So I’ve just got back from Cardiff, where the sun shone on a collective1 of science communicators, performers, public engagement professionals, and other specialists in the loose field we use for ‘gainful employment’. For those unfamiliar with BIG, it is the UK’s STEM Communicator Network, (originally called the ‘Hands-On Group’, then the ‘British Interactive Group’, who specialised in museum prop building.)
Continue reading “BIG: Love Handles, Middle-age Spread, and Heat-death of the Universe”I’ve Got A Style… Apparently.
Had another bout of COVID again, seemingly acquired from open day. Anyway, just before that happened, I managed to get a load of footage to create two films. After he received the assembly cut of the first one, Chris told me that ‘I have a style’. I’m sure he has spotted something that is recurrent, but I’m hardly in the company of Wes Anderson. Maybe it’s the speed at which I cut, (or my refusal to cut fast even in a short form video). Maybe it’s the ‘walking out of shot’ element. It got me thinking about whether I should change that up a bit. So what were these videos about, and what did I learn from making them?
Continue reading “I’ve Got A Style… Apparently.”Let’s Talk Tech – 2) EMF Detectors
You’ll often seen these being waved around by ghost hunters, as the claim is that ghosts manifest themselves through disturbances in the local electromagnetic field (EMF). Investigators will refer to witnessing spikes in EMF as ghosts try to communicate with them. I won’t go into why they believe this, other than to say that it is often portrayed as direct communication when the needle moves.
So what is EMF? Let’s not panic about something being a human thing that isn’t a natural phenomenon. We find it in the power put out from the Sun, and when that electromagnetic radiation interferes with the Earth’s magnetic field we witness the Aurora Borealis and Australis, very natural events. Yet humans have filled the earth with EMF too. Modern life brings its conveniences, many electrical in nature; WiFi, microwave ovens, and radio waves, etc.
Continue reading “Let’s Talk Tech – 2) EMF Detectors”