Blog 12, Today I discuss a new product I came up with using a by-product of harvesting the high quality gem rough out of the “Alpha” Pallasite.
The Coffeyville Kansas meteorite. The finders of this meteorite were certain after seeing Geoff and me on TV that their rock was a meteorite. They sent in a piece, and they were right. This blog is part about the story and part a little sales pitch. If you might like to buy one, check out the listing on my SteveArnoldMeteorites fan page at Facebook.
Mythbusters Myth: Pretty Girls Don’t Fart
I had seen this video a long time ago, but this weekend, while Geoff and I were sharing the Science Channel’s tent and stage with Kari Byron from Mythbusters and Head Rush at the National Science Festival in Washington D.C., Kari mentioned this video that never made it to TV…but she reminded all of us, it was on the internet. So, since she is not too embarrassed about it, I link to it here for those of you who haven’t seen it, you don’t want to miss it.
Meteorite Men Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold heading up on stage at the US Science Fair for the Saturday 2pm Presentation at the Discovery Tent. Ours is the first tent right across from the U.S. Capital on the Mall in D.C.
Blog #9 How to Get Your Own Reality TV Show, part 1
In this vlog I discuss how Geoff and I got our own TV show Meteorite Men, and I explain why in Hollywood if it’s “YOUR idea, it is a BAD idea, but if it is THEIR idea, it is a GREAT idea.”
Blog #7
This was the first story where a reporter accompanied me, and I did NOT find a meteorite. I was worried it would make for a bad story, possibly so much so that the story would be axed. Ironically, it turned out great.
Reporter Ben Paynter, out of Kansas City recounted how talking with the editors about the story and when they approved his pitch of the idea of the story to them. They told Ben “You had us with ‘Meteorite’!” What do meteorites have to do with WIRED magazine? I still don’t know to this day, but I am glad some others felt it was a good mix.
This print story led to the TV segment on the PBS pilot show WIRED Science made.
Be sure to check out the SUPER COOL photos there at the story. These were made by Brent Humphreys http://www.brenthumphreys.com/ out of Austin.
An interesting story with the killer dark photo (my favorite photo of me of all time). WIRED sent Brent Humphreys and an assistant up to Brenham to take some still photos. Brent is a great guy, and this was the first time I had dealt with a truely professional photographer. We took a lot of various shots, but the main one was me looking into this lit up hole. It took about 2 hours to set up the one photo. Actually, he took a couple, but he snagged the perfect one that he loved. He sent a very small version of it directly from the field to WIRED, and they loved it. It was a wrap.
He got home, only to find out that for the first time in his career, his file was corrupted. He had lost the great photo.
So, instead of getting fired, they wanted him to come back and take the exact same photo all over again. I was back home in Arkansas, without plans to get back to Greensburg before the deadline, but I made the 8 hour trip up, so he could retake the photo.
I’m not sure how much it cost WIRED for that photo…but I think it was worth it. It made a great full page picture in the print magazine.
Blog #6
This was the story that appeared in column 1 on the front page of the L.A. Times. For weeks wild fires had been burning around Los Angeles, and I was amazed this meteorite story made it to press when it did.
Reporter Nicolas Riccardi did a great job on it, and was a key domino in the events that led to our TV series. LMNO’s Executive Producer Ruth Riven was reading her newspaper one morning, saw the story, and thought to herself “Meteorite Hunting, hmm, I wonder if that could make for a good Reality TV show?”
Edit: 12/27/2010: It has come to my attention that when I first posted this post on 10/17/10, in my rush to load up a bunch of posts quickly to the blog site (to give you viewers more content to read) I made a mistake. Upon further review, I must have mistaken Ruth’s fist contact with me by email on 11/27/2007 as being the SAME day as the story came out in the paper exactly one month earlier on 10./27/2007. In any case, after Ruth read the story in the L.A. Times, she emailed me asking for contact information, which I responded to on Dec. 1, 2007. Subsequently, she called me after I gave her my phone number and in the conversation she asked me if I had ever considered doing a TV show, which ultimately led to what is now the “Meteorite Men” on the Science Channel.
Blog #5
American Chopper’s Paul Sr. and his Orange County Choppers team built us a really cool motorcycle to help us hunt for meteorites. Meeting the guys at OCC was one of the highlights of my life. It would have been enough just to get a cool bike, but to get to be part their show made the event more than anyone could ask for. Yet in the end, what I appreciated the most was being able to get an inside look at the huge business that Paul Sr. built starting only a few years ago working out of his basement.
Blog #4
Prior to the Meteorite Men TV series, this was my favorite TV spot. We were honored to be part of the WIRED Science pilot episode, and then when the series was picked up, the segment was repeated on their second episode. Adam Rogers was really great to work with. He added an intellectual and entertaining spin to the story.
