Comments on: Fascination with the Dodo Bird, by Adam Savage

Fascination with the Dodo Bird, by Adam Savage

Chuckles — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:20:08 -0800

Adam Savage's talk at The Last HOPE: Fascination with the Dodo Bird
parts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C
(YouTubeFilter with a great audience Q&A session)

Thank you opsin

By: maudlin

maudlin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:28:11 -0800

[This appeals to me]

By: quin

quin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:30:27 -0800

This is really interesting. I love that people that I like have the same kinds of weird obsessions relating to animals that I do.

By: skynxnex

skynxnex — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:53:12 -0800

This is a really great talk. Probably the stuff at the end is the most funny. I laughed the hardest I have in quite awhile with one of the videos he showed at the end. By the way, if you want to see the whole thing as a single video you can watch it at Google video (I'm almost sure it's the same one) (via Arsgeek).

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:14:46 -0800

Harry Anderson claims to have one of the Maltese Falcons made for the film (he claims there were three made). I have seen his version quite a few times. It doesn't look like the one Adam shows in the video.

By: JimmyJames

JimmyJames — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:43:56 -0800

If you are planning on watching any of it just watch the link marked B and fast forward to 2:22. It's unreleased MB footage of Adam Savage attempting to sober up by being slapped and then footage of him running on a treadmill with 5 scotches in him.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:14:48 -0800

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:40:28 -0800

here is the whole thing in one go, so you won't have to click through all kind of youtube pages. Personally I liked the bit at the 45 minute mark (watch 2 minutes from there) because I know one of the students in the rfid mess personally (and I host rfidguardian.org for her)

By: DreamerFi

DreamerFi — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:41:01 -0800

curse you, ~~skynxnex~~preview!

By: pjern

pjern — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:32:23 -0800

I almost peed watching the treadmill video.... God, that was funny.

By: mrzarquon

mrzarquon — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 01:41:11 -0800

This is good. I finished watching this and then the moon special. Now I want to find more things to be nerdily passionate, because I feel like I don't have enough half finished projects already.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:19:44 -0800

Mentions The RPF. Always a fun read.

By: bjrn

bjrn — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:26:27 -0800

Oh. I got linked to an audio version about this, and couldn't find any video, which made me so sad (especially when he talked about sobering up/threadmill part). Thanks!

By: theclaw

theclaw — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:28:11 -0800

When he's talks about the visual narrative of models, the "two things then one thing" on Star Wars versus "three things" on Star Trek (part 3, ~2:45), is there any more information on or examples of that on the web?

By: theclaw

theclaw — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:29:05 -0800

he talks

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:36:11 -0800

Here is a video of he and Jamie in action at the NVIDIA 08 show. They do their version of Leonardo's Mona Lisa.

By: fijiwriter

fijiwriter — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:17:58 -0800

Getting drunk ... for SCIENCE! Where do I sign up?

By: steef

steef — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:15:01 -0800

MetaFilter: Like Peter Falk in a falcon suit. But this is really good stuff, and it's preventing me from getting out and doing my laundry this morning, as I ponder what peculiar obsession of mine I would like to indulge, today. Thank you, Chuckles (and asavage)!

By: grimmelm

grimmelm — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:00:37 -0800

I was there in person for this talk and it's one of the most inspirational, life-affirming things I've ever seen. Sometimes people from the TV turn out not to be so awesome in person; Adam was every bit as great, and more. His pro-science, pro-learning, pro-doing message really, good on its own, really resonates with a hacker crowd. I can't begin to describe how happy the audience was. Now imagine an entire convention of non-famous but similarly cool people, talking about their own metaphorical Maltese Falcons and dodo skeletons, and you've got a good sense of what HOPE can be when things go well. This is the true spirit of geekdom, and Adam Savage and his talk were the perfect hyperdistillation of it.

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 08:47:59 -0800

It's appropriate that the segment numbers come out as being numbered in hex. And yes, if you have the opportunity to see Mr. Savage live, sell your children. He's awesome.

By: acro

acro — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:57:23 -0800

(!) Jack of all trades, master of none, though often better than a master of one.

By: youthenrage

youthenrage — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:21:17 -0800

That was awesome, very inspirational speech and really funny Q&A. I would have watched for another hour or two.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:34:58 -0800

To begin with, the Fascination talk itself was very nicely done. I love that he leaves off with an incomplete project with potential future work, and addresses the whole "I have more money than I used to, but I don't have that much money" aspect. And then there was the rapport he had with his audience, the humble confidence, and the inside baseball look at the politics stirred up at the meeting of public discourse, science, and business. I like Mythbusters, but I'm not a huge fan. This talk was truly great.

By: starman

starman — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 11:58:50 -0800

Great stuff... only cringed a little at the pizza stone lady. But, hey, good to be enthusiastic about something.

By: phrontist

phrontist — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:37:39 -0800

I was there (front row), and man was the crowd digging that. I'd never seen such a positive room for any speaker (including Obama rallys in ultra liberal NoVA).

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:48:44 -0800

Great talk, thanks for posting it! Jack of all trades, master of none, though often better than a master of one. As best I can tell, that's a recent expansion, invented by some generalist who found the traditional "Jack of all trades, master of none" insulting.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:22:21 -0800

Thanks, Chuckles, and Bravo, asavage!

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:45:37 -0800

As best I can tell, that's a recent expansion, invented by some generalist who found the traditional "Jack of all trades, master of none" insulting. Thanks, languagehat, one is always suspicious of something that seems grafted on, as one is with acronymic explanations of popular terms. Oh, god, you're probably going to spank me now for some aspect of the way I stated this. Spank away!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:36:11 -0800

I could never spank someone with such a classy username. And if I've tried to promote anything in my checkered career here, it's that however native speakers use their language is fine and they should stop worrying and looking over their shoulder at the hall monitors waving copies of Strunk & White.

By: sdodd

sdodd — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:27:39 -0800

Heh, Slashdot has picked up on the RFID portion of the Q and A. Linked here in case you'd like to follow the discussion there, which includes some interesting talk about public broadcasting. Wait, what am I saying? Not even Adam follows the Slashdot discussion of his work.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:48:04 -0800

Also over here, and Slashdot has the same misquote that Boing Boing has.. ARGH!

By: mecran01

mecran01 — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:32:44 -0800

That was like watching the olympics of awesome geekery. Inspiring, and also depressing knowing you will probably never rise to those great heights. "Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one" is my new favorite phrase.

By: mystyk

mystyk — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:03:54 -0800

"It's appropriate that the segment numbers come out as being numbered in hex." But was it indexed from zero?

By: P.o.B.

P.o.B. — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:11:01 -0800

Did you ever wonder what Zombie Feynman thinks about Mythbusters?

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:59:42 -0800

A friend of mine made a complete set of samurai armor using period tools... to teach himself patience. Adam's presentation helps puts the effort into perspective for me. Not something I could do. Jack of all trades, master of none, attention span of a fruit fly.

By: churl

churl — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 12:48:40 -0800

> If you are planning on watching any of it just watch the link marked B and fast forward to 2:22. It's unreleased MB footage of Adam Savage attempting to sober up by being slapped and then footage of him running on a treadmill with 5 scotches in him. I know, it's so predictable, but somebody had to do this, and it might as well be me.

By: jamaro

jamaro — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:06:24 -0800

At the risk of sounding like that SNL skit with the guy who asks William Shatner what the combination is in Kirk's stateroom, I can't help but wonder if Adam sized up his Sculpey dodo to account for the ~2% shrinkage that plagues me when I bake that clay. (Or maybe he's got a Sculpey secret).

By: knave

knave — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:37:46 -0800

"You've got Smash Labs —" "Booo!" "&mdash yeah, I know, I know." Classic.