Technorama

Coming up in this episode…

* Wipe your hard drive

* Russian Batman

* The Floppotron

Listen below with the audio player or Click Here for complete show notes and video from the show.

Feedback

* No feedback – call us on the listener line, leave us an email, etc. We want to hear from you!

* Jack’s clip

* Tiffany’s clip

* Thank you Laura and Brianna for the NASA patch and bit of space blanket

On This Day In History for July 13, 2016

This is the 195th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 171 days remaining  in 2016.

This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday (58 in 400 years each) then on Saturday or Sunday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Tuesday or Thursday (56).

* It was on this date in 1919 that The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight.

* That same date in 1923, The Hollywood Sign is officially dedicated in the hills above Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It originally reads “Hollywoodland ” but the four last letters are dropped after renovation in 1949.

* Also today in 1973, Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the “Nixon tapes” to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break-in.

* 39 years ago today, in New York City, amidst a period of financial and social turmoil experiences an electrical blackout lasting nearly 24 hours that leads to widespread fires and looting.

* Also today in 1985, The Live Aid benefit concert takes place in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

* English-Welsh mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer, John Dee, born on this date in 1527

* John Jacob Astor IV, American colonel and businessman was born today in 1864

* The man who played Colonel Hogan on Hogan’s Heros, actor Bob Crane was born today in 1928.

* Canadian-French astrophysicist and author Hubert Reeves is 84 today

* It’s also the 82nd birthday of Russian Engineer and Astronaut, Aleksei Yeliseyev

* Star Trek birthday – Sir Patrick Stewart is 76

* Star Wars birthday – Harrison Ford is 74 (that rhymes!)

* The man who consumed too much of my younger years because he invented a silly colored cube which bears his name: Ernő Rubik is 72.

* Cheech Marin is 70

* and our final celebrity birthday goes out to Astronomer and Astronaut George Nelson who turns 66.

From our wonderful listener birthday calendar…

* Friend of the show and frequent Technorama guest, Ben Ragunton is today, July 13.

* Long time listener Brian Witt’s mom Joan is on the 14th

* Also on the 14th is Matthew Wayne Selznick

* July 18th is Lord Doomicus

* And finally, another long time friend of the show, Nikolai from Dancing with Elephants podcast!

If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our Wiki.

Don’t forget, today is Embrace your geekness day – Some people are ashamed of their inner geek – they are afraid to be stereotyped as antisocial, and have an innate fear of fixing things for others. But on this day you can cast away your fears and embrace your desire to defrag your computer drive. Who knows, by the end of the day, you too may have an appreciation for the geek culture.

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for July 13, 2016

News

* Man retrieves GoPro after two years and gets a killer shot of the Earth

*

Coming up in this episode…

* Lasers!

* A look at the inside of the Enterprise

* Jupiter

Listen below with the audio player or Click Here for complete show notes and video from the show.

Feedback

* Krazy Joe

Question of the Week: What space alien race would you want to be?

* John Miller Jr Kryptonian. Do you REALLY have to ask?

On This Day In History for July 6, 2016

This is the 188th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 178 days remaining in 2016.

* It was on this date in 1189 that Richard I “the Lionheart” accedes to the English throne.

* July 6, 1865, The first issue of The Nation magazine is published

* Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog 131 years ago today

* That same date in 1919, The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship

* The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The American League defeated the National League 4–2 on this date in 1933

* Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the “Secret Annexe” above her father’s office in an Amsterdam warehouse 74 years ago today

* Jackie Robinson refuses to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court-martial on this date in 1944.

* It was 69 years ago today that The AK-47 goes into production in the Soviet Union

* 59 years ago today, John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time, as teenagers at Woolton Fete, three years before forming the Beatles.

* The Late Late Show, the world’s longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTE One for the first time on this date in 1962.

* It was 26 years ago today that Electronic Frontier Foundation is founded

* July 6, 2003, The 70-metre Yevpatoria Planetary Radar sends a METI message (Cosmic Call 2) to five stars: Hip 4872, HD 245409, 55 Cancri (HD 75732), HD 10307 and 47 Ursae Majoris (HD 95128). The messages will arrive to these stars in 2036, 2040, 2044, and 2049, respectively.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

* Swiss anatomist and physiologist Albert von Kölliker born on this date in 1817.

* Also born that same date one year later, German chess player Adolf Anderssen.

* July 16, 1903 is the birthday of Swedish biochemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate Hugo Theorell.

* The man who created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, actor, singer, and producer, Merv Griffin was born today in 1925.

* Bill Haley, yes – the one from Bill Haley & His Comets – shares the same exact birthday as Merv Griffin

* Actor Ned Beatty is 79 this year

* …and finally, guess how old Sylvester Stallone is… if you said 70, you’d be right

* This is also National Fried Chicken Day in the United States

* and finally today is “Take your webmaster to lunch day”

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for July 6, 2016

News

* Where in the multiverse have Chuck and Kreg been?

Follow up

* The Original Starship Enterprise Has Been Restored to Its Former Glory

Listener Birthday Calendar

* 06 – Peter (1982, Sweden)

* 08 – Trampas Whiteman (aka Dragonhelm)

* 08 – Mark Lee (aka geekdad72) Stardate -351519.09

* 08 – Alan Ralph (a.k.a. MonTemplar)

 Marlene Forte plays Celia Flores – the main antagonist in the mid-season finale of “Fear of The Walking Dead”.

Celia Flores is a survivor of the outbreak and an antagonist encountered in AMC’s Fear Of The Walking Dead. She is the mother of Luis and the main antagonist of the first half of Season 2.

After Decades in the industry, Forte is one of those familiar faces to which you’d have trouble putting the name. Yet you’ve seen here everywhere simply because she’s played them all. In fact, her work reads like the ultimate directory of television – from “Crossing Jordan”, “The George Lopez Show”, “The Mentalist”, “Law & Order”, “Bones”, “Daybreak”, “The West Wing”, “ER”, “Lost”, “Castle” to “House of Payne”, “24”, “ Community”, and “The Secret Life Of The American Teenager”, among many others. Of course, her recurring role in TNT’s relaunched “Dallas” playing Carmen Ramos has made her even more recognizable and admired and so will her character Celia Flores in AMC’s “Fear of the Walking Dead”. On the movie side, she played the transporter chief in the 2009 JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” reboot; Mrs. Glass in “Real Women Have Curves”; and the unforgettable Pilar Brown in “Our Song” opposite Kerry Washington (“Scandal”). She appeared recently in the Marlon Wayans’ parnormal’esque parody “A Haunted House”, and Tyler Perry’s “A Single Mom’s Club” (her second time working with the award-winning director).

Marlene Forte’s Hollywood success story unfolds like a rags-to-riches movie script – it is a story that not only anyone can relate to, but also feel inspired from.

When Marlene turned 30, she decided to become an actress. That’s a late start for most occupations; in Hollywood it’s nearly unheard of. But for Cuban born girl named for one of Tinseltown’s brightest stars (Marlene Dietrich) perhaps the journey was predestined. It started in Havana, Cuba, where Forte was born. When she was 9 months old, just as Fidel Castro’s regime began to take hold in the late 1950s, her family moved to New York City. When Forte was 3, they moved to heavily Cuban Union City, and later to West New York and then North Bergen. She studied at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck as an English major and completed graduate work at Montclair State University to become a teacher before deciding in the mid ’80s to get into acting. She had always wanted to, but it seemed too unstable a career path for the oldest daughter in an immigrant family, a young mother who had married and later divorced her high school sweetheart.

Forte opened and ran a video store for six years as sort of an “intense film education,” then she sold the place, took classes at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and snagged an adjunct spot at The Lab, where she shadowed such actors as Sam Rockwell and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

As her star fast-steadily continues to rise, so are the accolades. Last year, The Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors (HOLA) – the nation’s longest running active arts advocacy organization for Latino actors – honored her with a HOLA Award for “Excellence in Television”. Most recently she received a “Pioneer Award” at the 2014 Reel Rasquache Art & Film Festival and an “Artist Award” from Union City.

Today Marlene Forte is still doing it all. She continues to do shorts and live theater, to work on web projects (notably the Imagen Award winner “Ysle” with Ruth Livier), to tackle indie films and big budget movies, and pop in some of TV’s high-profiled series and sitcoms, including the cult-classic international smash “Dallas”. And as she is keeping that acting bug rolling and the roles coming,

Chuck, Kreg and our friends Ben and Keith fromTGGeeks had an opportunity to visit

The Lowell Observatory and speak with Kevin Schindler the Historian at the Observatory.

