Snopes

Tickets released for the European Skeptics Congress! Sign up!

The Hungarian elections did not go well and that’s not a political statement but a skeptical one. Propaganda is everywhere, but we put our hopes in the European Skeptics Congress in Vienna in September. We will be there and we count on all of you to be there too! Chris French is the topic for TWISH (happy birthday, Chris!) and the Flat Earth award is coming up in Hungary. Pope Francis makes a decent apology but the legal stuff is yet to come. Then we have a look at the news:

• UKRAINE: Russia ‘allegedly’ guilty of massacre in Bucha?
• RUSSIA: Does Putin use alt med?
• INTERNATIONAL: Study – mitigating climate change wouldn’t hurt economies
• UKRAINE: Chernobyl – Russian troops on a suicidal mission?
• PORTUGAL: And the Flying Unicorn flies to…
• PORTUGAL: Nominations for next year’s award are now open
• UK: Conversion therapy in the UK banned – but not for all
• INTERNATIONAL: Snopes’ plans for the year ahead

Meta seems to be out to collect as many Really Wrong Awards they can get theirs hands on and we are here to please.

Enjoy!

Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; Pontus Pokes The Pope; News; Charities For Ukraine; Really Wrong; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes;
 
0:00:27 INTRO

0:00:52 GREETINGS

• HUNGARY: Hungarian election results and what to do next…
  • the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/viktor-orban-hungarys-controversial-authoritarian-prime-minister-secures-yet-another-term-in-national-election-180466
• COME TO VIENNA!: 19th European Skeptics Congress 2022: Tickets now available! Sign up!
  • ECSO: https://www.ecso.org/esc2022/
• Masks actually work, despite Germany making them voluntary now
  • Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01780-9
• HUNGARY: Flat Earth Awards call for nominations on
  • Szeptikus Társaság: https://szkeptikus.hu/921-iden-is-kiosztja-a-laposfoeld-dijat-a-szkeptikus-tarsasag

0:16:10 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 6 April 1956: Happy birthday, Chris French!
  • Goldsmiths: https://www.gold.ac.uk/psychology/staff/french/

0:19:39 PONTUS POKES THE POPE

• Pontus was wrong: Pope Francis does apologize to indigenous delegates for ‘deplorable’ abuses at residential schools in Canada
  • CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pope-francis-responds-indigenous-delegations-final-meeting-1.6404344
  • Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/01/canada-pope-francis-apologizes-residential-school/

0:27:03 NEWS

• UKRAINE: Russia ‘allegedly’ guilty of massacre in Bucha?
  • Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/ap/2022/04/03/ukraine-accuses-russia-of-massacre-city-strewn-with-bodies/
  • BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/60981238
• RUSSIA: Does Putin use alt med?
  • Proekt: https://www.proekt.media/investigation/chem-boleet-putin/
  • Meduza: https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/01/chto-proishodit-so-zdoroviem-putina
• INTERNATIONAL: Study – mitigating climate change wouldn’t hurt economies
  • Eurek Alert: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/947630
  • the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/what-the-invasion-of-ukraine-means-for-the-ipccs-latest-climate-change-report-180467
  • Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/now-or-never-ipcc-report
• UKRAINE: Chernobyl – Russian troops on a suicidal mission?
  • Fortune: https://fortune.com/2022/04/01/russian-ukraine-chernobyl-troops-leave-radiation-sickness-poison/
  • Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unprotected-russian-soldiers-disturbed-radioactive-dust-chernobyls-red-forest-2022-03-28/
• PORTUGAL: And the Flying Unicorn flies to…
  • Comcept: https://comcept.org/2022/04/01/vencedores-premio-unicornio-voador-2021/
• PORTUGAL: Nominations for next year’s award are now open
  • Comcept: https://comcept.org/2022/04/03/nomeacoes-para-o-premio-unicornio-voador-2022/
• UK: Conversion therapy in the UK banned – but not for all
  • BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60947028
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/31/boris-johnson-ditches-plans-for-ban-on-lgbt-conversion-practices
• INTERNATIONAL: Snopes’ plans for the year ahead
  • Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/2022/04/01/snopes-big-plans-for-2022/

0:57:14 REALLY WRONG

• Really Wrong: Oops! Facebook actively promoted harmful content instead of downranking it
  • the Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/31/23004326/facebook-news-feed-downranking-integrity-bug

0:55:13 CHARITIES FOR UKRAINE

• Ukraine Humanitarian Fund
  • Ukraine Humanitarian Fund: https://crisisrelief.un.org/t/ukraine
• Razom For Ukraine
  • Razom For Ukraine: https://razomforukraine.humanitru.com/donate
• The Kyiv Independent
  • The Kyiv Independent : https://kyivindependent.com/
• UNICEF
  • UNICEF: https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/conflict-ukraine-pose-immediate-threat-children
• Migration Aid
  • Migration Aid: https://migrationaid.org/

1:01:03 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“Opinion poll after opinion poll tell us that the majority of population, in one way or another, do express belief in the paranormal. Most people, in any survey, will endorse at least one paranormal claim. Now, either that means that paranormal forces really do exist, or it’s telling us something really interesting about human psychology. So, either way, we should definitely take these types of claims seriously and try to understand what is going on.”
/ Chris French (born 1956), British psychologist specialising in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. He is the head of the University of London’s anomalistic Psychology Research Unit and appears regularly in the media as an expert on testing paranormal claims. /

1:02:42 OUTRO

1:03:57 OUT-TAKES