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This audio was originally featured in Series 2, Episode 6 of Resonance FM's Epistaxis Time. Music is composed & performed by Dan Wilson, (a.k.a. Meadow House).

Casio by Meadow House

Lilly reviews the HTC ChaCha

In Pod Delusion 92 I covered the story of a school in Malton, North Yorkshire which may soon be taken over by the Church of England. I spoke with Richy Thompson who manages the British Humanist Association's Education campaign. I began by asking Richy why it is that schools can now be taken over by a church.

--

As it stands, the acadamies act allows any sufficiently organized group to irreversably take-over a school. Simply obtain a majority on the school's board of governors and then use that to permanently change the school's appointment policy to exclude any non-members of your organization from any further influence. 

There's very little that concerned parents and the broader community can do to obstruct the will of a determined board. I think we can expect religious groups of all kinds to take full advantage of this opportunity.

SF for the PD

--


1. Why is it that all of a sudden schools which have been secular have suddenly descovered a need to become affiliated with a religion?
 - Acadmies Act
 
2. When we spoke with Phillappa Hare, one of her biggest complaints was the lack of transparancey of the process. Schools liason staff and spokes-people from the Church of England seem to have materilized in Malton without any spesific invitation from the community. This seems to have been driven by the head-teacher and a minority of the governors. How is this possible?

3. So far thinks have been rather easy for the CofE - they seem to be getting their way mainly due to apathy. What (if anything) exists to prevent a sufficiently well-funded cult or religion taking over a school? 

4. The proposals are somewhat vaguely worded - one thing nobody seems to have worked out is precisely what the Church of England expects to gain from this project. What sort of influence will the church get within the school and how has the church typically used this kind of power?

5. Are there sufficient checks & balances on religious schools to prevent excesses of religiosity, hate-speech and discimination against minorities? Is there any reason to suspect that faith based acadamies will be able to keep to the standard of non-descrimination that we might expect from a modern secular school?

6. The actual status of the school seems vague, do they simply require an anglican head-teacher or are they planning to reform the entire staff, governors and curriculum in the name of Christianity?

7. And what about admissions - the governors do not seem to have any plans to discriminate based on relgion right now. Could that change without causing problems with Ofstead?

8. If Malton School manages to change status - how significant is this? Given that this is the first status-change of it's kind it's likely to form the template of any future activity. An "easy-ride" will send a strong signal to other religious organizations that it's time for a land-grab.. who else might be next in line to take over our schools?

9. A lot of people seem to have an image of the CofE as being composed of cardigan Vicar of Dibley types who do nothing more than sip-tea and attend village fetes, but this well-funded organization has at it's heart evangelical and reactionary elements bordering on fundamentalist. Is the official chuch policy and practice compatible with the needs of a modern school?

 - “Church schools should nourish those of faith; encourage those of other faiths; and challenge those of no faith.” This is still very much church policy, and was quoted in the CofE’s new school admissions guidelines that were 

Richy thompson on faith schools

In among much blather about the riots, one friend of mine made the definitively sensible comment: “I think the rioters just need to calm down and listen to some Soft Machine”. He was thinking specificallt of the song Hibou, Anemone and Bear from the dazzling second album, the lyrics of which are as follows:

In the spring, I think of sex and means to ends
Summertime, I like to sit upon the grass
Autumn nights I go to parties with my friends
Winter time is when I think about the past
But of course I do all those things all year 'round
I mean, all the good things are there to be found
It's all here, pick-a-pack and get to work
If you don't, in actual fact you'll go berserk
Or indeed be bored to death, which is worse?
If something's not worth saying
Not worth saying
Not worth saying
Say it...

Pondering how else the feral hoodie teenpersons might be better occupied, I was reminded of a comment made three years ago by the blogger Elberry on his now defunct Lumber Room. Fortunately, I quoted it on my Hooting Yard blog at the time, so it has not vanished entirely into the ether. He was writing about knife-crime rather than brick-throwing, looting and arson, but his point holds good:

I imagine there are several thousand, or hundreds of thousands, of young men carrying knives ‘in self-defence’ who will, however, pull it as soon as they imagine a confrontation is in the air. They would be far better to carry expandable batons, and far less likely to accidentally kill someone. They would do even better to stay at home reading Sir Philip Sidney.

This always seemed to me a sensible, practical, and realistic suggestion, and I was happy to quote it in rioting context on Facebook. Cheering, too, that a number of my friends “liked” it and, as one commented,

I said (almost exactly) that to my partner. Why are they not at home reading a book? Any book, even.

I am afraid this led me to give vent to my inner misanthropic reactionary (as tends to happen on Facebook), and I immediately replied:

Probably because their teachers were too busy with the self-esteem and diversity lessons to get round to teaching that “reading” thing.

How is it that, after eleven years of compulsory education, reportedly twenty percent of 16-year-olds leave school pretty much unable to read and write? Illiterate, they're unable to feed their imaginations. Maybe that's why they wear hoodies, cutting off their peripheral vision to avoid seeing too much they can't understand.

We are always hearing the teenpersons and their adult representatives complain that “we have nothing to do”. No doubt this has been a teeny moan since time immemorial, but it is of course bollocks. Certainly in a city like London there is a myriad of “things to do” that don’t cost money, even if one is reluctant to sit at home reading a book. But if your mind and imagination are limited because you can't even read, you won't understand the things you can do. It's tragic.

For me, the most eloquent snippet of information on the riots was the fact that, in Clapham, an entire row of shops was trashed and looted, all except one shop, left completely untouched. Ir was a branch of Waterstone's. Asked why he wasn't closing early and boarding the place up, the proprietor said, “Well, if they loot Waterstone's, they might just learn something”. If only...

Frank Key on London Riots

A Missori State university professor of management has fought and won a one-man battle to have certain books banned from the public schools in the city of Republic, Missouri. 

It's not uncommon for American school-boards to ban books for ideological reasons. Many of the greatest American novels such as Twain's Huckelberry Finn  banned by school-boards, ironically in Misouri - the state where he was born. 

... actually I could go on for the whole show listing the numerous great American novels which were banned by small-minded public servants, however today I'd rather talk with Mark Leeds, a personal friend of the satirist Kurt Vonnegut, and the author of the Kurt Vonnegbut encyclopaedia. Last month the Republic school-board voted 4-0 in favour of banning a small selection of books including Vonnegut's most famous novel, Slaughterhouse Five. 42 years after it's original publication, why does this book remain controvercial? It's one of the most banned books of all time.


I will give the final words to Julia Whitehead, the executive director of the Kurt Vonnegut memorial library - she said:

“It’s not clear to me whether any of the adults making these important decisions in our public schools have actually read these books. All of these students will be eligible to vote, and some may be protecting our country through military service in the next year or two. It is shocking and unfortunate that those young adults and citizens would not be considered mature enough to handle the important topics raised by Kurt Vonnegut, a decorated war veteran. Everyone can learn something from his book.”

SF for the PD

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Q. The subtitle of the book is "The Children's Crusade" - it's partly a war story told from the same perspective of Vonnegut himself who was a POW during the Dresden bombings - along with Catch 22, it's one of the most compelling depictions of the horrors of war in American satire - do you think this makes some people all the more eager to ban this particular book?

Q. Slaughterhouse Five is not just a war memoire, the plot is quite unusual in that it jumps forwards and backwards through time, juxatpoxing seemingly random moments in the protagonist's life. It's a complex structure, and yet very simple to read. 

 - Here I wanted to point out why Vonengut is so suitable for readers of all ages, especially young adults. Can you talk briefly about the inventivness of his writing, his parsimonious use of language.
 
 - My view is that it's because Vonnegut tackles the hard issues, like how we understand war, how we treat our vetrans. But he tells the story disarmingly through a darkly twisted sci-fi story. 
 
Q. This is not the first time vonnegut's books have been banned from the public school system. 

 - Can you talk about the 1982 SCOTUS case, (Island Trees School District v Pico). I'm not after a legal analysis, we can focus on the literary significance of the book.
 
Q. In the UK we think of Vonnegut as primarily an author, however he was also the honerary president of the American Humanist Association. Can you talk about Kurt's radical humanist?

 - This has to be short... we are looking for some pithy quotes if possible.
 
Q. Finally, The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library has anounced an offer for the student of Republic, Missouri, a free copy of the banned-book Slaughterhouse five for any student who wishes to find out more about this novel. 

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OUTRO: “It’s not clear to me whether any of the adults making these important decisions in our public schools have actually read these books,” said Julia Whitehead, Executive Director of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis. “All of these students will be eligible to vote, and some may be protecting our country through military service in the next year or two. It is shocking and unfortunate that those young adults and citizens would not be considered mature enough to handle the important topics raised by Kurt Vonnegut, a decorated war veteran. Everyone can learn something from his book.”

