Guess what, it’s a NEW SKEPCHICK CONTEST!
Watch the above video and/or just read on for info . . .
As you may recall, a few weeks ago we lost Mr. Wizard. To keep his spirit alive, I’d like you all to grab your cameras and record a clip of you doing a science experiment in 5 minutes or less demonstrating some scientific concept. Upload it to YouTube as a video response to mine (above). I’ll post the best responses here on the blog, and you all get to vote for your favorite. The winner will receive a free t-shirt from the Skepchick store as well as a very special custom piece of jewelry made just for this contest by Amy at Surly-Ramics!
Ultimately, the point is to flood YouTube with videos of people doing fun and entertaining science experiments. Woo hoo! Get to it, you have until Monday, July 9!
I'm totally going to do this. Good idea Rebecca :-)
Can I enter somebody else? I have a friend who did a series of videos for his high school science classes, which are already on YouTube. I'll link to the first one here, for fear of tripping the spam filter if I link to them all.
Actually, I just realised that I could make a playlist from all four. Duh. Here that is:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=15817E158…
Aw, man…this makes me wish I had a web cam and/or some scientific equipment here in London.
Of course, my problem is that I'd be more inclined to parodize a Mr Wizard style experiment and end with my child "assistant" in a full body-burn. But that involves things like insurance, health and safety advisors, and I can't be bothered with all of that. Oh well.
Still, great idea, Rebecca. Hope you get a nice turn-out!
"…observe a moment of science"
What a wonderful and poignant pun! :)
Unfortunately, I'm in Expatria's boat. I have no recording device and no experimental apparatus. Plus, with the likes of Phil Plait and Blake Stacey, and Bug Girl and a few other erudites with a bunch of letters after their names, I wouldn't stand a chance of winning. I will certainly try to come up with something for the great cause, though!
Sorry to sneak in here, but…I have to tag you with a useless meme. Sorry: http://goldbricker.blogspot.com/2007/06/tagged.ht…
This is a great idea, by the way. I am, alas, sans video. :(
Being mentioned in the same breath as Phil Plait rather takes my breath away. Unfortunately, being a theorist and remarkably clumsy with my fingers, my contribution would likely resemble a video demonstration of why it is absolutely important to follow the proper safety precautions. (Someday I'll tell the story of how I blew up my roommate's clock trying to measure voltages with a multimeter.)
"Try this, kids at home!"
Foom.
"We are gathered here today to mourn the loss of a good friend and a prolific blog commenter. . . ."
Speaking of science videos, I just heard about SciTalks, a site for gathering and organizing links to videos on scientific and technical topics. This was something I recall wishing for just a few weeks ago, so I'm glad to see somebody trying to make it happen!
Jonathan Shock provides a list of websites to mine for entries into the SciTalks database, of which Serkan Cabi's massive list looks like a particularly good starting point.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm suffering some information overload right now. . . .
Can I just interject to say: All UK citizens (and non-UK citizens who can fake a UK address) please go here
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SirSalman/
and sign away to support free speech against the religious loons.
And Rebecca, 'help the spirit of Mr Wizard to continue' – as in a seance? Great idea though.
You ROCK, Rebecca!
I have no video camera, otherwise I'd take a stab at it.
Also, no termites, although in case I do secure a camera, I'll keep what I would do with them a secret :)
No one should not participate because of competition.
Err…you know what I mean.
bug_girl said: No one should not participate because of competition.
Thanks for inadvertantly reminding me of a certain Monty Python sketch…
"I ask the room shall by someone be left…not."
But then again, just about everything inadvertantly reminds me of a Monty Python sketch. That's probably half of the reason I came to England in the first place :-P
My digital camera takes videos up to 40 seconds, although without sound. I think that's more than enough.
I don't know about you guys, but I usually wonder if I'll regret clicking the YouTube link if it turns out the video is much longer than that. Anything over three minutes even has me tempted to just close the window again and move on. It has to be something that's really recommended by people I know, before I'll sit through more than 5 minutes of amateur video.
Because after all, the average YouTube video has a tendency to be boring as hell, so the shorter it is, the less of my time is wasted putting on my headphones for no good reason.
While I make my video, can you point your camera about 15 deg. lower?
Thank you!
(c'mon! someone had to say it!)
OK, so I didn't get around to actually watching the YouTube video until just now. And now I feel stupid for basically saying the same thing in my previous post as rebecca did in her video. So yeah, keep it short, any ordinary digital picture camera should be able to take long enough videos to suffice :roll:
That said, the first video response is already ignoring two people who both suggested keeping it under 5 minutes.
So anyway, I'm not watching that.
Yet …
Well I have spent the last 3 days making a video – I could never refuse someone like rebecca!
I've never uploaded to YouTube before, so am keeping my fingers crossed that it works.