News from Reading Academy: Provisional statistics from the Met Office show 2012 was the second wettest yr in the UK national record dating back to 1910, only a few millimetres short of the record set in 2000.

The University of Reading is home to both the Section of Meteorology, ane of the leading centres for the study of weather and climate in the world, and the Walker Found for Climate System Research, which oversees enquiry into the causes and effects of climate modify.

Professor Nigel Arnell, Walker Constitute Managing director, University of Reading said:

"Rainfall has increased in recent decades over many parts of the Northern Hemisphere and we're seeing rain falling in heavier bursts. The tape-breaking weather in the UK in 2012 fits with that picture, and we've seen the effect of all this rain with disruptive flooding across many parts of the state.

"While rainfall varies naturally from year to twelvemonth and decade to decade, there is increasing evidence that the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is starting to impact rainfall across the globe.  That means we are probable to see inundation frequency increase further.  The sort of wet winters we currently encounter over Northern Europe just once every 20 years could happen almost every other yr by the cease of the century, merely curbs on global greenhouse gas emissions could significantly reduce the expected increase in flood risk."

2012 was a twelvemonth of contrasts in the UK – austerity, welfare cutbacks, dreadful weather, printing intrusion, but we also had the feelgood factor of the Olympics and the diamond jubilee.  Pod Academy'south podcasts tracked these issues, turning to research and academia to explore things in more depth – check out, for example,  Ruth Lister and Fran Bennett on poverty, Angela Phillips on the Leveson Inquiry  and Sunder Katwala on British identity.

In 2013 Pod Academy will continue to look behind the headlines, to give yous the backstory on current problems.  If you lot are an academic with enquiry that you recollect volition enlighten and entertain, that throws new light on stories in the news, contact united states of america at thepod@podacademy.org.

Tess Woodcraft writes:  Why non give yourself an audio treat this Christmas.  Most of Pod University's listeners are podcast fans, so here are our recommendations for podcasts for Christmas for anyone looking to give themselves some stocking fillers.

And please add your suggestions in the comments section below.

  • This American Life:  Public Radio International (PRI) looks at America.  My favourites are the Ronald Reagan museum and one on the Gold Apple diner in Chicago
  • Pacifica Radio is a network of non-profit radio stations in California known for their progressive politics. In business organisation since 1949 they accept interviews with merely about anybody who is or was anybody on the radical scene.  Their weekly 'From the Vault' programmes feature interviews from their annal – try Bertolt Brecht, Jim Morrison or the feature on Stonewall.
  • Answer me this Ane of the all-time comedy podcasts, from Sony award winning duo, Olly Isle of mann and Helen Zaltzman, 'Helen and Olly, answer me this….'
  • Wellness Check Weekly programme on health problems effectually the world from the BBC Globe Service presented past Claudia Hammond.
  • On the nature of things:  Ed Prosser'south unusual and brilliant sound accept on the world – like his Porn Whales
  • Thinking Immune:  Regular weekly programme featuring new research mainly in the fields of sociology, criminology and social policy.  Great archive going back several years.  Try Super Max prisons,  and Stag Nights
  • Bright Gild: Calling itself 'The thinking person'southward variety night' Bright Club tours venues combining stand up up and science.  They regularly podcast their gigs
  • Philosophy Bytes – aesthetics, ethics, mind, paradoxes, meaning, sustainability – lots of short podcasts on philosophical bug.
  • A Life In Scents – 'A flake like Desert Island discs but with smells instead of records' –  Fabulous interviews with famous (and not so famouos) people virtually their sense of odor whether it is new mown grass after pelting, or Channel No.v, old socks or the delicious smell of vanilla custard.  From Odette Toilette and Pod Academy producer, Jo Barrett.
  • The Guardian podcasts:  Cheque out the Guardian podcasts (especially the weekly politics, engineering and scientific discipline podcasts) – well produced, well informed and a chip different from the BBC.
  • RSA:  The RSA has a regular plan of lectures and discussions on everything from Economics to Philosphy.  And they podcast the lot.
  • Nighttime Waves: BBC Radio 3   nightly discussion programme, star studded round tables on politics, arts, philosophy, music, science – non to exist missed.

Roger Howard, Chief Executive of the UK Drug Policy Commission writes:

If you take more than than a passing interest in (illicit) drug policy, you could be forgiven for thinking one of two diametrically opposed things at the moment.

