Shows
Enjoy Your Piping! With Gary WestEpisode 99 - Wheel of Fortune 2025Send us a textGary brings you highlights from the wonderful and unique Wheel of Fortune contest run by the City of Edinburgh Pipe Band and held at the Danderhall Miners' Club in Midlothian.PlaylistCameron Drummond with Donald Maclellan of Rothesay, The Shepherd’s Crook and Drumlithie from EYP Recording Wheel of Fortune 2025 Sarah Muir with The Mad Hornpipe, Steve Byrne’s Jig, Alison’s Song, Unknown Polka, As I Went Out Upon the Ice, Dancing Feet, an un-named self penned tune and The Fou...2025-04-3057 min
Quantum - The Wee Flea PodcastQuantum 338 - The Rape Gangs Scandal in the UK, Greece and the Oldest City in EuropeThis week we look at what the Rape Gangs scandal is - including Louise Perry on Rotherham, Dominic Green, Keir Starmer, Jess Phillips, Tim Dieppe, Matt Goodwin; Crimes of the Cross - The Anglican abuse scandal in Newcastle, NSW; Transgender women in prison; The demise of Justin Trudeau; Government falls in Austria; The death of Jean-Marie Le Pen; Country of the Week - Greece; Earthquake in Tibet; Stornoway airport exists before plans fly; Pete Seeger v Bob Dylan; Biden bans Nippon Steel; the oldest City in Europe; Feedback and the Orthodox Church with music from Jack White, Lady Gaga, And...2025-01-0936 min
NewsbangQuirky Muffin LightningThe latest episode of the unconventional news show "News Bang" dives headfirst into a chaotic blend of history, humor, and the absurdities of the present day. Viewers are greeted with the headlines that set a whimsical tone, including a postcard from Jack the Ripper, besieged Vienna, an impromptu barbecue at an anti-war protest, and even an unexpected architectural choice by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The show kicks off with the chilling tale of George Lusk, chairman of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, who receives a grotesque gift: a letter from Jack the Ripper that also includes half a human kidney. The...2024-10-1518 min
Broken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 12 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 4)The most enigmatic Greek god, Dionysus, was steeped in Dumuzid-Tammuz lore. For the Greeks, he was always the foreign god, even though being part of the Greek pantheon since the Mycenaean era, circa 1500 to 1100 BC, when they called him Disonuso. This foreign god, was also worshiped by the Minoans under the name Diwonijo, although it is unclear when they started worshiping him.
The Minoans built a major civilization in the Aegean, long before the Greeks. Their civilization was devastated by the volcanic eruption of Thera, sometime between 1650 and 1500 BC, however, dating systems all disagree on when. Archaeologists...2021-03-0756 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 11 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 3)If one accepts the Recent Out-of-Africa theory for modern-human origins in Africa, then the lifespan of Dumuzid, was during the first phase of modern-human migrations out of Africa into the Middle East and South Asia. The current version of the Recent Out of Africa theory, proposes that modern-humans first migrated into southern Eurasia, between 110,000 and 95,000 years ago, and by 100,000 years ago, modern-humans and Neanderthals had begun interbreeding. Meanwhile, Dumuzid’s lifespan was listed as approximately 129,600 to 93,600 years ago.
Given that Cain was leaving Eden traveling east, the original Garden-of-the-Gods must have been in North Africa somewhere. As Zi...2021-02-2834 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 10 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 2)In the Sumerian King List, before the kingship was in Zimbir, it was in the city of Larak, which fell approximately 64,800 years ago, after being around for 28,800 years, meaning it was founded circa 93,600 years ago. So far, no ruins have been found in Iraq associated with a dynastic city called Larak, however, it is believed they may lie somewhere near the ruins if Isin. Almost nothing is known about Larak. The King of Larak was said to be En-Sipadzidana of which there are no surviving stories. The name En-Sipadzidana translates approximately as ‘time of the shepherd for the faithful of...2021-02-2140 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 9 (Pre-Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 1)Like the Egyptians, the Sumerians recorded a long pre-dynastic history. The Sumerians recorded a series of king lists for different cities, which they claimed ruled Mesopotamia in sequence, with the kingship being taken from city to city. Modern Assyriologists generally disregard the idea that the kingship passed from city to city in a long line of dynasties, as this would push the foundation of Sumer back to approximately 23,645 BC, after the Flood of Ziusudra. Adding the dynasties listed before the flood, human history would have begun approximately 264,845 BC.
This is a tremendous period of time and is...2021-02-1438 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 8 (Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 2)The fourth period in the Mesopotamian timeline is the Late Era, which includes the Babylonian, Assyrian, and later civilizations. The Babylonian timeline is derived from the Babylonian King Lists and continues where the Sumerian King Lists end. The Babylonian civilization was largely a continuation of the Akkadian civilization, however, the capital city of Babylon was north of the marshlands. The fact that the Babylonian King Hammurabi was around at the same time as the Egyptian King Neferhotep I requires moving the entire Old Babylonian Empire to circa 3352 to 3038 BC ULT.
