Episode 144: I’m Gonna Give You Some Rain God Style

9 comments on Episode 144: I’m Gonna Give You Some Rain God Style

  1. Mike.K. says:

    Actually, if I can suggest a “Christian Mythology” book (not movie, but book), “God’s Demon” by Wayne Douglas Barlowe is a tremendous book. I loved it, and my Christian mother loved it. I was surprised when my mom chimed in when I brought it up to my Jewish aunt, and my Baptist-turned-Catholic mother recommended it to her.

    The book is about an uprising in Hell. It starts with the casting of the mutinous angels into Hell. (And, “into” means it was already there, and the original inhabitants are not happy about the newcomers.) Lilith is also there, as are the Watchers. Lucifer goes missing. Beelzebub rules as Lucifer’s proxy. The general Sargitanus decides that he will lead a revolt against the decadent Beelzebub to prove to the angels watching through the star Algol that he is repentant and still loyal to God.

    Barlowe is an artist, and I also recommend “Barlowes Inferno” and “Bushfire” along with it. While some books by artists tend to be fluffy, this one as simply amazing, and he played the “nobility” of devils perfectly.

    The book is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, and I check his web site every few months. The second is supposed to be about Abbadon of the Pit, which is the bound “dragon” released in the Book of Revelations.

  2. Paul says:

    Wow I am SO disappointed to learn that Mayim Bialik is such a nutter! I actually really like the Big Bang theory (don’t worry I thought you guys’s comments about the show was funny, I find the show to have a lot of nerds-born-in-the-80s-and-90s jokes), and I had always known that after Blossom ended she went to college and later got a doctorate in neuroscience, and recently got back into television. I was additionally impressed as it made her a female neuroscientist playing a female neuroscientist on TV.

    But vaccine nuttery?? Homeopathy?! Holy shit I can’t believe it, I am so disappointed with her.

    What’s especially weird about that is there’s often small jokes from the characters of the show making of pseudoscience. The immediate scene that comes to mind is an episode where Sheldon (the emotionally immature anal retentive genius character) sees a fictional celebrity who is supposed to be Bill Nye at the grocery store, this celebrity had previously gotten a restraining order against Sheldon, and Sheldon wanted to approach him and confront him. Two other main characters, I even THINK Mayim Bialiks character was one of them, try to dissuade him and one says:

    “No no Sheldon don’t do that. Hey! I know… let’s go over to the supplements aisle and we can mock people buying homeopathy! You love doing that remember?” (This is done in a distracting-a-little-kid voice)

    Then the studio audience gets the “laughter” cue and everyone chuckles. There’s other references throughout the series of the main characters making mocking reference to pseudoscience.

    The only thing worse than a vaccine nutter is a vaccine nutter with no self-dignity lol. Talk about cognitive dissonance. Mayim Bialik’s stock has gone down severely in my mind now. What a fuckjng joke. She shouldn’t publicize that she has a PhD in neuroscience if she rejects everything she learned while earning that title. Absolutely awful.

    On a side note though, I think if you guys forced yourself to watch through a couple episodes, the show would grow on you. Yes it is prime time entertainment and there’s things to pick apart as far as how they represent science, but keep in mind it’s a show about 5 PhDs,1 engineer, and a actress-waitress working at Caltech (not the actress-waitress, she works at Cheesecake Factory), so almost every episode has science references littered throughout it, so they have a whole lot of opportunities to screw up. Other than hiring and inadvertently giving a platform to this vaccine nutter homeopathist (who only joined the show like two seasons ago), that they do a pretty good job.

    Oh and were the complaints about the shows laugh track (live studio audience actually) supposed to be ironic? Like.. Cuz of the douschebag reviews of those un-funny sad people who can’t stand the sound of laughter because they are so unfunny? I think you were just being clever, cuz you guys have never been “I can dish it out, but I can’t take it” types. If you were, then I’m calling it fair to give you a ribbing here a little bit lol…

    1. Yvette says:

      She’s NOT anti vaccine, so she’s not an antivaccine nutter. She hate’s Jenny McCarthy and backs up everything she says with well researched and informed science.

      She is also NOT into homeopathy. They said she was with a holistics group which is not even close to being equivalent. The fucking words aren’t even similar in definition.

      Take the show’s advice and don’t believe everything you hear, even when it’s from them.

  3. Yvette says:

    Thank you so much for providing the links and more information in your blog.

    I am a new listener, love the show. I was wondering about the Mayim Bialik piece. I think I missed your mentioning of the topic or event where she was a presenter. So, not knowing the context or the topic she was talking about, but knowing her from recent guest spots such as on Howard Stern, and other shows I’ve seen on youtube, and has mostly been promoting a cookbook she recently released.

    Anyway, she is NOT an antivaccine nutter. She’s a PhD in Neurobiology. She knows her science and what she’s talking about. The ONLY thing she does (and does not advocate for anyone) speak of is what SHE does with HER children. She has said she only has issues with one or two vaccines. She believes they are too young as newborns to get them. However, she still get’s them vaccinated when the are re a little older (like 18 months or 3 years old). That’s it. She stagger’s her kids vaccines, but she absolutely gets them vaccinated and there are crucial ones that she does give them right away.

    She never mentions which vaccines those are because those are HER choices and does not want people to jump to conclusions (hello?) mimicking her beliefs when they aren’t informed. She absolutely is pro vaccine and can’t stand Jenny McCarthy.

    She’s an amazing person, a wonderful and deeply committed mother, she’s an advocate for For Girls In Science – Women in STEM, and most of her presentations revolve around that. She’s now sponsored by Texas Instruments, so she’s probably doing events based on that and getting scholarships out to girls who can’t afford shit like calculators.

    She’s not a religious nut, but she IS Jewish. She speaks about it openly. It’s her culture and not about being a nut about it.
    She’s very “eh” when it comes to what the bible preaches and very much believes they are just stories.

    I really don’t like that your audience is going bonkers about the tiny bit you presented which was really quite uninformed. I think you all would really love her. She is super intelligent and has reason, science, research, and logic behind everything she talks about. She’s great to listen to, she’s really informed, and I just think you guys should look her up and give your audience some better information.

    Her being into a member of a holistics network is not equivilent to bullshit homeopathy. Hello? You guys just sounded really stupid going off on her and everything else. None of it was correct. She is with the La Leche Foundation and usually only talks about breastfeeding and diet, and gives all the science and research behind everything she talks about, practices in her own life and beliefs. So she absolutely has the right to the “soapbox”. You guys however, don’t for saying everything you said about her. You don’t ever mention what she is even talking about but slam her anyway!!

    As far as The Big Bang Theory, they actually ARE filmed in front of a live studio audience. they are there for like 10 hours and they buy them piizza, etc. But whatever. Just correcting you on something else you were wrong about

    It’s embarrassing to read comments and hear their voicemail messages where they are all jumping to conclusions and just full of hate. Your making your audience sound like FoxNews viewers that chomp the bit, accept it as gospel, form their opinion, and NEVER bother to verify anything they are saying.

    Anyway, that’s all. I love your views on pretty much anything else. Just please, when you find someone to make your point of attack, at least have a bit more information on them if it’s not provided in your article.

    1. diss0713 says:

      That is not the only article that claims she is Anti-vax:

      http://momswhovax.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-than-personal.html

      http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/02/21/say-it-aint-so-amy-farrah-fowler/

      http://scienceblogs.com/aetiology/2014/03/28/mayim-bialik-is-a-problematic-ambassador-for-science/

      http://archive.wired.com/geekmom/2012/05/mayim-bialik-disappoints/

      In fact, in one of them she replies by saying that she won’t talk about vaccines. Ok. If vaccines are fine then why won’t you talk about them?

  4. Yvette says:

    Er, there are a few words that didn’t get deleted completely in my last entry. I wish I could go back and edit, but I think I made my point.

    Everything you said about Mayim Bialik was wrong and your audience should take your advice to not believe everything they hear.

  5. Yvette says:

    Wow, I just read the FTB article and it was so uninformed and out of line. Now there are thousands of people that believe all the fiction they wrote.

    She backs up everything she says with evolutionary research so I’m surprised they know so little about her.

    If anyone cares to be informed:
    Howard Stern show where she talks about everything (super fast, so i hope small brains can keep up) http://www.howardstern.com/howard-on-air/howard-100-101/2014-02-25NSTA Highlights on her presentation, what she promotes, where she comes from, and why she absolutely has the resume to be at NSTA and has been for several years.

  6. Yvette says:

    ok, your blog doesn’t handle basic html code as it implies. *sigh*

    Here is the last link i was trying to embed:

    NSTA Highlights on her presentation, what she promotes, where she comes from, and why she absolutely has the resume to be at NSTA and has been for several years.

Leave a Reply to Yvette Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *