Episode 281: My Brother's Experiment

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Using computers that can more or (mostly) less function as if they were "intelligent" is all the rage today, especially in business. Why hire a person when a machine can do the job? Others are goofing around with these machines as well, including my own brother. I explore some of his recent goofs in this Episode 281: My Brother's Experiment.

In this episode, I read from: my brother's email correspondence, one of which was created by an ASoL; and a web log digest of my podcast, also ASoL-compiled.

Musically, I play: KMFDM backing both John Herrman in the introduction and Shoshana Zuboff in the show. I think that is the first time I've played the Herrman intro, even though I created it years ago. Neat! Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang play us out with "Over the Rainbow".

Episode 280: Sky Father The Uncrumbly

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Definitions can be difficult sometimes, especially when the word you are floundering to define doesn't really have a concrete definition, but rather a multitude of different applications and associations. It's best then to define something with double negatives, as I try to demonstrate in this Episode 280: Sky Father The Uncrumbly.

In this episode, I read a definition from my computer's quickie dictionary. I relayed from memory: a detail from a college course on Modern Jewish Philosophy; a Card Catalog article that makes the Searchie Search engine really useful; an Ed Zitron article called "The Man Who Killed [Searchie] Search" outlining how one guy destroyed two different search engines (but only for a good cause—profit!); Charles Stross's book The Family Trade; and an episode of The History of English Podcast.

I played: the voices of David McRaney and Martin Carcasson, both from Episode 331 of McRaney's You Are Not So Smart Podcast. The "great" today came, appropriately enough, from L33tMinion himself. Musically, I played: KMFDM backing a new intro with Martin Carcasson. Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang play us out with "Over The Rainbow".

Episode 279: Why Capitalists Don't Exist

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Categorizing certain things is important. Over-categorizing them, though, can be more damaging to one's understanding than not categorizing things at all. Lately, I've realized that categorizations have impeded understanding our world to the point that perhaps we should just jettison certain categorizations altogether. Hence, Episode 279: Why Capitalists Don't Exist.

In this episode, I read from: Lulu Miller's book Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life; Jodi Dean's book Capital's Grave: Neofeudalism and the New Class Struggle; a Marxist essay that defined "serf" for me; a small bit of Karl Marx's "The Poverty of Philosophy"; and Will Storr's book The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It.

Musically, I play: KMFDM backing George Monbiot in the opening; Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang close the show with "Over the Rainbow".

Episode 278: The Magical Manipulation of Desire

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I've mentioned before that advertising often takes advantage of those it targets psychologically, triggering latent vulnerabilities in all of us. Maybe it's more than just psychology, though, that makes ads tick. I explore one possibility in this Episode 278: The Magical Manipulation of Desire.

In this episode, I read from: John Michael Greer's essay "The Education of Desire," from his blog Ecosophia; and from the opening to Maricio Loza's book The Hounds of Actaeon: The Magical Origins of Public Relations and Modern Media. (I found the pdf through a pretty involved search that yielded no simple links, but it's a doable search if you're interested.)

Musically, I play: KMFDM backing Tristan Harris in the opening; and I close with Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow."

Episode 277: Ratcheting the Ridiculous

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Sometimes, the difference between entertainment between two countries is profound due to cultural differences. Today, I'd like to suggest that there are differences well beyond culture that affect two peoples, even those separated by a common language, in this Episode 277: Ratcheting the Ridiculous.

In this episode, I mostly opine on my take on television, specifically two programs more or less copied from each other. The first show was first British, then American; and the second was first American, and then British. Trust me, the differences are profound in both.

I read from: David McChesney and John Nichols' 2010 book The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again. They've got some great observations and recommendations in there!

I play: Geddy Lee, commenting on the the simple fact that ten bucks is ten bucks. This was ganked from the Bob and Doug Mackenzie album The Great White North, just before Geddy sang the hit single, "Take Off".

(Okay. Fan gush here. Some of you might remember Geddy as the bass player/vocalist from the prog power trio band Rush, right? And others of you might remember that Bob Mackenzie was played by SCTV and later comic movie actor Rick Moranis (the Keymaster in the first Ghostbusters), right? Did you know they attended grade school together? It's true! They were classmates in the same kindergarten (maybe 1st?) through 6th grade school until Geddy's family moved to a different Toronto neighborhood! I got that from Geddy Lee's autobiography. I just thought it was fun!)

Musically, KMFDM backs Dr. Martin Luther King's declaration about advertisers, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. I close today with Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow."

Episode 276: The Fuel & The Fire

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Many minds have speculated about what caused the Industrial Revolution, citing just about every factor found in the world… other, of course, than what is required to actually invent. I continue following the story of steam power's development in this Episode 276: The Fuel & The Fire.

In this episode, I once again read from: William Rosen's book The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention.

Musically, I play: poopy-mouthed Mark Blyth backed by KMFDM in the opening. I'm closing today with Mistle Thrush doing "It's All Like Today."