Boing Boinged Again

My video about dry quicksand was picked up by Boing Boing this morning. That marks the third year in a row one of my demos has gone just a wee bit viral. Last year it was the Liquid Nitrogen Volcano, the year before it was the Earthquake Machine. All in all, a pretty good track record.

I try not to read internet comments, but I saw one of the comments on the dry quicksand video that, while it used more than its share of hyperbole, did have a thoughtful point behind it. Brevity and clarity. While I've always worked towards clarity, brevity is not always my strong suit. I don't know if brevity is over-celebrated, considering that whenever I introduce a new idea in the classroom, I make sure I repeat the idea three times: at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. It's a good plan for conference talks, too.

So, being a scientist, I'll try an experiment. My next video is in the works (well, the demo equipment is in the planning/construction phase, anyway) and I'll try to be as concise as I can. And we'll see what happens.