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GC061 So long, and thanks for all the fish... Updated: 2007-09-12 12:26:55 Description: Finis...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC060 Climate Change Impacts Updated: 2007-06-02 13:43:14 Description: Now that we've gone through the science behind climate change, and knocked down most of the kooks surrounding the issue, it's time to talk about what we're up against. In this episode, I spend a bit under 30 minutes laying out the most likely future...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC059 Climate Change Proponents Updated: 2007-05-13 18:23:18 Description: Since the opponents of the climate change consensus have had their turn, now it's time to give the supporters of the consensus a little working over. Since this is the seventh episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode,...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC058 Swindled! Updated: 2007-03-24 22:41:05 Description: A couple of Geek Counterpoint listeners (thanks, Travis and Bill!) pointed me to a show recently aired on BBC channel 4 called "The Great Global Warming Swindle." It purports to be a documentary, and is uniformly critical of the science behind clima...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC057 Climate Change: the Skeptics (part 3) Updated: 2007-03-13 00:23:02 Description: Now that we've simplified things by covering the more common arguments made by climate change skeptics, this episode is devoted to discussing some specific climate change skeptics and their arguments. Since this is the fifth episode in a series, I'd...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC056 Climate Change: the Skeptics (part 2) Updated: 2007-02-21 13:33:21 Description: A continuation of episode 54's treatment of general points used by climate change skeptics. Since this is the fourth episode in a series, I'd recommend that before listening to this episode, you first listen to episodes 45, 47, and 54....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC055 Space Weapons Updated: 2007-02-10 14:15:31 Description: When the Chinese government demolished one of its aging weather satellites a few weeks ago, they did more than just test out a potentially useful technology. They also cluttered up low Earth orbit with a huge amount of debris, and stirred up a compa...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC054 Climate Change: the Skeptics (part 1) Updated: 2007-01-23 01:30:00 Description: It's taken some time to do a reasonable level of fact checking, but my climate cats have now been successfully herded, so it's (finally!) time for another climate change episode. Since (at least in the media) the discussion over climate change has b...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC053 Sergey Korolyov Updated: 2007-01-12 13:55:37 Description: Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of a giant of space exploration -- Sergey Korolyov (sometimes also transliterated as Sergei Korolev). For much of the 20th century, Korolyov was the prime driving factor behind the Soviet space program. H...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC052 Antikythera Mechanism Updated: 2007-01-04 13:00:00 Description: Sure, it's not much to look at -- but this humble lump of corroded bronze completely demolished our previous understanding of the history of mechanical inventions. The Antikythera Mechanism was built late in the 2nd century BC, and is the earliest e...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC051 Stardust Preliminary Results Updated: 2006-12-21 14:59:48 Description: Yes, I know -- I just talked about Stardust in episode 50. But in the meantime, the first batch of preliminary science papers was released on the 15th of December in the journal Science. There's a full set of material available (currently, at least...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC050 News Grab Bag #5 Updated: 2006-12-08 12:45:00 Description: Yes, it's time for another "grab bag" episode to get everybody caught up on recent and semi-recent developments in topics I've covered in past episodes. This week's fodder includes updates on the following subjects: Mars -- see episode 41 (Septembe...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC049 Reactionless Drives Updated: 2006-11-29 13:05:50 Description: It's the holy grail of flight -- propulsion without the expenditure of reaction mass. A practical reactionless drive system would render wheeled vehicles (flying cars, anyone?), aircraft with wings, and rockets as we know them obsolete. But is it r...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC048 A Tale of Two Caves... Updated: 2006-11-21 13:38:26 Description: I talked at length about the Neanderthals just a few months ago, and then as often seems to happen, a bunch of new Neanderthal news popped up shortly afterwards. Listen in this week, and you'll get caught up with some really interesting recent disco...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC047 Climate Change and Logical Fallacies Updated: 2006-11-13 13:00:00 Description: This episode, the second in a series on climate change, is intended to give everybody a little background in logical fallacies. In particular, a number of logical fallacies seem to be particularly prone to use in news reports, political debates, and...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC046 Flying Aircraft Carriers Updated: 2006-11-01 12:36:19 Description: A few weeks ago, researchers finished the first exhaustive study performed of the wreck of the USS Macon, a U.S. Navy airship. What's unique about this particular wreck is that the Macon isn't alone on its piece of ocean floor off the California coa...