Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condit, and Alan Dove
The complete TWiVome deconstructs the movie Contagion.
Click the arrow above to play, or right-click to download TWiV 167 (53 MB .mp3, 88 minutes).
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Links for this episode:
- R0 explained (pdf)
- Hendra and Nipah encephalitis (CDC)
- Contagion (IMdB)
- TWiV on Facebook
- Letters read on TWiV 167
Weekly Science Picks
Dickson – Guinea Pig Doctors by Jon Franklin
Rich – Learn to appreciate technology and Everythings amazing and nobodys happy (YouTube)
Alan – JD Hooker slide collection
Vincent – iTunes U app and iBooks Author
Listener Pick of the Week
Judi – Makers of Many Things by Eva March Tappan
Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv.
Was the Vanessa Redgrave/plague movie referred to “The Devils” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066993/)? Also, on the subject of plague and movies, the 2010 Sean Bean movie “Black Death” was gripping (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181791/), if also creepy and depressing.
Vincent:
Your weekly science pick worries me.
You are a massive advocate of opening up science, both for publication and training, but what you are proposing here is quite the opposite, or at least in the wrong direction.
Apple’s new iBook Author, although it may be easier to use than other ones, does not allow you to sell (or distribute) your content through other channels. This means you are locking your content to Apple devices only.
The format can be hacked, but it is also not the same ePub format as other devices / publishers use and so you will have to re-invent the wheel for other platforms.
So please, be wary.
I fully understand your concerns. I did not realize the restrictive nature of the software when I picked it. What I would do if I did publish something on iBooks, is that (as you suggest) I would put the same content in other channels. It’s more work but currently I can’t publish anything on iBooks – I’ve tried to get a seller’s account and they won’t do it. I thought through the iBooks Author it would be easier. Perhaps I’m wrong there too. The other issue is color – I want to publish in color and it just doesn’t work well on the Kindle. I know that the Fire is color but how do you write for both devices?
On a related note – Apple has also changed the way iTunes U works. Now it’s only iOS devices. I am a ‘beta tester’ for Columbia U, and they got me into the new iTunes U. I’m putting my course content there (free) but it locks out OS X users. So I’ll continue to make my courses available on the web (bit.ly/cuvirology).
Apple has updated their iBooks Author license agreement to address the issues discussed in this thread: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/03/apple-clarifies-ibooks-author-licensing-situation-in-new-software-update/