TheESP – Ep. #474 – Painful Endometriosis Study

We first rant a bit about Viktor Orbán and examine some psychic horsing around at the Grand National. In TWISH we hear about the Dead Sea Scrolls and then we dive into the news:

• UKRAINE / USA: Zelenskyy and Trump look for leaks using lie detectors
• INTERNATIONAL: Snopes’ toolkit to guard against online misinformation
• ITALY: AI beats lottery?
• SWEDEN: Test of phishing attack goes awfully wrong

Endometriosis is a serious condition and the topic deserves so much better than this recently published so-called study. Therefore Edinburgh University receives this week’s award for being Really Wrong as they are only raising false hope while wasting valuable time and resources.

Enjoy!

Segments: Intro; Greetings; TWISH; News; Really Wrong; Quote; Outro; Outtakes
 
0:00:27 INTRO

0:00:51 GREETINGS

• Orban pulls out of ICC while hosting Netanyahu
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/03/hungary-to-pull-out-of-icc-as-netanyahu-visits-hungary
  • Diplomatic Insight: https://thediplomaticinsight.com/hungary-withdraws-from-icc-amidst-netanyahu-visit/
• Horsing around: the (not-so-grand) Grand National psychic predictions
  • Leeds Live: https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/news/im-psychic-know-who-win-31359966

0:11:08 TWISH – THIS WEEK IN SKEPTICAL HISTORY

• 11 April 1948: First announcement of the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls
  • Sci News: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/genetic-mysteries-dead-sea-scrolls-08495.html
  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls

0:19:04 NEWS

• UKRAINE / USA: Zelenskyy and Trump look for leaks using lie detectors
  • Kyiv Independent: https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-is-hunting-for-whoever-leaked-the-u-s-minerals-deal-ft-reports/
  • Politico: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/04/fema-chief-given-lie-detector-test-after-leak-of-private-meeting-politico-00272302
  • Omni: https://omni.se/zelenskyj-letar-efter-lacka-med-logndetektor/a/mP41zq
• INTERNATIONAL: Snopes’ toolkit to guard against online misinformation
  • Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/collections/snopes-toolkit-misinformation/
• ITALY: AI beats lottery?
  • La Republica: https://bari.repubblica.it/cronaca/2025/03/05/news/vinti_50mila_euro_al_lotto_grazie_all_intelligenza_artificiale_il_sistema_di_3_studenti_di_fisica-424043596/
• SWEDEN: Test of phishing attack goes awfully wrong
  • Sydsvenskan: https://www.sydsvenskan.se/artikel/malmo-stad-fejkade-it-attack-mot-anstallda-slutade-i-kaos/

0:38:35 REALLY WRONG

• Really Wrong: University of Edinburgh study of diets against endometriosis is pretty much useless
  • the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/05/major-endometriosis-study-reveals-impact-of-gluten-coffee-dairy-and-alcohol
  • JAMA: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2831953

0:46:58 QUOTE AND FAREWELL

“Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me.”
/ Christopher Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011), British and American author and journalist. /

0:48:33 OUTRO

0:49:55 OUT-TAKES