Category: Astronomy

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Astronomy Big Oil Billionaires Capitalism Climate Corporate Malfeasance Dave Black disinformation Drought Episode Media misinformation NOAA Political Language Science Space WSUM

TMI 02/18/2022 – Dave Black Passes, Southwest Megadrought, How PR Has Gaslit Us All on the Environment, Supercomputer Successfully Simulates Entire Universe, More

Dave Black, founder of WSUM here in Madison, Wisconsin, and one of the key people who helped get TMI on the airwaves, has died less than one year after his retirement. While we shall spend most of this episode on other topics, I refused to go further without honoring the passing of this dedicated media visionary. Thank you for humoring me.

Then, we talk about the dry facts surrounding the drought the southwest United States has been suffering though, including how it can be considered the worst in recorded history by several measures. Next, we examine how the very framework we use on a daily basis to talk about environmental issues has been corrupted for over 50 years now to shift as much of the blame away from corporate responsibility as possible. Finally, we briefly go over how for the first time, computer modeling has been able to successfully simulate the universe from the Big Bang through to its present state. All this and much more on TMI for Friday, February 18, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Astronomy Billionaires Build Back Better Act COVID-19 Democratic Party disinformation Episode Joe Biden Joe Manchin Koch Kyrsten Sinema Obstruction Rotating Villains WSUM

TMI 12/24/2021 – Build Back Better Busted by Big Bad Bureaucrats, Universal Expansion Outpaces Previous Predictions, Koch Hijacks COVID Conversations, More

Right on cue, Senators Sinema and Manchin show President Biden that his supposed ability to know how to get things done in DC is sorely outdated, as his Build Back Better bill gets halted by the latest rotating villains in the Democratic Party. Then, astrophysicists were pretty dang certain they had a firm grasp on how fast the universe was expanding, until new recalculations show the cosmos spreading apart at a rate previously unheard of. Finally, there may be only one Koch brother left alive, but he and his money have been poured into higher education – not a good thing when the goal of these funds is to set up think tanks designed to show that lockdowns, social distancing, masking and more were “a debacle”. All this and more on TMI for Friday, December 24, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Astronomy Capitalism Climate disinformation Economics Episode Extraterrestrial Life Immigrants Media Minimum Wage Netflix Nobel Prize Political Language Science Socialism Squid Game Television WSUM

TMI 10/22/2021 – Squid Game’s Scathing Satire of Capitalism is Misrepresented by Horrified Capitalists, Nobel in Econ is Worth Talking About, the Rarity of Offworld Life Makes This World Important

The enormously popular Netflix series “Squid Game” has caught a lot of attention politically for the obvious yet unshakable satire of capitalism that it provides, clearly illustrating how ruthless and inhuman acts are virtually the only way to “win the game”. However, those who champion the capitalist nightmare we are in cannot allow (or even fathom) this sharp attack to go unanswered, going to so far as to take the creator’s quoted purpose of the series and flatly saying he’s wrong. We expose these denials and the mendacious folks behind them, and show you how to detect bad analysis about the series.

Then, this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics is actually worth talking about, as it recognizes the shift from ideological economics (which has people believing harmful nonsense about immigrants and the minimum wage) to evidence-based economics. Finally, we give an overview of how a habitable planet does NOT equal one that will spontaneously grow life of its own, and break down the beautiful rarity our own planet is. Given that, maybe we should protect it more strenuously? All that and much more on TMI for Friday, October 22, 2021 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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Astronomy Climate COVID-19 Election Integrity Episode Presidential Politics Social Security WSUM

TMI 09/04/2020 – The Red Mirage, Social Security in Peril, the Woman who Changed a War, and the Cosmic Year

Looking forward to November 3rd, we are so used to thinking about Election Night as this huge decisive moment – but what if it wasn’t? We explore how, this year, things are almost certainly going to look very different, and the politicization of the pandemic will likely make the electoral map of November 3rd look very misleading – and much “redder” – than the final outcome when all mail in ballots are counted.

Then, we examine the timeline for Social Security under the current Executive Order, which robs the fund of the tax base that sustains it. The services many people you know depend on are in much more rapid jeopardy than you might think.

We give due recognition to a woman who changed the face of war, and occasionally the face of the weather forecast – but you’ve probably never heard of her.

Finally, we take a look NOT the solar year we call 2020, but the “cosmic year” – or how long it takes us to orbit around the center of our galaxy, and how things weren’t all that different the last time we were in this position, galactically. All this and MORE on this episode of TMI for Friday, September 4th, 2020 – get your dose of the Cure for the Common Media!