TheESP – Ep. #405 – Political shenanigans

In this week’s TWISH we hear about Trofim Lysenko before we look into the news:

• EU: Glyphosate update
• INTERNATIONAL: Nostalgia in politics
• UK: The Good Law Project supports the General Medical Council taking action against harmful misinformation
• NORTHERN IRELAND: ‘The Hum’ is back!

Naturopaths selling Miracle Mineral Supplements (MMS) are promoting a life threatening substance with no possible benefit. This came to a class call recently when a toddler coudl have died as a result. We hand out a Really Wrong Award for this completely irresponsible action. In Word of the Week we looking into how to talk about scams and frauds in Finnish.

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

0:06:17 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 20 November 1976: Death of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko
  • Smithsonian Magazine: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-the-soviet-union-chose-the-wrong-side-on-genetics-and-evolution-23179035/

0:14:21 NEWS

• EU: Glyphosate update
  • France 24: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231116-eu-commission-to-prolong-use-of-controversial-herbicide-glyphosate-for-10-years
  • European Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_23_5793
• INTERNATIONAL: Nostalgia in politics
  • the Conversation: https://theconversation.com/nostalgia-in-politics-pan-european-study-sheds-light-on-how-and-why-parties-appeal-to-the-past-in-their-election-campaigns-216494
• UK: The Good Law Project supports the General Medical Council taking action against harmful misinformation
  • Good Law Project: https://goodlawproject.org/update/were-helping-fight-medical-misinformation-in-court/
  • Skeptic UK: https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2023/09/cardiologist-and-covid-vaccine-critic-dr-aseem-malhotra-wins-2023-rusty-razor-award/
• NORTHERN IRELAND: ‘The Hum’ is back!
  • BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-67410171
  • IFL Science: https://www.iflscience.com/yet-another-town-has-reported-the-hum-sparking-mystery-and-sleepless-nights-71560
  • BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13752688
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/07/the-hum-mystery-noise-says-a-lot-about-modern-life
  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum

0:39:02 REALLY WRONG

• Really Wrong: Naturopath risks lives by selling MMS – toddler nearly killed
  • Edzard Ernst: https://edzardernst.com/2023/11/miracle-mineral-supplement-mms-accidental-ingestion-by-an-infant/

0:43:20 WORD OF THE WEEK

• FINNISH:
  Huijaus – ‘scam, fraud’; Huijari – ‘charlatan’, ‘crook’, ‘swindler’
• ‘Pelkkää huijausta koko juttu’ – ‘The whole thing is just a scam’

0:47:12 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“I don’t mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.”
/ Wolfgang Pauli (25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958), Austrian theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum physics. /

0:49:27 OUTRO

0:50:42 OUT-TAKES