Ep 65: Science... sort of - Stats and Stones

00:00:00 – The Paleopals are all here, having recovered from a mysterious case of arsenic poisoning, and are flushing their systems out with a little bit of alcohol. Charlie has an old favorite, Patrick is kicking back a cold one, and Ryan is classing it up, but maybe being a bit "winey" about it.   00:05:29 – Ryan, Patrick and Ben sit down for a chat with John Allen Paulos, a professor of math and statistics at Temple University. He's way smarter than all of you so listen to what he says about numbers, innumeracy and the problem with people not knowing their maths (It's how the Brits say it.)   Also, don't forget to do your homework: 1) Take any prime number bigger than 5 and explain why it's square is always 1 more than a multiple of 24. 2) Estimate how many pizza parlors there are in SF.   00:40:34 – Now that the Paleopals have been told they need to toughen up their number sense they figure they best toughen up in some other areas, in other words they need to develop some True Grit.   00:50:14 – Most people don't use "irony" properly; other people don't know how to tell a dinosaur from an ammonite. When the two combine it's a kerfuffle of misinformation and sanctimonious jabs. That's exactly the case with the recent story of a "dinosaur" in a Cathedral.  Accept no substitutes, the Paleopals won't steer ya wrong.   01:01:46 – On the PaleoPOW this week Paleogamy Porter is dropping some kind words on iTunes, Matt provides a trippy addition to the Brachiolope gallery, and Christian schools us on comments made way back in the before time on episode 46.   Please consider voting for us in the science category at http://podcastawards.com   Thanks for listening, show notes and links available at http://sciencesortof.com, also check out the blog for more content all week at http://paleocave.com/   Music this week: Wine Red – The Hush Sound Painted by Numbers – The Sounds God's Gonna Cut You Down – Johnny Cash Grace Cathedral Hill – The Decemberists