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Post by chookmustard on May 1, 2013 18:20:21 GMT 10
I was talking with the guys I work with the other day, telling them about how someone asked me if I believed in aliens, and Lizard People.
We had a good chuckle at that particular persons expense.
I proceeded to ask them what conspiracy theories they believed plausible.
Surprisingly, it was quite a list:
1. Sept 11, was an FBI or USA goverment inside job 2. Which obviously meant Boston was too 3. Fluoridated water was government mind control 4. ChemTrails was obviously quite plausible 5. AGW was some kind of climate science hoax (cos that's why kids want to study climate, for the laughs)
Well, to be honest, I held my tongue. No use trying to argue back in a work environment !
Aliens and lizard people was where they drew the line, because that's too ridiculous
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 1, 2013 23:08:50 GMT 10
"what conspiracy theories they believed plausible"I used to (I guess) go in for the JFK thing. Not that I ever really thought that LHO didn't do it, or that there was a second shooter (sorry, but guns are REALLY LOUD - somebody would have remembered). What did it for me was the thoroughly bizarre stuff that seems to have happened afterwards. To this day, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to ask what on EARTH jack ruby thought he was doing. Coz I don't believe that guy was motivated by patriotism. Apart from that, I (now) put most of the "questions" down to the fact that people were just in a panic and didn't quite know what to do or who was in charge. That, and a fair bit of the sort of immediate speculation we saw after boston (although nowhere near as much - to the great credit of those olden-timey people). Now ... if I got to pitch a conspiracy theory idea, my conspiracy theory idea would be this: The US Actually Lost The War Of Independence. Think about it for a bit. Think of the possibilities with that.
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zoot
Junior Member
Posts: 58
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Post by zoot on May 1, 2013 23:43:37 GMT 10
"American Tabloid" by James Ellroy has an interesting take on the Kennedy assassination - it is fiction, I'm not suggesting otherwise
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 1, 2013 23:46:11 GMT 10
""American Tabloid" by James Ellroy has an interesting take on the Kennedy assassination"
The Illuminatus Trilogy has an interesting take on the Kennedy Assassination ... and just about everything else that ever happened.
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Post by chookmustard on May 4, 2013 20:45:39 GMT 10
It's really odd that these guys seem to draw the line at lizarrd people but found plausible the other odd things.
A council in Queensland recently turned the flouridation on in their town water last week, in accordance with mainstream thoughts on tooth decay reduction. Or, as some would think, the government has taken control of the minds of the citizenry of another LGA.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 5, 2013 8:41:19 GMT 10
"the government has taken control of the minds of the citizenry of another LGA"
Impure bodily fluids!
Communism is but a short step away.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 5, 2013 8:55:38 GMT 10
As I've mentioned before, I'm a podcast omnivore.
If you're into "odd things", check out Monster Talk. Really entertaining stuff. It's a "skeptic" show, with an emphasis on all things monsters - myths and legends, archeology, ghost hunting, a bit of history, a bit of storytelling (there are two shows on the werewolf legend which are stunningly good). It's got a nice crew of presenters - the lead guy is a pun-addict, and there's even an australian in the team! (karen stollznow - it is good to hear an aussie voice in the skeptic-sphere). They're about to go on a break for a couple of months, but there's a 3 year back-catalog of terrific shows.
On the other side of the line ...
Jim Harold's shows. I think one of them is a live broadcast - he's got "Jim Harold's Camp Fire" and "Paranormal Radio". They're both quite entertaining. He's right over the line into "woo" territory, but they're still entertaining to listen to. I have to be in the right mood, but as "woo" goes these are quite good traditional "ghost story" fare. Good ghosts and goblins (and the occasional UFO) stories, but without the right-wing edge that's invaded woo more recently.
Straying a bit TOO far over the line ...
I accidentally listened to a thing called "thinking with somebody else's head" recently. I'd subscribed to it not realising what it is, and lined up a couple on one of my little pod-blasters to accompany some ironing ... and nearly threw the thing out the window. I marched downstairs and unsubscribed immediately. What utterly horrible conspiracy-theory rot. If you want to get angry at some well-produced and slick insanity, check that one out.
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Post by chookmustard on May 5, 2013 22:19:11 GMT 10
Good stuff MoC! Thanks for the tips. I sometimes have over an hour commute (each way) for work and generally only listen to the Wonky Ones. But Ive caught up to them now!
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 6, 2013 8:37:09 GMT 10
Jeeze - one podcast? Ack!
Check out the "how stuff works" podcasts at the discovery website. I pick and choose, but the history one and "stuff mom never told you" are currently my preferred. "Stuff You Should Know" is sort of an internet phenomenon these days - I imagine those guys get mobbed if they turn up at events. I've picked and choosed my "techstuff" and "pop stuff" episodes, but they're also fairly informative.
I've tended to lean towards listening to more overseas news in the last couple of years - particularly the BBC's "NewsHour" and NPR's "Tell Me More". I get to hear about stuff that's happening, but without the tedium of hearing about yet another poll.
I've been listening to some good american-history shows in recent months. "Back Story With The American History Boys" is good. The same outfit does a half-hour non-live show called "with good reason" that I'm warming to. I've also been enjoying the "Thomas Jefferson Hour" quite a bit. It's in two parts - the first "half" is a discussion that takes place with an academic playing the role of jefferson, and the second half is a more objective question/answer. It sounds unlikely, but it actually works. "My History Can Beat Up Your Politics" is impossibly informative. I've had to listen to some episodes twice just to get through all the information - he takes a current (political) topic and rips it apart in its historical context. The episode that (eventually) explains the supreme court decision on obama care is astonishingly impossibly good.
