Here's a bit of Bill Nye on light and optics:
4/7/09
Red Sox Season Opener
This will be quick as the game is consuming my attention. Physics took their sound exam and will begin their investigation of light tomorrow. Honors Physics was introduced to light today and tomorrow's lab will center around the inverse-square relationship associted with light intensity and source proximity. Physical Science conducted an investigation on image formation for convex lenses. The lensmaker's formula was examined and used to make meaning of the lab data. The concept of magnification was introduced by having students measure image and object heights and compare their ratio when object/image distance was varied. Tomorrow - a continuation of refraction. Sound and light exam on Friday. Ciao!
4/6/09
Moving Into the Light
Honors Physics took their Sound exam today and will begin discussing the fundamental properties of light tomorrow. The first section of this chapter should be something of a review, as we touched on a lot of the information during our general overview of waves. The next section will center on mirrors, where we undertake to dissect the refelction process and how plane and curved mirrors form images.
Physical Science began a discussion on refraction today. Light is not the only wave that undergoes refraction, but it is the most prominent wave type whose refractive properties are put to good use. Tomorrow's lab will center on one use - lenses. You will investigate how a double-convex (converging) lens forms images and how proximity of lens to object influences image formation. When we finish this chapter, you will have more MCAS practice. You'll get to work through electromagnetic radiation and waves questions from prevous MCAS exams, as you have for previous topics. Remember, June is coming...although we'll do a brief review before the MCAS, you should not put off preparing for the exam until the last minute. We will be covering new information almost to the day of the test, so start independently reviewing the material and getting extra help as needed.
Physics conducted a lab on sound waves and the formation of beats. It was a good lab to review the basic features and properties of sound waves (in preparation for tomorrow's exam) and to illustrate beats and beat frequency. It was also nice to, again, see how a general equation (sine function) contributes to the understanding of real physical phenomena. That the various parameters of the function have a real-world meaning are sometimes lost unless you get to actually use the equation in lab. Data for the lab was quite good for all groups. Calculated beat frequency matched the beat frequency established by the choice of test tones; the individual tones produced well-formed sine curves that accurately predicted the frequency, period and amplitude of the wave; the physical appearance of the beats closely matched the diagrams discussed in lecture. Be ready for tomorrow - your last bite at the sound apple. Then, it is on to light...
Physical Science began a discussion on refraction today. Light is not the only wave that undergoes refraction, but it is the most prominent wave type whose refractive properties are put to good use. Tomorrow's lab will center on one use - lenses. You will investigate how a double-convex (converging) lens forms images and how proximity of lens to object influences image formation. When we finish this chapter, you will have more MCAS practice. You'll get to work through electromagnetic radiation and waves questions from prevous MCAS exams, as you have for previous topics. Remember, June is coming...although we'll do a brief review before the MCAS, you should not put off preparing for the exam until the last minute. We will be covering new information almost to the day of the test, so start independently reviewing the material and getting extra help as needed.
Physics conducted a lab on sound waves and the formation of beats. It was a good lab to review the basic features and properties of sound waves (in preparation for tomorrow's exam) and to illustrate beats and beat frequency. It was also nice to, again, see how a general equation (sine function) contributes to the understanding of real physical phenomena. That the various parameters of the function have a real-world meaning are sometimes lost unless you get to actually use the equation in lab. Data for the lab was quite good for all groups. Calculated beat frequency matched the beat frequency established by the choice of test tones; the individual tones produced well-formed sine curves that accurately predicted the frequency, period and amplitude of the wave; the physical appearance of the beats closely matched the diagrams discussed in lecture. Be ready for tomorrow - your last bite at the sound apple. Then, it is on to light...
4/4/09
PopCap Games
I am a big fan of PopCap games. They are cheap, give you a license for 6 computers and the games are addictive. Peggle, Peggle Nights, Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled Twist, Bookworm Adventures...these and others are always on my computer. They have a new game coming out soon and produced a music video for it. Thought you'd like to give it a look-see:
4/3/09
There's Nothing Worse Than a Sick Dog...
...unless its TWO sick dogs. Although anything serious was ruled out by the canine medical professionals, that did not alter the fact that my pooches were miserable from well before dawn until, well, now. They got some quality medication for their upset tummies and to kick-start their desire to nap, but it has not been a fun day.
Perkunas just gazes balefully at me:
Rodney is keeping his distance until he is sure there are no more vet visits in his future:
It is a lot of work taking care of a sick kid, even one of a different species, so make a point to do something nice for your caregivers tonight. Just think about all the stuff they've had to clean up since you were born...
Perkunas just gazes balefully at me:
Rodney is keeping his distance until he is sure there are no more vet visits in his future:
It is a lot of work taking care of a sick kid, even one of a different species, so make a point to do something nice for your caregivers tonight. Just think about all the stuff they've had to clean up since you were born...
4/2/09
Harmonics
Physical Science engaged in a lab investigation on mirrors and image formation today. It was easily seen how different mirrors produce different images - both in type and magnification. One section of the investigation had students confirm the law of reflection for various viewing angles with a plane mirror. Sure enough, no matter the viewing angle, the incident angle and reflected angle were the same. Tomorrow, we'll discuss reflection and color and go over the homework. Starting Monday, attention turns to refraction. Expect your exam towards the end of next week.
Physics spent their time discussing the nature and production of harmonics by musical instruments and the voice. Inharmonic and harmonic overtones were contrasted and the importance of harmonics to music was emphasized. Attention then turned to the nature of beats and how they could be used to determine how well an instrument was in tune. Honors Physics had this discussion yesterday and will do a lab on this material tomorrow. Today was set aside for them to review for Monday's exam. Physics will have their review tomorrow and conduct their lab investigation on Monday. Here is a nice video about guitar harmonics that includes how they can be intentionally and preferentially formed:
Here's another about how guitar strings are made:
Harmonics for a piano:
Physics spent their time discussing the nature and production of harmonics by musical instruments and the voice. Inharmonic and harmonic overtones were contrasted and the importance of harmonics to music was emphasized. Attention then turned to the nature of beats and how they could be used to determine how well an instrument was in tune. Honors Physics had this discussion yesterday and will do a lab on this material tomorrow. Today was set aside for them to review for Monday's exam. Physics will have their review tomorrow and conduct their lab investigation on Monday. Here is a nice video about guitar harmonics that includes how they can be intentionally and preferentially formed:
Here's another about how guitar strings are made:
Harmonics for a piano:
4/1/09
April Fool's Day!
Physics conducted their tones/overtones lab today and the results were very good. Tomorrow's discussion of harmonics will give more context to the overtone idea and classify harmonics as a subset of overtones. We'll discuss why different instruments have characteristic sounds and also examine the concept of beats. Beats and beat frequency will be the focus of Monday's lab. Friday - review day. Tuesday - Exam.
Honors Physics ended their sound unit with an overview of harmonics and their role in determining sound quality and uniqueness of sound. We review tomorrow, conduct the beat/beat frequency lab on Friday, exam on Monday.
Physical Science had a discussion of reflection and color today, with a solid overview of types of mirrors and the images they form. Plane mirrors: virtual images, same size/distance and orientation as object. Diverging mirrors: virtual images and can magnify objects. Converging mirrors: real and virtual images (depending on object distance from mirror surface) with varying degrees of magnification. Students will explore these mirror types and their reflective properties in tomorrow's lab. Remember though - all mirrors are bound by the law of reflection (θI = θR). We also discussed color and contrasted color addition and color subtraction. Both work to give us the variety of colors we see, but accomplish it through different methods. After reflection, we'll sally forth into refraction and dispersion before ending our unit on light.
As today is April Fool's Day, here's a link to the best April Fool's hoaxes ever perpetrated:
Top 100 Hoaxes
The #1 hoax - The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest - is a classic. First broadcast by the BBC on April 1, 1957, the result was the same as for the the War of the Worlds hoax on October 30, 1938 - people actually believed it! Here's some footage- it is still used today to highlight the properties of "documentaries" that contribute to their believability and how those properties can be turned to less honorable purposes...
Honors Physics ended their sound unit with an overview of harmonics and their role in determining sound quality and uniqueness of sound. We review tomorrow, conduct the beat/beat frequency lab on Friday, exam on Monday.
