Clark Boyd
Tech Podcast 268: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Returns!
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Tons of fun in this week’s podcast. The highlight is the return of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Eoin Colfer, who you may know as author of the Artemis Fowl series, has taken on the task of writing Book Six of Three in the H2G2 universe. It’s called And Another Thing… and we’ve got an interview with Colfer on this week’s podcast! We also hear about expert windmill builder, William Kamkwamba.
Tech Podcast 267: Churchill, Comets, Samasource, and Ventilators
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Our Friday the 13th podcast features a segment on Samasource, a San Francisco based non-profit that’s helping people in the developing world make a little luck for themselves by helping them get employment. Also, we hear about how Sir Winston Churchill’s speeches flunk a new computerized essay marking program. We’ll hitch a ride on a comet, and hear about one listener’s own project to create a low-cost ventilator.
Tech Podcast 265: “Internet’s” birthday, 40 years of modulated anarchy
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This week, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the birth of the Internet. We hear from UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock (pictured), and others who worked to send that first message between two computers, hundreds of miles apart. We get the international perspective from Chinese blogger and activist Isaac Mao. And we also hear about the ‘Net’s next step, Internationalized Domain Names.
Technology Podcast: Smart phones for scientists
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In this week’s technology podcast, you can hear how some scientists in Britain are working to develop an open source application for smartphones that will allow field researchers to do some pretty sophisticated data collection and mapping. It’s all in an effort to fight the spread of infectious diseases across the globe. Also, we have a story on the future of electric vehicles, and a US researcher takes a look at how politicians Tweet in the US and UK.
WTP 262: Moon crash, Peruvian fog nets, Nobel Prize in physics, and Trongs!
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A listener-centered episode this week. Tech Podcast listener and inventor Eric Zimmerman shares his low-tech solution to a high-tech problem; namely, how do manage to answer your cell phone when you’re eating buffalo wings and your fingers are covered in sauce? Trongs. Also, NASA crashes into the moon (on purpose), and Peru tries to harvest water with fog nets. And, we have a technological nod to the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.
Tech Podcast 260: Promising AIDS vaccine, Embrace thermoregulator, and Scottish worms
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The highlight of this week’s podcast is a segment suggested by one of you, the tech podcast faithful. It’s about the Embrace, a low-cost incubator that may help save the lives of premature and low birth weight babies in the developing world. Also, you’ll hear about a promising AIDS vaccine trial. We end with Scottish earthworms, and a Mumbai cell phone symphony.
Iraqi Internet Bill, Africa Connected, NComputing, and Autism Detection Software
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Fibre-optic broadband Internet access has come to East Africa by way of an undersea cable. We explore “Connected Africa,” and hear a number of viewpoints. Also, the Iraqi parliament mulls a measure that might restrict what citizens can and can’t see online. We have an interview with Stephen Dukker of NComputing, a company that wants to turn your PC into, well, 10 or 12 PCs. And we end with some software designed to detect early signs of autism in the speech patterns of children.
Trains, a Bio-Truck, and Winston the High-Speed Pigeon
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Meet Winston, the 11 month old carrier pigeon who is faster than broadband Internet in South Africa. At least, that’s what one company in South Africa set out to prove. You can hear more about that in this week’s podcast. You can also take a ride on the Battambang Bamboo Railway in Cambodia, and follow along with Briton Andy Pag as he tries to circumnavigate the globe in a tricked out bio-truck. We ask you: where else can you find this kind of podcast? Wow.
Recreating pre-war Nagasaki in 3D, Ars Electronica 2009, and A Brief History of GPS Drawing
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On this week’s podcast, we’re off to Linz, Austria to hear about some of the exhibits at annual Ars Electronica Festival. One you can see here at left: that’s right, turn your own urine into fertilizer. If you like that one, wait until you hear the other story from Linz…Also, we hear about the 3D re-creation of pre-war Nagasaki, Japan. And we end with a brief history of GPS drawing, brought to you by listener Brett Stalbaum.
Cell Phones in the Classroom, New Wikipedia Guidelines, Steam Car Redux, and Artificial Trees
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Any podcast that has artificial trees (pictured) in it has to be good right? We hope so. We’ve also got some other great stories. We hear from one history teacher who is exploring new ways to integrate technology into the classroom. We also talk about how your cell phone is linked to violence in Congo, and we hear from Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales about some new editing guidelines. All that, plus an update on those Brits and their marvelous steam-powered car.
Your summer photos
Today is the “unofficial” end of summer in the U.S. and we want you to share your summer photos. We’ve already collected over 200 entries, but we would love to share your photos too! So send them soon and don’t forget to share the stories behind them. (photo: Lot Valley, France sent in by listener Elizabeth Huntzinger)
Botnets, Steam-Powered Car, Creative Commons Flamenco, and…Zombies
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You want zombies? Well, we’ve got them this week. Some researchers at the University of Ottawa are using a (theoretical, mind you) zombie attack to study disease vectors. Also, botnets, the Russia and Georgia cyber-spat, and a steam powered car. Plus, a deliciously free concoction of flamenco, hip-hop and creative commons.
Castle Building Gets Medieval, Bertrand Piccard, and GPS Atari Art
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On this week’s show, castle builders in France use medieval technologies and techniques to build a castle…from scratch. Also, we have an interview with Bertrand Piccard, who wants to one day fly a solar-powered plane, non-stop, around the world. And we end with one podcast listener’s amazing art project. He and his buddies use GPS and their bikes to make geo-spatial art!
John Hughes RIP, sand dunes made of bacteria, and WE CARE’s solar suitcase
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This week’s podcast features a geek’s audio tribute to John Hughes, the late director of “Weird Science.” Also, we talk about a project to make thousand mile sand dunes with the help of bacteria. And we hear about the solar suitcase, a toolbox designed to greatly improve maternal care in the developing world.
US warns against aiding Somali militants
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Somalia’s al-Shahab militants, who are accused of having links to al-Qaeda, are trying to overthrow the country’s transitional government, and are growing in strength. And it appears they are getting help from nearby countries, including Eritrea. Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that the US will “take action” against Eritrea if it does not stop supporting militants. Eritrea denies funding the insurgency in Somalia. The World’s Katy Clark reports. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) >>>Click here for the latest BBC coverage.
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