This does not affect the dating of...2021-02-0749 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 7 (Dynastic Mesopotamia, Part 1)The timelines of Mesopotamia and Egypt are the two pillars that ancient history is built around, unfortunately, as the Egyptian timeline was more developed by the early-1900s it has traditionally taken precedence over the Mesopotamian timeline. This means whenever the Egyptian timeline is changed by Egyptologists, the Mesopotamian timeline needs to be adjusted by Assyriologists to keep the two timelines in sync. Unlike Egypt, where one civilization rose and fell repeatedly for thousands of years, in Mesopotamia various civilizations rose and fell. The oldest known culture in the region was the Sumerian culture, which was ultimately supplanted by...2021-01-3140 min
Mars 2194When Life Doesn’t MatterThe night of the fight, Tamiko met Mere in the locker room before the fight. Mere thought she’d come to walk her to the cage, like most managers did, but then saw Tamiko's face.
“I just got a call from Daniel,” Tamiko explained. “He said Aeron was a warning. Next time they’ll call the police instead of leaving it there for us to find.”
“Next time?” Mere asked. “What did he say he would do?”
“I’ve got a lot of androids,” Tamiko answered. “He said he wants you to lose the fight tonight. Let...2021-01-301h 15Broken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 6 (Pre-Dynastic Egypt, Part 3)Before the 30 kings of Memphis, Manetho listed the rule of another group of kings for 1,817 years. Very little is known about this period that apparently existed between approximately 17,280 to 15,463 years ago. This was deep into the glacial drought when Egypt was extremely dry. During the period of around 17,000 years ago Lake Tana in the Ethiopian highlands dried out, which was the source for 80% of the Nile’s water during the later dynastic period. This led to the Nile’s water level falling to one of its all-time lowest points. Lake Tana did not recover until sometime after 15,100 years ago.
2021-01-2423 min
Mars 2194Life in TartarusIt had finally happened! After almost a decade of waiting it was here, well, the other side of the planet, but close enough! War! Shahzad Ebrahimi had been dreaming of the next war since the last one ended, and he knew exactly who he was going to kill first. That fat Mexican that worked at Materfer VacTube that was always leering at him. He had only gotten the delivery job so he would have access to the important Sudamericans, and now the time had come.
He wished he could just blow...2021-01-2344 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 5 (Pre-Dynastic Egypt, Part 2)According to Manetho, before the rule of the 10 Kings of Thinis, there was a dynasty of 30 kings based in Memphis, who ruled for 1,790 years. The location of the dynastic city of Memphis is known, it’s near the modern town of Mit Rahina, 20 km south of Giza. The city of Memphis was the capital of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, said to have been founded by King Menes after he unified Egypt circa 5510 BC ULT (or 3100 BC CET). It was a major city throughout most of Egyptian history and is the root of where the name ‘Egypt’ is derived. While the ci...2021-01-1740 min
Mars 2194Frozen SkyThe insulation of the thermal-suit was good as well, she couldn't feel the icy air touching any part of her skin, but after an hour or so, a cold ache set into her arms, and then her feet, and then legs. By the time she reached the airship the ache had spread up her back, and the Cyber Heads-Up Display implanted in her eyes was reporting mild hypothermia. She suddenly realized she had been running through the darkness, and wondered if Cheng could have even made the journey without waving around a...2021-01-1647 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 4 (Pre-Dynastic Egypt, Part 1)Before the dynastic period, Manetho and other ancient sources stated there was a series of older civilizations in the Nile. Little has been found from the period, however, some findings do support his claims. While much of the Pre-Dynastic era may be fiction, it would be irresponsible to propose returning to Manetho’s timeline without looking at what the Egyptians believed came before.
One might read the history of Christian scholars re-writing Egyptian history, and wonder: why? What difference does it make when the Ancient Egyptians thought their civilization was founded to a Christian? If someone believes th...2021-01-1019 min
Mars 2194A Long Night in HellThe ride down the elevator to Agni Mining Station was like a ride into Hell itself. On a planet where you could never quite get warm enough, it quickly became uncomfortably warm, then uncomfortably hot. G. Drew Akers had been in deep mines before, he'd worked in one for two years in Hussy Crater in his early twenties. He'd decided then that he never wanted to return to one, fortunately, he wouldn't be in this one long. But that mine in Hussy had only been two kilometers below the surface of Mars, this mine was almost twelve.
At the mine in Huss...2021-01-0954 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 3 (Dynastic Egypt, Part 3)So if the ULT fits the geological and paleoclimatological evidence far better than the CET, why has the C.E.T. become ubiquitous in Egyptology? In a word: Christianity.
