Alicia Vikander in Ex Machina - featured in a review and discussion on
The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe
THE world of podcasting can probably be
measured in the same way as a dog's age. Podcasts come and go so fast
that there's probably seven podcast years to one of our own. Which
makes the ten years that Skepticality has been around all the more
remarkable.
The podcast - an offshoot of Skeptic
Magazine - cocks an eyebrow at the world and champions critical
thought, and their latest podcast reflects on the ten years of their
existence and the state of the skeptical community.
At times, this strays into a bit of a
planning meeting, particularly during their segment from the QED
Conference, but it's where they discuss some of the absurdities of
the world that the show shines. For example, the Montel Williams Show
has apologised for promoting psychic Sylvia Browne. In 2003, a girl
named Amanda Berry was kidnapped and kept in the Cleveland home of
her abductor for years. The TV show invited Browne on and Berry's
mother asked her what had happened to the missing Amanda. The psychic
said that the missing girl was dead. Bizarrely enough, at that time,
Berry was watching the very same TV show - she was a fan of the
show and knew her mother was going to be on it and hoped this might
be the moment that the truth was revealed about her abduction. But
no, and this is the kind of bunkum this podcast thrives on pointing
out.
There's mischief and fun too, and the
show ranges from a list of assorted apocalypses that failed to end
the world despite earnest prediction through to the first new monkey
species discovered in 28 years, a macaque with a peculiar penis. (You can see pictures of that monkey - though not its notable feature - here)
The show has lasted ten years for a
reason, and is well worth a visit.
Staying with skeptics, we come to the
New England Skeptic Society's podcast, sprinkling a remembrance of
forgotten heroes of science - here, they salute Mary Sherman
Morgan, a rocket scientist who invented the liquid fuel Hydyne in
1957 - along with a movie review of recent release Ex Machina and
news from the skeptic community.
Here, you'll find discussions about
light-based computing, you'll find talk about freedom of speech, and
all manner of smart discussion and thoughtful analysis. You don't
come away thinking that you needed to know more about the subjects up
for debate because each aspect is weighed and discussed, leaving you
feeling as if your horizons have been broadened.
Lastly, if the above shows clock in at
too long and you only have time for a bite-size show, try Skeptoid.
It's short and to the point, a very sharp point at times, clocking in
at around 15 minutes a show. As for the tone? Think of the host as a
debunker who is wearily explaining why a theory is so very, very
wrong for the umpteenth time and you have it. A recent show covered
baby myths - such as the difference between breast milk and formula
and the guilt such a choice can bring on or what the colour of your
child's runny nose might mean. Quick, useful info and cheerfully,
smartly presented.
Welcome to The Bahamas, a beautiful place of blue sky and crystal clear seas that I'm fortunate to call home.
This blog post is a bit different from my usual - in that it's designed to be a list of things to do for people who are coming to visit, be it coming to see me and raise a cocktail glass or otherwise!
It's also a post that can be updated on a rolling basis - so if there's something you think should be on the list that I've missed out, let me know where and why and we'll add it on. Oh, and a disclaimer, I haven't received anything from any of these businesses to sway me to put them on the list!
So without further adieu, we have...
The beaches
There are lots of beautiful beaches in The Bahamas. I'll add others from the Family Islands as people recommend them (and I'm sure locations in Exuma, Mayaguana and Long Island will feature), but for New Providence and Paradise Island, the top three that draw me are:
Cabbage Beach
Situated on Paradise Island, Cabbage Beach is the beach running along past the hotels of Atlantis. There's public access too though and it's a quiet spot to relax - with occasional people trying to rent you a jet ski. The water is clear as can be, which is great for fish spotting. The sea can sometimes get a little rough but not usually. You'll likely find plenty of people selling drinks too along the beach.
Goodman's Bay
Over on New Providence, there's also plenty of beaches - including the likes of Junkanoo Beach and Montagu Beach closer to the hotels of Paradise Island. But a little bit further to the west, before you reach Baha Mar, I prefer the peace of Goodman's Bay. Sparsely populated and with good swimming, it's a lovely spot to chill out with a good book. There's a line of trees along a park to its rear that can provide shade too if you need.
