Congrats on making it to the last page of today's challenge. Don't forget to leave in the comments below, both the correct answer to the following question, AND the item from the neatoshop that you want if you're selected at random. If you don't leave the item you want, you will be disqualified.

Question: Who presently runs the UN's WHO?

Congrats on making it to the last page of today's challenge. Don't forget to leave in the comments below, both the correct answer to the following question, AND the item from the neatoshop that you want if you're selected at random. If you don't leave the item you want, you will be disqualified.

Question: The classic movie, Airplane turns 30 years old this week. On what film is the movie based?

The Huffington Post has called Soft Skull Press “The literary version of a punk rock label." Neatoramanauts have a different expression for that: “a big bowl of awesome!” The good folks over at Soft Skull have been kind enough to give us a few copies of one of their latest, most awesome books, The Cult TV Book, edited by Stacey Abbott. All you have to do to win one is read our interview with Stacey below and then answer the two questions at the end of the interview. When you have your answers, send them to me: david ‘at’ neatorama.com. We’ll pick winners at random and shoot you an e-mail to find out where you want your book sent. Pretty easy, right? —— Now, on with the interview!—— Neatorama: In the book, you talk about how cult TV was previously just for geeks ("socially awkward teenage boys"), but has now become mainstream. Just to cite one example, you show how fan conventions used to be thought of as freakish, but now they're crucial for networks and studios. What's changed? SA: Television has changed.  With the move away from the big networks to a much more competitive televisual landscapes with many smaller cable, pay, satellite channels all competing for audiences, the loyal niche audience is now very attractive to broadcasters and sponsors.  Channels and networks aren’t necessarily looking for the big audiences (although they are happy when they get them) but rather a fairly affluent and committed audience who will keep coming back to watch their favourite shows on a weekly basis.   This means that the fans of cult television are more important to TV now.  This is why conventions have become so popular and new shows are previewed at events like Comic-Con.  A successful preview of a TV show at Comic-Con provides a fantastic amount of great press for a show before it has even aired. Neatorama: Later, you also argue that part of the change is merely the world's perception, which has also changed. In what ways? SA: Two major things have changed. First, many creators/producers of programmes that we would call cult are self-admitted fans of cult television. People like Joss Whedon, J.J. Abrams, Ron Moore, Russell T. Davies, Stephen Moffat to name just a few.  The success of these writers/producers show that being a fan of cult television is not a dead end street but rather a potential path to success.  These people have very successful lives and so the image of the fan with ‘no life’ is being gradually dissipated. The second thing that has contributed to this perception change is the internet.  The internet invites online discussion of all TV shows so many people who would not, in the past, describe themselves as Cult TV fans are now engaging in many of the same practices. Fans of Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost and Doctor Who contribute to fan forums, online discussion groups, and engage in detailed discussion and analysis of their favourite shows. The practices of the Cult TV fan are now quite common. Neatorama: If, as you and your co-writers argue, audiences really want quirky, innovative programming, why do the networks continue to spend millions on cookie-cutter pilots? SA: While audiences (some but not all) respond to quirky and innovative programming, it is difficult for the networks to anticipate what take off next with audiences. Networks don’t want to gamble too much so there is the desire to replicate success.  Sometimes this works – Heroes definitely came on the heels of the success of Lost, and often it is not.  Also, while, as we argue in the book, more audiences are interested in this type of cult programme now then ever before, some audiences are not interested in making the kind of commitment that it takes to watch Lost or Battlestar Galactica, so the networks do produce loads of series that are far more formulaic and therefore easier to dip in and out of. Neatorama: How long before the networks and studios start paying attention to Webisodes and start sinking money into pilots online? SA: Good question and no easy answer.  At the moment Webisodes serve a purpose for the networks as an ancillary text and more and more people are watching TV and film online so this might change yet. But I’m not sure the networks feel confident in the internet in terms of finances. It is a gradual process I think, but will eventually go there. Neatorama: I had a meeting at A&E recently with a woman about a show I was pitching and I said it would be perfect for the Web. The development person looked at me like I'd actually just said I wanted to copulate with her. Why have they been so reluctant to create content for the Web if that's where the eyeballs are? SA: That is a funny story. I think it is transitional. More and more people are watching things online but not everyone yet. And networks, even if they are aiming at niche audiences, want to target as large a proportion of that audience as possible. I think the perception is that the material will get lost online. But this will change, I believe.  Most networks are cautious and they require creative people working for them to spear-head major changes. Neatorama: You spend a lot of ink discussing the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and how ground-breaking it was. Of all the ground it broke, what do you think was the most significant in terms of influencing the future of TV? SA: Did we talk a lot about Buffy. I did try and keep it balanced. But it is a key show particularly in many of the ways we have talked about above.  It attracted people who would not necessarily call themselves cult TV fans and they began to engage with the show on a cult level.  But to answer your question, I would say that it marked a key shift away from the episodic quality of much of TV toward asking your audience to engage with much broader and developing seasonal arcs. The characters on this series grew up, they evolved and the show grew up and evolved with them.   The show has memory and it encourages the audience to share that memory not just move on from episode to episode and forget what came before. As much as I love The X-Files, one of the frustrations of the later seasons is that Scully still plays the skeptic despite everything she has been witness to. It is unbelievable that she would still be so resistant to the supernatural.  On Buffy the characters reflect back on the audience and their actions often show how they have evolved as people.   This is one way I think that Buffy has influenced TV. Now we see this type of memory in all types of shows. Neatorama: Let's talk about probably the most famous of the cult programs, Star Trek. Why did it take nearly 20 years for someone to hit on the bright idea to create episode number 80? (The original three seasons in the late '60s were comprised of 79 episodes.) I mean, with all the fans, all the conventions, all the movies, etc. I'm just left scratching my head in wonder over this. SA: I know what you mean. It does seem really ridiculous in retrospect. In the period where the show was building its audience in syndication, networks weren’t interested in cult television. This was a show that failed and while it did well in syndication, they weren’t going to be interested in another show that would generate smallish audiences. In the late 1970s when the fandom was really hitting its peak, they did begin to think of making another series but this then generated into Star Trek: The Motion Picture and once the franchise went into movies, no-one at this point would consider moving it back to TV. At that time, TV was the poor relation (this is changing now).  By the time of Next Gen, Paramount was moving into television so transferring a successful film franchise seemed like a good move. It wasn’t just a question of returning to the original show. They were drawing in fans of the films as well. Neatorama: Do you think Trekkies elevated the original series above and beyond? Was the drama that compelling? The action, that exciting? In short: were those 79 episodes really all that? (BTW, I grew up watching them, totally loving them, but never became anything remotely like a hard-core Trekkie.) SA: I was a huge Star Trek fan as a child (probably my first cult TV experience although I wouldn’t describe myself as a hard-core Trekkie).  I think that like any low budget series, the show has its strong and week episodes. 79 episodes in three years is a lot of television and so it is not surprising that not all the episodes are great. But it do think that at its best, the drama was compelling and innovative. This was a Utopian vision of the future that had a strong message about humanity.  Some of the best episodes such as “Balance of Terror”, “Space Seed”, “Wolf in the Fold” and my personal favourite “City on the Edge of Forever” are very well written, with exciting action and in the case of “City on the Edge of Forever” are profoundly moving. Also, the focus upon the male friendship of Kirk, Spock and Bones was and is fresh and quite unusual. Neatorama: If you could have lunch with only one, who'd you pick and why? Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner or Wil Wheaton? SA: Leonard Nimoy – Spock is the most complex character on the show and his is the character who evolves the most throughout the entire TV series and films.  Also, he directed some of the movies so his perspective would be very insightful. Neatorama: Cult fan members never like it when something goes mainstream. Indeed, at least in the case of something like Borat, mainstream = certain death. But some cults become so big, like Trekkies, that they could be considered mainstream even though they're cult-ish. Where do you draw the line? At what point is it no longer a cult? SA: The nature of cult is changing. A show like Lost was huge initially but its puzzle like narrative structure and the mythology of the island invited cult engagement with the show so I would say it is cult.  Similarly Doctor Who is a national obsession in the UK and is aimed at family audiences, but it has a huge cult following (and has for years).  It is difficult to know where to draw the line but I would say that if a series generates cult fan response, ie. emotional commitment, loyal viewing, engagement with the series beyond just watching it on a weekly basis etc. Then it is cult or at least as a cult quality.  But having said this there will always be those cult shows that are cult because the fans found them – Firefly, Wonderfalls, etc.  And that will hold a special place in cult. Neatorama: In many ways, the idea of "the power of the cult" sort of exemplifies the power of The Long Tail, as Chris Anderson calls it. Has the music industry been faster to recognize this power than the movie industry? If so, why? SA: I think that Film industry is based on opening weekends box office. Get everyone to go out and see it right away and then bring it out on DVD in 3 months and continue to make money off it and the various ancillary products. If one were being cynical, you could see the film release as the promotion for everything that comes out afterward and cult doesn’t operate this way. It is often a small and slow discovery. Neatorama: Talk a little bit about the process of collecting all these wonderful essays in the book. What was the process like? SA: Thanks for saying the essays were wonderful.  It was a great experience working on this book (and editing books isn’t always that way although I have been very lucky). People who write about cult television, while being scholarly and rigorous researchers, are also fans of the TV shows that they are writing about. So they are incredibly committed to the process.   So for putting this book together began with numerous conversations with friends and colleagues about what topics and television shows should be covered in this book. Then I did quite a bit of research into who was working in this area. Many of the people I’ve worked with before, others I had read their work in relation to my research.  In most cases I approached each other with a general idea of what they might contribute to the book, based upon their areas of expertise and what I thought would be necessary and useful for the book, and discussed what I had in mind and what they could deliver. In every case they came back with so much more than I could have imagined.   The best way of describing this process was to think of it as a series of really interesting discussions and debates about cult television. Neatorama: Were you ever tempted to write the whole thing yourself? SA: I would have loved to but it is such a huge topic, it would have taken me years to just watch every TV programme sufficiently to be able to write about them. Also, I think the topic benefits from a multitude of voices and understanding of the subject. As the book, I hope, shows, there is no one definition of cult and having different people write about it drives that home I think. Neatorama: What's next for you? What can we expect to see? SA: Well I am still immersed in television studies. I am currently co-writing, with Lorna Jowett who is a contributor to The Cult TV Book, a book about TV Horror. The aim is to try and unpack how the genre has evolved through television and what distinguishes it from literary and cinematic horror.  Some have argued in the past that horror and television are incompatible and we are challenging that argument. --

Question #1: You can probably tell that Stacey is British from the way she spells some words. Which words am I referring to? Question #2: How many episodes of the original Star Trek series were made in total? When you have your answers, send them to me: david ‘at’ neatorama.com.

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Yes, I realize it's a long Post title... but, hey, our first GTFO contest submission deserves it! Check out the video above and then get cracking on your own submission for a chance to win some awesome prizes and collect some nice Internet fame! Find out how to enter, here.

This is just about the only time in life when FAIL makes me really, really happy. Maybe part of the reason why Los Angeles is having such a fiscal crisis is that these FAIL meters are becoming a pretty regular occurrence around town. Oh, well. As the old saying goes: Don't look a broken parking meter in the, er, hand that feeds, well... whatever.

Join us and our friends Wil Wheaton and vlogbrothers John and Hank Green and help protect net neutrality.

Step 1) Get educated by watching this video:



Step 2) Go to SaveTheInternet.com and take action!

(Via Phampants)

No doubt due in small part to you Neatoramanauts, our friend Ken Denmead's Geek Dad book is about to hit the New York Times best-sellers list and is presently ranked #25 on Amazon! Big big neato-congrats to our pal Ken. Celebrate the good news by reading our interview with Ken about the book and all things Geekatoid, if you haven't already!

[caption id="attachment_32253" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Mad Men–inspired Barbie dolls"][/caption]

It's almost here! Season 4 premieres on July 25th! Meantime, here's a cool behind-the-scenes chat with Matthew Weiner and costume designer Janie Bryant who talk about how the clothes and story go hand-in-hand and what is in store for the hit series’ next season.

Says Weiner, "People have responded to the show by embracing a dressier lifestyle, especially men with a more tailored look—I love that. I always felt like it was the highest compliment that the show changed menswear more than women’s clothing, because men are much slower to change. That was never the intention, of course. Mad Men was never meant to be a fashion show."

Link via WSJ

Not much to say, other than, Are you SERIOUS? Clearly this guy is, at least about all things Disney. I spotted this car cruising around Los Angeles and had to take some photos.


















Think it's safe to say this guy is, er, gearing up for Toy Story 3?!

Just a friendly reminder that we're having a lot of fun over on our Twitter and Facebook pages. So follow @neatorama and Like www.Facebook.com/neatoramanauts!

There you'll find all kinds of neato things we don't always feature here on the blog, like special contests! Every week we host a Scrabble tournament for 3 lucky neatoramanauts on Facebook, for instance. If you beat us and the other two players, you win a prize!

We’re happy to announce the winners of our Quiz Play Day contest, which we helped sponsor along with Breadpig.com and the Game Show Network. Together, we raised nearly $2,500 for more than 40 charities around the world! (For a full list of charities, see the list here.)

Because BoingBoing raised the most money, narrowly edging out Neatorama, they got to select one random player for their team who scored 5 items from the xkcd/Breadpig store. A big congrats to BoingBoing and to Sean Doyle, who picked up the spoils! And thanks to Alexis Ohanian for sponsoring!

The 10 randomly selected Wii game-set winners, courtesy of GSN.com, are: Linda Ocasio, Abbie Fox, Michael Poser, Travis, Sarah Hans, Parker Lindstrom, Patricia Hyde, Drew Starr, Alex, and James Mcilhargey! So check your e-mail kiddies, ‘cause we need your snail-mail addresses to be able to send those game-sets out!

And finally, our grand-prize winner, who scored an Apple iPad, courtesy of neatorama, and will go on GSN-Live (that’s the TV show for those who don’t know) in the coming weeks to talk about our contest and her charity of choice, please join us in congratulating Vanessa, who played for Team Neatorama (w00t!) and donated $100 to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!

If you’d like to catch her on TV, check back often with our Facebook page and we’ll let you know once GSN schedules her appearance.

This might very well be the coolest time-lapse video I've ever seen. Move over Koyaanisqatsi - you've got company from NASA!

Link via YouTube (thanks PhamPants for the tip!)

Hypothesis: A person’s standing at a firm is inversely proportional to the manner in which he/she types his/her internal e-mails and the amount of words employed.

For instance, here’s an e-mail the average employee might write to a cohort:

Good morning gentlemen,

After reading over your proposal for a new recurring conference call on Monday mornings with IT, I can assure you that our team is ready to give the green light so long as you loop back with Carl Tomkins.
Many thanks in advance,
EM (Every Man)

And now, the same e-mail written by a Vice President:

Gentlemen,
Re: new recurring conference call on Monday mornings with IT—our team is ready to give the green light so long as you loop back with Tomkins.
Thanks,
VP

And the same e-mail by a Senior Vice President:

Re: conference call with IT—ready to give green light so long as you loop back with Tomkins.
SVP

And, lastly, the Managing Director’s e-mail:

fine Just be sure to loop back with Carl

Note how the Managing Director’s sentences have no regard for punctuation, do away with all salutations completely and rarely take up more than one line.

Am I right? Do other Neatoramanauts have similar experiences that prove my hypothesis correct?

Unless you've been living in a cave, you already know Betty White is hosting SNL this weekend. (Please say you do!) To get you in the mood, our friends at GSN (Game Show Network) gave us an exclusive video they put together to salute the “Best of Betty White” from her classic appearances on Match Game. GSN will be showing a Betty White Marathon on Saturday, May 8—just hours before White makes her first-ever appearance as host of Saturday Night Live. The seven-hour, 14-episode marathon will spotlight the brilliant comedic timing that has earned White 18 Emmy nominations and six wins over the course of her career. So be sure to tune in from 9:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. (ET). Meantime, enjoy these hilarious scenes!

Most Neatoramanauts know all about Ken Denmead's Geek Dad blog over on Wired.com. But did you know Ken has a book coming out? Yep, in just a couple days you'll be able to curl up with a pantload of geeky projects perfect for you and your kids.  Some are ripped right from the posts you've come to love on the blog, but most are brand-spankin' new. Ever think about flying a kite at night, rigged with lights? Or making a comic strip out of Lego pieces? Or constructing a fortress – out of cake?

Those are just some of the cool projects you'll discover in the Geek Dad book, an easy to read,  adroitly written craft book. And because Ken is himself a Neatoramanaut, he's been kind enough to give us three, no more, no less, four we did not get, neither two, five is right out. But three, being the third number, is the number of books we have to give away in our contest! (We'll leave the contest open until the book is officially published on May 4th!)

Want to win a copy? Here's what you need to do:

1. Read the interview below!

2. Click the link at the end of the interview and answer the question you find waiting for you.

3.  E-mail me the answer to the question (e-mail address found on the linked page).

4. That's it! We'll pick three random winners and send out your very own copies!

Enough rat-a-tat! On with the interview...

DI: Toward the front of the book, there’s a lot of discussion about the very word geek, how it has morphed over time, and the variations and various subsets. It got me thinking: When I was in high school, I was a band geek and a computer geek. Yet I also scored an extra part in Revenge of the Nerds 2, so some people called me a big ‘ol nerd. Yet I also infamously scored two points for the other team in a basketball game, so I fit right in with the dweebs who were picked last in gym. My question to you is this: Can a person be a geek, a nerd, and a dweeb? Is it like astrology where I’m really a geek dad (for those who don’t know, I have a toddler), but have a nerd rising? Shine some light, if you would…

KD: The point I make in the book is that the difference between geek and nerd if self-awareness about the anti-social nature of obsession over a hobby or pursuit. Obviously real people are far more complex that the labels that get broadly applied to them, and it's perfectly realistic that you could be an overall geek (aware of your nerdish tendencies, but able to either embrace them with vim, or mitigate them through careful behavior), and yet be more nerdish or dweebish in certain circumstances or when pursuing specific hobbies.

DI: At what point in YOUR life did you come to the conclusion that you were a geek? Certainly before daddom, I’d imagine? Or…

KD: Oh, in high school certainly. I was a music geek, theater geek, I played D&D at lunch with my friends from AP Physics, and wrote science fiction stories during free periods.

DI: In the book you talk about how more and more females are categorizing themselves as geeks—that it’s obviously not just for a label for dudes anymore. Did you wind up finding a fem-geek to settle down with and, if so, would that make your kids über-geeks? Or do two geeks cancel each other out and produce jocks and politicians?

KD: My wife is a total geek, with a strong passion for science fiction movies and TV shows, and we love traveling to conventions now and buying each other show props. We've been very careful not to push our tendencies on the kids, though - and luckily they are absorbing them instead. Actually, our older son, who played baseball and basketball, but also loves D&D and video games, called himself a "gock" - half geek, half jock.

DI: The sub-head of the book is “Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share” – and some of the projects that stand out to me, the ones I can’t wait to try with my son, are: Build a Binary Calendar, Portable Electronic Flash Cards, Fly a Kite at Night, and Model Building with a Cake. Of course, some of these projects you already wrote up on the blog, but many were new for the book. Are there one or two in particular that you really enjoyed creating and writing about?

KD: Flying the video camera on a string of balloons was great to do because there was science and engineering required to sort it out; figuring out the volume of helium needed to provide sufficient lift for the camera package and then devising the best way to string them together.

DI: If you could have lunch with any geek dad from history, who would it be?

KD: That's a tough question. My first instinct would be J.R.R. Tolkien, because he started the rich creations of Middle Earth as something for his kids. But he probably wouldn't have considered himself a geek (indeed, at the time the word would have been an insult). So I'd settle on Gene Roddenberry. His influence on geek culture cannot be understated.

DI: Of some of the more famous fictional geek dad-figures, who was cooler? Or who would you rather spend time with? Dr. Emmett Brown or Dr. Newton Crosby?

KD: Naw, give me Doctor Quest, Reed Richards, or Mr. Incredible!

DI: Of all the geek-gadgets you own, which one would you take to the proverbial desert island if you only could take one?

KD: Assuming (as any good geek would have to), that there was free power and wi-fi available on this desert island, my iPad!

DI: What’s the worst thing about being a geek?

KD: Being socially outcast; really, having to live in an environment where no one "gets" you.

DI: Your day job is in civil engineering. What’s a typical day for you?

KD: In broad brush-strokes, just like anyone else. Up early, help get the kids ready for school, and head to work (stop and get coffee on the way). Work, work, work - sad to say, civil engineering isn't as glamorous as everything thinks! Pick up the kids from school, get home, and do family stuff. And all in there, keep an eye on the blog.

DI: It’s 2120—is geek still in our vernacular? What’s the future hold for the geek as AI becomes more and more sophisticated in the future?

KD: By the evolved definition of the word I like to use, absolutely. Geeks aren't just about technology. Of course, techie geeks will still be with us, because technology is driving our culture more these days than ever before, and the people who are obsessive about the creation and use of technology will always be needed. Just, by then, the geeks will be moving planets around.

DI: Let’s not even look down the road that far, what’s Ken Denmead doing 25 years from now?

KD: Semi-retired, overseeing the GeekDad media empire and working part-time at Disneyworld.

DI: Other than the blog, are you working on anything now you want to tell us about?

KD: There's always the hope that the book will do well enough to spawn another. I'm involved in the development of a NPR radio show for dads that will hopefully get picked up. And we want to keep building GeekDad as a property. The great thing is that new opportunities pop up when you least expect them!

DI: Will there be any book signings or speaking engagements? Where can people find you after the book comes out?

KD: There certainly will, and I'm keeping track of all that kind of thing on the website we've built for the book: www.geekdadbook.com. I'm always lurking on Twitter, as well (@fitzwillie).

DI: Lastly, anything you wish I’d asked?

KD: "What's the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"

N.B. - Please do NOT leave answers to our contest question in the comments below. We will delete your comment. Thanks for understanding! However, we DO want you to send us your answer, the details of which can be found, along with the contest question, right here! Good luck to one and all.

Special thanks to Ken, who jammed on turning around the Q&A within 24 hours so we could present the interview/give-a-way in a timely manner. As Crush, dad-turlte said so eloquently to his son Squirt in the Pixar film Finding Nemo: You SO totally rock dude!