http://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2015/oct/09/seven-brief-lessons-physics-black-holes-podcast
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
10 November 2015
03 February 2014
on emergence ...
"We live in an emergent universe, in which the interaction between its parts, be they people or electrons, gives rise to emergent collective behaviors that are different from those of the parts separately and are generally unpredictable from knowledge only of those parts and their interaction. To understand this emergent universe, scientists are replacing the traditional reductionist approach, with its focus on using the individual components as basic building blocks, by an emergent perspective, in which the focus is on characterizing collective emergent behavior and the search for the collective organizing concepts and principles that bring it about"
20 November 2012
explaining epigenetics .. adding more nurture to the nature-nurture mix
A log-worthy RadioLab episode - Inheritance - Which includes a lovely explanation of epigenetics, explained through some beautifully told stories, as usual.
Listen, to find out how, for instance, mom's licking turns on a behaviour, via protein, via turned-on-gene ..
From the site: http://www.radiolab.org/2012/nov/19/:
and streamed here
http://www.radiolab.org/audio/m3u/251876/
Another brilliant RadioLab's episode. Check out their podcast - it's some of the best produced radio, ever! .. methinks
Listen, to find out how, for instance, mom's licking turns on a behaviour, via protein, via turned-on-gene ..
From the site: http://www.radiolab.org/2012/nov/19/:
"Once a kid is born, their genetic fate is pretty much sealed. Or is it? This hour, we put nature and nurture on a collision course and discover how outside forces can find a way inside us, shaping not just our hearts and minds, but the basic biological blueprint that we pass on to future generations."
the file is here ...
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio4.wnyc.org/radiolab/radiolab111912.mp3 and streamed here
http://www.radiolab.org/audio/m3u/251876/
Another brilliant RadioLab's episode. Check out their podcast - it's some of the best produced radio, ever! .. methinks
07 October 2012
sugars, glucose, fructose, etc. etc.
possibly worthwhile 38 min audio doccie in this science and the city podcast
the mp3 for the episode is here http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000210/podcasts/AThoughtForFood_SugarInTheMorning.mp3
Don't get too annoyed when you hear the (possibly) pro corn-syrup scientists talking their science in this interview - it still comes out that even though fructose and sucrose are roughly the same in organic chemistry, we've evolved to getting the majority of our sugars via glucose/carbohydrates. So we hear how the ratio fructose:glucose is significant, that we drink and eat way too much fructose via corn-syrup's extreme place in our intake, and how that's not a good idea.
The following gets affirmed and boosted too. the carb/sugar content in a can of soda is about equivalent to a full meal, so unless you replace a meal with that soda, or do enough exercise to burn off an extra meal, drinking cokes and such are going to be pretty bad as a long term behaviour.
That being said, one of the points being made is that the science is contested - despite the smoking guns, we don't yet have a complete mapping of the complex pathways involved.
the mp3 for the episode is here http://ne.edgecastcdn.net/000210/podcasts/AThoughtForFood_SugarInTheMorning.mp3
Don't get too annoyed when you hear the (possibly) pro corn-syrup scientists talking their science in this interview - it still comes out that even though fructose and sucrose are roughly the same in organic chemistry, we've evolved to getting the majority of our sugars via glucose/carbohydrates. So we hear how the ratio fructose:glucose is significant, that we drink and eat way too much fructose via corn-syrup's extreme place in our intake, and how that's not a good idea.
The following gets affirmed and boosted too. the carb/sugar content in a can of soda is about equivalent to a full meal, so unless you replace a meal with that soda, or do enough exercise to burn off an extra meal, drinking cokes and such are going to be pretty bad as a long term behaviour.
That being said, one of the points being made is that the science is contested - despite the smoking guns, we don't yet have a complete mapping of the complex pathways involved.
