Skepticule at The Book of Mormon

How did Skepticule's Three Pauls like The Book of Mormon? Find out by listening to this episode of the Skepticule podcast (not safe for those of a puritanically unsweary disposition):

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2013/09/skepticule-054-20130831.html

And here are some pics (including Piccadilly Circus on the way to the Prince of Wales Theatre):

Some reviews wot I wrote, "way back"

Just a quick post to alert those who might be interested — I've set up a page of links to my reviews for The Fix Online, which was part of the TTA Press publishing empire. I wrote these mostly in 2008, but alas The Fix Online is no more. Thanks to the Wayback Machine, however, the text is still available, though mostly unformatted.

Incidentally the links to the podcast fiction I reviewed in my column "From the Podosphere" seem to be working, so if you're looking for some science-fiction audio, some fantasy audio or some horror audio to while away some hours (or scare you silly) check out what I liked and give it a try.

Click here to go to the page.

Skepticule 51 is available for your listening pleasure

This is shorter than our usual podcast, but still contains plenty to ... complain about:

Bad SF; Theocratic school management; Hoax disaster rescue; Secular Promise; Rain dance killing; Muslim prayer TV call; Teenage TED cancer test; Westboro consistency;

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2013/08/skepticule-051-20130713.html

Skepticule's half century

Just a quick reminder in advance of an imminent Skepticule announcement: if you haven't yet listened to the 50th episode of Skepticule, in which the three Pauls engage in a bit of gratuitous retrospective self-congratulation, here's your chance. Catch it before it goes away! (It's not going away, but listen anyway....)

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2013/07/skepticule-050-20130707.html

Including the regular Pearced Off, plus a bonus contribution, features and other goodies you didn't know you didn't want to miss.

Subscribe here:
http://www.skepticule.co.uk/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Get it from iTunes here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330565544

Download the mp3 file here:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/revup/Skepticule-050-20130707.mp3

Escape Pod, episode 400: "Rescue Party" by Arthur C. Clarke

Wow. I just listened to something truly awesome. Check out the 400th episode of Escape Pod, the science fiction podcast magazine. For this landmark episode the Escape Artists crew serve up a full-cast performance of a classic SF short story — the very first story sold by my all-time favourite SF author, Arthur C. Clarke. "Rescue Party" was written in 1946, and bears the hallmarks that identify Clarke as the visionary he was later to be acknowledged as.

http://escapepod.org/2013/06/18/ep400-rescue-party/

Clarke is a hero of mine. See this article at HumanistLife to find out why:

http://www.humanistlife.org.uk/2010/06/humanist-hero-arthur-c-clarke-by-paul-s-jenkins/

Disclosure: I've narrated stories for Escape Pod myself in the past. Here's one of my favourites, done for an earlier milestone in the podcast's illustrious history:

http://escapepod.org/2006/04/20/ep050-the-malcontent/

Monsters in an area of confusion

As discussed on Skepticule Extra 28, the Goddess Roundtable podcast is a festival of woo. After hearing co-host Paul Thompson describe this particular episode I decided to give it a listen. I posted a link on Facebook and commented as it progressed:

Listening to this now — it's hilarious:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/goddessroundtable/2010/10/29/the-monster-in-the-vagina-testament-to-vaginal-exorcisms

• • 

    Paul Jenkins It's also depressing — that there are people living such fantasy and believing it's real.

    Sunday at 15:41 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins Now at about 16 minutes, and wondering if it's actually an allegory for sensible sexual health maintenance...

    Sunday at 15:44 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins ‎"interdimensional beings" and "energy vortexes"

    Sunday at 15:46 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins Oh, it's a phone-in show. Why does she need the phones? Can't she just communicate telepathically or something?

    Sunday at 15:54 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins ‎"elohim" (There should be a paranormal bingo card for this show.)

    Sunday at 16:08 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins ‎"chakras", "meridians", "spiritual anatomy"

    Sunday at 16:11 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins ‎"generational curses", "demonic entities"

    Sunday at 16:12 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins This caller says she has "some confusion in the womb area". I presume this is a euphemism.

    Sunday at 16:17 · · 1
  • 

    Paul Jenkins The host's advice is essentially "Buy my book!"