Marc Leeds on Kurt Vonnegut's Slaugherhouse Five

The British girl guides association sees promoting a certain kind of spirituality as one of it's core missions. Maddie Willet, a non-religious seven year old girl felt that she couldnt join her friends in the brownies because the organization requires it's members to say a pledge promising to "love god". 

I spoke with Tessa Kendal, the Senior Senior Campaigns Officer for the National Secular Society. I began by asking Tessa whether she felt this young girl was right to to feel excluded?

---

After the interview Tessa drew my attention to the fact that in the 1920s Lord Baden-Powel, (the founder of the scouting movmeent) granted six countries - Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Finland) the freedom to use an alternative promise without any reference to God. Furthemore the Israeli scouts and guides have never had any religious wording in their promise. It doesn't seem so far-fetched to believe that the British scout and guide associations might one day adopt a similarly inclusive policy.

SF for the PD

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Tessa Kendal, Senior Campaigns Officer for the National Secular Society

Q. Maddie Willet, a non-religious seven year old girl felt that she couldnt join the brownies because the requires it's members to say a pledge promising to "love god" - do you think she was right to feel excluded?

 - I just want an opinion here.
 - I'm sure less principled girls would have simply taken the pledge dishonestly... it's probably what I would have done if I had wanted to join an organization!
 
 Q. I'm sure that there will be some who will accuse you of being a hater for wanting to change this traditional organization. Do you hate the girl guides?

 - Can you talk about your own involvement with the organization and emphasize the good times.
 - Can you talk about how you'd like it to to be relevant to as many people as possible so that others can enjoy what you enjoyed?

Q. The pledge in it's entirity goes like this... 

"I promise that I will do my best;
To do my duty to God,
To serve the Queen and my country
To help other people
and keep the Guide law.

... according to the Guides associatiomn they will accept pledges which have similar wording. When asked to qualify what they meant by similar they explained to me that they meant this in a very literal sense - so love could be replaced by Adore and God could be replaced by Allah. But they wouldnt accept the humanist concept of being in awe of the natural universe. Basically their inclusivity policy only works if you are a Christian, Jew or Muslim.

 - Can you talk about how much more effective their inclusivity policy would be if they did so without a religious framework?
 - Can you point out how many people this rigid religious framework excludes?
 
Q. Do you think it's reasonable to expect that the British Girl-guides organization could change? After all, they were founded by an christian individual - are we being unreasonable to expect this historic organization to conform to modern norms of inclusivity?

 - Can you talk about the canadian pledge?
 - Any idea how it came about?
 
Q. The canadian version seems so... civilized. I also checked out the United States version of the pledge, which is even worse than the British version. North American guides have to promise to not just love god, but to serve him as well. In my book that's only one step away from joining a convent!

 - I'm just after an opinion about the American guides, make it as flippant as you want (if you want). 
 


Tessa Kendal of the NSS on the Girl Guides' Promise

Links: 

http://youngrewiredstate.org/ - Young Rewired State
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15081 - Emma's Downing St Petition

---
By the age of 9 (year 5), any child following the UK's national curriculum for ICT, will hopefully be familiar with some very common computing activities such as searching the Internet, and using everyday office software such as spreadsheets and word-processors. It's basic stuff, and it seems somewhat dissapointing. Are we condemning the next generation of kids to technological illiteracy by setting low expectations.

IT education campaigner Emma Mulqueeny certainly thinks so. In addition to running events intended to inspire the next generation of young software developers, she's instigated a petition to bring some rigour into IT education. Starting in year 5 she wants kids to be learning to code software.

You can find out more about Young Rewired State and also sign onto Emma’s petition to reform the ICT syllabus by following the links from the Pod Delusion website. This is SF for the PD

----

Q. What inspired you to launch this campaign?

 - Just looking for your personal motivation
 - I understand you are a mum, so please feel free to talk about your own experiences in ICT education.
 
Q. I had a read through the national curriculum for Key Stage 2 & 3 ICT. Of all the technology related topics they've mentioned there really isnt anything that most people would call programming or coding, but there is a lot of other stuff which seems quite barmy, such as "Promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through ICT" - maths teachers dont have to put up with this kind of crap... why is all this useless stuff even here?

 - Feel free to speculate or rant.
 - The big point here is that the ICT curriculum does NOT prepare kids of the kinds of things that they will almost certainly need to do with computers.
 - It’s bizarre that the curriculum seems to skirt around this most important of all topics in computing!

Q. The national curriculum is also really keen to promote computing as a means of supporting other topics like science and art - but what about using computers for their own sake? Why must computing be subservient to other activities? 

