The vinyl resurgence shows no sign of slowing, so here's a great budget turntable for your newly thrifted LPs.
We tend to take miniaturization for granted these days, although the design and manufacture of ICs is anything but simple. Photographer Steve Emery attempts to reignite our wonder by treating the microscopic world of integrated circuitry with the same reverence a landscape photographer would use to shoot a breathtaking mountain scene. He often uses a macro lens or even a microscope in combination with special lighting to capture unique shots of computer chips and boards.
His ChipScapes site hasn't been updated for several years, but his eBay store features almost 60 original photos and limited edition "art with chips." My only hesitation is the prices, which range from $98 for a limited edition print up to $598 for a one of a kind 13" x 16" box framed original. That's out of my range - I'd much rather see a more affordable and somewhat less exclusive "frame it yourself" run of a few hundred prints.
His warm and excited delivery brings viewers to astronomy in a fun and low impact way. After late night episodes of Doctor Who, I'd stick around to see Horkheimer in his chromakey set pointing out the week's celestial goings on with easy-to-understand graphics. These five minute shows are offered free to PBS stations, and are even available via streaming video or podcast linked below. You an even check out his 
I have vivid memories of Latin class in school. Mostly, it was turbid drudgery because there are few good reasons for a sane teenager to learn a dead language. Still, I have to admit that the Romans did a fairly good job of Shock and Awe several thousand years before the term was co-opted by modern mechanized armies.
If you've ever exchanged emails with me, you may have noticed that I sign my emails "modern filmmaker". That has come to mean a lot of things, but among them is that for the last few months I've been Assistant Producer on a local PBS special, "Remembering Chicago: The Boomer Years". It's a charming look at Chicago through the lens of amateur filmmakers and interviews with many Chicagoans who grew up in the era.
It's amazingly simple. Everything that you need is inside the controller, no cartridges or console to buy... just pop in some batteries and plug the unit into the nearest TV set.
The showpiece may just be the game the stick is named after. Super Pac-Man is an interesting reinterpretation of the game mechanic of the original game. You still chow power pills, but there are also super pills that double Pac's size and speed. 