Physical Science had a discussion of reflection and color today, with a solid overview of types of mirrors and the images they form. Plane mirrors: virtual images, same size/distance and orientation as object. Diverging mirrors: virtual images and can magnify objects. Converging mirrors: real and virtual images (depending on object distance from mirror surface) with varying degrees of magnification. Students will explore these mirror types and their reflective properties in tomorrow's lab. Remember though - all mirrors are bound by the law of reflection (θI = θR). We also discussed color and contrasted color addition and color subtraction. Both work to give us the variety of colors we see, but accomplish it through different methods. After reflection, we'll sally forth into refraction and dispersion before ending our unit on light.
As today is April Fool's Day, here's a link to the best April Fool's hoaxes ever perpetrated:
Top 100 Hoaxes
The #1 hoax - The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest - is a classic. First broadcast by the BBC on April 1, 1957, the result was the same as for the the War of the Worlds hoax on October 30, 1938 - people actually believed it! Here's some footage- it is still used today to highlight the properties of "documentaries" that contribute to their believability and how those properties can be turned to less honorable purposes...
3/31/09
Is That The Phone?
Honors Physics students regaled each other with the dulcet tones of a touch-tone phone symphony in lab today. Add tuning forks and vocalized vowels and you have a solid lesson on tones and overtones. The tuning forks gave nice pure tones when struck on a soft surface and a good sprinkling of overtones when struck on a hard surface. Whether the overtones were harmonic or inharmonic would need to be determined by a bit of math (that we will cover tomorrow), but it was easy to document their existence and their frequencies. Folks also got to investigate how a touch-tone phone uses sound to code numbers. Phone companies use the row frequency and column frequency combination to recognize what numbers are being dialed. Students were quickly able to discern the pattern and corroborated that the final row, consisting of *, 0 and # followed the same pattern.
Physics discussed the Doppler Effect on both sound and light waves. Intensity, as an inverse-square relationship was examined, as were the various scales used to report sound intensity. Relative intensity and the decibel scale was given special attention, as was the effect of various sound intensities on the human ear. We started discussing forced vibrations today and, after tomorrow's lab, will extend the discussion to the concept of resonance and harmonics.
Physical Science explored the electromagnetic spectrum. Remember that all EM waves travel the same speed in a vacuum (3 x 108 m/s), regardless of frequency. Waves with higher frequencies carry more energy (think back on the particle model of light) and waves with lower frequencies are less energetic. We'll explore how this frequency/energy difference affects various behaviors of light as we move through this unit. Tomorrow, we'll focus our attention on reflection and that will be the topic of Thursday's lab.
Physics discussed the Doppler Effect on both sound and light waves. Intensity, as an inverse-square relationship was examined, as were the various scales used to report sound intensity. Relative intensity and the decibel scale was given special attention, as was the effect of various sound intensities on the human ear. We started discussing forced vibrations today and, after tomorrow's lab, will extend the discussion to the concept of resonance and harmonics.
Physical Science explored the electromagnetic spectrum. Remember that all EM waves travel the same speed in a vacuum (3 x 108 m/s), regardless of frequency. Waves with higher frequencies carry more energy (think back on the particle model of light) and waves with lower frequencies are less energetic. We'll explore how this frequency/energy difference affects various behaviors of light as we move through this unit. Tomorrow, we'll focus our attention on reflection and that will be the topic of Thursday's lab.
3/30/09
Sound and Light
Physical Science watched a good introductory video on light and color and debriefed the film's information. Tomorrow, we will take time to discuss further the electromagnetic spectrum and begin to work our way into the behavior of light. We will spend time with reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, diffraction, dispersion and interference. Lab work will specifically tackle reflection and refraction, with the others being demonstrated in class.