 - Any comments on the status or perceived importance of IT knowledge within schools.
 
Q. But is it reasonable to expect that kids can get their heads around programming? The people who drafted the ICT curriculum seem to have assumed that 9 year-olds should not be exoised to this sort of thing.

 - Can you talk about one or two of the easy programming languages you've previously mentioned on your blig?
 - The point is that there are accessible development tools that a 9 year old should have no trouble with!
 
Q. When I was a child I was given a BBC Microcomputer. By today's standards this was a pathetic computer, but this was a machine built to teach and inspire kids to experience the joy of computing. It was part of a national campaign to bring IT literacy to the masses, and it really worked. 

Today most kids want an Xbox or a PS3, these are awesome machines, but they teach kids virtually nothing about how computers work. Do you think it's ever going to be possible to repeat what the BBC did in the 1980s and seriously re-launch a campaign for IT literacy?

 - Looking for a positive message to end on (e.g. Raspberry Pi, Rewired State) 
 - Would like to give people hope that there are developing projects which aim to use skills creativly.

Q. Finally, how can we help support your campaign?

- Just want a “call to action”, can you mention the ePetition. Don't give the URL, we will link to it from the Pod Delusion web-site. Feel free to re-iterate the main objective of the petition.
- You could also mention your next Young-Rewired State event.

Teaching kids to code with Emma Mulqueeny

Widdershins narrated by frank key

Some of the most famous studies into the risks associated with video games have studied playing games under laborotory conditions, in order to observe a number of markers for agression or violence. From reports of these studies  the popular media has inferred that video games cause violence in society. 

The most famous example of this were the two boys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who were allegedly inspired massacre their classmates after playing the video game Doom. Could it be that allowing kids and young adults to play violent games increases the amount of violence on in society?

I spoke with Mike Ward, who is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Texas at Arlington. I asked him to explain what if anything was wrong with this line of reasoning. 

Do violent games cause violent crime?

Solaris by Stanislaw lem is arguably one of the most admired works of science-fiction in any language. Originally written in Polish in 1961 it's been made into 2 feature films. The book has been translated into many other languages with the notable exception of English. 

It's taken more than 50 years since the text was originally published - but now we English speakers have an accurate translation. I spoke with the book's translator - Bill Johnston who is a professor of comparitive literature at Indiana University. I began by asking Bill why it took so long to get a decent translation of this important story?

--






--

Why did it take so long?

 - I'm looking for a brief history of this novel
 - The previous failed attempts to translate the story
 - How did you get involved with the project

Lem is a literary hero in Poland and much of eastern Europe - so it must be a pretty daunting task to attempt a translation of his most famous novel. Were you willing to face the consequences of Lem's fans not liking your translation?

 - Any personal fears
 - How did you prepare for this challenge?

Can you talk about some of the themes in this novel: Lem sets us up for what initially seems to be the old cliche of the alien encounter, and then completely overturns our expectations by reveling the most utterly alien alien-planet ever conceived in literature. 

 - Looking for a basic outline of the book's premise 
 
Much of the plot of the book involves repeated, but failed attempts to communicate - by the end of the book, the astronauts who have been trying to commuinicate with the solaris ocean are utterly defeated, and they become convinced that communication is futile. Do you think that this scenario reflected Lem's personal beliefs about the difficulty or impossibility of human communication? 
 
 - Feel free to speculate about what Lem is really saying here
 - Why this theme is so important to all of his books 
 
This is the first translation to English that has been approved by the Lem estate, and it's certainly a very different work of fiction to the 2002 Soderbergh movie adaptation. I understand that Stanislaw Lem was upset that his novel about an incomprehensible alien world had been transformed by hollywood into "Love in Outer-Space", Lem's original really isn't like that at all, is it?

 - Can you say what Soderbergh got wrong in his adaptation?
 - What can we expect form a more authentic translation?
 - Feel free to add your own feelings about the movie

And your own work as a professional translator and a teacher of translation, do you find any irony in having just helped translate a book whose main thesis is utter pessimism about mankind's ability to meaningfully relate to just about anybody?

If you want to hear Bill's translation of Solaris it's available right now via Audible.com - you can get a copy for free from Audible and help suppoprt the show by using our affiliate link in the show-notes.

This is Salim Fadhley for The Pod Delusion

Bill Johnston on Translating Stanislaw Lem's Solaris

Consider the statement "I can be good without god" - This statement is simply an affirmation that religious people do not hold a monopoly on good behavior. 