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC045 Climate Change 101 Updated: 2006-10-24 12:29:00 Description: At least in the U.S. (and judging by material on the net, increasingly in Canada and Australia as well), debate about climate change long ago left the scientific arena, and entered the world of politics. As a result, if you're trying to figure out f...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC044 The 2006 U.S. National Space Policy document Updated: 2006-10-14 17:15:00 Description: A few days ago, the White House released an update to the United States' "National Space Policy" document. In a sense, an update is overdue as this document hasn't been tweaked since 1996, when Clinton was president. It's release got a number of fo...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC043 Social Darwinism and Eugenics Updated: 2006-10-08 04:06:00 Description: So-called social "Darwinism" and eugenics are two intertwined topics that always seem to come up whenever somebody wants to insult, or at least disparage, the scientific community in general. Realistically, though, neither one is really "Darwinian,"...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC042 USAF Museum Tour Updated: 2006-09-30 20:50:19 Description: We recently had a family reunion of sorts in Ohio, and after some pretty stiff negotiations, I managed to finagle some time at the "National Museum of the U.S. Air Force" in Dayton. Anybody who's even slightly interested in military aviation, or the...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC041 "Mr. O" Goes to Mars Updated: 2006-09-19 12:32:38 Description: MRO, a.k.a. the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, just got into its science orbit. As a result, you should expect to soon see a flood of new images and other interesting data coming back from Mars (adding, of course, to the goodies already coming back fr...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC040 News Grab Bag #4 Updated: 2006-09-10 13:05:00 Description: This week's episode is a "grab bag," including news on three broad topics: * Stem cells -- see episodes 18 and 20 (February 2006), and episode 21 (March, 2006) * Evolution vs. "Intelligent Design" -- see episodes 4 (October 2005) and 11 (December 20...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC039 Politics and Science Updated: 2006-09-01 23:20:00 Description: This episode started as an examination of political interference in science. But while doing research for the episode, I ran across two studies on the brain activity involved in partisan politics, and decided to also look at what science has to say ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Geek Counterpoint Administrivia Updated: 2006-08-26 15:39:53 Description: Reminder of video episode (for non-iTunes subscribers), announcement of upcoming server swap (may see odd behavior in last week of August)...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC038 Yellowstone Video Tour Updated: 2006-08-23 23:50:25 Description: We recently got back from a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park, and I thought the park would make a nice subject for a quick video podcast episode -- OK, and it gave me an excuse to test out a new camcorder. Aside from the fun tourist aspe...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC037 What's in a Name? Updated: 2006-08-11 03:16:00 Description: Planetary science used to be so simple. Our solar system had 9 planets, and a bunch of little leftover scraps called asteroids and comets. But over the last few decades, improvements in observing technology have helped astronomers to discover hundr...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC036 Meet the New Man Updated: 2006-08-03 04:40:56 Description: 2006 has been dubbed "The Year of the Neanderthal," since the first official discovery of Neanderthal remains was made 150 years ago this month in a limestone quarry in Germany's Neander Valley, east of Dusseldorf. Listen in this week, and you'll lea...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC035 Inflatable Spacecraft Updated: 2006-07-27 03:15:47 Description: Now that Bigelow Aerospace's Genesis 1 module is in orbit, the concept of inflatable spacecraft is starting to get a little bit of press attention. Genesis 1 is not the only inflatable space vehicle ever made -- and definitely not the only one ever ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC034 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Updated: 2006-07-19 04:25:27 Description: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was a French biologist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and can be credited with a number of advances in the study of species origins and (in particular) invertebrate biology. Lamarck was an early proponent of evoluti...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC033 Quantum Mechanics Updated: 2006-07-10 23:05:16 Description: This is the third in a scattered series of episodes that I'm in aggregate titling "20 Minute Lessons in 20th Century Physics." Tune in this week, and I'll give you a brief introduction to quantum mechanics. This episode makes references to general ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC032 Net Neutrality Updated: 2006-06-24 00:16:00 Description: There's a battle under way in the U.S. Congress over Net Neutrality -- and it's got broad implications for all internet users, regardless of where they live. Unfortunately, the mass media haven't been paying much attention to the debate, and some of...