    Sunday at 16:21 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins Now she's claiming her book is divinely inspired (channelled).

    Sunday at 16:23 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins Not sure why it's called Goddess Roundtable — she nattered bollocks (in more than one sense) for half an hour, then responded with barnum statements and cold reading of the deludons who called her show.

    Sunday at 16:28 ·
  • 

    Paul Jenkins It's over. Now, is a cup of tea a good remedy for a potentially exploding skull?

    Sunday at 16:30 ·

Wanna hear a spooky story?

I don't believe in ghosts. I'm extremely skeptical of the "supernatural", whether we're talking fairies, spirits or gods. But I love a good horror story.

PodCastle is a free audio fiction podcast that serves up a short fantasy story every week, and though it's mainly devoted to fantasy (that is, not horror), about this time each year — approaching All Hallows' Eve — it naturally gravitates towards stories of a ghoulish nature.

I've a soft spot for PodCastle as I was honoured to be asked to narrate its inaugural episode back in April 2008, "Come Lady Death" by Peter S. Beagle. Since then I've narrated a few more, and the most recent has just gone live, "The Gateway of the Monster" by William Hope Hodgson.

Even though I don't believe in ghosts, reading a good horror story several times in preparation for narration, then actually narrating it, and then spending a good deal of time editing the audio, can be a very immersive process — so much so that I can well imagine what it must be like to believe such things are real....

Latest Skepticule Extra now available

A varied mix of stuff awaits your listening pleasure in the eighth episode of Skepticule Extra. This time the three Pauls bring you music and cancer cures, science and libel (including an interview with Simon Singh), and an item that male listeners may find disturbing (in an incisive, circular fashion):

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/07/skepextra-008-20110626.html

The music — live! — is by Adam Kay of Amateur Transplants.

Skepticule Record: Dr. Paul Curzon at Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub

Dr. Paul Curzon's talk on artificial intelligence on 12 May (the second talk of the evening) included several demonstrations requiring audience participation. He concluded with some conjuring to illustrate his own research into the "human-computer interface".

Audio is available in the Skepticule Record podcast feed here:
http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/05/skeprec-003-20110512.html

(A new Skepticule Extra episode will be available shortly.)

New Skepticule Record (Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub) available

Dr. Chaz Shapiro delivered a fascinating talk on dark matter and dark energy at Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub on Thursday 12th May, at its new venue The Fat Fox.

Audio is available in the Skepticule Record podcast feed here:
http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/05/skeprec-002-20110512.html

There was another highly engaging talk later the same evening by Dr. Paul Curzon, on artificial intelligence. Audio should be available shortly.

A brace of podcasts — Skepticule Extra & Skepticule Record

Here's the latest instalment of Skepticule Extra, wherein Paul Baird, Paul ("Sinbad") Thompson and I discuss recently mutating DNA, whether a family of hateful fundamentalists really expects to convert anyone, if book-burning should make a difference, and whether a well known Christian apologist and debater is all he's cracked up to be:

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/04/skepextra-003-20110417.html

Also available is the first episode of Skepticule Record, which though it's currently on the same RSS feed as Skepticule Extra, will be used to archive the audio of live events. The first is a recording of Dr. Tom Williamson's talk, "The Scientific Method: Uses and Abuses", given at Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub last Thursday:

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/2011/04/skeprec-001-20110417.html

(Despite being recorded in a noisy bar with a football commentary in the background, the talk is listenable. I'm hoping, however, that next time a feed from the PA will be available.)

New godless podcast: Skepticule Extra

I'm pleased to announce the launch of a new godless podcast featuring Paul Baird, Paul Thompson (aka Sinbad) and myself, which is going by the informal title of The Three Pauls Show for obvious reasons. Our current intention is to release a half-hour show every two weeks, and for the time being episodes will appear in the Skepticule RSS feed under the title Skepticule Extra — so it's already available in iTunes.

