The Rest of the Media

Here is the rest of my regular podcast listening and blog following…

Podcasts

• American Freethought 
• Atheist Talk Radio Show
• Books and Ideas
• Gresham College Audio
• Ideas from CBC Radio
• London School of Economics
• On Being
• On the Media
• PopTech Audio
• Rationally Speaking
• Reasonable Doubts
• Reasonable Faith
• RSA Events
• TED Talks Audio 
• Unbelievable

Blogs

• All Secure
• Average Joe’s HandgunReviews
• Black Skeptics
• Aggression Management
• Bucks New Uni Security
• Business Karate
• Danger Room
• Homeland Security Watch
• Lawyerology
• Religion at the Margins
• Safegrowth
• Schneier on Security
• The Do It Yourself Scholar
• The Flame Trench
• The Security Consultant
• Threat Level
• To Inform is to Influence
• Voodoo Robot Chili

PS, Yes my iPhone is only a 3GS.  I suppose if it were any more retro it would have fins and no seat belts.

Biodork Asks

What are your favorite science resources?

 

Biodork (aka Brianne Bilyeu) is a blogger of my acquaintance.  She is also a host on the Atheist Talk radio program (and podcast) originating here in the Twin Cities.  She's preparing for an interview on the topic of resources for adults who want to learn more about science. I answered her question thus...

Science-related podcasts I consume on a regular basis include:

• Astronomycast
• Big Picture Science
• Brain Science Podcast
• For Good Reason
• Monstertalk
• Point of Inquiry
• Quackcast
• Skeptiko (but only as a sort of vaccination against flawed critical thinking)
• Skeptoid
• The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe
• Token Skeptic

There are many iTunes and iTunes U science courses.  Here are a pair I’ve listened to twice:

• Astronomy 161: Introduction to Solar System Astronomy
• Astronomy 141: Life in the Universe

Science-related blogs I scan daily:

• Bad Science
• BPS Research Digest
• Bruce M. Hood
• Cognitive Edge
• Desmogblog
• Discover Blogs
• Mindhacks
• Neurologicablog
• NIOSH Science Blog
• Respectful Insolence
• Science Based Medicine
• Skepticblog
• The Aviationist
• Token Skeptic
• Universe Today

There have been many others I no longer follow and iTunes and the iTunes U offer many more choices.  Find what works for you.

UPDATE: I also like NOVA on PBS by way of TPT.  Oh yeah, and real books.

Image credit: http://freethoughtblogs.com/bluecollaratheist/2012/03/27/reason-rally-pictures-at-a-revolution/ftb4/

Who Would Miss Him?

Rush Limbaugh is merely a paid entertainer...

He is not a thoughtful man.  He is not a public intellectual.  He plays his audience - and many of his critics - like a fiddle.  Anger, hatred, and fear-mongering should not be a spectator sport, let alone a profit center.  There are many important issues that divide our country, but his toxic tirades are not part of the solution.  His angry tune exists only to sell soap for his sponsors.  We need not buy their soap.

SIGN HERE: Tell Limbaugh Sponsors - We Will Not Buy Products That Support Misogyny, Racism and Hate Speech

Now, for the hard part.  Here are the names of Limbaugh's national sponsors I currently do business with or have in the past year:

AAA

Ace Hardware

AT&T

Girl Scouts

Home Depot

McDonalds

O’Reilly Auto Parts

Subway

UPS Store

Wal-Mart

Yahoo

UPDATE: I sent "letters" (feedback forms) to AAA, AT&T, and Yahoo.  I'm going to miss Ace, O'Reilly, and Subway until they come around.  My BMI will not miss Girl Scout cookies or McDonald's. 

Powerful, Thoughful, Important

Watch Mind of a Rampage Killer today...

Mind of a Rampage Killer captures the complexity of this troubling issue.  It's part of PBS' ongoing coverage titled After Newtown.  You can watch it on public television or online at the PBS website.

Alone in a Growing Crowd

Day of Solidarity for Black Non-believers...

The skeptical and atheist communities (factions feels a truer word these days) are rife with fractious discord.  Epithets fly, partisans claw their way to the peaks of enlightenment, and thought-leaders apply more passion to discerning what separates us than to finding what we might hold in common.  There are days I wouldn't care join this club if it would have me.

All the while atheism, agnosticism, and apatheism continues to grow as religion meets the needs of fewer and fewer Americans.

Still there are people who have left their faith communities - and sometimes their families - behind who are trying to make place for themselves at the Nones table.  Once again it seems that persons of color are under-served by a largely white, mostly male community.  Are black atheists content to patiently waiting their turn?  No, once again, persons of color are creating community.  In 2011 author Donald Wright called on blacks to set aside the fourth Sunday of February as a Day of Solidarity for Black Non-believers.

I am not black and my black friends are mostly church-going or mosque-attending folk.   I am a fellow non-theist though.  I understand that blacks suffer in special ways when they announce to friends and family that they are also members of minorities that even many blacks despise.  I sincerely hope that black non-believers can create community while other atheists cannot be distracted from their priviledged discord long enough to create anything.