My Hero: Neil DeGrasse Tyson

In a time when humanity knew more about Kim Kardashian and Snooki's pregnancy than fallen heroes like the late Carl Sagan, when people cared about E! News more than NASA, when America's children stopped dreaming of the depths of space and instead stuffed their minds with the vapidity of Hollywood's stars, all hope for planet Earth seemed lost. Our dismal fate appeared sealed and just when the looming darkness of US Weekly began its final descent... the galaxy gave us Neil.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the director at the Hayden Planetarium in Manhattan, host of PBS' NOVA ScienceNow, and my personal favorite: creator of Star Talk Radio, a podcast that updates every Sunday where Neil and cohost/comedian Eugene Mirman (@eugenemirman) interview guests and discuss all types of science. 

(I would be remiss if I didn't mention Neil played a major part in revoking Pluto's planetary status. Oh and don't even get him started on the moon clause.)

What separates Neil and makes him (in my humble opinion) the new face of all Science, is his great sense of humor and bit of help from the internet. In 2011, a sketch of Neil's face with his hands raised and the caption "Watch out guys! We're dealing with a bad ass over here!" exploded, with a bit of help from the brief but popular internet meme fad, Neil's face became plastered all over the reddit rage-comics. 

However, unlike many other internet stars, Neil's popularity wasn't fleeting. Just last week, Neil's twitter (@neiltyson) reached over 500,000 followers. As someone who knows very little about physics and the universe, I have found that Neil is a master of simplifying even the most complex sciences. For example:

With all of Neil's fame exploding through television, radio and the internet, he has yet to fall to the darkside. Instead Neil is using his new found popularity to educate the world using humor and simplicity to give the public a better understanding of our universe. I believe he deserves his new fame and celebrity much more than any boring Hollywood actor. Neil is working for the future of our nation and our children by capturing their imaginations. Take a moment to view his video below called We Stopped Dreaming.

Twitter and Nascar Are Getting Hitched!

It is official, Twitter has released its first television commercial. And during a Nascar race no less. While Twitter is not the first social media site to air on television (Google+ has a short spot highlighting "video hangouts") I predict it to be the most successful.). It is my opinion that Twitter is far better suited for corporate advertising than either Google+ or Facebook. With Facebook suffering after its trainwreck IPO, Twitter is pulling ahead in the race for successful social media advertising. The video below is the short teaser:

I find Twitter's strategy to be genius for many reasons; the first being that Nascar fans are not generally the type of demographic you would expect to be constantly checking the internet for Nascar updates nor constantly checking up on their favorite driver's Tweets. The generalized Nascar fan is usually stereotyped as being a beer-guzzling redneck in a pickup truck however that is not the case, according to Ken Berhnhardt of the Atlanta Business Journal, 40% of Nascar fans are females, with one and three Americans enjoying the spectator sport. And for the die-hard Nascar fan who rarely frequents the internet, Twitter is offering a olive-branch with exclusive Nascar content, almost forcing the patron to sign on if only to keep up with the latest Nascar conversation.

 https://twitter.com/hashtag/nascar

Of course we cannot forget how this will affect Facebook. There is no easy way to marry Facebook with corporations looking to advertise, despite having massive databases full of its users' personal data, Facebook isn't built for branding. Twitter however, is stepping up and proving to corporations that it has the capability to be utilized effectively with branding. AdAge recently released an article highlighting Twitter's success. 

http://adage.com/article/media/twitter-s-advertising-tv-makes-perfect-sense/235292/

In the above article, Simon Dumenco explains why this ad was such a genius move by Twitter's execs and how potent televised advertising can be to the social-media powerhouse.
I am excited to see in the coming months an increase in televised promotion for social media. It will be fascinating to watch how this field transforms.

http://blog.twitter.com/2012/06/off-to-races-with-nascar.html

5 Tips For Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

2012 is fast approaching and according to every doomsday movie I've ever seen, humanity is shamefully unprepared  against the imminent zombie invasion.The following is a guideline to what precautions we should all be taking to survive Earth's imminent apocalypse. 

Tip 1: I recommend implementing some sort of zombie-defense curriculum into every public/private school system. What's the point of stimulating the brains of the youth if they're only going to become food sources for the undead? Classes would include staking, scrap-booking, decapitation, bartending classes, archery, poetry, wake-boarding, tying-knots, chainsawing, archery, gun-playing, hot-wiring and of course, rollerblading.

Tip 2: Take out as many loans as possible ASAP. I call this the "Rapture" strategy. Who cares if you screw your credit score? No one will really care. Use your new found wealth to buy yourself a nice recliner or maybe a new stereo system. Be practical, it would SUCK to be stranded without any tunes or good movies for the duration of the apocalypse.

Tip 3: Always remember to stretch. Tendinitis or "frozen-shoulder" would be disastrous in the middle of a Z-frenzy. WebMD recommends wrapping it in ice.

Tip 4: The longer you put off finding the cure, the longer you'll probably survive. 
(Source: I Am Legend)

Tip 5: During the initial outbreak you might want to create a home-base. Fortify all your vehicles with make-shift armor. Stock up on hazmat suits, foods and alcohol. Remember, this is YOUR time, you're already decently prepared, it's not a crime to enjoy yourself (actually, with society in such shambles, there is no such thing as "crime" anymore). Also, stop by your local Redbox. Don't forget to have fun, 90% of humanity will be gone over the next few weeks, maybe play a board game to take your mind off things.

In conclusion: I can see there are some skeptics out there that don't believe the end is near. DON'T WORRY, I myself am experimenting with mutating a strain of rabies to ensure the zombie virus is created and released on time for December 21st. Sit back and relax, I've got this covered.