Discovery Channel

The Discovery Channel sent out a press release this morning saying that Bear Grylls, the star of their popular show Man vs. Wild, has sustained a shoulder injury on his expedition to Antarctica. Grylls, with whom I spoke at Discovery's headquarters last month, was reportedly airlifted to South Africa for treatment and is now on his way home to the U.K. for further treatment and recovery.

The extent of his injury has not yet been released, but some details were released by the U.K.'s Mail on Sunday, which describes the airlift operation itself as as "dangerous" due to high winds. The expedition, which had nothing to do with the Discovery Channel, had the simultaneous goals of promoting biofuels and other "green" energy sources, and raising money for the charity Global Angels. Grylls updated the expedition's online diary on Friday morning, probably very shortly before the accident that caused the injury.

We at GeekDad wish Bear Grylls a full and speedy recovery, especially as he and his wife are expecting their third child next month.

This is some space science we can get behind here at GeekDad.

Students from Parkside and Colleridge schools helped to launch four teddies wearing space suits that they had designed. The teddies reached an altitude of just over 30 km and their temperatures were logged throughout the flight to see how they fared in the extreme cold. The different spacesuit designs resulted in distinct difference in the temperatures of the teddies.

You can check out a huge selection of wonderful near-orbit imagery (with cute bears) at the CU Spaceflight website.

Via io9.

Just a reminder, folks: Starting December 12th, we at GeekDad will be celebrating the 12 Days of Geekmas (or 12DOG, for those in the know).  We will be taking a look back over the amazing year we've had on GeekDad, and giving away some pretty awesome stuff, including special items from Wil Wheaton, ThinkGeek, Arts & Entertainment Television, and many of our HipTrax bands.  So activate the nostalgia circuit, and stay tuned!

German LEGO power-builder Thomas Grassman sounds like one heck of a GeekDad.  He, and his son Sebastian, have assembled a ginormous, and incredibly impressive Explorien Colony Ship, a massive-scale spaceship with a completely self-contained colony meant for another world.  They have included amzing levels of detail, including special landing ships and fully-realized interior spaces.  You can check out many more images of the ship, plus tons of other builds by Thomas, here (all in German).

Via Brothers Brick.

I'll just lay it out there: this is an awesome holiday gift for younger kids.  This Little Piggy's Playhouse, designed by an architect for their kid, is an all-cardboard playhouse, made in the USA from 100% recyclable materials.  They come in regular cardboard brown, or white - all the better for coloring!  And, I have to say, compared to similar items we've seen elsewhere, it's pretty reasonably priced.  They're available for pre-order right now at $34.95 (you can save another 5% with coupon code JOYCE), and should start shipping next week.

Order This Little Peggy's Playhouse here.

If you're like me, you've felt a bit constrained by the Nintendo Wii's Mii Channel—not because it doesn't get quite as close to recreating your face as you'd like, but because it's hard to create anything weird-looking enough to be cool. How awesome would it be to have a couple of space aliens or vampires or just really bizarre-looking Miis around for when you're playing Wii Sports, Wii Fit or Wii Play or one of the various other games that uses them?

Well, BoingBoing Offworld, an excellent new videogame-oriented blog that aims for the little-known games more than the blockbusters, has come to our rescue. Thursday, in partnership with comic artist James Kochalka, they launched a regular Monster Mii feature. Every so often, Kochalka will create a new Mii that looks appropriately monsterish, and Offworld will post about it and publish it to the Check Mii Out Channel for anyone to download. The first one is called Kzorx, and instructions on how to download him can be found on Offworld.

I think we need more people to do things like this, because weirdness is a good thing. And good luck to Brandon, the Editor of Offworld!

Sure, geeks love expensive gifts. But if you can't afford a Hadron Collider for your geek this year, let alone a flying alarm clock or netbook, consider this: it doesn't take much to entertain us. And for less than $10, here are ten gifts that are sure to make the geekdad in your life giddy this holiday season.

