- Whilst doing internet work in Shillong I scanned the podcast archives of some of the podcasts I don't check every week. On Groks, ITC, BBC Science archives and Little Atoms and found some pretty good stuff.
- Many are still not good ...professionalism shows : e.g. The Guardian's is weak compared to BBC. - a lot of US sites are "not my cup of tea" Infidel Guy and Skepticality still not much good new stuff

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/archive_index.shtml some quite good stuff - like
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/rams/unearthingmysteries_20061212.ram
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/thekiss.shtm
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/jonathanedwardslooks.shtml
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/5numbers.shtml
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/another5.shtml
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/adventures.shtml flu

- while work kept coming in I took time to check out some other Podcast sites.

- http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/lhlpub_autumn07/03_161007 and - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lhl/streamed/lhlpub_spring08/04_150108 watch at low quality cos it's very slow
- http://www.iriss.ac.uk/audio?page=4 social work podcasts

- Sciencepodcasters.org - Group blog http://docartemis.com/sciencepodcasters/ lists 6 podcasts under it's umbrella Including Nature - not great, Edinburgh Uni - bit amateur

- Promednetwork.com linked to above http://www.promednetwork.com/programs/ has a couple of quite professional psychology progs

- Check Telegraph science

- brainsciencepodcast.com about neuroscience issues etc. And her Books and Ideas Podcast (overlaps on other podcasts like IOT, Technation and Groks)
- her prog about the Evolution of Language was good for deconstructing Chomsky's faults. She said he held the science back, but surely the world is bigger that just America. scientificamerican.com podcast adds more ... On Little Atoms Prof Noam Chomsky - The Prolific Provocateur

- Nature podcast 12 June 2008 - Quite interesting what Steven Pinker said in about the use of language : In cursing you use the most powerful word this used to be the religious damm, but then Fuck became the worst word so relaced damm that's why it seems not to make sense. audio

- Her summary of the book 12 Essays on Free Will Does Not Exist. - summary they mean no free will outside the brain like a soul. We clearly do have freewill in that the brain facing choices is part of it's work so "My Genes made me do it" doesn't exclude you from blame for a crime.

- from ABC Science show : They found a 2200 year old clockwork bronze computer
.. there must have been more than 1
- just goes to show how some ideas go extinct
- the BBC prog is better

Steve Cone on ITC Podccast - Power Lines, about words that sell, grip fans and sometimes change history.

- Brand Promise - a power line is Very important

- Rules :
- 1. say how you are different
- 2. Project an Attitude : e.g. Fairly Reliable Bob's
- 3. Always base ads on this line
- 4. Can't be duplicated or upped

- saying ultmate is the best advertising tag - e.g.
- BMW The Ultimate Driving Machine,
Coke is the Real Thing etc

- Sound is the strongest sense so speak your Tag Line - enforces

- Tag Line should have the biggest print in the ad
- e.g. the Headline Come to Marlboro Country

- call soap 99% pure not 1% impure

- On Amazon, On ITC

- I haven't seen anything like them anywhere else in the world. I did once see an architecture book where a Japanese guy had trained trees into circular hut like shapes to make buildings.

- It's quite different to normal Indian technologies , where I don't expect much forethought. Basically you are making something that you cannot use yourself.

- However when I saw the bridge in Nongriat which is half metal wth tree roots trained along the frame I realised that's how the root bridges must have started. You start off buildng a rope bridge and maybe include some wood planks then you train the tree roots along the ropes and eventually the rope would rot away leavng only the tree roots forming the entire bridge.

- on Little Atoms - not high quality stuff
- he wrote Flat Earth News about the media being screwed up
- millennium bug showed how there is systematic hype and error creation distortion in stories without there being any nasty owner government behind it all conspiracy style
- 75% of news reports being press releases from corporations and government
- Said media was finished

- My Opinion - OK but then his analysis was flawed in the same way journalists thinking is flawed - banging on about WMD etc
- journalists are men in the pub not science professionals
- He banged on above woman trafficking "of course style" instead of quoting data saying : "trafficking of course it's not very big in the UK as is reported" ... maybe not, but it's still important for those women
- Said media was finished - failing to realise there will always be a market for truth. people even the corporations want truth it helps them make good decisions etc
- and not all press releases are lies or complete lies.
- It's your job to find the truth mate, not just take a contradictory position like the man in the pub.

- Book On Amazon, On Little Atoms

- On Little Atoms
- Author of the Philosophy Gym - a pretty good book.
- head of London Centre for Enquiry - big humanist supporter
- said some people in US say common folk need God.
but : Why Common folk need rational thinking - more religion less crime.
- Their idea of religion is it is s force for good , but Kindness is a thing in itself :
- badness + religion = worse badness

- On science - Theory fits evidence isn't science it's enough, you need plausiblity otherwise people twist their idea to fit the facts e.g. "Ah you can't see my pet dinosaur cos he's invisible" ..so don't accept this twisted arguments thinking

- Centre for Inquiry London
- www.centerforinquiry.net/
- On Little Atoms

- British born US prison doctor AKA : Theodore Dalrymple
-all the scares about heroin are not true
- not so addictive
- not so poisonous
- no cold turkey

- problems come from the criminalisation side not the drug itself.
- Heroin doesn't make people criminals no cos it's illegal criminal types are attracted to it. You could replace heroin banning with chocolate banning and you'd have the same problems. Criminals would take chocolate and the law abiding would avoid it.
- Bizarrely said heroin doesn't cause crime but people are more often criminals when they get into it. - Don't focus on heroin instead If we get rid of criminality we get rid of "problem heroin use" bizarre but some truth
- Wilberforce took heroin/alcohol everyday. No problem for him nor most users.

- On religion some people need it so it's better than bad purposes like Marxism other cults. Implied us intellectuals understand atheisim, but simple folk need their security blanket. ... See exactly the same thinking Stephen Law warned about above.

- Book On Amazon , Rave reviews On Little Atoms

- No is really Yes
- Don't be afraid of saying no. Realise you are really saying yes to something more important.
- - "Can you work this weekend ?"
- - "I am saying yes to family time"
- Follow no with a positive proposal ... "How about Monday Tuesday night"
- take a time to prepare a response instead of feeling you have to reply immediately.

- On Amazon, same book 8 titles !, On Groks

- cities are easy to govern if you think of them like a mini country i.e. You need to attract investment, build infrastructure etc.
- China city Mayor investment working
- India city Mayor investment working - can't get private property investment that kick starts the economy
- Decentralisation works
- scientists give good log term solutions, but don't give fast short term solutions politics needs so often nothing gets done.

- On Groks