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC031 Stuck in the ITAR Updated: 2006-06-18 15:05:51 Description: Many a blog entry has been written in complaint about the difficulties of working in space with the U.S., or about the hurdles U.S. aerospace companies face in dealing with partners abroad. As is often the case, these difficulties come from good inte...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC030 News Grab Bag #3 Updated: 2006-06-11 22:29:53 Description: This week's episode is a "grab bag" of news on three broad topics: * RFID (see episode 13) "best practices," and in practice * The "Hobbits" of Flores island (see episode 15), and other dwarves * Asteroids (see episodes 23 and 24), and their impacts...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC029 The NSA and SNA Updated: 2006-06-03 23:13:03 Description: Anybody that's been keeping up with the news lately (at least in the U.S.) has heard about the recent allegations that the NSA is collecting call routing information on most phone calls made within the U.S. Social network analysis (SNA) seems to be ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC028 Love at Goon Park Updated: 2006-05-16 12:38:40 Description: A quick overview of an excellent book by the same name -- a description of the career of Harry Harlow and his studies of the science of affection, with special attention to the conflict between Harlow and the then-prevailing view of the subject. Whe...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC027 General Relativity Updated: 2006-05-05 23:36:48 Description: This is the second in a scattered series of episodes that I'm in aggregate titling "20 Minute Lessons in 20th Century Physics." Tune in this week, and I'll give you a brief introduction to general relativity. This episode makes lots of references t...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC026 Down With The Old Canoe! (pt. 2) Updated: 2006-04-22 13:05:01 Description: This week, I wrap up my treatment of the loss of the Titanic with a simplified (if not brief) failure analysis. How the ship broke up and sank is fairly straightforward -- so I don't spend much time on that. On the other hand, the decisions that we...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC025 Down With The Old Canoe! (pt. 1) Updated: 2006-04-15 14:07:48 Description: April 15 is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, and it's been just over 20 years since the ship's wreck was found, so I thought it'd be a good time to talk about some aspects of the tragedy that aren't often discussed, but still hold lesso...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC024 A Bad Day on the Beach Updated: 2006-04-09 01:26:10 Description: No sooner had I uplinked last week's episode, than related news showed up. This, a study doubting the asteroid theory of dinosaur extinction. Disappointingly, the study was presented non-critically by a number of media outlets (even popular "scienc...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC023 Quantifying Chicken Little Updated: 2006-03-31 01:06:39 Description: We've all heard or read about some scare or another based on the potential future impact of an asteroid or comet. Often, the core issue behind such scares (leaving aside an occasionally over-excited member of the press) is weak communication between...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC022 Special Relativity Updated: 2006-03-18 03:57:37 Description: As I mentioned in the last episode (#21), I've got a whole list of topics I'd like to discuss that require at least a cursory background in modern (non-Newtonian) physics. So this week's episode is the first in a scattered series of 3 episodes that ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC021 News Grab Bag #2 Updated: 2006-03-03 00:43:53 Description: This week's episode contains updates to previous episodes based on recent news, and a little bit of news about Pluto (I don't have enough material for an episode all about Pluto, so it gets tossed in here). I also go through the results of the "Topi...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC020 Gone to the Dogs (Scientists Behaving Badly #2) Updated: 2006-02-23 04:36:03 Description: Now that we've got a little background in stem cells (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, make sure you listen to episode 18), let's talk about recent news. This week's topic is South Korea's own Hwang Woo-Suk -- his meteoric rise to promin...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC019 Vision Problems Updated: 2006-02-15 00:45:00 Description: The White House just released its proposed 2007 budget for NASA, and it seems the administration has an interesting perspective on both science and its own "Vision for Space Exploration" (VSE). While the Bush administration isn't reducing anything i...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC018 Stem Cells Updated: 2006-02-05 03:36:14 Description: Stem cells have been in the press for a while now -- but many media outlets seem to be covering them more for the excitement of controversy, than in any attempt to educate people. You know how it goes, a lot of heat but very little light... In this...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC017 Stardust: Return to Sender (part 2) Updated: 2006-01-29 12:38:07 Description: Last week, I gave you the story of where the Stardust mission came from -- technically, scientifically, and politically. With the background out of the way, we're ready to dive into the really good stuff. In this week's episode, we continue the Sta...