Podcasts

This American Life, Stuff you Should Know, My history can beat up your politics, Wait Wait Dont Tell Me. These are all just a few of the Podcasts that I listen to. A few of them are on the radio, a few of them could read just as well on paper as articles in newspapers, or magazines. A few would make really fun books. But they aren’t really any of those things. They are something different.

Podcasts were around for a while before they became really popular, and the reason they became popular I believe is because people want to listen to these shows whenever they have free time. I’ve tried to find Wait Wait don’t tell me on the radio, and This American Life, but its hard. If you are constantly in different areas finding the show time on a new NPR broadcast is hard. Its so much easier to just get it from the websites. And for the most part these are free.

People love information. We are information junkies in the west, and I for one love learning anything and everything I can about the world around me. So if I am on the metro, or walking down the street I will probably be trying to learn something by reading, or listening to a podcast.

And that’s whats so amazing about them. You can listen to them anytime anywhere as long as you have the equipment. Whether its a phone or a portable music player, you can listen to all sorts of things these days if you just look for them. And that is amazing.

So whether you listen to podcasts or not, take a moment today to thank them. They are usually quick and full of information (sometimes highly opinionated information) that allow us to always be learning new things.

So thank you Podcasts!

Streaming Video

I am not a fan of owning a television. The commercials could bore me to death most of the time, when I have one I tend to have it on whether it should be on or not, and I didn’t have one when I was younger so I figure why own one. But every once in a while I want to watch a TV show. It might be something fun and mindless, or thought-provoking. When I was in college this aspect was the reason behind me owning a television. It cost a lot of money to have as well. Upwards to 90 bucks a person in one of my houses. Thats why today I am so happy to have the ability to watch certain things on my computer, and the ability to close them again.

Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, Hulu, all of the major networks, the Daily show, the Colbert Report, MLB.com, NFL, even Al Jazeera have something in common now. Streaming video.

Netflix may be messing with people today, splitting into two different companies in one of the stupidest company moves in many years, but it was the pioneer of streaming video. Back before NBC, CBS, even CNN had video you could watch on their websites Netflix had it. Then channels found that if they put their videos up online for all to see, they wouldn’t have to worry as much about people like me illegally downloading tv shows.

But this all misses some pretty large advancements that needed to happen before video could be streamed.

In the 90′s when streaming multimedia started, bandwidth was fairly small as was memory capacity of computers, and you couldn’t stream (live) anything really except audio. Even into the early 2000′s it was radio that was streamed online. (I remember listening to the run up to the Iraq war in my dorm room on BBC radio). But around 2004 something began to happen, and suddenly not only could computers hold the data needed to stream but internet bandwidth could hold it. The bandwidth was in part due to the internet infrastructure, and partially because of data bundling (which you can ask your loving Tech friend about something and they will talk for a bit).

So today as you sit at your desk and watch your baseball games on your phone (you know who you are), or you watch an episode of 30 Rock on Hulu, or a horribly good movie on Netflix, take a minute and thank streaming video. This technology is roughly 6 years old, but imagine the world today without it, its pretty hard.

Thank you Streaming video

Inspiration

There are a few things in life that can move you to realize how great the day is.

There are few things in life that can move you to do great things in your day.

And there are things in life that move you to have a great day.

These are all different types of inspiration.

And today, I would like to thank them in all their forms. Whether, a video, a song, a phot0, or anything else.

 

THANK YOU INSPIRATION!

A photo

Southern Lights from Space

 

 

 

A Song

 

Videos

Loudspeakers/Speakers

If you ever watched movies of WW2, or for a few of you, lived in it. You may remember the record player, or phonograph, from that time period they have the cone on top. Or maybe you’ve seen the RCA dog thats looking at the phonograph curious and slightly bemused. This was the first form of personal amplification of noise. Today though we have a myriad of different devices that amplify noise, but they all have their basis in one tool, speakers.

Have you ever talked on the phone? Listened to music? watched TV or a movie with sound? If you have, you’ve used speakers. I’m not talking just about the big bulky type that shake a house, or the kind my high school friend spent 5 months and untold amount of dollars installing in his car. I’m talking about every speaker we have in the world. They are in churches to amplify church bells, in schools to allow for quick emergency communications, even some buildings have speakers in them just to cancel out white noise (the idea of which I find fascinating as its supposed to allow people to concentrate better).

*screeech* Please report to the principles office...*screech*

These loudspeakers were first invented in the late 1880′s (so… less than 150 years old), and they have changed and grown since. It is kind of impossible to me today to imagine the world without speakers. The elevator dings, crosswalk signs, and lecturerer amplification are so much a part of our everyday life that when they are gone something seems off. I noticed this when I was in Tajikistan and rode in perhaps the only elevator in the country and there was no noise when it went by floors. I didn’t know what was going on.