10 June 2012
The Mappist
The first story on this mp3, The Mappist by Barry Lopez, is probably one of the better suggestions i can make for a spare 34 minutes sometime this sunday -- listen
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/4787204/510202/136973601/NPR_136973601.mp3
This short story was produced for NPR's Selected Shorts - subscribe to their #podcast athttp://www.selectedshorts.org/podcast/ for an often superb stream of short #fiction. (beats the shit out of tv)
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/4787204/510202/136973601/NPR_136973601.mp3
This short story was produced for NPR's Selected Shorts - subscribe to their #podcast athttp://www.selectedshorts.org/podcast/ for an often superb stream of short #fiction. (beats the shit out of tv)
24 February 2012
more bonobo and less chimp
http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Aware_Am_I_
http://traffic.libsyn.com/arewealone/BiPiSci12-02-13.mp3
Above is SETI's Big Science podcast with an episode on us self-aware animals. Within is a fascinating bit on bonobos, our closest relatives, and their peaceful, matriarchal, and hyper-sexual society. The bonobo bit starts 16 minutes 30 seconds into the show but the whole show is worth the listen.
I'll try a bit of summary here.. Bonobos, instead of being male dominated with lots of violence in their societies like the chimpanzees, are matriarchal with little to no violence and aggression - they enjoy much more open relationships, with much less tension, much less fear of manipulation, and much greater cooperation. Chimps are excellent cooperators too, but their cooperation breaks down when emotions get in the way (like with us humans, emotion often constrains cooperation).
This reduced social tension and increased openness and trust is presumably linked to the bonobo's focus on play and their constant and indiscriminate sexual activity - between all members of the group with little regard for gender or age - sex as greeting and social bonding - sex for conflict resolution and sex for post conflict reconciliation.
Anyway, give it a listen - Vanessa Woods, the author of The Bonobo Handshake takes the comparison between our two closest cousins nicely further. The bonobo handshake, by the way, is when two females rub clitorises together with ever increasing frenzy until orgasm - this fosters great bonds between the females who cooperate to 'correct' any of the much larger males if they begin to exhibit chimp-like violence or aggression. Oh and males have their version of the handshake too.
Also came across this nice (though long) video interview with the author, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CGMJiGe6u4
___________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE: found this great related TedTalk here: Isabel Behncke: Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans
"I just came back from a community that holds the secret to human survival. It’s a place where women run the show, have sex to say hello, and play rules the day.”
"Chimpanzees are well known for their aggression. Unfortunately, we have made too much of an emphasis on this aspect in our narrative of human evolution. Bonobos are the other side of the coin."
http://traffic.libsyn.com/arewealone/BiPiSci12-02-13.mp3
Above is SETI's Big Science podcast with an episode on us self-aware animals. Within is a fascinating bit on bonobos, our closest relatives, and their peaceful, matriarchal, and hyper-sexual society. The bonobo bit starts 16 minutes 30 seconds into the show but the whole show is worth the listen.
I'll try a bit of summary here.. Bonobos, instead of being male dominated with lots of violence in their societies like the chimpanzees, are matriarchal with little to no violence and aggression - they enjoy much more open relationships, with much less tension, much less fear of manipulation, and much greater cooperation. Chimps are excellent cooperators too, but their cooperation breaks down when emotions get in the way (like with us humans, emotion often constrains cooperation).
This reduced social tension and increased openness and trust is presumably linked to the bonobo's focus on play and their constant and indiscriminate sexual activity - between all members of the group with little regard for gender or age - sex as greeting and social bonding - sex for conflict resolution and sex for post conflict reconciliation.
Anyway, give it a listen - Vanessa Woods, the author of The Bonobo Handshake takes the comparison between our two closest cousins nicely further. The bonobo handshake, by the way, is when two females rub clitorises together with ever increasing frenzy until orgasm - this fosters great bonds between the females who cooperate to 'correct' any of the much larger males if they begin to exhibit chimp-like violence or aggression. Oh and males have their version of the handshake too.
Also came across this nice (though long) video interview with the author, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CGMJiGe6u4
___________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE: found this great related TedTalk here: Isabel Behncke: Evolution's gift of play, from bonobo apes to humans
"I just came back from a community that holds the secret to human survival. It’s a place where women run the show, have sex to say hello, and play rules the day.”
"Chimpanzees are well known for their aggression. Unfortunately, we have made too much of an emphasis on this aspect in our narrative of human evolution. Bonobos are the other side of the coin."
