It’s the 50th Carnival of Space, and it’s at KySat, and you want to read it.
’nuff said.
About Bad Astronomy
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.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters"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 UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
April 17th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
This is EXACTLY what we need — more grass-roots science efforts from ordinary towns to involve people in science and get them to think about and appreciate the science around them, no matter what field of science it is.
It is so frustrating to me that our world has largely devolved into a superficial pop-culture crazed idiocrasy, and we are particularly guilty of that in this country.
How do we make science interesting to people? Involve them! Efforts like this are a great first step.
As long as science is perceived as an abstract exercise practiced exclusively by white-coated nerds sealed behind locked doors who only infrequently emerge to issue a press release about some possible finding that, if fortunate enough to be adequately bizarre sounding, gets tacked on to the end of a slow-day newscast (after of course, the entertainment news) as a misleading 30-second soundbite to which the rest of the newsstaff get to reply with their superficial glib comments, science will be continue to be looked down upon by the huge majority of it’s benefactors. Fools, they, but it is our society that made them so.
Science to the people!
April 18th, 2008 at 9:04 am
OffTopic: Hey, Phil, have you mentioned this anywhere and I missed it?
http://darwin-online.org.uk/
The largest collection of works by Charles Darwin EVAH. Some of these have never been seen before.
April 18th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Bigfoot:
Here here. its all about getting the public involved. In the 60s, the government promoted space to the public, and it wasn’t sustained. Now, we need to get the people promoting it to the government for a sustained effort in space exploration. Check out http://www.actionforspace.com to find (almost) daily opportunities to tell the government about different ways and reasons to explore space!
April 18th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Brilliant! Thanks for introducing me to KySat and the Carnival, Phil. Another reason to keep coming back here.
I like the way the New Space Race is shaping up. Don’t just promote space science, *do* it. Don’t just talk about space technology, build some!
April 18th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Offtopic: The London Institute of Contemporary Arts had a panel discussion about legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby (who passed away in 1994).
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16036
They played a recording of an audio interview conducted with Kirby less than a year before he died, and this interesting little tidbit came up.
“Speaking on cassette, Kirby himself related a story about turning down an illustration job for NASA’s space program because they wouldn’t allow him to go into space as payment.”
April 18th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Phil, thanks for the link!! I am a member of the team building KySat-1 and just wanted to say thank you all for your comments. It is very encouraging to see that people do care about what we are doing and appreciate the efforts to bring science and technology to everybody; because everybody really can (and should) do it!! Check the website for updates, we hopefully will be launching soon
April 18th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
GLAST’s launch has been delayed by a minor accident:
“Originally scheduled for May 16, the launch of a Delta II rocket carrying NASA’s GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) is now listed as indefinite. However, officials expect only a minor delay.
An adapter beam was fractured during preparations last week to hoist the second stage atop the first stage on Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
After inspections, a new date for stacking the second stage will be set. Nine solid rocket boosters have been attached to the first stage. ”
- Flame Trench blog on floridatoday.com