Not that I ever doubted it. I don’t need to doubt it; as a skeptic I have evidence of it!
Bad Reader Cello Man went to the Very Large Array, a radio observatory in New Mexico, and found a copy of my (first)* book at the gift shop there (I wonder if they sell copies of "Contact" there too?). As I said, he’s smart, so he bought it, and provided proof:
He wrote up his exploits on Randi’s forum, so head on over there and check it out!
* Man, I have to remember to qualify the word "book"! I’m down to writing the last chapter of my second book now. W00t!
October 21st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Ya know Phil, if you need someone to proofread (or give a “interested public reaction”) to the new book, I’m available!!
I’ve done it for other authors.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
They do have the movie “Contact” in the lounge of the visitors’ accommodation at the Green Bank Telescope…
October 21st, 2007 at 10:25 pm
That photo is clearly faked.
October 21st, 2007 at 11:21 pm
I feel lame for getting the book from Barnes&Noble now.
On a related note, when I visited Devil’s Tower many years ago, I stayed in the KOA Campground just outside the park border. They played Close Encounters on a projection television at night…what a fun place to watch it!
Rob
October 21st, 2007 at 11:35 pm
Just a fun bit of Trivia. I few years back I went the the VLA with my college astronomy class. The college was UNM, so we were somewhat conveniently located. Our instructor taught some of the people working there so we got the full tour. That large orange thing in the picture is called a jack. It’s used to move the dishes down railroad tracks to various platforms that allow the array to form a large Y-shape of typically three sizes. Our tour guide told us that they had recently had a contest to name the two jacks. The winning names were “Jack of Diamonds” and my personal favorite “High Plains Lifter”.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:16 am
The VLA is a great place to visit. My wife and I went there four years ago. Sadly, I hadn’t heard of the Bad Astronomer then, so I wasn’t looking for his book, but I did get a couple of cool T-shirts. The exhibits are interesting, too.
I got some pretty cool pictures. First, using my video camera, I got some panoramas at various locations around the site. (Now if I could just find a program to convert it to a single 360-degree image and a viewer, I’d be set.) Then, on the front of the visitor center, it says “Very Large Array” on one line, and “Visitor Center” on a line below that. I’m fairly tall, so my wife took a picture, framed so it says “Very Large Visitor”.
After that trip, we wanted to see all of the NRAO sites, but when we discovered one was in Chile, we figured it would be impossible. We did get to Green Bank, at least. I also managed to get a T-shirt from Arecibo, when my parents visited there, though I’m fairly sure that’s not an NRAO site.
Actually, that whole trip was great; I highly recommend it. We flew into Phoenix, drove from there to Sedona, to the Grand Canyon, to Meteor Crater, to Santa Fe (where I attended a wedding and visited an ancient Native American settlement), to the VLA, to Tucson, and back to Phoenix. It’s a lot of driving, but it’s worth it (though I probably wouldn’t do it again, with a four-month-old). We were hoping to hit Roswell, too (since I was conceived there), but it was too far out of the way.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:31 am
I almost forgot – we saw Los Alamos on the trip, too, and visited the Bradbury science museum. It was interesting for me, but some people might not like it, since it’s mostly about the Manhattan Project and the benefits of radioactive elements (power, medicine, etc.)
No, it’s not named after the author, but there is a rather amusing letter on display, from the author to the scientist.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:45 am
A friend of mine, whom I knew through the University Astronomy Society back when I was a student, went to do his PhD using the VLA.
I haven’t heard from him since . . .
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:21 am
So, your dissertation was your zeroth book.
October 22nd, 2007 at 5:30 am
Holy cow! If you look at that picture really closely, you can see the image of a radio telescope dish and a Bad Astronomy Fan holding a book!!!!
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:55 am
To BadAstronomer:
Are you planning to release electronic version of your book? Getting things delivered across the Atlantic Ocean is slow and painful
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:09 am
I was at NASA about a month ago to watch the Dawn launch, and your book was on the shelves in their gift shop. It had some fairly good company, but it was also about six feet away from DVD copies of “Armageddon”. Yeesh.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:39 am
You’re a disappointing skeptic. That is obviously nothing more than a photoshop, an illusion if you will.
So gullible.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:56 am
Oooh, cute guy, nice lookin’ book, and a handsomely huge dish in the background. Thanks for starting my morning with a little eye candy.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:44 am
It looks photoshopped.
:p
http://www.xkcd.com/331/
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
Sweet! I’m on teh intertubes!
Seriously though, it’s an honor to be on your page, Phil…it’s like my own 15 seconds of fame. If anyone wants some more VLA pictures in higher resolution than I could fit on Randi’s forum, check these out.
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd196/curezn415/New%20Mexico/VLA2.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd196/curezn415/New%20Mexico/VLA4.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd196/curezn415/New%20Mexico/VLA6.jpg
And no, the last one wasn’t photoshopped. (I see Navneeth beat me to an XKCD reference already.)
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
By the way, big thanks to my wife for all the pretty pictures.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:17 am
Phil,
Holy Haleakela to you! My wife and I are going to Mauna Kea in a couple of weeks. You want me to write your name in on the Keck II sign up sheet?
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
“Proof”? You call that “proof”? Anyone can Photoshop[*] themselves into anything.
And did anyone else notice the image of Jesus in the clouds?
[*] When did we start verbing “Photoshop”?[**]
[**] And when did we verbify “verb”?
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:12 am
How do you know if a person is smart? If he buys Phil’s book.
Who buys Phil’s book? People that are smart!