18 February 2011
Tim Wu, on the monopolization of the Internet, and other things
Recently caught a conversation with Tim Wu, originator of the phrase 'net neutrality', and author of The Master Switch, on the monopolization of the Internet, and other things : interview with TimWu on SearchEnginePodcast
Listen here : http://podcasts.tvo.org/searchengine/audio/800868_48k.mp3
The book sounds important - theres a good review here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/reviews/2010/12/ars-book-review-the-master-switch-by-tim-wu.ars
Some nice bits on how older technologies had open phases too, before they were closed - as we, the consumers, brought about monopolists and consumptive systems, in tandem with emerging parasitic business ecosystems.
And whether things could be different this time around ..
Whether, if we were aware of the systems and information we 'choose' for ourselves; we could keep it open, and therefore, game-changing
Definitely, some things for us cyber-optimists to think about .
wiki notes are accumulating here: http://jaysen.wikispaces.com/TimWuOnSearchEngine
Listen here : http://podcasts.tvo.org/searchengine/audio/800868_48k.mp3
The book sounds important - theres a good review here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/reviews/2010/12/ars-book-review-the-master-switch-by-tim-wu.ars
Some nice bits on how older technologies had open phases too, before they were closed - as we, the consumers, brought about monopolists and consumptive systems, in tandem with emerging parasitic business ecosystems.
And whether things could be different this time around ..
Whether, if we were aware of the systems and information we 'choose' for ourselves; we could keep it open, and therefore, game-changing
Definitely, some things for us cyber-optimists to think about .
wiki notes are accumulating here: http://jaysen.wikispaces.com/TimWuOnSearchEngine
24 September 2009
parasites
hourlong RadioLab audio episode on parasites. excellent
audio here : http://audio.wnyc.org/radiolab_podcast/radiolab_podcast603parasites.mp3
also recently added to my delicious mediachannel
audio here : http://audio.wnyc.org/radiolab_podcast/radiolab_podcast603parasites.mp3
also recently added to my delicious mediachannel
geek rapture ?
ABC Radio National's All In The Mind podcast on the technical singularity. a nice warning about geek rapture :) , alongside a nice description of the idea.
audio here. short, well produced, easy to listen to.
adding it to my slowly growing mediachannel tag, of online media i think worth consuming.
audio here. short, well produced, easy to listen to.
adding it to my slowly growing mediachannel tag, of online media i think worth consuming.
17 March 2008
synthetic genomics
Good video (another of the worthwhile from the tedtalks series) with plenty to think about in microbiology, genetics, the upcoming synthetic genomics, and its potential..
heres an audio npr interview with Venter with some additional info.
heres an audio npr interview with Venter with some additional info.
02 January 2008
radical voices
a free and easy to access online radio station with Alternative-News, Political Discourse and Commentary.
listened to some good material so far. good aggregation.
"Radical Radio is a non-commercial news, analysis and commentary-based alternative news radio that is comprised of an 18 - 25 hour program that is updated every 2-3 days and features current alternative news from sources like Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, the Shortwave Report and international Indy Media reports and mixes them with political speech from groups or personalities such as Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis and many, many others. This is peppered with music and poetry. We aim to offer the best in alternative news radio available on the web. We hope you like the taste more than the bland pablum of commercial radio, or the middle of the conservative perspective that NPR dishes out.. Stay tuned, stay informed and stir it up!"Click here to listen or here.
listened to some good material so far. good aggregation.
09 November 2007
The Unnatural History of the Sea
direct link to the mp3 from the Science and the City podcast.
Callum Roberts is a leading authority on the ocean environment and author of the new book The Unnatural History of the Sea, an unprecedented history of the exploitation of the ocean, its fisheries and marine life, and a look at what our future may hold. In this lecture, he shares his research, nicely highlighting the short sightedness of our past and current fishing strategies and policies.
His idea of what needs to be done is
- first, to fish less, or at least more intelligently - with more selection, and using less destructive means.
- to create marine reserves,
- and to eliminate risky decision making...
