-
About Bad Astronomy
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's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. Science Getaways
Subscribe to BA
Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters
"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 UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
- A Planet of Viruses: Autographed Book Sale
- Animal Friendships: My cover story for Time magazine
- The Future of E-books–podcast of my interview on Wisconsin Public Radio
- Thursday, February 16: Science and social media panel in New York
- A Scientific Jonah: My profile of Joy Reidenberg in tomorrow’s New York Times
Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.
Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us
June 13th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Fortunately, I’m a Leo. Leo’s don’t believe in astrology…
June 13th, 2007 at 11:38 am
And of course the google adds generated by this blog are for Free Horoscopes.
Duh!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Right on!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:48 am
They say I’m a “Leo” because of when I was born, but that’s them.
I don’t however, believe the Gemini panel on there….
I know for a fact that the position of the stars has a bearing on my life — those stellar positions in the sky tell me when I can go out and observe specific objects!!!
June 13th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
When I tell people that astrology is a pile of kolort (in the new Firefly series all the swearing will be in Danish), they tell me that I am a doubting Thomas.
well thank you very much is my reply, that guy had a point.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Hey, I posted the link to this when Phil was moving.
June 13th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
The position of the moon and the sun had a big bearing on my life, when I was kayaking in the Bay of Fundy.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Heh heh…
This reminds me of two things: The Weird Al Yankovic song “Horoscope for Today,” which is now stuck in my head, and the excellent, nationally televised debunking of astrology by the one and only Bill Nye he Science Guy on “The Eyes of Nye.”
June 13th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
>This reminds me of two things: The Weird Al Yankovic song “Horoscope for Today,†which is now stuck in my head…
And now it’s stuck in mine. Thanks a lot.
June 13th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I’d like those astrology folks to figure out how to cast my horoscope. I was both conceived and born in late June of last year, but my birthdate is Valentine’s Day 1989.
That ought to keep ‘em arguing for years!
LOL
June 13th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Keep THEM arguing? I’m trying to figure out the circumstances of your birth and my head hurts. Damn non-linear-time fertility clinics!
June 13th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
OHHHH I GET IT! You were born in the TARDIS! XD
June 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Phil , check out this post on an archaeology blog. http://archaeoblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/two-boooos-for-history-channel-i.html
I saw those pieces of garbage and this article actually gives them way too much credit. The “science” was beyond absurd. The History Channel really needs a good corrective BA style fact check, and a strong admonition to run show ideas through the woo filter if they want any of their serious stuff to have any credibility.
June 13th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
The comic strip that’s from, Kevin and Kell, is nice, if occasionally a bit twee. In spite of the cute talking animals, it takes on issues of prejudice and discrimination, making it “family-friendly” by casting it all in terms of species.
June 13th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I prefer the horoscope Swift published when he was writing a parody almanac, in which he foretold that a famous astrologer of the day would die on a specific date. When he didn’t, Swift published a screed declaring the astrologer dead and ordering him to stop walking around London.
June 13th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
The picture on the Aquarius one was priceless!
June 13th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
gooood!
June 14th, 2007 at 2:15 am
EL mejor horóscopo del mundo…
The Kevin & Kell Horoscope © Bill HolbrookAries: Haz con tu vida lo que te plazca. La astrologÃa es un engaño.Tauro: SÃ, no es más que un mito.Geminis: La posición de las estrellas no tiene ninguna influencia en tu vida.El……
June 14th, 2007 at 3:08 am
Awesome!
June 14th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Hi Shawn!
Though I am quite the fan of the good Doctor, I’m afraid my origin and circumstance is much more mundane.
Nope, perfectly linear, in this time line, in this reality, and literally and factually correct in every detail.
I just turned 18 on Valentine’s Day, but am just now approaching the first anniversary of my conception and birth (two day gestation) in about two weeks.
It’s a very creative digital mystery I suppose, but a little research quickly clears it up.
Kisses,
JanieBelle
June 14th, 2007 at 8:18 am
By coincidence, ‘In Our time’ on radio 4 was a discussion on the origins of Asrtology and why it fell out of favour in the 17th and 18th Centuries.
June 14th, 2007 at 8:49 am
@ Jerry Anning,
Holy crap, the History Channel, Discovery Channel, TLC… they’ve all gone to pot lately IMHO. It’s both frustrating and disappointing. (And don’t even get me started on Sci-Fi and that “Pro-Rasslin’” crap.) It’s really getting hard to find any quality programming at any given point in the day any more.
Pouty Kisses,
JanieBelle
June 14th, 2007 at 9:16 am
See Steven Colbert, John Stewart and Bill Maher for quality programming. Yes, there are people in the entertainment industry with a significant degree of intellect. Now all we need is a news program hosted by Cheech and Chong,,,
Gary 7
June 14th, 2007 at 9:23 am
JanieBelle, the best I can come up with is that after conception, you were transplanted to a surrogate. 2 day gestation has be baffled.
June 14th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Oh, Geez.
I was trying hard not to be such a blatant and explicit blog whore here, people. (Not that I’m not a blog whore, of course. I just prefer to be slightly more subtle about it…)
Dr. BA, please forgive me for this, just this once?
All Good Things
June 14th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Gary mentioned,
Oh, all with you there. ‘specially the Cheech and Chong do Nightly News thing.
It just sometimes seems like if you turn on the Discovery Channel, you’d think you’re seeing the Home Improvement Channel. If you turn on the History Channel, you’d think you’re seeing The Bible Is A History Book Channel or Pseudo-Science and Psychics R Us. If you turn on TLC, you’d think it was the Food Network or the Entertainment Weekly Channel.
The Science Channel is somewhat better, but much of it is more like The Big Metal Stuff Engineering Channel.
Kisses,
JanieBelle
June 14th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Geez o Pete. To read all that, you’d think I must be in a particularly negative mood today.
Sorry, didn’t intend to convey that to anyone.
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Kisses,
JanieBelle
June 14th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I am SO glad I’m not the only one who reads Kevin & Kell (though I read that just before I go read Sluggy Freelance).
Remember, there is no God but Bun-Bun.
As for TV, I’ve pretty much given up on it. Stargate has gone down the swirly. Heck, with Bones in summer reruns, there isn’t anything at all worth watching.
June 14th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
One of my favourite cartoons from many years ago appeared in “Punch”. It had a typical English couple at home looking at TV where the news announcer said: “The science of astrology took a huge leap forward when, as predicted, everyone born under the sign of Aries (cannot remember which zodiac sign so just insert random one here) was run over by an out-of-control milk float”. Pretty much sums it up.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Turns out a music video’s been made for it:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/horoscope
“Now you may find it inconceivable or at the very least a bit unlikely that the relative position of the planets and the stars could have a special deep significance or meaning that exclusively applies to only you, but let me give you my assurance that these forecasts and predictions are all based on solid scientific documented evidence so you would have to be some kind of moron not to realize that every single one of them is absolutely tru-WHERE WAS I?”
The Mothman and UFOs were a nice touch.