Jaws Beach
More tucked away is the idyllic Jaws Beach. It's over by the Clifton Heritage National Park to the west, itself worth exploration. The beach is smaller, but picture perfect. It's also where some of a Jaws movie was shot - but have no fear!
Don't go to Senor Frogs if you want to stay sober. Go if you want to try fanciful cocktails in inordinately tall plastic cups about a yard long. Go if you want to take part in the fun and games organised by the resident MC. Go if you want to see them stage things like the Drop Shot record attempt in the video above. Go if you want to flirt and dance through the night. But don't go if you want a quiet night. This is the place you wake up blinking the next day saying "Did we really do that?".
You'll find it downtown, not far from the cruise ships, and it's well tended by bouncers and with plenty of police through the downtown tourist area for safety. Taxis are easily snagged from nearby too.
Green Parrot
There's two Green Parrots to note here - one on Paradise Island at Hurricane Hole and one on New Providence on Bay Street. Both are good chillout spots. If you want to chat without music, the one on PI is better, while the one over on Bay Street has perhaps nicer views across the harbour towards Atlantis and often has live bands. Both serve food, though I tend to find them better for snacks than a full meal.
Potter's Cay Dock
This is my favourite drinking spot, under the bridge over from Paradise Island on the New Providence side. There's a line of shacks serving food and drink. The food is usually along the lines of conch salad or fried fish - and some of the best conch salads I've tasted have come from here. There are negatives - the infrastructure around the dock is basic, be warned, and the bathrooms could do with better care - but the positives outweigh those with the best atmosphere I've found for a night out. Charlie Brown's stall near the end of the western stalls is very much worth a shoutout - and where the picture to the left was taken of a beautiful Bahamian sunset.
I'm starting off with three places per category - and adding more as they are recommended, so tweet your suggestions to me @chippychatty.
Places to eat
Seafront Sushi
If I'm looking for a sit-down meal, Seafront Sushi will often be high on my list. It has a great menu full of all kinds of sushi items, but there's also stir fries on there too for those less certain. The upstairs has low benches where you shuck off your shoes and cross your legs at the table to eat, while downstairs has regular tables and chairs. There's a potent list of alcoholic drinks too and great service. You can find out more here.
The Fish Fry
There are a number of Fish Fries in The Bahamas, but this one is the one at Arawak Cay, a line of stalls and restaurants, mostly serving traditional Bahamian food plus more. Twin Brothers, the yellow building in the picture, is a popular choice, though personally I prefer a few doors further to the east, Frankie Goes Bananas. That may be for the cocktails and daiquiris, but I'm not confessing. Whether you're looking for a quiet place to chill and chat or a busier place with music or even karaoke, there's plenty here.
Cafe Martinique
If you're looking for somewhere more elegant, then Cafe Martinique is one of a host of good restaurants over on Paradise Island. It offers fine dining and French/Asian cuisine. This has a movie connection too - appearing in the James Bond movie Thunderball, which probably makes it guaranteed that they know how to mix your Martini. For more information, click here.
I'm sticking to the three recommendations per section for the initial post - but I expect this will be the section updated soonest! I'm already planning to add a few...
Things to do
Powerboat to Exuma
Here's a recommendation I'm making and I haven't even tried it myself - but everyone I know that has taken this trip has raved about it. You get the thrill of the speedboat ride, you get to go snorkelling around reefs, and even feed stingrays and sharks. On my to-do list, but in the meantime, you can find out more here.
National Art Gallery
Just a little distance from downtown Nassau - though worth grabbing a taxi if you're not sure where you're going - is the National Art Gallery.
With regular changes to the exhibits, it's a fantastic place to visit to see what's new and to get a glimpse of the forefront of Bahamian art. Admission for visitors is only $10, and well worth it (children under 12 free). For more information, click here.
Aquaventure
Aquaventure is the water park for Atlantis, for which you can buy day passes - check here for more information on that - and it's a great family day out. Whether you're adventurous enough to take on the Leap of Faith in the video above - which whisks you through a tube through the middle of the shark tank - or whether you drift around on the Lazy River, it's a great way to get into the water. All around there are tanks of water with sealife in. Take a wander through The Dig to see stingrays and grouper, jellyfish and clown fish, eels and more. It's a great day out, just remember your sunscreen! You can book lockers to store your belongings, leaving you free to wander around. There's a number of food outlets and places to buy drinks, soft or boozy.
