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It doesn't allow for duplication if the result is the same.

Bullshit.

In an episode of Modern Marvels about Nikola Tesla I believe it was, they'd mentioned how, since Edison had patented his light bulb, he was able to disallow Tesla from using that design at the World's Fair. So Tesla invented his own florescent bulbs. End result is the same (produce light), yet there was no patent infringement on the part of Nikola Tesla.

I believe you will get mileage out of using difference mediums. I recommend some short stories, a la Asimov's works (your choice). I also recommend some novels, such as the Ender's series by Orson Scott Card (plenty of social and moral questions in that, esp. the sequels).
I would also recommend comics. Superman and Batman are still known to the current generation through cartoons and movies, for the non-readers. You can look at the art as well as the topics and writing for different eras. There is a decent documentary by the History Channel, titled "Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked", covering comic book heroes from the 30's through the turn of the century.

So in the middle of the 80s, when things were pretty tense, it was clear the Soviet dictatorship was struggling and might do something a bit mad, and Reagan makes a gag on radio about declaring war on the Soviet Union? ("we start the bombing in five minutes"). He sure scared us Europeans. We're in the middle of a cold war and the USA has a semi-senile nutter who thinks winding up the nuclear armed totalitarian guys who are a couple of hundred miles away is a laugh?

If this is his idea of a joke, what's he really thinking? we all thought....

We got pretty scared then. I can believe the Soviet Union was equally nervous of this right wing hawk and decided to build some defence systems to avoid worst case scenarios.

And now, the Administration is taking cues from TV shows. Kinda sad.

Hear hear! I'm glad someone brought this up. Why, I remember on a particular episode of Modern Marvels about carbon, where they talked about a particular style of racecar that used carbon fiber because it was lighter and would fare far better in a crash than a similar racecar made out of steel.

Someone needs to mod you up.

If you watch the History channels very, very early in the morning, you'll find that they run a show with less/no commercials to make room before the top of the hour. During that time, they have a History Classroom or something show (seriously - that's not my best time of day, so I apologize for inaccuracies).

One thing I noticed - there's a screen that gives instructions to teachers that they have to delete any video recordings they've made of the show after a certain date - I recall, sleepily - that it's within a year or something.

Now - how does history go stale in a year?

I did a lot of digging to find the food chain on this one... History is the Classroom ties into Cable in the Classroom. Here's what they have to say:

http://www.history.com/global/feedback/faq.jsp?NetwCode=THC&level_1=nodes_54224&level_2=nodes_54240&level_3=nodes_54297&x=35&y=11
http://www.ciconline.org/faq#Copyright
http://www.ciconline.org/copyright
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml

Now, color me naive - but that's the beginning of the foodchain for a teacher to BEGIN to simply videotape something related to history of educational value to show to their students. I quote - and I am not making this up:

What's an educator to do? Read Education World's five-part series on copyright, fair use, and new technologies, that's what! We did the work so you wouldn't have to!
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280a.shtml
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280b.shtml
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280c.shtml
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280d.shtml
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr280e.shtml

In an age where our test scores show we're failing, with teachers overburdened like never before - related to a show that a kid can just watch at home without encumbrances (should his/her parents **be there** for the kid with this kind of info) - note what the teacher has to go through.

As opposed to just taping it and working it into the lesson plan - because it comes from a place called the History Channel - tied to Cable in the Classroom - where "cable" is that thing usually subsidized by local communities as a near utility.

Thanks, copyright eagles. Thanks a lot.

It's little-known that Bush also found some critical errors in Fermilab calculations.

Oh but seriously, Jimmy Carter's background as a nuclear physicist and engineer became somewhat useful during the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor partial-meltdown.

On April 1, President Jimmy Carter arrived at Three Mile Island to inspect the plant. Carter, a trained nuclear engineer, had helped dismantle a damaged Canadian nuclear reactor while serving in the U.S. Navy.

That Onion story also reminded me of this SNL sketch from 1986 or so. Some jokes are eternal...