This statement was printed on a recent poster campoaign organized by the Freedom from Religion foundation - an organization intended to preserve the separation of Chruch and Sstate in America. The adverts featured photos of local members of the foundation alongside their simple statements like the one I just mentioned. 

I spoke with Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion foundation - I begin by asking her to explain how a church in Ohio tried to censor her foundation's ad campaign ...

---

Had it not been for their attempt to censor the Freedom From Religion Foundation's campaign this particular church's tax evasion might never have been discovered. There's a satisfying irony in that, however it's sobering to consider the possible extent to which religious organizations might be evading their duty to pay their fair share of tax.  

SF for the PD

---

Q. It's amazing to me that a poster campaign simply saying "I can be good without god" can ruffle so many feathers, your recent campaign featuring one of your members from Columbus Ohio met with opposition from a local church, can you explain why a church forced you to move your poster advert?

 - Just after the basic story
 - Can you explain, that the curch complained about the use of their land for the advertising campaign
 
Q. When I first read about your story on the FFRF website, it occurred to me that Christians are some of the easiest to troll people in the world. This particular church found your advert offensive, but really there's nothing offensive about mentioning that non-religious people can be as good as religious people - why do you think this advert caused so much offense to the good people of Christ Cathederal Chruch?

 - Insecurity?
 - Double standards?
 
Q. So the church complained to the advertising company, and they had to move your sign - and you got some free publicity, but that was not the end of the story - 

 - Can you explain how FFRF came to discover that the Cathedral had not been paying tax on the commercial property

Q. For the most part, American churches can conduct their business tax-free, but in this case they over-stepped the mark - is this yet another example of a religious organization seeking privaliges that they'd happily deny to others?

 - Can you explain a little about what kinds of religious activity are tax-exempt
 - Feel free to speculate about the extent to which religious organizations are taking tax-breaks they are not legally entitled to!

You had a bizarre response from the Christian Post who complained that the FFRF was an "out-of-state organization" that ahd  "no legal standing to bring a tax claim against the Ohio church" - are you gloating over an act of petty revenge as the Christian Post suggests?

 - Obviously it's not you bringing the action but Franklin County's own tax auditors who clearly do have stnading.
 - Can you use your Render unto Ceasar quote?

Annie-Laurie Gaylor from the Freedom from Religion foundation: God's tax-evaders

For the show notes:
http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/ - Robet M Price's blog

----


We try to do interesting interviews for people with very short spans of attention. Our listeners are intelligent but mostly will not have any previous interest or inclination towards this topic. I really want them to understand why this topic is fascinating - my goal is to inspire them to check out your work. Some of my questions will be intentionally dumb - that’s only that your own brilliance will be more perfectly contrasted.

No need to mention web-pages and such, we will link to your page and somewhere to buy your books from our site.

[INTRO] - recorded seperately 

RobertMprice.mindvendor.com

Robert M Price is  a professor of Systematic Theology. You probably already know him as a presenter of Point of Inquiry and from his own Bible Geek Podcasts. If you like this show I can pretty much guarantee that you’d enjoy his work. 

His new book - The Christ Myth Theory and it’s Problems is intended to give a more naturalistic and historically plausible framework in which to understand the origin of Christianity 

I began by asking Dr. Price why non-religious people ought to be concedrned with the origins of a text whose fundamental messages we reject?

OUTRO


I think adopting Dr. Price’s approach makes us more honest and effective critics of religion and it’s harms. I’m reminded of all of the debates I’ve had with bible-believers. I’ve never managed to sway a single person - the kind of arguments that appeal to me tend to have little impact on people who have made huge emotional investments in dogma, but I suspect that arguments grounded in Biblical text might be more impactful. 

SF for the PD


---

As non-religious people, why should we concern ourselves with the origins of a text whose fundamental message we reject?

 - Can you talk about the intriguing puzzle that is the Christian Bible
 - That if we are ever to understand religion we need to understand it as a process and that mythology provides the best framework for this.
 - Why are you personally motivated as a Bible scholar despite having lost your faith?

Just what IS the Christ-myth theory, besides the obvious assertion that Jesus Christ was a literary or mythical character rather than a living breathing human being?

- Looking for a 1 minute outline of what the theory is
- That the mythical status is not limited to Jesus, some if not all of the apostles may also be mytical characters

Before I became familiar with your work, I would have assumed that Jesus was most probably an actual historical person whose achievements had been greatly exaggerated by followers - for example -  in one of your podcast lectures you gave an example of Halie Selassie whom the Rastafarians claimed was a miracle worker. Could Jesus have been such a person?

