Action Science Theatre is a podcast in the style of a radio play, that mixes action, science, comedy and silly voices to create a welcome distraction from real life for 20 minutes or so.
It is unquestionably the finest free online audio drama you can get without trying any others.
Find out moreAnd it was all going so well…
Every now and again, I am persuaded to string together a few musical notes on some instrument or other. The ‘jaunty’ (©Action Dan, 2013) Action Science Theatre theme tune, for example. So, when we needed some music to underscore the exciting alien-hunting montage in Episode 10a, I duly obliged. And people were generally very kind about it.
They won’t be doing that again.
From pulpcovers.com
It’s the 10th of October, 1582. Except that it can’t be. Not just because time travel isn’t possible, but because the 10th of October 1582 never happened. Neither did the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, or 14th of October in that particular year. And just to be clear, the rest of the year was present and correct, but those dates were skipped. If you had a birthday in that period, well, you were just fresh out of luck.
And the reason why it was skipped speaks to humankind’s desire to assert order on the universe, and how the universe really couldn’t care less about what we desire.
It’s been a while now since I had a good, “You want me to make the sound of a WHAT?” rant, but Science Brian’s latest episode (aka. “The One With The Penguins“) helped me to get back into the swing of things. I mean… just take a look at this:
He does this sort of thing on purpose, you know.
I… just… *sigh*
The finished poster. Fine work (you can click it for a larger version).
At Action Science Theatre we pride ourselves on exploiting giving creative people opportunities to collaborate with us and show off their talents. Any regular listeners among you will have noticed the fine baritone vocal craft of Mr Matthew Kirk, the chirpy chimes of Miss Sreya Rao, the husky lilt of Miss Amy Wackett, and indeed the virtuoso musical talents of one Producer Dan. On top of these fine people (not literally) we have the many other cast members who have so memorably and unforgettably brought characters from previous episodes to life (but whose names escape me right now… um… some of them may have been Irish?).
The sun isn’t a tidy sphere. If you go a little closer, you’ll see it looks a bit… fuzzy. Its plasma doesn’t sit as a smooth surface; it’s a roiling sea, throwing itself high above the sun, responding to magnetic fields that would tower many times over our entire planet in a way that would make any sane person feel very tiny indeed. So best not to think about the scale of it too much. We get enough existential panic from the possibility of a Michael Bay remake of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Some of this plasma gets enough of a kick to leave the pull of the Sun altogether, and it heads out into the universe. It’s barely there – just some electrons and protons held together by the merest hint of a magnetic field. But it’s there. After about 18 hours, if it’s lucky, it’ll hit the Earth. Now, it might have whizzed passed Mercury and Venus, but the Earth is slightly different – we have a magnetosphere.