The Trump Administration Wants to Ease Restrictions on Automakers. Ford, Honda, VW & BMW Say “No Thanks”

Guest: Kenneth Gillingham, Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University

The Trump Administration is in the process of relaxing gas-mileage standards for cars and trucks. Which you’d think automakers would welcome. So why did four of them –Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW of North America –just cut a deal with the state of California to stick with the stricter rules?

 

Why Storming Area 51 Is Unlikely to Yield Alien Secrets

Guest: Peter W. Merlin, Aerospace Historian, Founding Member of the X-Hunters Aerospace Archeology Team, Author of “Images of Aviation: Area 51”

So apparently it was a college kid’s joke, but the Facebook page calling for a mass invasion of the secretive government site Area 51 went viral. Before the owner took it down recently, more than a million people signed on to “Storm Area 51” on September 20th. “They can’t stop all of us!” “Let’s see them aliens” the page quipped. And while it’s been taken down, others have popped up in its place. Just in case people are serious, the military has warned that “Area 51 is an opening training range . . . and the US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.”

 

Romantic Types Are Real, And It’s Better That We Know

Guest: Geoff MacDonald, Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto

When a relationship ends badly, it’s pretty common for the partners to swear they’ll never partner with someone like that again. But easier said than done. A study of hundreds of people, and the people they’ve been in relationships with, found we really do gravitate toward a type. So, is there every any hope for turning a new leaf in love?

 

Ads Can Make Us Mad—Which is Sometimes the Point

Guest: Mark Bartholomew, Professor of Law, University of Buffalo

IHOP or the International House of Pancakes changed their name last year to IHOB, the international house of burgers. At least that’s what they advertised. But IHOP didn’t actually change its name –it was just a stunt the company pulled to get a rise out of people. This is part of a growing trend of advertisements that are purposefully trying to make viewers angry, but aren’t ads supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy toward the brand? 

 

Nematodes are everywhere –57 billion for every human on Earth

Guest: Byron J. Adams, PhD, professor of Biology, Brigham Young University

The most abundant animal on Earth is not a type of fish or bird or even an insect. It’s a tiny, wormy creature called a nematode. For every human on the planet there are 57 billion nematodes. Which is enough to make my spine crawl a bit –and also, if there are so many of them, why I haven’t I ever seen one?

 

Eye Bacteria—Not as Gross as it Sounds

Guest: Anthony St. Leger, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Your kid gets pink eye. You keep him home from school and alert the parents of his friends to be on the lookout. And you get antibiotic drops from the doctor to clear up the infection. That’s the standard treatment. But most pink eye cases are viral, so antibiotics won’t help. Worse, they may be wiping out “good bacteria” on the eye.