W

Educate yourself my friend. Christmas is based on non-Christian traditions that were absorbed by Christianity because they could not get people to stop celebrating them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas or if you don't like Wikipedia http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=Minisite_Generic&content_type_id=61264&display_order=2&mini_id=1290

I have to say January 29th has had quite the jaded history including the death of Robert Frost and GWB's declaring the "axis of evil". At least we can celebrate the inception of the first baseball hall of famers. Now add to the list, "this is the day the agora android was suppose to release, but failed citing future interoperability."

Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday honoring African heritage, marked by participants lighting a kinara (candle holder).[1] It is observed from December 26 to January 1 each year.

As an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community, Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense.

Kwanzaa is a non-religious African American holiday which celebrates family, community, and culture.

kwanzaa isn't a holiday, retard.

Bad form to reply to oneself, but I watched the History Channel show again last night, and it's two planes, not three, that fly as Air Force One--one is Air Force One, and one backup. The rest of the entourage flies ahead in various Air Force transports, carrying along the advance team, presidential vehicles, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_technology

We uncover more and more stuff which amazes us. Last History Channel program I watched about the excavation of Caligula's floating pleasure palace ships from Lake Nemi even had ball bearings being used.

http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=322620

There were many engineering marvels, aqueducts, military weapons. Are we going to pretend Newton's Laws weren't know then? They were aiming canon fire, heating water in baths, plumbing, pumps, medicine, etc. It doesn't seem a stretch to think that the scientific method steps had to be redeveloped after the burning of the Library at Alexandria, and it wasn't until well into the Industrial Revolution that ancient achievements were starting to finally be surpassed. Sure some Roman uses of technology are borrowed from the Greeks, but it's not like those Greeks in the Roman Empire stopped working on intellectual pursuits. Rome was rich because it embraced merchant trade.

And why were the ancients so advanced? Perhaps one reason is that all ships which entered the harbor of Alexandria were *required* by law to turn over all books for copying by the scribes.

Nah. Americans have hated the French since long before the Iraq thing. Remember when the US was flying to bomb Momar Khadaffi in Libya and France wouldn't let them fly over French airspace? There was a big surge of anti-France sentiment then.

I know others have said this as well, but I have a 7 year old boy and he's been absolutely loves watching The Universe on The History Channel with me. After having watched almost all of the episodes over the past two seasons, he can converse far more intelligently about cosmology than most adults can.

When in the car, we also listen to the Astronomy Cast podcast. Dr. Pamela Gay does a great job of getting the science across in an informative and entertaining way without dumbing it down too much for us non professional physicists and astronomers.

Yes, a lot of it is over his head (heck, a lot of it is over my head), but he asks very intelligent questions about time, space, where everything came from, and where it's all headed, so I highly recommend those two sources.

We've tried watching reruns of Cosmos. It was an absolutely groundbreaking and stunning show 28 years ago. But by today's standards, the graphics are weak and some of the science is dated. It's amazing how much we as a species have learned about the universe we live in in that short amount of time.

-S

I know others have said this as well, but I have a 7 year old boy and he's been absolutely loves watching The Universe on The History Channel with me. After having watched almost all of the episodes over the past two seasons, he can converse far more intelligently about cosmology than most adults can.

When in the car, we also listen to the Astronomy Cast podcast. Dr. Pamela Gay does a great job of getting the science across in an informative and entertaining way without dumbing it down too much for us non professional physicists and astronomers.

Yes, a lot of it is over his head (heck, a lot of it is over my head), but he asks very intelligent questions about time, space, where everything came from, and where it's all headed, so I highly recommend those two sources.

We've tried watching reruns of Cosmos. It was an absolutely groundbreaking and stunning show 28 years ago. But by today's standards, the graphics are weak and some of the science is dated. It's amazing how much we as a species have learned about the universe we live in in that short amount of time.

-S

"The Universe" has a really bizarre online distribution model where they always have an assortment of "short" interesting clips and one or two old "full length episodes" posted for streaming.

For instance, the Full Episodes that are up now are "Nebulas" and "Cosmic Collisions"... and you can expect CC to be replaced by something else a week from now. For a 7-year old, I would venture to guess that watching this streaming over the internet isn't optimal though.

Another alternative is to just order the first season of DVDs and then watch the second season which is currently being shown.

