Wrapup – National Academies Communications Fair

July 22nd, 2010 | By 49

What an awesome and exhausting time!

AM – Reel Science

Let me explain some drama that morning. I had crafted this OpenOffice Presentation to run from my Macbook Pro 15. Well the Mac  failed to display to their house projector system with two separate mini-display port adapters! My bacon was only saved via the quick thinking of Lauren Aguiree. She suggested I export as a PDF to run on the ‘house’  laptop. This worked with a bare 30 seconds to spare!

EDIT: I went to the Genius Bar in the Apple Store. They duplicated the issue and will be replacing my logic board. Because of my wifi trouble at home, they will also be replacing the Airport card. Sucks that the hardware crapped out but I’m thankful for AppleCare and having a physical store to go to for technical help.

The panel was titled “Reel Science: Communicating Science Through Visual Media”. It had Lauren Aguirre from PBS/Nova, John Hoffman from HBO Documentary Films, Beth Nissen from NBC Learn and myself. I think we were very well received by the audience. Chris Palmer was a great ring master. I loved how he introduced us with our normal credentials, would slap the table and say “AND HERE IS WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW!” . My “Reel Science” speech is available on Rapbassador.com!

A memorable part of the panel was when Nissen gave a quote from a poet “The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”

PM – TEDx

In the afternoon I was part of some TED Tryouts. Technically it was TEDx Tryouts because it wasn’t officially part of TED but ran in the exact TED format. We also had Kelly Stoetzel, the Content Director at TED. All of the speakers were excellent! I had fun performing Particle Business in which I had a cardboard cutout of Albert Einstein rap the hook and was slapping hands with people in the crowd (who were apparently important bosses and stuff!). I had totally forgotten that I actually mention the city in Particle Business “ballot box for better decisions in DC” until I actually said them on stage! That reminds me of when I rapped at Fermilab and while performing Starblazer it came to me that I was rapping about “shooting protons” and “I’m the rhymer super-collider”. I’m so dumb sometimes.

DC was great. I got to hang with my mom. See the International Spy Museum. Stay at a fancy-pants hotel (with a goldfish named Ana). Hang with friends, Winn & Chuq, who live in the area. Lose my cellphone (VERZION! WHERE IS MY INCREDIBLE?) in Winn’s truck. Talk World Cup with some cabbies. Eat some fine tapas. Drink some beer. Meet a BUNCH of cool people. Share some science. The ~36 hours of DC were certainly good times!