Archive for category Alabama

Huntsville Scoop Music Break: The Bragabouts have a Music Video, Hear them on The Epic Show

The Bragabouts!
They are a Huntsville band.

The Bragabouts!
Check them out on The Epic Show TODAY(February 28) from 3-5PM CDT!

The Bragabouts!
We know a guy in the band!

The Bragabouts!
Put their sound in your sweet, sweet ears.
The Epic Show: http://tunein.com/radio/Notfar-s148334/
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Huntsville Scoop: A SMILE AS BIG AS THE MOON, Filmed at Space Camp, Premieres Tonight on ABC

Official Synopsis

A special education teacher, his class, and their inspiring journey through U.S. space camp

What We Learned: John Corbett (Northern Exposure‘s Chris in the Morning and that guy from HBO’s Sex in the City) filmed a thing in Huntsville,AL? How the heck did we miss a film crew stomping around Huntsville? Oh yeah, because this city fails to advertise anything worth noting.

Why We’ll Watch: We like to watch anything filmed in our current resident city. Now matter how hard we get that nagging feeling that it’ll be mediocre at best. Looking at you Rocket City Rednecks(which isn’t even filmed in Huntsville) and 1980s flick SPACE CAMP. On top of that it’s a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie so it will be aggressively milking all the “feel good moments” it can manufacture. Aside from all that, we’ll watch the flick. It’s a space bastard’s weakness to watch films in the genre.

Despite our suspicions, or movie cynicism, we’ll be DVRing the film. Tonight is a recording night.

When’s it coming? Tonight(January 29, 2012) on ABC.

Official site: http://www.spacecamp.com/smilemovie

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Watch:#Rocktt Interviews Haven Comics Founder @MCuthbert for 10th Anniversary Special

AL.com Senior Producer, Matt Cuthbert began local comics shop Haven Comics, Etc. 10 years ago last Saturday. Here he’s interviewed by Twitter friend, @DanielHorton‘s new monthly online show about tech and geek culture in North Alabama called #Rocktt.

10 years?! That can’t be right. We’re supposed to be traveling the world. Challenging Mars. Writing comics. Who knew we’d be running an online Newsmine of various interests?

Anyway, 10 years is also a long time to be running a retail comics business. Listen to friend Cuthbert talk about why Haven was created, serialized comics vs trade paperbacks, and the ever popular digital comics debate.
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Local News Snowmeter Full of LOLs, Predicts More Thundersnow Tonight

About a day ago, WAFF‘s Snowmeter appeared on their Facebook.

And we laughed and laughed.

Thanks to @danielhorton for reminding us about this.

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Our Strange Sky: Fermi Space Telescope Detects Antimatter in Earth’s Thunderstorms

We won’t even attempt to translate what was read in the BBC article. Here’s a bit on the actual anti-matter find.

But within that gamma-ray data lies an even more interesting result described at the meeting by Dr McEnery and her collaborators Michael Briggs of the University of Alabama Huntsville and Joseph Dwyer of the Florida Institute of Technology.

“We expected to see TGFs; they had been seen by the GBM’s predecessor,” Dr McEnery explained.

“But what absolutely intrigues us is the discovery that TGFs produce not just gamma rays but also produce positrons, the antimatter equivalent to electrons.”

When gamma rays pass near the nuclei of atoms, they can turn their energy into two particles: an electron-positron pair.

Because electrons and positrons are charged, they align along the Earth’s magnetic field lines and can travel vast distances, gathered into tightly focused beams of matter and antimatter heading in opposite directions.

The dance of light and matter continues when positrons encounter electrons again; they recombine and produce a flash of light of a precise and characteristic colour.

It is this colour of light, picked up by the Fermi’s GBM, that is a giveaway that antimatter has been produced.

The magnetic field can transport the particles vast distances before this characteristic flash, and one of the Fermi detections was from a storm that was happening completely beyond the horizon.

The results will be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters

Informative video below.

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Art-Out Moment: Huntsville Provides Community Sculpture Tour ‘Spaces’

Art is invading the town of our current residence. Sculptures from around the land have been commissioned and brought to the space town of Huntsville. The sculptures from the tour, dubbed SPACES, will be located all over the community.

Created by artists from as far away as upstate New York, the pieces will be located around the Courthouse Square, outside the Huntsville Museum of Art and Von Braun Center.

Others will be on the campuses of Alabama A&M University and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, as well as Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment on Seminole Drive.

We suppose firing up the old digital camera and wandering the streets for art sightings is in the future. Our Flickr account has been suffering for far too long now.

The following bit is obviously of interest to our tech savvy sensibilities but no set plan on how to access mobile phone or GPS information has presented itself to us. The last installation is said to be up by December 2nd and the tour will last until 2012.

We’re guessing an “app for that” will be available soon enough.

There will be docent-led walking tours, cell phone and GPS-guided tours and even a “People’s Choice Award” to see which sculpture resonates most with the public.

Beginning: Now

Ending: Fall 2012

Official site: Spaces

For more information on SPACES, contact The Arts Council at (256) 519-ARTS.

