The link to each item’s podcast is at the highlighted topic and reached by double-clicking or ctrl-clicking it. All 14 podcasts converted to 1.5x speed except Drools Planner can be downloaded as a 109 MB zip file here for four months. Drools Planner is normal speed.
Drools Planner 51 mins – The FLOSS (Free Open Source Software) weekly crew talks with Geoffrey De Smet about Drools Planner which helps normal Java programmers solve planning problems efficiently. De Smet is the lead planner for the product. The product web site presents useful illustrations of applications discussed during the program. Go to the link, right click “Audio” next to the down-pointing arrow on the left and select”Save File As” to download the podcast.
Sports Doping 54 mins – The last of four topics in this digest is an interview with the author of the science behind drugs in sports who wrote “Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat.” The book description is similar to the interview: “From anabolic steroids to human growth hormone and the blood booster EPO, Cooper separates the truth from the hype, revealing what works and what doesn’t work. More disturbing, the book argues that science has barely touched the surface of performance enhancement; there are many, many drugs yet to be discovered…. Cooper also argues that drug testing is of necessity imperfect and the rules arbitrary. And it cannot succeed, as it will always fight a losing battle between doper and tester. But the alternative–free access to all chemical tools–is not necessarily desirable… Cooper concludes that the problem of drugs in sports mirrors the problem of drugs in society–we may not like them, we may rage against them, but they are here to stay. No one should think there will ever be a time when athletes can be completely prevented from using chemistry to enhance their sports performance.” Go to the link, find “Quirks & Quarks 2012-06-23,” right click “quirksaio_20120623_63145.mp3” and select “Save Link As” to download.
Mobile Technology “Mobile technology has transformed nearly every aspect of modern life, most notably in the areas of health care delivery, education, global economics, e-commerce, entertainment and personal communications. To further these revolutionary changes, how can the nation create a climate for investment that allows mobile innovation to thrive? What are the policy issues that need to be addressed to foster continued advancement in the area of mobile technology? …the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum focused on the future of mobile technology and how the public and private sectors can boost mobile technology’s growth and success in the U.S. and global marketplaces…. After the program, speakers took audience questions.” Go to the topic link, select the “audio” tab, right click “Download” and select “Save Link As” to download.
Health Care Act Court Ruling 51 mins – “The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The decision is considered to be a major victory for President Barack Obama because it validates his signature legislative achievement. It is also one of the most important Supreme Court rulings in decades. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying the law was a valid exercise of Congress’s power to tax. Today’s decision will still require the health care industry and the government to address rising health care costs. And with Republicans vowing to continue to fight to repeal the law, health care will be front and center in the 2012 presidential and congressional elections. Diane and her three guests discuss the legal, political and practical implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act.” Two sessions of 51 mins are at the topic link; the link to the second session is on the right side of the page about half way down. You cannot download this podcast at the topic link, only listen, but the podcast is included in the collection in the zip file noted at the top of the blog. The New England Journal of Medicine summarizes the medical community view on this ruling here.
Communications Spectrum Changes 52 mins – “More Americans are using smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices to communicate and transmit data. This has fed the need to store music, photos and videos on virtual computer servers known as the cloud. But this rise in traffic and connectivity has put enormous strain on spectrum, or radio waves that carry phone calls and data. The Federal Communications Commission has warned of a looming crisis and says spectrum will exceed supply by 2013. Diane and a panel of three guests discuss the spectrum crunch.” You cannot download this podcast at the topic link, only listen, but the podcast is included in the collection in the zip file noted at the top of the blog. The previous blog entry contains a related topic, but this version is more informative.
Online Education 65 mins – “Much of the conversation around the new wave of online education startups has focused on what they mean for the incumbent institutions, from for-profit online universities to the traditional Ivy League. But what about what they mean for learners? Who is currently succeeding in open learning contexts? What are the missing pieces of the ecosystem — from discovery, to peer support, to mentoring, to assessment — that will allow the most severely underserved learners to succeed in this new learning environment?” Anya Kamenetz is a senior writer at Fast Company Magazine, and author of two books and two ebooks about the future of education — discusses who online learning serves, and how. Go to the link, right click “MP3” below the description and select “Save File As” to download.
