Update: Still bummed about the 11-million-year commute to the planet Kepler B we discussed last month? Be sure to read BoingBoing’s article on the (im)practicality and cost of interstellar travel. While Kepler 22b might be a boring 11-million-year flight away, the nearest star, Alpha Centauri would only be a brisk 70,000 years or so.
Year: 2012
The Swoosh is a Lie
From the delightful 99% Invisible podcast, I learned today that many televised sporting events use pre-recorded audio samples to fake a sense of realism. When you watch at least some sports on television, particularly those that cover large areas, the swoosh of a cross-country skier, the splash of a rower’s paddle, or the thundering stampede of horse racing, may be coming from a sound designer’s sampler rather than the atheletes you’re seeing on screen.
Like most episodes of 99% Invisible, this Sound of Sport episode is only 5 minutes long, well produced, and fascinating. Since learning about 99% Invisible from the also-delightful RadioLab podcast, I’ve almost caught up on all 44 (so far) episodes. Highly recommended.
While we’re enjoying podcasts, the Planet Money podcast somehow manages to make the world of economics interesting to those of us who are completely uninterested in economics.