Here is a man-on-the-street (really man-in-the-pub) style interview of the people who showed up to the recent Boston Media Makers at Night session at Doyle's Pub in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Steve Garfield organized the event and millions showed up.

The question I asked everyone was essentially, why are you here?

Enjoy and please leave comments in the show notes. Please alert me to other events where you might like to have me interview your attendees.

You can find my contact info and blogs at Jeff Cutler.

The sound of a windy interview with Shawn Morton of Nationwide Insurance.

Here's info copied from Rebecca's email... and the sound is various interviews throughout the night as well as Tim Farley's complete presentation.

WARNING - There are two swears in the entire 90+ minutes of recording. I have NOT listed this as explicit, because the swears are not heinous ones and I've heard worse on broadcast TV.

ENJOY!!!

Once again it's time for Boston Skeptics in the Pub! It's happening tonight, Monday, February 23 at 7pm. As usual, we'll be on the top floor of Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square. Tonight's speaker is Tim Farley of WhatsTheHarm.net. It's going to be fan-frigging-tastic, so prepare yourself.

Also, there are lots of really cool events coming up for Boston Skeptics: on March 16 we'll have William Lobdell (although please note that the venue may change – I'm working out the details now), and a very special Skeptics in the Pub at the end of March. On May 21 we'll take a field trip to see Penn & Teller at Foxwoods – there's a Facebook event page here: http://tinyurl.com/d6gt5n More info on all those events will be appearing shortly at BostonSkeptics.com.

Other stuff: NYC Skeptics will be Drinking Skeptically this Wednesday at the Four-faced Liar, D.C.'s Drinking Skeptically is March 11, and Philly's Drinking Skeptically is March 19. That's a whole lot of delicious, foamy skepticism, my friends. More info and more events can be found on the Skepchick calendar: http://tinyurl.com/achyz2

Hope to see many of you tonight!

Hugs, kisses, etc.,

Rebecca Watson
www.skepchick.org
www.bostonskeptics.com

Here's an interview with Alex Howard and Gradon Tripp (@digiphile and @gradontripp) as they conspired to make crepes at #pinkslipparty in Cambridge tonight.

Enjoy!

Got a resolution for New Year's 2009? I do. In fact I've got a few. Here's my podcast listing them. Enjoy.

As always, visit my blogs - BowlofCheese.com and JeffCutler.com/jeff - for more regular topics in text form.

Happy New Year!

Today's podcast is all about crap catalogs that you might get in the mail this holiday season.

Enjoy!

Need to get in touch or have a great idea for a show? Send me an email.

jeff (at symbol) jeffcutler (dot, period, whatever you call it) com.

Thanks!

Here's the transcript to today's Bowl of Cheese podcast by Jeff Cutler...

Bear in mind, if you have an idea for an upcoming show, send me an email or leave a comment at BowlOfCheese - the companion blog to the podcast.

Thanks!

Toenail clipper.

Are you kidding me about how this simple metal tool can project a tiny piece of dead skin cells across a room?

Sure, it sounds a little gross so put down your cereal or coffee or mid-morning snack or handful of M&Ms. While you’re at it, why don’t you ponder the real reason toenails have to be cut in the first place. It’s because you keep fueling the engine.

Let’s talk trajectory. I don’t have a math degree or a technical understanding of quarks and protons, but I do understand a little bit about propulsion, cause and effect and kinetic energy. A toenail is NOT of this earth.

As I see it, a toenail is at rest until some other force acts upon it. And until that point it remains at rest. This is probably the same way Einstein or Newton would have put it, although I don’t know how they cut toenails…or even if they did, so maybe they would have just ushered me out of their lab and back onto the street where I might get hit by a passing stagecoach or Model T Ford.

Continuing, the toenail is similar to a piece of carrot - maybe the stubby, ugly end with the hair and knot embedded in it. When you chop the carrot you get projectiles. Nothing on the order of a fleeting toenail, but you can achieve some distance with a well-placed chop.

Maybe that’s where I’ve underestimated the lowly toenail. Perhaps the issue I should focus on isn’t mass or size or even chemical make-up. I should look at perceptions. Here we are clipping a tiny nail from a tiny toe all the way at the other end of our body.

We’re crouched over and probably huffing and puffing - unless we’re flexible, which I’m certainly not. Then we attack a toe, try and align the clippers just right. And it’s all we can do to follow the path of the trimmed nail halfway across the room without blacking out.

From the nail’s perspective, it has gone about 50-100 times its length. From our perspective, the nail has taken on an evil persona dedicated to stabbing our bare feet or grossing out our housemates. There’s more urgency and fear in the eyes of the clipper than the clippee and that’s probably a mitigating factor.

I pulled a baby carrot out of the fridge and got out a pair of food scissors.

