum disorders, thus adding to the body of evidence showing that autism and ASDs have a significant genetic basis as part of their etiology. It turns…

Thats a fantastic podcast, glad to finally hear you on it PZ!

Um...

The banner ad on the right side of the page was for Expelled. Not sure who to contact, but they really should get on that.

Looking forward to listening to this. Been a fan of the SGU podcast for some time now. Highly recommended to all those of an inquiring and skeptical mind.

Great job PZ. Especially on bringing up your atheism, the skeptic movement needs to quit pussyfooting around. How can you deny the existence of ghosts, but treat the holy ghost with kid gloves.

I love SGU, but I think the time has come for the skeptic movement to embrace atheism as part of its MO.

Hey, I'm a film guy trying to be all "science-y" Please check out my "theory" on consciousness and tear it apart (but be kind)

Analogous Thinking

Anyhoo, your site is awesome. I will have to listen to this podcast post-haste!

If you are new to the SGU....consider joining the message boards. 'lots of good debate in there. We can always use some more science professionals in there

RE #4:

It's 4 hours later and the banner ad is still there. I'd be really pissed off if it were my site. But then again, making money off the promoters of this movie can't be all bad. I'm not sure how Google ads work but I think the host site gets paid for each click through. Maybe we could all go over there and run up the bill and make some money for SGU.

By Don Smith, FCD (not verified) on 16 Feb 2008 #permalink

On the other hand, by using a vertical banner we get to see Ben Stein dressed like he's about to go onstage with AC/DC.

You can't blame them if the provider of banner ads puts that up, it's not within their control. As Don said in #8, go ahead and click on it a couple times, make some money for SGU and get a good laugh at the same time. If it was on my site, I'd have a big arrow pointing at it telling people to do just that.

I've been hoping this would happen for a long time. I love that podcast, and I love this blog, and I was about to write in and suggest they interview you. Can't wait to hear how it turned out!

So PZ, explain to someone who isn't in academia, what is the reason for why you don't go into researching cephalopods? Are you simply more interested in zebra fish, leaving as you said, cephalopods as a side interest, or are zebra fish more profitable scientifically, or would a transition between studies be inconvenient or even impossible at this stage in your career? All the art kids want to know.

By Michael X (not verified) on 16 Feb 2008 #permalink

If I was a bettin' gal, I would so place money on you being quote mined regarding that quip about you and Dawkins "out-militanting" each other.

I specially liked the point Steve Novella and PZ Myers made on complexity and design. If life was designed it would be simple and elegant, not unnecessarily redundant and complex at multiple layers as we observe. Design would be about simplicity, as the saying goes: "Perfection is not when you can't add anything, perfection is when you can't remove anything" (Mozart?).

My two favoratest entertainments all rolled into one gooey yumminess! Hooo!

By Gud All Mitey (not verified) on 17 Feb 2008 #permalink

Hey, I've seen ads for Expelled show up on my sidebar too, particularly on posts like these. While it might not be cricket to encourage my milli-PZ of readers to defraud the system, I can't help it if they appreciate irony. . . .

... silly nitpicking comment... but at the beginning when they were talking about Cotton Mather I'm fairly certain they (both people talking) said "anti-climatic" when they meant "anti-climactic"... verbal typo... but just sounded messed to my ear... "anti-climatic" sounds like the fact was ideologically opposed to weather.

During the segment about the Easington town council paying for a psychic to exorcise state housing, one of the hosts commented that it would have been cheaper and more effective to purchase a baseball bat to beat them (the superstitious occupants) with. Yuck, not funny at all.