Award Season

Patrick's Ponderables, , , ,

Hi Paleoposse… It’s podcast award season again.  Here at Science… sort of we always view these things a little ambiguously. We, as a group of podcasters, don’t have too much ambition as far as winning a category goes. But, we get a significant amount of new website traffic (and presumably new listeners) from the little bit of buzz these awards generate.  So if you have a few minutes and want to help out the show, go visit the podcast awards and nominate us (voting comes later).  This year Stitcher has decided to get into the game, we don’t quite know what to expect from them, but again, being nominated certainly can’t hurt (and we aren’t as highly ranked on stitcher as we’d like to be). So go nominate us for a Stitcher award too if you are feeling generous.

Thanks for your support!

REVIEW — The Georgia Aquarium

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wow wall at Georgia Aquarium

As much as I love visiting museums on the down-low, seeing what the typical visitor (who doesn’t write blog posts about the experience) sees, there’s something to be said for behind-the-scenes tours. And holy balls what a tour it was at the Georgia Aquarium.

First of all, a big thanks goes out to Jen Richards, our unofficial tour guide. The Georgia Aquarium has some pretty great behind-the-scenes tours — want to SCUBA dive in the whale shark tank? you can! — but I doubt any of them are as intimate as Jen’s tour was for just me and Ryan. Plus, ours was free.

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REVIEW — The Gray Fossil Site & Natural History Museum

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Ryan’s been feeling pretty bummed about the sporadic-ness (sporacity? sporacitude?) of the podcast, so to make him feel better I promised I’d post another museum experience for y’all. Imagine how horrified I was to discover that I haven’t posted a thing since October of aught-eleven! It’s about time I righted this wrong, and so I bring you excerpts from my trip to the Gray Fossil Site and Natural History Museum. Enjoy!

Gray Fossil Site and Museum exterior
saber-tooth cats and tapirs and bears, oh my!

“I was not a particularly happy camper this morning, having woken up balls-early for a road trip out to Boone, NC. Thankfully, my mood had vastly improved by the time we reached the Gray Fossil Site/Museum outside Johnson City, TN, and I was able to fully enjoy all the specimens, exhibits, and the dig site.

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Update on the Intermittency of New Episodes

Ryan's Ramblings, , , ,

Hey Paleoposse,

You’ve probably noticed that this summer our release schedule has been sporadic. I want to apologize for that, I hate not getting shows out regularly and on time, and I think at this point you all deserve an explanation, however brief.

1) I’m moving right now, and I have been crazy busy leading up to this move, so finding time to sit and edit just hasn’t been possible.

2) As the show has progressed, I’ve started to take editing more and more seriously. I decided a while ago that I cared more about putting out a quality show when it was ready than a crappy show just to get something out on time. Ideally I could get the show ready on time every week, but given a choice I favor the former option over the latter. That means that editing is a slow process. I’m pretty quick all things considered, but I still have to listen to about 2 hours of audio every week, stopping and starting every time I want to tweak something, to get a show out.

3) That being said, we’ve still been recording every week. The lack of shows is entirely due to my lack of having time to edit. Once I arrive at my new place and get my computer up and running I’m going to set aside an entire day just to get caught up. You’ll get something like 3 shows all at once and it’s going to be awesome.

4) We have a TON of great stuff lined up over the next few weeks and months. You guys don’t even know (because some of it is secret) but I promise you that we are working hard to continue upping our game in providing what we hope is some of the most entertaining and informative science podcasts available (I’m including our sister shows as well).

So thanks for bearing with me while I pack boxes late into the night and try to finish up everything that comes along with a big move. The constant support and feedback from you all literally keep me going. Thanks and see you on the other side.

xoxoxo,
-Ryan

Science Apps for the Classroom

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Time for another post in my series of “Long-overdue responses to questions that were worth blogging about.” It’s a mouthful to be sure, but it comes up more often than you might think. Today’s question comes from Allison.

Hello!

I’m a student teacher right now in a ninth grade earth science class and I’d love to find more ways to involve technology in the classroom. Do you have any suggestions for iphone or ipod apps to use in a classroom at the middle school or high school level? (I’m focusing on Earth Science but all science apps are welcome).

Thanks,

Allison

Great question, Allison! Let’s dive right in by exploring my own phone. Here’s a screenshot of my “Science” apps folder on my iPhone. I have a 4S, but these should all work on any iPhone or iPod with a camera, compass, and GPS.  They’re not organized in any particular order, so I’ll just go through them from top left to bottom right.

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REVIEW: Space Chronicles

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Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier

Written by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

$26.95 / Hardcover / 384 pages

Published by W. W. Norton & Company

If I had to use one word to describe Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson (other than the obvious “brilliant” synonyms) I’d say he’s passionate. His desire to help the public appreciate science crosses media barriers with a verve and energy unmatched by many modern agenda promoters. Space Chronicles reads like an attempt to distill and bottle some of that passion, and the ensuing cocktail is an invigorating delight sure to infuse the reader with the spirit of Dr. Tyson himself.

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An Open Letter to Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee

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The Tennessee state senate very quickly passed a bill that would promote the teaching of creationism/intelligent design in the state. I wrote this letter to the governor explaining one reason why I thought the bill was a bad idea. I decided to post it here as well.

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Mind Like Kindle

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I ordered a Kindle about 6 months ago. In my solstice shopping guide, back in December, I talked a little bit about how much I liked it. But, I don’t just like it… it has sort of changed my life.

It has me reading more than I have in years – but the real change was the realization that it brought me to. That realization was that I am living a life full of distractions. Email, Facebook, Twitter, various blogs, sports results, and the news cycle in general, these things all compete for my attention – and these are just the non-work related items. But, we all know this already. I knew it intellectually, but I didn’t know it intuitively.
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Where the science (conversation) happens [Video]

Ryan's Ramblings, , ,

If you’ve listened to Episode 121 already, you may remember that I mentioned a video with Abe and myself filmed at a beer festival here in Nashville last December. There was a guy going around with a camera who took a shine to my science ramblings and asked if I’d be willing to hash out my theories of cute dinosaurs on air. I, of course, was happy to oblige. My bit starts around 17:44 and goes until 20:09 (Abe is replaced by Kevin at some point) and for the careful watcher I do have a brief cameo earlier in the clip.

(Find the video after the jump)

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