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GamesArchive for May, 2010
Hello there, friends. Chuck here with a little podcast recap. This week on the Stuff You Should Know podcast program Josh and I finally released the two shows from our Guatemalan adventure in February.
We recorded this one in one long chunk and then diced it up into two super-sized podcasts. Jeri really shines in these shows with the sound design and by MAKING A SPEECH! That’s right, she speaks for the first time and the words are pretty inspiring to boot.
In Russia they are starting an 18-month total isolation experiment to see how a 6-man crew will handle a simulated mission to Mars:
Mars500 – An 18-month complete-isolation simulated Mars mission is about to begin
But the reality is that a real manned mission to Mars would be astronomically expensive and is not likely to happen anytime soon. A robotic sample return mission to Mars is a more likely first step, as described here…
HowStuffWorks has recently asked all HSW blogging people to start doing Twitter and Facebook pages. Some folks started several weeks ago. I have been doing it for about a week. I thought it might be interesting to chronicle the progress of BrainStuff’s pages.
So these two pages came into existence last week:
1) twitter.com/BrainStuffHSW
2) facebook.com/BrainStuff
These are new, virgin accounts… Now what? What experiments can we perform on these accounts?
Cars are heavy machines, so how can a few small, pressurized tires support their weight? Marshall Brain explains how tire pressure and contact patches work in this episode.
Perched precariously atop high rock towers, the monasteries of the Meteora in Greece inspire vertigo — and awe. How did they construct buildings waaay up there? What in the world possessed them to do so? Tune in to this podcast to find out.
Born in 1858, Rudolf Diesel was fascinated by engines from a young age. However, the engines of the time were incredibly inefficient — at least, that is, until Rudolf’s Stuff of Genius struck. Tune in and learn more in this podcast.
Earthquakes are terrifying reminders that some of Earth’s processes remain beyond human control. So why do some people think scientists can actually create these disasters? Learn more about earthquake conspiracy theories in this podcast.
Craig Venter creates synthetic life form – “Craig Venter and his team have built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporated it into a cell to make what they call the world’s first synthetic life form…” See also: ‘Artificial life’ breakthrough announced by scientists The Real Truth Behind Foxconn’s Suicide Cluster – “This [...]
We interrupt this programming to inform you that a living, self-replicating bacterial cell has been made synthetically. The idea of life as chemistry has just scored some serious cred.
If Stanley Miller and Harold Urey had lived to see today, they’d probably be pretty excited. Back in 1952, the two scientists took a stab at recreating Earth’s early atmosphere in a beaker, by adding water, hydrogen, ammonia and methane and then zapping it with an electrical charge. Boom! Amino acids, some of the building blocks of life and protein precursors, soon appeared.
Within the booming field of synthetic biology, the folks at the J. Craig Venter Institute took a slightly different approach. Keep reading to learn what it was.
Google announced its Google TV product today and it set off the buzz-o-meter. If you would like to see what they are offering, here is a quick video description…
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Have a Coke and a Smile
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
- The Painted Beauties of Bucovina
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
