Purser Explores The World

AusVotes2013

Sun, 26 May 2013 15:39:27 EST

The ausvotes2013.com site is a political blog with a difference. Rather than being blatantly partisan or featuring the usual suspects it provides an opportunity for new writers and voices from all sides of the political spectrum to discuss, debate and explore the issues in the upcoming election.

This episode is a bit of an experiment, it's the largest "round table" discussion I've ever conducted with not two or three, but five of the writers from AusVotes sitting down and discussing why they write for the site and what they hope to get from it.

Show Notes:

For the notes this episode I'm going to link to each of the people on the round table, their blogs and twitter accounts.

Paula Matthewson

Blog: http://dragonistasblog.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Drag0nista

Andrew Tiedt

Blog: http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com.au/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/mrtiedt

Ed Butler

Blog: http://shoutingatthevoid.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fakeedbutler

El Gibb

Blog: http://bluntshovels.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bluntshovels

Damian Walker

Blog: http://theunderwhelmingblog.blogspot.com.au/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DamienCWalker

Crowd Funding the Mighty Maggot

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:45:33 EST

Dr Mel Thomson and Dr Michelle Harvey are a Microbiologist and Forensic Entymologist who have combined their powers to launch a new research project into how effective maggots are in debriding the wounds caused by a particularly nasty bacteria called M.Ulcerans.

This in itself is cool, however what makes it extra cool is the fact that they're reaching out to the community both to help fund their project (they're crowdfunding it) and build a level of public engagement from the start.

Show Notes:

Mighty Maggots Pozible page: http://www.pozible.com/mightymaggots (goes live 8th May)

Mighty Maggots Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mighty-Maggots-at-Deakin/129319170596521?ref=ts&fref=ts

MIghty Maggots twitter: https://twitter.com/mightymaggots

Flesh Nom Bug twitter: https://twitter.com/fleshnombug

Bitcoin: What even is it?

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 23:01:05 EST

I'll be honest, I'm not a great fan of economic theory. The world of the international currency exchange leaves me cold. However, the explosion of the cryptographic digital currency Bitcoin has caught not only my eye but that of the rest of the world. I thought I would turn to a couple of experts to find out a bit more about the great BTC. Aimee Maree is an Open Source Architect and world citizen who's been involved with Bitcoin since 2010, while Richard Chirgwin is a science and technology journalist who's been reporting on Bitcoin for just as long.

Show Notes

Aimee has helpfully provided a few links to help explain everything from Bitcoin to why the current situation in Europe could be fueling the current value jump for Bitcoin.

http://libertycrier.com/forum/top-5-things-you-should-know-about-litecoin/

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2013/04/20134572639241668.html

MtGox: Worlds largest Bitcoin exchange mentioned in the show - https://mtgox.com/

Right To Silence

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:10:35 EST

The right to silence is one of the most basic rights a person has under the various justice systems that operate in Australia. The central premise is that the state is not allowed to force someone to incriminate themselves, because frankly, that sort of thing tends to lead to false confessions and the jailing of innocent people.

Unfortunately, this right is not something ensured by the constitution. Instead it's what's known as a common law right, something backed by precedent and case law, but vulnerable to legislative change. In NSW last week we saw exactly that.

In this episode of Purser Explores The World, I speak with criminal lawyer Andrew Tiedt about the changes passed last week and how they introduce new limits to your right to silence.

Show Notes

Evidence Amendment (Evidence of Silence) Bill 2013: http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/bills/docref/ca44aa57-8cc1-449d-8c8a-eaa630c0cc45

Andrew Tiedts blog: http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com.au/

The Silent Menace: http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/the-silent-menace.html

An Opportunity to Improve: http://mrtiedt.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/an-opportunity-to-improve.html

Something Wonky Episode: http://somethingwonky.com/podcast/2013/3/21/37-prime-minister-ferguson.html

More than human

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:23:18 EST

I've said it before and I'll say it again. We are living in the future. We're living at a time when the first true cybernetics are being developed, when people can realistically say that they have a bio lab in their garage. We're standing on the edge of a change, something that could transform humanity like nothing that has come before.

Some people call this the Singularity. The point at which everything merges together and we have no idea what's going to come out the other side.

Adam Ford is a man who has been pondering the singularity for a while. He is going to lead us through, what the Singularity is, what Transhumanism actually means and what we might expect down the track.

Show notes:

In the show Adam mentions the Future Day event. At the time of recording there were tickets available. To find out out more about Future Day go to the website:

http://futureday.org

As well as Future Day, Adam is involved with Humanity plus:

humanityplus.org

And has his own youtube channel, where he videoblogs and posts interviews with others in the transhumanism community:

http://youtube.com/TheRationalFuture

My Kingdom for a Horse

Sun, 10 Feb 2013 21:53:09 EST

After a year long investigation, including a number of different disciplines from areas such as archeology, geneology and medical, it was finally confirmed that a body found buried in a carpark in Leicester, England was indeed Richard the third. For this episode I catch up with Michael Stutchbery and talk about why this caused as much excitement as it did, and why it's so important.

Show Notes

University of Leicester "Grey Friars Project" Website: http://www2.le.ac.uk/projects/greyfriars/leicester

Michael Stuchbery's blog: http://mike-stuchbery.com/

Horrible Histories ode to Richard Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6JczvS1PL4

Tomorrows Geek

Sat, 26 Jan 2013 23:29:01 EST

Inspired by a twitter conversation between Stilgherrian and Mark Newton about this article I thought I would explore what tomorrows geek would be playing at with them and Liz Quilty. Unfortunately a round table discussion wasn't possible but I think these three individual chats do something to shed some light.
Oh, and here is the video that I mention in the episode after Marks interview. Don't watch it until you've heard what we're talking about :)
http://youtu.be/F7S-rFB42lc

Right To Know

Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:07:38 EST

The Open Australia Foundation has been one of the leading lights in the citizen driven Open Government movement in Australia, recently they launched a new project based around the idea of opening up the process of Freedom Of Information requests so I thought I would have a chat and see what they're up to.

Open Australia Projects:

The full motion and the governments response: http://www.openaustralia.org/senate/?id=2012-11-29.23.1&s=speaker%3A10760#g25.1

Small Media

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:01:56 EST

With all of the kerfuffle going on in the world of Big Media, I though I would catch up with a couple of people who are working hard in Small Media.

Jane Gilmore of the kingstribune and Jeremy Sear from somthingwonky both tell me why they do what they do (hint, it's not for the money)

Don't forget you can comment here, or on our Facebook Page, Google+ Page or on the twitters

Super DIY The Second

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 23:00:03 EST

Well, the show has finally made it to episode 10 and to celebrate we're going to do another Super Do It Yourself episode.

This time round we're going to catch up with Stephen Dade from the CanberraUAV team and see how they went in the Outback Challenge they were preparing for when we last spoke.

We're also going to chat with Mark Pesce about MooresCloud, an internet of things lamp that runs a lamp stack.