I’m still in Canada, busy interviewing people for various stories. You’ll hear the first of those interviews in next week’s episode. But this week, we return to the topic of toilets. (By the way, municipalities in the greater Victoria area are also in the midst of a sewage controversy. See below for more information) We end our series, Toilet Tales with two stories. One is about composting toilets in Haiti. The other is about a prize-winning sanitation solution. Also, our Science Forum discussion about innovative ways to solve the global sanitation crisis continues through Tuesday, June 14th. So, stop by and join the conversation!

Composting Toilets in Haiti: The World’s Amy Bracken reports from Haiti on efforts to use composting toilets to address a host of public health and environmental problems.
Read more here.

Sanitation Solution Wins Innovation Prize:MIT researchers help solve the global sanitation crisis by converting human waste into profit. The World’s Jason Margolis has the story.
Read more here.

Sanergy Overview from Ani Vallabhaneni on Vimeo.

Victoria’s Sewage Controversy: It turns out that sanitation isn’t a burden just for developing countries. Here in the greater Victoria region of British Columbia, municipalities have been dumping untreated sewage into the ocean, in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is untreated except for being free of ‘biosolids,’ which are removed before discharging the gray water into the ocean. As you can imagine, that has a lot of environmentalists and citizen groups worried about the potential impact to marine environment.

Two years ago, the Capital Regional District, which is the regional government for 13 municipalities in the area finally decided to build several sewage treatment plants. The total costs are estimated to be more than $700. But that hasn’t settled the controversy. Actually, it has fueled fresh battles over sewage.

There is debate over public versus private investment in building and running these sewage treatment facilities. Read more here. And some think that the money will be better spent on fixing other infrastructure problems. Then there are people who think that the treatment plants will only move the problem from ocean to land, because ultimately the residues of treatment will be dumped in landfills. There is also some concern over truck loads of human waste being transported through the streets of Victoria will negatively impact the region’s tourism industry. And so the battle continues. I’ll keep you posted on how the story unfolds in the coming years.
Meet Mr. Floatie, the mascot of the pro-treatment group.

We do have some other stories, too. You can hear Iranian cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar  talk about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom from last week (check out his cartoons, too!). We’ll also tell you about how a British pressure group called UK Uncut [VIDEO] is employing social networking tools to make their points, and how the idea is spreading now to the United States.

We’ll also hop into the way-back tech machine again to revisit the cyronics craze of the 1960s. Trust me, it’s a great listen, but please, no jokes about being “frozen in time.” And, because we missed Valentine’s Day, we’ll go back and hear about a man who carries his heart (or at least the pneumatic pump for his Totally Artificial Heart) in a backpack.

And yes…we’ll make mention of the Egyptian man who named his kid “Facebook.”

Speaking of which, feel free to join us on Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to be social with you.

Photo courtesy of PechaKucha

We say farewell to 2010 with a quintessential episode of The World’s Technology Podcast. In other words, we circle the globe and bring you the tech stories you don’t hear anywhere else. Our highlight this week is a look at some new robotic technologies out of Japan that are assisting the disabled. One is a kind of exo-skeleton that is allowing a stroke victim to walk again. Another is a robot that will help the blind take a walk. The BBC’s Rolad Buerk reports from Japan. You can see a video version of Roland’s story, or read more about the robots he profiled. Also, we will return to Haiti almost a year after a devastating earthquake to hear about a plan to use banking via mobile phone as a way to assist in the ongoing recovery. And you can read more about Mercy Corps’ pilot mobile banking program in Haiti. Then, we’ll set off to Cuba to hear about the island nation’s homegrown answer to Wikipedia, called EcuRed. Along the way, we’ll also hear about efforts to make networks of both computers, and humans, a bit smarter when it comes to making decisions. Hint: it involves something called human-agent collectives, not SkyNet.

And finally, we’ll take a look at some inspector gadgets. The inspectors in question are a class of new recruits at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. And the gadgets are designed to help them detect weapons. You can even check out a slideshow of the gadgets.

