Portrait of mathematician Ada Lovelace, by Alfred Edward Chalon (public domain via wikimedia)
It’s sad but true that there’s a worldwide backlash against science, facts and evidence.
Misha Ketchell from The Conversation was on 3RRR today, explaining among other things the ‘false equivalence’ line of thinking, which is how we get into this mess of discrediting researchers across many fields. The voice of a clueless but confidently opinionated blogger can now be perceived as equivalent to a researcher with 30 years experience and all the data. Kind of disheartening.
This started from a question about “Fake News”, and Misha made the strong point that fake news is actually a specific thing that happened during the US elections when a group of people spread misinformation for the purposes of making money. (The Saturday Paper produced a great article outlining this phenomenon.)
The Conversation has become one of my preferred outlets of information, because they’re connecting the knowledge of academia with the world of journalism. Academics must find a way to make their research accessible, while the public gains awareness of knowledge that was previously hidden behind the academic moat.
Great interview: here’s the “listen-on-demand” link from RRR, interview with Misha starts round the 10 minute mark, until roughly 30min: http://ondemand.rrr.org.au/player/128/201710231200
Image credit: Alfred Edward Chalon, wikimedia
It was so much fun to be involved in Tim and Sam’s radio show. The whole process of choosing songs, trying to find stories for each of them, burning them to CD.. and then driving off without the CD. As we were leaving Elphinstone, Tim drove off without an essential set of headphones. Then we got caught behind a learner driver, already behind schedule. Ah yes.. all part of the adventure.
The open mic can be a little terrifying.. even though we suspect there’s an audience of somewhere between 1-6 people. However these two wonderful people do their very best to make their guest feel comfortable. They are hilarious together, and are building up such a lovely new radio show.. i heartily recommend you listen in (fortnightly Wednesday evenings, wmafm.com).
Okay, here’s the set list i finally selected for Tim and Sam’s Junk City. Read the rest of this entry »
Been listening to Tim and Sam on Castlemaine community radio. They have a delightful session of stories about melancholy and joy, called Junk City. Each fortnight a guest will come on and talk about their top 5 songs in each category, songs that moved you or touched you in some way. Helen’s an artist in Castlemaine, and i loved her choices of Cat Empire, Paul Kelly’s Billy Baxter and yes Tim Deee-lite Groove is in the Heart.
..and now they’ve asked me to join them. The show is coming up: 9:00-11:00 pm AEST Wednesday 21 September. [you can stream live at
This is extraordinary.
Listen to the story about a woman who taught a 27 year old Nicaraguan man how to understand language for the first time. “Something about his eyes caught her attention.” She uses sign to communicate, and he echoes everything she signs – right back at her. “Visual echolalia.” She could see intelligence in his eyes, but realised that he had no language; he didn’t even know he was deaf.
“What have you been doing for 27 years?” she wonders.
Listen for the moment when everything changes. It brings tears to my eyes when i hear what happened.
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via Words – Radiolab.
From the people at Radiolab. These 2 men make radio that seems to flow in a kind of liquid conversational story. The narrative is so beautifully woven from multiple voices, without signalling when the voice changes.
Read the rest of this entry »
Two Canadian comedians make fun of Sarah Palin, with her full co-operation. Tim turned up at my house this morning and told me about it, so i had to listen.
Sarah doesn’t notice when he gives the wrong name for the Canadian Prime Minister, she doesn’t seem to shudder when he says he loves killing baby seals ..
Even dumber than Dan Quayle, it seems.
But ouch .. the Hustler joke was going too far, wasn’t it?
Did she not notice the French “Prime Minister” telling her he loved watching a porn-u-mentary about her, or did she diplomatically let it slide? You wouldn’t expect sexual harrassment from one head of state to another (potentially on the same level) .. but i’m sure it happens.
Link: Trail Blazer Blog | The Dallas Morning News. Link: BBC also.
On the positive side, listen to this guy on the BBC .. ‘Redneck votes for Obama’. Good man.
Wed 8 Oct — Don’t cut my fringe straight please .. was totally intriguing and mostly enjoyable. 12 artists playing live to air over 2 hours was a very ambitious idea for the Dance Cadaverous lady (Sophie B) .. and it was well worth the mad pins and needles you get from sitting on a hard floor and twisting in five different directions.
Bum Creek set a really good tone for the night. They are utterly weird, yet strangely good fun. Noises and growling merge with instrumental random-ness to produce a nice kind of bizarre. Kind of like Bad Taste by Peter Jackson. Horror music.
At the end of their set they switched over by pulling the jack out of the amp .. and the next guy plugged in. Some artists i could have listened to for much longer, while others were unbearable at the two minute mark.
Most fascinating instrument of the night went to the guy who’d built a box out of metal springs and coils. There’s no way i could describe either his action or the sound that emerged .. it was entertaining.
Pikelet i love. Great loops, driving rhythms .. endlessly creative. Qua brought people to life with some dancey beats.
It was fun watching the host attempting to give each band their two minute warning .. most artists were fully absorbed in the experience, so she would have to creep up quietly and make a play for eye contact. Everything went smoothly.
Until the final segment, where everyone jammed together. This was ugly .. and got the most walk-outs. Intriguing, entertaining, but just noisy. i stayed out the distance, to test my endurance.
PS: Qua and Pikelet are playing with Mountains in the Sky, 8th November at the Corner. gray is playing with Qua, plus it’s my birthday – who wants to come along? (now here’s a test to see if anyone’s reading ;-]
So yes, i had an interview with jon faine (a month ago now). It was a strange experience for me, as i don’t often appear on radio. You can hear it all over again .. right here.
Or tune into his more recent work on the abc site.
provided by ODEO
Listening back, i mildly regret implying that people in the bar were not likely to be literary critics. It was funny at the time, a standard knee-jerk dig at people you don’t know, insinuating a lesser intellectual sophistication, and flag-flying the stereotype that “rednecks can’t read and probably wouldn’t want to anyway“.(When in fact a whole heap of well-educated people are ignorant and prejudiced too.)
However i have worked for many years with people whose self-worth has been destroyed by the stigma of low literacy. Believe me, if you can’t read in this society, you get looked down upon by everyone.
On top of this, having a low level of literacy is about more than your own personal abilities; in fact the overall levels of health, wealth, employment and social cohesion in the local community all contribute to a person’s ability to learn at school. There was some great research recently that highlighted the interconnectedness of all these factors.
Apart from that, i’m okay with the interview. i’d recommend following up that research – Tony Vinson and Peter Norden. Brilliant.
Related: Research on Social Disadvantage in Australia.
(image: thanks mrtwism)
