Best known for his blockbuster hit "She Blinded Me with Science", Thomas Dolby has been a pioneer in the music industry since the early 80's debut of The Golden Age of Wireless. His unique style of blending technology and music made us all wish we could know Miss Sakamoto personally. Good Heavens! Dolby's innovative style and massive 80's hair kept our eyes glued to the screen whether he was teaching us about synthesizers or engaging in an epic synth battle at the 1985 Grammy Awards (warning: you can't un-see the hair). In 2001, Dolby began work as the Musical Director of the TED Conference - a mecca for thinking people, innovators, inventors, and generally smart and cool people. And whi

What’s with the news: By now you’ve probably heard about the controversy Daniel Tosh caused at the Laugh Factory in LA recently. If you haven’t, I’d first like to thank you for pulling your head out of the sand long enough to read my column. Really means a lot. There are a couple different accounts of what happened. One has Tosh bringing up the issue of rape himself and then outright suggesting that audience members gang rape a heckler. The other has a different audience member responding to Tosh’s call for joke ideas by suggesting rape, followed by Tosh pontificating on a female audience member’s experience with rape based on her aversion to the idea of a rape joke. Since then you canno

Of comic book movies there are three this year that demand every nerd’s attention: The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man, and The Dark Knight Rises. We already know that The Avengers is the coolest thing since sliced bread, and not to jinx anything but The Dark Knight Rises is all but guaranteed to be a dazzler, but The Amazing Spider-Man has definitely been, at least to me, the biggest question mark. But now it’s out and luckily it’s a fantastic movie. Though it covers a lot of the same ground as Sam Raimi’s 2002 original, The Amazing Spider-Man is a well constructed effort that would be lauded much more if we hadn’t already seen another Peter Parker get bitten by a radioactive spider ten

Once fluctuating gas prices become a regular fixture in a hard-hit economy, people look for ways to save money, and sometimes they run into alternative fuels.        “When the gas prices are up, the phone rings off the hook,” said Steve Bash, buying coordinator at Sacramento Biofuels Network. “A few years ago, when gas prices went up, my phone was ringing so solidly that whenever I hung up, I had to pick up another call. If you want to save money from buying biodiesel, I say you can’t.” In March, the average price for B100, or 100 percent biodiesel, reached $4.25 a gallon and tied with gas prices in Sacramento. In April, the average price of B100 rose ten cents as local gas prices thi

The Sac State Geology Club is shaking things up on November 18th by auctioning off hundreds of rocks, minerals, fossils and more at the 8th annual Rock Auction. This celebration of the natural world is free to the public, begins at 6pm at the CSUS Alumni Center and will include live and silent auctions, catered food and beverages, and children's activities. The room will be abuzz with the chatter of rock hounds, educators, students and gem connoisseurs perusing samples of highly polished petrified wood, purple cubic fluorite, and stunning fossilized coral. “But, you don’t need to be a professional to enjoy the festivities,” says Club President Chris Hughes, “many of our guests are new to

After seven years of planning and development, the Sacramento Children’s Museum opened its doors Thursday morning after 24 little hands, holding red scissors, cut the green ribbon in front of more than 300 people waiting to explore the new museum. The Sacramento Children’s Museum is a nonprofit corporation founded in 2004, that focuses the interactive exhibits on math, science, art and social learning skills for children ages 8 and under. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2701 Prospect Park in Rancho Cordova, children could get their faces painted with bright swirls of pinks, blues and greens, or watch a colorful balloon be shaped into a sword or a giraffe while they waited for the ribbo

The Powerhouse Science Center project officially broke ground this morning, commemorating its push forward with the unfurling of a large 30 x 10 foot banner, which adorned the front of the former PG&E power station building. In attendance were some 60 citizens, dignitaries, funding partners, Powerhouse Science Center staff and City staff. Speakers at the event included Mayor Kevin Johnson, Congressmember Doris Matsui, Senator Darrell Steinberg's District Director, Susan McKee, and Michele Wong, the Interim Executive Director for the project. A $7 million check was presented to the project, generated by Proposition 84's "Nature Education Facilities" grant. The funds will be used to partial

School is out for the summer! Summer camps are up and running until mid-August in the Sacramento area, and there are plenty of children’s camps for both indoor and outdoor preferences including giraffes or superhero comic books, gravity tag, classic camp songs, 3-D abstract sculptures and even rock climbing or slime. KidzArt Parents who choose KidzArt can expect their kids to get messy and explore with different art media such as silk painting, acrylic painting, watercolor, clay, oil pastels, sand and even rock salt, centered around themes like Go Wet n’ Wild with KidzArt and KidzArt Animal Style. “Our ultimate goal is to build self confidence, teach them some art fundamentals and make s

The Powerhouse Science Center is moving from plan to reality as officials announced Thursday that they have received a $7 million government grant, which means construction will start in July on the riverfront. The center will educate visitors in science, technology, space and nature through its displays, which will include a planetarium, a Challenger space shuttle learning exhibit and interactive exhibits on natural sciences. “This is a huge milestone because this is the first significant public money that we’ve gotten into the project,” said the center’s interim executive director, Michele Wong. The $7 million comes from Proposition 84 taxes, under the Safe Water Bond Act. Voters appr

Sacramento residents had some random opportunities to view the lunar eclipse on Monday night. In spite of winter storms lasting throughout the weekend, a few breaks in the clouds allowed for occasional viewing of the only total lunar eclipse in 2010. At some points, cloud cover obscured the view for as long as 20 minutes. NASA says the entire duration of the eclipse was about 3 1/2 hours. More uniquely, this year's lunar eclipse fell on the same day as the winter solstice, something that hasn't happened in 372 years. The photo was taken during the "totality" part of the eclipse. The moon was completely in the Earth's shadow for more than an hour. The reddish glow of the moon occurs when