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Today in Star Wars: Talk to Your Kids PSA. Stay Jar Jar Binks-Free for as Long as Possible.

Words to the wise, faithful reader. Words to live by.

“Han Solo shot first. I don’t want my son growing up in a world where we believe Greedo shot first.”

Whatever it takes to get this idea that Jar Jar Binks is cool out of my son’s mind, I will do it. If it means dressing up as Binks and scaring him in the night, I will do that.

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Auto-Tune the News Auto-Tunes a Huntsville’s Own Internet Sensation, Antoine Dodson

We have no words.

No words on why it took this long to notice the story.

No words on why this auto-tuned news bit is catchy as hell. Which is more than a little weird considering the situation that bore this meme.

Antoine Dodson‘s reaction to his new internet fame under the cut.
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Canadians Invade Alabama! Where Should @AlexandLuke Visit in Huntsville?

This will be quick.

Al.Com’s @MCuthbert informed:


Alexandra Sabine and Luke Vigeant are two Canadian travelers engaged in a massive social media experiment. They’re on a quest to visit every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada. And they’re doing it all based on recommendations from people on the Internet.

Together, they are Alex and Luke, and through their blog, Twitter feed, Facebook page, Gowalla check-ins, and YouTube videos, they solicit suggestions on what city to visit next — and also what to see, where to eat, and where to stay while there. Basically, they’re living their lives through crowd-sourcing.

Then he suggested:

@groonk Tell @alexandluke where to go while they’re in your city today! http://bit.ly/aFBAu5less than a minute ago via Seesmic

They’re in Huntsville today. But these places have already been suggested.

After Birmingham, they’re heading up to Huntsville, where they may see the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Big Spring Park, Harrison Brothers Hardware, Maple Hill Cemetery, or Monte Sano Mountain. Along they way, suggestions could take them to Rickwood Caverns in Warrior, Alabama or Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman.

So here’s our list of Huntsville visits:

US Space and Rocket Center. : http://www.spacecamp.com/museum/
It’s already been suggested but we must reiterate. Walking around inside with the Rocket in a Box(authentic Saturn V rocket) might be preferable to running about in the Alabama heat. Also, the Space Center is hosting…

The Star Wars Experience: http://www.spacecamp.com/landing/starwars/?q=starwars
“Where Science Meets Imagination,” is the catch phrase. We experienced the museum of a galaxy, far, far away on July 4th(Groonkly Bits on that later). It’s only in town for the summer. So it’d be foolish to miss it. We suggest the augmented reality games and the Millenium falcon movie(even though its an extra $5).

Beauregard’s : http://www.eatbeauregards.com/
If you like wings. If you want wings. If you need wings. There’s no place like it. We suggest the Jordan Lane location. Soak in the ambiance. If you’d rather have a burger, they got that, too. be sure to ask about the habanero sauce.

heh.

Cricket’s : http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/168/968931/restaurant/Huntsville/Crickets-Madison
Also a wing’s place. Also very good. it’s out in Madison.

Soul Burger: http://www.groonk.net/blog/?p=11315
It’s a burger joint in a gym. How do you not visit?

Three Caves Quarry : http://www.uer.ca/locations/show.asp?locid=21021
It’s hot out there, kids. But if you don’t mind walking to it, the caves should be cooler once inside.

We’re coming up blank for other things to do.

Huntsvillians, please share your recommendations in our comments or Alex and Luke’s web houses.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alexandluke
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/alexandlukedotcom
Main Site: http://alexandluke.com/

Alex and Luke visit Alabama

via matthew cuthbert, al.com

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Our Strange Sky: Meteor Streaks Huntsville, Scottsboro.

It was bright.

It was shiny.

It skipped off the skin of the Earth.

Meteor!

SCOTTSBORO, AL (WAFF) – On May 18th, NASA cameras at the Marshall Space Flight Center and Walker County Science Center near Chickamauga, Georgia tracked the entry of a large meteor estimated to weigh some 60 pounds over northeastern Alabama.

This meteor was first picked up at an altitude of 47 miles over northwest Huntsville, moving at a speed of 8 miles per second towards the southeast. It was last visible northeast of Gurley at an altitude of 23 miles.

The meteor was quite bright, with an intensity rivaling that of the waxing crescent Moon (in astronomical terms, it was about visual magnitude -8.3). Calculations automatically performed by the tracking software indicates that this interloper was from the main asteroid belt, moving in an orbit which takes it more than three times Earth’s distance from the Sun.

Observe HQ video and non-altered imagery over on WAFF’s webhouse.

They think pieces of it may have landed north of Woodville and Scottsboro. If any of you find it, NASA would love a piece of it.

If you think you may have seen the meteor, call Dr. Bill Cooke at 256-544-9136 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              256-544-9136      end_of_the_skype_highlighting email him at william.j.cooke@nasa.gov.

Worth noting: it might not be a bad idea to alert the Meteorite Men if any of you sky-watchers find this cold piece from the heavens.

via waff

Update: NASA still wants your help finding the meteorite.

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