TRC #543: The Dr. Katie Bouman Narrative + Another Segment About Cats + Measles Parties

Happy Pagan Spring Weekend! Darren kicks off the show by looking at recent media coverage around Dr. Katie Bouman and how she ‘accidentally’ became the face of the Black Hole project. Adam brings us another fur-midable look at cats and asks how many lives do cats really have? Finally, Cristina has to remind us why ‘measles parties’ are a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.

Download direct: mp3 file

Dr. Katie Bouman

NY Times

Twitter

Another Segment About Cats

El mundo de Dali Cat Cafe on Instagram

Cat righting reflex – Wikipedia

High-rise syndrome – Wikipedia

Measles Parties

CTV News: Measles parties are a terrible idea

CDC Measles Complications

The Insider: Chicken pox parties

Global News: Chicken pox parties

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5 Responses to TRC #543: The Dr. Katie Bouman Narrative + Another Segment About Cats + Measles Parties

  1. Mike Mella says:

    Hi Checkers.

    During the segment about the lives of cats, Adam did that a cat’s slower rate of terminal velocity is in party due to its small size. From what I understand, size doesn’t affect terminal velocity. A stone paperweight is much smaller than a cat, but it would fall at 32 feet per second, even if you covered it in fur. I believe its mass is the important thing. Maybe that’s what Adam meant? I could be wrong. Love the snow!

    • Adam says:

      That bit came from Wikipedia. They state the same but the link doesn’t mention size specially. That said smaller things do seem to fall with more drag. A dandilion spore can flutter for metres but a coconut doesn’t. This isn’t size alone I’m sure but it might be a factor. Intuitively what you say makes sense. The old feather vs bowling ball falling thing. I’d need to think about it a bit or maybe ask someone more versed in physics about it.
      Here was the link:
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_righting_reflex

  2. Mike Mella says:

    Show, not snow. I don’t love the snow.

  3. C Frith-Macdonald says:

    On the measles/chicken pox parties, Adam kept saying ‘just get your kids vaccinated’ about chicken pox. There are legitimately two positions on vaccinating against chicken pox, and in the UK the NHS has chosen not to (I think it’s the position in other European nations too). Getting chicken pox as an adult is more dangerous than in childhood, and if you vaccinate against it in children, you may miss more kids than would fail to catch it as things stand, plus the vaccine effectiveness drops in the years after administration. Just as importantly, adults exposed again to chicken pox through children around them having it are less likely to have the much nastier shingles later in life, so if vaccinating against the pox you may have to give a lot more of the shingles vaccine too, or see more shingles cases. Since chicken pox is pretty minor and the benefits of the vaccine were not overwhelming, the NHS decided to leave things alone (and let the kids protect the adults, they may as well do something useful). It is in NO WAY similar to any argument advanced about avoiding vaccination and catching measles, obviously! Viruses are hugely variable, from a cold to ebola, can’t extrapolate from one to another.
    https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/childrens-health/why-are-children-in-the-uk-not-vaccinated-against-chickenpox/

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