17 May 2013, 6:58am
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2013 Seattle Science Festival

My wife is on the steering committee for the 2013 Seattle Science Festival, which starts on June 6th. This is only the second year they’ve run one, and last year was pretty cool. I took my son to a physics demonstration at the UW (I thought I’d blogged about it but now I can’t find the link) and he loved it.

This year will be even bigger. On June 8th there’s going to be a huge expo at the Seattle Center, and from the 6th to the 11th there will be events happening all over the Puget Sound area, from presentations on becoming a game creator at the Microsoft store to

Anyway, I’ve copy and pasted a note the festival organizers have asked me to share letting folks know briefly about what’s on the schedule and how you can get involved, if you feel so moved.

 

 

I would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your organization to the second annual Seattle Science Festival. This year, the region’s largest celebration of science will take place June 6-16, 2013 to celebrate the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to our community’s culture and to its continued growth and prosperity. The Seattle Science Festival will consist of the following components:

 

  • Science EXPO Day, Saturday, June 8, will feature exciting, engaging events all day long throughout the grounds of Seattle Center. Over 15,000 students, parents, scientists, educators and other community members are anticipated to take part in this FREE event. Science EXPO Day will showcase over 150 hands-on activities and demonstrations; it will also feature live science performances on the EXPO Day Stage. FREE BUS PARKING IS AVAILABLE ON SCIENCE EXPO DAY! Contact Jordan Adams at jadams@pacsci.org for more details.

 

  • Signature Programs, June 6-16, will provide events developed by our program collaborators specifically for the Seattle Science Festival. Signature Programs include behind-the-scenes tours, science adventures, field trip opportunities for classrooms, workshops, screenings of science-themed films, a Cool Jobs Series at the Seattle Public Library on June 9-Computer Science, June 12-Green & Clean Technology, and June 13-Biomedical Science, plus many other events held at venues all over the Puget Sound region.

 

  • Opening Night at the Paramount Theatre, June 6, 8 – 10 PM Beyond Infinity? The Search for Understanding at the Limits of Space and Time. Featuring Brian Greene, Sean Carroll, Adam Frank and the West Coast premiere of Icarus at the Edge of Time, and music by Philip Glass, conducted by Marcus Tsutakawa and performed by the Garfield High School Orchestra. Avoid service charges by purchasing tickets IN PERSON at the Paramount Theatre Box Office at 911 Pine Street, Seattle, or for 10 or more tickets, contact their Group Sales Manager at (206) 315-8054.

 

  • Closing Night at the Seattle Repertory Theatre, June 15, 7:30 – 9:30 PM Our 11th Hour: Straight Talk on Climate Change from People Who Know. Featuring Kevin E. Trenberth, Richard Alley, Andrew Revkin and a performance of Seattle Opera’s Heron and the Salmon Girl. Buy tickets at www.seattlesciencefestival.org.

 

These high profile events will present some of the greatest scientific and creative minds of our time and weave together science, music, art and philosophy for two inspiring, thought-provoking and engaging evenings.

 

How can you get involved?

 

 

Visit www.seattlesciencefestival.org to learn more about how you can get involved and I hope to see you there!

23 Apr 2013, 6:07am
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Randomness for 4/22

1) The annual Shorty Awards have chosen the Best Quora Answer of the Year: “What does the first day of a 5+ year prison sentence feel like?” The answers that made the list of finalists are at that link as well.

2) If Facebook made a Facebook house.

3) “Tie” Chi: knotting a Windsor as a martial arts kata.

4) Chemical-free “natural” swimming pools that are cleaned by plants. This looks a) awesome b) a lot of work and c) inappropriate for Florida. Still, it’s green and gorgeous.

5) From College Humor, Batman vs. The Penguin (played by Patton Oswalt). Video.

6) 27 Science Fictions That Became Science Facts In 2012

7) Seattle’s King Street Train Station has finally received its finishing touches and is ready for a Grand Opening. And it’s gorgeous. I’m tempted to take a train trip just so I have an excuse to go down there.

8 Apr 2013, 6:16am
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Randomness for 4/8

1) Homemade “Romance Pants”. Has to be seen to be believed.

2) Ten of the Most Beautiful Libraries Ever Built (in Minecraft).

3) The 12 Most Controversial Facts In Mathematics. I dunno how I feel about the title but the article is cool.

4) “Are you a ‘Single Interested in Michael Crichton?’ Meet the love raptors stalking OkCupid.”

5) 15 Mid-Century Modern Dream Homes that will Kill Your Children. Via James Nicoll

6) An anti-drone hoodie designed to hide your thermal signature from above.