Egyptologists were divided into two camps during the late 1800s, some supporting the long timeline, and others supporting the short timeline. The long timeline proponents based their views of Egyptian history on the ancient records of Egypt, while the short timeline proponents based their view of Egyptian history on the version of the Bible they were using at the time. The pattern was identical for Iraqi, Indian, and...2021-01-0318 min
Mars 2194Species of SociopathsGalatea could see a physiological response in the steward, her heartbeat and breathing slowed, she was becoming calmer. Galatea found it curious how quickly the human-mind latched onto even the faintest hope of survival. The odds of any of them surviving the night were incredibly low, her odds weren't much better. She would need to salvage as many of them as possible if she had any hope of surviving until a rescue ship could be dispatched. If it was dispatched immediately a rescue airship could take several days to reach them in this remote area. She would have to give the huma...2021-01-0229 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 2 (Dynastic Egypt, Part 2)The reason there are so many options when dating Egyptian history is due to its complexity. Ancient Egypt wasn’t a kingdom that built a bunch of pyramids and was then conquered by the Greeks. What we today call Ancient Egypt was, in fact, a series of kingdoms that rose and fell in the Nile region over several thousand years. They are called the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms by Egyptologists. Separating these kingdoms were dark ages, which Egyptologists call the First, Second, and Third Intermediate Periods. Following the Third Intermediate Period, or Third Egyptian Dark Age, was the La...2020-12-2745 min
Mars 2194Sweat and BloodFor Artemio it had never been about winning, it had always been about surviving. He didn't know if he could beat Mudiwa Kachote in a fair fight, in fact, he doubted he could, but it didn't matter because he could survive a fight with Mudiwa. It was hard-wired into him. For Chichi it had always been about winning, and Chichi always won. Chichi knew she would win against Artemio, he was just a fighter, she was Multan itself. It didn't matter if Mudiwa was or wasn't a better fighter than Artemio, by the time Artemio got into the cage, he...2020-12-2658 min
Broken TimelinesBroken Timelines - Episode 1 (Dynastic Egypt, Part 1)The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the original Egyptian timeline, as recorded by Manetho and the ancient Egyptian King Lists, and as documented by the foremost Egyptologist of the British Empire, Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie, actually make far more sense than the Conventional Egyptian Timeline. The original timeline is herein called the Unified Long Timeline (or the ULT) as it also takes into account the dynastic records of Mesopotamia, and the various lines of scientific evidence amassed in the past century such as dendrochronology, paleoclimatology, and carbon-dating.
The dates used in the ULT...2020-12-2025 min
Mars 2194Desert RangersGabriel considered the question for a couple of seconds before answering. It was something he didn't like to think about. "The Echusian Desert Rangers audited over 45,000 Arreola plants last season. I can't see how there could be over 10,000 less this year."
Ferderand wasn't quick to respond either, he hadn't thought about the blowback on the Echusian Desert Rangers. "I hadn't considered that," he finally stated. The meaning was clear enough to both of them. Gabriel had been an Echusian Desert Ranger last season, and now he was responsible for a purchase that ended up falling short by 15,000 plants. To someone...2020-12-1950 minBroken TimelinesBroken Timelines Podcast. IntroductionEgypt is unique among Earth’s ancient cultures, as the Egyptians kept records longer than most cultures existed. Around 300 BC the Egyptian historian Manetho compiled a record of Egyptian History for the Greeks. It was the height of Greek cultural influence. The Greeks were ruling everything from southern Italy to northwest India, and had established colonies as far west as France, and as far north as Crimea. Manetho’s book Aegyptiaca, circulated far and wide within the Greek world, and then the Roman and Sassanian Empires that rose up to consume the Greek world. Within Aegyptiaca, the dynastic history of E...2020-12-1405 min
Mars 2194Loyal SoldierGeneral Rome waited until the mercenaries were in the airlock before jumping to his feet and grabbing his duster and respirator mask. "I'll be back," he said to the waitress as he ran to the door into the motel. He swung the duster over his shoulders as he stepped into the lobby airlock, then pushed the respirator mask to his face as he hit the button for the outer airlock door. As he stepped out into the swirling sand, he pulled the strap of the respirator mask over the back of his head, and the mask pressurized. Across the...2020-12-1228 min
Mars 2194King of MarsEve started to laugh. She was standing in her home of the past decade, an airship that might as well be dead. The only way she could get it functional again was to make it back to the colony, across sand-pits that could swallow her whole, and then get the neural processor back from Tadeusz before it starved to death, and before the algae in the airship's oxygen recyclers and fuel-cells starved.
From somewhere inside her there came a deep swell of emotion, and she screamed. Some of it was from the loss of her husband. Some...2020-12-0634 min
BBC Introducing in Oxfordshire & BerkshirePODCAST: [From the Archive] Count DrachmaDave speaks to Stornoway's Oliver Steadman about his Zulu music project Count Drachma. Also includes interviews with Esther Joy and Jess Hall, and tracks by Jack Goldstein, Duotone, and Truly Ford.2020-07-021h 02