You never know with bees - Science Talk

When I reported about the Science Talk podcast the first time, about three weeks ago, Science Talk - Scientific American Podcast, the actual episode I chose to report about, was about bees. More specifically, it was about the research that is being done in order to understand the problem of colony collapses.

While normally Science Talk alternates between subjects, on colony collapse, host Steve Mirsky delivered three issue consecutively. After May Berenbaum's basic explanation before a crowd of children (bee afraid, bee very afraid), there was an interview Mirsky had with Beerenbaum (To bee or not to bee) in which she not only talks about her research on bees, but more on insects more generally. In addition she addresses the prejudices people have about insects and how these play out in SciFi B-movies. And last but not least, Mirsky spoke with John Williams and May Beerenbaum (Colony Collapse and Ruptured Ribosomes; Minding Darwin's Beeswax about further developmentsi n the research; especially about the advances made with the help of genetic research.

Colony Collapse comes out as one of those ecological disasters that are looming (together with other extinctions, fatal pollution of the waters, ice cap melting and climate change etc) and that can be dramatically harmful if they will play out fully. Not only is honey making an important industry, nature needs the bees for pollinating. These disasters seem all interrelated and one can trigger the next. It makes the research all the more important and the impression is get how we are scrambling to acquire the right knowledge and technologies to help.

More Science Talk:
Science Talk - Scientific American Podcast.

More environmental gloom:
Extinctions,
How the message about Climate Change gets blurred,
Population Growth,
Fish depletion,
Human Impact on the Environment,
Climate Change will make us pay.

Henry Hudson's fatal journey - NBIH

When I was young I read a children's book that was based on the diary by the ship's carpenter about the last journey of Willem Barentsz (1597) and I was greatly impressed by it. Not only by the drama of the story, but also by the, in hindsight, unrealistic idea the Indies could be reached by a northern route. At the time, I thought Barentsz's failure would have sufficiently proven the northern route to be impossible.

Yet, after Barentsz, it was Henry Hudson who also tried (between 1607 and 1611). Not just past the east, but several times over a western route around Canada. On New Books In History Marshal Poe spoke with Peter Mancall who wrote a book about Hudson's final journey past the west. In the interview Mancall largely recounts the fate of Hudson and all the excitement I had with Barentsz's tale came back to me. These explorations are amazing feats under impossible circumstances. I reckon everyone will be taken in by such stories. Therefore the interview with Mancall is highly recommended.

Also recommended is the previous issue of NBIH, an interview with Kevin Kenny about William Penn's attempt to create an ideal state in Pennsylvania and - inevitably - how this ideal failed to be realized.

More NBIH:
Substance abuse in the midwest,
How could they continue - NBIH on WW1 soldiers,
After slavery was abolished,
Populism,
Two great shows on New Books In History.

Arie Kleywegt - Marathon Interview via Huffduffer

Mijn favoriete interviewer in de reeks Marathon Interviews is Ronald van den Boogaard en het is daarom altijd extra interessant als er weer een uitzending van zijn hand aan zit te komen. Dit geldt te meer daar de laatste die ik van hem kon beluisteren in de feed van de VPRO, een niet zo sprankelend interview met Ward Ruyslinck was. Het is al vaker gezegd, it takes two to tango, en een interview kan zowel door de gast als de bevrager gemangeld worden.

De oude feed van Het Marathon Interview leek regelmatig complete jaargangen toe te voegen en zag er daarom tot voor kort naar uit dat Ronald's interview met Arie Kleywegt uit 1993 snel beschikbaar zou komen. Ook Ronald zelf lijkt daarop te anticiperen en heeft zojuist het interview aangehaald op zijn blog: Marathoninterviews: Arie Kleywegt. De podcast feed van de VPRO is echter vernieuwd en weer van voor af aan, dat wil zeggen bij 1986 begonnen.

Zo zal het nog vele maanden duren voordat we Ronald en Arie zullen horen. Om hieraan tegemoet te komen heb ik de downloads van de VPRO in een feed gezet via Huffduffer. Hier is de Marathon met Arie Kleywegt in alle podcatchers in een keer op te halen.

Meer van mijn Huffduffer feeds:
J. Drabinski, Husserl,
J. Drabinski, Heidegger,
Christina Hayes, Yale, Introduction to Hebrew Bible,
Marathon Interview met Herman Bianchi.