Physics and Honors Physics delved deeper into the concept of sound today. Physics discussed Friday's speed of sound lab and began to explore specifics about the longitudinal, mechanical wave we call sound. Honors Physics ran through the Doppler effect, forced vibrations and resonance. Tomorrow's lab will allow students to compare pure tones and overtones and examine how a touch-tone phone dialer functions to use sound to signal phone numbers. As we move into the music zone, remember that our overview will, by necessity, be very cursory and simplified. Music acoustics (the sound of music - no pun intended) is a field of its own and students are encouraged to independently research the function of music instruments, the generation of sound by acoustic and electronic instruments and the role of standing wave production in sound and music. Here are a couple of videos illustrating the power of resonance:
Herre's an interesting video about a violin maker:
Physics and Honors Physics delved deeper into the concept of sound today. Physics discussed Friday's speed of sound lab and began to explore specifics about the longitudinal, mechanical wave we call sound. Honors Physics ran through the Doppler effect, forced vibrations and resonance. Tomorrow's lab will allow students to compare pure tones and overtones and examine how a touch-tone phone dialer functions to use sound to signal phone numbers. As we move into the music zone, remember that our overview will, by necessity, be very cursory and simplified. Music acoustics (the sound of music - no pun intended) is a field of its own and students are encouraged to independently research the function of music instruments, the generation of sound by acoustic and electronic instruments and the role of standing wave production in sound and music. Here are a couple of videos illustrating the power of resonance:
Herre's an interesting video about a violin maker:
3/27/09
Phriday Phun
Physics experimented with factors affecting the speed of sound today. As with Honors Physics, the findings agreed with theory - more massive gas particles move with a lower velocity, so sound travels at a slower speed than for a lighter gas at the same temperature. Temperature of a single gas has a direct relationship with speed of sound and all groups found that the heated air sample was a faster medium for sound than the room-temperature air. We'll review the lab as we discuss basic sound properties on Monday.
Honors Physics stepped into the world of sound today with an overview of the physical features of sound waves and how sound is perceived by living organisms. The uses of ultrasound were discussed, as was the variation in sound production/reception by living creatures. Here are a couple of videos showing how much detail can be picked up by underwater sonar:
Physical Science began their discussion of light and concentrated on disentangling the wave and particle theories of light. The concept of the photon was introduced and the relationship between energy and frequency was explored. Although we will work mostly with the wave model of light in class, knowledge of the particle model of light is required to fully understand the complex nature of light and light phenomena. Here are a few resources to give you more information about the models of light:
Particle Model of Light
The Nature of Light - be sure to continue through the slide show and use the slider to scroll down to read all the text for each slide
How Light Works
Honors Physics stepped into the world of sound today with an overview of the physical features of sound waves and how sound is perceived by living organisms. The uses of ultrasound were discussed, as was the variation in sound production/reception by living creatures. Here are a couple of videos showing how much detail can be picked up by underwater sonar:
Physical Science began their discussion of light and concentrated on disentangling the wave and particle theories of light. The concept of the photon was introduced and the relationship between energy and frequency was explored. Although we will work mostly with the wave model of light in class, knowledge of the particle model of light is required to fully understand the complex nature of light and light phenomena. Here are a few resources to give you more information about the models of light:
Particle Model of Light
The Nature of Light - be sure to continue through the slide show and use the slider to scroll down to read all the text for each slide
How Light Works
3/26/09
For You TwitterHeads
18 Sci-Fi Twitter Feeds You Should Be Following (Courtesy of SciFi Wire)
Warren Ellis
23,987 followers
http://twitter.com/warrenellis
The brilliant, and occasionally warped, mind behind Freak Angels, Planetary and Transmetropolitan has a twitterfeed that's antagonistic, insulting, never safe for workand always entertaining.
"Apparently I just gave a guy an anxiety/heart attack simply by responding to his tweet. I believe I like this new power"
Greg Grunberg
41,035 followers
http://twitter.com/greggrunberg
Fans of Heroes' Greg Grunberg (psychic cop Matt Parkman) tweets about the show, Band from TV (his charity cover band) and real life. More importantly, unlike some of the other big names on Twitter, he makes a point to respond to those who are following him. Grunberg landed on Twitter thanks to Heroes castmate Brea Grant (@breagrant, speedster Daphne on the show) and in turn he's convinced James Kyson Lee (@jameskysonlee, who plays Ando) to join.
"Okay, one cliffhanger thing I can reveal is... well.. how do I put this? Uh, you see, Parkman... he, uh... well, he and uh... that guy with"
Wil Wheaton
294,062 followers
http://twitter.com/wilw
Some may always consider him the once and future Wesley Crusher, but Wheaton's moved beyond that, with several books (Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives), acting gigs and his blog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net (in Exile). He's amassed an impressive legion of followers on Twitter and tweets about life, acting, parenting, writing and whatever catches his geeky eye.
