Not much to say about this at this point, President Obama said essentially what he was expected to say. I find it interesting though that this is very much a dual purpose speech. It lays out a bold agenda by a President with nothing to lose and nothing else to run for, ever. It also…
A sneak peak at the visual effects of Game of Thrones
As this video is presented without commentary, I won’t add much except that there is a reason that Game of Thrones is as visually stunning as it is and a reason it was nominated for a visual effects Emmy award. Using, mostly, still photography and short clips this video shows how the visual effects team…
David Bowie stars in a 1982 BBC production of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal (video)
This part might have been written for David Bowie, if Bertold Brecht was capable of time travel. Baal was written by Brecht in 1918 while he was a 20 year old student at the University of Munich. The musical tells the tales of a genius living a life of hedonism and sometimes crime on the…
Amazing video shows 3.5 billion years of your evolutionary family tree
You probably have a relative who talks your ear off about genealogy, or at least tries to. If they’ve been at it awhile they’ve probably traced your family tree for 3 or even 4 centuries. Here is a video you can send them to speed up their work a bit: If you ever feel insignificant…
“Being a scientist means you never have to grow up” – an interview with SETI director Jill Tarter (video)
Since I first heard about it I’ve been a fan of the Emmy-nominated PBS series, The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers. I’m especially thrilled with this one because, I think, more people know the movie “Contact” than know who Jill Tarter is. Tarter is a renowned astronomer, the recipient of two public service medals from…
They Might Be Giants – Star Wars mashup (video)
Fingertips is an odd little song. It was buried at the end of 1992’s “Apollo 18” album. If you played the CD straight through it was an odd collection of choruses – which sounded like parts of 21 different songs crammed together. According to TMBG’s John Linnell that’s exactly what it was: “The project was…
Video: Minutemen Acoustic Blowout from Public Access TV (1985)
The Minutemen were one of the most influential and least known punk/alternative bands of the 1980s. If you don’t know the history, watch the documentary “We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen“. If you do know the history then you’re in for a treat: Via Rafael Landi – a live acoustic set recorded for public access…
May the Forth Roundup – Happy Star Wars Day
There is an official JJ Abrams ‘Star Wars Day’ greeting out there but I can’t really get very interested in that. So far, with me at least, Abrams has no credibility. His TV series have mostly been good concepts poorly executed and his butchery of Star Trek borders on the inexcusable. I have misgivings about…
Short video examines what, exactly, ‘dark matter’ is
The math of the law of gravity and astrophysics work. They work well enough to find exoplanets, other galaxies, to accurately calculate orbits, trajectories and speeds and well enough to figure out other fantastic and amazing things. The problem is that in order for the math to work we have to assume that there is…
Video: 10 Awesome Facts About Nanotechnology
Nanotechn is one of my favorite techs. If you have no idea what it is, think of it as tiny little robots – really, really tiny robots – smaller than a blood cell. What do the robots do? Whatever they are designed to do. Some of the current and potential applications of Nanotechnology include Google…