Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

So many bastards, so little time.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Lizard Blogging / I Sing The Body Electric: Program Notes — this afternoon at 5 EST 2 PST

I Sing The Body Electric: Program Notes — this afternoon at 5 EST 2 PST

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It is once more that time of the month:  I’ll be doing another of my interviews on Virtually Speaking Science, live from the Exploratorium’s hall in Second Life!

My guest this month is Cynthia Graber.  Cynthia is a double-threat science journalist, working in both print and radio; she’s currently at MIT, as it happens, as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

Most recently, Cynthia’s been blazing trail in what is rapidly becoming a new genre for nonfiction — what I’ve been calling in my head the non-fiction novella, stories that explode the seams of even length-happy magazines like The New Yorker or The Atlantic, but that do not require a full book’s level of engagement.  These e-book shorts appear now as Kindle Singles, TED books, Byliner projects and more. Perhaps the most discussed in the community I hang with has been the approach pioneered by The Atavist, which adds a fair amount of computing to the text in books sold both as e-texts and as apps.  The other eye-catcher in this domain recently has been the Matter project — a Kickstarter-funded start-up dedicated to original reported and investigative stories centered on science.

Cynthia wrote what became Matter’s second publication, Electric Shock: How Electricity Could Be The Key To Human Regeneration.  It’s a story of a Tufts University researcher named Michael Levin, who believes he is on track to work out pathways through which humans could emulate the salamander and regenerate damaged or lost body parts0.

Hans_Canon_Der_Salamander

His approach is out of the mainstream for what begins as a kind of out-there body of research, as he focuses not on genetics or stem cell research, but on the electrical signalling functions of our biology.

It’s a wild subject, meticulously and carefully handled.  We’ll be talking about that — and about the perils of reporting on science when the line between the daring and the too-far-out-there isn’t always that easy to discern. That’ll cover most of the hour, but we will also save some time to talk about this brave new world of forms and genres emerging in the context of the new media ecosystem.  Should be fun; stop by if you have a chance.

Listen here.  The program will be available later as a podcast at that link to Blog Talk Radio and on iTunes — look for us under Virtually Speaking Science.

If you’re a virtual world type, you can join the live Second Life audience here.

Again timing:  5 p.m. today Eastern time; 10 p.m. in London; 2 p.m. in the land of my youth over there on the left coast.

Image: Hans Canon,  The Salamander, 1863.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  1. 1.

    Poopyman

    Wait, didn’t Gene Wilder do some work with Peter Boyle on this?

    ETA; Sadly, no can get 2nd Life OR do audio at work.

  3. 3.

    Roger Moore

    Again timing: 5 p.m. today Eastern time; 10 p.m. in London; 2 p.m. in the land of my youth over there on the left coast.

    Maybe you should update the title to agree with the timing, then.

  4. 4.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    I saw the title and it reminded me of the movie “Fame”. I didn’t realize it originated with Walt Whitman.

  6. 6.

    Ted & Hellen

    Will there be photoshopped, fantasy images of what the electrical brain pulses “look” like?

  7. 7.

    mainmati

    I’m waiting for little Nell’s smart paper, interactive guidebook as featured in the wonderful “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson.

  10. 10.

    mclaren

    The book title Electric Shock: How Electricity Could Be The Key To Human Regeneration should clearly and obviously be changed to Ahahahahahaa! It’s alive! It’s aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

  12. 12.

    The Dangerman

    @mclaren:

    Ahahahahahaa! It’s alive! It’s aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

    Speaking of monsters, I’m concerned Tunch has had an epic level freak; the Blog Boss hasn’t posted today and, well, I wonder how far the closest ER is for him. Just in case.

  13. 13.

    Ted & Hellen

    @Chyron HR:

    Interesting.

    A lot of the White Jesus with Blue Eyes have the same level of realism as Tom’s science pics…so yeah, maybe I”ll do that.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Mary

    Ah, neat! Will fire up that site at 5, Tom.

    @The Dangerman: I prefer to believe that Tunch and Stella have instantly bonded and that John is too awash in the cuteness to manage posting right now.

  15. 15.

    Roger Moore

    @The Dangerman:
    Any problems JGC has today are more likely to be a result of overwhelming cuteness and neediness of the new cat, rather than an elaborate plot cooked up by the fat and lazy full figured and energy conserving Tunch.

  16. 16.

    dance around in your bones

    I wish I knew what the hell you were talking about here. I guess I will have to listen to the podcast? interview ? to get a clue.

