and the plan is.....

Dear Amy,

Thanks for the feedback!

The plan with Professor Blue is to become rich and famous. Or else to get Maria a job in her field. And to maybe give me a career boost in my newly chosen field. The way to do this is to create something silly yet valuable, and then (this is the part where we are right now) to peddle it like crazy. Who is the object of our peddling? Other professors, researchers, foreign people with money from their governments who support things like a clean environment (Sweden and Switzerland right now), movie producers, artists, anyone really.

There is a wee bit of money allocated in research budgets for this thing called "Outreach". Disseminating science to the ordinary folks. National Science Foundation does this, same thing for NIH, DOE, yadda yadda. Plus there are private institutions that have money for this purpose. Since the US ranks somewhere like last in the so-called developed world for children pursuing science degrees in college, there is a bit of anxiety on the part of american colleges / universities, as well as for american scientists, to get this number to rise.

Our aim is to make the outreach really enticing.

Our other aim is to make whatever we do look really enticing. So if we get, say, a contract to do a children's show that isn't only about science, we're ready.

Our aim is to get paid for our work.

My immediate aim is to fix the web page. Then to post something on YouTube. Then to post on iTunes. And elsewhere. Then to get some feedback from kids to show people at NSF and other places that the outreach is actually effective. Maybe we'll make a Take-A-Quiz podcast.

I know there are companies that do this very thing and have a large staff to do this, but since we are a Mom and Mom shop we have to do this ourselves. Which makes socializing not so urgent. Unless it's to invite people over to our house for a potluck and, say, a "movie".

Suckers!