Here's Why

The Art of the Brick

2012-01-31T12:32:29Z

by artist Nathan Sawaya, exhibited at Sydney Town Hall

Carnivorous plant garden tour by phone

2012-01-08T00:46:15Z

I'm researching live video streaming, so I tried out http://bambuser.com which has an app for my Nokia N95 phone as well as iPhones and Androids. I streamed my garden using my 3G phone connection, to test the quality. Streaming by 3G is slower than streaming by WiFI, so the quality has to be reduced. One and a half minutes of video streamed over 3G was 6 megabytes of blocky video, not too bad.

In my garden, I have venus flytraps, sundews, trumpet pitcher plants, and lots of nepenthes tropical pitcher plants.

Diffusion won Best Talk Show at the 2SER awards!

2011-12-22T00:23:16Z

You can visit Diffusion's 2SER radio page, or the Diffusion podcast archive.

Molecular synthesis with Dr Andrew McDonagh

2011-12-20T05:33:36Z

download MP3
Imagine designing molecules on paper and then making them in the lab. Dr Andrew McDonagh of the School of Chemistry and Forensic Sciences and the Institute of Nanoscale Technologies at the University of Technology, Sydney. He's been working on dye sensitised solar cells. I asked him what he's been synthesizing.

Subsoma at Dorkbot

2011-12-14T05:20:12Z

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Michaela Davies demonstrates her Subsoma project for Dorkbot Sydney. She and volunteer Kate have wires connected that stimulate their muscles to move to the sound played. Their muscles move involuntarily to "Love Me Tender".

Check out her videos http://www.youtube.com/user/MissScissorBird/videos

Climate Fix Flicks

2011-12-12T08:14:22Z

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As the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP17
finished this weekend, climate change is on everyone's mind.
Professor Ann Henderson-Sellers from Macquarie University wants you to show her what to do about it.
I asked her to explain about the Climate Fix Flicks.

More information on the competition to create a short video to show how we can all fix the climate

The Jedi Path opens

2011-12-05T02:07:55Z

The Jedi Path is a new book for Star Wars fans that comes in an amazing box that opens with lights and sounds.

Penrith Sunset

2011-11-27T11:00:15Z

Television from 1932

2011-11-21T06:40:53Z

Here's some pictures of a television from the World's Fair of 1932 especially built in transparent lucite so we can see inside. The TV is at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne:

Buddha's fingers

2011-11-21T06:38:32Z

Gnome Chomsky in Ashfield

2011-11-21T06:31:25Z

Quiz Master!

2011-11-20T22:52:10Z

I hosted the Freethinker comedy trivia showdown between the Western Sydney Freethinkers and In Vino Veritas on Sunday afternoon at the Penrith School of Arts.

Sculpture by the Sea 2011

2011-11-18T23:27:22Z

Friday 19th November was a beautiful day to visit Sculpture By The Sea on the Bondi Beach to Tamarama beach walk.

Chocolate Science

2011-11-15T23:17:17Z

Wednesday 16th November, just last week, , I helped organise a Chocolate night for the Australian Science Communicators. Our presenter Galit Segev took us through the Journey of Chocolate, from tree to table. Galit explained how chocolate gains its gloss and snap from the interlocking of the cocoa butter crystals using little plastic chairs. You can hear my interview with Galit here

Newtown Festival

2011-11-12T23:48:59Z

Sunday I manned the Sydney Atheists/Western Sydney Freethinkers/Secular Party stall at the Newtown Festival. Newtown Festival is always awesome. There are friendly, curious people happy to talk, and lots of stalls of amazing stuff. I had to hold myself back from buying a contact-juggling crystal ball. Speaking of crystal balls, the Psychic healers had a stall immediately behind us, with regular queues for free healing sessions, and the Young Earth Creationists had their "Curious Earth" stall, not far away.