OPML blog 1, pMachine blog 0 

Take a look at the next entry on this blog. See the form I scarfed from the PRI site? (I don't know if that's allowed, but I always figure that in this context site operators would be George Lucas foolish to object.) The form works fine in my OPML blog. When I tried copying it over to my real blog, the automatic line breaks or something like that broke the form. I fiddled with it long enough that now I'm late for work, and I'm pretty good with forms. Basic can be better.

TAL listens in on Katrina victims 

Do you get "This American Life" on the public radio station in your market? This weekend brings a story on Katrina victims in Houston. Show description from the producers:

THIS WEEKEND, 9/16-18: This Is Not My Beautiful House. Stories about Katrina refugees at the Houston Astrodome looking for a place -- any place -- to live. As a half-dozen families, including a pregnant woman having contractions and another with a four-week-old baby, are driven around the city, they confront potential neighbors who don't seem to want them, and neighbors they themselves don't want. Also, a New Orleans man sneaks back to his house to rescue some belongings, and finds it doesn't feel at all like home.

Enter your U.S. state 2-letter abbreviation to locate your nearest station airing the show

I love this show. I've been to a live taping and would go to another in a heartbeat (especially if Sarah Vowell was on the bill.) I don't think the show is anywhere close to going to podcasting. They seem pretty entwined with Audible.com. I suppose it helps a public radio show to have that ancillary income.

Another of my favorite shows produced in Chicago, "Odyssey," will be discontined any day, having lost the support of the WBEZ board of directors. I wish that show would try to continue as a podcast, but I suppose the station owns rights to the name and format. I know they own the archived shows. I hope at least that somebody sees the value in the archives and puts them online somewhere. Maybe I should try a little harder to get hold of somebody about that and make sure. Anybody have a connection?

Podcast devoted to Einstein's famous formula? 

Gee, I thought when I saw this, PBS podcasts are getting really really specific. There's one now with five, 2-minute episodes devoted to explaining Einstein's E=mc² formula. Once I'd listened to a podcast, I understood. They're essentially promos for an upcoming Nova show called "Einstein's Big Idea."

It must have been planned before shooting the show, because it looks like the scientists featured in each podcast probably are interview subjects for the program.

Interesting, isn't it?. A little like an advertorial, kind of half promo, half education. It's smart, and shows some good internal cooperation. I've tried to get my organization to think about planning online training and promotional demos before shooting instructional videos, but silos are hard to break down.

Lectures are a new showcase in iTunes 

iTunes music store added lectures as a category of featured podcasts. Three language programs, two math, three others.