So today as you listen to your earphones, talk on the telephone, ride an elevator, listening to the blind crosswalk sound, hear church bells, or clock strikes take a minute and thank speakers. They do all this and more.

Thank you speakers.

Head Phones

I am a fan of music, and more recently podcasts. I could listen to both all day and be quiet happy. But I would feel horrible if I had my music playing at high volumes all the time for the whole world to see, because who knows, you might not like wait wait dont tell me or Stuff You Should Know. Thats why I am so thankful for earphones.

Remember the 80′s and early 90′s when boom boxes where the big thing? People who have them on public transit, or in parks, and be blasting them to high decibel. If you don’t remember them, you may remember all the signs on public transit that say, NO BOOM BOXES. or have pictures of boom boxes with an X through it.

But today we all run around with our iPods or Smartphones or CD players listening with head phones. We may have a lot more people plugged into their music/book/podcast worlds on mass transit, but it allows each of them their own space to relaxing going to or coming from work. All while allowing others to do the same.

So today as you go for a run or walk, if you listen to your iPod in your room, or your CD player on the Metro take a moment and thank headphones, allowing us to enjoy ourselves and not upset others.

Thank you headphones.

NOAA

Incase you’ve been living under a log or away from any form of news source for the last week, the east coast of the US is currently being hit by a hurricane. Well… kind of. Its prepared for the worst, even though the worst may not come to pass. But people might not know about this Hurricane at all without group of organizations that collectively are called NOAA or, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization.

Formed in 1970 from the combination of the National Weather Service, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, and Bureau of Commercial Fisheries by Nixon. He stated it was to serve a grave national need, “…for better protection of life and property from natural hazards…for a better understanding of the total environment…[and] for exploration and development leading to the intelligent use of our marine resources…” NOAA has ships on both coasts that one can see, and once one sees one with its giant globe object on its top you are sure to remember them. It has buildings in Colorado and Montana (they have weather there too). But they routinely get in the news because of… extreme weather. Imagine Katrina without advanced warning. Imagine Florida without Hurricane warnings, or most of the US without blizzard warnings. A lot more people would be hurt, property damaged and we would lose lots of crops and thus be one hungry nation.

before NOAA, somethings got stuck.

Doppler Radar? They are the ones that collect the data from all over and help provide it to your friendly local news station and weatherman.

Tornado Warnings? They are a part of that as well.

These people help us stay safe from the extreme weather that we can forecast, and are actually testing new devices that might be more accurate at forecasting weather its going to rain 1 inch or 24 over the next two hours. And thats just a minor part of everything they do.

So today whether you are closing following the weather or wishing the writer of this blog well, take a minute and thank NOAA, they help us keep track of the weather, and therefore, help us keep ourselves safe.

THANK YOU NOAA!!!

The Smithsonian Institution

I have recently moved to DC (thus the absence of posting) and have being going to and fro about this lovely city. A few things have struck me, besides a book during the earthquake. But one thing thats amazing is the number of free museums. DC has a ton of them. They have a few paid museums, but for the most part the ones that people really get excited about are free. And all those museums are run, by the Smithsonian.

Now the Smithsonian isn’t just museums (though they do that quiet well), they are also one of the larger centers for research on a wide (and I mean really wide) variety of topics. They publish two magazines, the Smithsonian, and, Air and Space. They do amazing cultural fairs, make movies and cd’s of different songs and dances from around the world (I have a CD of Bahdakhshani music produced by the Smithsonian), and even more than that they work with Universities to help teach the next generation of scientists and researchers, and artists.

The Smithsonian wasn’t always around. But it all exists thanks to a man who never set foot on American soil. A man named James Smithson state that if his nephew should die without heirs, all of his estate would go to the US congress. In 1835 his nephew died without heirs and the equivalent of a little more than $10 million was given to the United States to build an “Establishment for the increase & diffusion of Knowledge among men”.

There were probably hundreds of different ideas for what should be created. Some thought a government university, others a farm where we could test new ideas, still others a teachers training school, a national library, and a giant natural history museum. In 1846 a bill was finally adopted that ended up giving responsibility of interpreting and carrying out the legislation and Smithson’s mandate to the Smithsonian’s Secretary (or chief executive) and Board of Regents.

As the first museum aspect was being built it captured public imagination to such a degree that there exists the Smithsonian Polka. Today when people come to the DC they all think, OH I need to go to the Smithsonian. Usually thinking of Air and Space or US history. But in total there are 16 museums in DC. Thats a lot of stuff. My personal favorite now is the Portrait Gallery.

But no matter what the reason whether its the Museums or the music, the publications or the presentations today take a moment and thank the Smithsonian Institute. They do a lot for the world and Americans, and the least we can do is thank them.

THANK YOU SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE!