I have been invited to a Halloween party with the theme of "superstition, folklore, or conspiracy". Only moderately crafty and don't want to break the bank. Considering a Stanley Kubrick costume for the moon landing but hoping for other fun ideas. Channel your inner Bobs aaandd go!
"Amazing Tales of Truth"
I think we can all relate to this, no?
Does anyone have the links to Julia's parrot studies spoken about in Podcast #1108
Wasn't the guest patron essentially on there to promote their app and looking for support, whether monetary or alpha users to build the database?
Neat idea and use of the technology of course. And I suppose they are supporting their supporters?
Just felt bit jarring to me.
Hi all,
I was hoping to start an RSS feed of trusted websites or Substack feeds that have interesting topics. I know the rogues and Steve mention the websites where they get their articles they talk about each week but I can’t remember any of them right now.
My question to you all:
What websites would be good to follow to read about topics similar to what the SGU discusses? They don’t necessarily have to be skeptical. But science based and generally readable to the average person would be preferred. I’d like to casually read about topics in my free time vs doing a deep dive on a topic each time I read.
Thanks in advance!
In the opening segment this week, the rogues described imaginary costumes they would make if budget was no limitation. This might have been the most boring and pointless segment I've ever listened to on the SGU. It's one of those ideas that sound good when you're brainstorming it: Hey, it ties into October/Halloween! It's a potential springboard to talk about interesting technology! Great overlap with all the sci-fi and fantasy nerds that listen to the podcast (myself included)! But it just ended up as a pointless, rambling "wouldn't it be cool if" daydreaming. I'm sure these costumes would be great if they were real, but so what? My eyes just glazed over. Am I alone here?
I don’t think it takes 'supreme' intelligence to clock RFK's nonsense but why not~~~~~
INSPIRED BY HIS CALL TO USE AI, I went ahead and asked Claude (Anthropic’s AI assistant) to analyze some of Kennedy’s more memorable statements….
[…]
Here was the quote, which refers to eighteen vaccines the CDC has been recommending for children:
“In fact, of all of those ninety-four doses of the eighteen vaccines, only one of them was subject to a placebo control trial and that was the COVID vaccine. The other ones were like this. There was no safety study. We have no idea what the risk profile is for these products. And you know that means we can’t really make the kind of risk-benefit analysis that my agency is supposed to do.”
Claude’s verdict:
“Verdict: false. The claim has three parts, and all three are wrong.”
I was SO excited to hear Christian's topic on Speedrunning today!
I am like him, not good at speedrunning (adhd sorry) but I LOVE watching it. I love watching Games Done Quick who has raised over $60 million for charity.
The guy he talked about Pannenkoek2012 is someone I INTERVIEWED back in 2015 before he became bigger. He figured out a way to clone things in Mario and he was just a kid then (Either high school or early college) and I talked to him about Mario 64 and how he did a lot of the stuff he did. I was trying to do a video game blog then and thought he would be fun to talk to and he was, although I mean he is very myopic about Mario 64, that's like ALL he wanted to talk about. I tried to get him to work on other games and he was good on that.
Also Speedrunning is very scientific. Especially when they find cheaters that make fake speedruns, they have to do like a full digital forensic analysis of the video. I don't know if you guys remember the Dream scandle when the VERY popular Youtube Dream ended up faking a world record. The video was analyzed by multiple mathematicians and statisticians and it ended up being SO improbable that the video was legit that it was basically impossible.
I think speedrunners have a fascinating task, but I do find the glitch hunters to have an odd an incredible skill set. These guys can break games after playing them for only a little bit. These are the type of people that game companies hire to test their games so their is a legit career path in it.
Anyways yeah I was so happy to hear Christian talk about this and I wouldn't mind hearing more about video games in the future if the topic as appropriate.
Figure we could use one of these. This episode included:
Special Guests: Christian Hubicki and Julia Novella
Designing Your Dream Costume
Conspiracy Theories
News Items: Stellar Streams and Dark Matter, Possible Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, IgNobels 2026, Pet Bird Research, Speedrunning Video Games
Science or Fiction