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook

This week:  We just launched a four-part series on health care rationing. You’ll hear the first story in today’s show. It’s about a South African committee that decides who received life-saving kidney dialysis and who doesn’t. Check out our series page here.  Elsa brings news about cholera in Haiti, and phone networks in the U.K. Join our online discussion on coal and China with journalist Jeff Goodell here.

A South African Health Care Rationing Committee: In South Africa, the government puts limits on life-sustaining kidney dialysis, and that puts medical professionals in a difficult position. They are tasked with deciding who lives and who dies. This is the story of two patients and the committee that determined their fates.
Reporter: Sheri Fink
Related slide shows, graphics and more.
Our Rationing Health Series page.

Socks May Help Malaria Prevention: A new study suggests that smelly socks may help in malaria prevention. Odors from the socks could be used to lure mosquitoes into traps.
Guest: Dr. Renate Smallegange
The study in Malaria journal.

Elsa’s Favorite Science Stories:

• The Mysterious Origins of Haitian Cholera: More than 90,000 Haitians have been sickened with cholera since October. Researchers have now sequenced the full genome of the Haitian cholera bacteria, and found that it most closely matches strains from Bangladesh. This supports the idea that the outbreak may be an import from south Asia. But the case is far from closed. Skeptics say that the two cholera isolates used in the new study did not capture genetic variation among the Haitian bacteria, which may have been well established along the island’s coast long before the outbreak.
  CDC page on Haitian cholera.
  The sequencing study.
  The new sequence reveals an especially toxic version of the cholera bacterium.
  Suspicions that UN peacekeepers may have introduced the cholera led to violence against the troops.
  A report filed by a French epidemiologist seemed to support those suspicions.
  But, as reported here and here, some experts say the judgment has been far too hasty, and that the cholera bacteria may have been lurking along Haiti’s coast for a long time.
• An Anti-Viral for Mosquitoes: Australian researchers are using one infection to fight another: Mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria are unable to transmit the dengue virus, which causes severe fevers in humans. Although about 60% of insect species naturally harbor Wolbachia, disease-carrying mosquitoes do not. But researchers can infect them in the lab–and Wolbachia manipulates mosquito reproduction to spread quickly through a population. Upcoming field trials in Queensland will test how well an introduced Wolbachia infection spreads to wild mosquitoes there.
  How Wolbachia quickly infiltrates insect populations.
  Website of the Eliminate Dengue research team, including links to many of the studies upon which the field trials are based.
  University of Queensland news release on the upcoming trial.
• Re-mapping the United Kingdom: Researchers have redrawn the map of the United Kingdom based on
  phone-call data that reveal which regions talk to themselves the most. Another team has found that European countries that share borders, languages or cultural alliances (i.e. that vote for one another in the Eurovision song contest) also tend to report the same top news stories. These are two examples of how high-speed computing allows researchers to sift through vast amounts of data to find insights into how we relate to the world around us.
  The phone study.
  The news study.
  BBC coverage.

We also take a look at how some Haitians are working to recycle their trash into charcoal briquettes in a bid to stem the country’s deforestation problem. Reporter Amy Bracken has that story for us.

The BBC’s Sarah Rainsford will take us into the dark heart of Siberia to try to find out why Russian’s make such good computer criminals. How good, er, bad are they? The Russian government’s warned that they are “the best in the world.”

And speaking of pesky tech problems that won’t go away, how about piracy? It turns out that Hollywood might decide to completely pull out of Spain, because of the country’s horrible track record when it comes to stopping the distribution and sales of pirated DVDs.

Episode 286 also has a shout-out to Cristina Schaver and all the students in the 7th period “Information Technology in a Global Society” class at the American School of Madrid. Apparently, their teacher, Jamie Forslund, is making them listen to the Tech Podcast as homework. The horror…the horror.

Remember, our Facebook campaign (1,000 “likes” by the end of May) is doing great. Keep spreading the word. We’re also on Twitter too.

This episode was brought to you, musically, by that immense guitar talent, Eddie Van Halen. The track, for reasons that will be made clear if you listen to the podcast, or read this, is “Eruption.”

Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our podcast via RSS, iTunes, or email. Hey, we’re full service.

(Photo courtesy of Tesla Motors)

This week: I’m back from Berkeley, CA and podcasting from The World studios. You’ll hear about potential health impacts of ash from the Icelandic volcano with the difficult-to-pronounce name. Also, news about the future of U.S. space exploration and the puzzling health problems cropping up among the survivors of the Haiti earthquake. Then, a glaciologist tells us what he listens to while working in Antarctica.

Going to Mars: It was almost 50 years ago that President Kennedy declared the U.S. would send astronauts to the moon in a space race with the Soviet Union.  Much has changed on earth since then. Last week President Obama outlined his vision for America’s future in space.  Speaking at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the President said he’s committed to human exploration beyond the moon. But few envision a space race to Mars.
Report by: Alex Gallafent.
Read a transcript of Obama’s speech.
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

Haiti’s Traumatized Earthquake Survivors: It’s been three months since the quake hit Haiti and hundreds of thousands of Haitians are still living in tents.  Medically, the emergency has passed.  The crush of survivors being treated at hospitals has eased, but doctors in Haiti say their case loads remain high and the cases are getting more puzzling.
Report By: Amy Bracken.
Reporter’s Notebook: Amy Bracken’s journal from Haiti.
Read a transcript of this story.
More about conversion disorders from the Mayo Clinic.

Volcanic Ash Health Concerns: The skies over much of northern Europe are just starting to open up to air traffic.  A vast cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland had made flying dangerous. Thousands of people were stranded. And the World Health Organization urged people in the affected areas to stay indoors if the ash starts to settle because inhaling particles of microscopic ash could cause respiratory problems.  But how concerned should people be?
Guest: Stephen Spiro, British Lung Foundation.
BBC coverage of Iceland’s volcano.
Click here for the pronunciation (and mispronunciation) of Eyjafjallajokull.
Information about the eruption from the UK Met Office.
World Health Organization statement.
Photos from the eruption.
Watch a time-lapse video of the volcano below.

Music in Science: Working in Antarctica can be awe-inspiring, but also grueling and isolating. Glaciologist Andrew Fountain describes the aggressive music that keeps him motivated while he makes his long daily trek over the glacier. He’s studying how weather patterns predict glacial melting–which, in turn, feeds Antarctica’s lowly ecosystem of mosses, microbes and worms.
Fountain’s Web page.
Song: The Distance, by Cake
Album: Fashion Nugget

This week: Chile continues to deal with the aftermath of last Saturday’s quake. You’ll hear about a famous scientist who witnessed a similar earthquake in Chile in 1835.  You’ll also hear a story about making Haiti more resilient to natural disasters. Then we have some good news about protecting marine species, and some fascinating news about the sex lives of frogs and flies. Oh, and you have until March 10th to take our ONLINE SURVEY. So please give us your feedback.

Darwin Witnessed 1835 Earthquake in Chile: Chile has a long history of powerful earthquakes like the one that struck last Saturday. A massive quake occurred there in 1835, and among those who witnessed its aftermath was none other than Charles Darwin. At the time, he was traveling around the world on the HMS Beagle. What did Darwin see, and what lessons did he draw from his observations? Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson explained that to The World’s Marco Werman.
Guest: Edward O. Wilson
From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin’s Four Great Books.
The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online.
More on Chile’s history of earthquakes from the BBC.

Restoring Haiti’s Ecology: The January earthquake in Haiti wasn’t as powerful as the one in Chile, but it was far deadlier. Haiti was more vulnerable partly because of rampant environmental degradation. Development experts say a key to making the country more resilient to natural disasters is restoring Haiti’s ecological infrastructure.
Report by: Marina Giovanelli
Check out an audio slide show of Haiti’s rural landscape.

Elsa’s Favorite Stories:

• Marine Reserves Help Ocean Health: Setting up marine reserves – swaths of ocean where no fishing is allowed – is thought to improve ocean health.  Marine scientists at the AAAS annual conference in San Diego presented new findings that explained how and where these reserves can be most helpful. One study found that heavily fished species benefited the most from the reserves. Another unpublished study found the increase in fish stocks within reserves can have a spillover effect on areas outside.
  The study about heavily fished species.
  More coverage of marine news from the AAAS meeting from Science News and the San Diego Union-Tribune.
• Promiscuity in Female Flies: Monogamy in female Drosophila could lead to extinction, according to a new study. The findings offer a new explanation for why female promiscuity is so common in Drosophila and perhaps in other animals (and plants), as well. Listen to Elsa explain the evolutionary forces against monogamy in this species.
  The study.
  Queen bees have another good reason to mate with lots of males.
• A Rare Monogamous Frog Species:Promiscuity can’t always ensure the survival of a species. A new study reveals that, for a particular poison dart frog in Peru, monogamy is the only way to keep the offspring alive.
  The study.

Music in Science: Sorry folks! This segment is on holiday and will return soon.

This week, we tackle a thorny issue: the use of robots on the battlefield. Now, you already know that drones are flying over Afghanistan, and robots are disarming IEDs in Iraq. But what about sending robots into the field to do actual combat? What is they were armed? How could you program them to make life-and-death decisions? All interesting questions that we try to get a handle on in WTP 278. Because time is short, here are some relevant links you might be looking for:

• More on Robowarriors from the BBC
• Ronald Arkin’s homepage
• Newspaperclub in the UK
• Pecha Kucha for Haiti

Help us out by taking the survey about your use of The World Technology Podcast.

We’re on Twitter and Facebook.

Don’t forget to sample our Talking Travel podcast with Lonely Planet

We’d like to know where else, in the universe of technology podcasts, you can find an episode that includes Swedish high-tech skiing treadmills, a soccer ball that stores enough energy during play to power an LED light (pictured), a reporter who “embeds” with some tekkies who want to keep information flowing into and out of Iran, and a WTP listener who is running…wait for it…a global project designed to crowdsource design ideas for rebuilding Haiti. I mean, seriously. We’ve got all of this in this episode of The World’s Technology Podcast. Before I give you the links for the episode, let me just take a minute and ask you to spread the word about the podcast. Tell your friends, or enemies. Tweet us, share us on Facebook, and/or blog about us. We need you to help the podcast grow, to help us reach new audiences. We know we’re an acquired taste — tell your friends to nibble a little bit. Who knows? They might even get hooked on us.

Anyway. Here are some relevant links from episode 277:

• Blog: Sweden’s skiers see high-tech training advantage
• Video: Swedish high-tech skiing treadmill
• Pictures: Using RTK GNSS to measure the cross-country course in Whistler
• sOccket homepage
• Jim Witkin’s NYT blog post on the sOccket
• More on Austin Heap
• Mark Dytham, Astrid Klein and Pecha Kucha for Haiti

OK, so here’s also a link to the new Talking Travel podcast with Lonely Planet that I mentioned at the top of the show.

We’re on Twitter and Facebook. You can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or RSS.

We’ve got another great mix of stories this week on the tech podcast. Let’s start…at the end. The final segment this week features an interview with Dr. Catroina Harrison at the University of Leeds in Britain. She and her colleagues have been carrying out some interesting research into Internet addiction and depression. The basic finding is this: “People who spend a lot of time browsing the net are more likely to show depressive symptoms. Researchers found striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.” Interesting, yes. But just as interesting, Dr. Harrison told me, is trying to figure out how to measure “Internet addiction” in the first place. And then there’s the real chicken-and-egg question — is it that depressed people feel compelled to go online more often, or that people who are online tend to end up more depressed? Harrison is currently devising a study that would run over a number of years that might get at an answer to that question.

We also return to Haiti in this episode, with a peek inside the Crisis Camps that have been held in cities across the globe every weekend since the earthquake hit. I went up to Montreal to check out one such gathering. Here are some links:

• Crisis Commons Haiti
• Crisis Camp wiki
• Blog: Can Haiti Leapfrog?

We also have a great story that takes you to the intersection of design and technology. It’s about a footbridge across the Nile River in Ethiopia. Here are the pictures I promised you in the podcast, and here’s a link to Bridges to Prosperity. Below is the video:

Another great story about design and technology follows. This one is about pint glasses in Britain.

Remember, we’re on Twitter and Facebook. You can subscribe to the podcast via RSS and iTunes.