Find it here:

http://www.skepticule.co.uk/

or in iTunes here:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=330565544

Give it a listen, and send us your feedback by commenting on the shownotes blog, or by email to: feedback@skepticule.co.uk

"I narrate podcast fiction," he said (repost from other blog)

Regular readers of this blog will know that I've contributed my voice to various fiction podcasts. My latest is a reading for Transmissions from Beyond, the podcast of TTA Press, who are posting stories from their three main publications, Interzone, Black Static and Crimewave. I narrated "Lady of the Crows", a story by Tim Casson from the first issue of Black Static. (It may have been Black Static's inaugural issue, but the magazine has been going a long time under its previous title of The Third Alternative.)

Regular readers might also know that I've narrated my own short fiction on my podcast The Rev Up Review, and my own first novel The Plitone Revisionist, available for free at Podiobooks.com.

I've learned a few things over the past three years of narrating fiction. The main thing is that I never want to do it live. My raw audio is painful to listen to. For a 30-minute reading I typically record maybe 45 minutes, including pauses to turn pages,
cough up my gutsclear my throat, or for second, third and sixth retakes. Thankfully we have such applications as Audacity and GarageBand to allow meticulous editing of the raw source, which, with care, can turn something amateurishly halting into a smooth, professional-sounding production.

Audio fiction comes in several flavours. There's the straight reading, with no sound effects, minimal attempts at accents, and maybe some intro and outro music. This is the kind of production I favour, though I've experimented with special processing for telephone or computer/robot effects.

Next there's the enhanced reading, with more sound effects and perhaps some guest voices. This is a kind of half-way house, and requires careful judgement to get right, otherwise it can sound cheesy. Global decisions have to be made regarding sound effects, and stuck to:

"There was a knock at the door."

[FX: sound of door-knocking]

Should the sound-effect come before the words, or after, as above? Or should the words be omitted? Or the sound-effect? Tricky decisions, because getting it wrong can mean the listener is wrenched out of the fictional world, which is the last thing an author wants. Any enhancements to audio fiction should be aimed at increasing the listener's immersion in the story. Anything that draws the listener's attention to the production, the writing, the voice - in fact to anything that isn't the story itself - is to be avoided.

Enhanced audio fiction is also a great deal of work, requiring co-ordination of guest voices, unless your guests are all assembled together for recording (which would require considerable co-ordination in itself). If guests are recording separately and sending their audio files, there's the added complication of differing audio levels, background noise, pacing, etc. An excellent example of such a production is Tee Morris's podcast novel, Billibub Baddings and the Case of the Singing Sword, though I have to admit I don't feel my own contribution to it was particularly effective.

Finally there's full-cast audio drama. This not only takes a lot of work, it also requires total dedication from everyone participating, whether they're all together in a 'studio' or recording separately. It can be done successfully, and has been: Second Shift, Children of the Gods, Decoder Ring Theater, to mention just a few.

But even the simplest audio fiction requires important decisions at the outset. Just how expressive should the narrator be? How important are accents? My next question should reveal where I stand on these questions. Have you ever read a book written entirely in dialect?

In school our English teachers often read to the class during lessons. I remember one teacher who was extremely expressive, virtually acting his way through the text. It was good narration, in its way. But we had another English teacher who read to us with a very flat voice - practically no expression at all. For me, such a flat reading was much closer to reading the book myself. Straightforward fiction in print rarely has stage directions separate from the text; the 'action' of the story is conveyed in words, and words alone.

One aspect of podcast fiction that may have a bearing on why enhanced audio fiction is popular in the podosphere, is that much podcast fiction is science fiction, and many podcasters are fans of graphic novels. My comments in the previous paragraph do not, obviously, apply to graphic novels (which is a type of fiction I know very little about).

Even if my own preference is for unembellished readings, I acknowledge that audio fiction is not, and never can be, the same as printed fiction. There are clues on the page that cannot be transferred unaltered to the audio version. There are also aspects of printed fiction that go virtually unnoticed on the page, but stand out glaringly when read aloud. One example is speech- or dialogue-tags. Often the layout on the page will indicate who is speaking. "He said" and "she said" will reliably indicate who said what. When narrating, a slight change in voice will do the same, but usually the tags will still be needed. I've noticed several podcasters, however, leaving a lengthy gap between the speech itself and the tag, enough, even, to take a breath. Personally I find this detracts from the narration. Why I should find this distracting was a puzzle, until I reflected on how I normally read printed dialogue (other than when narrating). I realised that the speech tag is taken in by the eye at the same time as the speech itself. The 'who' is apprehended simultaneously with the 'what', not separately. That's why, in my own narration, I tend to close up the gaps between the dialogue and its tags as much as possible.

