Category: Science

TMI 10/18/2024 – Sharing Bernie Sanders’ Vision of Progress, A Review of Florida Reps Calling Climate a “False Emergency” in National Legislation, Two Science Breakthroughs, more

Post author By Aldous Tyler, Admin
Post date October 18, 2024
No Comments on TMI 10/18/2024 – Sharing Bernie Sanders’ Vision of Progress, A Review of Florida Reps Calling Climate a “False Emergency” in National Legislation, Two Science Breakthroughs, more

On TMI for October 18, 2024, we start off by going over a recent summary Bernie Sanders made of the political progress that we’ve seen here in the United States by examining the differences in the Democratic Party platforms from 2012 and 2024. A span of just twelve years provides truly encouraging contrasts that get lost sometimes when you are just fighting day after day to make things better.

Next we give you two “best of” segments, as Aldous’ voice just wasn’t having it for the time being. Of those, we first dive into how GOP Congressional Representatives listen to their Big Oil donors, calling the Climate Crisis a “false emergency” despite the hue and cry of their very constituents as they suffer from supercharged hurricanes. Finally, we go over two scientific breakthroughs: one on EV battery recycling, and one on discovering the chemical bindings of memory in the human brain. All this and more on TMI for Friday, October 18, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Bell Riots Big Oil Climate Cognition Death Doula Donald Trump Electric Vehicles Episode Homelessness Housing Crisis Kamala Harris Media Presidential Politics Science Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Transgender Transphobia WSUM

TMI 09/13/2024 – Presidential Coverage Shows How Media and Government Both Disregard Climate and Trans Rights, How Deep Space Nine’s Bell Riots Would Fit in Our 2024, Three Science Breakthroughs, more

Watching the media cover the rise of Kamala Harris and her debate with Donald Trump this week shows how blatantly both the enormous issue of the Climate Crisis and the human rights issues surrounding gender are treated to nothing short of journalistic malpractice. We go over the reality of Harris’ climate positions (and the nightmarish alternative) and expose the hamfisted mishandling of her positions on trans rights.

On our first song break, we feature a new piece by Death Doula called “The Witness“, part of their upcoming full length release “Love Spells”, due out October 11, 2024.

Next, we take you on a look back at how a 29 year old episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was highly prescient to the current state of affairs in today’s world, as its characters found themselves in a version of 2024 that bore far too much resemblance to the one we are in now. Finally, we indulge our science geek side and go through three new breakthroughs: one on EV battery recycling, another on scientists learning how to better study a phenomenon that is too fast and small to normally witness which could lead to limitless energy, and finally one on discovering the chemical bindings of memory in the human brain. All this and more on TMI for Friday, September 13, 2024 (Friday the 13th!) – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Antitrust Best of TMI Climate disinformation Donald Trump Election Integrity Elon Musk Episode Georgia Google Greg Palast Matt Stoller misinformation Monopoly Plantzma Science Turkey Türkiye WSUM

TMI 08/23/2024 – BEST OF TMI: Musk and Trump Botch the Climate, Palast Alerts Us to Georgia Legalizing Vote Non-certification, Stoller Examines Google’s Search Antitrust Loss, Teens Use Plasma To Boost Crops, more

THIS IS A REBROADCAST OF TMI for 8/16/2024

When men as rich and powerful as Elon Musk and Donald Trump decide to have a conversation and invite the world to listen in, it’s a good idea to check in and see what their vision is for the world we have to share with these reckless giants. On just about every front, it’s not good, and with climate concerns in particular, Bill McKibben noted several especially alarming points to bring to your attention – we spend a moment to share his concerns with you. Then, we take a look at reporting from the inimitable Greg Palast on how Georgia has paved the way to legally refuse to certify election results from its own counties, and that the certification of the 2020 slate of votes by Atlanta’s Fulton County wouldn’t have been certified under this new “quiet coup” technique.

Next, Matt Stoller dives into the recent antitrust loss Google took in court regarding its monopoly on search. This seemingly-trivial decision is going to result in changes to everything we know about online and business practices for decades, so listen in. Finally, we briefly check in with a group of teens who invented a way to use plasma to supercharge seeds and water for tremendous boosts in crop yields virtually anywhere on Earth! All this and more on TMI for Friday, August 23, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Antitrust Climate disinformation Donald Trump Election Integrity Elon Musk Episode Georgia Google Greg Palast Matt Stoller misinformation Monopoly Plantzma Science Turkey Türkiye WSUM

TMI 08/16/2024 – Musk and Trump Botch the Climate, Palast Alerts Us to Georgia Legalizing Vote Non-certification, Stoller Examines Google’s Search Antitrust Loss, Teens Use Plasma To Boost Crops, more

Next, Matt Stoller dives into the recent antitrust loss Google took in court regarding its monopoly on search. This seemingly-trivial decision is going to result in changes to everything we know about online and business practices for decades, so listen in. Finally, we briefly check in with a group of teens who invented a way to use plasma to supercharge seeds and water for tremendous boosts in crop yields virtually anywhere on Earth! All this and more on TMI for Friday, August 16, 2024 – listen in for YOUR Cure for the Common Media!

Bill McKibben Climate Cognition Despair Donald Trump Endemic GOP JD Vance Leslie James Presidential Politics Republican National Convention RNC Science Taliban Uber Girl WSUM

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!

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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!