TheESP – Ep. #392 – Flying Bat-people on the Moon

…sleep restriction for insomnia?
 
A lot of great talks are coming up for Skepticamp at QED in September – with András, Pontus and Claire among the speakers! In TWISH we hear about an almost 200 year old fake news about the moon and then we take a look at the news:

• UK: Asparagus fails to predict the future
• SCOTLAND: Loch Ness might be ‘home to spirit entity’ that can be disturbed by search
• UK: Meghan Markle wears ‘miracle antistress patch’
• INTERNATIONAL: WHO promotes alternative medicine (again!)
• INTERNATIONAL: Where skeptics go wrong

Medical journal the Lancet gets this week Award for being Really Wrong a new article about insomnia. Word of the Week is the Danish word vrøvl.

Enjoy!

Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Wrong; Word Of The Week; Quote And Farewell; Outro; Out-Takes
 
0:00:27 INTRO

0:00:52 GREETINGS

• András, Pontus and Claire to talk at Skepticamp
  • SITP Online: https://sitp.online/skepticamp/schedule/
• Goldene Brett
  • GWUP: https://blog.gwup.net/2023/08/17/das-goldene-brett-2023-ab-jetzt-kandidaten-nominieren/

0:04:47 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 25 August 1835: The Great Moon Hoax
  • History.com: https://www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/the-great-moon-hoax
  • Interesting Engineering: https://interestingengineering.com/science/great-moon-hoax-birth-fake-news
  • VoF: https://www.vof.se/blogg/den-stora-manbluffen-ar-1835/

0:11:38 NEWS

• UK: Asparagus fails to predict the future
  • Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12420637/Psychic-dubbed-mystic-veg-claims-know-future-using-ASPARAGUS-predicts-result-World-Cup-final.html
• SCOTLAND: Loch Ness might be ‘home to spirit entity’ that can be disturbed by search
  • the Scottish Sun: https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/11081335/loch-ness-monster-search-paranormal-investigator/
• UK: Meghan Markle wears ‘miracle antistress patch’
  • Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12404445/Is-Meghan-Markles-anti-stress-patch-just-pseudoscience-Leading-expert-casts-doubt-miracle-effects-4-blue-gadget-sends-calming-signals-brain.html
• INTERNATIONAL: WHO promotes alternative medicine (again!)
  • Science Based Medicine: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-world-health-organization-promotes-quackery-yet-again/
  • Japan Times: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/08/17/world/science-health/who-traditional-medicine-summit/
• INTERNATIONAL: Where skeptics go wrong
  • Edzard Ernst: https://edzardernst.com/2023/08/where-skeptics-often-go-wrong-when-commenting-on-scam-and-what-should-be-done-about-it/

0:37:09 REALLY WRONG

• Really Wrong: The Lancet for supporting sleep restiction therapy
  • Edzard Ernst: https://edzardernst.com/2023/08/sleep-restriction-therapy-for-insomnia

0:40:56 WORD OF THE WEEK

• DENMARK:
  vrøvl – ‘nonsense, gibberish’
  • OrdNet: https://ordnet.dk/ddo_en/dict?query=vr%C3%B8vl

0:43:43 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“Did Newton, dreaming in his orchard there
Beside the dreaming Witham, see the moon
Burn like a huge gold apple in the boughs
And wonder why should moons not fall like fruit?”
/ Alfred Noyes (16 September 1880 – 25 June 1958), English poet, short-story writer and playwright. /

0:45:42 OUTRO

0:46:57 OUT-TAKES