Welcome to ORLYRADIO #108A for Friday MAY 6th, 2016 - where we dismantle the current events for your edutainment through mostly rational conversations that make you go ‘Oh Really’! I’m your host Andy Cowen, with my usual suspects, Michael Robinson, Fred Sims, Stephen Griffith, and Daniel Atherton.
Audience Feedback From Previous Shows:
We make mistakes. Please, if you find one, pause the podcast, and send us a note. orlyradiopodcast@gmail.com or phone it in 470-222-6759
RANT Segments & Headlines:
Holy Crap. Trump is the face of GOP for real.
This Week in History:
Sources: http://www.historynet.com/today-in-history
May 1st, 1486- Christopher Columbus convinces Queen Isabella to fund expedition to West Indies. I think we all know how that turned out.
May 1st, 2011- Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALS in Operation Neptune Spear. Thanks Columbus! - see that leap I made?
May 2nd, 1970- Student anti-war protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University burn down the campus ROTC building. The National Guard takes control of campus.
May 3rd, 1952- The first airplane lands at the geographic north pole
May 4th, 1626- American Indian sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth and buttons
May 4th, 1970- Ohio National Guardsmen open fire on student protestors at Kent State, killing four and wounding 9 others.
May 5th, 1494- Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Jamaica, which he names Santa Gloria. Oh, that’s how that turned out…ooops, so close.
May 5th, 2000- The Sun, Earth, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn align – Earth’s moon is also almost in this alignment – leading to Doomsday predictions of massive natural disasters, although such a ‘grand confluence’ occurs about once in every century.
May 5th also a banner day for philosophy as both Soren Kierkegaard and Karl Marx were born on this day just 5 years apart in 1813 and 1818
May 6th, 1856- Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis.
May 6th, 1937- The dirigible Hindenburg explodes in flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey. [OH THE HUMANITY!]
-BREAK- Logical Fallacy-
http://www.logicalfallacies.info/relevance/fallacists/
Fallacist’s Fallacy
Explanation
The fallacist’s fallacy involves rejecting an idea as false simply because the argument offered for it is fallacious. Having examined the case for a particular point of view, and found it wanting, it can be tempting to conclude that the point of view is false. This, however, would be to go beyond the evidence.
It is possible to offer a fallacious argument for any proposition, including those that are true. One could argue that 2+2=4 on the basis of an appeal to authority: “Simon Singh says that 2+2=4”. Or one could argue that taking paracetamol relieves headaches using a post hoc: “I took the paracetamol and then my headache went away; it worked!”
Each of these bad arguments has a true conclusion. A proposition therefore should not be dismissed because one argument offered in its favour is faulty.
Example
“People argue that there must be an afterlife because they just can’t accept that when we die that’s it. This is an appeal to consequences; therefore there is no life after death.”
-BREAK- Voicemail-
Science Bitches! Approx 30 minutes
AC - Are lab mice too cold? http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/cp-alm041216.php
AC - Two separate papers published this week, one in Nature and one in Nature Cell Biology, have reported culturing human embryos for nearly two weeks, going well beyond previous efforts. There’s no reason to believe that the embryos couldn’t have survived beyond the two-week mark, but the experiment had to be halted to adhere to the internationally agreed 14-day limit on human embryo research. http://gizmodo.com/scientists-are-one-step-closer-to-building-artificial-w-1774890495
AC - Elon Musk Madness:
AC - http://gizmodo.com/spacex-just-made-its-fastest-succesful-rocket-landing-o-1775060445
Tesla Model X Bioweapon Defense Mode is real, and really good. http://www.popsci.com/tesla-air-filter-works-against-airborne-bioweapons
The Transit of Mercury! - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/05/06/mercury-is-about-to-pass-in-front-of-the-sun-and-it-should-be-incredible-to-watch/
And, as always, I recommend watching with Slooh http://live.slooh.com/
BoatyMcBoatface is dead; Long live BoatyMcBoatface? http://www.iflscience.com/environment/name-nercs-polar-search-ship-has-finally-be-announced
Goodnight, sweet prince - discoverer of buckyballs passed away. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/05/science/harold-kroto-nobel-prize-winning-chemist-is-dead-at-76.html