- Looking for 1 minute on why the myth theory provides a more plausible explanation.
- Any parallels to this more modern story, about the way that believers often exaggerate miracle stories? 
- Can you talk about how Christ fits the hero-archetype, and lacks any of the secular back-story that you might expect from an important historical figure?

In your writing and lectures you’ve pointed to a great deal of mythology which predates the Christian new-testament. There are stories of magic men who perform miracles, heal the sick and even cheat their own deaths - but there’s no single character from literature or myth who does all of these things - does the lack of a perfect parallel narrative provide a problem for the Christ myth theory?

- This question is intended to preempt a common critique from apologists who like to point out that no single parallel perfectly mirrors the Christ-story.
- I’ve heard you show parallels in contemporary SF/Comics which work in a similar way. 

Your new book is called The Christ Myth Theory and it’s Problems - other than the fact that the world is full of literalist, bible-believing fundamentalists - what are the main problems with the current Christ Myth Theory?

- I’m hoping that you can outline the thrust of current scholarship,
- What big mysteries are unsolved, are there any notable gaps in the current theory?

Any attempt to grapple with the Bible forces the reader to acknowledge that there’s more here than meets the eye, more than tradition would like to acknowledge. I’ve often felt that there’s probably no better antidote to fundamentalist Christianity than a serious reading of the Bible. 

- Not really a question, I know - I’m just looking for a response.
- There’s something you often say in your podcasts / lectures about how adopting a higher-critical approach is not the end of a religious journey but the beginning of a journey of discovery yielding far greater riches. That seems like a suitably inspiring note to end on.

---


Robert M Price on The Christ Myth Theory

the network should be an indiscriminate carrier of information regardless of the source, destination or nature of the information being transmitted.

Some newly proposed legislation threatens to undermine: In America the Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act propose to regulate the internet by blocking so-called "rogue web-sites". Internet activists have compared this regulation to the great firewall of china - in that if built it will be the the most radical and extensive form of censorship ever divised. 

There's already a great deal of opposition to this policy, however some activists have decided to view censorship as an technical problem, one requiring an engineering solution. I soke with Hose Manuel from the Darknet Project about a his community plan to re-imagine an Internet which could route-around any govnenrment censorship

When we think of revolutionaries, the most obvious image is of that of political activists like Ghandi or Martin Luther King - but perhaps the Darknet project is a new form of political revolution, one plotted in computer-science departments and basement dens. The Darknet project may be far from complete but it's dream of an Internet completely free of censorship is one that I believe will come to be.


The Darknet Project

30 years ago a small British company called Acorn Computers launched the BBC Micro. This computer was nothing much by today’s standards. It had 32 kilobytes of main-memory and a 2Mhz processor. In every way this computer was many thousands of times less capable than the phone in your pocket. And yet without the team that built this odd-looking machine, you probably wouldn't have that phone - many of the inventions which are critical to today’s digital consumer technologies are the legacy of the BBC Micro project and the team that originally built it. 

I’m joined by Steve Furber who is a who is a professor of Computer Engineering at Manchester university. He was the co-inventor of the BBC Micro - I began by asking how he became involved with this amazing project:

The BBC Micro - the project from which we’ve derived so much value was a fairly modest government collaboration in order to improve computer literacy. It’s clearly paid for itself many of times over.

Were we to do something today the computer systems required could be built for a tiny fraction of the original price - it’s not unreasonable to expect that investment in real computer literacy might continue to yield huge dividends 

Professor Steve Furber on the BBC Micro's Legacy (Extra Edition)

30 years ago a small British company called Acorn Computers launched the BBC Micro. This computer was nothing much by today’s standards. It had 32 kilobytes of main-memory and a 2Mhz processor. In every way this computer was many thousands of times less capable than the phone in your pocket. And yet without the team that built this odd-looking machine, you probably wouldn’t have that phone - many of the inventions which are critical to today’s digital consumer technologies are the legacy of the BBC Micro project and the team that originally built it. 

I’m joined by Steve Furber who is a who is a professor of Computer Engineering at Manchester university. He was the co-inventor of the BBC Micro - I began by asking how he became involved with this amazing project

The BBC Micro - the project from which we’ve derived so much value was a fairly modest government collaboration in order to improve computer literacy. It’s clearly paid for itself many of times over.