7) Plewds, Hites, and Indotherms: Terms for the graphic language of cartooning. I’d heard of grawlixes before, but the others were names for things I didn’t even know had names. Very cool.

23 Mar 2013, 8:44am
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Randomness for 3/23

1) This Lego machine makes and launches paper airplanes. Video.

2) The future of hi-rise demolition comes from Japan.

3) Legobombing and the art of infrastructure.

4) How funny are you? A chart.

5) Pictures we didn’t take before digital cameras.

6) Close up photos of elements from the periodic table.

7) Class project: designing costumes for a film adaptation of The Lies of Locke Lamora

5 Mar 2013, 6:08am
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Randomness for 3/5

1) The 18 officially-sanctioned hair styles of North Korea.

2) “Dead giraffe. Bars of silver. Robot hand.” Thinks found underwater in New York.

3) al-Qaeda’s 22 Tips for Avoiding a Drone Attack.

4) Lego Hogwarts. Hundreds of thousands of pieces. Months to build.

5) The Urbee 2: a 3d printed car.

6) A really excellent book cover.

7) Gender inequality in publishing: Some actual numbers. via @jodipicoult

22 Feb 2013, 6:29am
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Randomness for 2/22

1) How a web designer got revenge on a company that wouldn’t pay its bills.

2) Okc_ebooks: Pick-up artists trying to chat up a robot horse.

3) Finding optimal marriage pairings using the assignment problem.

4) Forbes posts an infographic showing the effects of vaccines on morbidity.

5) “Invisible Man” artist has himself painted to camouflage himself into his environment.

6) The Venn Piagram

7) You, too, can become a robot!

12 Feb 2013, 1:11pm
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Randomness for 2/12

1) The Galactic Empire responds to the White House refusal to build a Death Star.

2) Goodreads review in 2250 of a historical novel set in the present time: “Most of the details were correct, but the author forgot that, in the early 21st century, people had to wear special clothes in the rain because their clothes were not yet water- mud- and oil-proof.” Video.

3) An index to fantasy maps. Would it be ungrateful of me to suggest that this seems thin?

4) Walter Cronkite describes the space age kitchen of the far-distant future of 2001. Video included but no auto-play.

5) A chart to demonstrate that fantasy series get longer with each book.

6) “Game of Thrones” Valentines

7) OH MY DAYUM. Video. Normally I’m not big on autotuning normal dialog but this is brilliant.

18 Dec 2012, 6:56am
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Randomness for 12/18

1) The largest iceberg break-up ever filmed. Video. Pretty amazing.

2)

13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using.

3)

10 episodes that show how Buffy The Vampire Slayer blew up genre TV.

4) The Best/Worst Media Errors and Corrections in 2012. Mostly English language, of course.

5) The Five Most Disruptive Technologies of 2012.

6) Stephen King takes writing questions from writing students. Video.

7) Winning photos from this year’s Olympus BioScapes Digital Imaging Competition

9 Nov 2012, 8:13am
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Randomness for 11/9

1) http://hackertyper.com/ is awesome. via @BarrSteve

2) Secret doors hidden behind bookcases.

3) DRAGON BABY!

4) 12 ways to get the best glamour shot.

5) Advertising professionals make poster art out of their worst client feedback.

6) Guy takes pregnancy test as a joke and gets his life saved by reddit and a rage comic.

7) IMDB Top 250 in 2 1/2 Minutes. Video. A musical mashup and a movie mashup.

3 Nov 2012, 2:16pm
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POW!

From ClimateSilence.org

2 Nov 2012, 6:11am
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Randomness for 11/2

1) Why was that cave troll in the Mines of Moria so angry? A new perspective. Video

2) Unfortunate product placement.

3) Twelve year old uses D&D to help his dad advance science.

4) A mousetrap, circa 1870.

5) If Yoda was white.

6) Jane Austen’s manuscripts, digitized.

7) Causes of Death You Won’t Want on Your Death Certificate

26 Aug 2012, 8:26am
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Randomness for 8/26

1) Barkour! Video (not a typo)

2) Organizing a game session through a flow chart.

3) Godzilla vs. Kinkade.

4) A working hoverbike you don’t need a pilot’s license to drive.

5) The World’s 19 Weirdest Hangover Remedies.

6) 27 Ways to Rethink Your Bed.

7) Mark Waid’s four panels that never work.

19 May 2012, 8:52am
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Randomness for 5/19

1) Dungeon Kickstarters.

2) Eleven problems music can solve.