The Powerhouse Science Center in Sacramento today announced it has accepted a $250,000 grant from First 5 Sacramento. The grant will help build a room that will support a school readiness program by featuring age and development-appropriate learning activities. Located on the scenic banks of the Sacramento River, the Powerhouse Science Center will be the premier science and space learning center serving Northern California. It will serve as a model for 21st-century experiential education in science, math, technology, engineering, and space – and an exemplary “green” building that functions as an environmental teaching lab. The Center, which will cost an estimated $50 million, has nearly

Sacramento's Discovery Museum and its partners could use the community's help as they vie for $7 million in state grants to build the Powerhouse Science Center, supporters said Wednesday. Fundraisers working on behalf of the museum and Carson Development Co. are asking Sacramentans to write letters to California State Parks supporting an application for the single biggest chunk of public money being sought for the $50 million project. The city of Sacramento and PG&E are partnering on the project. The $7 million would be used to build an earth, science and space center with a planetarium dome, which may be the first phase of construction. The money was applied for under California Propos

You might not expect your typical science geek to do more than fiddle with beakers in a laboratory, but self-dubbed “science comic” Brian Malow will prove otherwise with a geek-friendly performance at Sacramento Comedy Spot at 8 p.m. on Friday. His act includes such topics as evolution by way of a nagging mother, the political correctness of calling Pluto a “dwarf” planet, a debate with a friend who likes to sit in the front row of a theater because it lets him see the movie first, and complaints about working as an astronomer stuck with the day shift. “It’s funny how many people ask me if I was really an astronomer,” Malow said. “But no, that’s just a joke. Most of my act is true, with

On the heels of Sacramento's first TEDx conference, grads from California State University, Sacramento, will launch a TED Talks spinoff on Thursday. "Talks Unleashed" is one of several local events created in the vein of TED Talks, a social movement that began in Monterey in 1984. TED Talks are conferences organized to inspire the spread of ideas to benefit the world through 18-minute lectures and collaboration opportunities. They originally featured talks on technology, entertainment and design. Now focused on science and culture, the events have spread throughout this country and into Europe and Asia, as well as on the Internet. About 200 people filled Sac State's Hinde Auditorium Fri

Families beware, a Tyrannosaurus rex is running loose at the Discovery Museum Science and Space Center this weekend. As part of the museum's Gee Whiz Geology: An Exhibit About Rocks, Fossils and Dinosaurs that began Jan. 16, the museum is focusing this weekend's activity on the terrifying T-rex. This featured exhibit is geared toward families with kids about 12 and younger, but there is fun for everyone, as visitors will begin their learning adventure tracking down the Tyrannosaurus rex footprints throughout the museum's grounds. Families will learn about these huge creatures together as they move through the museum and interact with exhibits. Beth Callahan, director of marketing and d

The Powerhouse Science Center is looking for a few good founding partners. The Discovery Museum is trying to recruit private investors who can provide seed money to help build a $50 million "iconic" riverfront science and space museum hoped to rival some of the nation's biggest science museums. The new, expanded museum is being developed to provide adventurous, hands-on science and math education to boost kids' interest in the subjects and to help draw high-tech companies — while launching the kind of serious waterfront development that's been talked about for at least three decades, museum supporters said Tuesday. The four-acre campus would contain a museum built in the long-vacant Pac

Laughter, awe and high-pitched squeals of excitement made the 21st annual State Scientist Day seem more like a carnival than a day of teaching science lessons and experiments to more than 2,000 elementary school students.  However, education is exactly what was taking place.   The California Association of Professional Scientists (CAPS) sponsored the event on Thursday on the west steps of the Capitol. Third and sixth graders from about 30 elementary schools showed up to participate in hands-on science experiments teaching them about conservation, plants, oil spills and other earth-related and science lessons.   "This is our way of giving back to the community... especially now, schools a

Hank Campbell had no journalism or media experience, but he is now the founder of scientificblogging.com. – a science website, not a blog, that gets a million readers a month and has articles written by Nobel Prize winners, professors and science authors. Based out of Folsom Campbell, a business man, saw the potential in a website like this and started it just as something he knew he would enjoy reading. "I didn't know enough to know that I didn't know what I was doing," he said "The site took off in a way I hadn't expected." In two years it has gone from being an unknown science site to being on the top-25 scientific publications list. Getting started took Campbell looking up the top si

Twenty-six greater Sacramento area museums will be offering free admission, all day long, during the 11th Annual Sacramento Museum Day. This event is presented by the Sacramento Association of Museums, and proudly supported by Umpqua Bank. Sacramento Museum Day takes place Saturday, February 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All participating museums close at 5 p.m., with the last guests admitted at 4 p.m. Museum Day, a Sacramento cultural tradition, invites all members of the community to experience the Capital City’s incredible wealth of art, history, science and wildlife at numerous participating museums at no cost. Twenty-six museums in all will be participating in Museum Day for 2009, the lar

So you are looking for a place to be alone with your thoughts and God. However, the kids are screaming, your roommate is having a party or maybe you're sick of being in your house. Well, check out the Christian Science Reading Room in Downtown Sacramento. The Christian Science Reading Room is located on 900 J Street on the corner of J and 9th. It's a public service maintained by the six Christian Science branch churches in the Sacramento area. The purpose of this room is to provide a peaceful, quiet place for anyone who wants to get closer to God and/or catch up with the latest in the Christian Science community. The only rule is, as Assistant Librarian Kristen Wakefield says, "you must h