TheESP – Ep. #436 – Piazzi, the skeptical priest

Just the boys this week and we have a lot to talk about – climate change (András needs a new job), Türkiye vs. Turkey, Dutch vacations, homeopathy, Skeptical Science, and even some politics. In TWISH we hear about the skeptical priest Giuseppe Piazzi who discovered Ceres, the first asteroid ever detected. Also, if you catch this in time here is the link to the 19 July Global Skeptics in the Pub Zoom meeting. Then we have the news:

• UK: Are UK adolescents eating too much ultra processed foods?
• EU: Two major GMO corn crops approved for import as food and animal feed

Not that we know how it will all end, but the new UK Labour government is off to a good start from a skeptical point of view and therefore receives this week’s award for being Really Right.

Enjoy!

Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Right; Quote and Farewell; Outro; Outtakes
 
0:00:27 INTRO

0:00:49 GREETINGS

• How to join Discord
  • Discord Support: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/sections/360008206871-Getting-Started
  • SITP Online Discord: https://discord.com/invite/VEt54zD
  • SITP Online: https://sitp.online/
• Contributions of long-distance travel to climate change
  • Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240702135513.htm
• Minor correction on Türkiye and Erdogan
• Listener feedback: Dutch vacation rules
  • Rijksoverheid: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/schoolvakanties/overzicht-schoolvakanties-per-schooljaar/overzicht-schoolvakanties-2023-2024
• Edzard Ernst’s article on Homeopathy research in The Skeptic
  • Skeptic UK: https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2024/07/research-into-homeopathy-data-falsification-fabrication-and-manipulation/
• Shout-out to the Skeptical Science translations project
  • Skeptical Science: https://skepticalscience.com/translation-20-conspiracy-theory-handbook.html

0:18:33 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 16 July 1746: Birthday of Italian astronomer and priest, Giuseppe Piazzi
  • Vatican Observatory: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/sacred-space-astronomy/religious-scientists-fr-giuseppe-piazzi-c-r-1746-1826-discoverer-of-the-first-asteroid/

0:31:15 NEWS

• UK: Are UK adolescents eating too much ultra processed foods?
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/17/uk-adolescents-get-two-thirds-of-daily-calories-from-upfs-says-survey
  • Springer: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-024-03458-z
• EU: Two major GMO corn crops approved for import as food and animal feed
  • Agriland.ie: https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/2-genetically-modified-maize-crops-approved-for-food-and-feed/

0:49:06 REALLY RIGHT

• Really Right: New UK government in for a good start
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/06/starmer-non-political-ministers-government-of-all-talents-patrick-vallance-james-timpson
  • Humanists UK: https://humanists.uk/2024/07/15/conversion-therapy-ban-to-appear-in-the-kings-speech/

0:57:05 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“Of course, we are flexible. Of course, we are behavioural opportunists, but there are severe limits to the form our opportunism can take. … By recognizing them clearly and submitting to them, we shall stand a much better chance of survival. This does not imply a naive ‘return to nature’. It simply means that we should tailor our intelligent opportunist advances to our basic behavioural requirements. We must somehow improve in quality rather than in sheer quantity. If we do this, we can continue to progress technologically in a dramatic and exciting way without denying our evolutionary inheritance. If we do not, then our suppressed biological urges will build up and up until the dam bursts and the whole of our elaborate existence is swept away in the flood.”
/ Desmond Morris (24 January 1928 – ), English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. /

0:59:36 OUTRO

1:00:51 OUT-TAKES