Behind the Spider
This photograph was taken on St. Bees Island in northeastern Australia, in the company of Science Diarist Alistair Melzer and his Earthwatch team. Their mission was to study koalas; mine was to make sure that we got the recordings we needed for our programs. It was far easier to find spiders than koalas, by the way. But at night, you could hear the male koalas calling, and it was not the sound you’d expect from these cuddly-looking poster critters.
To listen to what koalas really sound like check out
http://www.pulseplanet.com/archive/Jun07/3981.html
The New Site – a Preview
Being “behind the microphone” suggests a life of continuously recording in remote situations like St Bees, which would be great if it were true. For the past year, it’s meant a lot of behind the scenes work for our entire production team at Pulse of the Planet, developing a new web site that is – at the time of this writing – on the cusp of being launched. It will provide lots more information on an incredible variety of material. We have, after all, been on the air for nearly twenty years, and have produced over 4000 programs. Much of what will be on the new site is in response to a survey we did almost two years ago, in which web visitors and radio listeners told us what you would like to see. One of the key questions was, “would you be willing to pay for some of the material?”, and the answer, perhaps surprisingly, was yes. We have implemented this because we are obliged to find new ways to become sustainable, self-sufficient. On the new site, all program transcripts will continue to be available free of charge, as will current month’s MP3’s. Older audio programs will be available for a nominal fee on a per program basis. And we will be offering downloadable CD’s of selections of programs, with such catchy titles as “Tooth and Claw”, “Heavy Weather” and “Turning up The Heat – 18 years of Programs on Global Warming”. There will be lots of fun, informative content on the new site as well – Audio Adventures and an in depth look at subjects of particular interest to our listeners – Pulse Picks. We’ll also be initiating our first web-based call-to-action, asking you to send us examples of Ghost Signs. What’s a ghost sign? Check out the new Listener’s Blog: Feedback Loop, when we launch the new site. As always, we welcome your responses and suggestions.
