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Apr. 04, 2012

I spent the morning in Grapevine, Texas, right outside of Dallas, talking to the folks at the National AfterSchool Association convention. A number of folks came up to say hello and I’m always appreciative of the praise they heap on Science Friday. Who wouldn’t? But one comment in particular caught my attention.

Chasing me down the hallway as I was racing to get out of town (more on that later) she tugged on my arm and said, “I’d just like you to know that after hearing you speak about your show and your website, I will no longer flip the dial as I hear your show come on. I’m actually going to stay tuned to listen to it.” I gave a little chuckle and thanked her, and advised her to download our app, too. These comments, from people who are not science minded, have special meaning. It’s easy to preach to the converted. But when people who don’t usually pay attention to science (“English majors”) tell you that you’ve got them interested, it feels special.

So do comments from people who are interested in science, and do find new uses for our app, like this one:

Hello to all the great people who bring science into our lives. I have  been a fan of the SciFri radio show for many years; however, I would  have to be in the right place at the right time to catch it, typically  in the car.
This phone app is wonderful because it allows me to access  the info when I have an opportunity and in a convenient way. Showing  the video of the Lego shuttle in space last week to my 10, 8, and 6  year olds opened up so many discussions we may never otherwise had. 

What a great educational tool. 

Thank you,
 Joe Zaweski
 Asst. Professor 
Arcadia University

Sorry professor if you wanted me to keep this letter private. But I couldn’t help but share that bit of good news, too.

Final note: I did get out of Dallas airport today before that awful tornado hit. I was not so lucky last year, when a thunderous hailstorm from a tornado that struck Oklahoma ripped through DFW also. Having suffered through that one, and having watched the purple blobs on the doppler radar, I raced to the airport early and probably caught the last flight out of town, dodging a bullet in Dallas before they closed the airport. Others were not so lucky. Repeating my experience last year to the driver of the shuttle taking me to the airport, I asked him if Dallas is considered to be part of tornado alley. He said no, Oklahoma usually gets the tornados. Dallas just got the hail. I mentioned that if global warming predictions are right and storms are more powerful, that tornados might be visiting Dallas, too. We both had a smile; about two hours later the tornados hit DFW.

About Ira Flatow

Ira is the host and executive producer of Science Friday.

The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Science Friday.

Discussion

EVAL ERROR: Entity: line 1: parser error : Space required after the Public Identifier

                                                 ^
Entity: line 1: parser error : SystemLiteral " or ' expected

                                                 ^
Entity: line 1: parser error : SYSTEM or PUBLIC, the URI is missing

                                                 ^

Code:
line 1: package tmpevalpackage;
line 2: sub doEval { 
line 3: 	my($parent);
line 4: 	
line 5: 	if($LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'SEGMENT.nickname'}) {
line 6: 		$parent = $LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'SEGMENT.nickname'};
line 7: 	}
line 8: 	elsif($LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'VIDEO.nickname'}) {
line 9: 		$parent = $LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'VIDEO.nickname'};
line 10: 	}
line 11: 	elsif($LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'DOCUMENT.nickname'}) {
line 12: 		$parent = $LayoutManager::url_resolved_values{'DOCUMENT.nickname'}
line 13: 	}
line 14: 	
line 15: 	if($parent) {
line 16: 		my(@books) = &Database::SelectClause('BOOK',"parent = $parent");
line 17: 		if(!@books) {
line 18: 			$parent = '';
line 19: 		}
line 20: 	}
line 21: 	
line 22: 	if(!$parent) {
line 23: 		my(@sel) = &Database::SelectClause('GLOBAL','record all ""');
line 24: 		if(@sel) {
line 25: 			$parent = 'GLOBAL.' . $sel[0];
line 26: 		}
line 27: 			$main::ENV{'reading_header'} = "FEATURED READING";
line 28: 	}
line 29: 	
line 30: 	 = '';
line 31: 	
line 32: 	if($parent) {
line 33: 		my(@books) = &Database::SelectClause('BOOK',"parent = $parent");
line 34: 		0 = 0;
line 35: 		my $dots;
line 36: 		foreach(@books) {
line 37: 			my(%data);
line 38: 			&Database::GetRow($_,'BOOK',\%data);
line 39: 			my($status,$title,$author,$url,$image,$width,$height) = &SciFri::Schema::getAmazonItem($data{'isbn'});
line 40: 			if($data{'title'}) {
line 41: 				$title = $data{'title'};
line 42: 			}
line 43: 			if($data{'author'}) {
line 44: 				$author = $data{'author'};
line 45: 			}
line 46: 			if($status eq 'ok') {
line 47: 				 .= "<div class=\"box-2x1-item box-slide\" data-href=\"$url\">";
line 48: 				 .= "	<div class=\"box-2x1-item-photo\">";
line 49: 				 .= "		<div class=\"image-wrapper\" data-jsclass=\"imageWrapper\" data-align=\"right\">";
line 50: 				 .= "			<img src=\"$image\" data-width=\"$width\" data-height=\"$height\">";
line 51: 				 .= "		</div>";
line 52: 				 .= "	</div>";
line 53: 				 .= "	<h4>$title</h4>";
line 54: 				if($author) {
line 55: 					 .= "	<p>by $author</p>";
line 56: 				}
line 57: 				 .= "	<div class=\"box-2x1-more-button\"><a href=\"$url\"><img src=\"/images/v1/icon_text_more_white.png\" width=47 height=15 border=0></a></div>";
line 58: 				 .= "</div>";
line 59: 				++0;
line 60: 			}
line 61: 		}
line 62: 	}
line 63: 	if($parent eq "GLOBAL.1") { $main::ENV{'reading_header'} = "FEATURED READING"; }
line 64: 	else { $main::ENV{'reading_header'} = "RELATED READING"; }
line 65:  };
line 66: &doEval();
line 67: 1;

Apr. 04, 2012