The "To Keep Up" Wiki

We'd like your thoughts on these and other topics you are interested in seeing or maybe presenting. Send your thoughts via email to info@LCTG.toku.us or contact John Rudy, Peter Albin, Bob Primak, or Steve Isenberg directly – Thank you.
This list last changed 2022.11.30 17:39
Note – numbering is for reference only and it has no other meaning. Numbers were assigned generally in the order topics were added to the list.
“fup” is short for “follow-up”

1. Why Craters are Round (Neil deGrasse Tyson explains; need to skip the “comedian”) [~14min]
2. Physicist Explains Dimensions in 5 Levels of Difficulty [28m]
3. Physicist Explains Lasers in 5 Levels of Difficulty [24m]
4. Other Mark Rober youtube videos (he did Squirrel vid) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY1kMZp36IQSyNx_9h4mpCg
5. The Most Beautiful Equation in Math [4m] e to the pi [16m]
6. Faster Than a Calculator [15m]
7. Beyond Earth: 50 Years since Apollo 11 [1h] from October 2019
8. How James Webb Telescope Orbits Nothing [15m] (LarryW recommended)
9. 5 Fun Physics Phenomena Explained (6m) (John Rudy)
   .
10. Solving Wordle using information theory (31m) (John Rudy)
11. Diary for a Pandemic Year (8m) (Dick Wagner)
    A composition prepared for the MIT commencement of 2021 using layering of tracks. The visuals may bring back memories.
12. Secret Windows Features, Wifi passwords, HDMI Cables & Ports, and more, part of Tech for Seniors (from 3/21/2022, episode 104) (1h11m)
13. Astrophysicist Explains Gravity in 5 Levels of Difficulty [36m]
14. new results from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), from the team that brought us the first-ever image of a black hole, from 5/16/2022 1h38m but last 30m is Q&A (Ted Kochanski)
15. Black Holes: Seeing the Unseeable (60min; World Science Festival) (John Rudy)
    Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is observing black holes; latest achievement is first image of supermassive black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Video explores the breakthroughs.(this video dated around June 2022)
16. Physics of the Future (39m) Dr. Michio Kaku (John Rudy)
    John R. to f/u. Technical topics brought down to a layman's perspective. Sabine Hassenfelder – Dan K. could give refs. Would need someone to look into these videos and choose some examples. MIT Frank Milchuk(sp?). More advanced topics. See next item.
17. Can we tell if there's a wormhole in the Milky Way? (5m) by the scientific skeptic, Sabine Hossenfelder
18. Interview with someone who has made a billion with crypto currency (24m)
19. 2020 Fusion progress at Tokamak Energy (5m) (1/4/2021) (Larry Wittig)
    .
20. Celebration when MIT achieved 20 Tesla in large bore magnet (4m) (Larry Wittig)
21. Breakthrough in nuclear fusion? (1h39m) (2/24/2016 by Prof. Dennis Whyte of MIT) (Larry Wittig)
22. Strange Items (18.5m) (John Rudy)
23. Is the Universe really a hologram? (11m) by the scientific skeptic, Sabine Hossenfelder
24. Why can't anything go faster than the speed of light? History of the speed of light part II (12m) Dr. Becky speaks (Barry Kort)
    mostly about relativity with maybe 5 seconds on why you can't go faster than speed of light [smi] GeorgeG additional material and fup
25. Quantum Entanglement and Action at a Distance on Video. Suggested by Ted. K. Dick W. could give his follow-up impressions after the videos.
26. Lisa Randall at Harvard – particle physics. (Dan Kleppner)
27. A Hackers Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society's Rules and How to Bend Them Back (Bruce Schneier) a Harvard Science Book Talk Series Lecture (59m)
28. uniform circular motion 18.5m suggested by our own Charles Holbrow.
29. large and small views in (3m)
    .
30. perfect husband (1m) a bit off-topic
31. What it really means, science comedian brian malow, TED talk (12m)
32. 7 into 28 (LouC) (3.5m) a bit off-topic
33. New Office Math (1m) a bit off-topic
34. Quantum Fields the Real Building Blocks of the Universe TedK
35. Brian Greene “World Science Festival”
36. Egg Drop from Space (Mark Rober) (27m)
37. How does a computer mouse work? (12m)
38. Testing can you blow your own sail? Mark Rober (17m)
    .
39. Nicest car horn ever DIY. Mark Rober (5m)
40. Escape Rooms, approach to solving them. Mark Rober (11m)
41. Best and worst ways to board a plane (8.5m)
42. Solving the Three Body Problem (16m)
    .
43. CEO Boston Dynamics and the Future of Robotics (1h44m) (video of a podcast?)
44. Boston Dynamics new humanoid robot (40s)
45. How does Boston Dynamics' new Atlas robot work? (8.5m)
46. Boston Dynamics new humanoid robot shocks the entire industry (sic) (13m)
47. Something Strange Happens When You Follow Einstein's Math - Veritasium posted 4/30/2024 (37m) – Warning - one comment reads “Now I know what my dog feels like when I talk to him”
48. Dr Robert Langer talk at Cary Liby on smi's M
49. Tech for Seniors Ep 177A 8/5/2024, last 20 minutes on speeds
50. IgNobile: whether hair curls differently in the north or south hemisphere, and why fake medicines work better if they are more expensive
    .
51. Printing houses Larry Sass TED (19m) MIT interview with Larry Sass (1h21m) with transcript Just the 1h21m talk
    How Concrete Homes Are Built with a 3D Printer (6m) 3D Printed Concrete House, Printed in 48 hours (3m)
    Why 3D Printing Buildings Leads to Problems (16m) Move In Ready 3D Printed House in Germany (11m) Inside a 3D Printed House That's Actually (kind of) Affordable (9m)
52. That's so lovely, thanks, Prof (1m)

Website for MIT Lincoln Lab: http://www.ll.mit.edu Surf this yourselves to see if areas of R&D or system development would be of interest to you and the LCTG. LL develops technology which, as it matures, is incorporated into a prototype subsystem or system to demonstrate new capabilities for transfer to industry for government use. Intellectual property can be licensed by MIT for commercial applications

Some topics I (Rich Ralston) propose within the next year, including the August 21 meeting.

1. (Low noise moved to 6/29/2022)
2. Flash LIDAR (LADAR) with single-photon sensitivity for rapid 3-D imaging with applications from look-through-foliage military surveillance to self-driving vehicles. (~90 minutes) – not to be recorded for later viewing
   Dr. Simon Verghese, head of Waymo’s (Google) sensor development for self-driving cars. In their 5th generation, the sensors are designed to meet the challenging requirements of moving people and goods safely and efficiently in dense cities and on highways. The goal is to make them affordable while meeting the performance needed for driverless operation in various applications and weather conditions. The talk will review some history of the project and describe a few use-cases for sensors and machine learning on Waymo vehicles.
3. High-sensitivity passive IR focal planes for wide-area surveillance. (Copious Imaging, a spin off in Lexington from LL). (~45 minutes)
4. Bio-agent warning sensor with single aerosol particle sensitivity. (~45 minutes)
5. Nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for quantum sensing. (~45 minutes)

1. home theater, camera monitor, media player
2. Headsets and cameras for Zoom; auxiliary microphones?
3. Your experience with Raspberry or other tiny computer
4. Troubleshoot your Internet connectivity
5. Utilities, for a utilities meeting
6. Construction of the new Suez Canal
7. Railway Car identification (George Burnell; Greg Sheehan)
8. “Book Review” of Walter Isaacson’s book Code Breaker about the competing CRISPR teams. Maybe we can bring back Allan Kleinman
9. Backup Strategies, ranging from the kinds of backup we use (Data, System Image, Cloud, other) to how to make and maintain (and test) our backups, and what the various hardware and software options are for making and maintaining a reliable backup.
10. https://www.fastcompany.com/91140068/how-the-internet-went-mainstream-in-1994

1. Computational Photography - changing what's used as a camera. link e.g., replacing DSLR with cellphones; more (Jonathan Goode?, Harry Forsdick?) (needs a lead)
2. How one builds a web application (e.g., using spreadsheets) (Harry Forsdick)
3. (Harry) Getting Streaming Programming Into Your TV (what to do when your TV just isn't smart enough)
4. [orig sched 7/28/2021] CERN and the Hadron Collider. History, Why It Was Built, Hoped Outcomes, Discovery of Bison, What is Next (Harvey Newman, professor Cal Tech). Harvey will introduce the status and outlook for the LHC, its past and present and near term outlook, and provide a panorama of the future including some of the leading programs. (John Rudy)
5. [orig sched 8/25/2021] Archeology presented by Jeffrey Rose (archeologist) in Israel (Stan Rose)
   Stan R to fup