1. Rare Earth Magnets - For $8.99 at Amazon, you can purchase a space-age tube of Rare Earth Magnets. These incredibly strong little magnets have a multitude of applications, from household use to affixing different weaponry to a Warhammer 40K army. You'll watch in wonder as your geek ambles around the house attaching and, with some effort, detaching the magnets from any possible surface. Warning, though: keep away from children, computers, and fingertips. Nothing spoils a good present like a visit to the ER... or the Genius Bar.

2. Buzz Magnets - Okay, two magnets in two suggestions, but bear with me. For $4.43 you can give your geek a pair of buzz magnets, magical and mysterious objects that, when tossed up into the air, buzz. Really, it's absolutely amazing. Wow your friends, or at the very least entertain your geek long enough to be able to use the Xbox for twenty minutes.

3. Government Issued Zombie Survival Guide Poster - Because really, no one can ever be too prepared. When the impending zombie apocalypse finally happens, your geek will have a quick and easy reference right above his expansive D&D minis shelf that he can look to in order to stay alive... for a little while at least. And at $8.99, it's a small price for peace of mind.

4. Darth Vader Gauntlets - For a particularly hard day at work. You'll know that you gave your geek hours of trachea-crushing fantasies with these adult-sized Darth Vader Gauntlets. Now, during stressful conference calls, your geek can pretend he's everyone's favorite villain. Would be especially cool if they doubled as oven mitts, but hey, for $9 you really can't go wrong. If the kids want a pair, they make child-sized pairs, too.

Hit the jump for 6 more geeky gift ideas under $10.

Continue reading "10 Geeky Gifts for Under $10" »

Congratulations to Steven Strell whose number wizardry gets a $50 gift code to ThinkGeek for holiday shopping! Thanks to all who submitted solutions. Check out the solution after the jumb for your gift code for $10 off of your next ThinkGeek purchase of $30 or more.

Continue reading "GeekDad Puzzle of the Week: Cross Number Magic - Solution" »

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday, GeekDad Don put up the plaintive thought "I'd love to see a high school physics curriculum based around humorous YouBube videos."  Well, while it might not yet be officially sanctioned curriculum anywhere, Wired Science has already compiled many of the best lessons to be found online for science education.  From our friend Aaron Rowe:

Top 10 Chemistry, Biology, and Physics Videos

The best way to teach science is with hands-on experiments, but short
video clips are a terrific way to get students excited and teach
concepts that are hard to illustrate on a chalkboard. Over the past
year, Wired Science has compiled a list of the very best science
videos from chemistry, physics, and biology. They can be used as a
supplement for science classes of any grade level.

In the coming years, as more content makes its way to YouTube and
Flickr, it should be possible to find a video clip or set of slides to
complement any lesson -- regardless of the topic. For now, these clips
are a good start.

Top 10 Chemistry Videos
Topics: Thermite vs. Liquid Nitrogen, Gummy Bear Oxidized by Potassium
Chlorate, German Scientist Spits Flaming Spores, The PCR Song, The
Undulating Briggs Rauscher Reaction, How to Make Stalagmites
Instantly, Elephant Toothpaste, How to Make Glow Sticks, The Inner
Life of a Cell, Magnesium Burning Between Bricks of Dry Ice

Top 10 Physics Videos
Topics: Musical Tesla Coil, Mythbusters Play with Sulfur Hexafluoride,
Boomerang in Zero Gravity, Helium Superfluid, Supersonic Halo, Sound
Waves on Fire, Water in Zero Gravity, Ferrofluids, How Superconducting
Levitation Works, Large Hadron Collider Rap

Top 10 Biology Videos
Topics: Immune Cell Chasing a Bacterium, How High Speed Gene
Sequencing Works, Shrimp Jogging on a Treadmill, All About the Heart,
The PCR Song, Glowing Mice and Stem Cells, DNA Oragami, Cyborg Monkey
Controls Robot Arm, Evolution and Human Ancestry, Building Body Parts
from Scratch

GeekDads tend to be busy, and haunting a game store looking for the latest and greatest often isn't an option. And for those of us lucky enough to be able to game on a regular basis, just having everything you need for a campaign is a wonderful help.

Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder Adventure Path packages up everything busy gamemasters need and mails it to their homes.

Each campaign has six monthly 96-page installments using edition 3.5 of D&D's rules (Paizo has declined to license 4E. Once you subscribe, the installments come straight to your mailbox -- you get a full year (two campaigns) for your subscription price. You get a searchable PDF version with every paper copy, and you can extract digital maps from the PDFs and print them large-scale for use as tabletop gaming aids. You also get a 15% discount with the rest of the stuff at Paizo's store.

(We've commented on Paizo's subscription model before. You can subscribe to their pulp fiction line Planet Stories, as well as a variety of their in-house gaming products.)

The upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Path campaign, "The Council of Thieves" uses the Pathfinder Roleplaying Rules, Paizo's remix of 3.5.

The Council of Thieves Adventure Path starts with a bang in the crumbling metropolis of Westcrown, former capital of Cheliax, a once-proud empire now reduced to political infighting and ruled by a revolutionary aristocracy in league with the vilest devils of Hell. Decadent nobles and desperate rebels face off against a backdrop of crumbling buildings and badly eroded stability. When a gang of devil-blooded bandits called the Bastards of Erebus threaten Westcrown’s delicate status quo, the heroes must face sinister beasts of shadow, relentless armored Hellknights, and whispered rumors of a return to power of the city’s legendary criminal guild. What mysterious force is pulling the strings of the shadowy Council of Thieves, and what do its machinations mean for the heroes and all of Cheliax itself?

If you're interested in learning more, check out the December 5th edition of Atomic Array, the independent RPG podcast hosted by Rone Barton and Ed Healy. They'll have Jason Bullman, lead designer of the Pathfinder RPG and James Jacobs, editor-in-chief of the Pathfinder Adventure Path as their guests.

Paizo's Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription page.

• Mad Brew Labs: Lost the Dragon, but Found my Path
• Nerdage: Pathfinder Adventure Path
• Questing GM: Path Finding Into Pathfinder
• The Tome Show Presents: Second Darkness (Chapter II)
• RPGAggression: Interview with Greg Vaughan

We are now in Samhein, the period between Halloween and the Winter Solstice, when the veil between this world and the next becomes thin enough for inhabitants of one realm to pass through to the other. For many cultures, this period of waning daylight is fraught with dread, and inspires a search for a higher power or powers to help mankind survive until the sun returns again.

I know all this because I'm at work on a book about Myths and Legends, in the course of which I've come across a great resource for those interested in the gods of every region on Earth. Godchecker is not only thorough, it's also fun to read and filled with lively illustrations by Godchecker-in-Chief Chas Saunders.

Although the entire site is worth browsing, there are two articles that GeekDad readers will really appreciate:

The Gods in Lego

Rowan Allen, Godchecker's most enthusiastic acolyte, has created a whole pantheon of new Gods out of Lego! ... Rowan's Gods seem to cover a whole range of countries and cultures, from the Incan DISPO to the Oceanic OOGABUBBA.

Mythmatics - The Mythology Of Numbers

...In the Bible there are the Magi, popularly known as the Three Wise Men, who put it about that they were actually kings. Did this get them free board and lodging in Bethlehem? (Godchecker Factoid: Actually, the Bible doesn't state how many Magi there were. There might have been a whole flock of them.)

You're guaranteed to learn something here -- and to get a good laugh at the same time.

Kathy Ceceri is author of Around the World Crafts: Great Activities for Kids who Like History, Math, Art, Science and More! She blogs about science activities and educational resources for the family at Home Biology and Home Chemistry.

If you're a Harry Potter fan who's feeling a bit down that the seventh and final book in the series came out over a year ago, and you've been wishing for something new to read in that universe, rejoice! For today, as I mentioned back in July, J.K. Rowling's new book The Tales of Beedle the Bard hits the shelves. And, to make your decision to buy it easier to make, the publisher will be giving all of its net proceeds to charity!

The new book contains illustrations by the author herself, and is meant to be a translation—by Hermione Granger, of course—of a "Wizarding classic" mentioned in the seventh book, along with commentary by Prof. Albus Dumbledore. The stories in the book aren't about Harry, of course, but are simple fairy tales that are meant to give a bit of insight into the history of the Wizarding community as opposed to the Muggle community, with which we are of course familiar.

The book is available in an inexpensive hardcover edition, and also, only on Amazon.com, a special Collector's Edition ($100 US), in a special binding with metal and faux-crystal adornments, and containing ten extra illustrations.

I'd reckon most of readers will have seen this video of a truck dumping its payload of shopping carts (and if you haven't get to it!).  Adam Weiner over at Popular Science points out that it is more than a demonstration of people being stupid.  It's a great example of Newton's First Law of motion.

Newton's First Law tells us that "an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion, at a constant velocity unless acted on by a net external force." What's happening in the video is similar to the old tablecloth trick. You can pull a tablecloth out from under a pile of dishes if you do it quickly, because, while a force accelerates the tablecloth, as long as the tablecloth doesn't apply a significant force on the dishes, they'll stay where they are, in accordance with the First Law.

In the video we replace the dishes with shopping carts and the tablecloth with a tractor trailer. The truck then accelerates out from underneath the shopping carts. Now, if the carts had no wheels, the friction between the carts and the floor of the trailer would probably be sufficient to accelerate them along with the truck. No such luck.

I'd love to see a high school physics curriculum based around humorous Youtube videos.   If you happen to find a video that fits the bill post your examples in the comments.  One rule:  they can't be straight out of classroom lectures. 

Popular Science (via Makezine)

Fans of lo-fi electronica and game-tech culture vultures rejoice; Blip Festival 2008 kicks off tonight at Brooklyn’s The Bell House. The event, currently in its third year, celebrates chipmusic and other forms of DIY digital entertainment by bringing together an international cadre of musicians, artists, and performers to ply their collective craft. The festival’s nighttime concerts are also supplemented by daytime workshops, presentations and, this year, a special screening of Blip Fest’s own documentary Reformat the Planet.

The Blip Festival musical performances take place each evening from Thursday, December 4th to Sunday, December 7th at a nightly cost of $15. The daily screenings and electronics workshops vary by both scheduled time and admittance fee, so see the event’s official web presence for details. If you have any interest in micromusic, programming old school audio chips or building your own graphics motion device, and are in the New York area, Blip festival 2008 will surely prove to be a wise investment of your time and resources.

Blip Festival 2008

Thursday-Sunday, December 4-7, 2008 - $15/night
The Tank @ The Bell House at 149 7th St. Brooklyn, NY 11215 - M/R/F Train to 4th Ave | Brooklyn

About the Show:
Archaic game and home computer hardware is recast into the unlikely role of musical instrument and motion graphics workstation in the BLIP FESTIVAL 2008, a four-day event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists occupying the international low-res cutting edge. The Blip Festival takes place DECEMBER 4—7, 2008 at The Bell House, and is presented by Manhattan art organization THE TANK and NYC artist collective 8BITPEOPLES.

See http://www.blipfestival.org for complete bios and press photos.

The last time you played Clue with your family, you probably thought to yourself, "I wonder why nobody's made a Dungeons & Dragons version of this!"

What's that you say? You've never had that thought? That can only mean that the folks at USAopoly and Wizards of the Coast are trailblazers, because they've gone ahead and done just that. It's essentially the same game Clue has always been, except that in this case an archmage has been murdered by a doppelganger, who has now taken the form of one of the player (D&D) characters, the weapons are such things as a vorpal sword and a mace of disruption, and the rooms are more appropriate as well. In a nice little twist, they've added an optional Monster Challenge rule that gives players the chance to win special abilities by beating a monster with a die roll.

In another nice touch, the game pieces are unpainted miniatures, different from the official D&D ones but in the same style. The art is done in a very D&D kind of style as well.

I haven't played it yet, but I have to think that if you like regular Clue, you'll like this at least as much, since it's essentially the same game. The only problem with it I can see is that it only has regular six-sided dice.

Update: I have grievously erred. Despite a recent reference to the game I happened upon, it seems it was actually produced seven years ago, and is now out of print! My humblest apologies to our readers, and my thanks to El Zahir for pointing it out.

Image via Wikipedia

We are scarcely into the month of December, and I am already dreadfully tired of classic Christmas music and, for that matter, many of its more contemporary alternatives. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got Christmas Spirit™ to spare, but the relentless audio assault of this holiday-themed musical fare has long since crossed the threshold from seasonally appropriate and into the realm of the obnoxious. When I shop at my local department store, I am crushed by the melancholy weight of "Blue Christmas." While I wait on hold, "Little Drummer Boy" incessantly pounds his way into my skull. At night while I slumber, "Donde Esta Santa Claus" plays in an endless loop over my horrifying (and inexplicably bilingual) dreams.

There’s obviously little wrong with the songs themselves, as they are classics for a reason. Instead the problem seems to lie with the limited aural palette from which we draw our Christmastime selections. Yes, Virginia, there is a wealth of other songs from which to choose.

Hit the jump for a list of 10 traditional offenders, and, since this is GeekDad, 10 slightly geekier alternatives.

Continue reading "10 Christmas Songs I’m Already Sick Of (and 10 Geeky Alternatives)" »

It was announced at www.drhorrible.com, as promised, the DVD for Dr. Horrible's Sing along blog will be available before Christmas. The proof is in the fact pre-orders are being taken at amazon.com (click here to pre-order now!).

The release date is published as 19 December 2008. Just in time to reach your mail box before Christmas. Oh, Mr. Whedon, you tease! The promise is for 2-day shipping to ensure it hits Christmas stockings before the 25th.

Of course, now we know the anxious wait for all those promised extras like: "Commentary! The Musical!" and the application videos for the Evil League of Evil is close to coming to an end.

So, get to it GeekDads. Amend those Christmas lists. Send the link to your loved ones and be prepared to spend Christmas day cackling in the most evil laugh you can muster.

And for those looking for some Dr. Horrible inspiration while they wait by the mailbox, check out the latest comic at darkhorse presents - Moist. Very Moist.

Sitting through Quantum of Solace, I was disappointed at the lack of a Q (or R) presence in the movie. Sure, Bond still had great toys to play with, but where were the brains behind them? As a kid - and later as an adult - I loved Bond movies. The guns ... the girls ... the gadgets! In a series as formulaic as the Bond movies, oftentimes the most exciting part was when Q came into a scene with his impressive arsenal of camouflaged carnage creations and high-tech gadgetry.

The most impressive toys were stars in their own right, getting lots of screen time and playing pivotal roles in helping Bond escape or capture important information. But hidden between the Aston Martins and Rolex Submariners were Q inventions that never made it out of the lab -- clever killing conceptions the director used as wallpaper to illustrate the Q branch's creativity.

So, as a tribute to the absence of the Q branch's lab in the last two films, let's step inside Universal Exports and take a look at the 007 best Q gadgets that never made it out of the lab:

7. Goldeneye - Phone booth trap with airbag. Part of the reason some of these inventions must've stayed in the lab was that they were just too cartoony. Can anyone really imagine Goldfinger being trapped in this? (Actually, the idea of that is pretty funny.)

Check out the rest after the jump ...

Continue reading "The Top 7 "Q" Gadgets (That Never Made It Out of The Lab)" »

A long-winded title but it points out a truism: the best thing about being a geek are the toys, and the best thing about being a GeekDad is playing with your kids with those toys. If you're looking for other gift suggestions, make sure you take a peek to the right and see gift guides 1-4 (and maybe more, depending on when in the timeflow you look at that sidebar.)

LEGO Agents Command Base
Toy-of-the-year level play, this semi packs tons of vehicles, gear, and minifigs. Elegantly organized so multiple builders of differing skill levels can all have fun. Read the review or buy it from Amazon.

Bloxes
Folding cardboard building bricks, big enough to build a wall or fort. Combine with a couple of Nerf guns and you get a great way to while away the winter months -- or just build with them like giant blocks. Buy them from Amazon.

