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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.

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

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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.

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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

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

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:

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.

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

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

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.

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A colourful animated light show projected onto the Sydney Opera House for the Vivid Sydney festival 2011.

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This is a moving sculpture at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image titled: TY the Tasmanian Tiger™.
Its a 3D zoetrope with almost 200 characters. Starring Krome Studios' videogame superstar TY the Tasmanian Tiger(TM) and his friends. It was built using 3D full colour printing with plaster/epoxy characters by RapidPro. When the strobe flashes, the plastic characters come to life.

I took this video in August 2011 on my Nokia n95 8GB

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Hugo De Garis speaking about the future of topological quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and a war over whether to build artificial intellects, at Melbourne University in August 2011. Will humans stay the dominant species?

Not so many public phone boxes left.

Peter and I attended a book lanch for Lee Child's new Jack Reacher novel called "The Affair". At the Random House book launch, was Duncan who had last year won the Jack Reacher look-a-like competition. Duncan was written into the latest novel as a character, so he's both real and fictional. They offered door prizes, and Peter won the first prize, and posed for some pictures with Jack Reacher, and I joined in:

I'm now half way through "The Affair", the first Jack Reacher novel I've read. Good fun!

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Galit Segev is a chef and biochemist, combining her love of food and science, in public talks on the science of food. Galit is a volunteer for Vision Australia creating recipes and cooking classes for people with vision impairment. At the Ultimo Science Festival she spoke to me about her love of food, her love of chocolate, and the science of making chocolate.