"Point Of Inquiry" is a topic-based discussion show about skepticism, science, reason. These days they're more variable (they used to be done by a guy called DJ Grothe, and he's a legend) but worth checking out.
"Reasonable Doubts" is similar, but more religion-focused and polemic, but I never miss an episode.
"Skeptics Guide To The Universe" has also grown on me - I listen as soon as they arrive now
I could go on. As I've explained, I'm a podcast omnivore - I don't actually watch TV any more. If any of this bears fruit, let me know and I'll start doing more reviews.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 6, 2013 9:09:03 GMT 10
World War II hero to be honoured in CanberraMaybe doing it in 1945 would have been more helpful, I understand the symmetry ... Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat working in Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II.He provided false Swedish identity documents and shelter for tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews.
He disappeared in 1945 when the Soviet Union invaded Hungary, and is believed to have died in prison Like heck he did. He snuck out, caught a boat to america and became MARLON BRANDO: Just look at those two pictures. You know I'm right. ( H/T for MB photo here)
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Post by chookmustard on May 7, 2013 20:44:43 GMT 10
Thanks Matt! I've downloaded the Scepticality Magazine podcast. It had a good piece on 'What Are The Odds'. Some of the other stuff was ok.
I got the Monster podcast, on the wolf attacks in rural France in 1740s. Haven't finished it yet but it's really good other than the mutual love fest between interviewers and the guest.
More recommendations thanks!
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 8, 2013 8:51:44 GMT 10
"other than the mutual love fest between interviewers and the guest"
Yeah, I'm fine with that, though. Most of these sorts of things are done by volunteers and enthusiasts, so you will get a certain amount of joviality.
I'll have a look at the list later and come up with some more suggestions. I don't necessarily assume that anyone will like them just because I do - so don't hold back :-)
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Post by chookmustard on May 8, 2013 19:46:28 GMT 10
Listened to True Murder podcast on the way home. Audio wasn't great but it was interesting. It was the 3 year anniversary ep. The guy was basically promoting his book but he did it well. The start was good because he went through a listeners complaint that a previous ep had spoken derogatorily about prostitutes.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 8, 2013 20:49:21 GMT 10
"True Murder podcast"
Is that an ep of one of the ones I suggested, or something else?
If you look, you can find many, MANY episodes of old radio shows - dragnet being one particular fave of the podcasting community (it's matter-of-fact and somewhat gritty - about 50 years before CSI). Just look that one up on itunes and you'll find a bunch of others like it - mostly they're called things like "radio relics". People who've dug up recordings of old radio plays (detective and sci-fi in particular) and MP3'd them.
I had some friends over to watch "the day the earth stood still" on The Big TV last year (I found a really hi-def video conversion and it was gorgeous), and I was astounded to discover that I knew the damn story - I'd heard it on a ye-olde sci-fi radio podcast a couple of years before as a radio play.
I also had the fortune(?) to listen to some old abbot and costello shows (not the comedians from parliament ... the other ones). Those guys were .... utter crap (I mean the other ones). Bum and boob jokes and "ooh-err", for the most part. I'm not sure what adolescent crowd they were aiming for (departing soldiers, I suspect), but I only listened to enough to gauge just how unrepresentative their one big memorable hit was ... and if my sample was reasonable, they were morons.
At the other end of the scale, I've heard a recording of that famous orson welles radio play - the war of the worlds. It's actually good. I'm not sure what sort of twit would confuse it with reality, but it is actually very good.
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Post by Matthew Of Canberra on May 8, 2013 21:18:03 GMT 10
I had some friends over to watch "the day the earth stood still"
I should point out that I meant the original black and white one.
I have no idea why hollywood continues to remake things that don't need remaking.
Actually, that's a lie, I do. They want to milk the intellectual property by making versions that occlude the originals[1], hoping that nobody will want the originals. The colorisation fad was the same thing. Basically, remakes are hollywood keeping the cash-cow on life-support. Eventually it's going to catch up with them and they'll blame downloads. Again. Of course they won't actually EMBRACE downloading, because that would be sensible[2]. Far less imaginative to just bitch to congress and tell the shareholders that they're not idiots.
If anyone wants to see an example of how low this has fallen, watch the remake of "psycho". Big-name actors phoning it in - walking across the set in time with a metronome.
[1] in the case of one horror movie I bought on bluray, to the point where there was no indication at all that it WAS a remake - I was several minutes into the thing before realising that it couldn't possibly be the original because it was making ironic references to it. There was absolutely not indication on the packet that I was buying a pig in a poke. And if I went and downloaded it (which I didn't) I'd be breaking a law.
[2] in a second, I would go to a site and pay money through bpay or amazon to know that I had bought a right to watch a movie that I had downloaded. Happily. Willingly. Why would I download a movie (hypothetically)? Because I have (hypothetically) a spur of the moment, drunken idiotic urge to watch (let's say) firefox. Or rocky IV. I'm perfectly happy to pay the royalty for that - I'm willing and able - but there's no mechanism for doing so. Why? I have no idea.
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