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC016 Stardust: Return to Sender (part 1) Updated: 2006-01-23 14:08:36 Description: On the 15th of January, a special package was delivered to a dry lake bed in Utah -- and nobody complained that it took 7 years to arrive and covered 3 billion miles in the meantime. This particular package cost $212M to produce, but its contents ar...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC015 The Hobbits of Flores Island Updated: 2006-01-16 01:46:00 Description: In 2003 and 2004, a team of Australian and Indonesian anthropologists made some interesting discoveries in a cave on Indonesia's Flores island -- bones from small creatures, that may just prove to be cousins of humanity. Since these bones came from ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC014 The Fossil Record Updated: 2006-01-09 05:00:00 Description: When push comes to shove, it's tough to make a fossil. Tougher still is gathering enough of them to put together a coherent story (the Earth is, after all, a big place). In this episode, I talk about fossilization and why there are "gaps" in the fo...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC013 RFID and You Updated: 2006-01-02 04:20:00 Description: Now that the commercial spend-fest that is a modern Christmas has passed, I thought it'd be a good time to discuss one of the more promising (as well as disturbing) commercial technologies now appearing on store shelves -- RFID (Radio Frequency IDent...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC012 Beagle2--Lost Or Found? Updated: 2005-12-25 23:30:55 Description: The news is all over the internet -- the wreckage of Beagle 2 has been found on Mars. Or has it? Let's take a look at what's behind all the fuss, and see what's really going on....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC011 News Grab Bag #1 Updated: 2005-12-18 21:46:15 Description: Updates to previous episodes, and some snippets of interesting science & technology news. Recorded with new (upgraded) gear, so it should sound better than previous episodes....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC010 Polynesian Navigation Updated: 2005-12-10 18:14:07 Description: If my experience is any guide, the maritime history you learned in school may well have focused on various European nations, and their voyages of discovery. Many of us were taught that long-distance oceanic voyages had to wait for the compass to be ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC009 Piltdown Man (Scientists Behaving Badly #1) Updated: 2005-12-04 00:49:45 Description: "Piltdown Man" is the undisputed grand-daddy of scientific hoaxes, and a great lesson in the importance of critical thinking (even in the face of things pronounced "scientific"). The first in an occasional series of episodes grouped under the theme ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC008 Geek Speak and Computer Security (part 2) Updated: 2005-11-27 22:03:38 Description: Now that we've nailed down the jargon of computer security, let's look at some simple things you can do to protect yourself....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC007 Geek Speak and Computer Security (part 1) Updated: 2005-11-21 05:15:40 Description: A recent survey has revealed that a significant number of personal computer users is so baffled by computer "geek" jargon that they don't take even simple security precautions in their computer usage. In this week's episode (and a bit more in next w...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC006 Covering All The Bases Updated: 2005-11-12 23:33:11 Description: We're all familiar with base 10 numerals (i.e., 0 through 9) and how base 10 math is all that we ever use -- or is it? An episode about numerals, numeral systems, and how 4000 years of mathematical history plays out in our daily lives....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC005 The Halloween Show Updated: 2005-10-30 21:45:33 Description: Presented as a fitting Halloween subject and in the interest of very briefly illustrating how evolutionary history has impacted the structure of the human brain. Family friendly, but a bit macabre -- definitely not for younger children's ears (not i...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC004 Yes, But is it Science? Updated: 2005-10-22 21:52:35 Description: A lot of terminology is flying around in the argument between supporters of evolution and "intelligent design." This episode looks at two main points in this discussion: what is science (i.e., the scientific method), and what is a scientific "theory...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC003 Lemmings, Irony, and Mindsets Updated: 2005-10-15 23:56:58 Description: While the myth of lemmings taking mass suicidal plunges off cliffs was disproven years ago, it stubbornly persists in popular culture. Let's take a look at the history of the myth, the evidence disproving it, and what it has to teach us about the da...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC002 Has NASA Gone Hollywood? Updated: 2005-10-04 04:26:23 Description: In episode 2, I tackle NASA's new exploration initiative. Is it a pragmatic program built on reuse of proven ideas and technologies, or a tired attempt to recapture past glories by going where we've already gone before?...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD GC001 Why This Show Updated: 2005-09-28 23:43:07 Description: In episode 1, I attempt to sum up why I'm producing this podcast, and just what I am hoping / attempting to accomplish with it....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD |
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