3) George Lucas Does Something Likeable For a Change: Revenge on Rich Neighbors

4) The Nine Circles of Hell… in Lego.

5) Inventor turns Nerf gun into a working Tesla gun.

6) The creator and showrunner of COMMUNITY responds to being fired via press release.

7) The Most Successful Self-Published SF/F Authors.

14 Apr 2012, 8:17am
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Randomness for 4/14

1) Notch, creator of Minecraft, is planning a new “hard science fiction” space exploration game. Sadly for James Nicoll, the early promotional materials mention a cloaking device.

2) Screenshots of Despair

3) The Bad Opinion Generator.

4) Top 10 Dying Industries in the United States.

5) If Darth Vader had been a good father.

6) Nazis hire official lobbyist to lobby Congress.

7) Murals in Minneapolis that will soon face the wrecking ball.

28 Mar 2012, 10:04am
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Randomness for 3/28

1) A history of the McFarlane/Gaiman Miracleman lawsuit.

2) Trompe l’oeil graffiti vanishes Egyptian military barrier

3) A working scientific calculator, built from Minecraft blocks.

4) Two words: Explosive. Polymerization. (Video)

5) Eight “forgotten” live-action children’s shows from the eighties. I doubt “Small Wonder” has been forgotten, but “My Secret Identity” is the only other one I remember (but I’m a bit old for this time period)

6) Heroic Goofballs: Aardman takes on DC. Video

7) An infographic showing the last words of executed inmates in Texas.

10 Mar 2012, 8:06am
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Randomness for 3/10

1) Deleted for potential malware. Try this instead: Westeros in Minecraft: Video.

2) Motherfucking Bike: Music video for the lol. My wife and I are/have been bike commuters, but we have never done anything like these guys, I swear.

3) My Little Golden Book About ZOGG

4) LED light gives off more energy in photons than it takes in as electrons. I don’t *really* understand this, but I’m pretty sure it means I’ll be getting a lightsaber soon.

5) Toy Shining “Heeeeerrre’s Woody!” via Keith Brunkard

6) 19 Really Bad Family Feud Answers.

7) Hunger Names.

11 Jan 2012, 7:46am
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Randomness for 1/11

1) Rick Santorum quotes as New Yorker cartoons.

2) The 50 most brilliant, obnoxious, or delightfully sociopathic Facebook posts of 2011.

3) The TSA’s biggest success stories of 2011, and what it means.

4) Photo tour of a remote home in the Adirondacks that was built over (and includes) an old missile silo.

5) War Horse: An Illustrated Review

6) Charles Stross makes some predictions for the future. This worked out so well for Heinlein…

7) 10 Stubborn Body Myths That Just Won’t Die, Debunked by Science

29 Dec 2011, 8:03am
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Randomness for 12/29

1) Massive 1,100+ year old Maya site discovered in Georgia’s mountains Or maybe not?

2) Do the FAA’s assertions about ebook reading during take off and landing stand up to scrutiny?

3) Images from one of the most remote and remarkable landscapes on Earth: Dallol Volcanic Crater.

4) Area 51 Alien Travel Center: a soon-to-be-built sci-fi themed brothel in Nevada. Finally, we know what will empty the last few regulars from rec.arts.sf. Anyway, I wonder if building codes will require the vats be installed on the first floor.

5) How to deal with slow walkers. Video.

6) Instead of helping you defeat an alien brood queen, this exoskeleton simulates the effects of old age for young people.

7) What if you were brought on to write a show that no one was watching and no one cared what you did? How weird could it get?

27 Nov 2011, 10:05am
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Randomness for 11/27

1) We Watch It For You: Rage of the Yeti. OMG, why didn’t anyone tell me this exists!

2) Walking through doors causes forgetting, study determines.

3) Ultra-serious Amazon.com reviewers take on pepper spray.

4) Reuters Best 100 Photos of 2011. Some of these are gorgeous. Some of these are difficult to look at.

5) Famous paintings with irreverent new titles.

6) “Twe-twe-2016!” A truly terrible trailer for a movie from Ghana. So awful and so compelling. Video.

7) The series bible for the old D&D cartoon.

18 Jul 2011, 11:43am
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Randomness for 7/18

1) Just in case you’re incapable of expressing emotion on your own…

2) A nice Dresden Files animation. Video. (link updated)

3) Voldemort didn’t go to a better place.

4) The ten worst lines in sf films.

5) Edible Hogwarts.

6) I can’t believe I didn’t think of this. PostSecrets from fictional characters (and pets) Brilliant!

7) “Damn it feels good to be a Lannister.” Video.

 
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