LUEE Episode 117: Trump

On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Laura, Lauren, and Brendan discuss a few of the many myths and conspiracy theories endorsed by Donald Trump, and Brendan points out that a simple fact check isn't enough.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: For further context on Trump, fact-checking, border control, and claims of journalistic objectivity, Gem recommends these excellent episodes of On the Media: The Game Has Changed (On the Media) | The Ties That Bind (On the Media) | What We Know About the Border (On the Media)

Links: Episode 110: Science & Race (LUEE) | Non-Muslims Carried Out More than 90% of All Terrorist Attacks in America (Global Research) | New Research Shows That More Immigration Means Higher Wages for All Workers in Cities (CityLab) | 3 Ways to Immigrate to USA (uscitizenship) | Immigration and the Economic Status of African-American Men (SSRN) | Unskilled Workers Lose Out to Immigrants (NYTimes.com) | An Aging U.S. is Revitalized by Immigrants (NYTimes.com) | Immigrants Are Replacing, Not Displacing, Workers (NYTimes.com) | Immigration Doesn't Hurt Native Jobs or Wages in the U.S., Report Finds (Time) | Immigrant Employment by State and Industry (Pew) | Does Illegal Immigration Disadvantage American Workers? (ProCon.org) | Immigrants Aren't Stealing American Jobs (The Atlantic) | Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories (Wikipedia) | Central Park jogger case (Wikipedia) | COINTELPRO (Wikipedia) | What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals (The New York Times) | Episode 101: "Trace Amounts" (LUEE) | 10 facts on immunization (WHO) | About Vaccines (Manitoba Health) | The GOP's dangerous "debate" on vaccines and autism (The Washington Post) | Trump team denies skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was asked to head vaccine commission (CNNPolitics.com) | Gregg Phillips: Trump's Favorite Voter-Fraud Activist (The Atlantic) | 25% of Voters Believe President Trump's Unfounded Voter Fraud Claim (Time) | President Trump's Voter-Fraud Expert Was Registered to Vote in Three States (Time) | President Trump Vowed to Investigate Voter Fraud. Then Lawmakers Voted to Eliminate an Election Commission (Time) | Arguments from Global Warming Skeptics and what the science really says (Skeptical Science) | Fact Check: Trump's Cabinet Picks on Human-Caused Global Warming | Ice-albedo feedback (Wikipedia) | Yes, Donald Trump did call climate change a Chinese hoax (PolitiFact) | 2012 Benghazi attack (Wikipedia) | A Comprehensive Guide To Benghazi Myths And Facts | Hillary Clinton emails - what's it all about? (BBC News) | Essays: To Profile or Not to Profile? (Schneier on Security) | Protestors call on mayor to make Winnipeg a sanctuary city (Winnipeg Free Press)

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LUEE Episode 105: Mental Health & Stigma

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Lauren discusses mental health with Ashlyn, Gem, and Laura, with a focus on treatments and associated stigmas, current and historical.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: History of mental disorders (Wikipedia) | Trepanning (Wikipedia) | Psychiatry in Ancient Egypt (BJPsych Bulletin) | Humorism (Wikipedia) | Dosha (Wikipedia) | Bedlam revisited: A history of Bethlem hospital 1634-1770. | Electroconvulsive therapy (Wikipedia) | TRC #366: Accent Bias + Electroshock Therapy + Did A Cat Take A Bullet For A Kid? (The Reality Check) | Lobotomy (Wikipedia) | The History of Mental Illness: From "Skull Drills" to "Happy Pills" (Student Pulse) | Fighting Stigma: A Closer Look at Mental Illness Throughout History (YouTube) | The hidden medical logic of mental health stigma (Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry) | Initiatives: Opening Minds (Mental Health Commission of Canada) | The Stigma Associated with Mental Illness (Canadian Mental Health Association) | Exposing Canada’s ugly mental-health secret (The Globe and Mail) | Your Mental Health (Canadian Mental Health Association) | What to do about the antidepressants, antibiotics and other drugs in our water (Ensia) | Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (Wikipedia) | Addressing Mental Health Treatment Barriers (Psychology Today) | Let's Talk About How My Job at Bell Gave Me Mental Health Issues and No Benefits (CANADALAND) | Ten Days in a Mad-House (Nellie Bly) | Reasonable Vegan | Episode 82: What Have You Changed Your Mind About? (LUEE)

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LUEE Episode 104: Animal Intelligence

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem talks about intelligence in nonhuman animals with Ashlyn, Laura, and special guest Leslie Saunders.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Links: Animal cognition (Wikipedia) | Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (PDF) | Different ways to make a gomer bull (The Western Producer) | Intelligence and Relative Brain Size (Eric J. Chaisson, Harvard College Observatory) | Primate Cognition (Nature) | Great ape language (Wikipedia) | Kanzi (Wikipedia) | Chimp Behaviour: Tool Use (Jane Goodall Institute of Canada) | Great ape personhood (Wikipedia) | Tool use by animals (Wikipedia) | Cetacean intelligence (Wikipedia) | Dolphin Intelligence: It's Time for a Conversation (National Geographic) | The cetacean brain and hominid perceptions of cetacean intelligence (The Ecologist) | Cetaceans Have Complex Brains for Complex Cognition (PLOS Biology) | Thinking Pigs: A Comparative Review of Cognition, Emotion, and Personality in Sus domesticus (eScholarship) | Techniques for Evaluation and Quantification of Pig Reproductive, Ingestive, and Social Behaviors (PDF) | Thinking Pigs: A Comparative Review of Cognition, Emotion, and Personality in Sus domesticus (PDF) | Are Pigs as Smart as Dogs and Does It Really Matter? (Psychology Today) | In Pig Cognition Studies, Reflections on Parallels with Humans (The New York Times) | Moritz The Clever Pig Wants Your Attention (YouTube) | Pigs: Intelligent Animals Suffering in Farms and Slaughterhouses (PETA) | Pigheaded: How Smart are Swine? (Modern Farmer) | Disambiguating the "guilty look"€: Salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour (ScienceDirect) | Corvidae (Wikipedia) | Clever Hans (Wikipedia) | House Hippo (YouTube) | BBC Two: Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? (YouTube) | Last Chance to See (Wikipedia) | Uplift Universe (Wikipedia)

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LUEE Episode 98: Crime & Punishment

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Ashlyn, Laura, Brendan, and Lauren discuss the criminal justice system, focusing on profiling, deception detection, changes in crime rates over time, and the prison abolition movement.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics.

Note: If you’re in Winnipeg for the Fringe Festival and are interested in coming out to see Of Blood and Ashes, written by Ian James and Adam Johnstone and featuring Gem Newman, we’re at Venue #3 (The Playhouse Studio) at 180 Market Avenue. Here are the showtimes:

Thursday, 16 July 2015, 9:00 pm
Saturday, 18 July 2015, 5:15 pm
Sunday, 19 July 2015, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, 21 July 2015, 12:00 pm
Wednesday, 22 July 2015, 5:15 pm
Thursday, 23 July 2015, 10:30 pm
Saturday, 25 July 2015, 3:30 pm

Links: The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats (iTunes) | The Sunset Tree by the Mountain Goats (Amazon) | Correctional Service of Canada CSC Research | Legalized abortion and crime effect (Wikipedia) | Tetraethyllead (Wikipedia) | Lead-crime hypothesis (RationalWiki) | High gun ownership makes countries less safe, US study finds (The Guardian) | Guns in the Home and Risk of a Violent Death in the Home: Findings from a National Study | Report Says Long Sentences Don't Deter Crime (Business Insider) | Longer prison sentences are not the way to cut crime (The Guardian) | Highest to Lowest - Prison Population Rate (International Centre for Prison Studies) | Polygraph (Wikipedia) | Lie detection (Wikipedia) | Paul Ekman (Wikipedia) | Criminal Podcast Episode Two: Pants on Fire | Offender profiling (Wikipedia) | The Effectiveness of Profiling from a National Security Perspective | Essays: To Profile or Not to Profile? (Part 1) (Schneier on Security) | Essays: To Profile or Not to Profile? (Part 2) (Schneier on Security) | Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis (Amazon) | Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric Stanley (Amazon) | Abolition Now!: Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex (Amazon) | The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (Amazon) | Black Prisoners and Their World by Mary Ellen Curtin (Amazon) | Worse Than Slavery by David M. Oshinsky (Amazon) | Cain Sentencing Transcript (The Marshall Project) | Justice is served, but more so after lunch: how food-breaks sway the decisions of judges (Not Exactly Rocket Science) | Extraneous factors in judicial decisions | Need a good reason to oppose the death penalty? How about 4 of them? | The Economic Costs of Seeking the Death Penalty (Seattle University) | Smiley face murder theory (Wikipedia) | FBI Statement Regarding Midwest River Deaths | Noble & Whimsical on Etsy

