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If you enjoy science or a skeptical viewpoint you might be interested in the following (this is a brain child of Brian Dunning, who runs the Skeptoid Podcast)…

Friends – Here is a note from the director of the new TV pilot THE SKEPTOLOGISTS, starring Michael Shermer, Phil Plait, Steven Novella, Yau-Man Chan, Kirsten Sanford, and Mark Edward. We are shortly going to be out pitching it to the networks and are seeking as much email support as we can get.

Please consider posting this announcement, or any variation of it including the email address, to any blogs, podcasts, email lists or other resources you may have. Let’s get this show on the air!!!

Raise your voice! Let it be known that it’s time for a TV series that focuses on the real, the intelligent and important advances in science, critical thinking and skepticism. The Skeptologists will be pitched to major networks soon, and we want to give the programming executives a sense of what kind of support they can received if they invest in a TV series of this kind.

We have started an email campaign to have fans of the show write-in in support of this show idea and let us know why you would watch a show about critical thinking, science and skepticism! We will compile the emails and present to the executives along with our all-star cast, entertaining pilot program and solid production background to seal a great TV deal to give the Skeptics of the world a show they can stand behind, and be proud of!

Take a moment, and send a brief email to skeptologists@newrule.com. You email will be collected and will help support the show.

I’m going to watch the movie Spirit of the Marathon on Thurs evening at 7:30.  If you are interested in running or just enjoy watching personal stories of triumph, see if it is available at a theater near you.

I just finished watching the last DVD of the Veronica Mars series. In a nutshell, it is a show about a kick-ass teenage (high-school -> college) girl who works with her private investigator dad and ends up using her PI skills to solve tons of mysteries, as well as dealing with family, friendship, and social issues. The plots and characters are interesting, nothing is ever as it seems in the beginning, and the dialog is fantastic. I think this series ranks up with the new Battlestar Galactica as one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Unfortunately, it was canceled towards the end of the 3rd season.

I discovered the series while reading a post by Bill Kratzer made about the show and was really intrigued seeing Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon’s comments about how much they enjoyed Veronica.

I spent a bit of time this weekend watching some amazing videos from the TED conference archives. There is a wide range of topics available. I particularly enjoyed:

• Steve Johnson’s presentation on the story of a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the major breakthrough in understanding about how cholera spread and could be stopped.
• David Gallo showing some bio-luminescent deep-sea creatures and mind-blowing examples of camouflage (the best parts are towards the end).
• Alan Russell talks about regenerative medicine, showing some really cool early results.

I also read an interesting NY Times article by Steven Pinker called “The Moral Instinct” that explores how morals differ from other opinions we hold about proper behavior and some questions that help you analyze your own values.

Here are a couple of products/services/authors that I’ve used/read lately that I really like:

• Virtualization – VMWare Fusion for OSX
• Portable automotive GPS – Garmin C340 (simple interface, comes pre-loaded with maps for entire US and uses text-to-speech to pronounce street names before turns). You can get it at Amazon for about $260.
• Fitness GPS – Garmin Forerunner/Edge 305 (combines watch/heartrate/GPS). You can get it under $200 if you shop around with rebates.
• Austin Bookstore -Book People( as big as the big-box bookstores but with a great vibe, a ton of staff recommendations and lots authors that come and speak)
• Austin Ice-cream – Amy’s (if you go to the 6th street location the scoopers perform crazy acrobatic/tossing moves as they mix your add-ins and put it into a dish)
• Author – Richard Wiseman (wrote Quirkology and The Luck Factor among others)
• Harrisburg Burritos – Neato Burrito (no frills ambiance but tasty food)

I went to the public viewing tonight at the Astronomical Society of Harrisburg tonight.  I was hoping to get a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower, but there too much cloud cover (apparently there was some good visibility of it last night).  The ASH had a bunch of telescopes in operation (some up to 17″), and the members were helping to orient them for the public.  I was able to get some nice sightings of Jupiter, including being able to clearly see some stripes.  I’m hoping to go back some other Sunday night when the sky is clearer.

I played with a Wii at a friend’s house around Christmas and it was pretty fun. I had been checking the local Target and Costo stores once every few weeks for Wiis, but they never had any in stock. I finally broke down and bought one on Ebay for about $320. It arrived yesterday and the whole user experience is just a good time.

My wife and I spent about 20 minutes checking out all the options available for creating the avatars used in the game (called “Miis”) and then we played some bowling. I also played a bit with the tennis and boxing games. I know you don’t need to put a lot of body english into moves, but it can make it more fun (and somewhat of a workout).

If you are a graphics junkie, theWii will very likely dissapoint you as the graphics certainly aren’t killer, but the way you interact with the game controllers makes playing far more enjoyable than any experience I’ve had with other game consoles or PC based games. I need to pick some more games and an extra controller set this weekend so two people can play at once.

Clio and I just came back from a great meal at TJ Rockwells, one of our favorite restaurants. We used to eat there frequently when I had an apartment in Elizabethtown, but it is a bit of a hike from our current location. While eating there we noticed that the menu cover listed ‘Elizabethtown and Mechanicsburg’ locations. We asked our waitress about the new location (W. Grantham Rd, near Messiah College), she said it was still waiting for some inspections, but would hopefully be open in a month or two.