Merick

There's no mystery about what happened the the Mayans. Nostradamus didn't say anything about 2012, nor did he make any prediction that came true (you can hardly call his writings predictions anyway), and I can't find anything about this Merlin on Wikipedia. Speaking of Wikipeida, I'm only 20 minutes in and I think a quick skim through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon would have allowed you to speak in a way that didn't spread various untruths even farther. The thing with 2012 is, it was mostly spread person to person as a joke, like "haha, won't have to worry about that, since the world's ending!", but people hear it over and over, and some people end up believing it, and others exploit it to sell books.

Comedians trying to talk about science. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion

The Apple Sisters are "going to" end their podcast?

I had no idea Victoria Jackson was loony. The thing with polygamy is that what ends up happening is rich and successful men have many wives, leaving poor men little chance of getting a wife, which leads to a lot anger, and eventually, crime.

Great episode, the bug parts especially.

http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006764 TT: Ever hear of Guy Fieri? GT: No? GT: I dont think so. TT: You're fortunate then. TT: He was an especially degenerate piece of filth. TT: He used his connections and guile to wriggle into the spotlight, and then on to other positions of power. TT: He somehow landed on the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the years, other justices started mysteriously disappearing without being replaced. TT: After helping rewrite the constitution to form an incomprehensible patchwork of fascism, theocratic mandates, recipes, and bad rap lyrics, he weaseled his way up the ranks to become the High Chaplain of Interstellar War. TT: I'm just gonna cut to the chase, cause really this ain't a big history lesson here. TT: He eventually came to be regarded as the third and final Antichrist. TT: No other human in history was responsible for more death and suffering.

I wish this show was weekly.

Complete un-skeptical pseudoscience. Nothing that isn't consistent with imagination, near-sleep states, and sensory deprevation, but presented as "spiritual".

I'm pretty sure the game talked about was "the choking game", where you'd have someone choke you a certain way to lose consciousness for a few seconds. We had a few talks at school about how dangerous it was.

I couldn't tell if they were joking or not. That seems like a pretty huge guest to consider not showing.

It looks like someone deleted the spelling comment.

When I saw today's guest I thought "is that really who I think it is!?"

An insightful and enjoyable episode.

Thank for posting this. Something that bugs me about this podcast is the ignorance of science, and the acceptance of any kind of pseudoscience. "Energy" is a word that has been abused by those who subscribe to "new age" (for lack of a proper umbrella term) ideas. For a podcast about ideas, it frustrates me when evidence-based, proven concepts are ignored for things shown to be bunk (this message brought to you by Bunk on IFC). Edit- Upon listening to the last 25 minutes, it sounds like there was some more skepticism, which I appreciate.

I don't have IFC, but when the show is on I'm going to sit still in a quiet room, close my eyes, and imagine. I have a telepathic connection to Nielsen boxes, so I hope this works.

Hmm, Christmas just ended, Hanukkah is ongoing, New Year's is coming up. Maybe it will be an episode on giving gifts, or family, or resolutions. Let's go to the Earwolf site and see..."oceans". Alright then.

I could listen to Mr. Aukerman and Mr. Tompkins wash dishes.

Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves. "/" is a slash, or forward slash. Backslashes don't seem to be allowed in the comments.

Laughed out loud a few times, love it.

I don't have anything clever to say, just that this was a great episode.

I love 5secondfilms, but I stopped watching after a while because it was so inconvenient to watch the huge backlog. It looks like the new site makes that a bit easier, though, so thanks for letting me know about it.

The big bang theory does not actually deal with the "beginning" of the universe. It only describes the universe when it was very, very small, and got bigger very, very fast. The self-organization of the universe - how stars, planets, and life came about by itself - is an interesting field of study. It makes sense to me, looking at how life has managed to become so much more complex from single-celled organisms, and even just how human society manages to become more complex over time. . I don't have anything to back this up, but I think we're in an era where we are less able to directly observe and measure things than has been the case historically. Because of this we end up with a surplus of ideas, which we can only try to make sense of with math. I agree that the idea of 10 or 11 dimensions shouldn't be presented as fact, we're still a ways from being able to prove that . As a resident of Lincoln Nebraska, I'll take Tig's word for it.

I went to school with Matthew Sweet's niece, and I had a crush on her for years. If you're reading this, Chloe, it's over. You missed your chance.

I haven't finished this episode yet, but what David was saying about the golden ratio is not true. Humans do not find the ratio particularly pleasing, the Greeks did not use it in architecture, and it's not particularly prevalent in nature. See http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_05_07.html or http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/fibonacc.htm for more on this.

I haven't finished this episode yet, but what David was saying about the golden ratio is not true. Humans do not find the ratio particularly pleasing, the Greeks did not use it in architecture, and it's not particularly prevalent in nature. See http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_05_07.html or http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/pseudo/fibonacc.htm for more on this.