Media Mining Digest 50 – Oct 26, 2012: Sir John Gurdon, Primary Care, Bovine TB, Overtreatment, Circumcision, Mars Rover, Engineer’s Biography, Investing Formula, Medicalization, Dr Gets Paid, Flu Vaccine, Ocean Plastics, Body Language, Informal Economy, Music Med, Mental Health Ed, Intelligent Augmentation, Stem Cells, Online Ed Value, Cyber Attack, Cuba Travel, Podcast Editing, Teen House Owner, Pop Music, Domestic Violence, Legless Triumph, Student Debt

The following audio files were selected from a larger group of 183 for the last week. The link to each podcast is at the highlighted topic and reached by double-clicking or ctrl-clicking the topic. All 27 podcasts converted to 1.5x speed can also be downloaded as a single 133 MB zip file here for four months (vs 562 MB, below). Larger collections of these are discussed at the end of this episode.

Sir John Gurdon   23 mins – “Cambridge University has a new Nobel Laureate. Embryologist Sir John Gurdon learnt on Monday that he’d won the physiology and medicine award for his discovery – using frogs – that if the DNA in the nucleus of a specialized cell from the intestine or skin of an adult frog is added an egg cell which has had its own genetic material removed, a new frog, genetically identical to the first can be formed. This is the basis of cloning, which eventually enabled scientists to clone dolly the sheep. At the age of almost 80 he’s still doing experiments and I [Chris Smith] went to see him in his lab to find out how he made this dramatic breakthrough…”At the link just click “Download as MP3”. A transcript is also available at that link.

Primary Care  52 mins – “The U.S. is facing a critical lack of primary care physicians, and it’s likely the Affordable Care Act will worsen that shortage. Many worry there won’t be enough physicians to care for the estimated 30 million people set to gain insurance under the law in 2014. And it’s not just an issue of fewer doctors joining the ranks. While 20 percent of Americans live in rural areas, just 9 percent of physicians practice there. But some argue that the way primary care doctors practice is even more important than their numbers. This hour, the first of our new medical series, “Mind and Body,” Diane and her [4] guests discuss the future of primary care medicine.” You can listen online at the link and view a transcript, but not download the program; however, it’s included with the zipped collection at the top of this edition.

Bovine TB  28 mins –   Lord Krebs, architect of a badger culling trial, describes the scientific evidence surrounding the controversial policy for the first half of the program. Then the discovery of a new planet, flying ants and space stamps are covered. At the link locate the title, “Material World 18th Oct: Badgers, Ants and New Planets Thursday, October 18, 2012,” right-click “Media files material_20121018-1800a.mp3″ and select “Save File As” to download the file.

Overtreatment  15 mins – “In the US, overly aggressive treatment is estimated to cause 30 000 deaths among Medicare recipients alone each year. Reporter Jeanne Lenzer has investigated the problem for the BMJ, and explains why she thinks profit driven healthcare is to blame. And, experience of treating rare conditions can take time to build. Rej Bhumbra, a surgical trainee in orthopaedic oncology, explains how his time in India fast tracked his learning. “At the link locate the title, ” Treating the masses, overtreating the few Friday, October 12, 2012,” right-click “Media files bmj-podcast-overtreatment.mp3” and select “Save File As” to download the file.

Circumcision  24mins – “** Please note this programme contains a description of a medical circumcision ** As the German government proposes to make religious circumcision explicitly legal, Stephen Evans talks to the people – Jews and Muslim – who do it; to the lawyer who wants it banned and to a Muslim who regrets being circumcised.” At the link locate the title, “Docs: Germany’s Circumcision Row 11th Oct 2012,” right-click “Download 11MB” and select “Save Link As”. Ten minutes into BBC Health Check is a short discussion of a program promoting circumcision in Africa to reduce transmission of AIDS which has been used by thousands of men.

Mars Rover Background 41 mins – “Lead Flight Director at JPL talks to us about his role with Mars Curiosity Rover and the future of space exploration.”  At the link right-click “Audio” and select “Save Link As” to download the file.

Engineer’s Biography  87 mins -AlanWolke is an applications engineer who discusses his background here. He started his career helping out in a TV repair shop, servicing the tubes in old TVs. He’s a ham operator, callsign W2AEW, which is also the username on his awesome YouTube account! He’s helping some local Boy Scout troops earn their merit badge and helping during the Jamboree on the Air (JOTA).The training will take place on a former part of Camp Evans/Fort Monmouth, which was the former home of the Marconi Wireless company in NJ. Project Diana was also run there, the first time they bounced radio off the moon. Alan also worked at Lytel, which was a startup back in the early networking/telecom days. After some stints at Vitesse Semi and Agere Systems, he finally ended up at Tektronix as an RF application engineer, where he still works today. (And now he blogs for them as well!) At the link right-click “Audio MP3” and select “Save Link As”.

