Here's Why

download MP3 I gave a talk at SkeptiCamp Sydney on how being a Capital K Skeptic means being sceptical of your own beliefs as well as those of others.

The Australian Museum opened its doors from 5:30pm to 9:30pm during Summer for Jurassic Lounge. The museum became a nightclub with a bar, silent disco with live DJ, live bands, dancers, magicians, puppeteers, animal handlers, and a different view of the exhibits. They had a twitter treasure hunt, flashlight tours...Great fun!

download MP3 On April 12th 2011 a rally to protest against proposed medical research budget cuts by the Australian government was held around the country. I attended the Sydney protest in Belmore Park and interviewed: Bettina Arndt, Bill Ferris, Judy Black, and Andrea MacFarland.

MP3 download Balint Seeber is an inventor, innovator and maker. He's been mashing up radio frequency information with google maps. He spoke to Ian Woolf about his mash-ups. Check them out at http://spench.net

MP3 download Kate Grimwood is a PhD student researching the chemical forensics of fire in the Science faculty at the University of Technology, Sydney. She spoke to me about her research into flash-over, the source and nature of toxic fumes, and burning down houses for science.

MP3 download I interviewed Marianne Menictas about her Tsunami warning research. Marianne Menictas has been creating a mathematical model that shows how to save the lives of the most people possible from a Tsunami disaster for the least amount of money. Marianne is a final year student in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Technology, Sydney Mathematical models can save lives! Marianne Menictas has just finished her degree in Mathematics and Statistics. She's 20 years old and is looking forward to doing new research in her honours year at the University of Technology, Sydney.

MP3 download I was a judge for the 2010 Consensus Greentech Awards on December 10th 2010. Listen for the 2010 winners and highly commended innovations. p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }    2010 Judging Panel Ian Woolf Freelance Science Journalist www.ianwoolf.com With a degree in applied physics, Ian set out on a career as an astronomer until injuring his back while working at the Culgoora Solar Observatory in Narrabri. He worked his way up in IT support from St George Hospital to Sun Microsystems, and then to the University of Technology, Sydney as a Systems Programmer. At UTS he was lured into academia and coordinated Computing Theory, lectured in Computer Networking and tutored in Online Communities, before returning to the Physics department to teach physics laboratory classes. Ian was then hired as Project Officer for the Science Communication Education Project run by the Science faculty to teach informal science communication to science students, conduct educational research, and promote research being conducted by the Faculty, by interviewing their scientists and packaging the interviews into podcasts. He co-athoured a paper on using research to teach science and communication skills. For over ten years he has been a presenter and producer on 2SER-FM's weekly science program Diffusion, and reported science on ABC radio. He has built and exhibited interactive electronic sculptures,and given public talks to the Live Futures festival, Science On Tap, the Australian Science Communicators, and Sydney philosophy groups. Ian is a member of the NSW Australian Science Communicators committee and has organised events such as "Successful Freelance Science Writing", and "Podcasting 101". He was one of two judges of the National Science Week Big Blog Theory Science Tweeting awards. p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); } Janine Cahill Director Future Journeys www.futurejourneys.com Janine Cahill is a futurist and innovation and sustainability consultant specializing in giving clients an experience of the future so they can develop innovative strategy and new products and services. Janine has worked with Sustainability as part of Strategy since 1990 when she completed cost-benefit analyses of change projects in Westpac. This included a state initiative on paper printing and transport reduction of over 20% which was then implemented nationally. She also completed some initial feasibility research into environmental cost reductions on $260m of discretionary expenditure. Since then Janine has developed Sustainability and Climate Change as key elements of scenario planning and development, while also building them into Futures Simulations. These simulations require participants to develop strategy, products and services within carbon-constrained futures. Janine designs and runs FISH@6 Foresight Innovation and Sustainability Hothouses which bring together designers, environmentalists, artists, engineers, lawyers, architects, bankers, accountants and others to work with innovation challenges, including an annual Climate Innovation Challenge. Janine is co-founder and Designer of Live Futures 2020, an annual Futures Festival in its fourth year: a combined conference, workshops, ideas space and exploration of possible futures. College of Fine Arts (COFA- part of UNSW) is a major sponsor and partner. p { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }a:link { color: rgb(0, 0, 255); } James Cowie Managing Director JCI Business Services www.jcibusinessservices.com James is currently MD and Founder of JCI Business Services. He has extensive experience in Technology, Business and Sustainability and has worked with major organisations in a range of technical roles and in building systems to minimise business' impact on the environment. James has worked with clients in the waste, water, waste water, oil & gas, energy and industrial sectors assisting businesses in identifying and adopting processes, behaviours and technologies to improve the

MP3 download This is my 10 minute report on Gregory Benford's  hour-long talk and slide-show about his company Genescient's aquisition of the Methuselah flies, and how they are being used to show the networked interactions of drugs and foods with genes and how they express in the human body. He presented his talk at the Singularity Summit Australia. The Methuselah flies use experimental evolution to discover the genes that cause the diseases of aging. Their first product StemCell100 goes on dale in December 2010 Related articles Longevity of Man: How long can we live? (written in 1985, updated in 1994, pirated by others since)Personal Life Extension Conference (nextbigfuture.com)

download MP3 Are you a Cosmist or a Terran? Beware the anti-robot-overlord future and listen to the 3rd and final part of my interview with Hugo De Garis about the implications of being able to build god-like massively super-intelligent machines at the Singularity Summit Australia in Melbourne, 2010. Robot floor duster for under $20!

download MP3 This is part 2 of my interview with Hugo De Garis about the implications of being able to build god-like massively super-intelligent machines at the Singularity Summit Australia in Melbourne, 2010. He predicts a massive pogrom and witch-hunt as those against the building of god-like machines attempt to wipe out everyone who wants to build them, and all of the people who might be even faintly of use to them - all in the interests of preserving the human species at all costs. This is part 2 of a 3 part interview. Robot floor duster for under $20!

download MP3 I spoke to Hugo De Garis about the implications of being able to build god-like massively super-intelligent machines at the Singularity Summit Australia in Melbourne, 2010. This is part 1 of a 3 part interview. Robot floor duster for under $20!

An overview of the Interactive Sculpture exhibition in Ashfield Mall. Ian Burns ran a workshop sponsored by AShfield council where he taught and facilitated the building of interactive sculptures from found objects by local residents www.ianburns.net You can see other videos and the photo gallery, and hear the interviews.

Beyond Zero Emissions plan to Repower Australia with 100% Renewable Energy. I've seen their figures, they've done the sums and actually have a real plan we could follow.

MP3 download Dr Michael Georgeff spoke to Ian Woolf about how Rational Artificial Intelligence relies on using one's own Beliefs, Desires and Intent, and being able to understand the Beliefs, Desires and Intent of others. He spoke at the Singularity Summit Australia.

MP3 download This recording was made in large echoing room, from the audience. Its less than ideal. I'll be posting a studio quality recording of me presenting a script based on this talk, very soon. Gregory Benford spoke about his company Genescient's aquisition of the Methuselah flies and how they are being used to show the networked interactions of drugs and foods with genes and how they express in the human body. He presented his talk at the Singularity Summit Australia. Here's my photos of his presentation as a slideshow or click on the thumbnails below: