It’s important to remember that while many physical therapies (mostly forms of massage) aren’t quackery insofar as they relate to relaxation, muscle tightness, and a few other direct indications, they’re not avenues for mitigating an imagined toxicity or re-balancing non-existent energy fields within the body or even curing a multifarious slew of illnesses as they are so often espoused to do (hence, making them pure quackery for such indications).  Again, we register in grayscale, not black-and-white.

The only issue I take with Crispian’s flowchart is the issue of prayer. Prayer works, plain and simple.  I pray that it won’t rain and storm every day, and lo and behold, my prayers are answered about eighty percent of the time.  That’s a damn good success rate, and if you ask me, that other twenty percent is just the Big Man trying to keep me on my toes.

I would gladly supplant any number of proven therapies with prayer as my sole bastion against succumbing to disease.  Just look how well it’s worked so far.

(Thumb through the rest of Jago’s Science, Reason, and Critical Thinking blog.  He has some fantastic, thought-provoking work therein.)

~Tim Coyne~

True story:

I was first introduced to Tim when my friend DDR Matt told me I should check out a series of podcasts he was doing called “unkempt” where Tim talked about his life totally unfiltered.  In the first show I listened to I heard Tim talking about how he was sleeping on a pilates mat because he “does not deserve a bed”.  In that episode Tim outlined a litany of horrible things that had happened to him.  when I heard this stuff I thought it was a joke…  Like there is no way that this is really happening… because it is just to fucking tragic!  I thought that if this were happening to someone for real there is NO WAY he would talk about it like this for all the world to hear.  So as I listened I laughed and laughed, and laughed till my guts hurt so much I had to turn the podcast off and recover for bit. 

Fast Forward a bit.  I see DDR Matt and I tell him, “I listened to that Tim Coyne dude.  I laughed till I hurt.” 

DDR Matt says, “What?  You laughed?  Seriously?  You know that he is like… for real.” 

I think DDR Matt is totally fucking with me so I say, “Whatever dude.  There is no way that he is for real. 

And DDR Matt gets all serious on me and says, ”Uhm… I guess I can see why you would think that, but I’ve been talking to [Tim], and I can tell you for sure that he is 100% for real.” 

“Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

Then I felt bad for laughing. 

The Scoop:

To this day believe Tim Coyne is with out a doubt one of the best personalties working in new media because he’s one of those rare people who can be totally honest about himself, and do it in public, even when it doing so is completely self deprecating.  In effect Tim shares personal stories, sometimes these storys make me laugh and sometimes they make want to cry (for real), but regardless of how they make me feel I know that the stories are genuine…

When Tim spoke at Podcaster Across Border in 2009 I told him that when my own life took bad turns I would que up some of his unkempt and listen to it, because they made me feel like I was not alone. 

In addition to this Tim is one of the most talented storytellers, interviewers, public speakers, and stand up comedians I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. 

 As of this writing I’ve been lucky enough to say that I’ve meet, and hung out with, Tim on a number of different occasions.  I say that because I don’t only find him interesting, I consider him a friend. 

 If you read this and you don’t take the time to check out Tim’s stuff you’re really missing out on something grand.  Just saying. 

Links:

1. Tim’s podcast: The Hollywood Podcast.
2. Tim’s IMDB page.
4. Tim Coyne on Twitter.  (Tag this with #ff #followfriday)
4. Wikipedia article on Tim’s work
5. Tim’s LinkedIn Profile.
6. Tim’s got some Google juice.

This week I’m only going to point to two people (last week I did three), but rest assured that these two people each produce enough stuff to keep you interested for several weeks.

Hope you check them out, and enjoy their creative output as much as I do.

~~~~~

1. Doc Searls — One of the authors of “The Cluetrain Manifesto” which was originally published in the year 2000, and ten years later, remains one of the most relevant books ever written about the internet.

Here are some places that you can check out what Mr. Searls is up to…

a. Wikipedia article on Doc Searls.
b. Doc Searls on Twitter.
c. Doc Searls blog (a must daily must read if you ask me).
d. Doc Searls home page (with lots of links to his various projects).
e. Doc Searls Berkman Center (of Harvard University) page.

2. Hugh McGuire — Is one of those people who I consider to be a powerhouse of the web.  Hugh is involved in so damn many projects (all of which are amazing) that I don’t know how he finds the time to brush his teeth.

And unlike so many other web heads out there who are starting new projects all the time Hugh’s projects all come to something, and they all have the ability to enrich the lives of the people who use / consume them.  I really can’t say enough good stuff about Hugh…

Here is a list of things that Hugh has done / is doing from his about page…

a. LibriVox – free public domain audio books (info)
b. Bite-Size Edits – a video game for grammarians (info)
c. BookCampToronto – an “unconference” about the future of books (info)
d. Earideas – a collection of the best audio on the web (info)
e. Book Oven Blog – a blog about the future of books and publishing (info)
f. Media Hacks – a podcast, hosted by Mitch Joel, about technology & media
g. Datalibre – a blog about citizen access to government data (info)
h. Book Oven – a digital publishing platform (info)
i. Hugh McGuire dot net, Hugh’s personal blog.

You can of course follow Hugh on Twitter, and if you happen to be interested in him you can read a great interview with him, or watch an interview with him.

You know about “follow friday” on twitter,  right?

It’s the thing on where you mention someone’s twitter handle with the oh-so-important #ff tag. With this simple gesture, you vouch for someone, and invite others to follow them.

The thing is, It’s mostly bullshit.

#FF is really about showing others what a great connector of people you are, and how they should be thankful you showed them the way.

Whatever. If a three character tag is all it takes to pique your interest in someone, you may want to set your standards a wee bit higher.

As my protest against this idiocy, and as a way to keep writing during the summer, I’d like to do better than a FF, and actually show you some people I read/listen to that I happen to find interesting. Each week I’ll invite you to take a listen/read to someone who may or may not be new to you. Let me know what you think.

Imitation being the highest form of flattery, I’m going to take a page from Bob’s play book and do this as well.

So here are three people that have had an effect on the way that I live my life.

1. It should be obvious that I find Mr. Goyetche interesting.  If you check out his content I’m sure you will find him to be interesting as well.

2. Andrea Ross is one of the most inspiring people I have had the pleasure to know.  Watch this and you will see what I’m talking about.

3. Jason Gantenberg My co-editor here at Foolish Human.  First Sea Lord Gantenberg is one of the most talented and creative people I have ever worked with.  He is smart, funny, and always makes me think.