My live video live chat starts at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time (21:00 UT) today (Sunday May 4). If you look below and see my big head, then you’re good. I urge you to go to the UStream page, though, so you can participate in the chat room. If you want to change your nickname there, type "/nick Catherine Tate" (or whatever) in the text field.
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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May 4th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Are these live shows avilable somewhere, like umm.. archived, so that a viewer could acces them AFTER they’ve been broadcast? I’d like to listen, very much so, but with my oldish computer (and a bit sluggish connection, maybe) it’s more than a little frustrating live: first the picture pauses for like 10-30 secs, then it catches up very fast, and all you hear is some gibberish-sounding bits of words like “…earth wi- moo- -ke th- -ing…”
By the way, I’m in Finland, trying to listen to the show for the first time, it’s past midnight here already. I don’t suppose the location really matters, not as much anyway as the hardware and such, or does it?
May 4th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
are you in favor of manned space exploration or do you think robotic exploration is the way for now?
May 4th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Great Chat Phil. Thanks. Come back over to the UK ANYTIME. BTW bit of trivia for ya. My ancestor was Sir Christopher Wren (who built St Paul’s Cathederal and most of the other churches in London.) They just finished the first archaeological dig of Stonehenge for 40 years and they found Sir Chris had CARVED HIS NAME into one of the sarcen stones….I never expected to feel so proud over an act of vandalism : )
May 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Great chat Phil! Glad I made it this week.
May 4th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Seriously? Carved his name into one of the stones? LMAO – That’s brilliant!
May 4th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Thanks Phil, fun interaction, with all the chaos and all, you carry it well.
(Next time please mention irc://chat1.ustream.tv/bad-astronomy in the announcement post for those who prefer to use a real chat client and not the rudimentary web interface.)
May 4th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
great chat phil! based on the attendance , you already won blogs wars
May 4th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Thanks again for this video chat, it was my first time. I will definetely be there next time!
May 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
No no nooo allkom, PZ had more attendance in Expelled! Slightly!
May 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
That was great, Dr. BA. Thanks for taking my Prantzos question. It was helpful to The Boy over at AtBC (the forum for the Panda’s Thumb).
Kisses
May 4th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
By the way Phil — your book is available for pre-order on Amazon! I did my duty!
May 4th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Will there be another one next weekend? I didn’t know about the last one before hand and today is my mother’s birthday so I couldn’t sit at the computer at that time but it sounds like it would be fun.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:09 am
@Jewel
I wonder how the authorities would react if I went and carved MY NAME on a wall at St Paul’s : )
May 5th, 2008 at 5:14 am
madge,
You don’t even want to know. They won’t even let you take pictures of their walls (inside)!
Jerks.
I had a video camera malfunction inside once, and accidentally shot a few seconds of the ceiling from the balcony though. Fortunately, one of the priests on duty noticed the problem before the camera filmed more than a few seconds and he was on his way over to point out the issue when I also realized it and turned off the camera and left in the coincidentally opposite direction.
Horrible accident, the results of which can be found on my YouTube channel strictly as a reminder to others to be careful with video cameras that are all too easy to accidentally turn on when the top of the camera bag is accidentally left open while in places where photography is not allowed.
The more you know…
/public service announcement
May 5th, 2008 at 5:18 am
P.S. I almost had exactly the same issue arise while visiting the graves of Newton and Darwin at Westminster Abbey that very same day, but the priests there were much more proactive and efficient at preempting such accidents. They were very helpful that way.
May 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am
DAGNABIT, MISSED AGAIN
aarrrrg
May 5th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Ok, it’s not writing your name on a wall but I signed myself, my husband, and my mother up to have our names sent to the moon:
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/
Does that count at all, maybe some points for geekiness?
May 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
@madge
I’m sure they would have absolutely NO problem whatsoever. Ya think? Well, humans have pretty much always been a destructive lot…