I meant to tell you about his upcoming show on the History Channel, but totally forgot about it. That is, until I realized that the premiere episode is tonight. So I figured I’d remind all my friends at the same time, in case this is something that they are interested in.
It airs tonight at 8PM.
Here’s what Bre has to say about his show, as well as a trailer for the series:
My TV show pilot called “History Hacker” airs this upcoming Friday at 8PM and Midnight on the History Channel. I’m the host of the show and I check out inventors in history and take a hands-on look at their inventions. I need your help to make the show go from a pilot to a real TV show.
The pilot is all about Nikola Tesla and the war of the currents between Tesla and Edison. In the show I learn how to blow a neon tube, explore wireless electricity and build an AC generator from a bike. I also go to Boston to visit an MIT space lab to see how the principles that Tesla pioneered are being applied to space propulsion.
The look of the show is awesome. The folks at History gave the producer, director, and director of photography permission to take my DIY style of making videos with lots of jump cuts and direct talking to the camera and push it forward into a longer format. It doesn’t look like anything else on TV.
There is supposed to be a debate tomorrow. There won’t be. Using the financial crisis of this country as a photo-op and to make yourself look like a hero? Irresponsible. Greenness (Greenness) got me thinking about the debate.
Figured I’d throw out some David Letterman for you. Dunno how long these will last. The first covers McCain’s cancellation of his Late Show appearance to ’save the country’. The second is a an interview with his charismatic opponent Obama.
Math5 (math5), this is for you as my closest scientist….
Periodic Table of Videos is neat beyond belief. Martyn Poliakoff, a professor at the University of Nottingham, and video journalist Brady Haran, put together a periodic table where each elements is a link to a video about that element!
It’s heartening to see chemistry in action and that people can actually have fun doing science! If only this were the way science is taught at school …
“Kevin Kelly has an interesting post about an archive designed with an estimated lifespan of 2,000 -10,000 years to serve future generations as a modern Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta disk contains analog ‘human-readable’ scans of scripts, text, and diagrams using nickel deposited on an etched silicon disk and includes 15,000 microetched pages of language documentation in 1,500 different languages, including versions of Genesis 1-3, a universal list of the words common for each language, and pronunciation guides. Produced by the Long Now Foundation, the plan is to replicate the disk promiscuously and distribute them around the world in nondescript locations so at least one will survive their 2,000-year lifespan. ‘This is one of the most fascinating objects on earth,’ says Oliver Wilke. ‘If we found one of these things 2,000 years ago, with all the languages of the time, it would be among our most priceless artifacts. I feel a high responsibility for preserving it for future generations.’”
How freaking cool is that? The modern Rosetta stone has unlocked so many secrets of ancient civilizations through the language barrier, its amazing to believe that future generations will have it so much easier. Click the link on the excerpt or follow this link for the full article.
On a related note, I just finished listening to Axis, book 2 of the Spin Trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson, and I highly recommend both books (the second sequel, Vortex, is not yet published).
Here’s a brief summary:
Spin details Earth’s response to an artificial membrane placed around the planet which selectively blocks and filters incoming electromagnetic radiation, blocking out the view of anything beyond minimal low Earth orbit. The novel is told in first person, from the viewpoint of Tyler Dupree. Tyler is a close childhood friend of Jason and Diane Lawton, twins of E. D. Lawton (a wealthy industrialist who makes his money from the developing aerostat business). As children, Jason, Diane, and Tyler witness the dramatic arrival of the “Spin”, as the phenomenon comes to be known, when the stars suddenly disappear one night as they are looking at the sky. Initial experiments show that the membrane is permeable, allowing space probes to pass through, but that time outside passes at a highly accelerated rate, 3.17 years per Earth second, or roughly 100 million years per Earth year. Thus within a generation, the surrounding solar system will age 4 billion years, and Earth will be destroyed by the expanding Sun.
Now can you imagine having a tool such as this digital Rosetta stone after 4 billion years of evolution?
Now Playing: Paul Thurrott with Leo Laporte - Windows Weekly September 2008 - Windows Weekly 75: Paul Amok
Want a little ARGish fun? There is roughly a 10-minute interactive experience available at http://eagleeyefreefall.com/, for the upcoming movie Eagle Eye (09.26.08).
Watch the trailer and get an idea about the movie, then have some fun.. make sure you are somewhere with access to a phone and a few minutes of free time.
Now Playing: Paul Thurrott with Leo Laporte - Windows Weekly September 2008 - Windows Weekly 74: Mustard With Whine
You get to upload your own mp3, choose the amount of cowbell and/or Walken you want in the mix, and the website adjusts the tempo and timing accordingly.
Now, recently, one of our friendgeeks hadn’t even watched the video, I need to make sure you’ve got a link to that too.. just so you *understand* what it’s all about.
The kids are just a pile of talkative recently. Connor has alot to say, although we still have trouble understanding him. I would say we’re about to about 80% understanding of what he is saying. Now whether others understand that much is yet to be seen (heard). Maybe Jean’s comprehension is a little higher because she works with him everyday, but it’s still not where I think it should be. Alia enjoys singing and knows the words to dozens of songs. They are both into imaginative play and direct each other to play parts, such as the princess, or the rescuer, or the bad guy.
What’s great is that they are moving in the combination of thoughts and phrases that are culled from previous conversations and are putting it all together.
Yesterday, they came to visit me at work as part of our recent car fiasco.
When they came in the front door:
Me: Connor, say hi to Marie.
Connor: Hi Marie. This is my sister Alia.
When they came back to my office:
Me: This is where I go everyday when I leave you guys and go to work.
Connor: This is a nice place.
When I showed him the pictures of themselves on my ‘keep my happy’ wall:
Me: Connor, who’s in the pictures?
Connor: That’s us. <- Note the use of the of the plural pronoun. Usually he identifies himself and Alia separately, so it’s nice to see the combo.
Now Playing: Paul Thurrott with Leo Laporte - Windows Weekly August 2008 - Windows Weekly 72: Now More Compatible
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thomas_delbroc), I was thinking of you last month when I learned about Bre Pettis and his DIY dream (I Make Things). dream. Your MacGyveresq exploits would put you and Bre in good company.
Our kids keep getting smarter. If we have another kid, he could invent a time machine to go back in time and prevent us from having kids.
