Category: Science

TMI 07/19/2024 – Leslie James Assures You That You’re Not Alone in Having a Very Bad Day, J.D. Vance is a Harbinger of an Even Worse Future, The GOP is Worse Than the Taliban on the Climate Crisis, more

Post author By Aldous Tyler, Admin
Post date July 19, 2024
No Comments on TMI 07/19/2024 – Leslie James Assures You That You’re Not Alone in Having a Very Bad Day, J.D. Vance is a Harbinger of an Even Worse Future, The GOP is Worse Than the Taliban on the Climate Crisis, more

This week on TMI, Aldous reads a quick word by Leslie James – UBER Girl – on how one can have a very bad day and carry on, to let you know you are NOT alone. Next, we look at Trump’s pick for Vice President, J.D. Vance. If you haven’t heard of him, you’re in good company, but what should alarm you are those who’ve not only HEARD of Vance, but who are backing him to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of campaign contributions to Trump before November.

Then we check in with Bill McKibben’s breakdown of the GOP’s plan for the Climate Crisis and how even the Taliban Administration in Afghanistan has a BETTER plan. Finally, we take a quick peek on a recent discovery on how creative people process information. All this and more on TMI for Friday, July 19, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Big Pharma Black Holes BLM Episode Fifth Circuit Louisiana Mississippi Pfizer Research Universities Science SCOTUS Space Texas UCLA WSUM Xtandi

TMI 04/19/2024 – Research Universities Join Big Pharma in Fighting to Keep Medicine Expensive, SCOTUS Allows Fifth Circuit to Kill Protests in Three States, Black Hole Discovered Near Earth, more

On today’s TMI, we pull back the curtain on how public universities such as UCLA, founded on land grants and given billions in tax dollars, are joining the huge pharmaceutical companies in fighting to keep the prices of the drugs they developed out of reach of most Americans, despite the massive support given those research facilities BY the people to begin with.

Next, we reveal that if you plan on holding a political protest in Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi, you’ll be on the hook if anyone attending breaks the law, all thanks to a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that SCOTUS declined to review. Finally, we wrap up with the scientific discovery of a massive black hole right in our neighborhood – cosmologically, that is. All this and more on TMI for Friday, April 19, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Alexei Navalny Antarctica Anthropocene Astrolabe Climate disinformation Electric Vehicles Episode Glaciers Islamic Golden Age Mitch McConnell Science Wall Street Journal WSUM

TMI 03/08/2024 – WSJ Op-Ed Lies About Electric Cars Polluting Worse Than Gasoline-powered Cars, New Speed Record Broken in Glacial Fracturing in Antarctica, New Anthropocene Epoch Fails Vote and more

A recent Wall Street Journal op-ed falsely claims that electric cars pollute worse than their gasoline-powered counterparts, comparing incomparable metrics to come with their their supposed data. Meanwhile, amidst the frozen expanses of Antarctica, a chilling new speed record is set in glacial fracturing, highlighting the alarming pace of climate change. This harrowing event serves as a stark reminder of the urgent need for global action to address environmental degradation and preserve our planet’s delicate ecosystems.

Keeping focus on the realm of geology and human impact, we return to the ambitious effort to classify a new Anthropocene Epoch, only to find unexpected obstacles when the initiative faces a vote. Despite mounting evidence of humanity’s profound influence on Earth’s geological processes, the classification effort stalls, thanks to the complexities of scientific consensus. Then, Mike McCabe provides insight into the contrasting displays of courage exhibited by political figures like Mitch McConnell and Alexei Navalny, underscoring the moral imperatives within political leadership.

Finally, we wrap up with a fascinating historical discovery, uncovering a thousand-year-old astrolabe that reveals evidence of knowledge exchange between Muslim and Jewish scientists, offering a glimpse into the enduring legacy of intellectual collaboration across cultural boundaries. All this and more on TMI for Friday, March 08, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Bones Climate Episode Gender Science WSUM

TMI 05/26/2023 – Bones Don’t Conclusively Show Sex Nor Gender for Human Beings, Why In-N-Out Burger is Fighting Climate Accountability, How Books Now Frighten School Librarians and Educators

If you’re a fan of the TV show Bones, you know that the lead character, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan, is famously able to take a glance at a human skeleton and tell so much about the person who it once belonged to, including their biological sex. Unfortunately for the writers of the Fox drama, this hasn’t been accepted science now since the early 1970s, something Bones would have known. We discuss how this came to be, and how solid the scientific backing for gender flexibility and fluidity is.

Next, we talk about why California’s new climate accountability law is being fought by not just the usual suspects of Big Oil, but also by restaurant chains such as the west coast favorite In-N-Out Burger. Finally, we look at how librarians and educators at schools nationwide have found themselves frightened of books. All this and more on TMI for Friday, May 26, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

COVID-19 Episode Loneliness Masks Muppets Parachutes Randomized Controlled Trial Ron DeSantis Science Surgeon General Vivek Murthy WSUM

TMI 05/12/2023 – Surgeon General Says Loneliness Kills, How a Study That Shows How Parachutes Don’t Work Tells Us How Mask Studies Were Skewed, How Muppets Expposed DeSantis’ Virtue Signalling

The likes of Elvis Presley and David Bowie have famously sung about how someone could be so lonely they could die, but Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has recently confirmed it. In a recent advisory, Surgeon General Murthy calls attention to a public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country that can lead to mental health challenges and increase the risk for premature death to levels comparable to smoking daily – we look into this.