Having said all that, the discussions on The Universe are definitely geared towards laymen and I wouldn't have a doubt that young teens would be able to grasp the concepts that they talk about. Plus, as an engineer in his mid-20's the show has taught me quite a lot about how exploration of "The Universe" has advanced in the last twenty years (an example at the top of my head is the presentation of hard evidence of the asteroid that struck the Yucatan and killed the dinosaurs -- hint: a layer of glass at the impact site).

So... even if your 7-year old seems too young for it, you would still probably learn a thing or two and become more equipped to answer her questions about science, space, creation, and the Universe.

Just as a consideration, you should try to find the History Channel's documentary on Life After People. It shows, rather dramatically, just how quickly technology fails when there's no one around to maintain it.

Also, while we would have guns and knives, what are we using them on? Each other? With a major eruption, thousands of square kilometers of material is thrown into the atmosphere, including ash and nasty sulfurs (think acid rain). Skys darken. Plants die. Animals that eat plants die. Plankton in the ocean, which also needs light, dies. Fish that eat plankton die. With no food, billions of humans die.

And with no one to maintain it, so does our massive technology base. No power, water, sanitation.

Unless, as the original article indicates, you're able to find some area that's less affected, or unless we can put together some nuclear-powered underground complex with a massive hydroponics garden in an EXTREMELY short period of time, the human race is screwed.

There's a documentary that airs on the History Channel from time to time called "The Boneyard" that covers this.

There are a few levels for mothballed planes... some are prepped for long term storage, some are kept in a condition that they can be recalled to flight status in about a month or so IIRC, and others are kept as just a spare part repository.

It was actually an interesting show, besides the planes it covered ships and missiles being decommissioned and . If you've got a TiVo or other DVR with the feature, put "boneyard" in your wish list so it'll catch it the next time it airs. There's a site for it, but the TV schedule page is empty:

http://www.history.com/minisites/boneyard

~Philly

The History channel has a program on some of these amazingly complex ancient machines

Yeah. You can really get a feel for how insignificant we really are on affecting climate if you check out the history channel's "how the earth was made". We've been here about a blink of an eye in the earth's history:

http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=242366

While the term "shithole country" is a bit degrading, I actually have a bit of skepticism about this myself.

I recently got a real eye opening while watching this documentary from the History Channel about Liberia. It shows how horribly wrong well-meaning "social experiments" can go. I later checked out additional information about Liberia from PBS - America's Stepchild and Wikipedia - Liberia.

When society breaks down, all manner of tools become weapons. It will be interesting to see how these (quite powerful) tools are used.

Just FYI for those who enjoyed "The Science of Superman", the same guy, Michael Dennin (a friend of mine from Church [Catholic if you're interested] will be hosting a show on the technology of Star Wars, Mon. May 28th 8PM on the History Channel.

Here's a link: Star Wars - The Legacy Revealed

Michael is a professor of Physics and Astro-Physics at UCI and an all-around great guy.

Cheers Michael, if you read /. Great work.

Oh Yeah, that show kicks off the whole Star Wars History Channel event which starts at 9PM.

I found this out when I got a TiVo Series 3. I noticed that every show I recorded, including ones that were deemed copyright cleared (eg: cable in the classroom) were marked as "Copy Restricted" on my TiVo. This means that the show cannot be saved or copied off the Tivo.

I found out this was because my cable company was setting the CCI flag to 0x2 for all channels in my cable system with the exception of local broadcast stations. This means my local cable company was overriding the wishes of the content provider (in this case Cable in the Classroom) and copy protecting the content.

Other people have been restricted from even recording a channel to TiVo because the CCI flag was set to 0x3.

When I complained to my cable provider, Comcast, about them blanketly applying the CCI flag of 0x2 to everything they basically told me to shut up and take it.

You can see him on the History Channel

(I monitored, so I have to post AC)

Mostly copper tools, not much arsenic bronze, and little to no tin bronze:

http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/trades/tools.htm

Tin bronze is a fascinating subject

http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/uc_slat tery_tin.htm

Also, much of the stone dressing was done with other, harder stones. Granite for dressing limestone, and basalt (? like I ever see basalt) dressing granite.

Robocop Banzai covered some of this on THC.