Don’t get me wrong. I love Rebecca. But then she does something like this, and I hate her. Why? Because this is brilliant and I wish I had thought of it myself!
There are lots of smart, creative, sciencey BABloggees out there, so think up something and send it in to her!
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
June 25th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
awesome. cant wait to (attempt to participate and) see what everyone creates!
June 25th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
[…] at Bad Astronomy. More on the Skepchicks […]
June 25th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
What’s this pifffle!? There was *real* news today!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/25/id_not_science/
June 25th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Does Stephen Colbert count?
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=88996&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2Fmotherload%2Findex.jhtml%3Fml_video%3D88996&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true
June 26th, 2007 at 12:27 am
Is that a picture of Hugh Laurie (Blackadder, House) in the background of Colbert’s contribution?
I love this idea. I do not have the right equipment, so I will be waiting with anticipation to see what everyone else comes up with.
June 26th, 2007 at 1:45 am
How long do I have? I’m still working on maintaining a controlled fusion reaction in my toaster oven.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:20 am
-Is that a picture of Hugh Laurie (Blackadder, House) in the background of Colbert’s contribution?-
Indeed it is. Colbert keeps mementos from previous episodes on the shelves. You might also notice Captin America’s shield, a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robots, and a bookshelf with Origin of the Species in the “fiction” section.
June 26th, 2007 at 5:02 am
Yet another attempt to bolster Rebecca’s fragile ego…
June 26th, 2007 at 7:24 am
Nice, M. Or maybe — just maybe — it’s an attempt to get people fired up about science.
But that would be silly.
June 26th, 2007 at 7:27 am
It’s times like this I hate that I don’t have a web cam. One of my favorite Mr. Wizard experiments was super cool liquids and I would love to demonstrate the super cooled liquid effect of instant freezing
June 26th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Would this count as an experiment?
June 26th, 2007 at 9:05 am
OT: Talk about Bad Astronomy, but since last night Yahoo’s “Space and Astronomy” news page - http://news.yahoo.com/i/2117 - has contained a story about Paris Hilton getting out of jail. Last night it was the lead story!
I guess it confirms what many of us suspected all along — Paris Hilton is an alien from outer space.
:) 
June 26th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Rebecca looks sleepy…
June 26th, 2007 at 9:33 am
Sorry..
Cool vid Sticks!
Maybe it would count as an experiment if you’d prove the workings of perspective by having a studio setup that you can film from above (top-shot) whereby you’d slowly tilt the camera down thus proving the shadows to change due to perspective.
The vid is funny though, I was half expecting some blurry dots in the sky to be pointed out or some really cool special effects to appear in such a reality-shot image. But the lines where way cooler though!
June 26th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Did anyone take time to read the comments? the one from Shade the Fierce is one I had not come across :eh:
I did try to draw the construction lines as accurately as I could, but some complained that I did not
June 26th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Thanks for all the interest everyone! I’m excited to get home and see the responses . . . sadly, YouTube is blocked here at work so I’m forced to wait. Go science!
June 26th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
> Or maybe — just maybe — it’s an attempt to get people fired up about science.
It’s an attempt all right, but one that’s all about Rebecca, as usual. Why the overhead camera, why the clothes, why the voice? A passive attempt to encourage interest in science while trying even harder to encourage interest in herself is nothing particularly impressive, in my opinion.
> But that would be silly.
Of course it wouldn’t.
I much prefer your blog when you’re talking about interesting topics.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Gee, M, show me a blogger who doesn’t have an ego of some sort. Even BA admits that this blog is at least partly driven by various personal agenda, and those who don’t like it can look elsewhere.
I think you’ll find that all successful bloggers like the sound of their own voice (spoken or written) to some degree. Otherwise they’d still be lurking in the comments of other blogs, like the rest of us.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
“Why the overhead camera, why the clothes, why the voice?”
Well, I was going to pull out to a wide shot, take off all my clothes, and mime the video, but somehow that seemed like it would be more difficult to get the point across.
Don’t worry, all, nothing to see here — just a very sad and obsessed girl, obviously. How much harder does a person have to stretch to make a point? It would be funny if she didn’t have such blatantly severe mental issues.
June 26th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Wow! I didn’t realize that M was the sole arbiter of interesting topics on the BA’s blog! Silly me, here I was, thinking that a bunch of 5 minute science demonstrations, avaialable for everyone to see for free, might have been quite interesting to me and perhaps even directly relevant to the BA’s stated goal of popularizing science via this blog… but, clearly, I was mistaken. Thanks for opening my eyes M.
Sacrasm mode off.
I will miss Mr. Wizard… he showed me I could drink while standing on my head. That was a party favorite in grade school! I think this is an excellent idea and will have to dig up a video camera post haste!
Also, Rebecca, I quite enjoyed the video… but sureley you could have done the whole thing while covered in a burkha and speaking in a monotone.
I mean really, who wants to see an attractive intelligent young woman speaking about science! Oops! Looks like my sarcasm switch is busted again…
June 26th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
What an *amazing* idea! I can’t wait to see what people come up with.
June 26th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I think Ms basic problem is that (it thinks) intelligence isn’t supposed to go together with very attractive. I use “it” because M is obviously a Ferrengi,,,or possibly a ‘bot,,,
Cool idea Rebecca! I’ll give it some thought and maybe,,,
GAry 7
June 26th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
M,
I don’t understand your motivation for your posts here. If you don’t like here idea, don’t do it. If you don’t like her presentation, that is purely subjective, I did like it. If you don’t like her, don’t visit her site. Whining because other people do like her and her idea is a waste of electrons.
June 26th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I have deleted M’s last comment as it was very rude, and marked him as spam. He blew it; I don’t delete people only because they disagree with me, obviously, only those who do it in such a insulting manner.
June 26th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
SPIRIT!! PROVE IT!!
June 26th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
I think I can help M understand things a little here:
Most people are insecure - this is a good thing, because it makes us try harder, and the ones that aren’t are pr*cks anyway.
Some people try to counter their insecurity by doing or saying something interesting, or producing neat ideas, or art, or songs, etc.
Others, without any talent or brains whatsoever, simply try to tear others down, to make themselves seem important by comparison. Pretty pathetic, but there you go.
Hope I helped you out a bit
Anyway, as for the real topic, no decent video access here either, alas. Maybe I can work up a flash slideshow or something. I have to admit to never having seen Mr. Wizard at all, but I appreciate what he and others have done to promote an interest in science. Sounds like a nice tribute.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Well since it was deleted we’ll never know, will we Phil?
June 26th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
>>> Well, I was going to pull out to a wide shot, take off all my
>>> clothes, and mime the video, but somehow that seemed like
>>> it would be more difficult to get the point across.
I love you.
June 28th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I can’t even remember the last time I saw Mr. Wizard. Must’ve been when I was in grade school. I think I was too young.
Most of the science I saw on TV was Bill Nye. Nowadays, it’s Mythbusters.
Back on topic, I lack a webcam. Even if I had one, I’m not sure what I could do, aside from mix baking soda with vinegar, or demonstrate various combustible liquids (IMO, NASA does that better than anyone!).
June 29th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I have done one, now waiting for YouTube to process it, and it is a demonstration of one of the Gas Laws that we may see everyday in the kitchen with out realizing it.
Depending on processing It should be here