Tubeway Army - Tubeway Army (1978)

I've been on a post-punk kick lately and have been mildly obsessed with Gary Numan (it's happened before).  This often overlooked first record by the Tubeway Army features all the staples of Gary Numan greatness: science fiction themes, classic analog synths run through guitar pedals, and angular rhythms.  This record is also decidedly more punk than Numan's later solo output, but still has the obvious signs of what is to come.  Gary Numan has also been an outspoken atheist for much of his career, although he has some interesting contradictory beliefs (go figure) made clear in this Fortean Times interview:

FT:  You are on record as being an atheist... does that rule out belief in other kinds of strange phenomena for you?
GN:  I believe in pretty much everything apart from God. I believe aliens are real, demons, possession, poltergeists, all of that. I believe in ghosts but I do not believe in Heaven; to me, a ghost is just one of nature’s tragic mistakes. They shouldn't be there, but they are. It does indicate some kind of life after death, but that has nothing to do with a Heaven. If you believe in one God creating everything then I don't understand why the idea of many Gods is so laughable. None of the God ideas make any sense to me but one God is perhaps the most ridiculous of all.

So you believe in demonic possession but don't believe in God or deities?  How would demons manifest without a theological system to assert their existence?  Unless they were independently asserted demons divorced of their theological sources, the beliefs would be contradictory.  You're a fucking weirdo Gary Numan, but I love you.

Tubeway Army

1. "Listen to the Sirens" – 3:06
2. "My Shadow in Vain" – 2:59
3. "The Life Machine" – 2:45
4. "Friends" – 2:30
5. "Something's in the House" – 4:14
6. "Everyday I Die" – 2:24
7. "Steel and You" – 4:44
8. "My Love Is a Liquid" – 3:33
9. "Are You Real?" – 3:25
10. "The Dream Police" – 3:38
11. "Jo the Waiter" – 2:41
12. "Zero Bars (Mr. Smith)" – 3:12

The Agenda - The Anti-Science Left (2013)

It frequently strikes me as particularly interesting that many left-wing people embrace various anti-science stances.  This was shown to me time and time again while I was involved with the Occupy Portland movement, which was largely a left wing endeavor.  I volunteered on the education committee and spent many days running/maintaining the Occupy library.  Conversations with random Occupiers often led to anti-vaccination, government conspiracies (a lot of 9/11 truthers), anti-GMOs, and once or twice anti-fluoridation.  There was one instance where I was "accosted" by a presumably right-wing individual who attempted to convince me that climate change is a lie/not caused by humans, as if that particular stance would make me abandon all left-wing ideologies if I accepted it as true.  Since becoming a skeptic, generally I've become much more critical of embracing any ideological stances which may interfere with scientific bias.  People are so quick to label themselves as anarchist, socialist, communist, liberal, conservative, or any other general political label without considering the generally accepted scientific biases that come coupled with any particular political ideological group.  While I would generally describe myself as a radical, its hard to just blindly label myself as such from now on without tacking on some ancillary qualifiers, my new self-label being a pro-science radical.  I would also encourage those on the side of science to start considering appending your own political views as such, lest you become additionally burdened with those commonly accepted anti-science stances of your own political label.

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Darklands (1987)

"I think religious belief is some sort of mental illness, some sort of unrecognized schizophrenia. Your mind is so freaked-out, so fucked-up by the thought of dying and nothingness, that it just invents heaven. It's a weird area, religion."- Jim Reid, vocalist/songwriter of Jesus and Mary Chain

Darklands

1. Darklands
2. Deep One Perfect Morning
3. Happy When It Rains
4. Down On Me
5. Nine Million Rainy Days
6. April Skies
7. Fall
8. Cherry Came Too
9. On The Wall
10. About You

Q&A - Science Vs. Religion (2013)

"One of the things that has concerned me in the last few years is there's been a real debate that essentially discredits science by saying that scientists are self interested, that the reason that people are researching climate change is that there is something in it for them and the practical impact of that really worries me because it allows people to ignore the vast body of scientific evidence, in an area like climate change, and cling to "Well, you know I don't feel hotter today than I did yesterday so its obviously made up."  The example in Queensland that really worried me recently was the Queensland government giving permission to local councils to stop putting fluoride in water.  Now, the biggest health intervention in dental care in Australia for decades is putting fluoride in water.  Any dentist you talk to can tell you who grew up in Queensland where they've had less fluoride in the water, they've got a mouth full of fillings compared with people who've grown up with fluoride and it drives me nuts that we've got people in the Queensland Parliament saying, one guy who's a bodybuilder in the Queensland Parliament, that he would rather take banned substances for a year than drink a glass of water with fluoride in it.  It's nuts." - Tanya Plibersek, Australian Minister for Health

AUDIO ONLY (MP3)

Hail of Bullets - On Divine Winds (2010)

Hail of Bullets is a Dutch death metal band.  All of the band's lyrical content is about the Second World War, which I think is cool as fuck.  It also features Martin Van Drunen from Pestilence and Bolt Thrower.  This particular album is about the rise and fall of the Japanese empire.  In Japanese the Emperor is called the Tennō (天皇), which means "heavenly sovereign" [1].  The line of Emperors were believed to rule by divine mandate, which undoubtedly influenced the title of this album.

On Divine Winds

1.  The Eve Of Battle
2.  Operation Z
3.  The Mukden Incident
4.  Strategy Of Attrition
5.  Full Scale War
6.  Guadalcanal
7.  On Coral Shores
8.  Unsung Heroes
9.  Tokyo Napalm Holocaust
10.  Kamikaze
11.  To Bear The Unbearable

Tom Lehrer - More of Tom Lehrer (1959)

Tom Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater.  His songs are musical parodies of common styles on piano with satirical original lyrics.  He's probably best known for his song "The Elements" where he recites all of the elements that were known at the time (in 1959) to the tune of "The Major-General's Song" from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan.  "We Will All Go Together When We Go" is an ode to the coming nuclear apocalypse.  "A Christmas Carol" is probably one of the best Christmas songs I've ever heard.  Lehrer earned his AB in mathematics (magna cum laude) from Harvard University in 1946.  He received his MA degree the next year, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He taught classes at MIT, Harvard, and Wellesley.

More of Tom Lehrer

1. "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"
2. "Bright College Days"
3. "A Christmas Carol"
4. "The Elements" (music by Arthur Sullivan)
5. "Oedipus Rex"
6. "In Old Mexico"
7. "Clementine"
8. "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier"
9. "She's My Girl"
10. "The Masochism Tango"
11. "We Will All Go Together When We Go"

 

Arizona Fluoride Debate (2012)

 

In this Arizona debate Dr. Paul Connett, the founder of The Fluoride Action Network (FAN), and Dr. Howard Farran, DDS, winner of the Arizona Department of Health Service Dental Public Health Award for his efforts in fluoridating the City of Phoenix, trade blows over water fluoridation.  I think Dr. Farran's initial presentation could have been more thoughtfully approached.  I would have opened with attacking anti-fluoridation from the bottom up by examining belief, conspiratorial thinking, and the scientific method.  Instead he begins by attempting to show the large scientific consensus on the effectiveness of fluoride, which your average anti-fluoridationist is already aware of.  The house is obviously packed with anti-fluoride people, you can tell by their yells and the absence of clapping for Farran.  Most of the studies which Paul Connett refers to are debunked in my previous blogpost so I feel like its unnecessary to say anything more about them except, like all conspiracy theorists, he loves cherry-picked data.  He even references the same video for professionals to watch (the one covered in my fluoride mythology post) instead of reading his book.

AUDIO ONLY (MP3)