If you lot naturally gravitate to the anti 'war on drugs' camp you are probably feeling pretty good at the moment. Two states in the United states (Washington and Colorado) recently voted to legalise the product and sale of marijuana and some 18 states doctors are allowed to prescribe medical marijuana. In Uruguay, the government has taken the unprecedented step of tabling legislation to licence growers manufacturers, distributors and purchasers of cannabis so that in 2014 you lot'll be able to register as a cannabis user and be able to purchase the monthly equivalent of about 20 cannabis spliffs . And on top of this, a widening group of S American political leaders is challenging the United states drug policy hegemony. The Organization of American States has taken the previously unthinkable step of setting upward a task group to await at different drug policy options, even though the Usa remains firmly against and so-chosen 'legalisation'. All of this might give you lot hope that the mass incarceration, drug fuelled offense and global ill-health, whether physical or psychological might just be at a crucial tipping-indicate in the history of drug policy.

On the other hand, if you are of a somewhat 'nervous' disposition, you may be thinking this could be the first of a very glace slope, where the supposed insatiable demand for listen-altering drugs will further undermine societal cohesion and damage lives. You lot will probably have at the back or even front of your mind worries nigh the perverse consequences and impacts that have flowed from the commercialisation of tobacco, alcohol and even some pharmaceutical products.  Look at the new issues we are seeing from the overprescribing of prescription drugs y'all will say.

In truth, as Sue Pryce book, 'Fixing Drugs-The Politics of Drug Prohibition'  and my ain Committee's contempo report, 'A Fresh Approach to Drugs'  (Great britain Drug Policy Commission www.ukdpc.org.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland ) show, there is no unproblematic or silver bullet for fixing drug policy. It is non a 'solvable' problem but rather ane where incremental steps to reduce harms and get people to behave more responsibly in their drug use behaviours are, probably, realistic goals. And as Sue and I talk over in the interview, in that location are however some very applied things that governments, politicians, the media, professionals and the public can do to help steer our country's drug policy through a fast-changing and challenging world. Because ,as we are all too familiar with, psychoactive drugs at present accomplish in to every nook and cranny of 21 century British life.

Tess Woodcraft writes: Gus Hosein of Privacy International  and Richard Allan, policy manager at Facebook went head to head at the launch of Index on Censorship'south new magazine 'Digital Frontiers' this week.  Alphabetize on Censorship calls itself 'the voice of free expression' and the debate was intended to explore the tension between privacy and free speech on the Web.  Most of u.s. who passionately believe in complimentary speech communication, would too place huge value on privacy – but information technology can be a hard circle to square in the age of the cyberspace.

Richard was clear, the internet has 'democratised the voice', mainly because of the low price of getting your vocalism and views out there, and said that some of the proposals around privacy could be seen as the 'criminalisation of speech'.  Just Gus said privacy has now become the titanic struggle around the internet – with Europe valuing privacy, and the United states declaring that complimentary expression is paramount.

There are no simple answers.  Take, for example, the outcome of anonymity.  Gus argued that anonymity is an important principal for the cyberspace – and most of us would probably agree.  The power of corporations and governments to track our every move is a frightening prospect. Governments are enthusiastically (and secretly) capturing the data generated by internet users nearly themselves (and it'south not just repressive regimes –  the police in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland undertake social media monitoring, and have refused to answer FOI requests for information on what or how they monitor).   But Richard Allan pointed out that anonymity is non always a good thing. It is important for Facebook users to be honest about who they are,  subsequently all people are sharing their personal data, they need to feel confident that you are who yous say yous are.

Richard Allan and Gus Hosein, chaired by Kirsty Hughes, CE of Index

Talking nigh the Arab Spring, and the way secret services in Egypt were monitoring social media, Gus said Facebook should push more privacy options onto people who may not know they are at risk. Information technology is not plenty to give them 'the level of protection a Californian teenager wants'.

