Hey hey BABloggees.
I’m back home now after TAM 5.5, which was, as usual, a huge amount of fun. I’ll have some stuff on that later. Promise.
I had a terrible internet connection while I was away, which was really unfortunate this time. I missed a chance to be on the Larry King show about the UFOs in Texas! Oh well.
I also couldn’t keep up with the blog, which made for some interesting situations. Most amusing were the comments left on the blog post with my YouTube video about TU 24. It’s hard not to notice that most of the comments that were arguing against me were, um, sophomoric to say the least. Downright rude and juvenile, actually. I had to delete a dozen or so for violating my very simple commenting policy ("Don’t be a jerk"). Why are so many antiscientists such boneheads?
Actually, I can guess at the answer to that.
Anyway, I’ll have more on this asteroid soon as well; radar images have been returned, and I’m sure there will be more cool info soon. This asteroid poses no threat; ironically, it’s humans misusing their brains who pose the threat.
I’m still trying to catch up with email and other things. But I’ll be be up to speed very soon. Stay tuned! Lots of fun stuff coming. 
January 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Phil,
It was great meeting you at 5.5, and you did a great job as the MC! (Which is par for the course, as I recall)
See you around!
J
January 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hey you’re doing great, those people who are trying to cause a panic obviously just have nothing better to do.
January 28th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’m a new fan of your site…Great job…You and evolving squid have really let my panic die down…Thank you for that!
January 28th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Shelly writes:
[[wow your ignorant ]]
His ignorant what? And what did it do?
January 28th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I caught that interview and I thought all sides presented very good points. I thought Michael Shermer was very respectful of the other guests. The only one that I had a problem with was James Fox, producer of Out of The Blue, as he was continually interrupting Shermer. I thought the two ex Military officers raised some interesting points as well. There is clearly much that we do not understand about the whole UFO phenomena. I do agree with Shermer, when he says that we should examine all of the evidence before we build a world view around it.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Barton, I think if we ignore the uninformed they will just go away. They obviously crave attention. Just don’t give them the time of day. It’s not worth it. There are far too many intelligent people on this site that have much to offer to let a few misfits ruin it.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:15 am
will this be visible? if so where and when?
January 28th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I saw the King program as well, but everything was a bit foggy, because I was watching the rebroadcast early on a TAM Saturday morning. From what I could tell, Shermer was as good as usual, and Larry Kings remains the creepiest looking thing on TV.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I don’t usually comment on others’ grammar but, really, Shelley, if you are going to call people ignorant, you would do well to study an elementary school English book. Even a dictionary might help.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Oh gosh. Grow up yourself, Shelley. You’re being a troll.
He gave plenty answers and understanding. I think it’s about time to say “Stop it, read all the other posts where he says THERE’S NO DANGER. Now, YOU CAN COME OUT OF THE BASEMENT AND LIVE!”
January 28th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Obviously I’m not in the “Big Leagues” yet, but I did get interviewed by a local radio station regarding the Stephenville, TX UFO’s last week.
Unfortunately, I was under-prepared for some of the call-ins we got, especially in relation to Roswell and Phoenix, which came up during the discussion of the recent event. I didn’t say anything wrong or stupid, but my memory of some of the details was too fuzzy to mount a good counter-argument to the True Believers. I hope to do more of it though, I felt like BA-Jr out there in a sea of woo.
I didn’t even get to talk about science, either, I had planned to spend time on MESSENGER and Manned Spaceflight. Oh well, maybe “next time”.
January 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I also think it’s pretty safe to say now that if you’re STILL scared that TU24 will zap us or affect the magnetic field or still hit us or whatever other nonsense there is… Well it’s just that you’re stubborn, didn’t do one ounce of research (on credible websites) and probably WANT to be scared.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Something to ignore as there no such thing as a troll.
P.S. Ignoring something will not make you ignorant, well… I guess ignoring your teacher will.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Ben, a Troll is someone that makes posts just for the sake of argument, and tries to draw others into an argument. The best tactic is to completely ignore them and when they see that people will not respond, they will go away and try it with someone else.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I don’t understand how this is a rude blog. I can understand Phil’s aggravation though. Misinformed people making videos on youtube and throwing together websites for the sole reason of spreading the misinformation. . .and what gain does it have? None, other than scaring people and creating more misinformed people to go out and do the same thing.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Elizabeth, I think the rudeness comes in when people obviously trolling come in and make comments with all kinds of foul language. Phil has repeatedly stated that all he requires to post is, don’t be rude. It was really evident in his previous post about Asteroid 2007 TU24, where many people came on using all kinds of foul language. Many people allow their kids on here to learn about science, so I can understand his frustration.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Judging by how most people in this world act, maybe we need a
good smack from a passing space rock now and then.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Folks, Ben/Shelly/whatever is a simple troll. Please ignore him/her/it, as the comments are all getting flagged as spam. Thank you.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Does anyone know what time tu-24 will past west coast time?
January 28th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Sergio, it will make it’s closest approach at 08.33 UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time), I’m not sure what that translates to West Coast time. Anyone else know?
January 28th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Just found it, 12:30 AM. Here’s the link for converting UTC time:
http://www.spacearchive.info/utc.htm
January 28th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Phil, I have a possible entry for your “WANT!” category.
http://www.i4u.com/article14324.html
It’s a flashlight.
It can set paper on fire and melt plastic. It can fry an egg!
4100 lumens. Sucks the batteries dry in 15 minutes.
A measly $300 for the closest thing any of us will get to a light saber.
January 28th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I have a 105 mW green laser from Wicked Laser. Lots of fun, but not for use without safety goggles.
January 28th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Evolving, maybe you could use it on the errant spy satellite.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Michael Lonergan,
Yeah, I understand people being rude in the comments. It’s hard to find any site that allows comments where people don’t find *something* to bicker about, so I just overlook it. I remember someone mentioning that the blog was rude, and for me it translated to “what Phil wrote was rude.” That’s where my confusion came in. Don’t mind me, I’m new and I have my airhead moments. =)
January 29th, 2008 at 4:33 am
“Why are so many antiscientists such boneheads?”
You’re asking wrong question here. It should be reversed.
Why are so many boneheads antiscientists?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Hannu Siivonen said:
“Why are so many boneheads antiscientists?”
That’s a really good question. I might even go so far as to say there’s a research project there for an anthropology or sociology PhD.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
ROFLing my asteroid off!
BTW, anyone out there know a good rock-and-gravel hauler? I’ve got this 10,000-pound smoking hot rock in my parking lot. Funny, it wsn’t there yesterday evening. I can’t wait to see how much TNT it will take to blow it up so they can haul the pieces away…………