Episode #013, feat. Vassilena Valchanova & Liubomir Baburov

Featuring a short interview with Vassilena Valchanova and Liubomir Baburov, founders of the Bulgarian organisation called Ratio and organisers of Sofia Skeptics in the Pub.
 
Segments:
Intro; Greetings & Listener feedback; On this day; What’s on in Europe?; What’s hot in Europe?; Interview with Vassy and Liubo; Logical Fallacies; Really Wrong; Quote
 
Show notes:
00:00:00
INTRO music
  
00:00:28
Greetings & Listener feedback

• Contact us!

00:06:44
On This Day: 9^th March
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.
 
“Looking at the earth from afar you realize it is too small for conflict and just big enough for co-operation.”
 

• About Yuri Gagarin on Wikipedia
• Conspiracy theories around his death

00:15:08
What’s on in Europe?

Please, check out the Skeptic Calendar of Events in Europe! 

00:18:00
What’s Hot in Europe?

1. The Good Thinking Society investigates chiropractors and osteopaths
   • These chiropractors claim to treat colic
   • Hear Osteopaths claim to treat babies for colic
   • British Chiropractic Association v Singh
     
   • Simon Singh (The Guardian): Beware the spinal trap
2. Follow-up on colloidal silver
   • About colloidal silver on Wikipedia
   • http://www.sydsvenskan.se/skane/polisanmaler–vill-stoppa-medlet/ (in Swedish)
3. University of Barcelona puts and end to its Homeopathy Masters programme
   • El País: La Universidad de Barcelona fulmina su máster de homeopatía (in Spanish)
   • The Local: Top uni scraps homeopathy – because it’s nonsense
   • Edzard Ernst: Homeopathy masters degree to close because of lack of scientific basis
   • Escepticos: Homeopathy in the European University: Boiron insists on entering the universities
4. Spanish man killed by ignorance
   • El País: “My son was killed by scientific ignorance” (in Spanish)
   • Petition for the awareness about pseudoscientific therapies
5. Russian man on trial for ‘no God’ comment in internet chat
   • BBC: Russian man on trial

00:38:41

Interview with Vassilena Valchanova and Liubomir Baburov

• Ratio website

01:04:05
Logical Fallacies – Fake precision fallacy

• Fake precision fallacy on Fallacy Files

01:06:25
Really Wrong: 
 
Update: Karolinska Institutet – for failing to protect the public from the actions of a quack

• Official website
• About Karolinska Institutet on Wikipedia
• About Paolo Macchiarini on Wikipedia
• http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/kis-styrelse-byts-ut/

This week: Elke Sleurs, Belgian State Secretary for Equal Opportunities, for training police in retrieving “suppressed memories” using hypnosis

• http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2591053

01:12:22
True of False

1. It has been discovered that when dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the milky way
   • Current Biology: Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation
2. 14^th Century Chinese leader Giocangga managed, to father 867 children, and, therefore, became father to 1.2 million descendants
3. Researchers discovered that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends
   • Advanced Science Letters: Faces and Behinds: Chimpanzee Sex Perception

01:24:42
Quote
“We live in a world where unfortunately the distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly blurred by manipulation of facts, by exploitation of uncritical minds, and by the pollution of the language.”
 
/Arne Tiselius, Swedish biochemist, won Nobel Prize in Chemistry/
 
01:25:27
Outro
 
01:26:42
Out-takes