"One of the key things to do is to remove the decision making power of politicians in fishing. Politicians are not the right people to be making decisions about how many fish can be caught, because they think in the short-term, not in the long-term welfare of the industries, or the long-term welfare of the environment. Yet in most countries in the world politicians are the ones that make decisions about how much to catch.
The decisions also involve the very large presence of industry - this also involves the potential for risky decision making (what understatement!), because again, the perspectives are more in the short-term
...
we need to move to a system where we think much less about the short term and much more about the long term, because fishing and fish stocks are really too important to squander in the way that society is doing at the present."
i agree ..All serious collective decisions, like about things that impact our survival, or the future of the planet, amongst other things, deserve open processes with proper scientific rigor and method - a long way off the greedy, narrow minded bullshit we seem to put up with currently.
anyways, its a good listen. 30 minute..ish
Callum Roberts is a leading authority on the ocean environment and author of the new book The Unnatural History of the Sea, an unprecedented history of the exploitation of the ocean, its fisheries and marine life, and a look at what our future may hold. In this lecture, he shares his research, nicely highlighting the short sightedness of our past and current fishing strategies and policies.
His idea of what needs to be done is
- first, to fish less, or at least more intelligently - with more selection, and using less destructive means.
- to create marine reserves,
- and to eliminate risky decision making...
"One of the key things to do is to remove the decision making power of politicians in fishing. Politicians are not the right people to be making decisions about how many fish can be caught, because they think in the short-term, not in the long-term welfare of the industries, or the long-term welfare of the environment. Yet in most countries in the world politicians are the ones that make decisions about how much to catch.
The decisions also involve the very large presence of industry - this also involves the potential for risky decision making (what understatement!), because again, the perspectives are more in the short-term
...
we need to move to a system where we think much less about the short term and much more about the long term, because fishing and fish stocks are really too important to squander in the way that society is doing at the present."
i agree ..All serious collective decisions, like about things that impact our survival, or the future of the planet, amongst other things, deserve open processes with proper scientific rigor and method - a long way off the greedy, narrow minded bullshit we seem to put up with currently.
anyways, its a good listen. 30 minute..ish
18 August 2007
FREE CULTURE
FREE CULTURE by Lawrence Lessig: halfway through and I'm thinking its just fucking brilliant!
copyright, ownership, derivative content, universal access, and the impact of new technology on all of these. its an essential debate that simply needs to happen more. Lessig argues for sensible change so simply and clearly that you've got to read Free Culture if you're interested in any of it. (naturally its a free download)
I'll try to write some more, or to summarize fully when I've finished, but i probably wont be able to do any of it justice without simply pasting in large bits of text from the book.
btw, he doesnt just push open-content, he nicely describes how and why copyright itself should be re-negotiated.
Checkout the audio version if you want to listen to it.. like maybe, while doing something else ;)
"Free Culture" as a popup audiobook
copyright, ownership, derivative content, universal access, and the impact of new technology on all of these. its an essential debate that simply needs to happen more. Lessig argues for sensible change so simply and clearly that you've got to read Free Culture if you're interested in any of it. (naturally its a free download)
I'll try to write some more, or to summarize fully when I've finished, but i probably wont be able to do any of it justice without simply pasting in large bits of text from the book.
btw, he doesnt just push open-content, he nicely describes how and why copyright itself should be re-negotiated.
Checkout the audio version if you want to listen to it.. like maybe, while doing something else ;)
"Free Culture" as a popup audiobook
20 June 2007
refactoring the mind
Listen to A monk's guide to changing your mind (mp3 audio)
I like that he places the practice of meditation within solid neurological and cognitive frameworks.. mostly because i'm tired of all the new-agey crap that gets unintentionally bundled in with one sitting quietly for a few minutes everyday and breathing.
check these bookmarks for some material in text form.
UPDATE: The above link the the audio file is broken - but I've found a very similar talk by the same monk, hosted here: http://diydharma.org/audio/download/3593/206%20-%20The%20science%20of%20meditation.mp3
I like that he places the practice of meditation within solid neurological and cognitive frameworks.. mostly because i'm tired of all the new-agey crap that gets unintentionally bundled in with one sitting quietly for a few minutes everyday and breathing.
check these bookmarks for some material in text form.