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LUEE Episode 94: Free Will

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem is joined by Donna, Ashlyn, and Ian to talk about free will, determinism, and what it means to make a choice. Also on this episode, Donna sits down with August Berkshire of Minnesota Atheists to discuss the moral implications of a world without free will. We went a little long, but don't blame us: determinism exempts us from all ethical responsibility!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Note: Barium. Radioactive caesium decays into barium.

Links: Free Will: What is it? and Do we have it? (The Winnipeg Skeptics) | Free will (Wikipedia) | Phineas Gage (Wikipedia) | Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action (Behavioral and Brain Sciences) | Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain (Nature Neuroscience) | A Brief Defense of Free Will | Discovery of quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' corroborates theory of consciousness (Phys.org) | Quantum indeterminacy (Wikipedia) | Uncertainty principle (Wikipedia) | Minnesota Atheists | Freedom Evolves (Wikipedia) | Freedom Evolves by Daniel C. Dennett (Amazon.ca) | Free Will by Sam Harris | Breaking the Free Will Illusion by 'Trick Slattery | Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner (Amazon.ca) | Killing of Tim McLean (Wikipedia) | Li case exposes ugly truth about Tories (Winnipeg Free Press) | The Fallaway Slam Podcast (The only podcast that matters!)

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LUEE Episode 88: Experimenting on Your Thoughts

In this extended round-table episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem is joined by Ashlyn, Ian, and Laura to discuss thought experiments that range from the classical to the incomprehensible to the downright bizarre.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism that is produced by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Announcement: We're going monthly! That means you'll get podcasts half as often, but we'll make the podcasts twice as awesome to make up for it!

Note: If any of our listeners are concerned about information hazards and wish to skip over the discussion of Roko's Basilisk, the content in question begins at the 1h24m mark and ends at 1h35m46s.

Links: Thought experiment (Wikipedia) | The Drowning Child | The Life You Can Save (Wikipedia) | Charity Reviews and Recommendations (GiveWell) | Foundation Beyond Belief | Prisoner's dilemma (Wikipedia) | Ship of Theseus (Wikipedia) | Children prefer certain individuals over perfect duplicates (ScienceDirect) | Original Position (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) | Original position (Wikipedia) | Timeless Decision Theory | Newcomb's paradox (Wikipedia) | Newcomb's problem (LessWrong Wiki) | Roko's Basilisk (r/Futurology) | Streisand effect (Wikipedia) | Thought Experiment (Futility Closet)

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LUEE Episode 83: Live from the Calgary Secular Church

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Greg Christensen visits the Calgary Secular Church and interviews CSC minister Korey Peters.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Calgary Secular Church Website | Meetup Group

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LUEE Episode 82: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn Noble, Gem Newman, and Ian James discuss several of the things that, as skeptics, they've changed their minds out.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Reasonable Doubts Episode 43: Stewards of This Earth | PETA Embraces Autism Pseudoscience | Gem's Favourite Recipes | Insite Supervised Injection Site | Harm Reduction in Public Health | Ramtha/J.Z. Knight at the Skeptic's Dictionary | Your Friday Dose of Woo: H2Ooooooommmm | Masaru Emoto's Wonderful World of Water | A Grain of Truth: Recreating Dr. Emoto's Rice Experiment | Can Thinking Change Reality? | Geocentrism – Seriously? | Donate to Habitat for Humanity's Muddy Waters Ride (Gem) | Donate to Habitat for Humanity's Muddy Waters Ride (Laura) | HAAM's Atheist Bible Study

