We're very excited and delighted to welcome a new regional science video competition to our ever-growing SciCast family! Yes, that's right! Hands on Science have started their Science Rap Video Competition for young people between ages 7-16 from the South East of Wales, and we were at their launch event.

The event was fantastic. Laura Roberts, the Hands on Science coordinator, had prepared a morning filled with inspiration and fun: playing videos from previous SciCast entries and having two amazing and talented artists - science rapper Jon Chase and science singer Jonny Berliner - performing live.

The competition, funded by the National HE STEM Programme with sponsorship from the Science Photo Library, in conjunction with SciCast, challenges young people from South East of Wales and ages 7-16 to write a rap or song about Physics and record a 2½ minute video of them performing it. These entries can also be submitted to SciCast and take on a national recognition.

Big thanks to Laura and her team at Hands on Science, and to all the schools that came to the event or are planning to take part in this fun and creative challenge.

We wish them the best of luck and hope to be able to share all the videos with you at this year's SciCast Awards.

Testing -- to see if SmartyPants is working this time. Pay no attention to the man 'behind' the curtain...

Test entry -- let's see if SmartyPants is working... well, I guess we'll know in a moment.

Well, it's the done thing, isn't it?

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Welcome to my new blog powered by Melody. This is the first post on my blog and was created for me automatically when I finished the installation process. But that is ok, because I will soon be creating posts of my own!

We've been keeping an eye on the January sales, and so far the best deals we've seen are:

• Flip Mino 2 HD camcorder, £99.99 from Jacobs Digital (other prices via Google shopping).
• Kodak Zi8, £75.89 from Amazon (other prices via Google Shopping).

Of the two, we prefer the Zi8 -- it has a wider-angle lens, a close-up mode, and a microphone jack. However, the Flip Mino is dinkier, which has to count for something. Oooh, but then the Zi8 comes in different colours... only, you have to spend another £15 on an SDHC card for it... decisions, decision.

Actually, the camera of this type that we really want to try out is the new Zoom Q3HD -- perhaps not quite as good a camera, but the microphones are likely to be stunningly fabulous. Prices from about £200.