Failing Biomedical Industry 70 mins – “On June 27, the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at Brookings hosted the State of Biomedical Innovation Conference in Washington, DC. Designed to bring together diverse stakeholders and senior thought leaders from across the biomedical enterprise, this event engaged participants in discussion on the health of biomedical innovation in the United States, obstacles to innovation, policy options for overcoming those obstacles, and key metrics that can be used to evaluate whether the U.S. biomedical enterprise is effectively delivering new and innovative medical products to the patients who need them. Panelists included distinguished experts, industry leaders, policymakers, and regulators. After each panel, participants took audience questions.” Three parts: 35 min keynote, 70 min “Strategies for Stimulating Biomedical Innovation through Policy,”and 70 min “Measuring the Health of the U.S. Biomedical Innovation Enterprise”. Go to link, click on each title, then right click “Download” and select “Save Link As” to download.
Bioinformatics 68 mins – “There is an urgent need to translate genome-era discoveries into clinical utility, but the difficulties in making bench-to-bedside translations haven’t been well described. The nascent field of translational bioinformatics may help. Dr. Butte’s lab at Stanford University builds and applies tools that convert more than 300 billion points of molecular, clinical, and epidemiological data (measured by researchers and clinicians over the past decade) into diagnostics, therapeutics, and new insights into disease. Dr. Butte, a bioinformatician and pediatric endocrinologist, will highlight his lab’s work on using publicly available molecular measurements to find new uses for drugs, discovering new treatable mechanisms of disease in type 2 diabetes, and evaluating patients presenting with whole genomes sequenced.” Go to the link and at the bottom of the page are download options for audio or video. Dr Butte uses many visual aids during the talk, so the video version is more informative, but the audio is still useable if you are on-the-go.
Vaccine Storage 14 mins – This five part digest starts with Greek IT, but the fourth item concerns the very smart idea of using cell phone tower power systems in developing countries to reliably run refrigerators used to store vaccines. A web site with details is here. Go to the link, find the title “Greek IT Upgrade, Bullet-Proof Cars in Mexico, Hajj Facial Recognition Tech, Keeping Vaccines Cold, and Rebuilding Tatooine,” right click “WTPpodcast368.mp3” and select “Save Link As” to download.
Cities and Innovation 72 mins – “Enrico Moretti of the University of California, Berkeley and the author of the New Geography of Jobs talks to EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in his book. Moretti traces how the economic success of cities and the workers who live there depends on the education of those workers. Moretti argues that there are spillover effects from educated workers–increased in jobs and wages in the city. He uses changes in the fortunes of Seattle and Albuquerque over the last three decades as an example of how small changes can affect the path of economic development and suggests a strong role for serendipity in determining which cities become hubs for high-tech innovation. The conversation concludes with Moretti making the case for increasing investments in education and research and development.” Go to the topic link, locate “Moretti on Jobs, Cities, and Innovation,” right click “Moretticities.mp3” and select “Save Link As” to download.
Mouth Microbes 20 mins – “What does dental plaque have to do with increasing antimicrobial resistance? Dr Adam Roberts from UCL’s Eastman Dental Institute describes the vast microbial communities that are resident in our mouths, what we know and what we don’t know about them. He discusses his work on mobile genetic elements in oral bacteria and how this is contributing to the increasing problem of antimicrobial resistance.” Go to the link, right click “Download” and select “Save Link As” to download.
The 95 feeds used to prepare this weekly blog are gathered using Feedreader3 and are available as an opm file at Google Docs. A PDF of feeds is also available there. 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. A speed listening background article here. Sixty-five 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 each holding about 350 MB. For 2011 this alphabetical PDF list of 184 podcasts at 1.5x is available, and the actual files can be downloaded in five segments: Part 1 to 5 (Part 1 – 276 MB; P2 – 291 MB; P3 – 284; P4 – 153 MB, and P5 – 256 MB). Leave a comment about problems with the links and downloads. A similar list and downloads for 362 podcasts for Jan-Jun 2012 is here. Those podcasts are grouped into eight zipped files for easier downloading. The number of parts is due to a 300MB limit on file size.
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Media Mining Digest 