The ill directed rage and bad religion of some internet users worried both men.   'Ethically we suck, everyone is throwing a lot of detest around on the net right now', every bit Gus Hosein put it.  And Richard Allan agreed, describing how trolls go to great lengths – creating new Facebook accounts, for example – to  trash a Facebook folio set up to commemorate someone who has died. But how to solve the trouble without draconian legislation that limits free spoken communication?  As Richard said, sometimes a solution can be worse than the problem it sets out to solve. He felt the solution had to lie with Facebook itself, and said 'Information technology's similar a hotel – we have to create a reasonable environment, withal hard the guests can exist, and only telephone call the police when things get totally out of manus'.  Unsurprisingly, he didn't favour more legislation, but said governments were increasingly looking to legislate as more and more people were on the internet, using ever more sophisticated encryption. But for Gus this was tantamount to the privatisation of censorship.

It'due south not but Facebook that presents these problems, of course.  Twitter users often think tweeting is like having a chat in the pub – but they need to be aware it is a individual chat in a very public space.  What'due south more Twitter data is at present sold to a company who resells it to individual companies and even governments – who can see a single tweet that started a revolution.

At Pod Academy, we are committed to freedom of expression, only we too value privacy.  It is not an easy one.  What do you lot think?  Let united states know.

Maarten van Schaik writes: Lord Leveson'south two-m folio written report was published on 26th Nov 2012, putting a fuse in the barrel of gunpowder lying under the political debate near press freedom and journalists' ethics.  Lord Leveson chosen for the introduction of a new regulatory trunk, which had been strongly lobbied for by Hacked Off and Media Reform. They consequently wrote positive press statements on the report. But the recommendations go against the wishes of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) to continue regulation tied to the media industry itself.

To facilitate the cosmos of Leveson'south independent regulator, new legislation is required.

It is the prospect of this new legislation that has lit the fuse nether the political debate.  The Prime Minister has rejected the recommendation, maxim it would infringe  Britain'due south tradition of press freedom and commonwealth. The Liberal Democrats – the Conservative'southward coalition partner – have nevertheless released a conflicting argument, embracing the phone call for new legislation. In this, they are supported by the Labour Party as well as dissident members from the Bourgeois Political party. Mr. Cameron'due south stance on its recommendations and the turmoil the Leveson has created in the House has made information technology to the international headlines. With this in mind, we went dorsum to Angela Phillips, Reader in Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London, who we had interviewed for our recent piece on the Leveson Inquiry.

She applauds the recommendations of the Leveson report as it allowed for the introduction of an independent arbitration procedure for complaints of libel and invasion of privacy, so they could exist resolved without the costly business of going to courtroom.   Phillips sees the legal changes needed, and the introduction of an independent organisation, every bit a motion towards greater press liberty, non a restriction on it.

What practice you recall?  Would new legislation be a good thing, strengthening gratuitous oral communication or would it undermine some of the very foundations on which British society is built?

If you have not listened to our interview with Angela Phillips on the Leveson Inquiry merely even so, you lot tin do and then here.

1 of the Pod Academy's main aims is to inform current debate with bookish research.  That is why in the calendar week that the Leveson Inquiry written report is being published, we have an interview with Angela Phillips, Reader in Journalism at Goldsmiths, and one of our Board members, providing background on the telephone hacking scandal.

Angela suggests that the tabloid press's illegal activities need to be understood in the context of the dwindling sales figures of newspapers, that it was easy and cheap to find out what celebrities were doing past hacking their phones, and information technology enabled the tabloids to compete straight with the allusion and gossip on the net – to which they were losing their readers.  In her view, this is all part of the expiry throws of the dinosaurs of the onetime media, clawing each other and everybody else to death while they attempt to keep their audiences on board.

So phone hacking was the canary in the mine – newpapers are dying.  In 10 years fourth dimension, will we all exist reading the news, listening to the news and viewing the news on our tablet computers?  Bring together the argue.

Will Vineywrites:  In recent years the range of skills required to be a successful academic have broadened and academics are now expected to keep upward and interact with a chop-chop changing media surroundings. There may accept been a time when a doctoral student could have spent years, perhaps even their whole career, not completing their PhD thesis. Holed up in a library somewhere discussing their piece of work with a small number of like-minded specialists; a time when 'public engagement' probably meant going for dinner with the college Master and his wife. Thankfully, things have inverse. Now under the twin pressures of financial austerity and global competition, pursuing an academic career is dominated by the demand to brand research publicly accessible, relevant and 'engaging' for those both in and well beyond any one discipline or audition.  But how are .