Investing Formula  9 mins – “When putting together a financial plan, you will make assumptions about future returns. Most investors select one return to reach their long term goal. However, that’s not realistic since investors, as they get closer to retirement, change their balance of fixed income and equity. Paul offers his approach, with the assumptions you can use to determine the likely long-term return of a lifetime of different asset allocations. ” At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As.”

Medicalization   30 mins “This week on White Coat Black Art: the medicalization of unhealthy habits. Can patients be motivated to exercise by labeling couch potato-hood a disease?” At the link locate the title, “Bad Habits Friday, October 12, 2012,” right-click “whitecoat_20121013_70439.mp3″ and select “Save Link As” to download the file.

Dr Gets Paid  4 mins – Dr Mark Crislip, infectious disease specialist, describes some of his activities, including how he is paid, in this audio blog entry. At the link locate the title, “A Gobbet o’ Pus 431. Flying Pigs,” right-click “Media files gop431.mp3” and select “Save Link As” to download the file.

Flu Vaccine  26 mins – “If your health care provider is not vaccinated against influenza, they might be a dumb ass.  You want  a dumb ass involved in your health care?” Dr Mark Crislip, scourge of dumb asses, explains the value of influenza vaccinations. At the link right-click “Podcast” and select “Save Link As” to download the podcast.

Ocean Plastics 15 mins – “In 1997 Charles Moore captained his boat from Hawaii to California. He  sailed through the doldrums, an area of calm winds and seas, passing through the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch due to the accumulation of plastic. Captain Moore describes the vast area as a soup of plastic. The experience turned Charles Moore into a citizen activist. He has written a book, Plastic Ocean trying to raise awareness of the problem plastic has become as it finds its way into the stomachs of almost all marine creatures.” At the link right-click “Download Audio” and select “Save Link As.”

Body Language  21 mins – “Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success. Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions.”The video version is better as it shows the sample poses. At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Informal Economy 13 mins – “Robert Neuwirth spent four years among the chaotic stalls of street markets, talking to pushcart hawkers and gray marketers, to study the remarkable “System D,” the world’s unlicensed economic network. Responsible for some 1.8 billion jobs, it’s an economy of unappreciated power and scope. To research his new book, “Stealth of Nations,” Robert Neuwirth spent four years among street vendors, smugglers and “informal” import/export firms At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Music Med   16 mins – “When Robert Gupta was caught between a career as a doctor and as a violinist, he realized his place was in the middle, with a bow in his hand and a sense of social justice in his heart. He tells a moving story of society’s marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails. Violinist Robert Gupta joined the LA Philharmonic at the age of 19 — and maintains a passionate parallel interest in neurobiology and mental health issues.”  At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Mental Health Ed  12 mins – “Nearly 450 million people are affected by mental illness worldwide. In wealthy nations, just half receive appropriate care, but in developing countries, close to 90 percent go untreated because psychiatrists are in such short supply. Vikram Patel outlines a highly promising approach — training members of communities to give mental health interventions, empowering ordinary people to care for others. Vikram Patel helps bring better mental health care to low-resource communities — by teaching ordinary people to deliver basic psychiatric services.”  At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Intelligent Augmentation  12 mins – “Brute computing force alone can’t solve the world’s problems. Data mining innovator Shyam Sankar explains why solving big problems (like catching terrorists or identifying huge hidden trends) is not a question of finding the right algorithm, but rather the right symbiotic relationship between computation and human creativity. An advocate of human-computer symbiosis, Shyam Sankar looks for clues in big and disparate data sets”  At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Stem Cells  15 mins – “Calling them “our bodies’ own repair kits,” Susan Solomon advocates research using lab-grown stem cells. By growing individual pluripotent stem cell lines, her team creates test beds that could accelerate research into curing diseases — and perhaps lead to individualized treatment, targeted not just to a particular disease but a particular person. Susan Solomon enables support for human stem cell research, aiming to cure major diseases and empower more personalized medicine.”  At the link click the “Download” button, right-click “Download to Desktop (MP3)” and select “Save Target As.”

Online Ed Value 67 mins – “Arnold Kling, economist and teacher, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about recent technological innovations in education and Kling’s forecast for their impact on learning and how they might affect traditional education. Examples include the recent explosion of online lessons and classes, new teaching styles that exploit those offerings, and the nature of learning in various kinds of classrooms and student-teacher interactions.” At the link locate the title, “Kling on Education and the Internet,” right-click “Media files Klingeducation.mp3” and select “Save Link As” to download.