Were we to do something today the computer systems required could be built for a tiny fraction of the original price - it’s not unreasonable to expect that investment in real computer literacy might continue to yield huge dividends 

Professor Steve Furber on the BBC Micro's Legacy (Show Edition)

Links:

Merrill Womach:
http://christiannightmares.tumblr.com/post/236341102/christiannightmares

"20 Minutes to go"
http://christiannightmares.tumblr.com/post/1602005708/20-minutes-to-go-possibly-the-most-amazing

If like me, you are a connoisseur of the bizarre you might just have seen Christian Nightmares, the anonymous video blog that collects the world’s strangest religious videos. This site features some of the most freakish, creepy and often unintentionally hilarious videos I’ve ever seen. I was able to speak with the blog’s creator and ask him what inspired him to set up a blog dedicated to religious absuridty...

You can find links to some selected highlights from Christian Nightmare in our show-notes on PodDelusion.co.uk, it’s a truly bizarre collection. If your idea of fun is watching a disfigured burns victim a hospital ward serenade other burns victims about how Jesus makes him happy I’d urge you to get clicking right away. 

Christian Nightmares with the Christian Nightmares guy...

Important note for James & Liz - please include this link in the show-notes:
<a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-sex-life-of-a-comedian/16361823?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1">The Sex Life of a Comedian</a>

One of the most controversial TV shows of the 1990s featured four child-like aliens, apparently marooned on Earth with only a high-tech vacuum cleaner to look after them. I’m talking about The TelleTubbies.
Since it was first broadcast in the spring of 2007 it’s been the subject of bizarre stories: The Times Educational supplement linked the show with student drug culture. Most notoriously, the tabloid press claimed that Tinky Winky, the biggest of the Tubbies was in fact a gay icon, part of a conspiracy to introduce kids to queer counter-culture. The Washington post claimed that Tinky Winky was the new Ellen DeGeneris and Jerry Falwell, the televangelist claimed that the purple alien was damaging children.
And oddly, the person who seemed to get the blame for this made-up controversy was actor Dave Thompson who had recently been fired from the show’s cast. To this day, the received opinion is that it’s all his fault - 
But how much of this story is actually true? - I spoke with actor, comedian, novelist and former TelleTubby Dave Thompson and began by asking him how he got the role of Tinky Winky from in TelleTubbies....


Dave Thompson: Actor, Comedian, Novelist and Telletubby

Link for the show notes: <a href="http://herdcensus.com/">Brony Herd Census by Coder Brony</a>

Brony - the word is a contraction of Bro and Pony, it’s the name that male fans of the hit TV series My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic have taken for themselves. The series which is aimed at pre-teen girls has a huge male fan-base, and I confess - I’m one of them. 
A new survey conducted by the anymous Coder Brony, aims to anser critical sociological questions such as who the bronies are, why they love My Little Pony - and i got a chance to ask the survey’s author a few questions. 


My Little Brony with Coder Brony

Link for the show-notes:
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/31659

Alan Turing is the man most-credited with the invention of the modern computer. The mathematical theorems he developed underpin almost every electronic device, help us understand the limits of what is computable and even provide insights into the nature of intelligence. 

During the 2nd world war he helped design machines which cracked German secret codes at Bletchley Park, arguably shortening the war by years - saving millions of lives. I cannot think of another single individual who’s contribution made this much difference. 


And yet despite his achievements he’s largely unknown to the English speaking world - except of course amongst computer scientists where his work forms a big chunk of every student’s first year of studies. 

It’s obvious why Turing is not as well known as other scientists with comparable achievements: He was an out gay man in an era when to be gay was an imprisonable offence. 

In 1952 Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” and punished with a bizarre form of chemical castration. He was to be given regular injections of oestrogen, the female hormone. This bizarre treatment was intended to decrease libido, however it drove him to profound depression and ultimately led to his own suicide. 

In february of this year the government refused a petition to grant Turing a posthumous pardon was denied on the basis that Turing’s actions were indeed a crime at the time. Lord Sharkey advised that we should not try to put right what cannot be put right, however we should strive never again return to these cruel policies. He may have a valid legal point, but it does leave us unsatisfied. 

And that brings me on to a proposal by Thomas Thurman.

Put Alan Turing on the £10 note

Some conservative christians are angry about the recent consultation into marriage equality. I recently received an email from the British Christianist pressure group, Christian Voice. They urged me to give them money so that they could stand up to “fatally undermine marriage as biblically defined by Jesus himself”

This gives an sort of impression of marriage as an institution which has been defined once and for all by the Christian new-testament. Christian concern might accuse the government of redefining marriage, but who defined it in the first place? 