UPDATE: The above link the the audio file is broken - but I've found a very similar talk by the same monk, hosted here: http://diydharma.org/audio/download/3593/206%20-%20The%20science%20of%20meditation.mp3
13 June 2007
24 March 2007
wired to connect
Science & the City | Webzine of the New York Academy of Sciences: "Wired to Connect - Daniel Goleman
In Social Intelligence, psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, known for his 1995 bestseller Emotional Intelligence, introduces new concepts in neuroscience that reveal how human brains are designed to connect."
listen to the interview directly here, or download the mp3 from here. hes got some good ideas in there.
Science And The City has an good store of articles and podcasts - most of those i've listened to so far have been worth the effort.
In Social Intelligence, psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, known for his 1995 bestseller Emotional Intelligence, introduces new concepts in neuroscience that reveal how human brains are designed to connect."
listen to the interview directly here, or download the mp3 from here. hes got some good ideas in there.
Science And The City has an good store of articles and podcasts - most of those i've listened to so far have been worth the effort.
11 March 2007
The Ape That Got Lucky
bbc Radio4-Comedy- The Ape That Got Lucky: "Chris Addison - the thinking idiot's pretend anthropologist - takes us on a journey through the vast and rich subject of human evolution in four comic lectures"
damn funny
damn funny
14 October 2006
python diaries
michael palin's diaries - this weeks bbc4 book of the week. features extracts from michael palin's diaries of 'the python years', read by palin himself - definately worth listening to, enjoyable, but probably online for the next week only.. so thats about until the 20th of october. Until then, the links are:
part1; part2; part3; part4; part5;
bbc radio online needs realplayer -which can be downloaded here. just remember to turn Off realplayers irritating messagecenter [Tools->Preferences->Automatic Services->configure message center -> uncheck 'Check for new messages' and 'Show Message Center icon in system tray'] . thats after cancelling the irritating registration process.
a different sort of python diary entry is the release of python 2.5. highlights include the new 'with' operator, some changes to the Generator mechanism and some speedups.
part1; part2; part3; part4; part5;
bbc radio online needs realplayer -which can be downloaded here. just remember to turn Off realplayers irritating messagecenter [Tools->Preferences->Automatic Services->configure message center -> uncheck 'Check for new messages' and 'Show Message Center icon in system tray'] . thats after cancelling the irritating registration process.
a different sort of python diary entry is the release of python 2.5. highlights include the new 'with' operator, some changes to the Generator mechanism and some speedups.
06 October 2006
listening to the material world
been listening to The Material World on bbc4 again. Its a science radio show, and theres some interesting, er, material spread amongst the online archive of all previous shows. definately useful. Well.. worth listening to at least.
and while i'm here, i might as well mention that i'm still playing with ubuntu - its been about 3 weeks (i think) and within the last couple days, i've been brave/foolish enough to add it (as dual boot with xp) to the laptop as well. Testing the 686 kernel for the laptop's core-duo cpu now, and a lot of other stumbling around in the exciting unfamiliarity of linux. Ubuntu linux definately needs its own proper writeup here. . it will come, maybe, but that will have to be later.
and while i'm here, i might as well mention that i'm still playing with ubuntu - its been about 3 weeks (i think) and within the last couple days, i've been brave/foolish enough to add it (as dual boot with xp) to the laptop as well. Testing the 686 kernel for the laptop's core-duo cpu now, and a lot of other stumbling around in the exciting unfamiliarity of linux. Ubuntu linux definately needs its own proper writeup here. . it will come, maybe, but that will have to be later.
21 February 2005
BBC Radio 4 - Reith Lectures 2003 - The Emerging Mind
BBC - Radio 4 - Reith Lectures 2003 - The Emerging Mind: "Vilayanur S. Ramachandran" - Brilliant audio lectures from the forefront of evolutionary neuropsychology
Lecture 4 covering synesthesia and the evolution of language was particularly funky. you just need realplayer (downloadable from the bbc site) to listen.
Lecture 4 covering synesthesia and the evolution of language was particularly funky. you just need realplayer (downloadable from the bbc site) to listen.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)