Comments on: Astronomy Cast

By: Damian

Damian — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:20:54 +0000

As an update, I've recently discovered and have been enjoying the Philosophy Bites podcast. (RSS feed)

By: Damian

Damian — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:15:04 +0000

Ken, I’ve been listening to many of the podcasts you listed and have been quite taken by the Science and the City one – in particular the recent episode entitled “The Neuroscience of Fair Play” by Donald Pfaff.

If you missed this one (and if you are someone else reading this who might be interested in neuroscience) then I definitely recommend it.

By: Ken

Ken — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 20:04:15 +0000

I know what you mean, Damian, as I have the same problem with this and reading. At least now that I’m retired I can make more room for the really interesting stuff.

By: Damian

Damian — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:52:16 +0000

Thanks for those links Ken and sorry for the delay – they ended up being caught as spam. I’ll have to check those out. I’ve found that I’m at my limit as to how many podcasts I can listen to in a week and if I’m taken by any of your recommendations I’ll have to ditch some to make time/room.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:30:19 +0000

Many thanks for these, Damian.
I had picked up on a few of them but this will be useful.
Here are some others I have come across – you may find some of them of interest:
Free Thought Radio (http://ffrf.org/radio/podcast/)
Humanist Network News (http://ihs.libsyn.com/)
Pat Condell (http://patcondell.libsyn.com/)
Are We Alone – SETI (http://radio.seti.org/)
Science Cafe (http://www.ucsf.edu/sciencecafe/)
The Sounds of science (http://media.nap.edu/podcasts/)
Science Update (http://www.scienceupdate.com/index.php)
The science Podcast (Sciencemag) (http://www.sciencemag.org/multimedia/)
Science @ NASA (http://science.nasa.gov/)
Science & the City (http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcasts.asp)
NOVA/PBS (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/rss/podcasting.html)
Blogging Heads (video but also mp3) (http://www.brainwaveweb.com/diavlogs/)

By: Damian

Damian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:08:44 +0000

Hi Ken, on the homepage of this blog there is a list of the podcasts I regularly listen to. I really enjoy listening to them while out walking too (and driving and when doing mindless programming). Here they go:

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 22:06:34 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation, Damian. I’ll certainly start downloading and listening to these. I got a cheap mp3 player (just 1 GB) recently and really enjoy listening to podcasts while I am our walking

You seem to have accumulated a few good sources for podcasts – what about a post where you list all your recommendations?

By: Damian

Damian — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:52:43 +0000

I listened to the “how big is the universe” podcast last night and, yes, that’s pretty freakin mid-boggling. ‘Yikes’ indeed. (Did you notice the error where she said that 10^6 was ‘ten thousand’?)

He used to make his own telescopes back in the 1950’s

Wow, that must have been pretty cool to have a grandfather who was into that kind of stuff.

…one of those cute little fellas, Poecilopachys australasiae

Crazy-looking eh?

Just noticed that Blog time is different to real time!

Thanks. I hadn’t noticed. I wonder how long that was wrong for? Now I have to remember to fix it again in three weeks.

By: BC

BC — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:46:36 +0000

Just noticed that Blog time is different to real time!

By: BC

BC — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:45:12 +0000

Man, what a great piece on ideas about the size of the universe.
My grandfather would have been enthralled. He used to make his own telescopes back in the 1950′s. This included learning the math (age in his 70′s) to manufacture his own mirrors, all hand-ground. The structure of the telescopes were concrete for counter-weight, ply for the housing, hand lathed tubing for constructing lens groups etc. One of which I used as a teenager back in the ’70s in our backyard to see the rings of Saturn.
I’m with the guest speaker when she suggests the universe is not infinite. Infinity seems completely unreal, symbolic only, rather than supporting a cosmology of a universe with a beginning.
And, if I heard right, we can only observe 4% of 1/10,000th of the universe, yikes!
As Schultzie would say, ‘I know not’ing! I know not’ing!
Damian, by the way, the other day, I saw one of those cute little fellas, Poecilopachys australasiae, on a Pohutukawa tree at Keropiro Bay, between Stillwater and Okura.