Culture on My Mind TV Vampires and Saturday Cartoons June 20, 2022
I’m playing a little catch-up this week, so here’s the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track talking about TV vampires and Saturday morning cartoons.
On June 2nd, Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel were joined by Tom Morris (The Good, the Bad, and the Nerdy Movie Podcast) Lacee Aderhold (on Twitter), and author Lucy Blue (official site) to discuss Forever Knight, Dark Shadows, Kindred the Embraced, and more. They might even mention that famous California cheerleader…
On June 16th, it was Funshine Saturday time! There was once a time when cartoons and weird live-action shows defined Saturday mornings, complete with drum-playing sharks, snickering dogs, sentient buggies, superheroes, and more. Joe was joined by Kornflake (The FlopCast) and Sherman Burris (on Twitter) as they poured a bowl of cereal and sat way too close to the television screen.
These Classic Track Quarantine Panels will be held once every two weeks (or every fortnight, if you will). If you want to play along at home, grab your internet-capable device of choice and navigate the webs to the YouTube channel and/or the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.
The next panel will be on June 30th. The future of these panels includes a classic game show, some television mashups, and a 30th anniversary celebration. We’re entering the home stretch of livestreams before all of these panelists convene in person at Dragon Con. You can find all of this and more every other Thursday as the American Sci-Fi Classics Track explores the vast reaches of classic American science fiction.
The episode art each week is generously provided by the talented Sue Kisenwether. You can find her (among other places) on Women at Warp: A Star Trek Podcast.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
STEAM Saturday The Hole at the Center of the Galaxy June 4, 2022
In this edition, the big item is the black hole at the center of our galaxy.
NBC News – Black hole at center of Milky Way pictured for first time (May 12, 2022) First-ever image released of the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, providing the first direct visual evidence of “the gentle giant” that lies at the center of our galaxy.
More on this in the videos below from Veritasium and Curiosity Stream.
Veritasium – A combination of the Latin for truth, veritas, and the suffix common to many elements, -ium, this show is literally an element of truth. It is hosted by Australian-Canadian science communicator, filmmaker, and inventor Derek Muller (Ph.D., Physics Education Research).
Curiosity Stream – John S. Hendricks, Founder of Discovery Communications, has spent his life seeking the answers to our most enduring questions and creating ways for television viewers across the globe to satisfy their curiosity. In 2015, Hendricks harnessed this passion to create Curiosity Stream, a streaming service meant to inspire ardent learners with the most curious minds of our time: visionaries in every major field of human endeavor, tackling the greatest challenges of our era.
The Science & Entertainment Exchange – The Science & Entertainment Exchange is a program of the National Academy of Sciences that provides entertainment industry professionals with access to top scientists and engineers to help bring the reality of cutting-edge science to creative and engaging storylines.
Steve Mould – Steve Mould is a Master of Physics from the University of Oxford. He’s a British author and science communicator who hosts educational videos on his YouTube channel. He co-hosted ITV’s I Never Knew That About Britain alongside Paul Martin and Suzannah Lipscomb and previously appeared as a science expert on The Alan Titchmarsh Show, The One Show, and Blue Peter.
Jerry Rig Everything – Zack Nelson has used his love of repairing, simple explanations, and brief tutorials to help millions of people with repairs of their own. Outside of YouTube, his ‘to-the-point’ style of teaching has created instructional and informational videos for manufacturers and factories around the world.
Practical Engineering – Grady Hillhouse is a civil engineer in San Antonio, Texas. His channel aims to increase exposure and interest in the field of engineering by highlighting the connection between the world around us and the energy, passion, and thought that goes into making it a nicer place to live.
Nick Zammeti – A woodturner and artist based in the United Kingdom, Nick Zammeti thrives in funky and creative projects fueled by a healthy love of pop culture, especially Back to the Future.
The Smugglers Room – Building something out of nothing with a Star Wars flair is the order of the day in the Smugglers Room.
8-bit Music Theory – This YouTuber loves music, video games, and analyzing and talking about music from video games. He promises that if you are a big nerd, you’ll love it too!
Frank Howarth – A Portland, Oregon-based architect and woodworker, Frank Howarth uses stop-motion animation to demonstrate his design and building process for a variety of projects and art pieces.
If you have any suggestions for STEAM Saturday, please leave them below in the comments. If your suggestion is used, your name will be credited.
Disclaimers: Any sponsored content or advertising presented in videos and/or links highlighted in STEAM Saturday are not necessarily endorsed or supported by Creative Criticality. Pursue such content and offers at your own risk. The links and videos attached to this post were publicly available at the time of publication, but there is no guarantee of availability after publication.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope that something inspired you to get out there and explore the universe.
STEAM Saturday is a celebration of curiosity and imagination through science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, the very building blocks of the universe around us.
Culture on My Mind Execute Chapter 66 June 2, 2022
This week, the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track talks about Star Wars on the franchise’s 45th anniversary.
On May 25th, Joe Crowe and Gary Mitchel were joined by the crew of Execute Chapter 66, a podcast that celebrates the literary side of the Star Wars universe. These podcasters included Beth Van Dusen (on Twitter), Chad Shonk (A Feat of Lunatic Daring), and Ryan Schweck (whose primary internet presence is the podcast). They were also joined by filmmaker John Hudgens (IMDb).
These Classic Track Quarantine Panels will be held once every two weeks (or every fortnight, if you will). If you want to play along at home, grab your internet-capable device of choice and navigate the webs to the YouTube channel and/or the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.
The next panel will be on June 2nd. The future of these panels includes some vampires and a discussion of Saturday cartoons. You can find all of this and more every other Thursday as the American Sci-Fi Classics Track explores the vast reaches of classic American science fiction.
The episode art each week is generously provided by the talented Sue Kisenwether. You can find her (among other places) on Women at Warp: A Star Trek Podcast.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
Culture on My Mind The Classic Stephen J. Cannell May 23, 2022
This week, the Dragon Con American Sci-Fi Classics Track celebrates the man marked by that fancy title card with the typewriter and the flying papers.
You know, this one.
Gary Mitchel was joined by Kevin Eldridge (The FlopCast) and Nathan Laws (The 42Cast) for a celebration of ’70s and ’80s TV action stylings. Cannell was one of the most prolific television creators in history and practically defined the 1980s. He was the pen behind The Rockford Files, Baretta, The A-Team, Hunter, 21 Jump Street, The Greatest American Hero, Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, and more.
It’s only fitting that the Classics Track celebrates this classic producer.
These Classic Track Quarantine Panels will be held once every two weeks (or every fortnight, if you will). If you want to play along at home, grab your internet-capable device of choice and navigate the webs to the YouTube channel and/or the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.
The next panel will be a special on May 25th. You can find all of this and more every other Thursday as the American Sci-Fi Classics Track explores the vast reaches of classic American science fiction.
The episode art each week is generously provided by the talented Sue Kisenwether. You can find her (among other places) on Women at Warp: A Star Trek Podcast.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
I have been wrestling with my thoughts on Star Trek: Picard since the second season wrapped on May 5th.
The series overall has been frustrating for me. It is laden with some great philosophical and socio-political ideas – a hallmark of Star Trek since 1966 – but it frequently misses the mark when actually exploring these ideas.
First, I want to point to the excellent season reviews by Jessie Gender. She has captured a lot of my conflict with this series in these analyses, highlighting many of the elements that I loved and disliked.
Season One:
Season Two:
In Season One, I loved seeing civilian life in the Federation and the aftermath of the destruction of Romulus, something that was born rather hand-wavedly in 2009’s Star Trek film. The world-building grabbed me as it showcased complicated interstellar politics and a Starfleet that had moved on from the troublesome climax of Star Trek: Nemesis.
I rather liked the deconstruction and organic redemption of the former Borg. I liked the idea of the Federation trying to help the fractured and displaced Romulan people, following on from the ground laid in Star Trek: Nemesis. I liked that Jean-Luc Picard actually stuck to his principles and resigned from Starfleet when they refused to back that program. I liked that Starfleet rejected the former captain’s hubris when he demanded a starship to solve the mystery because of who he was.
I liked the Star Trek exploration of Brexit, Trumpism, and the Syrian refugee crisis. I loved the Troi-Riker family and the exploration of trauma. I loved Picard having to face the skeletons in his closet by examining and reconciling his failures. I loved the conclusion of the Picard-Data relationship.
But then we get a Romulan anti-synth religious cult, a lack of resolution on threads like Seven’s adaption of the Borg Queen persona and Narek simply fading into the background, handwaving “space magic” tools and fixes, huge fleet space battles, and yet another galactic-scale conflict teasing a Lovecraftian big bad that we’ll likely never see again. It’s representative of the writers having far too many ideas and not enough time to implement everything to their full potential. That’s where the frustration started for me because each of these ideas ends up half-baked by the final episode.
At the end of the season, the entire synth ban is resolved far too quickly, but Picard’s status is right up Star Trek‘s alley with the mission to seek out new life. I really liked the idea of Picard being resurrected into a synth body that is virtually indistinguishable from “real” life.
Season Two starts off well enough with Picard back in true form and Starfleet being… well… Starfleet. The gang gets back together just in time to meet up with the Borg Queen and consider her application for provisional status in the Federation.
Then everything goes boom and Q pops up, leaving our heroes in an alternate fascist universe that is definitely not the mirror universe.
It’s a decent starting point. I could do without using the Borg once again, but John de Lancie is magnificent. However, it starts to slide downhill from here as the next two episodes rely on nearly the exact same plot as we go from the Prime Universe to this fascist universe to Los Angeles 2024: Figure out the new setting, get everyone back together, develop a plan, and move to the next episode.
The rest of the season is spent in 2024 (with hardly a mention of the events of Deep Space Nine‘s “Past Tense”) exploring various tangents and failing to analyze the effects of the time jump.
The team rescued the Borg Queen from the Confederation future in order to slingshot around the sun and travel to 2024. Even though she shares some kind of temporal link with every universe’s Borg Queen, she’s not the Prime Universe’s Borg Queen, so her existence could very well create a paradox when our heroes succeed.
The team is obviously from a future alternative to the Prime Universe because Guinan has no idea who Picard is. The events of The Next Generation‘s “Time’s Arrow” never happened, and given the Confederation’s aggressively xenophobic nature, the Devidians were probably slaughtered anyway.
But, wait! The Kirk Thatcher guy on the bus from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home seems to recall getting nerve pinched by Spock. The planet also remains intact, so something had to stop the whale probe. Did Kirk and company still travel back to retrieve George and Gracie?
Finally, do our heroes have the right to “fix” the universe? Star Trek‘s “fix the timeline” stories usually stop a bad thing from happening so that the starting and ending points are the same. The crew starts in the normal timeline, someone goes back and breaks something, and our heroes go back and fix it to keep the timeline as it should be. The deviation here is that our heroes started in the Confederation’s future. In order to put events in 2024 on the path to the Prime Universe, a handful of time travelers have to decide the fate of billions of people and eradicate an entire existing timeline. Those ethical implications were never discussed.
Q claims that he dropped the cast in the Confederation timeline to teach Picard a lesson. The key to fixing everything was ensuring that Picard’s astronaut ancestor successfully launched on her mission and discovered an alien microbe.
Strangely, Q attempted to snap Renee Picard out of existence halfway through the season. Why? Who knows.
We also meet more of the Gary Seven-style observers (yay!) and tie them into Wesley Crusher and the Travelers (I can buy that, though there was zero build-up to that revelation). Rios has an adventure with a local doctor and immigration officials (but we never explore the sociopolitical implications of immigration in the United States of 2024) before deciding to remain in the past. Seven and Raffi explore their own traumas, as well as plumb the depths of the relationship that was spawned by a random (and unearned) hand-holding flirtation in the first season.
One of Raffi’s traumas? Elnor, who was brutally murdered in the second episode and popped up periodically to justify keeping Evan Evagora in the opening credits. Seriously, he was criminally under-used in the second season.
Picard also faced his own trauma by uncovering the memories of his mother’s suicide. That came with a host of good and bad issues. The good was a discussion of mental health and using it as the framing device for Q’s lesson on Picard’s anxieties. Star Trek has done some good work in the last few years to address trauma and mental health. It’s a reminder that mental health is important for all of us, and also how we need to understand how it shapes us so we can unlock our potential.
On the downside, they dragged that storyline on forever with nary a mention of why it never came up before during his long self-imposed exile at the chateau.
We also spent an entire episode with Picard and Guinan in FBI custody running through a throwaway sidequest. I haven’t even mentioned the Adam Soong storyline because… yeah… yet another Soong means yet another Trek trope. Brent Spiner plays evil so well, but this story thread did nothing for me.
Oh, and the trauma Jurati experienced in Season One? Hand-waved away. That made me angry.
Where Season One started frustrations with half-baked and abandoned ideas, Season Two capitalized on it in spades. Season Two had a ton of potential to explore, but it did not flow gracefully from idea to idea. Instead, it introduced concepts and then rapidly resolved them through easy yet uninspired tropes.
The whole thing resolves in a predictable manner with the Borg Queen needing Picard to lead a defense against yet another galaxy-killing event.
The end of the season brings a huge cast shake-up leading into the final season of the show. Isa Briones, Eva Evagora, Alison Pill, and Santiago Cabrera are done, which leaves room for the TNG regulars to come aboard.
Where I would normally be excited to see these characters back in action for what is essentially TNG Season 8, I temper that excitement with the show’s performance so far. The characters and franchise deserve far better than a collection of loose story threads that defy cohesion.
While I have loved the new characters in general, I would have rather seen a single season of this show with the TNG characters on a final mission with Picard as he rectifies his mistakes and even sacrifices himself to save the day.
Will I watch Season Three? Yes, but with trepidation, because Star Trek: Picard has definitely been my least favorite series in this modern era of the franchise. It might even be my least favorite overall.
The storytelling potential deserves better.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
STEAM Saturday The End of the iPod, Gender Bias in Parasites, and Underwater Spiders May 14, 2022
In this edition, Apple ends the iPod, parasitology hides gender bias, and a spider hides underwater.
The end of the iPod holds special significance for me. Since the device and iTunes debuted, I have owned five generations of the music player. Two of those were stalwart companions on deployments when I was in the Navy, bringing me a slice of home with music, television episodes, and podcast novels.
It was those iPods that opened my eyes to what used to be Podiobooks.com, introducing me to the likes of Tee Morris, Philippa Ballantine, J.C. Hutchins, Nathan Lowell, Scott Sigler, and P.G. Holyfield. That was my springboard to writing for The ScapeCast and starting my journey with podcasting and writing.
There are a lot of fond memories in those bricks of glass and metal.
BBC – Apple to discontinue the iPod after 21 years (May 10, 2022) Apple has announced it is discontinuing its music player, the iPod Touch, bringing to an end a device widely praised for revolutionizing how people listen to music.
ScienceDaily – Spider can hide underwater for 30 minutes (May 9, 2022) A tropical spider species uses a ‘film’ of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes, according to new research.
Physics Girl – Hosted by Dianna Cowern, a science communicator and physics alumna from MIT, this show was part of PBS Digital Studios until 2020. She uses her platform to explore complex physics, astronomy, and science-related topics in simple terms.
Kyle Hill – Kyle Hill is a science educator with degrees in civil and environmental engineering and science communication. He previously hosted the popular Because Science YouTube series, but now runs The Facility.
Ask a Mortician – Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, author, blogger, and YouTube personality known for advocating death acceptance and the reform of Western funeral industry practices. You got death questions, she’s got death answers. Ask a Mortician was suggested by Sue Kisenwether. [S]
Jerry Rig Everything – Zack Nelson has used his love of repairing, simple explanations, and brief tutorials to help millions of people with repairs of their own. Outside of YouTube, his ‘to-the-point’ style of teaching has created instructional and informational videos for manufacturers and factories around the world.
Practical Engineering – Grady Hillhouse is a civil engineer in San Antonio, Texas. His channel aims to increase exposure and interest in the field of engineering by highlighting the connection between the world around us and the energy, passion, and thought that goes into making it a nicer place to live.
Shop Time – Peter Brown is a geek with a full set of power tools, and he uses that knowledge to experiment, craft, and have fun. [A]
The Smugglers Room – Building something out of nothing with a Star Wars flair is the order of the day in the Smugglers Room.
Ben’s Worx – Ben is a maker from Queensland, Australia who has always had an interest in woodworking. He makes all kinds of things from wood, metal, plastics, and epoxy resin, and loves to experiment in the name of entertainment.
Moonpie Creations – Ken is a woodworker and creator who likes to have fun. A combat veteran, he uses his tools as a way to relax and deal with everyday stress. He loves to try new things, think outside the box, and stay cool.
8-bit Music Theory – This YouTuber loves music, video games, and analyzing and talking about music from video games. He promises that if you are a big nerd, you’ll love it too!
Smarter Every Day – Mechanical engineer and aerospace engineer Destin Sandlin explores the world using science in this series. He was one of three YouTube personalities chosen to conduct a one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama after his final State of the Union address. His secondary channel provides additional details and interviews to supplement his primary channel’s videos.
Mark Rober – An engineer and inventor, Mark Rober presents popular science concepts and do-it-yourself gadgets in easy-to-understand terms. He was previously a NASA engineer (where he worked on the Curiosity rover) and a product designer at Apple’s Special Projects Group (where he authored patents involving virtual reality in self-driving cars). One of his best-known series involves the development of a glitter bomb to combat porch pirates and internet scammers.
Emmymade – Whether it’s trying to figure out if it’s really worth it to wait a hundred hours for a batch of brownies, finding out what Ranch gummies or giant centipedes taste like, making mayonnaise from a vintage gadget, or tasting desserts and dishes from around the world, Emmy wants to learn about our world through food.
U Can Beat Video Games – U Can Beat Video Games is a YouTube channel for all of us! Have you ever wanted to get better at video games, but every video requires players to have superhuman abilities? On UCBVG, watch Kylo take on titles like Castlevania, Mega Man, or Zelda, and learn strategies that anyone can use for these games and more! UCBVG also discusses the history and technology behind these games during his tutorials.
Game Maker’s Toolkit (GMTK) – Game Maker’s Toolkit is a deep dive into game design, level design, and game production, hosted by Mark Brown.
If you have any suggestions for STEAM Saturday, please leave them below in the comments. If your suggestion is used, your name will be credited.
Disclaimers: Any sponsored content or advertising presented in videos and/or links highlighted in STEAM Saturday are not necessarily endorsed or supported by Creative Criticality. Pursue such content and offers at your own risk. The links and videos attached to this post were publicly available at the time of publication, but there is no guarantee of availability after publication.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope that something inspired you to get out there and explore the universe.
STEAM Saturday is a celebration of curiosity and imagination through science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, the very building blocks of the universe around us.
Ncuti Gatwa (pronounced SHOO-tee GAT-wah) is a Rwandan-Scottish actor best known for his role as Eric Effiong on Netflix’s Sex Education. In that role, he has been nominated for 15 different awards and has won seven of them. He is the first Doctor Who lead to be born after the classic era ended (not counting the TV movie), the first Doctor Who lead to be born outside the United Kingdom, and the first black actor to lead the show.
Notably, Jo Martin was the first black actor cast as the Doctor, but she’s always been credited as a guest star (as the Fugitive Doctor).
I’m excited about this casting because I don’t know the actor. That’s perfect for me when it comes to the Doctor. Oddsmakers and internet rumormongers suggested that several big names in the UK could take over when Jodie Whittaker leaves the role, including a return of David Tennant. I’m glad that the casting choice is someone who is relatively unknown.
Our first look at Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor will likely be during the BBC Centenary Special in October, an episode that will mark the regeneration from the Thirteenth to the Fourteenth Doctor. After that episode, we’ll have to wait until the 60th Anniversary Special in 2023 for his first full story.
He’s also appearing in 2023 Barbie film starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
Ncuti Gatwa – Instagram (@bbcdoctorwho)
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
This week, I have physics on my mind, courtesy of a meme.
The meme presents some interesting concepts that can be confusing to think about. They also require a few assumptions, as science usually does.
The speed of light in a vacuum is an important physical constant in physics. The value is commonly denoted as c and is exactly defined as 299,792,458 meters/second (though easy figures for simplicity are 300,000 km/second and 186000 miles/second). Basically, light can circle our planet about 7.5 times in one second.
In terms of the special theory of relativity, this physical constant is the upper limit for the speed at which conventional matter, energy, or any signal carrying information can travel through space. It also defines the relationship between energy and mass – E=mc2 – which suggests that a tremendous amount of energy is needed to accelerate any mass to that speed.
All forms of electromagnetic radiation – light, radio, etc – travel at the speed of light and we can measure the distance that they travel through space. We put a lot of signals out into space from our planet, and the distance those signals travel through a vacuum in one year is defined as a light-year.
That brings us back to the meme.
If a ship was parked one light-year away from the planet, the light and signals that reached them would be from one year in our past. We would be living in 2022, but they’d be seeing information from 2021 since that was when those signals were broadcast.
If that ship was parked 53 light-years away, they would be able to watch humans land on the Moon for the first time. Those television signals were generated in 1969.
Since light is an electromagnetic signal, we can use telescopes like Hubble or James Webb to capture that light and study the past. The light coming from a star one million light-years away shows us what was happening there one million years ago. If there was a habitable planet around that star and we had a sufficiently powerful telescope, we could theoretically see what life was like on that planet one million years ago.
It’s a difficult concept for some people to understand, but it’s exactly why we send telescopes like Hubble and James Webb up there. By studying the light from stars so far away, we can begin to understand the formation of the universe. We could even look back to its very beginnings.
The meme is simple, but the science is awesome.
What I have here is very bare bones, but the science from Ole Rømer to James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein is easy to read about. It’s fascinating stuff.
If you want more science stuff from this site, check out my feature STEAM Saturday, in which I gather some interesting stuff from science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics to share with you. I publish that (roughly) every two weeks.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
That’s two shows that couldn’t be more different. Well, except that there’s a British guy in an American show, and there’s an American guy on the British show, but who’s counting?
These Classic Track Quarantine Panels will be held once every two weeks (or every fortnight, if you will). If you want to play along at home, grab your internet-capable device of choice and navigate the webs to the YouTube channel and/or the group on Facebook. If you join in live, you can also leave comments and participate in the discussion using StreamYard connected through Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.
The next panel will be on May 5th. The future of these panels includes an appreciation of a staple of 1980s television, a Bat-Panel, a special late May surprise, some vampires, and a discussion of Saturday cartoons. You can find all of this and more every other Thursday as the American Sci-Fi Classics Track explores the vast reaches of classic American science fiction.
The episode art each week is generously provided by the talented Sue Kisenwether. You can find her (among other places) on Women at Warp: A Star Trek Podcast.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
STEAM Saturday Sunrise, Junk Science and Gender, and Global Supply Chains April 23, 2022
In this edition, take a look at the sunrise across the world, junk science and gender, and global supply chains.
NASA – A Sunrise Across Our World (Apr 22, 2022) Every 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets. The full-resolution image can be found on NASA’s site.
Wall Street Journal – Why Global Supply Chains May Never Be the Same | A WSJ Documentary Every day, millions of sailors, truck drivers, longshoremen, warehouse workers, and delivery drivers keep mountains of goods moving into stores and homes to meet consumers’ increasing expectations of convenience. But this complex movement of goods underpinning the global economy is far more vulnerable than many imagined.
Be Smart – A PBS Digital Studios science show hosted by Dr. Joe Hanson (Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Biology).
Veritasium – A combination of the Latin for truth, veritas, and the suffix common to many elements, -ium, this show is literally an element of truth. It is hosted by Australian-Canadian science communicator, filmmaker, and inventor Derek Muller (Ph.D., Physics Education Research).
Becky Stern – Becky Stern is a maker living in NYC – making and sharing are her two biggest passions!
Jerry Rig Everything – Zack Nelson has used his love of repairing, simple explanations, and brief tutorials to help millions of people with repairs of their own. Outside of YouTube, his ‘to-the-point’ style of teaching has created instructional and informational videos for manufacturers and factories around the world.
Practical Engineering – Grady Hillhouse is a civil engineer in San Antonio, Texas. His channel aims to increase exposure and interest in the field of engineering by highlighting the connection between the world around us and the energy, passion, and thought that goes into making it a nicer place to live.
Jared Owen – Jared Owen uses 3D animations powered by Blender to explain how things work.
Nick Zammeti – A woodturner and artist based in the United Kingdom, Nick Zammeti thrives in funky and creative projects fueled by a healthy love of pop culture, especially Back to the Future. [A]
The Smugglers Room – Building something out of nothing with a Star Wars flair is the order of the day in the Smugglers Room.
Moonpie Creations – Ken is a woodworker and creator who likes to have fun. A combat veteran, he uses his tools as a way to relax and deal with everyday stress. He loves to try new things, think outside the box, and stay cool.
Alex Yard & Knuckles – Enjoy some video game music theory videos with Alex Yard.
I Like To Make Stuff – Bob Clagett likes to make stuff, whether it be home renovations, fixing up a vintage car, or building an astromech droid.
Wendover Productions – Wendover Productions, run by filmmaker Sam Denby, is all about explaining how our world works. From travel to economics, geography, marketing, and more, every video will leave you with a little better understanding of our world.
If you have any suggestions for STEAM Saturday, please leave them below in the comments. If your suggestion is used, your name will be credited.
Disclaimer: Please note that any sponsored content or advertising presented in videos and/or links highlighted in STEAM Saturday are not necessarily endorsed or supported by Creative Criticality. Pursue such content and offers at your own risk.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope that something inspired you to get out there and explore the universe.
STEAM Saturday is a celebration of curiosity and imagination through science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics, the very building blocks of the universe around us.
Creative Criticality 