TheESP – Ep. #269 – Spiders from Mars

 
This week we first continue to ponder the strange topic of language and we congratulate the Portuguese Skeptics on the anniversary of founding their organization ComCept. Then we have a Covid-19 update before we dig into the news:

• Analysis of excess mortality in Europe in 2020
• NEW BOOK: Missing Minimum Distance
• Spooky Martian spider shapes explained
• First helicopter on another planet to go on first mission soon
• The 2020 Flying Unicorn Award goes to… Doctors for Truth (Nominations open for 2021)
• Nominations for the 2021 Maddox Prize now open
• The success story of pharmacy students bringing vaccine science to classrooms

The veterinarian Geert Vanden Bossche gets a Really Wrong for discrediting covid-vaccines using pseudoscientific misinformation.

Enjoy!

Segments:
Intro; Greetings; This Week; Covid-19 Update; News; Really Wrong; Quote and Farewell; Outro

The Events Calendar: https://theesp.eu/events_in_europe

0:00:26 INTRO

0:00:51 GREETINGS

• Words that don’t mean what you think?
  • the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/five-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think-they-do-158102

0:05:47 THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICISM

• The Portuguese Skeptics, ComCept, was founded on 5 april 2012
  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COMCEPT

0:8:10 COVID-19 UPDATE

• Oxford/AstraZeneca – so, it’s true then?
  • EMA: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-review-very-rare-cases-unusual-blood-clots-continues
  • the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clots-ema-b1827238.html
• Sputnik V under review by EMA
  • DW: https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-will-eu-soon-roll-out-sputnik-v-vaccine/a-57045120
• Vaccinated and still positive
  • Folkhälsomyndigheten: https://www.folkhalsomyndigheten.se/the-public-health-agency-of-sweden/
• WHO Europe Region’s concerns
  • WHO Europe: https://www.euro.who.int/en/media-centre/sections/press-releases/2021/slow-vaccine-roll-out-prolonging-pandemic

0:24:01 NEWS

• EUROPE: Analysis of excess mortality in Europe in 2020
  • ONS: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/comparisonsofallcausemortalitybetweeneuropeancountriesandregions/2020
  • Omni.se: https://tt.omni.se/andra-vagen-kastade-om-dodstalen/a/M3Gb95
• GERMANY: NEW BOOK: Missing Minimum Distance
  • GWUP: https://blog.gwup.net/2021/04/04/fehlender-mindestabstand-die-coronakrise-und-die-netzwerke-der-demokratiefeinde/
• UK: Spooky Martian spider shapes explained
  • Live Science: https://www.livescience.com/spiders-on-mars-explained-dry-ice.html
• UK: First helicopter on another planet to go on first mission soon
  • Science Alert: https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-happening-nasa-s-mars-helicopter-ingenuity-has-touched-down-on-the-red-planet
• PORTUGAL: The 2020 Flying Unicorn Award goes to… Doctors for Truth (Nominations open for 2021)
  • COMCEPT: http://comcept.org/2021/04/01/premio-unicornio-voador-2020/
  • COMCEPT: http://comcept.org/2021/04/05/nomeacoes-para-o-premio-unicornio-voador-2021/
• INTERNATIONAL: Nominations for the 2021 Maddox Prize now open
  • Sense about Science: https://senseaboutscience.org/john-maddox-prize/
• POLAND: The success story of pharmacy students bringing vaccine science to classrooms
  • Vaccines Today: https://www.vaccinestoday.eu/stories/young-pharmacists-bring-vaccine-science-to-the-classroom/

0:46:18 REALLY WRONG

• REALLY WRONG: Veterinarian Geert Vanden Bossche for spreading fear of vaccines with science sounding nonsense
  • Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/news/2021/03/26/geert-vanden-bossche/

0:52:05 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“In the sciences the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in one individual. Besides, the modern observations deprive all former writers of any authority, since if they had seen what we see, they would have judged as we judge.”
/ Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642), Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer and polymath. /

0:53:43 OUTRO