Show Notes: Episode 11
This week we’ve figured out how to see listener submissions and we even use one of them! I’ll probably drone on too long about the Metrodome collapse, Jerry will hate the video game section (as usual), but we’ll end strong with stories about emo kids, an IBM trivia machine, Google News, and nerds throughout history. Delightful.
This Week in Star Trek
With the very talented Donald Glover… @nbccommunity #bydhttmwfi http://twitpic.com/3g9b8w — @levarburton via twitter
In this episode of @nbccommunity I play… #noauditionnecessary http://twitpic.com/3g8i6r — @levarburton via twitter
Back on the Paramount lot. On the set of… #memories http://twitpic.com/3g88f6 — @levarburton via twitter
The touring show is making Hartford, Connecticut its next stop, appearing at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts.
Combining science with entertainment, STAR TREK LIVE sparks a world of discovery by teaching and encouraging scientific literacy. Audience members will leave the attraction with an understanding of the different elements of science and technology.
STAR TREK LIVE debuted in May, 2010 and is scheduled to travel throughout the United States and Canada.
This Week in Wikipedia
The metrodome collapsed last week, check it out:
Here’s how Wikipedia says the roof works:
An air-supported structure supported by positive air pressure, it requires 250,000 ft³/min (120 m³/s) of air to keep it inflated. The air pressure is supplied by twenty 90-horsepower fans.[14] The roof is made of two layers: the outer layers are Teflon coated fiberglass and the inner is a proprietary acoustical fabric. By design, the dead air space between the layers insulates the roof; in winter, warm air is blown into the space between layers to help melt snow that has accumulated on top.
The stadium was awful for baseball:
Because it is unusually low to the playing field, the air-inflated dome occasionally figured into game action. Major League Baseball had specific ground rules for the Metrodome. Any ball which struck the Dome roof, or objects hanging from it, remained in play; if it landed in foul territory it became a foul ball, if it landed in fair territory it became a fair ball. Any ball which became caught in the roof over fair ground was a ground rule double. That has only happened three times in its history - Dave Kingman for the Oakland Athletics on May 4, 1984,[19] University of Minnesota Gophers player George Behr and Corey Koskie in 2004.
Really awful:
The Metrodome was widely considered one of the worst venues in Major League Baseball in its later years due mainly to fan experience.
Home-field advantage:
The Metrodome is the loudest domed NFL stadium.
Video Games with Cord Blomquist
World of Warcraft Expansion Sells 3.3 Million Copies
According to Blizzard’s calculations, the Cataclysm add-on sold 3.3 million units within 24 hours of its release, becoming the “fastest-selling PC game of all time.” The previous record holder? World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, which sold 2.8 million copies in one day back in 2008.
In just a few days, budding iOS developers will be able to conjure up some of that visual voodoo of their own using the Unreal Development Kit.
Weird Science
Jeopardy will pit Man vs. Machine
The iconic game show announced Tuesday that it will pit Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, its all-time most successful contestants, against “Watson,” an IBM computing system, in a series of battles next year.
International Nerd
Armenia: Yerevan Police Say Emo Music Threatens Country
Following the suicide of a 15-year-old boy, police in the Armenian capital Yerevan are cracking down on adolescent fans of emo music, a derivative of punk rock that is known for angst-ridden lyrics. Armenian officials contend that emo aficionados undermine social stability. But some psychologists and rights activists caution that hauling tattooed teenagers off to police stations for questioning is a strategy destined to backfire.
Google News
The Groupon Deal That Never Was
Google is seeing that in order to play in the SMB space, they cannot be only a self-serve company. No, in fact they are going to have to do something that either they have decided never to do or have just been reluctant to do: offer real people to sell all of their products and provide some level of customer support besides forums run by other people asking the same questions people have.
Richard Stallman Doesn’t Care for Chrome OS
“I think that marketers like “cloud computing” because it is devoid of substantive meaning. The term’s meaning is not substance, it’s an attitude: ‘Let any Tom, Dick and Harry hold your data, let any Tom, Dick and Harry do your computing for you (and control it).’ Perhaps the term ‘careless computing’ would suit it better.”
“I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there’s a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear.”
Chrome OS and the Conservatism of Corporate IT
And any reasonably competent IT executive can plainly see that Google, for all of their algorithmic might, isn’t known for product longevity.
Podcast Pick
Released only once a month, but for obvious reasons. Tompkins has created a super high production value show that sounds like an old-timey radio hour. The show features installments of “The Great Undiscovered Project,” the story of a movie that was never released, which showcases Tompkins sometimes terrible but always funny impressions. Tompkins also throws in segments from his monthly live shows at Largo, conversation with his friend Jen Kirkman and bookends the cast with stream-of-conciousness monologues.
This Week in Nerd History
Dec. 13, 1809 - Dr. Ephraim McDowell, a pioneer in abdominal surgery, examines his patient and makes the decision to attempt the first surgical removal of an ovarian tumor, earning him the sobriquet “Father of Ovariotomy.”
Dec. 14, 1962 - Mariner 2 Reaches Venus and become the first spacecraft to transmit data from another planet back to Earth.
Dec. 16, 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven is born to a family of musicians in Bonn, Germany. Along with myriad contributions to Western music, his Ninth Symphony played a role in determining the length of the music CD. Maximum play length of a CD is 74 minutes and 33 seconds, slightly more than the maximum length of U-Matic master tapes, which were 72 minutes. Some say this was to accommodate the longest known recording of Ludwig’s Ninth, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler at the Bayreuth Festival in 1951, which ran just over 74 minutes.