Kevin talks about how it all began, Percival Lowell’s history and mission and let’s us in on what is going on at the Observatory today.

Join Chuck along with Ben and Keith from TG Geeks for a look at our busy and productive weekend at Phoenix Comicon 2016.

Chuck, Kreg and our friends Ben and Keith from TGGeeks had an opportunity to visit

The Lowell Observatory and speak with Kevin Schindler the Historian at the Observatory.

Kevin talks about how it all began, Percival Lowell’s history and mission and let’s us in on what is going on at the Observatory today.

Chuck, Kreg and our friends Ben and Keith from TGGeeks had an opportunity to visit

The Lowell Observatory and speak with Kevin Schindler the Historian at the Observatory.

Kevin talks about how it all began, Percival Lowell’s history and mission and let’s us in on what is going on at the Observatory today.

Coming up in this episode…

* Star Trek

* Going Green

* Fictional Materials

Listen below with the audio player or Click Here for complete show notes and video from the show.

 

Feedback:

* Gary from Jacksonville – geekiest place on Earth

On This Day In History for May 25, 2016

This is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 220 days remaining in 2016.

* It was on this day in 240 BC we find the first recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet.

* John T. Scopes is indicted for teaching Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution in Tennessee on this date in 1925.

* May 25, 1953, at the Nevada Test Site, the United States conduct their first and only nuclear artillery test.

* 63 years ago today, the first public television station in the United States officially begins broadcasting as KUHT from the campus of the University of Houston.

* Also today in 1955, the first ascent of Kangchenjunga (8,586 m.), the third-highest mountain in the world, by a British expedition led by Charles Evans. Joe Brown and George Band reached the summit on May 25, followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather the next day.

* 55 years ago today, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the Moon” before the end of the decade.

* Also today in 1966, Explorer 32 launches.

* That same date in 1968, Gateway Arch Saint Louis Gateway Arch is dedicated.

* Star Wars is released in theaters 39 years ago today.

* It was 30 years ago today that Hands Across America takes place.

* May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer, 32 years old, of Boulder, Colorado, becomes the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

* That same date in 2008, NASA’s Phoenix lander lands in Green Valley region of Mars to search for environments suitable for water and microbial life.

* Also today in 2012, The Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully rendezvous with the International Space Station.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

* American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, born on this date to 1803.

* Also born that same date in 1889 founder of the Sikorsky Aircraft company, Igor Sikorsky.

* Co-founder of Random House, Bennet Cerf was born today in 1898.

* May 25, 1926 is also the birthday of actor Claude Akins.

* It’s also the birthday of actress and soprano Beverly Sills 87 years ago today.

* Russian engineer and astronaut, Georgy Grechko is 85 today.

* Sir Ian McKellen is 77.

* Actress/singer Leslie Uggams is 73.

* Frank Oz is now 72.

* Psychologist and computer scientist Catherine G. Wolf is 69.

* and our final birthday goes to actor, singer, producer and screenwriter Mike Myers is 53.

Don’t forget, May 25 is Geek Pride Day and Towel Day!

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for May 25, 2016

News

* NASA’s New Horizons Team Hopes To Extend Mission To Explore MU69 In Kuiper Belt : Science/Health : Headlines & Global News

Listener Birthday Calendar

* If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our Wiki.

Hacks & Strange Stories

* Go Green! Edible 6-pack rings provide safe snack for ocean life | NOLA.com

Coming up in this episode…

* Singing the blues

* Xena-phobia

* God doesn’t do lawsuits

Listen below with the audio player or Click Here for complete show notes and video from the show.

Guest Host: Ben Ragunton

On This Day In History for May 11, 2016

This is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 234 days remaining in 2016.

* It was on this date in 330 that Byzantium is renamed Nova Roma during a dedication ceremony, but it is more popularly referred to as Constantinople.