BattleTech Introductory Boxed Set
The ultimate giant robot board game. This starter set comes with plastic robot figures, quick start rules, and advanced rules. With over 20 years of background material, this game can get as complicated as you can handle! Read the review or buy it from Catalyst's online store or from Amazon.

Thames & Kosmos CHEM3000 Chemistry Set
While chemistry sets have fallen on hard times, this one still impresses, serving up safe and educational experiments for kids. Good for middle schoolers and up, packs 387 experiments and is made in Germany. Buy it on Amazon or from the Maker Shed.

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium
Point the unit at any star and press a button, and thanks to the magic of GPS the SkyScout will tell you about the star! Or choose a star from the menu and SkyScout will tell you where to look. Locates over 6,000 stars. Read our review or buy it from Amazon.

Ladyada's Arduino Starter Pack
Everything you need to get started with the world's coolest hobby microcontroller, the Arduino. Comes with electronic components, cables, and of course the latest and greatest Arduino. Buy it from Ladyada. If this looks too difficult and you need something a little more focused, you might want to try the Microcontroller Experimentation Kit from ThinkGeek.

Nerf Dart Tag
Everyone needs a little physical activity, especially in the winter. What better way to get Dad and kids off the couch than a little Nerf warfare? This set comes with two 10-shot dart guns and two scoring vests. Buy it from Amazon.

Magnetic Accelerator
More of a novelty than a project that can obsess someone for days on end, this kit lets you build a magnetic accelerator -- a mass driver -- that flings ball bearings. Buy it from ThinkGeek.

ARRL Ham Radio License Manual
Ham radio is a delightfully nerdy hobby open to all ages. If you can write well enough to take and pass the licensing exam, you're entitled to be a ham. This book helps you get up to speed on the knowledge you need to pass. Great for parents and kids to do together. Buy it from Amazon.

Clone Wars Miniatures Game Starter Set
This simple board game allows you to act out the epic battles of the Star Wars mythos, or those of your own imagination. This reasonably priced set comes with figures, a game map, rules and a 20-sided die -- everything you need. Read our review or Buy it from Amazon.

Estes Tandem-X Model Rocket Launch Set
What a fun hobby. Combines art with physics and lots of fun. Learn how to build your own model rocket, and launch it from the accompanying launcher. Buy it from Amazon.

Snap Circuits Jr.
Building blocks containing electrical and electronic components, allowing kids to build their own circuits -- no soldering required! Allegedly for 8 years and up, the starting age actually depends on your kid and I could see 5- and 6-year-olds appreciating this kit, especially if Dad helps out. Comes with 100 projects. Buy it from Amazon.

If you're a fan of geeky music, you probably know that Jonathan Coulton became famous partly due to his "Thing a Week" experiment a few years ago. Well, now Paul and Storm—friends and sometimes touring partners of JoCo's but very different musically—are doing their own, shorter experiment: The 25 Days of Newman.

No, this has nothing to do with Seinfeld. The "Newman" in this case is Randy Newman, Oscar-winning composer of tons of film scores and such memorable tunes as "Sail Away" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On." In 2003, when the movie Seabiscuit, with a score by Newman, was in the theatres, Paul and Storm decided that Newman should've written a theme song for it as well, and that since he hadn't, they would. This idea then became a series of theme songs for other movies, taking the original tune and lyrics they'd used for the Seabiscuit song and transforming them to suit the movies in question. Of course, aiming for the funniest songs possible, they went for the movies one would least expect to find Randy Newman songs in, such as Scarface, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and even The Passion of the Christ.

So now they're doing The 25 Days of Newman, each day until Christmas publishing a new Randy Newman movie song parody online. Each song is free to listen to, download, share, etc., as Paul and Storm publish all their music under a Creative Commons license. So far they've covered The Godfather, The Big Lebowski, and The Shining. Listen and enjoy! Each song is only 90 seconds long, so even if it's not to your taste you won't have lost much time trying it out. I should warn you that their songs are not intended for kids, and some of them are very much not kid-safe.