Wait a second! My baloney detector is firing. I smell a tautology.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:18 am
Smart? Of course we is!
>>> I smell a tautology.
Ew, I had one of those once.
>>> you can see the image of a radio telescope
>>> dish and a Bad Astronomy Fan holding a book!!!!
I don’t see it.
I’d post my picture somewhere, but I don’t show up in photographs.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
>>> When did we start verbing “Photoshop�
I believe it started with version 1, so 1990?
Adobe discourages it, but good luck on controlling *that* meme.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:26 am
That picture definitely does not look photoshoped. I should know. I do that for a living
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:17 am
Readers may be smart, but keyword-based advertising isn’t.
Consider this screenshot as I was reading this post:
http://www.hvcomputer.com/temp/BA-advert.png
I’m not sure if people reading BAs thoughts on Vitter and Creationism are necessarily the right target for “meet Christian singles in your city”.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hey Phil. My bro sent me some really cool periodelia as an html attachment. Does that count as an attachment you won’t open in your email? I would forward a link, but all I have is his email message and the photos attached.
GAry 7
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:41 am
Also:
Since the internet makes it hard to detect sarcasm at times, if anybody REALLY believe that picture of me is faked, I’ll be happy to email you the original high resolution pic (2592 x 3888, 3.01 MB) and you can examine it in super duper detail to look for evidence of digital manipulation. Best of luck to you, because you won’t find any.
Besides, a Bad Astronomy reader isn’t the type of person to fake photos. I’ll leave that to ghost hunters and conspiracy theorists.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
For Dadoo:
I did go to the International UFO Museum in Roswell (on my way from Carlsbad for the Caverns to White Sands), and….well, it’s not much. It is basically a set of exhibits with newspaper articles from the time of the Crash, models and drawings of objects and materials supposedly seen by witnesses of things from the Crash and of other UFO incidents, and written materials speculating on what had happened and the supposed cover-up (plus a gift shop, of course).
I did have the dubious pleasure of being ahead of a True Believer who had latched himself to an elderly couple, so I half-listened to him bloviating how the Museum got it wrong but he had the TRUTH on UFO’s.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Cello Man,
Hey, if NASA could fake the all of those moon landings, they could certainly fake a photo or two of someone allegedly holding a book in front of the VLA!
Oh, just in case:
I think we’re just poking fun at the BA for saying that the photo was “proof” of you buying the book at the VLA gift shop. Of course, it’s possible the BA used that term tongue-in-cheek.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Even if it’s not photoshopped, that doesn’t prove anything. You could’ve bought the book elsewhere. Or you might’ve borrowed it, and not even bought it at all! Or you might have taken an image of the cover from the Internet, printed it, and wrapped it around another book. We know you book hoaxers are a devious lot.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
After having seen the movie 2010, I now understand that there are school teachers out at those dishes polishing the big bearings by hand with rags.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[...] The Bad Astronomer put an intriguing blog post on My readers are smart.Here’s a quick excerpt:Bad Reader Cello Man went to the Very Large Array, a radio observatory in New Mexico, and found a copy of my (first)* book at the gift shop there (I wonder if they sell copies of “Contact” there too?). As I said, he’s smart, … [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Wife??!! Aw, shoot.
Oh, yeah. I just remembered — I’m married, too.
Maybe in our next life, Cello Man.
Sigh.
October 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I might have mentioned this before, but I came across my copy of Phil’s (first) book at the visitor centre for the Parkes Radio Telescope in 2005. Sadly, I could not photograph the event, as there were signs everywhere telling us not to use electronic equipment in the vicinity of “the dish”, and that included my camera, even though I was shooting on film at the time.
I guess I could always Photoshop something…
October 22nd, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Phil, when you write a book, do you get itchy over some part that you keep rewriting, but despite your efforts, it still looks clumsy and leaves you frustrated, or it’s generally natural and easy going?
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Huma, I think that happens in every creative profession. With my own (music) I constantly think I could have composed or performed a piece just a little bit better. Hell, I heard that Leonardo da Vinci spent 14 years painting the Mona Lisa’s lips, just going back from time to time to make tiny little changes with light and shading.
October 22nd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
Regarding the Ken B. Link:
I have to wonder where does one get Christian certification? I suppose they must also be S.T.D.(spiritually transmitted diseases) free? Since Christianity mandates one is to love their enemy, shouldn’t Christians by obligation date Satanists?
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:04 am
The BA says: “I wonder if they sell copies of “Contact” there too?”
Another movie trivia bit: In the big “pullback” opening of the movie, the effects team embedded the Cydonia “face” on the image of Mars seen as we pass it. It’s too small to be seen on standard VHS/525 scan TV, but might be visible in high def. It’s in one of the special features on the DVD.
- Jack
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:30 am
Oh yes, and they did indeed sell “Contact” at the VLA Visitor Center. Already had my copy at home, though.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:11 am
>>> spiritually transmitted diseases
I am *totally* using that in a fantasy story.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Been there.
Done that.
Stood there staring with my mouth open.
October 27th, 2007 at 2:41 am
I visited the VLA in December 1999; It was an anniversary year- the 20th I think. There were lots of pics of the movie Contact; I don’t remember it being on sale, but we came when there was nobody working in the visitor center. I also took panorama pics, and tried to get them to look good for a collage. I didn’t want to ruin them, so I gave up the idea. It is an amazing place! Really enjoyed the day; VLA, Painted Desert and Roswell all in the same day! The people at the Visitor Center were very nice; they let us know it was too late for a crash site tour. I wanted to experience the extremes of space exploration!