Purser Explores The World

For the first episode back I decided on a project called Faces of Addiction by Chris Arnade which focuses on the stories of people living with addiction in the New York neighbourhood of Hunts Point.

Just before we get into it, this episode deals with topics of a sexual nature, including sex work and fetishes, if this is not your cup of tea, then I recommend you don't listen. Let us not speak of the time between episodes, but let us glory in the fact that I managed to get one out at all :) Episode 20 of Purser Explores The World brings us the Sex Workers Opera, a performance piece produced and presented in London, made by sex workers in an effort to tell the stories of sex workers the world over, both good and bad. You can find out more about the Sex Workers Opera here: http://www.sexworkersopera.com And in the show I promise to link to a review of the performance, so here it is (warning, site deals with fetishes around spanking and is adult in nature). http://pandorablake.com/blog/2014/05/sex-workers-opera/

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.c

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

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/  

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.blogspo

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

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

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

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: Open Australia Planning Alerts Election Leaflets Right To Know The full motion and the governments response: http://www.openaustralia.org/senate/?id=2012-11-29.23.1&s=speaker%3A10760#g25.1

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

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.

I'm a tinkerer in the garden. I have my own little veggie patch and I enjoy getting my hands dirty. For this episode of Purser Explores The World, I'm talking with two people who have taken the idea of Urban Agriculture to the next level. Doug at www.theurbanbeehive.com.au runs a number of productive hives right in the middle of Sydney, while Tim and the Canal Users of Hackney Group are building floating allotments in the middle of London.

It's National Science Week in Australia so I thought I would have a chat with some communicators of science. Upulie Divisekera, Magdeline Lum and Maia Sauren join me to discuss why they are passionate about science comms, what got them involved, ice cream, harry potter and Sir David Attenborough.

Some people are installing solar hot water heaters, others are powering their houses from renewables, some though are going further and creating whole communities powered in part or full by renewable energy. In this episode I chat with Anya Schoolman from the Mt Pleasant Solar Coop and Community Power Network. I also briefly touch on the Hepburn Wind Project in Victoria.

Over the past five years, activism, like everything else in our lives has been changed by the rise of the Hacker/Maker culture. I have a look at two examples of those who build and use new tools to achieve what they couldn't do only a few years before. Asher Wolf is a curator and digital journalist who is using tools such as social media, video sharing sites and the like to enable her to build a narrative out of the rush of raw information. Boycott SOPA is an Android App put together in under a weekend, demonstrating the rapid development that activists can now take advantage of.

Just as 3D printing is changing the way we look at manufacturing, it's changing the way medicine approaches different problems. In this episode I talk to Scott Summit from Bespoke Innovations about the work his company does  with artificial limbs and I have a look at some of the other ways that 3D Printing is changing the way the medical world turns.

Australia is famous for its sporting prowess. Everyone knows that when it comes to sports such as Cricket, Rugby (of either variety) and Swimming, Australia is up there with the best in the world. However what people may not be aware of is that Australia, the land of Sun and Surf is home to a thriving and competitive Ice Hockey community. I'm going to take you into the world of the Australian Womens Ice Hockey competition and we're going to find out what it takes to be a player on a team that can challenge European nations.

In this episode we take the spirit of DIY and see how it's being applied to disaster management. First up we chat with Pieter Franken from safecast.org about the work they are doing building and operating a crowd sourced radiation monitoring system in Japan, then we sit down with Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen and talk about the Serval Project, a project that could turn your mobile phone into an essential part of a post disaster communications network.

Well I made it to episode 2, this in itself is a victory :) Anyhoo, this episode I'm talking to people who take the concept of DIY out of the house an into the big wide world. First up I chat with Paul Wayper, a Canberra based maker who's working on building his own electric motorcycle. Then I move slightly elsewhere in Canberra to talk to Stephen Dade from the Canberra UAV club, a group of people working on building their own Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to compete in the Outback UAV Challenge.