I also pulled my baby toe up and got out a pair of nail clippers.

Then I clipped.

You know what happened?

That’s right. Same distance. Almost the same angle of projection. The nail and carrot nub came to rest within a few inches of each other on the floor under the double recliner.

Since I’m already out of breath from bending over and doing all this work - on a Friday of all days - I’m going to leave them there. It will be part of another experiment in seeing if a carrot and a toenail are similar in their decomposition rates.

Until next time, just call me little Einstein - king of the toenail kinetic energy experiment.

More to come…

Here's episode 46 of Bowl of Cheese Podcast.

This paragraph is a quick intro, you can read the rest of the transcript at Jeff Cutler dot com. Link is right HERE.

Facing that question, I sit here dirty and moody while the water heater fulfills its destiny in my basement.

From a Karma standpoint it’s probably fortunate that the water heater pilot went out last night. There are errands on my docket for the day, but no pressing deadlines and no important interviews or meetings. We all know that the great unwashed don’t make a great first impression.

Contact us with your show ideas. We love to have guest speakers and commentators!

Send us an email or just leave a comment here or at Bowl of Cheese dot com.

Thanks!

Here's the transcript to Bowl of Cheese Podcast #45. Maybe we'll make it to 50 before the summer's over.

Enjoy! And remember, if you have an idea for a Bowl of Cheese podcast, call the talk like at 206-888-2715 or leave a comment on this post. I'd be glad to have another guest host read their submission for the audience. I require you to be clean, well-spoken, fun and relevant. Podcasts are between three and five minutes long. Rants are always welcome.

Enough of that, here's the transcript..

The rain’s coming down in droplets as large as jelly-beans and the wind’s got my curtains sticking into the room at right angles to the wall.

I can feel the temperature of the air drop by many degrees. Where it was 80 earlier it’s now about 65. It’s a welcome respite from the humidity and baking temps of the past few days.

As the thunder alerts me to more unsettled weather, I wonder what’s behind our aversion to the elements.

Certainly, being struck by lightning, washed away in a flood or a tornado, and smashed to bits by tsunamis and hurricanes isn’t anyone’s idea of a great adventure. But more often than not, we huddle inside when faced with a deluge, blistering heat or high winds.

Is this a condition of our evolution? Did we evolve just to run away from the challenges of our environment?

We can’t control the weather yet. So maybe it’s a flight reaction similar to when a Hippo charges us or when we see a gun. Regardless of the reason - genetic coding or learned response - people return to their homes, cars, offices or other sanctuaries for safety when the weather goes bad.

In some ways people remind me of ants. Fill up a watering can and pour it on an anthill and those creatures respond in the same way they would if the skies opened up and water fell from above. They don’t know any better and maybe they don’t care.

But we have the knowledge that storms move over us. That rain makes us wet and that lightning, while deadly, probably isn’t going to strike us when we’re in the city or while walking down the street. So what makes us fearful?

Human skin hasn’t been found to melt. Standing in the rain won’t give you pneumonia. Tousled hair is about the worst you’re going to suffer from a summer breeze. What’s our problem?

A Livescience.com story published in 2006 told of a study by psychologist John Westefeld at the University of Iowa. He surveyed 130 people about their reaction to weather and a large number of them were affected significantly by storms, wind, rain and other phenomena.

“Of 139 people surveyed, 89 said a good storm sometimes or occasionally gets their heart pounding, and 65 said they panic now and then,” said the Livescience article.

The article’s author - Robert Roy Britt - wrapped up the article with this...

“Overall, the researchers said 73 percent of the survey participants had "a little bit" or "moderate" fear of weather, while 24 percent had none. Just 3 percent were labeled as fearing Mother Nature "quite a bit."

The results are detailed in the June (2006) issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.”

In many cases, unless you believe in Noah and feel that we’re back on a path that will feature storms lasting a month and a half, the events only last a little while. They might cause some immediate damage to physical structures and to people’s psyches, but they’re over fairly quickly.

Perhaps it’s the spectacular nature of a sudden rainstorm that gets our attention. The sudden onset of black clouds and the chilly wind.

Except for the extraordinary storm, most events just last a little while and soon the status-quo returns. People emerge from their modern caves and go on with their lives.

In fact, the birds have started singing again and the last drops of rain are falling off the leaves. I started this column as the skies began to darken about 22 minutes ago. Now the sky is getting lighter and I guess I’ll leave my cave too.

See you inside the next time we have a storm. I’m not afraid.

Here's the 44th episode of Bowl of Cheese podcast.

Show notes are HERE.

Leave a comment if you feel like it or give us a call at 206-888-2715.

We're always looking for guest commentary. Shows are all under five minutes and explore different topics.

Today's show is on donuts and their significance in our lives. OK, in my life.

Thanks for listening!