    Hard to do when you are watching multiple grandkids. And watching their progress on Minecraft as well as supplying multiple bottles in the hopes that they will go the fuck to sleep. Minecraft I understand not at all – it makes me dizzy.

    I am an old, I guess.

  19. 19.

    Chyron HR

    @Ted & Hellen:

    Bazinga! I’m sure the Nobel Prize committee is retroactively revoking every award they’ve granted for so-called “science” as we speak.

    But remember, folks, when Tim channels the Texas board of education’s textbook guidelines, he’s doing it “from the left”.

  20. 20.

    Katie5

    Tom, could you do a virtually speaking on MOOCs? It’s burning up the airwaves (listservs?) of universities and of course MIT has a long history of online education. Don’t know whom you’d interview, although Gerry Canavan has some interesting insights.

  22. 22.

    Southern Beale

    OT but Jake Tapper is hawking his book about Afghanistan and he’s done an interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air, which I’m listening to now. I’m finding myself getting angrier and angrier. He just relayed how, safe in D.C., he didn’t realize what a crushing blow the extended deployments of 2007 were on the troops, he didn’t understand it until he went to Afghanistan to write his book.

    Jesus fuck. All of us on the left devoted hundreds of blog posts to topics like how soldiers on their second, third, fourth deployments were being pushed to the breaking point. Nobody fucking listens to us EVER.

  23. 23.

    ranchandsyrup

    I troll the blog electric,
    The armies of obots I love engirth me and I engirth them,
    They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
    And discorrupt them from dronez, and charge them full with the charge of the secret conservative soul.

  24. 24.

    Roger Moore

    @Southern Beale:

    Nobody fucking listens to us EVER.

    Of course not. The worst sin for a VSP is to admit that a DFH might possibly be right about something. If they ever have to say something similar to what the DFHs are saying, they have to engage in gratuitous hippie punching to prove that they are absolutely not saying it because they agree with the DFHs. It’s like the first rule of VSPdom.

  25. 25.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    For Betty from the Twitters

    Breaking: Fla. Gov. Rick Scott, one of the biggest critics of Obamacare, has agreed to expand Medicaid coverage in his home state.

    My guess is that he or members of his family still own companies that will profit from this. He wants his share of those sweet sweet medicaid dollars.

  27. 27.

    dance around in your bones

    @MikeJ: Yeah, I got that part – just….if you could see these kids clicking the controllers w/o even looking! Plus, it makes me dizzy.

    I surf Balloon Juice while pretending to watch Minecraft. “Ooooh! Cool! You got some diamonds and killed a Creeper! (Wha?)

  28. 28.

    Anoniminous

    @Chyron HR:

    Between the brain dead* Religious Right, the cargo cultists, an MSM staffed by ignorant dumbasses, a population effectively if not actually numerically illiterate, and a Congress chock-a-block with Conservative meatheads gutting funding, science in this country is in a fighting retreat.

    —————————————————————————-

    * Technically, I suppose, they aren’t brain dead. They’ve never bothered to put anything in it in the first place.

  29. 29.

    Ted & Hellen

    @Chyron HR:

    But remember, folks, when Tim channels the Texas board of education’s textbook guidelines,

    Could you link to where I did anything remotely like that, dumbass?

    You and Menmospleen would never comment if you could respond only to what others actually wrote.

  30. 30.

    Yutsano

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Could be. Also a lot of olds are dual eligibles, so he’s trying to keep the bluehairs who vote for that nice bald guy (who ripped them the fuck off mercilessly) in line.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    Honestly, if expanding Medicaid helps real people, I’m willing to let money suckers make a reasonable profit on the deal. Better a politician who backs a good policy for a bad reason than one who opposes that policy to piss off the liberals.

  32. 32.

    Yutsano

    @Roger Moore: This. Also. Too. It’s also why I think eventually all the other states are going to join up. Too much cash laying around to be Hoovered up by the parasites for them not to.

  33. 33.

    hitchhiker

    Thanks very much for this, Tom. I just bought the ebook . . . if I could, I’d have asked what Michael Levin had to say about the possibility of regenerating neurons, specifically motor neurons. Can it really be more complicated that making a new retina?

  39. 39.

    dance around in your bones

    @Tom Levenson:

    Heh, They never know how much I am not paying attention because of my encouraging murmurs.

    eta: Also, as far as trolls go, I either ignore them entirely or finally pie them if they get too tiresome. (Ahem, T&H. And no, I won’t see any reply you might make because I can’t be arsed to unpie you to look).

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