The Reality Check Episode 82

Mike Duffy and Critical Thinking + HFCS Study + Frown Myth

Frown takes more muscles than smiles?

Part 1:

The Reality Check is going to a little able Mike Duffy and what he thinks about critical thinking.

Michael Dennis Duffy is a Canadian Senator and former Canadian television journalist. Prior to his appointment to the upper house he was the Ottawa editor for CTV News Channel, and a host of Mike Duffy Live and Countdown with Mike Duffy on the network. Duffy sits in the Senate as a Conservative, representing Prince Edward Island.

Senator Mike Duffy has attacked the University of King’s College and other Canadian journalism schools for exposing students to Noam Chomsky and critical thinking. In a speech Saturday to Conservative party members in Amherst, Duffy reportedly slammed journalism programs for churning out leftist graduates. “When I went to the school of hard knocks, we were told to be fair and balanced,” Duffy was quoted from his speech in yesterday’s issue of the Amherst Daily News. “That school doesn’t exist any more. Kids who go to King’s, or the other schools across the country, are taught from two main texts.” According to Duffy — a former CTV News journalist appointed to the Senate last year by Prime Minister Stephen Harper — those two texts are Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky’s book on mainstream media, and books about the theory of critical thinking. “When you put critical thinking together with Noam Chomsky, what you’ve got is a group of people who are taught from the ages of 18, 19 and 20 that what we stand for, private enterprise, a system that has generated more wealth for more people because people take risks and build businesses, is bad,” Duffy is quoted as saying. Duffy then told Conservatives they have nothing to apologize for because most Canadians are not “on the fringe where these other people are.” Kim Kierans, head of the King’s School of Journalism, was surprised to hear Duffy’s comments. She said Manufacturing Consent isn’t part of the curriculum, though students do read some Chomsky. She made no apologies for teaching critical thinking. “We’re trying to teach people to have critical thinking skills, to hold accountable anyone who is in any way in authority,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the Conservatives, the NDP, the Green party, they’re all fair game in the sense that they have to be able to be transparent.” - Metro

Listen to the Interview here: The Reality Check Episode 82

Part 2: 

So, does high fructose corn syrup make people fatter than just sugar?

Read all of the evidence here: A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain

Science Myth of the Week: 

So, does it take more to frown than smile? 

You've likely been told that it takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown, and that, in light of this fact, you should smile more often. There are quite a few numbers that get tossed around when this line is used. Some claim it takes 43 muscles to frown and 17 to smile, but open Aunt Milda's chain letter and you might be surprised to learn it takes 26 to smile and 62 to frown. And some naysayers claim it's quite the opposite, that in fact it takes more muscles to smile than to frown.