Again, sticking to the rule of three for now - though you can expect Blue Lagoon and the glass-bottomed boat tour to feature here soon... send those tweets to @chippychatty with your suggestions.
That's all for now... send your extras for inclusion or leave your suggestions in the comments below, happy to add more! Let me also give a pointer to another article with ideas on staycationing in The Bahamas, by Dawn Demeritte, here. And for a link to a previous article giving details of currency, how to get around, etc, click here.
So went the lyrics to one of the songs
we used to sing in primary school, but who was Lily the Pink? That
was Lydia Pinkham - a woman who was a pioneer in the worlds of
business and medical concoctions. She's also the subject of the
latest podcast by The History Chicks, who delve into the life and
times of both Mrs Pinkham and the world around her.
Mrs Pinkham came to prominence in the
1800s thanks to her remedy for female complaints, as it was
described. She used to make it and give it away to friends and
neighbours, but when her husband's businesses faltered in tough
economic times, up stepped Mrs Pinkham to become an economic
powerhouse. With her face on the product, her Vegetable Compound
became a roaring success. More than that, she also became a
figurehead for women, and the product was driven by letters from
those using the product, creating a possibility of women's voices
being heard at a time when it was frowned upon for women even to walk
in the company of a man without others present.
It's a cracking little podcast, full of
little snippets of detail - such as the Pinkhams receiving an offer
to buy them out only six months after putting Mrs Pinkham's face on
the product. That offer, in today's money, was worth more than $2m -
but the Pinkhams said no.
Mrs Pinkham was also a supporter of the
anti-slavery movement and of feminism.
It's a delightful listen, well worth
the time, and sparklingly delivered by the hosts. The History Chicks
seek to reveal more about women throughout history - very well
worth a listen.
The recent UK election is a goldmine
for analysts of politics. There's the discussions about coalitions,
the questions about how representative the Parliament is of the votes
cast, the rise of nationalist politics, the punishment handed out to
the Liberal Democrats for going back on promises - all kinds of
things to study.
My History Can Beat Up Your Politics
sets the context, however, by looking back at previous elections and
how coalitions rose and fell over the years, and the effects that
would have on the country.
It's an intriguing listen, particularly
as the host is observing from outside, his US drawl picking over the
details of history one by one. Having a single host does wear from
time to time, it would be nice for the podcast to be broken up a
little more so you don't drift at any stage, but he's a good host
with an engaging voice and mind.
It's a worthy listen - recorded just
before the election took place - as much for the political theory
being discussed as the actual specifics. There are certainly lessons
to be learned for politicians sharing the Westminster dynamic.
Perhaps the thing that stands out most
to me from it is the question of representation. The last election
saw perhaps some of the most extreme differences in terms of numbers
of voters for minority parties versus the number of seats they
actually attained - UKIP and the Greens suffering the most with
only one seat each in Parliament. That's the kind of analysis that
prompts questions about fairness and change.
Less successful in its illuminations is
the Revolutions podcast discussing Citizen Genet. Citizen Genet was
Edmond Charles Genet. Rather than being called Monsieur, he preferred
to be referred to as Citizen, a square peg in the round hole of
society. It seems to take an age to get to the meat of the podcast,
past lots of promotion and adverts and discussion of how they decided
to make this episode. Less of that, please, and just get on with it.
Because there's a cracking story to be
told about Citizen Genet, who became French minister to the United
States from 1793 to 1794. Fluent in six languages, it turned out -
as the podcast notes - that one of those languages was not the
language of diplomacy, with his activities prompting a diplomatic
crisis between France and the US.
This followed his being declared
persona non grata in Russia in 1792, so perhaps there should have
been a hint of what was to come.
The headstrong Genet ran into problems
as he started to negotiate trade treaties with the American
Revolutionaries and began to hand out privateer contracts for the
hunting down of British ships by vessels based out of US ports.
