Skeptiles: Episode 52 – Putin Penis Painting
Skeptiles for Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 in which we briefly debunk some Fukushima myths and discuss the flooding in Colorado, the confiscation of the Obama/Putin penis painting and the fact that a Obama/Putin penis painting exists, dummies who don’t vaccinate their kids are causing the largest increase in measles cases in 17 years, holy water is bad for your health, Pat Robertson’s failure to suppress his viral “gay AIDS ring” video plus Joe brings us fresh Arrested Developments. Finally, we fill out the end of the show with a Crass poem about Jesus and two installments from the fantastic new web series “Ask a Slave”.
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Related Links:
Myths about Japanese radiation dispelled
The Fukushima Radiation Leak Is Equal To 76 Million Bananas
Obama, Putin penis painting confiscated
Holy Water May be Harmful to Your Health, Study Finds
U.S. measles cases in 2013 may be most in 17 years
Pat Robertson Has Lost His Fight To Keep “Gay Aids Ring” Video Off Net
Pastor Terry Jones’ congregation says he was arrested over gas soaked qurans
Reverend at Scarborough church charged with sexual assault
Former Youth Pastor Charged with 60 Counts of Sexual Exploitation
Youth Minister Won’t Serve a Day for Raping the Gay Away
Ask a Slave (series YouTube channel)
One Reply to “Skeptiles: Episode 52 – Putin Penis Painting”
Yeah, I love all the ‘radiation scare stuff’ debunking. There was a great graphic on XKCD that shows relative radiation risks – I tend to refer to it anytime someone starts talking about a leak (if they even bother to inform us what the actual exposure is…):
http://xkcd.com/radiation/
I have to say, I was convinced by James Lovelock to accept nuclear power in principle, and I do. I do have reservations about the economics of the current nuclear power program, in that it’s very wasteful and the nuclear fuel is very costly (in terms of CO2 released) to engineer. There are more efficient reactors (and even reactors that use spent fuel), ones that cannot actually melt-down or go critical, but they don’t scale up to the outputs of the current style of reactors (google ‘pebble bed reactors’). Still, I think any risk to humans is far offset by the potential gains for the planet as a whole – there’s plenty of humans, we can risk a few… Wow, Twelve Monkeys moment, but I think James Lovelock puts the argument better:
“A television interviewer once asked me, ‘But what about nuclear waste? Will it not poison the whole biosphere and persist for millions of years?’ I knew this to be a nightmare fantasy wholly without substance in the real world… One of the striking things about places heavily contaminated by radioactive nuclides is the richness of their wildlife. This is true of the land around Chernobyl, the bomb test sites of the Pacific, and areas near the United States’ Savannah River nuclear weapons plant of the Second World War. Wild plants and animals do not perceive radiation as dangerous, and any slight reduction it may cause in their lifespans is far less a hazard than is the presence of people and their pets… I find it sad, but all too human, that there are vast bureaucracies concerned about nuclear waste, huge organisations devoted to decommissioning power stations, but nothing comparable to deal with that truly malign waste, carbon dioxide.”
Basically, we give such a shit about radioactive waste because we a) artificially lengthen our own lifespans with medecine and b) have the mental facaulties to appreciate any attenuation of our lifespans. But radiation doesn’t one the whole effect wildlife so bad (except very high doses) as any animal is extremely lucky to live long enough to develop cancer, predation by our pets and removal of environment by us is a much bigger factor…
A bit controversial, I know, but I pride myself on being able to be convinced by a good argument (I guess any sceptic should be open to be swayed in such a way) and I thought Lovelock had a good point.
Great show again!