Life, the Universe & Everything Else is taking the month of January off, but here’s a little Something Nice to tide you over!
Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.
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On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem, Lauren, Ashlyn, and Laura talk scams and con artists: Gem reads from a novel that somehow topped the New York Times bestseller list without anyone ever buying it, Laura covers a gang of thieves trying to make an end-run around Canada’s maple syrup monopsony, Ashlyn explains why a semi-famous skeptic went to jail for fraud, and Lauren talks about an ex-Mormon forger who dabbled in bomb-making. Then Gem just rants semi-coherently about NFTs for a while.
Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.
Lani Sarem and the New York Times Bestseller scam: Did This Book Buy Its Way Onto The New York Times Bestseller List? (Pajiba) | 8 Notable Attempts to Hack the New York Times Bestseller List (Literary Hub) | Book Review: Handbook for Mortals by Lani Sarem (Bree Howland) | The New York Times Best Seller list (Wikipedia) | Lani Sarem (IMDb)
The Great Maple Syrup Heist: Sweet revenge for Quebec maple syrup producers: Thief gets five years for role in $18.7 million heist (National Post) | A Sticky Situation: SCC Grants Leave to Appeal for Maple Syrup Heist Case in R v Vallières (TheCourt.ca) | Reputed ringleader in $18.7M maple syrup heist found guilty (CBC News) | Police seize hundreds of barrels of syrup possibly linked to Quebec maple heist (The Globe and Mail) | Maple and Economic Development (PPAQ) | Inside Quebec’s Great, Multi-Million-Dollar Maple-Syrup Heist (Vanity Fair) | Alleged ringleader in $18.7M maple syrup theft testifies he faced death threats (CBC News)
Dunning’s Cookie Stuffing Scam: Brian Dunning, eBay and Affiliate Marketing Fraud (Business Insider) | Fraudster skeptic Brian Dunning’s shell game (Lousy Canuck) | A Critical Analysis of Brian Dunning’s Explanation (Skepchick) | The sophistry and revisionist history in Skeptoid Brian Dunning’s statement (Lousy Canuck) | How This Man Cheated eBay Out of $5 Million and Now Faces 20 Years in Federal Prison
The Salamander Letter: The Salamander Letter From Murder Among the Mormons Attempted to Rewrite the Church’s History (Esquire) | The True Story of The Salamander Letter from ‘Murder Among the Mormons’ (Cosmopolitan) | The Real History and Meaning of the Salamander Letter (Refinery29) | Salamander letter (Wikipedia) | Mark Hofmann (Wikipedia) | Anthon Transcript (Wikipedia) | Mormonism Unvailed (Wikipedia)
NFTs: ConstitutionDAO’s bold crypto bid for US Constitution falls short (TechCrunch) | Proof of work (Wikipedia)
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On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn introduces everyone to the most famous monster from West Virginia not named “Joe Manchin”, Lauren talks about colonialist brontosaurus-hunters, Gem reminds everyone of that time a used car salesman murdered Bigfoot, and Laura gives a low key defence of cryptozoology.
Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.
Crytpozoology on LUEE: Episode 108: Cryptozoology & Mythical Creatures (LUEE)
The Flatwoods Monster: In 1952, the Flatwoods Monster Terrified 6 Kids, a Mom, a Dog—and the Nation (History) | The Flatwoods Monster (Visit Braxton, WV) | The W.Va. Monster That Crept Into International Pop Culture (WVPB) | Flatwoods monster (Wikipedia)
Mokele-Mbembe: Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africa (Contingent Magazine) | Congo Basin (Wikipedia) | Mokele-mbembe (Wikipedia) | Great Zimbabwe (Wikipedia) | Rhodesia (Wikipedia) | Lake Bangweulu (Wikipedia) | Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (Wikipedia) | Reptilian conspiracy theory (Wikipedia) | Willy Ley (Wikipedia) | Ishtar Gate (Wikipedia) | Brontosaurus (Wikipedia)
Rick Dyer, Big Foot Hunter: On Tour with Rick Dyer and his Bigfoot through Texas (Texas Monthly) | Bigfoot Claim Exposed As Hoax (CBS News) | Bigfoot Experts Skeptical of Body in Freezer (Fox News) | Las Vegas man claims he killed the first Bigfoot (WDAM7 News) | Bigfoot tracker admits body is a hoax (Houston Chronicle) | Why is the Latest Guy Who’s Pretending He Caught Bigfoot Cavalierly Giving Him Such a Tiny Penis? (Esquire) | Rick Dyer (Wikipedia)
A Defence of Cryptozoology: How the search for mythical monsters can help conservation in the real world (The Conversation) | The strange case of the spiral-horned ox (Nature) | Seven species that used to be cryptids (ScIU) | The platypus is so weird that scientists thought the first specimen was a hoax (The Washington Post) | Okapi (Wikipedia) | Okapi (Cryptid Wiki) | Bondegezou (Cryptid Wiki) | Platypus (Cryptid Wiki) | Dingiso (Wikipedia) | Dingiso Tree-kangaroo (PapuaWeb)
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Comments Off on Episode 174: The Assassination of Bigfoot by the Coward Rick Dyer
On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Gem is joined by Ashlyn, Laura, and Lauren to talk about social contagion and unpack the sociological, psychological, and sometimes pseudoscientific history of “hysteria”. Topics include the Tanganyika laughter epidemic, the Dancing Plague of 1518, and the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic.
Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.
Social Contagion: Contagion: a theoretical and empirical review and reconceptualization (ResearchGate) | Social contagion (Wikipedia) | Mass psychogenic illness (Wikipedia) | Irish Fright (Wikipedia)
The Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic: The laughter of the 1962 Tanganyika ‘laughter epidemic’ (ResearchGate) | An epidemic of laughing in the Bukoba district of Tanganyika (Central African Journal of Medicine) | Why laughter makes no sense: The surprising science behind what tickles our funny bones (Salon.com) | The 1962 Laughter Epidemic of Tanganyika Was No Joke (Atlas Obscura)
The Dancing Plague of 1518: A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania (The Lancet) | Dancing plague of 1518 (Encyclopaedia Britannica) | Dancing plague of 1518 (Wikipedia) | Ergotism (Wikipedia) | Sydenham Chorea Information Page (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)
The Seattle Windshield Pitting Epidemic: Windshield pitting incidents in Washington reach fever pitch on April 15, 1954 (HistoryLink.org) | The Windshield-pitting mystery of 1954 (NPR) | How the Seattle windshield pitting epidemic is connected to data interpretation (Quantilia Financial Data and Calculation Factory)
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Comments Off on Episode 173: Social Contagion and Psychogenic Illness
On this episode of Life, the Universe & Everything Else, Ashlyn, Gem, Lauren, and Laura engage in a battle of wits over today’s most important scientific topics: eels, climate change, and… Jim Henson movies?
Life, the Universe & Everything Else is a podcast that explores the intersection of science and society.
Eels: Surprised Eel Historian, PhD (Twitter) | European eel (Wikipedia) | Interesting facts about eels (Just Fun Facts) | Trust Us, These 9 Slithery Facts About Eels Are The Real D-EEL (AwesomeOcean.com) | 20 Interesting Facts About Eels (Nature Tingz)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC) | Summary for Policymakers (IPCC)
Jim Henson Films: Jim Henson (Wikipedia) | The Muppet Movie (Wikipedia) | Academy Awards (Muppet Wiki) | The Dark Crystal (Wikipedia) | Labyrinth (Wikipedia) | The Witches (Wikipedia)
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Comments Off on Episode 172: Quiz Show XP
LUEE 