"Today is GEEKTASTIC: Not only is it pi day, it's the 15th birthday of version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel. Also, I'm DMing tonight. *snort*"
Elizabeth Bear
780 followers
http://twitter.com/matociquala
Bear's a writer (Hammered, Undertow, Dust) who proudly proclaims she tells lies to strangers for money. Her tweets include word counts, misadventures in moving, occasional geekouts about movies, and technological ruminations.
"Ways to spot a writer: She has a mountain of baby name books in seven languages, and has never been pregnant."
David Hewlett
9,096 followers
http://twitter.com/dhewlett
Hewlett played the neurotic genius Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay on Stargate: Atlantis and when the series was in production, he used Twitter to update followers about scripts and on-set adventures. As big a geek in real life as he is on the show, he's used Twitter to promote his projects and random encounters with the real world.
"Meeting Flanigan for lunch...seeing Joe always makes me wish I had more hair...in the RIGHT places...have I just made lunch weird?!"
Felicia Day
251,873 followers
http://twitter.com/feliciaday
The Dr. Horrible alumna and writer/actor on The Guild tweets about her online comedy about a day in the life of a MMORPG-obsessed gamer and her dysfunctional guildmates. An avid gamer in real life, she also tweets about playing Fallout 3 and Dungeons & Dragons, what's on her SF/fantasy reading list and her trials upgrading WordPress.
"Read my #PHB2 on the plane, lady next to me spilled water on it. Wanted to kill her. Sorcerer is out of control want to roll one now please!"
John Scalzi
3,903 followers
http://twitter.com/scalzi
The author of Old Man's War and its sequels as well as the blog Whatever, Scalzi's demonstrated he's not afraid of trying new things by posting his first novel online, twittering and taping bacon to his cat.
"Staying off the computer for the whole day. Unless, you know, I get bored with real life. But what are the chances of THAT?"
Kevin J. Anderson
232 followers
http://twitter.com/TheKJA
Anderson, author of Star Wars and X-Files tie-in novels and the Dune prequels, twitters about the creation of his best-selling books, hiking in Colorado and the daily details of a writer's life.
"deaths, conspiracies, mayhem, poisonings, rampaging sandworms, just another day at the office on DUNE."
Agent M
222,521 followers
http://twitter.com/Agent_M
Agent M is a Marvel.com blogger who brought the company into the Twitterverse. You can thank him by following the official @Marvel twitter feed, as well as that of longtime Marvel editor Joe Queseda (@JoeQuesada).
"We have the Howard the Duck DVD on while cleaning. You can't recognize how far we've come unless you take a hard look back."
Levar Burton
192,666 followers
http://twitter.com/levarburton
Star Trek: The Next Generation's Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge) recently battled his online doppelganger, defeating him in single combat. Or at least managed to get the admins at Twitter to eject the imposter and give him the account. Since then he's been a prolific Twitterer.
"@MargoEve The inspiration for the VISOR was a Banana Clip. How much was the wager? Even more important, how much is my cut?"
Brent Spiner
110,034 followers
http://twitter.com/brentspiner
Nothing like his Data persona from Star Trek: TNG, Spiner's engaging, amusing and often chatty. It's great when Burton, Spiner and Wheaton go on a Star Trek jag riffing on the series and each other. Spiner's engaged with his fans, often replying to tweets, and recently ran a contest to give away his 500th tweet based on the funniest/smartest fan reply.
"Did the interview. Told them my idea for a set with DNA. They didn't seem to go for it but when I left I was missing my little finger tip."
Cory Doctorow
13,866 followers
http://twitter.com/doctorow
Writer, geek dad, co-editor at Boing Boing and Creative Commons advocate, Doctorow took a break from Twitter for a while, but he's back in force now, talking about new media, digital rights and his creative life.
"The baby just said her first word: Chewbacca. SRSLY!"
"She was having her bath with her Star Wars bath toy and staring intently at Chewy. I said, 'That's Chewbacca' & she said 'Joo-bak-ba!' Lots!"
