Episode 34 (Really 33): Man, Is Tucker Cranky or What?

Apparently, I've been listening to too much of Cognitive Dissonance, because like Tom, I screwed up the episode numbering.  This episode is really 33, but I labeled it 34 for some reason.  Anyway, I again want to thank everyone for expressing their sympathy over the loss of my uncle, it really means a lot to me.

Galen, Roman physician.

Is Joel Osteen using his church to milk money out of people?

Marc Driscoll caught rigging book sales.

Bill Donohue sympathizes with Charlie Hebdo killers.

Were the Charlie Hebdo cartoons actually blasphemous or not?

*fwap* *fwap* *fwap* Sounds of Sodomy pamphlet sends Ireland into hysterics.

Taylor Swift makes you gay!

Assholes declare that this place they've known about for years is where Jesus was tortured. Because reasons.

Archeologists find metal made famous by myth.

5,000 year old city found in Turkey.

Folks make guns on steps of Texas capitol.

Micro CNC machine known as the 'Ghost Gunner.'

DIY Civil War howitzer reproduction.

Fox News douchebag compares radical Islam to interracial dating.

In Putin's Russia, the transgendered can't drive! What a country!

Indiana bill is a license to discriminate.

Alabama town decides to be God's bitch.

Sex toys banned in Alabama. (If ever there was a state which needed them.)

Death in the Family

I had one of my few remaining uncles pass away this weekend, so as you can imagine, I'm in no shape to put out an episode.  Depending upon if I'm able to travel back to Ohio for the funeral, next week's episode might be a bit delayed as well.  Sorry.

Episode 32: Everybody Gets to Go to Hell!

Sorry for the delay in getting the show notes up, but its been a busy week.

Audio for the show can be found here.

Meteor spotted by 12th century monks.

Estimates of how many humans have ever lived.  FYI, it looks like there was only around 300 million or so people alive in 1 AD.

Dead tree edition of TW Doane's Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions

Thanks for listening!

Episode 0031: Remember Witold Pilecki

A bit shorter than usual, because I didn't rant as long as I thought I would.

The Auschwitz Volunteer. The most disturbing book on WWII that I've read.

From Dictatorship to Democracy

PDF version of From Dictatorship to Democracy

Israel arrests members of a Jewish extremist group.

Thailand resort attracts jihadists.

Egyptian burial site contains 1 million bodies

Socket wrench in SPAAAAAAAACCCCEEEEE!

Photos of the tool boxes on the ISS

Cricket bat gets man labeled a 'terrorist.'

Missouri state official wants women to get permission from a man to have an abortion.

Previous bill by the same dickwad.

SCOTUS denies stay to Florida's attempt to cockblock gay marriage.

TN town fails to understand how the internet works.

Episode 30: Hangin' With the Big J!

Early Christian Father Julius Firmicus

First newspaper account of the trial of the enigmatic Dr. Thomas

Second newspaper account of the Dr. Thomas that Doane mentions.

Third newspaper account of Dr. Thomas.

Fourth newspaper article about Dr. Thomas

Canadian Methodist church minister (whom I misidentified as a bishop) who got into trouble due to Dr. Thomas.

The images of Krishna that Doane talks about.

Indra looking like Wolfman "Jesus"

Christ on a banister, or Indra on an altar, you decide.

The Thanjavur district in India

The Hindu god Kalki

Serapis, the god who looks like Jesus with a flower pot on his head.

Codex Borgia

Codex Vaticanus B

Codex Rios

Batshit crazy website with photo of the codex illustration of Quetzalcoatl being crucified.

The illustration, if you'd like to skip the batshit crazy part.

The knotted necklaces I mentioned in the podcast.  It turns out that they have been partially decoded, but much of the information contained on them remains a mystery.

Wiki article on the earliest depictions of Christ crucified.


Elymus the magician

Episode 0029 Blame Fuzznuts!

Okay, while Fuzznuts is basking in the warmth from the kerosene heater, let me get the show notes posted.

Old laptop batteries could provide power to slums.

Giant tulip shaped solar power plant to provide power in Ethiopia

Jevon's paradox

Kenya school to use poo power.

Catholic nutjob Bill Donahue thinks atheists are mentally ill.

Former Vatican bank execs have assets seized.

American who helped craft Ugandan "Kill the Gays" law charged with "Crimes Against Humanity."

Uganda tries again on anti-gay law.

Oldest human made engravings found.

Largest stone block carved in antiquity found.

Tiny satellites cost a "mere" $20K.

Tiny CubeSats used on the ISS.

Project wants to use CubeSats to provide global internet access.

New Horizons probe wakes up 1 month before it reaches Pluto.

ETA: The Dollop episode on Ferguson.

Thanks for listening!

Episode 28 40 Wasted Days and Wasted Nights

In this slightly shorter than usual episode, I read from chapter 19 The Temptation, and Fast Of Forty Days from TW Doane's work Bible Myths and Their Parallels in Other Religions.  I also announce the winner of the cover art for the contest I'm planning on launching later on this month.  Its Steve at Hudson Media from Columbus, OH.  You can see his entry below.

I blather on a bit in the podcast about how Doane admits that there's a significance to the number 40, which is common in a considerable number of religions, but gives no explanation as to why that might be.  I think that I might have figured it out.  Forty is double the number of fingers and toes a human being has, so in societies where numeracy is limited, this would seem to be a very large number, and would be something common in all societies.  The speculation about Venus that I talk about in the podcast is likely to have come later, once societies had become literate, I think.  I'll blather more about it in the next episode.

I'd also like to give a big shout out to Tom and Cecil over at the Cognitive Dissonance Podcast for playing my voicemail.  They rock, and for anyone who found me thanks to them, I want to thank you for listening, and apologize in advance for not being the least bit funny.