I've long been a fan of BBC Radio Drama, and of the BBC's fiction readings, many of which are virtually permanently available (if you count the unending repeats) on BBC7, and I've therefore modelled my own narrations on the BBC's output (and that of Oneword Radio, before its unfortunate demise earlier this year). While Martin Jarvis has many fans of his man-of-a-thousand-voices style of narration, I prefer to follow narrators like Alex Jennings, Paul Rhys and Nigel Anthony.

Who would you follow? Want to try? Stay tuned!

Blazing a trail for Podiobook authors: Scott Sigler & Seth Harwood (repost from other blog)

Look what just arrived!



A package from Amazon.com outside my door yesterday evening contained these two new releases:

• Infected by Scott Sigler, (hardcover) published by Crown
• Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood (paperback) published by Breakneck Books

Congrats to both of them, and thanks for drawing the mainstream spotlight onto new media - both of these titles were originally released as free podcast novels.

Listen up, sceptics! - a list of sceptical podcasts

Here's a collection of podcasts related to rationality, critical thinking, scepticism, atheism, etc. It's not exhaustive; these are the ones I listen to when I have time.


Skepticality - the original sceptical podcast, with Derek and Swoopy, and now the official podcast of Skeptic Magazine

Point of Inquiry - the podcast of the Center for Inquiry, hosted by D. J. Grothe


Skeptoid - Brian Dunning's podcast book is also available at Podiobooks.com (for those who want an easy way to listen from the beginning)


Skeptics' Guide to the Universe - Dr Steven Novella plus a regular panel (associated with JREF - James Randi Educational Foundation)


Freethought Radio - Dan Barker & Annie Laurie Gaylor from FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation)


Bad Science - Dr Ben Goldacre (who writes for the Guardian) has an occasional podcast related to his well-known blog


Atheists Talk - Minnesota Atheists' new podcast


Quick Hitts - Dave Hitt is often controversial, but always interesting

If you have any other suggestions for podcast listening in this field, feel free to post them in the comments.

Repost: Patrick McLean's The Seanachai: "Blame Abraham"

Here's another repost from my other blog, this one from August 2006.

Reposted from: http://witteringon.blogspot.com/2006/08/patrick-mcleans-seanachai-blame.html

I've been a fan of The Seanachai for quite some time. Patrick McLean's short podcasts are little gems of mastery -- beautifully written, expertly delivered and flawlessly produced. Mostly he does serialized fiction; I particularly enjoyed his story about the man who shot his guitar.

But occasionally Patrick does a one-off commentary, and his latest, "Blame Abraham" cuts right through all the nonsense, spin and partisan hype surrounding the current Middle-Eastern crisis.

Listen to it. And then share it.
.

Redefining meaning?

There's an argument that says that without God, life has no meaning. Some of us actually embrace this as a great liberation. If life has no meaning we are free to imbue it with any meaning we wish. This, however, doesn't satisfy those whose faith demands meaning imposed from above. If you deny that life has intrinsic meaning, they say, and maintain that meaning imposed by God is a myth, inventing meaning in its place is surely equally mythical.

For me, this misunderstands the kind of thing that 'meaning' -- in this context -- is. Meaning in life is not, as some would have it, a kind of goal, or purpose, or ideal end target. To say that life has meaning does not necessarily imbue it with externally imposed direction or intention, and neither does inventing your own meaning. Life just is. What you do with it is your affair.

Meaning in life is not so much a property that it possesses, more a declaration of those who live it.

In a hypothetical conversation between three umpires about strikes in baseball, Umpire 1 says, "I call 'em as they are." Umpire 2 says, "I call 'em as I see 'em." Umpire 3 says "They ain't nothin' till I call 'em." This illustrates the difference between attempting to perceive something that's already there, and acknowledging that some properties don't actually exist at all. Umpire 3 is not claiming flawless perception of objective reality as Umpire 1 is, nor is he admitting imperfect perception of reality, as Umpire 2 is. Umpire 3 is saying that this particular reality doesn't exist until he says it does. That, after all, is his job.

(Incidentally I put some of this worldview speculation into my very first published short story, "The Journey of Jonathan Cave" -- initially published on line at Alien Q, subsequently read on my podcast The Rev Up Review, then re-recorded for publication in Mur Lafferty's audio anthology Voices: New Media Fiction, available for free at Podiobooks.com.)

The concept of 'meaning' in life is a bit like the concept of evolution. Saying 'survival of the fittest' is not to say that the overall grand purpose of evolution is to weed out those less fit. Evolution doesn't have a grand purpose. It just is. If it does tend to weed out those less fit to survive and reproduce in prevailing environmental conditions, this says nothing about whether it's a good or bad thing. Morality doesn't come into it. It's simply the way the mechanism of evolution works.

Your life has no meaning until you say it does. That's your job.

Redefining faith

You thought faith was defined as 'belief without evidence'? Think again...

According to JP Holding in a recent interview with Jason Rennie of The Sci Phi Show podcast, faith is actually more like 'loyalty':



http://thesciphishow.com/?p=120

Audio here: http://thesciphishow.com/audio/tspsoc41.mp3 (about 19 minutes)

It's easy to counter arguments if you simply redefine the terms...

Jason interviewed PZ Myers recently as well, and they talked briefly about The God Delusion. I wouldn't recommend it as the audio quality is abysmal (poor phone line?). But if you're still curious, have a good pair of ears and a quiet place to listen, the audio is here:

http://thesciphishow.com/audio/tspsoc42.mp3

Repost: "Another Out" (from the RD.net forum)

It's been a few months since I discovered RichardDawkins.net, but it didn't take me long to add the site to my newsreader, and not much longer to register for the discussion forum (though to be honest I haven't been very active there). But I did make a 'new visitor' post, and was delighted with the welcome I found. For anyone reading the posts here at Evil Burnee who is curious how I came to my present position on the issue of faith, I can do no better than repost my first message (from 17 December 2006) on the RD.net forum.

Reposted from: http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52516#52516

After years of silent scepticism (mostly out of 'respect' for close family members who profess religious belief in varying degrees) I've become more and more appalled by what is perpetrated throughout the world in the name of faith.

Though I was brought up as 'Anglican' I harboured doubts about the whole business of God and faith, until it became time for me to be 'confirmed'. For me this was rather late, at age 14 or 15 (I don't remember exactly when), but I was doing physics and chemistry at school, and was aware of some incompatibility with what I was being asked to believe. But I dutifully went each week to our local vicar for one-on-one 'catechism classes' -- with the result that each week I became more and more confirmed in my belief that it was all bunk. Our vicar was patient with me, and attempted to answer my queries and counter my doubts. But it was clear to me by then that I could not in all honesty declare a belief I didn't have.

So I consider my confirmation classes a success -- in convincing me that my doubts were legitimate, and freeing me from the skygod's oppression. From then on I was happy to apply reason and logic to any of life's problems, without recourse to a supernatural overseer. But it was a private matter; I saw no reason to declare my rejection of unquestioning faith. Those who know me are aware of my thinking on this, but I don't tout it around.

I wonder just how many of us -- closet atheists -- there are.

I watched Jonathan Miller's TV series A Brief History of Unbelief when it was first broadcast, but only recently have I been able to see the second part of Richard Dawkins' Root of All Evil? I was aware of Dawkins' views (I remember seeing the broadcast of his Richard Dimbleby lecture, and cringing as he talked of spoon-benders while the camera cut to another Dimbleby in the audience), and I shared the unease others have expressed at his 'militancy'.

I'm now about two thirds through The God Delusion, and I now see that what I thought of as militancy is actually a healthy disrespect for blind faith, and I agree that from holy wars to religious schools, it's time to make our views known, to counter the tacit assumptions about the 'sanctity' of religious belief.

My awareness that there was any kind of organised collection of like-minded people in this sphere came when I discovered Derek & Swoopy's Skepticality podcast. Now I also listen each week to the Point of Inquiry podcast, and have recently subscribed to Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer magazines.

Coming across The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has been the latest discovery in a refreshingly eye-opening journey.