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LUEE Episode 76: Life, Death, and Dying with Dignity

Episode 76: Life, Death, and Dying with Dignity

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Donna Harris and Richelle McCullough talk about the ambiguous line between life and death, and Donna interviews Cheri Frazer from Dying with Dignity.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Man wakes up in body bag hours after being pronounced dead | When death is near: Religions offer their perspective on assisted suicide | Brain-dead woman taken off life support | B.C. woman on life support dies after baby boy is safely delivered | Brain-dead Marlise Munoz taken off life support in Texas hospital | Alberta Health & Human Services (Personal Directives, Goals of Care Designation, Understanding Goals of Care Designation) | Dying with Dignity | Advanced Care Planning Kits

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LUEE Episode 75: News Update

Episode 75: News Update

This episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a classic news update show! Greg Christensen and Gem Newman discuss the #HamOnNye debate, the (latest) snake-handling preacher to die of a snake bite, Neil deGrasse Tyson's upcoming visit to Winnipeg, and much more!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: The Creation of Debate: Should we engage anti-science? | Nye/Ham Postmortem: The Apologists for Religion | Answers for Creationists (Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, Steven Novella's Neurologica) | I Don't Debate Science | Reality Show Snake Handler Dies from Snakebite | Snake Handling | Neil deGrasse Tyson "The Sky Is Not the Limit" in Winnipeg | Cosmos Trailer | Astronomers Discover Oldest Star | Denmark Bans Kosher and Halal Slaughter as Minister Says 'Animal Rights Come Before Religion' | Copenhagen Zoo Kills 'Surplus' Young Giraffe Marius Despite Online Petition

What Are You Reading? Bad Pharma, by Ben Goldacre | Half Empty, by David Rakoff

What Are You Listening to? Common Sense | Hardcore History | Quackcast

Correction: According to Bishop James Ussher, the universe was created on 23 October 4004 BC, which would make it approximately 6017 years, 8 months old, not the figure of 6016 mentioned by Gem. We apologise for this error. But when you're already off by 13.7 billion years, who's counting?

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LUEE Episode 71: A Tribute to Sylvia Browne

Episode 71: A Tribute to Sylvia Browne

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn Noble discusses the life and times of recently deceased "psychic medium" Sylvia Browne with Donna Harris and Gem Newman, and Gem hosts a game of Psychic Fact or Psychic Fiction!

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Sylvia Browne | Stop Sylvia Browne | Robert Lancaster | The Kidnapping of Shawn Hornbeck | Video of the Shawn Hornbeck Predictions | The Kidnapping of Amanda Berry | Forer Effect | Psychic Defective: Sylvia Browne's History of Failure | Goodbye Sylvia Browne | Sylvia Browne: A Post-Mortem | On Sylvia Browne and The Death of an Awful Person | Demiurge (Wikipedia, Gnostic Society Library) | Popularity of the Name "Michael" (Baby Center, Wikipedia)

Psychic Fact or Psychic Fiction! Sources: Sylvia Browne: The Next 100 Years | Sylvia Browne's Predictions for 2008 & 2009 (from the Internet Archive; the current version at Spirit Now has removed some predictions, including the "Aura Scanner" prediction)

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LUEE Episode 69: Québec's Charter of Values

Episode 69: Québec's Charter of Values

In the second anniversary episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, we fulfil our CanCon requirement! Gem Newman discusses the proposed "Charter of Values" in the Canadian province of Québec with Scott Carnegie, Greg Christensen, and special guest Shayne Gryn.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: HAAM Meetup | Drinking Skeptically | Québec's Proposed Charter of Values | Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms | Reasonable Accommodation | The "Notwithstanding Clause" | National Post: Quebec Releases Controversial 'Values Charter' | Montreal Gazette: The Public Favours Charter of Values | Globe and Mail: Quebec's Secular Charter Is Clearly Unconstitutional, But Could Still Become Law | Quebec's White, Privileged Feminists Don't Speak For Me | Canadian Atheist: A Practical Guide for Discussion of the Charter of Quebec Values | Canadian Atheist: A Practical Guide for Avoiding Discussion of the Charter of Québec Values | Shayne Gryn: The Racialized and Gendered Impact of Quebec's Proposed Charter of Secularism | National Post: Woman Says She Was Accosted in Mall Over Her Islamic Veil | CBC: Sikh Mounties Permitted to Wear Turbans

