I don’t know why I did this, but I typed my name into Google maps. Evidently, I’m everywhere but here.
Where are you?
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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.
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July 16th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I think I might have got you beat on this one BA. (Using my first name.)
July 16th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Ooh! and I found a Burnham Christian church in Florida. It’s nice to be worshipped.
July 16th, 2007 at 8:52 pm
You are all over Australia too. Apparently I’m in Canada, somewhere between Saskatoon and Edmonton.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
I too found numerous hits all over the country that had nothing to do with me.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Hmmm… For some reason my name only results in a pointer to PA evidence of my brother-in-law’s gambling addiction. This is troublesome.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Well, if there’s one thing common first and last names will give you is safety in numbers when it comes to people looking for you via the Internet. I believe the combination of Mike and Walker qualifies…
In other words, I am all over the place, quite literally!
July 16th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
There’s a state park with my name on it:
http://davidkessler.blogspot.com/2006/09/david-kessler-state-park.html
July 16th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Small town – http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&z=11&om=1
Sounds like we need a Bad Astronomy Frappr map.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
If you double quote your name (as in “phil plait”), the results will make a lot more sense.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
There’s no Oran Taran, but there’s an Oran in MO and two Tarans. One in Kazakhstan (wherever that is!) and one in Iran.
(that’s not my real name btw
)
July 16th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Since you’re asking “where are you”…. Capitol Hill, Washington, DC; where there are shiny things everywhere (oooof!), except in the sky, where the city lights blot out all but Venus, Jupiter, Spica, Betelgeuse… Feh! But I still love this town! Greetings Phil! from Marine Barracks Washington 700 8th St. SE, zip 20003!
July 16th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
I’m somewhere called Brgr? That’s not right.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nils+geylen
July 17th, 2007 at 1:57 am
Oh, I even found you in Europe, and learned something new about you:
“Phil Plait, Astronaut bei der NASA und Betreiber der Internetseite “Bad Astronomy”,”
translated: Phil Plait, astronaut at NASA [...]
July 17th, 2007 at 2:08 am
You’re in down town Amsterdam as well. Have fun!
July 17th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Hard to say where you are when you’re at, at least, 611 different locations…
But I’m really in Sintra, Portugal.
July 17th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Well, I’m all over the place, but the sixth result actually puts me in the right spot (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Pretty cool!
OK, so if the BA is a NASA astronaut, he definitely gets a role in ScienceBlogs: The Movie, even if he’s not part of the Seed hive-mind. (-:
July 17th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Hey Phil, aren’t you supposed to be working on writing a book???
Get busy!!!
Reason needs you.
GAry 7
July 17th, 2007 at 8:39 am
2807 results!
July 17th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Without double quotation marks, I got about 30 to 40 hits, that don’t even come close to where I am. Putting my name in double quotes gave me no hits. I’m safe.
July 17th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Okay, just for fun I tried Berlzebub, and got no hits, again. However, I tried Beelzebub and got this.
I wonder who gets sent to that group home?
July 17th, 2007 at 9:22 am
I get about 5 hits from double quotes, 4 of them the ‘real me’ – 2 press releases mentioned on web pages and two acknowledgments from papers. Strangely enough being in the author list isn’t picked up, but being in the acknowledgments is. Even stranger, if I zoom all the way out, I only get 3 hits.
July 17th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Phil, shouldn’t you be working on a book instead of playing with Google Maps? Get back to work!
July 17th, 2007 at 9:51 am
It’s very odd.
When I search on a Western Pennsylvania map, I get lots of hits because I put a regional restaurant guide that I wrote online. So every restaurant that Google has a record of is connected to every restaurant I’d included in the guide.
But some of the “hits” are completely illogical.
For reasons known only to Google, the fact that I met a man in Michigan is linked to an Episcopal Church in Milton, MA! And, no, the church was not named for either of us.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I’m nowhere. At least not with my real name – but thanks to Jedediah Strong Smith I sort of have my very own state park with gorgeous redwood trees (and ewoks…well, at times)
July 17th, 2007 at 10:16 am
Hmm. In quotes, one hit in Vancouver (really me, but still one more hit than I was expecting).
Not in quotes I turn up in Aspen. Apparently there’s a ski run named the Gran Risa? Well, at least I’m close by, BA, maybe we can meet up for coffee?
July 17th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
I’m not on the map anywere, but apparently a lot of my relatives are.
July 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
that is rather curious… Mine coughs up links to the City of Portsmouth VA city council, some tourist farm in Pennsylvania, and a half dozen other things. The closest relationship to myself is a link to University of Chicago – where my *father* got his PhD. I never attended.
Oh, wait… there’s a pointer to me hiding in BA’s back yard.. gotta do something about that…
July 17th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Is there any way to get it to display all the results instead of just 10 at a time?
July 17th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
My name turns out a lot of results when I google it because my first name is very common in the family, there a two others with my first and last name in my hometown alone. Also my last name is name of clothing store.
July 17th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
My name turns up exactly one response: Kent Hovind’s address. WTF?
(OK, OK, Kent Hovind’s old, not-in-federal-prison address. But still, WTF?)
July 20th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Paul Marsden wrote:
> I’m in Canada, somewhere between Saskatoon and Edmonton.
I’ve driven from Edmonton to Saskatoon, and I can definatively state that there is nobody between Saskatoon and Edmonton!