Archive for the ‘Video’ Category

Dave Mosher = Month at the Museum 2 Finalist

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Want to hear something crazy? The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago is hosting a contest called Month at the Museum 2 for one lucky roommate to live, breathe and eat science within their walls for 30 days and 30 nights.

The winner would serve as the face of MSI Chicago during the day. At night, it’s nerd vs. museum: Submarines, spacesuits, Apollo 8, airplanes, a fairy castle, plastinates, tornadoes, a coal mine and even a little town. For their troubles? $10,000 and a pile of gadgets.

Two months ago I applied, and the craziness has now reached fever-pitch: I’m one of six of MATM2 finalists.

The museum whittled the competition down from about 1,000 talented, charismatic and very nerdy people who applied, but they now want your feedback.

If you think MSI needs a lot of Dave Mosher in its life, please vote once per day, now through Oct. 3, 2011 at MonthAtTheMuseum.org I’ll be at the museum the morning of Oct. 5, where they’ll announce the winner during a live event.

It literally takes seconds to cast a vote, but if you’re like me you may forget. So I’ve crafted these daily calendar reminder buttons to help you out — one click and you’re good to go:

  • Tuesday 9/27: 0
  • Wednesday 9/28: 0
  • Thursday 9/29: 0
  • Friday 9/30: 0
  • Saturday 10/1: 0
  • Sunday 10/2: 0
  • Monday: 10/3: 0

Note: User of other calendar software? Save this .ics file to your computer and open it.

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Why I’d Live in a Museum for a Month

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

You have 30 days to squeeze every ounce of awesome out of one of the biggest, baddest museums on Earth.

What would you do?

That’s what the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago asked hopefuls for the institution’s second and final “Month at the Museum” contest.

Being the über-curious and outgoing science reporter that I am, I couldn’t resist. My (hopefully) dark horse entry galloped into the stable of applications before the gates closed yesterday.

One part of the application called for a 60-second video showing off you + your creativity. For the $0.00 production above, I braved grumpy security guards, dodged speeding trains, fought sleep and turned my back on the last-ever space shuttle launch.

But 60 seconds wasn’t nearly enough time for this starry-eyed applicant.

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The Nerdiest Marriage Proposal. Ever.

Saturday, July 16th, 2011

Yesterday, months of planning culminated into the world’s nerdiest marriage proposal.

I asked Kendra Snyder to marry me in the opened-up guts of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory. (Where Kendra works as a science writer/communicator/public information officer-type.)

More specifically, I asked her on scaffolding below the center of RHIC’s 1,200-ton STAR detector. This house-sized machine examines the hot soup of energy present just moments after the Big Bang, which physicists recreate by colliding gold ions near the speed of light.

Make as many symbolic interpretations as you’d like — I chose the location for a lot of reasons! — but the truth is I wanted us to have a great story to tell. A ridiculously nerdy, epic and smile-prompting story.

So how did things go down? Here’s the skinny from each of our perspectives.

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Not Live, From Cape Canaveral

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL – While covering the final space shuttle mission, I thought it’d be interesting to show the place where reporting of some incredible history has taken place.

I wanted to post this prior to launch, so it’s a day late (and a few thousand dollars in production value short). Fast-forward to the end for the launch from the press mound.

Revisit: Human v2.0

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

BBC Human v2.0Last month I pounded out a post about the implications of our seemingly inevitable immortality — when man becomes machine, or machine becomes man.

Sounds silly, but myself and expert technologists are dead-serious about that “inevitable” part.

Probably not within our lifetime (if you’re reading this in 2010), though. I’d wager at least one future generation or, even likelier, a couple of generations down the crazy road of technology.
Unless you’re as optimistic as Ray Kurzweil.

This is all to admit my ignorance: When I wrote that, I had no idea the BBC produced a fantastic show called Human v2.0 a few years ago.

The sub-1-hour special taps into the minds of visionaries and scientists alike who wake up and go to bed thinking about this stuff. When they do sleep, of course. (more…)