Author Archives: John-Booth
Happy Birthday to Do-It-Yourself Hero Homer Hickam
Homer H. Hickam Jr. was born 67 years ago today, and whether you’re a hands-on tinkering type of geek or the sort who likes to journey skyward on imagination, there’s no good reason whatsoever you shouldn’t be checking out this former NASA engineer’s work.
Hickam’s best known for Rocket Boys, his autobiographical novel about coming of […] Continue reading
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Getting Geekier: The Evolution of “The Big Bang Theory”
Image: CBS.com
My daughter started watching The Big Bang Theory with my wife and me last fall, and she got hooked pretty quickly.
The show took far longer to reel me in, frankly, because when TBBT kicked off in fall 2007, it seemed much more about poking fun at geeks rather than skewing its humor toward geeks.
That […] Continue reading
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Tagged Armchair Geek, Television, The Big Bang Theory
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Chewie Says: “Lots of Snowwwwrrggh!”
Centimeters v. inches? Meters v. feet?
Come on, we’re GeekDads. We measure snow a little differently. May I present the soon-to-be-galactically-adopted Giant Vintage Kenner Chewbacca Scale.
Chewie reported to his post around 9:00 p.m. EST Friday, Feb. 5, when the above photo was taken. (For the record, there was virtually no snow on the ground Friday morning.)
At […] Continue reading
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Tagged Everything Else, Snow, Star Wars, Weather
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Neil Gaiman and Ten More Reasons Arthur is a Geeklet Icon
Three people live in our household, none under the age of 12, yet we still record several episodes per week of PBS’ Arthur.
And lest you doubt the geek credentials of Marc Brown’s bookworm aardvark-who-doesn’t-look-anything-like-an-aardvark, I point only to this: Neil Gaiman is making a guest appearance (fifth item down at the link), which he recorded […] Continue reading
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Tagged Armchair Geek, Arthur, Neil Gaiman, PBS
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Re-opening The X-Files
Fox Mulder’s government contact once told him, “They’ve been here a very long time.” He was talking about aliens. I’m talking about my almost ten-year-old X-Files Season One DVD set, which I’ve been waiting to dust off and share with my daughter.
Honestly, I thought it would have happened before now. She’s almost 13 and a […] Continue reading
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Tagged Armchair Geek, Science Fiction, Television, The X-Files
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Glass Robot Invasion From Oregon
Sure, you could build a robot with things like circuit boards and solder and allen wrenches, and it could, you know, do stuff.
Or, you could do what Eric Bailey does: Take some glass into your home-built-and-wired workshop and use some serious heat to turn it into a slick-looking retro-bot. Art? Check. DIY? Check. Geek? No […] Continue reading
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Tagged Art, Everything Else, flameworking, Robots
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Stephen Hawking To Take Us Into the Universe
I remember my dad telling me about watching Don Herbert on television back in the days of his original Watch Mr. Wizard.
For me, growing up in the 1970s and ’80s, science on TV ranged from kid stuff like 3-2-1 Contact to mind-blowing programs like PBS’ Nova and, of course, the ultimate space trip, Carl Sagan’s […] Continue reading
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Starting the New Year Hungry
Less than a week into 2010, I’ve already plowed through a pair of good science fiction reads and tagged a third on this year’s “can’t wait” list. And the best thing is, I get to blame my kid.
I started Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games late last Saturday night, planning for a little wind-down reading before […] Continue reading
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Tagged Armchair Geek, Books, Hunger Games, Science Fiction
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Model Rocketry’s Big Idea Guy Is Back At Work
So, what do you do after you set a world record by building and launching a nearly-four-story model rocket?
If you’re Steve Eves, you set your sights even higher: The Northeast Ohio guy who crafted a 1/10th scale Saturn V and sent it soaring in April is working on a second, more complex rocket designed to […] Continue reading
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Tagged Electronic Geek, Models, Rockets, Toys and Technology
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1d4 For The Win
News from The Department of Geek Things You Didn’t Even KNOW There Were Records For:
A team of professors from Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Michigan have set a new world record for packing the most tetrahedra into a given volume. According to the announcement from Kent State, “The researchers […] Continue reading