What Are You Listening To? The Nerdist Podcast | This American Life | Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! | Penn's Sunday School | Quirks and Quarks | The Brain Science Podcast | Reasonable Doubts | The Reality Check | The Flop House

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LUEE Episode 67: An Evening with Ray Comfort

Episode 67: An Evening with Ray Comfort

It's time for another movie review show! In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Greg Christensen, Richelle McCullough, and Robert Shindler discuss Ray Comfort's most recent YouTube "documentaries": Evolution vs. God and 180.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Evolution vs. God | Ray Comfort | The Atheist's Worst Nightmare (The "Banana Fallacy") | Crocoduck | PZ Myers on Ray Comfort (I Met Ray Comfort Tonight, Ray Comfort Confesses, Ray Comfort Sinks to New Depths of Pathos) | Jaclyn Glenn's Rebuttal of Atheism vs. God | Rick Mercer's Talking to American's Special (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) | Bilateria (Animals with Bilateral Symmetry) | "Your Argument Is Invalid" | Biblical Contradictions | "180" | Godwin's Law

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LUEE Episode 64: Angry Atheists and Equality with Greta Christina

Episode 64: Angry Atheists and Equality with Greta Christina

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem Newman discusses atheist activism and the skeptical community's problems with equality with Greta Christina. Also on this episode, a new instalment of Where's My Jetpack? This week Old Man Newman asks, "Where's my lab-grown meat?"

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Greta Christina's Blog | Greta's Books (Why Are You Atheists So Angry?, Bending) | Julia Galef: The Straw Vulcan | Harassment, Rape, and the Difference Between Skepticism and Denialism | Sexual Harassment Accusations in the Skeptical and Secular Communities: a Timeline of Major Events

Where's My Jetpack? Links: Environmental Impact (Worldwatch Institute, United Nations FCCC) | Cultured Meat in the News (The Telegraph, CBC, Scientific American, The Australian) | PETA's Cultured Chicken Meat Contest | To Fight Global Warming, Eat Bugs

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LUEE Episode 62: Star Trek's Humanism (and Lack Thereof), Part 2

Episode 62: Star Trek's Humanism (and Lack Thereof), Part 2

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Greg Christensen, Richelle McCullough, Robert Shindler, and Gem Newman continue their discussion of Star Trek's long history of humanism, and some of the places the franchise has stumbled along the way.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Episodes Discussed: The Next Generation (The Measure of a Man, Who Watches the Watchers) | Deep Space Nine (Family Business, In the Pale Moonlight) | Voyager (Author, Author) | Enterprise (Dear Doctor)

Other Links: Riker Sits Down | Gem's Rant on the Subject of "Dear Doctor" | Mansplainer #3: I’m Sick of Television (and Real Life) | That Mitchell and Webb Look: English Civil War

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LUEE Episode 61: Star Trek's Humanism (and Lack Thereof), Part 1

Episode 61: Star Trek's Humanism (and Lack Thereof), Part 1

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Greg Christensen, Richelle McCullough, Robert Shindler, and Gem Newman discuss Star Trek's long history of humanism, and some of the places the franchise has stumbled along the way.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

News Items: An Open Letter to Exodus International's Super-remorseful Alan Chambers | Vaccine Against HPV Has Cut Infections In Teenage Girls | 'Racist' Licence Plates Recalled in New Brunswick | Licence Plate Standards (Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick)

Episodes Discussed: The Original Series (Who Mourns for Adonais?) | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier | The Next Generation (The Child)

Other Links: Riker Sits Down | 'Star Trek' Franchise an Homage to Humanist Philosophy | Gene Roddenberry | Michael Piller | CBS/Paramount and Michael Piller's "Fade In" | D.C. Fontana | The "Mind Rape" Trope

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Mark Lynas Examines Junk GMO Anti-science

While you wait with breath bated for this weekend's Life, the Universe & Everything Else episode on Organic Agriculture, I'd recommend giving this article a read.

Here, Mark Lynas (who has rapidly become my favourite environmentalist) takes aim at a junk science paper out of Australia claiming that a diet consisting of only "genetically modified" grain vastly increases the risk of severe stomach inflammation in pigs. Really, it shows nothing of the kind.

15% of non-GM fed pigs had heart abnormalities, while only 6% of GM-fed pigs did so. Similarly, twice as many non-GM pigs as GM ones had liver problems. Why no headlines here? "Pigs fed non-GMO feed 100% more likely to develop heart and liver problems, study finds" – I can just see it in the Daily Mail. But of course negative results were not what Carman et al were looking for.

...

Table 3 actually shows that many more pigs fed non-GMO feed had stomach inflammations than those with GMO feed. So 31 non-GM pigs had "mild" inflammation, while only 23 GM pigs had it. For "moderate" inflammation, a GMO diet again seemed to be beneficial: 29 non-GM pigs had moderate inflammation of the stomach, while 18 had it. So that's 40% vs 25%. Do Carman et al perform a test for statistical significance to see if GMO feed has a protective effect on pigs stomachs? Of course not – that's not the result they are after. These findings are ignored.

Instead, it is the next line of data that they play up: for "severe" inflammation 9 non-GM pigs were determined to have it, while 23 GM-fed pigs had it. Shock, horror. You can immediately see how the data is all over the place from the previous results, which also rule out any causal mechanism with GMO feed – if GMO feed is causing the severe inflammation, why is the non-GMO feed causing far more mild to moderate inflammation? It's clearly just chance, and all the pigs are not doing well and suffering stomach problems: about 60% of both sets had stomach erosion.

Previously: Mark Lynas apologises for his past anti-GE activism and calls out the conspiracy-driven thinking that plagues the environmental movement.

SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2012: Next Generation DNA Sequencing

On Saturday, 29 September 2012, the Winnipeg Skeptics held their third annual SkeptiCamp event. SkeptiCamp Winnipeg is a conference for the sharing of ideas. It is free and open to the public: anyone can attend and participate! Presentations and discussions focus on science and free inquiry, and the audience is encouraged to challenge presenters to defend their ideas.



Matt Bueno is a scientist who completed his masters degree at Ryerson University and went on to work at the University of Toronto. He's worked on various projects in diverse fields ranging from developmental neurology to evolutionary genomics to biophysics. He is new to Winnipeg, having recently accepted a position at the Health Sciences Centre as a diagnostic geneticist.

SkeptiCamp is an open conference celebrating science and critical thinking. For more information please visit SkeptiCamp.org.

SkeptiCamp Winnipeg 2012: Robots and Emotions

On Saturday, 29 September 2012, the Winnipeg Skeptics held their third annual SkeptiCamp event. SkeptiCamp Winnipeg is a conference for the sharing of ideas. It is free and open to the public: anyone can attend and participate! Presentations and discussions focus on science and free inquiry, and the audience is encouraged to challenge presenters to defend their ideas.



Dr. Jim Young is a researcher in computer science at the University of Manitoba specializing in human-robot interaction. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Calgary, where he focused on mixing robotic interface design with sociology, and worked for four years at the University of Tokyo, designing easy-to-use robotic interfaces for the general public.

SkeptiCamp is an open conference celebrating science and critical thinking. For more information please visit SkeptiCamp.org.

LUEE Episode 48: Robots! Part 1!

Episode 48: Robots! Part 1!

In this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem Newman, Richelle McCullough, Greg Christensen, and Mark Forkheim talk about robots: specifically, about how they will eventually take over the world. This episode also features an interview with Human Robot Interaction researcher Derek Cormier.

Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a program promoting secular humanism and scientific skepticism presented by the Winnipeg Skeptics and the Humanists, Atheists & Agnostics of Manitoba.

Links: Episode 29: Zombies! Part 1! | Episode 32: Zombies! Part 2! | "Grey Goo" Scenario | Robot Toddler Could Unlock Secrets of Human Development | Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics | Milgram Experiment

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