Internet freedom around the world – an exclusive report from Azerbaijan, the gamification of war, Bayes Theorem, former Labour MP Chris Mullin on “A Very British Coup” 30 years on, Peter Tatchell getting arrested and some American atheists take on the American tax man. What more could you want?!
[Direct MP3 Link] [Podcast Feed] [Add to iTunes]
Please Donate & Support the Pod Delusion
Go on, it’s like buying us two drinks a month!
If everyone who listened to the show donated – just think what we could do!
- Make a donation to the Pod Delusion
- Subscribe £5/month to help the Pod Delusion (or subscribe £10/month here) (Recommended)
Freedom of Tweet Around The World (2:15) by Kate Russell
Gamification of War (19:59) by David Eastman
Bayes is the Wayes (25:40) by Liz Lutgendorff (ft Richard Carrier)
Chris Mullin Interview (36:17) by Cory Hazelhurst (ft Chris Mullin!)
Peter Tatchell’s Arresting Experience (49:30) by Adam Knowles and Richard Unwin (ft Peter Tatchell)
FFRF vs The IRS (57:00) by Salim Fadhley (ft Annie Laurie Gaylor)
The sketch at the end is by David Lovesy and Brian Two
Follow-Up Links:
- A longer cut of Kate’s Azerbaijan piece:
[Direct MP3 Link] - UN Commissioner Neelie Kroes blog post (and tweets)
- IGF session agenda & transcripts
- Story of further police brutality
- Tor Project
- Richard Carrier
- Proving History: Bayes’s Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus by Richard Carrier
- Full Richard Carrier lecture coming soon
- A longer cut of Cory’s interview with Chris Mullin:
[Direct MP3 Link] - Secret State by Chris Mullin (also known as A Very British Coup)
- Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Pod Delusion is now broadcast on Resonance 104.4FM in London on Fridays at 1pm. You can find out more about Resonance FM and listen to their live stream on their 
James, It’s not just Bayesian stats that’s trending now, it’s all of statistical science that’s having a make-over. A couple of years ago Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, said that “in the next 10 years the sexiest job will be statistician”. Some people are trying to re-label it ‘data science’ because stats has a bad rep, but the truth is, it’s really interesting. Carrier isn’t the first person to apply Bayes to history, either. In 1964 Fred Mosteller and David Wallace tackled the Federalist Papers. These were documents written just prior to the US Declaration of Independence, discussing what sort of state should be set up. Anyone convicted of writing such material could be hanged for treason, so they were written anonymously. Historians had a good idea who wrote some of them but Mosteller and Wallace did a Bayesian statistical analysis of the word patterns used by all the likely candidates and compared them to words used in the papers. They were able to confidently assign the papers to their authors.
Blaise
I’ve not seen “Secret State” yet. Is there a specific reason why one of the principle characters is called Dawkins? But “A Very British Coup” is available to watch online and it’s very chilling.