Back On Air!

So, the keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed a brief shift in my blog from 'Oooh, look at what I'm doing!' to 'Oooh, look at what someone else is doing!'.


Today, the post will be an update on the various goings on in my life.


I had my induction at the University of Glamorgan! All very exciting & I met the awesome people that are also on my course. My first lecture is actually later today, in Online Journalism Production.


I've also been given a regular presenting slot on Able Radio! Hear me on Friday's Late Breakfast, from 10-12 every Friday morning. The first show was pretty rocky since I'd never done a solo show before & I was getting used to being back in front of the mic, but it was so good to drive a desk again. I covered another presenter's slot yesterday from 1-3pm and that was markedly better. Also, I hope to get involved with Gtfm and Tequila radio... I'll let you know when those shows come up.


Finally... I'm hoping to introduce vlogging to my repertoire. Hopefully, as a monthly instalment. So for the time being we'll leave that as a COMING SOON! cliff-hanger.


P.S. This made me chuckle.

Clear As Muck

Are you a budding musician with more work than you can handle? Struggling to juggle being a writer and performer as well as your own agent and promoter?

Or... Are you a professional musician looking for extra cash. Someone who has had the experience of the hard slog of booking a tour or promoting an album.

Derek Sivers (founder of the fantastic new music site CDBaby) has created a solution to help both parties. MuckWork connects virtual assistants to aspiring musicians to do their 'uncreative dirty work'. 

This is an amazing concept and I believe it benefits everyone involved. The site is still in it's beta-testing stages, but if the success of CDBaby is anything to go by (it became the largest seller of independent music on the web, with sales of $100M) I'm guessing Derek knows what he's talking about.

To believe or not to believe

I'm a scientist, therefore I believe in facts. That seems a very absurd statement, to believe in facts. A fact is just that, you shouldn't have to believe in it. It would be crazy to not believe something that has been proven through rigorous trials and testing. However, it saddens me that many people choose not to believe in science.


I think this is largely due to a lack of understanding by the general public, but this isn't entirely their fault. I blame the mainstream media for portraying scientific stories in a misleading light. 


Genetic modification (GM)
Cloning
The Large Hadron Collider
Vaccination


That list is just a small fraction of subjects which induce fear into some people. That is because the media doesn't provide the full picture of these subjects. Instead it covers them at an angle which provides the biggest, most shocking, story; leaving the public confused and misinformed. They don't lie; they just don't tell all the facts (just as bad in my eyes). These are beneficial scientific advancements and we need to embrace them!


Science is about being skeptical. An idea is formed and you develop a solution. Then you spend decades constantly testing it and improving it. You don't prove something right, you prove it wrong. When you can't prove it wrong any more, it is accepted beyond all reasonable doubt. Then you create a better solution and the whole process starts again.


I am a skeptic. That doesn't mean that I believe facts. It means I don't believe anything that isn't a fact.


The picture above is provided courtesy of Crispian Jago and his wonderful blog - Science, Reason and Critical Thinking. Please check it out for a satirical, tongue-in-cheek look at science and skeptisicm.

The Daniel Marlowe Interview

A while ago I posted that I'd interviewed Daniel Marlowe, the executive producer of Big Brother. 

The interview has now been edited and is on Able On Demand, along with a selection of pictures from the day (the transcription will be available to read tomorrow).

Please give it a listen, you can find it by clicking on this link:

Big Brother

Softly, Softly Catchee Monkey... Hang on!

Check out Daily Perfect, it's how I stumbled on the Social Network trailer (see below). All you have to do is type in your name and it's able to predict a user's interests through publicly available information on the web. It's not 100% (perfect might be an overstatement, it seems to think I'm interested in Australian fashion), but it is creepily close on a few things.


Here's an interesting fact... The height you are at two years old (I was 84cm according to a chart my parents kept), is exactly half the height you'll be when a fully grown adult (I'm now 168cm).


On a totally different subject: In Africa, snare traps are a significant threat to many animals. However, it was recently discovered that chimpanzees in Guinea have learnt how to recognise snare traps laid by human hunters. In fact, not only do they recognise the traps, but they actively seek them out and intentionally deactivate them without being harmed. This means that chimps can learn by careful observation as well as trial and error (unlike previously thought). Once again chimps prove that they are much more intelligent than we give them credit for. For more info, here's the full story.

The Social Network

Holy bloody hell!

I heard a rumour a little while ago about this film & thought it was a joke. It sounded like Hollywood jumping on the Facebook bandwagon. But this trailer looks awesome!





Definitely going to see this. I can't wait!

I used to write letters, I used to sign my name...

The Wilderness Downtown is a collaboration between Arcade Fire and Google via Chrome Experiments. Arcade Fire's latest single "We Used To Wait" is a charming tale of a boy (I believe their lead singer) spending his summers waiting for letters from his pen-pal. I love this band and all three of their albums so far are incredible.

For this song they decided to create and interactive, data-driven Chrome Experiment (you'll need a Chrome browser to run it), using HTML5 video, audio and canvas. It utilises a series of choreographed windows, an integrated drawing tool, Google Maps and Street View. Go there and put in your address, you'll be glad you did.