I had a chance to speak with new-testament scholar, fellow of the center for inquiry and host of the podcast the Human Bible, Robert M Price. I began by asking him whether a citizen of 1st Century Judea have recognized our modern institution of “traditional marriage”?

 - I'm thinking not just of the ceremony but the whole shebang, e.g. dating, engagement, white-weddings and the role of government in this whole process.
- Is a "Traditional" marrage anthing remotely like the tradition that the early Christians would have recognized.
 
Today many people take it for granted that marriage is something which we sanctify with ceremony and religious ritual. What role would the temple have played in for pre-Christians and early Christians?
 - I'm trying to get an impression of what a 1st C marriage ceremony might have involved.
 - Whas this codified in the way we take for granted today?
 
I've attended enough Christian weddings to have observed that most preachers regard marriage as a spesifically Christian sacrament, however there's very little in the Bible about the subject - does the bible actually give  formula or definition of marriage as we know it?
 - Where does the religious part of our marriage tradition actually come from?
 
Evangelical Christians often cite Matthew 19:1-6 as Jesus "defining" marriage in a way that's incompatible with some modern notions of marriage equality, this seems to do some injustice to the word define. What do you think is really going on here?
 - I'm assuming that you'd read this more or less on face-value to mean a prohibition on divorce
 - But why is this even here? Was divorce such a problem for the early church?
 - Could this have been another example of ascetic preachers forcing their discomfort onto the population as a whole?
 
When I read this section it seems to be a very strong prohibition of divorce, for much of British and American history divorce was a profoundly shameful thing - that shame seems to have almost entirely evaporated. It does not seem to cause a problem for conservative Christian voters and politicians. We have Newt Gingrich who campains on a vaguely Christianist platorm - having been divorced twice does no seem to have harmed him at all.  How is it that divorce seems to be no longer a problem whereas extending marriage rights to gay-couples has become an obsession?
 - Here I'm after your impression as to how (and why) values seem to have changed.
 - I'm curious if you agree with my impression that the divorce taboo is all but gone from American mainstream Christianity.

Finally, you’ve just launched a new podcast in association with the Center for Inquiry, the show’s called the Human Bible - can you explain to our listeners what the show is about? 
 - Just after 30s about the show. We will provide the relevant links on our web-page.

Robert M. Price on Redefining Marriage

In 2011 our government issued a policy document which outlined a clear preference that all newly procured software systems should be based on open standards. That means if the government invests in a new database, telephone system or document management system, these systems should be able to inter-operate with databases, telephones and document management systems provided by other vendors without any technical or patent-licensing restrictions. 

We all accept that free, open-standards are good. For example, the standard British power socket fits any appliance you can buy in the shop. It’s guaranteed to work and John Lewis does not need to pay anybody a fee for every device they sell. In theory the adoption of open standards in sotware works just the same way... by making it easy to interoperate it means we can do more and hopefully everybody in the private and public sector benefit from the growth that ensues. 

Only one year after what seemed like a new era for sensible technology procurment the government is already back-peddaling from this position. I spoke with Glyn Moody who has written about free software and digital rights for almost 20 years. He’s one of the UK’s leading technology journalists. I began by asking him to explain why open standards are such a good deal for the tax-payer.

While paying lip-service to the spirit of openness, the FRAND proposal is anything but open. Even without software patents the encroachment of non-open standards into the public sector will almost certainly see a quick return to the bad-old-days when government contracts were an opportunity for technology providers to establish supply monopolies at the tax-payer’s expense. 

Glyn Moody on Open Standards

The Catholic Church is famous for it’s preposterous fabricated miracles. The church has an interest in promoting innumerable bones of saints with allegedly curative properties, mystical shrouds and apparitions of the blessed virgin mary  - they confer a sense of spiritual authority upon the church and help raise funds. 

While the Church in Europe is not quite as money-grubbing as it once was - it’s evolved into a sort of anti-women’s rights orgaization that mostly disapproves of child sexual abuse. The Indian catholic church seems to find miracles just about everywhere. 

Sanal Edamuruku, president of the Indian Rationalist association was recently asked to investigate one such miracle - I began by asking him how he came to be inspecting a Catholic church in Bombay in March of this year...

The various legal actions targeted at Sanal are intended to bankrupt his organization and silence his dissenting voice. The Indian Rationalist association is raising money to defend Sanal from this criminal action. We’ve put a link in our show-notes in case you want to find our more or donate to the appeal fund.

Sanal Edamaruku on Catholic Miracles

These are some audio segments I submitted to the Phones Show Chat podcast.

salimfadhley

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