This week and from now on, you can now listen to us on Spotify too!
If you do, this episode will tell you about how Lamarck, born today 275 years ago, got it wrong about evolution but also was somewhat on the right track, more than 60 years before Darwin.
Pope Francis is starting to sound more and more like this week’s quote supplier, George Orwell, and in EU the fight may be forming against the bad rules about CRISPR.
Facebook and Twitter want to fight bogus medical cures, but it seems that some quacks are already using that fact to their advantage. In Italy, new numbers tell us that they do not seem to be able to get to grips with their low vaccination rates.
Finally, there’s a tragic story in progress concerning the current miss Europe who is promoting made-up treatments for her cancer. She is claiming that it works, which of course is bound to mislead lots of others to make the same mistake.
Segments:
Intro; Greetings; This Week in Skepticism; Pontus Pokes the Pope; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Out-takes
Events Calendar: https://theesp.eu/events_in_europe
00:00:27 Intro
00:00:48 Greetings
We are now on Spotify for those who prefers listening there! This weekend see that start of Skeptics on the Fringe, don’t miss that if you’re anywhere near Edinburgh for the next month or so.
00:08:12 This Week in Skepticism
On 1 August in 1744, Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, or ‘Lamarck’, was born. He was a French naturalist with not entirely correct ideas about the evolution of species and although he was wrong about how it works, he still set the stage for Darwin, who was born about sixty years later.
- https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_09
- https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vlnuc/how_was_jeanbaptiste_lamarck_wrong_in_his_theory/
00:13:07 Pontus Pokes the Pope – Francis is learning Newspeak a la Orwell.
In the days of Trump not even the Pope hesitates to redefine the meaning of words …
00:17:33 Skeptical News
SWEDEN: University leaders urges government to fight EU ban on CRSPR
INTERNATIONAL: Facebook wants to limit the reach of bogus medical ‘cures’ by treating them like spam
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/07/02/facebook-wants-limit-reach-bogus-medical-cures-by-treating-them-like-spam/
- https://edzardernst.com/2019/07/facebook-and-youtube-join-the-fight-against-quackery/
- https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/facebook-and-youtube-to-tackle-fake-cancertreatment-videos/news-story/44de653b61880cf949d96c098ea92d06
INTERNATIONAL: Is Facebook really about to shut down large anti-vaxx group?
- https://www.patheos.com/blogs/withoutacrystalball/2019/07/anti-vax-leader-blames-facebook-policies-for-groups-demise/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/thevaccinefreechild/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/StopMandatoryVaccination/
ITALY: Italy fails to meet vaccination targets
00:35:53 Really Wrong
Miss Europe claims she is curing her cancer with cannabis oil
- https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/playboy-model-claims-cannabis-curing-18680157
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7273413/Former-Miss-UK-34-battling-terminal-cancer-claims-medicinal-cannabis-CURED-brain-tumour.html
00:42:47 Quote and Goodbye
“We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.”
/ George Orwell, 25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950, English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. /
00:44:20 Outro
00:45:35 Out-takes