BABloggee and old friend (and colleague and Boulderite) Kevin McLin has tumbled onto astronomy’s best kept secret: we’re all full of crap.
But shhhhh! Don’t tell the creationists. They’ll get jealous.
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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.
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
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December 14th, 2007 at 12:15 am
EncyclopediaDramatica is ten times better, amirite?
December 14th, 2007 at 3:09 am
I’ve always had this suspicion about astronomers.
Two of my friends are astronomers, and I’ve never really trusted them. Now I know the truth.
Long live astrology!
December 14th, 2007 at 3:25 am
I read a few lines or so, then stopped because it was too insane.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:41 am
It was you evil astronomers (see, the name has “ass” in it . . .) that caused the removal of the beloved planet Pluto from the list of “Real” planets and forced the poor, misbegotten body into the nether-realm of “Dwarf Planets”!
How can anyone believe in Astronomy when it denies the perfectly reasonable quantum chi gravitational extract theory !?
How could anyone possibly trust someone who spends their nights looking up at the sky and pretending that the things they see move in the sky due to the entirely unproven theory of revolution, in denial of the ages-old belief that the earth is the center of the universe ?
Next you’ll be telling me that such long-practiced and clearly effectual practices as Homeopathy, Reiki and Acupuncture don’t have any effect beyond that of the placebo!
Right! it’s War to the End!
(the preceding was written as a lame attempt at humor)
December 14th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Are you sure he said astronomer and not astrologer many confuse the two
December 14th, 2007 at 5:52 am
“Just like Alice in Wonderland, astronomers need a number of impossibilities to make the impossible possible, for example, black holes and dark matter.”
Although spoken tongue-in-cheek, this one statement pretty much sums up the stumbling block many religious folks have with science. If your study of astronomy doesn’t exceed “Curious George Gets a Telescope”, “Stardate”, “Star Gazer”, or an occasional glance at “Sky & Telescope”, all the astronomical technobabble sounds like pure fantasy.
Of course, if you change a couple words in the sentence, the converse is also true: “Just like Alice in Wonderland, Christians need a number of impossibilities to make the impossible possible, for example, an omniscient and omnipotent God.”
To those whose familiarity with Christianity starts and ends with “7th Heaven”, televangelists, and some incomplete information on the Crusades and Inquisition, it all sounds like silly fantasy.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:37 am
I was disappointed that the linked article on “Intelligent Astronomy” went missing. The concept boggles the imagination…..
December 14th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Is this guy one of the George W. Bush science advisors? Much of his content seems similar to the current administration’s attitude.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Is the humor in the ‘Alice’ reference too obscure?
(‘six impossible things before breakfast’ is from THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, ironically enough)
J/P=?
December 14th, 2007 at 7:01 am
I’d like to know how the word got out.
We’ve been keeping that secret for hundreds – nay thousands – of years.
Someone’s going to pay.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:20 am
C’mon – don’t post these items before I’ve had a chance to drink some coffee (6 scoops per pot)… I thought it was that doofuspedia, or creationpedia, or whatever that site was you blogged about recently.
I did notice that the link to Intelligent Astronomy had no entry – I think my brother and I will need to discuss the proper entry.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:58 am
This is true enough, or perhaps I’m just a walking, talking stereotype.
> EncyclopediaDramatica is ten times better, amirite?
No, you’re not. Uncyclopedia can at least occasionally reach the point of keen satire, whilst Dramatica is only really good for “WOW WE CAN USE BAD WORDS LOL WE’RE FUNNY LIKE GEORGE CARLIN!!one”
December 14th, 2007 at 8:18 am
Ah, satire, thy game is perversion,,,or maybe inversion,,,
I will note that recent genetic research seems to indicate that human evolution is accelerating,,,well, it’s about dad gummed time!!!
I just hope it really is EVOLUTION and not DEVOLUTION. HAnging out with a bunch of naked, anti-intellectual apes is not my idea of fun. Neurotic fear of the unknown is a very animal thing to do and we should be(evolved) beyond that by now,,,but then again, the Gift of Prometheus may not have illuminated everyone equally.
Gary 7
December 14th, 2007 at 8:31 am
I think the term “7th heaven” comes from Islam: At the sixth heaven Gabriel brought Mohammed to the verge of the seventh. The archangel said that he himself could go no further. This, the seventh heaven, was the last frontier between god and man and Mohammed was ushered into the place described as the abode of God almighty.
http://www.sol.com.au/kor/15_02.htm
December 14th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Pretty amusing.
George Carlin was funny. But that was some time ago. Now he’s just an angry old fool.
December 14th, 2007 at 9:28 am
From the page:
In reaction, the few reaming Astronomers
Ow! Ow! Definitely an “s” missing ‘twixt “st” there… You and your big telescopes!
December 14th, 2007 at 10:05 am
What?? But… but… then that means that Star Trek isn’t real!
December 14th, 2007 at 10:08 am
I love the news headlines on their homepage:
“Scientists discover lightning on Venus; Conservative group concludes that there must be gay people there for the lightning to hit”
“After failing to respond in the form of a question, television game show host Alex Trebek suffers a heart attack”
“Cluster bombs best-selling toys this Christmas”
December 14th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Gary, got a citation on that “accelerating” comment? I’d be interested in reading more about it.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
All the confusion…screw it, I’m going to feng shui school.
December 14th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Hmmm. It would sort of make sense if human evolution is accelerating, because our environment is changing more rapidly than it’s wont… and I’m not talking about AGW, I’m talking about basic lifestyles, urbanization, so on and so forth. Human evolution accelerating to try and catch up with environmental changes intentionally created by humans themselves… hmmm, no, still too inefficient. I welcome the day when we can cast off the weaknesses of meat and bone and drive our own evolution without having to worry overmuch about mundane animal things like eating.
METAL IS BETTER THAN MEAT!
December 14th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Anybody who took this seriously for anything more than five seconds needs to turn in their skeptics license, or go out and level up their Skeptical Attribute a bit.
OK, I’m feeling chariatble on a Friday off. Ten seconds.
— George Carlin was funny. But that was some time ago. Now he’s just an angry old fool.
Yes, but that in itself is also funny.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Centipede: Oh well. I’m still right… 4chan stuff ftw! (Since that’s where Phil’s DOOOOOOOMED poster comes from!)
December 14th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
4channer. That explains a lot.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:52 am
I have always wondered about the men that play with long hard shafts, some with great width, in the dark night, usually by themselves… Maybe that’s why my wife left me.
December 15th, 2007 at 2:18 am
How much can it possibly explain?
Yeah, I’m a… person who isn’t going to break 1 & 2 but you catch my drift. Uncyclopedia was spawned from 4chan as well (/vg/ is behind it, that’s why it’s more sophisticated than Dramatica which decidedly came from /b/)…
December 16th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Every-one that has ever lived is full of crap.
It’s a part of our anatomy.
That’s why we have bowel movements.
To empty out the crap.
Folcrom.