Skeptics Guide #984

The Skeptics Guide To The Universe

The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe Skepticast #984 May 15th 2024 Segment #1. 5-10 Years - Steorn Free Energy Company Implodes https://m.independent.ie/business/irish/steorn-finally-goes-supernova-as-company-that-promised-free-energy-completes-liquidation-process/a202323699.html Segment #2. News Items News Item #1 – Chat GPT 4o https://ai-pro.org/start-chat-gpt News Item #2 – 2023 hottest summer in 2 thousand years https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/climate-change/tree-rings-reveal-summer-2023-was-the-hottest-in-2-millennia News Item #3 – Spotting Misinformation https://theness.com/neurologicablog/spotting-misinformation/ News Item #4 – AI Training Robots https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/nvidia-robot-yoga-ball-balance News Item #5 – Reincarnated Son of Buddha https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2792145/complaint-against-reincarnated-son-of-lord-buddha Segment #3. Who’s That Noisy Segment #4. Your Questions and E-mails Question #1: Saving Sasquatch Hi! Long time listen/patron. I just finished reading this article: Olympic Peninsula fifth graders get lesson in lobbying with ‘Saving Sasquatch’ https://replica.seattletimes.com/popovers/dynamic_article_popover.aspx?artguid=76b5d8d4-6f72-475c-b423-2e3abb0243bb&appcode=SEATTL&eguid=401d5725-d207-4dce-af01-fbcee1f49fb0&pnum=54# And I am appalled on so many fronts. We have let these students down. The teacher (supposedly teaching critical thinking), the law makers (accepting the kids proposal of nonsense) and the Seattle Times for publishing it. Would love to hear your thoughts. Kristin Simpson Kirkland Washington Segment #5. 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: Battery Material Item 1: By weight the most prevalent element in current production Lithium ion batteries is nickel, followed by cobalt and then lithium. Item 2: A recent analysis concludes that the world will not be able to mine enough copper to make the green transition between now and 2050. Item 3: A new study finds that extracting lithium from shale wastewater in Pennsylvania could produce 40% of current annual US demand. Segment #6. Skeptical Quote of the Week Science is the only self-correcting human institution, but it also is a process that progresses only by showing itself to be wrong." Allan Sandage S – Stop. Think about the claims before spreading them. Don’t retweet, post, or make a Tik Tok video pointing at the person making the claim and nodding. K – Keep an open mind. Consider all possibilities for plausibility and evidence, even that the claim is not true, or what you want to believe is wrong. E – Evaluate the source. Examine the source for authoritativeness, potential bias, and expertise. What other claims do they make. What do other sources say? P – Put the claim in context. Is there a controversy? Is this a politically hot topic? Is the person making a claim selling something, such as a political perspective. T – Track. Track back all sources to their original source. Rely on primary sources whenever possible. I – Investigate. Do background research on the science involved, what the experts say and why, who disagrees with the claim and why. C – Consider before concluding. Consider all information when making a determination if the claim is likely to be true or not. It's OK to conclude that you don’t know or to wait for more information. Remember to be humble and charitable.