Mountain Chief Making a Phonographic Record, 1916. Courtesy of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

young academics expected to fair in this claustrophobic environs – teaching, researching, administrating, publishing, applying for nonetheless another short-term contract, andbeing some kind of media darling? In that location are no piece of cake solutions simply many have found that fostering new research subjects, realising that you're not in direct competition with everyone, exploiting the intellectual gaps left after decades of disciplinary protectionism and a willingness to brand the most of new technologies, to be fantastic ways to reach a bigger audience, demonstrate the relevance of their research to others and to take a meaningful impact on the germination of public stance.

Many of the podcasts that Pod Academy produces feature young academics that are making the nearly of the speed, simplicity and flexibility of academic audio. Pod Academy has as well teamed up with Engentia to provide media training. As part of the OPEN course, we have seen graduates and early on career academics first the day in a room of strangers and end that day having conceived a new collaborative project, planned, recorded and edited a podcast, and then circulate that podcast to everyone for their feedback. Our work with Engentia is meant to help others brand a pleasurable noise most their piece of work, giving advice on how to develop academic research for a not-specialist audience, along with instruction on how to use recording devices and editing software, and how best to utilise the gratis resource that are available online.

Many are rightly cautious that 'going public' in this fashion might simply distract from the nuts – doing enquiry and pursuing more recognised research outputs. The success of Nigel Warburton'due south Philosophy Bites or René Wolf'south Backdoor Broadcasting shows that there is a huge quantity of fascinating, academically-driven audio out there, much of it complementary to the seminars, papers, chapters and books that academics must write to survive. Moreover, the success of the OPEN programme has shown how producing podcasts is far from beingness a mere distraction. Podcasting hones invaluable skills in advice and collaboration, information technology can let new means to express inquiry findings and reach audiences that may not have access to university libraries or periodical subscription services. Podcasts are by no means a magic bullet for those squaring up to funding cuts and authorities assessment, simply they open up up new ways of communicating just how interesting bookish enquiry tin can exist.

Mike Brown, one of Pod University's producers, writes: A transcript is all part of the service – nosotros make the podcast and so transcribe it, calculation links and boosted information.   Sometimes the podcast producer will exercise it , while other times another team member takes over.  It'south probably true to say that transcribing is anybody'southward least favourite job!

Transcribing interviews makes you very aware of pacing. While an interviewer usually has prepared questions and experience in product, interviewees come from various professional backgrounds and vary widely in their commitment. Some speakers change pace unexpectedly or correct themselves on the spot. You too take to account for accent, background sound and what the speaker is likely to have said given the context.

You have to mentally dedicate yourself to information technology. It'south not the sort of thing y'all can one-half-heartedly trundle out thinking about your plans for dinner tonight. The routine I follow is straightforward: closed door, headphones on, large mug of tea, and a computer screen with a blank document and a podcast open. You ease into a rhythm of intermission-play-pause as you lot type away trying to get everything downward. A few hours later, I resurface effulgent with pride. That'south the programme at least. Whatever lapse in concentration and the process grinds to a halt.

Later it gets sent through to the balance of the team for checking and formatting. Assuming everything is fine, the process starts all over again for the next i. With any other prune information technology would probably be irksome and tedious, only the variety of content ways every time a new podcast arrives in my inbox I know it could be about absolutely anything. Walking tours, community development, modern atheism…you come up away having learnt something new every fourth dimension, and that'due south the motivation backside losing evenings to a task that would drive even the all-time mad.

If yous'd similar to volunteer to transcribe 1 of our podcasts, please make it affect – thepod@podacademy.org.

Welcome to the starting time entry in the Pod University blog. This section volition exist updated regularly with news about what the team's been working on and what can be expected in the future.

We are an contained, not-for-profit platform for podcasts on bookish enquiry. Our podcasts cover a broad range of topics, from left-handedness to national identity to laws on feminism. Invitee speakers have included lecturers, writers, activists and academics, and the list is ever-expanding.

PodAcademy has been noticed by several leading professionals and journalists, and was featured in Times Higher Education. The publication described the project as "a clever clearing in the fraught jungle of academic publishing", referring to Pod Academy's unique output model  – a podcast plus a transcript with links to further information.

If you are an academic with interesting research to share, become in bear on – we are e'er great to hear about new work we can feature in one of our podcasts.  Driblet the states a line to thepod@podacademy.org.

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