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Mar 15, 2012

The Show Notes

Flying to Florida
Memory article
Intro
Drunk talk
Religious Morons of the Week
     - Durham County Council from Ben Etherington
     - James Inhofe from Sledge06
Thanks to Jim Fitzsimons
Atheist billboard in Harrisburg
Gig in Chicago/Wisconsin
Show close

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Mentioned in the Show

Chicago Skeptics

March 31st in Wisconsin

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Geo's Music: stock up!

The catalog at iTunes

The catalog at CD Baby

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Ms. Info sez, "American Atheists- call me. Seriously."

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Ian
almost eleven years ago

Hmm... A thought on the Council being called morons. I honestly am not sure that they are. The way it seems to me, they're just taking a cynical (and sadly true) view that there are morons out there that will take issue with the number 13, so they'll be (were?) able to increase the values of properties by this simple cost-free "it's not actually 13, it's 12a" measure. There are morons in that story, but they're the ones driving it, not necessarily the ones pointed out as morons. I wonder how feasible it would be to buy properties with 13 or 666 or something in them, change the number and sell them again at a profit?

I thought of that skeptic marketplace idea myself before and I would totally go for that, though.

Don Lacey
over twelve years ago

George,

I love your podcasts. I've heard everyone one that you've done at least once. There were a couple of times I noticed how incensed you became when you received criticism from one of your fans. I agree with you when you object to the criticisms. You provide your product for free, and it's a lot of work trying to get your message out to the world. I participate in a podcast myself called Desert AIR: Atheists Inquiry into Reality. We're not a sophisticated as you but we try. I'd hate for you to criticize our effort the way you criticized the Atheist billboard on your show. You'd be perfectly justified, of course. Your sense of style has to be far superior to ours. After all, you have over 250 podcasts to our 24 or so. You might object to how we sound or the language we use. You might even go as far as saying, "you're not helping." You could but I'd hope that you wouldn't. I'd hope that you'd look at the effort and know that we're on the same team trying to get the word out, same as you.

It surprised me that you put so much effort into criticizing the Atheist billboard. It seemed to dwell on it. You didn't like the style, the colors, or the message. I get it! What little acknowledgement you did give to the folks the made the effort was dismissive. Remember, George, most of the folks out here are doing their best. They are in large part volunteers and not getting paid for their efforts.

If you want to watch a motivated activists go into burnout mode quickly, just load him up with criticisms and never compliment him. He'll go away and take up some other way to pass the time.

I was taught in Toastmasters to "make a sandwich" out of our evaluations--praise, criticize, then praise. That is if you want to keep the person. I think we need to keep all that we can. We've got enough against us.

I'll look forward to your next podcast, as I always do. I understand that you'll be at TAM again this year and I'm looking forward to that as well.

Don Lacey, AZAtheist

David P.
over twelve years ago

That was weird. I was listening to the podcast with my latest copy of Wired next to me, and then Geo was reading the cover.

The next episode number will be 256, which is 2 to the 8th power. This is significant in the computer world since a byte (8 bits) can represent 0 to 255. It also means that the number of episodes has doubled 8 times, like bacteria replicating in a petri dish.

Stephen
over twelve years ago

Hi George,
Thank you for another great show. I liked hearing your take on the billboard.

One quick note, I believe you meant to refer to the Kurosawa film, _Rashomon_, not _Yojimbo_ (another great film by Kurosawa) during your segment on memory...

Gary H.
over twelve years ago

Hey, George, I thought you might find this amusing. I'm listening to this episode while in the same room as my housemate, and I have the volume turned down really low so as not to annoy her.

While you were talking about the Pennsylvania "year of the bible" nonsense, she said, "Is that Carl Sagan?"

And I said, "Uh, no, it's George Hrab, but I'll bet he'd be really amused that you said that."

So there you have it. You sound like Carl Sagan, a little. :)

Marvin
over twelve years ago

Geo, you are so right about that awful billboard. A textbook case of "I know what you mean but why must you say it so badly?"

Gordon
over twelve years ago

Hi George,
it seems to me that part of the point of the billboard is that religious people are against slavery. Everyone is.

But the bible is all for it, and I don't think they know that.

Plus I think the message is less mixed as verses like that were used by anti-abolitionists in the era of American slavery.