* May 11, 868, A copy of the Diamond Sutra is printed in China, making it the oldest known dated printed book

* That same date in 1792, Captain Robert Gray becomes the first documented white person to sail into the Columbia River

* May 11, 1820, HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched

* 158 years ago today, Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. State

* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded 89 years ago today

* It was 44 years ago today that United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site, which was part of the series Operation Grommet and Operation Toggle.

* 29 years ago today, In Baltimore, the first heart–lung transplant takes place. The surgery is performed by Dr. Bruce Reitz of the Stanford University School of Medicine

* Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format 19 years ago today

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

* German physician, physiologist, and anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, born on this date in 1752.

* Also born on this date in 1871 – Frank Schlesinger, American astronomer and author.

* Actor/comedian Phil Silvers was born today in 1911.

* The man who played Mad Jack on Grizzly Adams and Uncle Jessie from The Dukes of Hazzard, actor Denver Pyle would have been 96 today.

* Russian-American mathematician and theorist Eugene Dynkin, was born May 11, 1924

* Born that same day and year, Antony Hewish, English astronomer and academic

* May 11, 1930 is the birthday of Edsger W. Dijkstra, Dutch computer scientist and academic, co-developed THE multiprogramming system.

* Turning 82 today the man behind Labatt’s beer, Arthur Labatt.

* and finally one of the original MTV VJs, Martha Quinn, is 57

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for May 11, 2016

News

* Followup: NOT Boaty McBoatface

* Golden Monk

Listener Birthday Calendar

* 12 – Amanda Huggenkiss

* 14 – JPCJ

If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our Wiki.

Hacks & Strange Stories

* A restraining order against God?

* How boring is your job?

Shout out to the chat room

Join us on the Google+ hangout every Sunday night at 9:30PM ET to see and hear the show raw and unedited. Just circle Technorama Podcast, Kreg, or me and you’ll see the announcement when we join the hangout. If you think you’ll miss the announcement on FB, Twitter, etc. go to http://bit.

Coming up in this episode…

* Walter Cronkite looks to the future

* Time Traveling Politicians

* Cats

Listen below with the audio player or Click Here for complete show notes and video from the show.

 

Feedback

* Gary Lindros: I heard you talk about ET in the Star Wars movies. Have you heard about this theory?

* http://www.neatorama.com/neatogeek/2014/02/27/The-ET-Yoda-Theory/

On This Day In History for May 4, 2016

This is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 241 days remaining in 2016.

* It was on this date in 1626 that Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.

* 240 years ago today, Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

* The Cornwall Railway opens across the Royal Albert Bridge linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall in England 157 years ago today.

* Also today in 1904, The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal.

* 112 years ago today, Charles Stewart Rolls meets Frederick Henry Royce at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England

* May 4, 1932, In Atlanta, mobster Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion

* Also today in 1953, Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.

* That same date in 1959, The 1st Annual Grammy Awards are held.

* Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km) 55 years ago today

* That same date in 1979, Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

* Also today in 1988, The PEPCON disaster rocks Henderson, Nevada, as tons of Space Shuttle fuel detonate during a fire

* It was 18 years ago today that A federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives “Unabomber” Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepts a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

Happy birthday goes out on this date to:

* The man who invented the piano, Bartolomeo Cristofori born on this date in 1655

* Also born May 4, 1733, French mathematician, physicist, and sailor, Jean-Charles de Borda

* Canadian trumpet player and bandleader Maynard Ferguson was born today in 1928.

* The actor who played Principal Vernon in The Breakfast Club, Paul Gleason was born on this date in 1939.

* One of the Jackson 5, Jackie Jackson is 65

* Actress Pia Zadora is 63

* And the last birthday, astronaut and engineer Michael L. Gernhardt is 60

There are also several holidays today…

* According to the United Nations, this is Anti-Bullying Day

* it’s also International Firefighters’ Day

* and of course, May the 4th be with you – it’s Star Wars Day!

And that’s the way it was, on this day in history for May 4, 2016

News

* This Candidate for President Claims He’s Traveled Through Time

Listener Birthday Calendar

* 05 – Joe Mieczkowski host of Onthepodcast

* 06 – Amber Pace (not really a listener, but a mother and a wife of listeners)

* 06 – Bill Barbour

* 06 – Steve Bickle

* 08 – Curtis Parish

If you want to get on the Technorama Birthday Calendar, visit our Wiki.