Then, remember when certain studies came out saying that masks don’t work at keeping COVID at bay? Turns out they were using the same methodology that shows a parachute is as ineffective as an ordinary backpack at preventing death when falling from an airplane: the randomized controlled trial. While this is the gold standard for testing many medical interventions, it can and often does lead to serious flaws when applied to engineered solutions, such as parachutes and, you guessed it, masks. Finally, we show how the Muppets managed to expose Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ attack on being “woke” for the virtue signalling opportunistic nonsense it is. All this and more on TMI for Friday, May 12, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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TMI 05/05/2023 – SCOTUS Goes Against Own Policy of Standing if it Blocks Student Debt Cancellation, Minnesota is a Laboratory for Progressive Policy, AI Has Learned to Literally Read People’s Minds

Since taking the reins of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts has had an unflinching policy of denying access to the hallowed halls of SCOTUS to most cases proposed to them. The issue has always been if the case is being brought by someone with “standing” – in other words, if the case is being put forward by a person or entity that is being harmed by not having the Supreme Court take the case up for review. Time and again, the Roberts’ Court has turned away cases where it was possible that harm was being done – “possible” wasn’t good enough, it had to be solid. So, in even considering overturning Biden’s miniscule student loan relief plan, the Roberts’ Court is flying in the facing of its own policy of standing; we examine how.

Then, we dive into some good news for a change, examining how the Minnesota state government is putting a large number of progressive proposals into state law, allowing us all to see how they can be implemented to do the good they are intended to do. Finally: you may recall renowned physicist Stephen Hawking had a paralyzing disorder that forced him to communicate through a speech-generating device initially through use of a handheld switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. Communicating this way was a long and painstaking process for Professor Hawking – imagine the difference that could be made if someone like him had their fMRI readings directly interpreted into words. That’s exactly the breakthrough we discuss, as scientists have trained a generative pretrained transformer (GPT) AI to use fMRI scanning technology to literally read the subject’s mind! Exciting (and maybe a bit frightening), this application of GPT AI shows how much the world is set to change from the advent of current-gen AI. All this and more on TMI for Friday, May 5, 2023 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

COVID-19 Dr. Ashish Jha Electric Vehicles Episode Joe Manchin Kyrsten Sinema Science Senate Technology WSUM

TMI 04/29/2022 – Manchinema’s Differences Doom the Dem Senate, COVID Coordinator Dr. Jha May Not Be Best Pick, Science/Technology News-in-Brief: EV Pickups, Speaker Film and Meteor DNA

While supposedly-Democratic Senators Joe Machin and Kyrsten Sinema seem to be such a match made in Hell that they’ve been given the collective nickname “Manchinema”, we discuss how their differences actually spell even MORE trouble than what they have in common. Next, we look at Dr. Jha, the new COVID Coordinator for the Biden Administration and examine his record, noting that he has some major flaws in his history that makes his appointment seem… ill-advised. Finally, we give a quick looksee at new innovations in EV pickup trucks, thin film that can act as a speaker for your audio needs, and how DNA being lodged inside meteors may not be as rare as once thought. All this and more on TMI for Friday, April 29, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Big Oil Episode Geography Global Politics Greg Palast Religion Russia Science Ukraine Vladimir Putin War WSUM

TMI 03/04/2022 – Greg Palast on Putin’s Russian Orthodox and Oil Price Motivations, How Russia’s Geography Makes Invading Ukraine Attractive, Geothermal Startup Wants Cheap Renewable Energy Everywhere

We are joined by Greg Palast who outlines how both the sharp increase in oil prices and the Russian Orthodox Church are motivating Vladimir Putin to push further into Ukraine, causing untold chaos for both Russia and Ukraine. Then, I go over how Russia has a particular geographical feature that makes invading Ukraine even more attractive for Putin, along with a few other issues that weren’t covered in our conversation with Palast.

Finally, a Geothermal startup believes it has the recipe for making cheap renewable energy available almost anywhere on Earth! All this and more on TMI for Friday, March 4th, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

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!

Colorblind Economics Episode Racism Science United States of America Whales White Supremacy WSUM

TMI 02/11/2022 – How the USA Doesn’t Realize it Is a Poor Country, Fin Whales Make a Return, How “Colorblindness” Is Racism, More

Here in the USA, we are very proud of ourselves as a nation, looking down on “third world” countries where the people face food insecurity, violence from corrupt or racist policing, mass homelessness… without realizing that what we are describing is also HERE. We find out what happened to bring us from the heights of a strong middle class to the point at which very few can truly make ends meet.

Then, in a heartwarming turn, thousands of Fin Whales have been spotted together in Antarctic waters – we’ll tell you why this is even better than it may seem on the surface. Finally, we look at how, because it’s not generally acceptable to be openly racist, the idea of being “colorblind” has spread far and wide. But this trend doesn’t actually help anything – indeed, it may lead to more racism. We discuss all this and more on TMI for Friday, February 11, 2022 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!