Darren talks about the evidence behind chiropractic care as well as his visit to a chiropractor's office. James Randi is interviewed at TAM8 and tells all about the event that led to him leaving Canada. Elan examines the myth that half of the internet is porn.
Malachi: I really don't think it'd be worth your time. My brother is a big Randi fan (he's a magician). I sent him the raw interview, if he thinks it'd be worthwhile for other fans, I'll release it. (You got a small taste in the outtakes)
Caffiene: It's definitely hard to get a definitive answer. On top of the pay sites you mention, we also have to keep in mind that the web is constantly changing and involving. While we may never know exactly how much porn there is, it's probably safe to assume it's minor compared to the rest.
For every pay porn site, there's at least ten other pay sites that aren't porn that also aren't being crawled by google.
I have to say, Im less than convinced by the "web is for porn" research...
Most of the attempts Ive heard of are like the ones discussed on the show, focusing on google results or the like, but theres a problem - the Deep Web.
The Deep Web (also known as the Dark Web) is the term to refer to pages that are "below the surface" - pages that are hard to find because they arent indexed by search engines, they move frequently, or for various other reasons. The size of the Deep Web is probably as vague as the amount of porn on the net, but some estimates are that the "surface" (non-Deep) web could make up 1% or less of the total content of the web.
So judging the amount of porn on the net by search results is a very small sample to judge by, and probably not a good indicator. For example: How many porn pages from restricted "members only" areas would actually be indexed by search engines?
Are y'all going to release the audio of the psychic trick Randi did? I'm sure it's long, and maybe not as impressive as just audio, but I'd sure like to hear it.
As far as Randi's decision to become an American citizen, I know y'all didn't press him on it, and I don't blame you. It would probably have derailed the segment, but I'm interested in his rationale.
My guess is that he would admit that it wasn't entirely rational, but a personal violation like that followed by a cover-up can affect people pretty strongly even if it isn't a logical reaction.
But if anyone knows if he's expanded on it elsewhere I'd love to hear it.
I'm not trying to argue that Randi made the wrong decision, I was just surprised that it was so emotionally based/driven by personal experience. I don't know one way or the other which country is "worse" in terms of civil rights abuses. I don't have the data, and I'm not a lawyer. If I were going to base my citizenship on such a thing, I would look into it. If you have evidence that "we don't have as great constitutional protection" and "we don't fight... as vehemently" I would love to hear it. The charter of rights and freedoms is solid protection against all kinds of crap including "unreasonable search and seizure" (en.wikipedia.org/.../...), and the Patriot Act (en.wikipedia.org/.../...) seems to give American law enforcement broad powers. But again, I don't have all the information.
Yeah, we Canucks like to think that the US is more abusive of rights. They do that kind of thing in Canada too, we just don't hear about it cause it doesn't get publicized as loudly. We don't have as great a constitutional protection of our basic rights as they do in the US. Also Canadians don't fight for their rights as vehemently as Americans do.
I find it very interesting that Randi's decision to become an American citizen was entirely emotional, without basis in any objective facts. He says "I have never seen the FBI do anything like that." Well in that case it must never happen! Well, he's still my hero, but I suppose he's human too...
The Reality Check - Podcast 
Comments
Caffiene: It's definitely hard to get a definitive answer. On top of the pay sites you mention, we also have to keep in mind that the web is constantly changing and involving. While we may never know exactly how much porn there is, it's probably safe to assume it's minor compared to the rest.
For every pay porn site, there's at least ten other pay sites that aren't porn that also aren't being crawled by google.
Most of the attempts Ive heard of are like the ones discussed on the show, focusing on google results or the like, but theres a problem - the Deep Web.
The Deep Web (also known as the Dark Web) is the term to refer to pages that are "below the surface" - pages that are hard to find because they arent indexed by search engines, they move frequently, or for various other reasons. The size of the Deep Web is probably as vague as the amount of porn on the net, but some estimates are that the "surface" (non-Deep) web could make up 1% or less of the total content of the web.
So judging the amount of porn on the net by search results is a very small sample to judge by, and probably not a good indicator. For example: How many porn pages from restricted "members only" areas would actually be indexed by search engines?
As far as Randi's decision to become an American citizen, I know y'all didn't press him on it, and I don't blame you. It would probably have derailed the segment, but I'm interested in his rationale.
My guess is that he would admit that it wasn't entirely rational, but a personal violation like that followed by a cover-up can affect people pretty strongly even if it isn't a logical reaction.
But if anyone knows if he's expanded on it elsewhere I'd love to hear it.
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