Cyber Attack  51 mins – “In recent weeks, some large U.S. financial institutions were hit by ‘denial of service’ attacks on their websites.  Two months ago, the Saudi Arabian state oil company ARAMCO  and RasGas of Qatar were attacked by a computer “wiper” virus called “shamoon.” Crucial system files were replaced with an image of a burning U.S. flag.  Real data on more than thirty thousand computers was overwritten with “garbage data,” rendering them useless.  American intelligence officials increasingly suspect Iran was behind these attacks. Last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called this a pre-nine-eleven moment for cyberdefense.  James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies,  Thom Shanker of the New York Times and Greg Nojeim of  the Center for Democracy and Technology join Diane for a discussion of the growing threat of cyberwarfare.” You can listen online and view a transcript, but not download the program; however, it’s included with the zipped collection at the top of this edition.

Cuba Travel 52 mins – “…The Cuban government announced Tuesday that it will no longer require islanders to apply for an exit visa, eliminating a much-loathed bureaucratic procedure that has been a major impediment for many seeking to travel overseas for more than a half-century…. For the first time in 50 years, the Cuban government has eased travel restrictions for its citizens. Please join us to discuss who may leave, for how long and what the new rules could signal about Cuba’s future.” Three experts discuss the implications. You can listen online and view a transcript, but not download the program; however, it’s included with the zipped collection at the top of this edition.

Podcast Editing 32 mins – “Today I show you two free tools that allow you to listen to your recordings at a quicker speed so you can catch those obvious mistakes
without having to listen to the whole podcast again. We also talk about a podcast that is getting over 20,000 downloads a week, a FREE plugin that allows you to sell digital downloads, and we get some feedback on last week’s episode.”  At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As.”

Teen House Owner 16 mins – “Loyal Planet Money listeners may remember Willow Tufano, the Florida teenager who bought a house. We did a show about her back in March.On today’s show, we follow up with Willow. She just bought another house. She’s trying to land a reality TV deal. And she recently wore a Pikachu costume on a trip to Alabama.” At the link find the title, “#409: The 15-Year-Old Who Bought Two Houses,” right-click ” Media files npr_162826738.mp3″ and select “Save Link As” to download the file.

Pop Music 17 mins – ” …Turn on a car radio in Italy, walk into a store in Mozambique, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear an American pop tune. Music is an export, just like anything else.  And, as with other exports, businesses in lots of other countries are fighting for their share of the global market. They want people all around to world to be listening to their music. And they’re figuring out how to make it happen. The popularity of PSY’s song “Gangnam Style” is not a fluke. Korea has spent the last twenty years preparing for this moment.” At the link find the tile, “#410: Why K-Pop Is Taking Over The World,” right-click ” Media files npr_163053589.mp3,” and select “Save Link As” to download.

Domestic Violence  12 mins – “Sharon Love’s daughter Yeardley was a college student and an athlete when she was beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend in 2010. Since then, Love has started a foundation to speak out and raise awareness about dating violence. She speaks with host Michel Martin about her work and how she’s coping with the loss of her daughter.” The One Love Foundation noted in this podcast mentions this app that can be used online, but honest males will be diverted.  At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As.”

Legless Triumph 11 mins – “A lot of people would like to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. At a little over 19,000 feet above sea level, it is Africa’s highest peak. Many want to do it to raise money for a cause or just to prove to themselves or the world that they can. And some people, like Spencer West, actually make it to the summit. But not many people do it the way he did — using just his hands, arms and an irrepressible spirit. Spencer West tells that story and others in his evocative new memoir Standing Tall. At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As.”

Student Debt 9 mins – “America’s student loan debt is more than one trillion dollars, according to government agencies. Now, a former professor says high schools and colleges need to do more to help students manage their debt load. Host Michel Martin speaks with writer Laura McKenna about her online op-ed for The Atlantic.” At the link right-click “Download” and select “Save Link As.”

Over 120 feeds are used to prepare this weekly blog are harvested with Feedreader3. The feeds are available in this opm file. A PDF of feeds is also available.  Free Commander is used each week to compare old with new downloads and remove any duplicates. MP3SpeedChanger is applied to podcast batches to change playback speed to 1.5x. A speed listening background article is here. Sixty-four podcasts for 2010 and earlier at 1.5x are listed alphabetically in this PDF and can be downloaded in two sections as zip files, Part 1 and Part 2, each holding about 350 MB. For 2011 an alphabetical PDF list of 184 podcasts at 1.5x is available, and can be downloaded in five segments. A similar list and downloads for 362 podcasts for Jan-Jun 2012 is here. Podcasts are grouped into zipped files for easier downloading and segmented due to a 300MB limit on file uploads.  A similar group for the last half of 2012 will be available in Jan 2013. A comm-enter recommended this $1.99 iPhone/iPad app for mobile devices; leave a comment if you try it. Please comment on any problems with the links and downloads.

Thanks for visiting.