Christopher Hedges - Media Matters

Americans warning their countrymen for losing connection with reality and thus rushing towards disaster, is something we hear in this podcast as well as the previous podcast I reviewed. This time I listened to Media Matters which, incidentally, in its previous episode with Glenn Greenwald, who warned about the decay of journalism and its controlling role for democracy, is no less in style. Beware of getting too gloomy.

This broadcast of Media Matters had Christoper Hedges as a guest. Hedges is worried about the decay of literacy in US society. His point is that the big problem is not analphebetism per se, but rather the culture that has replaced the written one. There has always been an elite in culture that was informed and educated and as such steered culture and policy. When this was a culture of the written word, it had values such as giving sources, checking sources, making investigation and so on.

This literate culture has been replaced by a visual culture and in this culture it is the spectacle that reigns. In that culture there is no value for checking sources and making thorough investigations and consequently, this new culture is one of dreams. Hedges warns that Americans, also the elite, is losing their connection with reality and lack the means of catching up. This in a world with threats of climate change and continuous dwindling of US supremacy, militarily, economically and culturally, is ultimately suicidal. he paints a picture of America happily consuming its way into oblivion, without even noticing it.

More Media Matters:
Glenn Greenwald,
Naomi Klein,
Noam Chomsky,
Juan Cole,
The Crisis.

Jackson Lears - Open Source

The podcast Open Source with Christopher Lydon gives a critical view on current affairs. Lydon interviews guests on their specialized subjects. The frequency of the editions (more than once a week) make it impossible for me to keep a close track of the show, but I will skim the subject and occasionally listen in.

This time around I listened to a fascinating interview with Jackson Lears, who tries to make a point about a fundamental weakness in American foreign policy. The basic paradox to begin with is that American ideology is against empire and Americans persist in view their country not as an empire. The foreign policy however, has been that of an empire ever since the beginning of the twentieth century. Lears add to this an almost Freudian point with the example of president Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, he claims , had an idea that was inspired by his Presbyterian background of personal elation. Lears claims that the American culture is full of this strive to improve oneself. And on the collective level Roosevelt thought of war as elating for the nation.

Lears warns that this idea has taken a strong hold on the American psyche, especially under Bush, but with Obama has not gone away. He pleads for less of this idealism and more realistic pragmatism in foreign policy.

The next podcast I am going to review is not about foreign policy, but is also warning the American Psyche for itself and its tendency to lose track of reality. Stay posted.

More Open Source:
Two communities in one region,
We want Obama,
The end of Hegemony,
Go for a walk with Open Source.

Pegoud, Grimm - Veertien Achttien

Op indrukwekkende wijze gaat Tom Tacken voort met zijn serie over de Eerste Wereldoorlog, Veertien Achttien. Het niveau blijft onveranderd hoog. Elke week een biografie van een van de spelers in de oorlog, waarbij elke biografie een zeker aspect van de oorlog in het bijzonder voor het voetlicht brengt. Beluister de meest recente bijdragen over Adolphe Pegoud en Robert Grimm.

Elke podcast duurt ongeveer een kwartier en de grote kracht van Tacken is dat hij dat kwartier vult met een zorgvuldig gecomponeerd verhaal. Als geen ander weet hij de aandacht vast te houden en met enkele zinnen de kwesties te typeren. Als ik al ooit kritiek op de podcast heb gehad, dan is het dat Tacken een zekere voorliefde voor versimpeling heeft en maar al te graag de podcast giet in de vorm van een mooi zwart-wit perspectief van goed en kwaad, daders en slachtoffers. Het formaat dicteert dit echter en de narratieve kracht maakt het meer dan goed.

Voor wie er geen genoeg van kan krijgen, is het mogelijk om de uitzendingen op CD te bestellen en als toegift krijgt men dan ook de teksten toegestuurd (Volger Veertien Achttien). Kijkend naar de teksten, dringt zich de eis op: zo'n goede podcast met kant en klare scripts moet vertaald kunnen worden naar het Engels. Wie zal Tom Tacken daarbij helpen?

Meer Veertien Achttien:
Emmeline Pankhurst,
Lord Kitchener,
Walther Rathenau,
Komitas Vardapet,
John Condon.