However, this made him run foul of a
chap by the name of George Washington... the president of the
fledgling US, which had a policy of neutrality. Warned and warned
again, Genet carried on encouraging privateers leading to the US
seeking his recall. And yet, in the end, the US allowed Genet to stay
in the country until his death - when it turned out that his recall
would lead to his likely execution after a power shift.
It's a fascinating story, but the
podcast doesn't really give it much zing. It tends to drift along.
Again, a single voice doesn't help so it comes over as a history
lecture rather than a discussion. This serves as a set-up for a
lengthy examination of George Washington's history - and it's
undeniable that the host knows his stuff. One to focus on, not have
on in the background.
HEAVEN forbid, but imagine for a moment
you were taken ill and had to go to hospital. When you arrive at the
hospital, you discover that the specialist in the area you need
treatment for is away at a medical conference. Are your chances
improved or worse because of that?
That's the question that kicks off a
recent episode of Freakonomics, an award-winning podcast that tilts
its head at the world and asks things a different way.
This particular episode - How Many
Doctors Does It Take To Start A Healthcare Revolution? - takes a look
at a subject that is timely as The Bahamas considers a new National
Health Insurance plan, the world of private healthcare.
The presenters ask excellent questions
leading to very pointed observations. For example, they point out
such things as that if a surgeon takes a few minutes to explain to a
patient or their family what is going to happen, then that's lost
money for the hospital. The private system thrives on machines being
used and on beds being filled, the things that can be charged for on
your health insurance. But is that the best way to look after the
needs of the patient? Prevention can't be added to your bill, only
cure.
In Princeton, two billion-dollar
hospitals have recently been built, both filled with lots of beds so
there is always a bed available and the presenters note that if you
go to one of those hospitals for treatment, the chances are high that
you'll end up staying in a bed overnight - even if you don't really
need it. Why? Well, your insurance is paying for it, right? And so
the hospital can charge for it.
Now some of these factors may be
unintended consequences of how the system works, but it's clear there
are hiccups in the operation of it that show that not everything is
working out to the benefit of the patient in all ways.
Oh, and that question about the absent
specialist? It was based on a study on what happened when heart
specialists were away at conferences. The result? Survival chances
went up.
Go listen to Freakonomics to find out
more - it's thoughtful, not a diatribe, and asks questions, it
doesn't insist it has answers.
Another podcast that takes a slightly
unusual look at the world is Home of the Brave, the podcast of Scott
Carrier. The episode I started with was “The Cover-Up”. For those
who don't know of Banksy, he's a guerilla artist, whose work is part
graffiti, part genius. One of his works was a painting of Osama Bin
Laden, on a broken down piece of wall under a bridge in a walking
area just outside Salt Lake City. It showed a graffiti door with a
window at its centre, out of which a painting of Bin Laden grimly
peered. And it got painted over. Carrier puts the question to passers
by as to what they think of the art and its destruction, with
tantalising responses. The episode also spends quite a lot of a time
with a chap called Alex Caldiero, described as a Sonosopher, who
speaks at length on the philosophical implications of the
destruction, before taking up something to scratch out his own
tribute on the wall as a testimony to the invisible.
Sometimes, podcasts live out their
welcome, but StoryCorps is the opposite, there's just enough for a
taste, and sometimes you are left longing for more. The episode I
first listened to took a look at the 20th anniversary of
the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh. The blast killed 168
people and injured hundreds of others. Among those affected by the
bombing were children at a day care centre at the site. Twenty years
on, those children who survived - only six of 21 present - are now
full grown, and the show speaks to some of those who were there. The
children were too young to really know what was going on at the time,
but as they grew up, they learned about it and how they fitted in
with it all. One youngster talks of the pressure to not only make his
parents proud, but also not to waste the opportunity he has when so
many other children had that opportunity taken away from them.
Another survivor, who suffered serious burns and broken bones and was
left in hospital for three months when only a year old, talks of
never really understanding what he was part of, and his father
reveals this is the first time they have really spoken of the
bombing, because he felt personally responsible for what happened
after saying to the boy's mother to take him to the day care because
he was tired and needed to rest. Twenty years on and this is the
first time that the son has the chance to tell his father not to
blame himself. It's a fascinating, brilliant podcast, but it's over
in ten minutes, just when you're wanting to know more.
