Fourteen links to podcasts from this digest are found in two formats here and here.
Fighting Corruption 41 mins – In this 2007 Ashoka audio lecture strategies are presented that can be used by companies, governments, and citizens to break the pernicious cycles of corruption and lift themselves to more efficient, fair, and honest dealings. Peter Eigen, the speaker, offers a later 16 minute TED talk in 2009. Ashoka was founded in 1980 to promote social entrepreneurship, is associated with the OECD and has grown to an association of over 2,000 Fellows in over 60 countries on the world’s five main continents. The founder, Bill Drayton, talks about Ashoka and two related efforts in a 59 minute audio interview with Michael Lerner of The New School at Commonweal.
VR and AR 57 mins – starting at the 27 minute mark from NAB 2012 Greg Panos, writer of Virtual Reality Sourcebook, discusses his long experience in developing and applying Virtual and Augmented Reality. Google Glasses and the Da Vinci Robot for surgery come to mind.
Social Media in School 87 mins – What technologies are being used in the classroom, and how effective are they? How does the use of social media compare to traditional teaching tactics? What does the future hold for technology and education collaboration, and how can policymakers harness social networking to improve outcomes for students and teachers? The cost versus the traditional approaches is about equal. A number of issues must be considered such as development time, online access versus safety, and the approval process. It allows the use of case studies, virtual reality, development of critical thinking skills, use of collaboration and social interaction where kids teach other kids how to play such games as Foldit.
Saturated Fat and Red Meat 20 mins – It depends! Why would the iron in red meat, when coupled with saturated fat increase risk factors for inflammation, small particle LDL, and higher blood sugars? We don’t know, yet, but iron may be a key factor. A transcript is also available, if desired.
Africa Brain Drain 26 mins – Every year, Africa loses about $4 billion in revenue because its most valuable professionals decide to go work in rich countries. Can this trend be reversed? We find out why Africa’s professionals leave and what is being done to make them return home where they are needed. Nigeria, for example, offers a stipend to returnees.
Biobanking 12 mins – The biobanking market is poised to expand as researchers continue to migrate toward the use of human tissues and biomaterials for primary research, and pharmaceutical and diagnostic-tool development. Facilities range from individual research laboratories to hospitals, academic centers and commercial entities, all involved in the collection of human tissues and biomaterials. Biobanking expert Dr Jim Vaught discusses how and why the biobanking and biospecimen research field has grown so rapidly and describes what the world of biobanking will look like in the future. Dr Vaught is the Deputy Director of the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR), is one of the founding members of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) and is the new incoming editor-in-chief of Biopreservation and Biobanking, a journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Right click on “Jim Vaught Interview” and select “Save File as…” to download.
Vertical Farms 53mins – The first segment of this multi-part episode concerns future farming in the city: your vegetables might be grown in downtown, hi-rise greenhouses. Darwinian evolution takes a long time to accommodate to new environments, but Homo sapiens can beat that rap by wielding the right technology and becoming early adapters. Dickson Despommier, Emeritus professor of public health and microbiology at Columbia University and author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century says that agricultural runoff is our number one problem in America. It takes 70% less water to grow indoors with hydroponics. Aeroponics uses even less water can even grow corn and can be done so food tastes great. Materials can be recycled to create a closed loop system with no discharge. Find “Early Adapters” title at the linked page and right click on BiPiSci12-04-23.mp3 then select “Save File As…” to download.
Brain Research 67 mins – This interview of an author about consciousness research devotes the first part to the latest initiatives at the Allen Institute for Brain Research, where the author recently become the chief science officer. The Institute finished with the mouse brain project and he addresses why mice were used, which is of course because researchers can’t use humans to do trial and error tests that determine which neurons fire under different conditions. The mouse results will provide a framework that will largely apply to human brains. The first 15 minutes is about the Allen Institute and its work; the last 25 about the book. Right click on “Listen to Episode 84” and select “Save Link As…”
Bahrain Demonstrations 24 mins – Formula One racing returns to Bahrain after last year’s race was cancelled amid political unrest. Can the race heal wounds and allow the country to move on? This was where demonstrators had been helped by doctors and the doctors were then arrested and tortured for their efforts. The protestors are trying to use the race to publicize or continue publicity about the problem. There are 20,000 police for one million people in Bahrain. That is 1:100 versus an optimum of 1:1000 citizen. Find Docs: Bahrain Formula 19 Apr 12, then right click Media files docarchive_20120419-0100b.mp3 and select “Save Link As…”.
Racial Imprisonment 24 mins – In an engaging and personal talk — with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks — human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America’s justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country’s black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America’s unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness. Bryan Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
Ham Radio Thrives 120 mins – 750,000 radio amateurs or ham operators are active in the business, many of whom have related professions in radio, television and manufacturing of electronic products. They are called the “ham nation” and many attend the annual National Association of Broadcasters show. Most appear to be in their mid-50’s and have expertise due to decades of experience in many related fields. One of the participants offers advice on HD-TV to include useful gadgets. Another posts YouTube videos showing how-to advice on radio-related topics. Ham operators are active volunteers and provide a variety of emergency communications support. They even reach North Korea with their communication.
Cloud Storage II 94 and 127 mins – Episodes 350 and 351 of Security Now provide more details about cloud storage with discussion of feedback and comments prompted by an earlier session. All this starts at the 37 minute mark for episode 350. Reference is made to a comparison chart for most products at The Verge which includes 586 comments one week after its appearance.
Genomic Medicine and the H5N1 Flap 99 mins – In the midst of this TWIV episode is a 15 minute insightful discussion starting at the 21 minute mark amongst three experienced medical researchers as to how genome data might be used to personalize medicine. Then the letters section includes an equally good discussion about the flap over release of research about air-transmitted flu amongst ferrets. It starts about the 63 minute mark and refers to security issues raised by Peter Sandman, a psychology and communications specialist.
The 88 feeds used to prepare this weekly blog are gathered using Feedreader3 and are available as an opm file at Google Docs. Free Commander is used to compare old and new downloads to remove duplicates. MP3SpeedChanger is used to change playback speed of multiple files as a batch.
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Media Mining Digest 