Tuesday, September 13, 2011

For Kids, Big And Small

Before we go anywhere, I'd like to take a minute to thank Blogger for nothing. Particularly not saving all the earlier changes I'd made to this post, making all that work... for nothing. You suck.


Carrying on...


Stacy


Let's start this out right. Play the first few seconds to get the idea of what's happening, then skip ahead to the 50 second mark.



Not sure how many times the boys and I watched this, but it hasn't lost it's magic yet.


So today's random is random with a point. With the exception of the first video, everything posted here came from a fantastic new site called The Kid Should See This that is made up of videos that, while maybe not originally geared towards children, are educational and actually interesting to them. And no, I'm not promoting this site. Well, actually I am, but purely because I think the site is awesome and I think anyone with kids should know about it. Hell, even if you don't have kids, these videos are great. I've watched all of them and can't wait for more to be posted. I first heard about it on Kottke.org who described it like this:
With obvious exceptions, media “made for kids” is mindnumbingly dumb. YouTube, Flickr, and Vimeo are amazing resources of not-made-for-kids but totally-appropriate-for-kids stuff like what Rion is posting here.
Anybody out there remember the movie The Black Hole? If you do, you'll get the reference in a minute.




The next one is from General Dynamic. It uses dropped objects and gelatin molds to illustrate the transfer of energy in their dynamic braking system on hybrid locomotives. Dropping heavy things on jello in slo-mo, how can you go wrong?



Lastly, and my favourite, is this. A NASA promotional video that wasn't even created by NASA, but a fan who wanted to show what the space agency could do for itself if it only tried.


"In all of their brilliance, NASA seems to have forgotten to share their hopes and dreams in a way the public can relate to, leaving one of humanity’s grandest projects with terrible PR and massive funding cuts."
Make sure you supersize this one, it deserves it.



It's sad to think that what we spent on the mortgage bailout a few years back was more than NASA's entire 50 year budget. That 50 years bought us a man on the moon, the shuttle program, the International Space Station, the Mars rover, probes sent out past the farthest reaches of our solar system and inspired countless numbers of boys and girls to grow  up and become scientists and engineers. The mortgage bailout bought us out of our own stupidity, and only temporarily at that. Wouldn't it be great if we could go back to the optimism of the early space program? Wouldn't it be great to have something like that to inspire our children? Personally, I'd be much happier knowing my tax dollars were going towards that than buying our way out of poor financial decisions and padding the wallets of the Wall Street executives who got away with letting it all happen.


Seriously, go check The Kid Should See This out, there's more awesomeness then I could possibly post here. I highly recommend the bike guy, the element song and the crazy octopus.

29 comments:

  1. I want that washing machine. Even after the break down, i think it might work better than mine.

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  2. I think I need to be careful which ones I show the kids... I need my washing machine. :)

    Awesome videos.... I'll check out the site later tonight. :)

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  3. My son would LOVE these. Science and math are his favorite subjects - so much that he even admits he likes school because of them. I'll be checking them out.

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  4. gee thanks a lot you have just determine the rest of my boys amd my life...smiles. coolsite man...i have a feel we will be sitting right here when i get home tonight...

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  5. Excellent variety here today.

    (not that it isn't usually! excellent, that is)

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  6. I'm on my way to that site.

    The recent decisions made in our country are very disappointing. We've turned from "anyone in our country can be great if they try hard enough" to "everyone should be equal and the gov't will see to it that we are all mediocre"...

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  7. the water balloon dropping on the gelatinous mass was the best!

    excellent videos!

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  8. The Jell-O video was very entertaining! Cool post today; happy RTT!

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  9. That washing machine is hilarious!!

    Happy Tuesday!

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  10. I seriously cannot understand why anyone did that do their washing machine. I am baffled. I just keep thinking... I could really have used that washing machine. {sigh}

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  11. I have an almost year old $1000 D/W I'd like to see self destruct.

    This is friggin' hilarious! Wish I had time to watch the others but...I'm at work.

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  12. OMG I'm dying here....Bwahahahahahaha!!!

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  13. All things I can't see at work. Blergh.

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  14. I should call the kids in to check out the videos, but it's so peaceful...but I should call them...but...

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  15. I want to try that to a washing machine! I better not let my boys see that.....wait....I'm calling the youngest (16) in to watch it right now. Maybe I'll slide some of those other videos in too!

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  16. Clearly a loser, I was sad to see that pretty front loader get ruined like that (but it was pretty cool).

    I scored Graham an astronaut suit for $5 yesterday at a thrift store. They have been pretending to go to space all day and it's kind of sad since the space program is kaput.

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  17. Hey that IS a good site. Awesome. I love it when somebody else sifts through millions of youtube videos and finds the best ones. Thanks for the tip!

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  18. Hats off to you, Captain. Crackin' good stuff, thank you for the links!

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  19. Hello Darling! Long time no see! All I can say about the washing machine is... you're such a boy. I don't find it particularly entertaining, but, ya know.

    Anyway, hope all is well with the little ones and SL!

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  20. I am so favoriting this website. Cool. Boy. Stuff. I love it.

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  21. Definitely have to send that site to my husband...

    Also? Just caught up on about 2 months of reading here - so I just want to say thank you for not posting every day.

    (Loved the soap opera in Mandarin story)

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  22. Definitely have to send that site to my husband...

    Also? Just got caught up on about 2 months if reading here - so I just want to say thank you for not posting every day.

    (loved the soap opera in Mandarin story)

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  23. came back to tell you I visit TKSST almost every day. Great great videos.

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  24. Wow. Let me personify the washing machine scene with an image of my last boss. I just want to -- even now -- stick a big cinderblock into her bullying, temper tantruming mouth and watch her self destruct.

    I feel vaguely self satisfied now.

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  25. The washing machine video reminds me of college. There were some art students in my building that went to the laundry room to throw a bunch of random crap in the machines and recorded the noise.

    Hippies.

    And thinking about NASAs future (or lack thereof) just depresses me. So, thanks for that.

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  26. Where are you???????

    I've missed your randomness! I've caught up on your summer hilarity, and I must tell you again just how much you rock. I shall never listen to Wheels on the Bus the same way again. Ha!

    And The Kid Should See This??? AWESOME site! Thanks so much for this!

    Hope you're well. See ya soon. Bring back the random.

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Come on, sailor. I love you long time.