Marvel
12,409 followers
http://twitter.com/Marvel
Marvel's a perfect example of a company that gets Twitter. Instead of a link dump of posts from Marvel.com, Marvel on Twitter regularly polls followers about their favorite comics and heroes, talks about new releases and generally engages their fan base. They're also following a fair number of people.
"Okay! #marvelasks votes are all tallied. Clearly, the Marvel Twitterverse thinks Spider-Man's better friend material than Human Torch. 76-48"
Neil Gaiman
89,335 followers
http://twitter.com/neilhimself
The author of Sandman, American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust and Coraline tweets from the road, recounting inns, coffee shops and other destinations on his book and movie promotional tours. The release of Coraline in theaters saw him tweeting regularly about the movie.
"Good morning world. I am blinking and strange-haired today. Will be interviewed on Colbert Report tonight, the reality of which just hit me."
Bill Corbett
2,953 followers
http://twitter.com/Billcorbett
One of the writers on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, as well as the voice of the wisecracking Crow T. Robot, Corbett tweets about his new project, Rifftrax. Expect tweets about writing and random encounters with life, some of which include conversations with longtime collaborator Kevin Murphy (@kwmurphy).
"I like Twitter a lot, even if it does tend to make people write in some mashup of Rorschach's Journal and late 80s Seinfeld monologue."
Joe Quesada
6,208 followers
http://twitter.com/JoeQuesada
If you ever wanted to peek inside the mind of a comic-book editor, here's your chance. The big boss at Marvel tweets about ongoing projects, (like the Spider-Man musical) and responds to a surprising number of followers.
"Despite popular and conventional belief, simpler covers work best for grabbing the eye. White background covers even more so."
Brea Grant
17,079 followers
http://twitter.com/breagrant
Grant plays the speedster Daphne on Heroes and has a role in Rob Zombie's upcoming Halloween 2. The Halloween role has her researching horror films and tweeting about what she likes.
"Aliens = amazing sequel. I wish my name was Ripley."
Robert Llewellyn (aka Bobby Lew)
17,830 followers
http://twitter.com/bobbyllew
Bobby Lew is must-follow for Red Dwarf fans that want to keep up with news about the series' new BBC movies. His tweets feature updates on the project, insights into working on the set, and the TV business.
"It's just possible that my obsession with laundry and clean sheets was picked up by Rob and Doug and woven into Mr K's character. Possible?"
Warren Ellis
23,987 followers
http://twitter.com/warrenellis
The brilliant, and occasionally warped, mind behind Freak Angels, Planetary and Transmetropolitan has a twitterfeed that's antagonistic, insulting, never safe for workand always entertaining.
"Apparently I just gave a guy an anxiety/heart attack simply by responding to his tweet. I believe I like this new power"
Greg Grunberg
41,035 followers
http://twitter.com/greggrunberg
Fans of Heroes' Greg Grunberg (psychic cop Matt Parkman) tweets about the show, Band from TV (his charity cover band) and real life. More importantly, unlike some of the other big names on Twitter, he makes a point to respond to those who are following him. Grunberg landed on Twitter thanks to Heroes castmate Brea Grant (@breagrant, speedster Daphne on the show) and in turn he's convinced James Kyson Lee (@jameskysonlee, who plays Ando) to join.
"Okay, one cliffhanger thing I can reveal is... well.. how do I put this? Uh, you see, Parkman... he, uh... well, he and uh... that guy with"
Wil Wheaton
294,062 followers
http://twitter.com/wilw
Some may always consider him the once and future Wesley Crusher, but Wheaton's moved beyond that, with several books (Just a Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives), acting gigs and his blog, Wil Wheaton Dot Net (in Exile). He's amassed an impressive legion of followers on Twitter and tweets about life, acting, parenting, writing and whatever catches his geeky eye.
"Today is GEEKTASTIC: Not only is it pi day, it's the 15th birthday of version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel. Also, I'm DMing tonight. *snort*"
Elizabeth Bear
780 followers
http://twitter.com/matociquala
Bear's a writer (Hammered, Undertow, Dust) who proudly proclaims she tells lies to strangers for money. Her tweets include word counts, misadventures in moving, occasional geekouts about movies, and technological ruminations.
"Ways to spot a writer: She has a mountain of baby name books in seven languages, and has never been pregnant."
David Hewlett
9,096 followers
http://twitter.com/dhewlett
Hewlett played the neurotic genius Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay on Stargate: Atlantis and when the series was in production, he used Twitter to update followers about scripts and on-set adventures. As big a geek in real life as he is on the show, he's used Twitter to promote his projects and random encounters with the real world.
"Meeting Flanigan for lunch...seeing Joe always makes me wish I had more hair...in the RIGHT places...have I just made lunch weird?!"
Felicia Day
251,873 followers
http://twitter.com/feliciaday
The Dr. Horrible alumna and writer/actor on The Guild tweets about her online comedy about a day in the life of a MMORPG-obsessed gamer and her dysfunctional guildmates. An avid gamer in real life, she also tweets about playing Fallout 3 and Dungeons & Dragons, what's on her SF/fantasy reading list and her trials upgrading WordPress.
"Read my #PHB2 on the plane, lady next to me spilled water on it. Wanted to kill her. Sorcerer is out of control want to roll one now please!"
John Scalzi
3,903 followers
http://twitter.com/scalzi
The author of Old Man's War and its sequels as well as the blog Whatever, Scalzi's demonstrated he's not afraid of trying new things by posting his first novel online, twittering and taping bacon to his cat.
"Staying off the computer for the whole day. Unless, you know, I get bored with real life. But what are the chances of THAT?"
Kevin J. Anderson
232 followers
http://twitter.com/TheKJA
Anderson, author of Star Wars and X-Files tie-in novels and the Dune prequels, twitters about the creation of his best-selling books, hiking in Colorado and the daily details of a writer's life.
"deaths, conspiracies, mayhem, poisonings, rampaging sandworms, just another day at the office on DUNE."
Agent M
222,521 followers
http://twitter.com/Agent_M
Agent M is a Marvel.com blogger who brought the company into the Twitterverse. You can thank him by following the official @Marvel twitter feed, as well as that of longtime Marvel editor Joe Queseda (@JoeQuesada).
"We have the Howard the Duck DVD on while cleaning. You can't recognize how far we've come unless you take a hard look back."
Levar Burton
192,666 followers
http://twitter.com/levarburton
Star Trek: The Next Generation's Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge) recently battled his online doppelganger, defeating him in single combat. Or at least managed to get the admins at Twitter to eject the imposter and give him the account. Since then he's been a prolific Twitterer.
"@MargoEve The inspiration for the VISOR was a Banana Clip. How much was the wager? Even more important, how much is my cut?"
Brent Spiner
110,034 followers
http://twitter.com/brentspiner
Nothing like his Data persona from Star Trek: TNG, Spiner's engaging, amusing and often chatty. It's great when Burton, Spiner and Wheaton go on a Star Trek jag riffing on the series and each other. Spiner's engaged with his fans, often replying to tweets, and recently ran a contest to give away his 500th tweet based on the funniest/smartest fan reply.
"Did the interview. Told them my idea for a set with DNA. They didn't seem to go for it but when I left I was missing my little finger tip."
Cory Doctorow
13,866 followers
http://twitter.com/doctorow
Writer, geek dad, co-editor at Boing Boing and Creative Commons advocate, Doctorow took a break from Twitter for a while, but he's back in force now, talking about new media, digital rights and his creative life.
"The baby just said her first word: Chewbacca. SRSLY!"
"She was having her bath with her Star Wars bath toy and staring intently at Chewy. I said, 'That's Chewbacca' & she said 'Joo-bak-ba!' Lots!"
Marvel
12,409 followers
http://twitter.com/Marvel
Marvel's a perfect example of a company that gets Twitter. Instead of a link dump of posts from Marvel.com, Marvel on Twitter regularly polls followers about their favorite comics and heroes, talks about new releases and generally engages their fan base. They're also following a fair number of people.
"Okay! #marvelasks votes are all tallied. Clearly, the Marvel Twitterverse thinks Spider-Man's better friend material than Human Torch. 76-48"
Neil Gaiman
89,335 followers
http://twitter.com/neilhimself
The author of Sandman, American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust and Coraline tweets from the road, recounting inns, coffee shops and other destinations on his book and movie promotional tours. The release of Coraline in theaters saw him tweeting regularly about the movie.
"Good morning world. I am blinking and strange-haired today. Will be interviewed on Colbert Report tonight, the reality of which just hit me."
Bill Corbett
2,953 followers
http://twitter.com/Billcorbett
One of the writers on Mystery Science Theatre 3000, as well as the voice of the wisecracking Crow T. Robot, Corbett tweets about his new project, Rifftrax. Expect tweets about writing and random encounters with life, some of which include conversations with longtime collaborator Kevin Murphy (@kwmurphy).
"I like Twitter a lot, even if it does tend to make people write in some mashup of Rorschach's Journal and late 80s Seinfeld monologue."
Joe Quesada
6,208 followers
http://twitter.com/JoeQuesada
If you ever wanted to peek inside the mind of a comic-book editor, here's your chance. The big boss at Marvel tweets about ongoing projects, (like the Spider-Man musical) and responds to a surprising number of followers.
"Despite popular and conventional belief, simpler covers work best for grabbing the eye. White background covers even more so."
Brea Grant
17,079 followers
http://twitter.com/breagrant
Grant plays the speedster Daphne on Heroes and has a role in Rob Zombie's upcoming Halloween 2. The Halloween role has her researching horror films and tweeting about what she likes.
"Aliens = amazing sequel. I wish my name was Ripley."
Robert Llewellyn (aka Bobby Lew)
17,830 followers
http://twitter.com/bobbyllew
Bobby Lew is must-follow for Red Dwarf fans that want to keep up with news about the series' new BBC movies. His tweets feature updates on the project, insights into working on the set, and the TV business.
"It's just possible that my obsession with laundry and clean sheets was picked up by Rob and Doug and woven into Mr K's character. Possible?"
Sound
Physics took their exam on vibrations and waves today and will conduct a lab investigation tomorrow to determine how certain factors affect the speed of sound in a gas. Honors Physics conducted this investigation today, with good results. The measured speed of sound in air was close to the calculate (accepted) value for most groups. Further, the increase in speed with an increase in temperature was seen for most experiments, as was the anticipated decrease in speed in the CO2 gas. The $64,000 question - can you explain these results? Consider that sound is a mechanical wave and reflect on the kinetic theory of matter and how it influences heat transfer. The motion of energy as sound will follow a similar pattern. We'll discuss this lab tomorrow and begin to dig into the basic properties and descriptors of sound.
Physical Science concluded their discussion of sound with an overview of ultrasonic waves and their uses. Tomorrow, we will start our unit on light and it will be more extensive than our discussion of sound. During this unit, we will take the time to further investigate the wave behaviors of reflection, refraction and diffraction, examine the electromagnetic spectrum, investigate color and dip our toes into the pool of optics.
Physical Science concluded their discussion of sound with an overview of ultrasonic waves and their uses. Tomorrow, we will start our unit on light and it will be more extensive than our discussion of sound. During this unit, we will take the time to further investigate the wave behaviors of reflection, refraction and diffraction, examine the electromagnetic spectrum, investigate color and dip our toes into the pool of optics.
3/25/09
Intensity
Physics enjoyed an intense exam review, Honors Physics endured an intense exam (well, not that intense) and Physical Science investigated the inverse-square relationship associated with light intensity. Intensity of both sound and light decrease in proportion to 1/d2, and your two graphs documented this relationship. The first graph (intensity vs. distance) demonstrated the rapid decrease in intensity with distance and the second graph (intensity vs. 1/distance2 verfied the inverse-square relationship by producing a nice straight line that passed very close to the origin. We'll discuss the lab tomorrow and conclude our discussion of sound. Then, we turn our attention to light, its properties and behaviors. BTW, here's a good use for resonance:
3/24/09
WorldWide Telescope
NASA is going to throw some support behind Microsoft's virtual telescope to further enhance its coolness. The web client version is pretty good for viewing the cosmos and individual planets. The ability to rotate and move objects with the mouse is a nice touch. There is also a Window's version that offers more features, but I haven't tried that yet. Check it out if you like astronomy:
WorldWide Telescope
WorldWide Telescope
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