Episode #029

On this episode, you’ll find news, events and interesting topics, including Brexit, Sense About Science to open EU office, NHS Liverpool to stop funding homeopathy and Marko Kovic, president of Skeptiker Schweiz publishes an article on the concept of critical thinking. 
 
Segments
Intro; Greetings & Feedback; On this day; What’s on in Europe?; What’s hot in Europe?; Logical Fallacies; Really Wrong; True or False?; Quote
 
Show notes:
00:00:00
INTRO music
 
00:00:26
Greetings & feedback

• Brexit
  • About Brexit on Wikipedia
  • The Verge: Google search spike suggests people don’t know why they Brexited
• Contact us!
• Sense About Science to launch EU office: Standing up for evidence and reason in Europe
• Mostviertel Humanism & Skepticism Initiative (Initiative Humanismus und Skeptizismus Mostviertel): Twitter account: @IHS_Mostviertel; email: IHS_Mostviertel@gmx.at

00:15:46
On This Day: 1st July
The death of Anneliese Michel

• About the case on Wikipedia

00:23:48
What’s on in Europe?

• Check out our “Events in Europe” calendar!

00:30:11
What’s Hot in Europe?

1. NHS Liverpool CCG to stop funding homeopathy
   • The Good Thinking Society: NHS Liverpool CCG ends funding for homeopathy
2. A Generalised definition of critical thinking?
   • Skeptiker Schweiz: A generalized definition of critical thinking

00:33:36
Logical Fallacies – Magical thinking

• About Magical Thinking on The Skeptic’s Dictionary

00:38:14
Really Wrong: Ancient abortion laws in Northern Ireland (challenged)

• The Independent: Abortion pills flown into Northern Ireland by drone in abortion ban protest
• The Guardian: Drone delivers abortion pills to Northern Irish women

00:42:39
True or False?

1. In the early 1900s an American charlatan (who claimed to be a doctor) claimed he could cure impotence, infertility and other sexual problems by surgically implanting goat testicles into men’s scrotum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Brinkley)
2. In ancient Egypt the contraceptive of choice was crocodile dung. Dried dung was inserted into the vagina, the idea being that it would soften as it reached body temperature to form an impenetrable barrier (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12540/When-crocodile-dung-contraception.html)
3. An immunologist of university in New Deli deliberately endured more than 160 self-inflicted snake bites in a bid to become immune to venom and to develop a vaccine against snake bites.

00:53:22
Quote
“The trouble with the world is that stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt”
/Bertrand Russell, British philosopher/
 
00:54:53
Outro
 
00:56:07
Out-takes