Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

Tim Westergren of Pandora & the Music Genome Project

My newest video for Time Magazine is about Pandora, the internet radio service.  I visited the Oakland offices of Pandora and spoke with founder and Chief Strategy Officer Tim Westergren.  We discussed various recommendation engines used by other companies and what makes Pandora’s Music Genome Project different.

Link to the Pandora video on Time’s website

TIME 100’s Elon Musk

Time Magazine has announced the Time 100 – their annual list of the most influential people of the year.  It’s divided into four main categories:  Leaders, Heroes, Artists, and Thinkers.

One of those Thinkers is Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and current CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

Jon Favreau – director of the Iron Man movies – wrote the entry on Musk, having used him as a model for the billionaire Tony Stark character.  David Clair and I made a new video about him:

Here’s the new video on Time’s site.

For a more in-depth piece, check out our previous piece about SpaceX and private enterprise in space:

Space: The Private Frontier

Lincoln and Darwin Sitting in a Tree…

It’s that time again!  Happy Birthday, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin!  This year they would have turned 201 years old.

Last year was the big year – 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of “The Origin of Species.”  This video essay was my first project for Time Magazine’s website.  Produced by Craig Duff and edited by Jim Fields:

Video:  Lincoln and Darwin: Birthdays and Evolution

Space: The Private Frontier

My new video (produced by David Clair) is up at Time.com. It’s about Elon Musk and SpaceX – and we were almost finished with it when the topic exploded into the news a week or so ago – Obama, the budget, the future of NASA, Ares and contracting out space flights to private companies. We didn’t set out to address all that but we did include it.  Check it out…

They Might Be Giants Video for Time

Here Comes Science is supposedly a kids’ album but it’s my favorite They Might Be Giants album.  I love it.  And I had the opportunity to interview John and John at their Brooklyn rehearsal studio, and attend one of their family shows at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.  It’s our newest video for Time Magazine:

Link: They Might Be Giants of Science

Is Time Travel Possible?

With so many recent movies and TV shows about time travel – Star Trek, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Lost, FlashForward, Heroes – I thought it might be fun to explore the science behind this science fiction device.  Our most recent video for Time.com asks, Is Time Travel Possible?…

Helium – So Long and Thanks for all the Balloons!

Somehow this didn’t make it into the blog earlier – our Time.com video about helium.  A flight in a zeppelin, a visit with the Balloon Lady, and the end of an era?…

Related Post:
Science Comedian Riffs on Hydrogen and Helium at Ignite

James Cameron Interview About Avatar

New half-hour interview with James Cameron about the making of Avatar. From Popular Mechanics:

Science Comedian on BoingBoing

I’m on BoingBoing!

Maggie Koerth-Baker posted a YouTube clip of me this morning.  It’s an excerpt from my performance two weeks ago at Wonderfest, the Bay Area science festival.

The entire festival was videotaped by Fora.tv.  You can see the rest of my 15-minute performance here.

Also, a dialogue I moderated entitled Do Robots Make Better Astronauts? (featuring Chris McKay of NASA Ames and Kanna Rajan of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute).

If you’re visiting from BoingBoing… Welcome!

It’s odd to be judged just by these admittedly – purposely – corny bar jokes.  They aren’t exactly representative of my entire act.  They were the silly end to my presentation.

And they also cut the routine short – there are a few more, including the final bar joke which is arguably the best one….  about Helium.

Check out the rest of that performance or see my other YouTube clips:  www.youtube.com/sciencecomedian .  Subscribe!

I’m @sciencecomedian on Twitter.  Follow me!

And check out the science videos I’ve been making for Time Magazine’s website.

Thank you, goodnight!

Ray Bradbury Commercial for Prunes

Found this great old commercial for prunes featuring Ray Bradbury: