Well, we’re down to it now, the last few hours of voting. As I write this (about 5:30 Friday night) there are 3.5 hours left in the polls. PZ and I are still in a dead heat. Incredibly, we are a few dozen votes apart after about 19,000 cast.
So this is it, the final plea. After this, I will either post a victory paean or a concessionary lamentation. And the list of people who linked to me, of course.
There’s a lot at stake. So please:
Thanks.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
December 15th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
As of 8:51 PM EST
PZ and the horde of evil - 8702
BA and the gang of good - 8718
Just so y’know.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Just voted for you again. It’s incredibly close!
December 15th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
You realize, of course, if the rules don’t say otherwise, since neither BA nor PZ have a majority, there will have to be a runoff!!!
Oh, the agony of a runoff!!!!!
December 15th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
I just cast my last vote. Currently: Stars - 8743 (nope it went down to 8742?) Squids - 8715
Hmm…looking at the Skepdude calendar. The quote on Phil’s October picture is:
It also helps to have a big telescope! (You know, to see more.
)
Let’s see PZ nekkid in 2008. Vote for Bad Astronomy!
December 15th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
9:21 PM EST
PZ and the creepy crawlies - 8738
BA and the brigade of starlight - 8807
December 15th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
I was worried I couldn’t vote today. But I did!
BA still leads, at 8817.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
You know what would be really funny (if unlikely)? If, after all this, one of the other contenders pulls 9000 or so votes out of nowhere and beats you both.
Pharyngula - 8763
Bad Astronomy - 8868
December 15th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
We’re going to see somebody’s noodly appendage.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
Inarticulate always on an inarticulate sea
beyond P’o-lu the headless Emperor moves,
the octopuses round him; lost are the Roman hands;
lost are the substantial instruments of being.
— Charles Williams: “The Vision of the Empire”
December 15th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
I’m not worried. All the biologists I know are asleep by 10:00!
Astronomers on the other hand are late night people, so I’m expecting the votes for BA to continue right up until the polls close. PZ on the other hand will probably have most of his votes in by then!
December 15th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
“PZ and the horde of evil - 8702
BA and the gang of good - 8718″
Wait, I thought we were the “horde of evil”. Why does PZ’s crew always get to be the evil ones? Its not fair!!!!!
On a side note, it would be cool if they released plots showing the total votes for each group as a function of time over the voting period. It would be cool just in and of itself, but we would also be able to compare it to posts in the two forums.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Squids - 9227
Stars - 9016
Two hundred down and 1 hour to go! It must be all those marine creatures hanging around the Bay area…
December 15th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Uwaah! Looks like it’s the end of the line! The BA is in a very bad situation!!
December 15th, 2006 at 9:18 pm
Developmental biologists, though, are awake at all hours of the night.
There does seem to be a last minute sprint to the finish, doesn’t there? I think all the people who fainted at the announcement of my photography promise are just now recovering, and are clicking frantically at their computers.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Or, more likely, the squids are stuffing the ballot box, based on the rate of votes in the past 20 minutes or so.
We’ll have to see after they remove all the invalid votes…
December 15th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
True, though there could be just as many, if not more, invalid votes for BA. With that being said, I’m calling this one as “Too close to call.” We’ll have to wait for the official results on this one.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:33 pm
OK, what’s the deal with this sudden squiddy surge. No way. It’s at 9322 Squids to 9054 in a half hour. I smell something very fishy…(or inky). 0-8~
December 15th, 2006 at 9:34 pm
OK, I voted for you again, but to be honest, I’ll be really glad when this is over. It’s like a PBS or NPR pledge drive. You know it’s a good cause, and you pay your dues, but the agony of days of off topic posts!
- Jack
December 15th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
What?????? PZ just jumped 300 votes ahead! How the hell did that happened!?!?
December 15th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Well, I would be calling up Phil and razzing him and demanding an immediate concession, except that sudden eruption of votes makes me suspicious, too. We’re just going to have to wait for a final tally, and a Supreme Court decision, and I tell you what, I’m going to demand a recount of all of the counties in Florida if it doesn’t go my way.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Yeah, looks that way. Sigh. The pages say that if you cheat, your votes will go away. It’s flattering in a weird way that people want to cheat for us, but I’m sure PZ would agree that it we’d prefer to keep this honest.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
Or, at least, that the cheaters on my side were clever enough not to get caught.
Evil, you know.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Well, fine, Rebecca will just have to get some nekkid physicists for next year’s calendar…Sean says “they’re incredibly fashionable and make the best lovers anyway.” So there.
/-8~
December 15th, 2006 at 10:10 pm
It’s 12:02 and the voting hasn’t closed. What is going on?
December 15th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
At close of polls it’s 9370 - 9139 to PZ. As they say, it’s all over bar the counting…
I fear that the threat of a naked squid in the SkepDudes calendar may have been enough to swing it for the squishy one.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
The poll isn’t closed. Counts are still going up as we speak. Keep fighting until the bitter end!
December 15th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
At least I assumed the polls had closed based on the time. If TheBlackCat is right then maybe the Fat Lady’s still nursing a sore throat…
December 15th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
Well, it’s gone 1am out here in the eastern most territory of the United States and I’ve got a sneaky suspicion that they’re going to be discounting all votes made after 11:59 EST anyway so I’m calling it a night. Maybe they’ll decide that it’s too close to call and give two prizes - that way we get to celebrate the BA and avoid naked squids.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:24 pm
15 minutes late and still going. This can no longer be attributed to different clocks.
Come on, I’m sure we can muscle 200 votes in the next…well indeterminate amount of time until the staff figures out they screwed up. I wonder if they will still count votes posted after the official ending time.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Whaa…..how did the competition jump ahead by SO many votes in the last 90 minutes?!
It can’t be that the rest of us were busy watching Battlestar Galactica.
I demand a recount!!
December 15th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
One more vote for BA.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:42 pm
Well, it looks like Pharyngula might carry the day. The silver lining is that it’s actually a pretty good blog from a skeptical point of view. Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for stars over squids, and I think I brought a hundred or so votes to the struggle. But it would have been tougher to lose to a blog like this. And considering how close SpunkyHomeSchooler came to beating Michael Berube for best educational blog, don’t think it couldn’t happen here.
I promised my students a modicum of extra credit if BA won; they’ll be bummed.
December 15th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Voting has ended for The 2006 Weblog Awards. RESULTS ARE NOT FINAL UNTIL MONDAY DEC. 18, 2006 (or when this text is removed).
December 16th, 2006 at 1:53 am
my thought is… how did they manage to get a decent 450+ votes in the final hour or two, all of a sudden? Damn I hate the voting system.. Stupid “democracy…”
lol
December 16th, 2006 at 2:05 am
at keast with this election there are no dangling chads.
December 16th, 2006 at 2:37 am
Pardon my French…but WTF?! I mean (being all ladylike and all) - what the dickens? (clutching pearls)
Phil was in the LEAD until the last hour - then the competition somehow jumped ahead by a RIDICULOUS amount of votes? Oh no no no no…I’m doing my best imitation of an American politician and demanding a RECOUNT!
Since when has Diebold done the Weblog Awards?!
December 16th, 2006 at 5:19 am
Gentelmanly wagers are fun until someone gets hurt.
Then it’s _really_ fun.
December 16th, 2006 at 6:23 am
wow!! I can’t believe the results… well if PZ really won I am hapy to be in the minority side… after all minorities are always right hehehe…
December 16th, 2006 at 7:21 am
Voting for the best science blog ends…
The 2006 Weblog Awards have ended, and I finished sixth. I have several hundred of you to thank for that. Here are the final results in the science category: Pharyngula 41.69 percent (9,415) Bad Astronomy Blog 40.67 percent (9,185) The……
December 16th, 2006 at 7:41 am
My favorite part of the Weblog Awards: It is an opportunity to check out other very high quality blogs! While I gave a vote for the BA blog, I’ve bookmarked some of the other candidates.
Kevin
December 16th, 2006 at 8:30 am
This is total bs. I know that some of the people who voted for Pharyngula could not have legally voted. JFK, Elvis, my great-grandparents? They don’t even know what a Commodore or a Nintendo is!
I think the fix was in from the beginning. Just cause squids have like 8 tasty tentacles doesn’t mean they get to vote 8 times each…
December 16th, 2006 at 9:24 am
[b]at keast with this election there are no dangling chads[/b]
If the final tally gets overturned, there will be at least one dangling chad…
December 16th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Hey, I’ll have you know that Elvis loves Pharyngula.
December 16th, 2006 at 10:25 am
I thought he liked cheesebugers..!! :confused:
December 16th, 2006 at 10:58 am
Hey, what’s the big deal with being naked in front of 800 people? Try that in front of 100,000 DeadHeads. Now, That’s funnnny!
Looking forward to the Monday announcement and the final tally. Ain’t democracy fun and exciting?
If this was China( or BushVille), the votes would all have been in and counted from day one. No contention, no discussion and not much fun either.
Funny how both Elvis and Jerry Garcia LOVED cheesburgers. I’ll note that Cheesburgers were heavily implicated in the death of Jerry G. Blocked artery, ya know.But I lOVE cheesburgers,,,
Thanks for the entertainment to both PZ and BA. It’s been fun, whoever wins!
GAry 7
December 16th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Dr. BA, this is completely off topic, but I wanted to share. This might bring a smile to a few disappointed faces.
First, I want to thank you for helping me to decide to move to WordPress. Blogger was killing me, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. Your quick little comment a while back really pushed me to do something about it, and get the blog moved to WordPress.
I’ve gotten it all imported over now, and I’m about half-way done going through all the old posts to repoint all the links that are self-referential, reinsert all the images and video, and tag them all.
On a break, I went looking through my blog-stats, and realized just how cool the tags are.
This one is cracking me up. I might just have issues, I think.
Anyway, I wanted to pop in and say thank you, and maybe lighten the mood up a little here.
Darn squids.
P.S. Trackbacks ROCK!
December 16th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Yeah, WP is the way to go. It has its quirks, but there are so many wonderful features. Plus, since I host the blog on my own site, I get to have complete freedom over what I do. There are advantages of having it on wp.com too.
December 16th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I tried to vote, but the ballot would not appear. Is it IP-limited to Americans only?
December 16th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
Lemming: It’s an invertebrate conspiracy. Pay attention!
December 16th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Lab, it wasn’t limited to Yanks, but it’s over now. If the BA loses by one vote, it’ll be your fault for not paying attention!
Dr. BA, I’ve been a little disappointed that I can’t tweak the actual template or run any javascript, but mostly WP takes care of the stuff I wanted to use javascript for anyway. I just figured out how to stick images in my sidebar (I had missed that “Advanced” thingy before) so my only real substantive beef now is that I can’t add a second sidebar to my template.
December 16th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
Ah, my dear, but you can! It’s just really really hard.
Actually, there are a million WP themes out there. I found one that was close to what I wanted, then tweaked it mercilessly to get what I have now. I’m not overwhelmed with what I did, but it’s far better than what I had. And it’s clean.
The comments in this post will help you out I bet.
December 17th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Unfortunately, wp.com is what’s stopping me. If I had my blog hosted elsewhere, I could do all sorts of things.
Wp.com gives us a limited amount of choices for themes, and won’t let us touch the html. I like the theme I’ve got now, but it would be nice to have the second sidebar.
The only thing they’ll let me do is change the css (for $15), which allows me to change the colors and fonts and stuff, but not add another sidebar. I’d need access to the actual html of the template to add the div tags and stuff to do that.
I just read through that thread and kept finding myself going “What ads?”
Firefox rocks, too! (Do you get your cut from ads if firefox doesn’t display them? I’d feel a little guilty if you don’t, and I’d whitelist your page.)
December 17th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
…unless you know something I’m missing…
?
December 17th, 2006 at 11:28 pm
Nope. I host this on my own site. I mean that the Wordpress software rocks. I don’t know anything about hosting a blog on their site.
December 18th, 2006 at 12:42 pm
crap. Raise a girl’s hopes and then dash them on the rocks, whydoncha.
The software really is cool. In order to import my site, I had to install a server and WP on my home computer, import it here, export it to a file, then import it over to WP.com because of some weird issues that I don’t fully understand.
So I’ve been playing with the local version of my blog, just for fun, and it really is nifty.
WP.com really neuters it though, for security reasons.
January 29th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Hey Dr. BA!
I did it!
I took the sandbox theme and tweaked the heck out of it!
It so totally rocks now!