Date – April 15th, 2008, Read by Swoopy
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Daniel Loxton is working hard to give us better visibility on Facebook
We are podcasters, after all, and we like to acknowledge our roots.
Slau's studio Be-Sharp Records, engineers and produces the likes of George Hrab.
Recently bands like NIN and Radiohead left big labels to go it alone.
Podsafe artists like Slau were way ahead of the curve.
Music – Slau, I'm The One, from The Weight of Words
Darka and Slavko were Ukrainian pop stars.
Slavko Halatyn is known simply as Slau. Like Prince or Cher.
In 2005 Slau was inspired by Adam Curry to produce a podsafe Christmas song.
The song was a collaboration between 32 singers from 9 countries.
What if Every Day Were Christmas got international air play, and raised money for Unicef
Slau's first album, The Weight of Words was published in 2001 just before 9/11.
Slau introduced us to George Hrab in 2005. Is was, as they say, Kismet.
Slau became legally blind due to Retinitis Pigmentosa at age 21.
New York state's new governor, David Patterson is also legally blind.
Unusually, Patterson does not read Braille, he memorizes all his speeches.
Lighthouse international provides reading and other services for the blind.
Recent studies show that the blind are still widely discriminated against in the workplace.
There are very few restaurants which have a braille version of their menus.
United States currency is one of the few in the world not made accessible for the blind.
US money has been changed and yet no changes in bill size or shape have been made.
Podcasting provides vast amounts of audio entertainment for the blind.
In early podcasting days, sound seeing tours were popular.
Screen Reading software is used by the blind to 'see' computer screens easier.
Mac OS X has a built in screen reader.
Audio description is used to help the blind watch video entertainment.
iTunes has made international markets available to all artists.
The money for musicians has always been in merchandising and concerts, not albums.
The recording industry is broken.
Slau is working on his next album, coming soon to iTunes.
You can find out more about Slau and his music at Slau.net
Music – Slau, I'm The One, from The Weight of Words
Scott Sigler gave away his book Ancestor on our show a year ago.
Ancestor went on to top out at number 2 on Amazon.com and landed Scott a book deal.
Infected was published by Crown books on April 1st, and is already a best seller.
Scott claims to be the only horror author that uses hard science in his story telling.
Big publishing is still a very exclusive and secret world. Why not self publish?
Infected is available EVERYWHERE. Possibly even in space.
Dude, don't make authors sign stolen library books.
Traditional Sci-Fi often uses woo woo tactics to get out of tight spots.
Scott is leading the way for a new generation of authors, and changing the way you read.
Sigler Junkies are born at ScottSigler.com
Scott has other work still being podcast one episode at a time like Nocturnal.
You can party with the Junkies at Dragon*Con 2008 in Atlanta.
Skeptics can utilize new media to create more skeptical programming.
We are proud to have such talented friends and to showcase their work.
Outro Music – Slau, Two Can Play, from The Weight of Words
Skepticality outro.