YALVC (yet another live video chat) is going down today at 15:00 Mountain time (21:00 UT). All you need to do is click play (the little curly arrow at the bottom left) in the embedded video player below. But! Just listening to me talk may be confusing (and has been determined by the AMA to cause vertigo, the vapors, and, in some people, swooning), so I encourage you to go to my UStream video page so you can participate in the chat. Once there, you can change your name by typing "/nick Steven Moffat" (or whatever) so you can be listed with an actual name. If you prefer to use mIRC or Colloquy or whatever, then the server is chat1.ustream.tv and the room is #bad-astronomy.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Jumping into the hole through the Earth: Is it true that because of Earth non-homogenous composition, that a person who jumped in this hole through the Earth would actually experience increased gravity until they were close to the core?, rather than a decrease in gravity that you would expect from a homogeneous composition?
July 19th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
sorry, I thought this is how I submitted a question.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
BA, today stayed for some 15 minutes, and only during a brif period (5 minutes, perhaps) did I manage to hear more than two sentences in a row. Massive lag ruined this chat for me, and I’m afraid I had no choice but to leave the room.
July 19th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Possibly Dr. Plait would address himself to the question raised by Prof. Bob Park, the man who he says doesn’t know what he is talking about, in his latest post on What’s New. Dr. Parks’ comment is below.
2. SPACE STATION: “SEND IT SOMEWHERE SPECIAL.”
I have a place in mind. Space-science writer Michael Benson used this title in The Outlook section of Sunday’s Washington Post. Benson asks whether the International Space Station, at a cost approaching $100 billion, is being finished just so we can drop it in the ocean? It is; so what’s his alternative? Attach engines and send it, with its crew, off to explore other planets. Three days later the Post carried a rebuttal by NASA contractor Jeff Volosin. The ISS, he argued is needed to prepare crews to travel to Mars and back. He didn’t say for what. As James Van Allen would have said of both ideas: “How old-fashioned.” Wake up: Voyager 2 just entered interstellar space, Messenger revisited Mercury, Phoenix found water on Mars. Somebody, anybody, tell me what humans can do in space as well as the robots?
July 19th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Things that robots can’t do ?
July 19th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
SLC: I never said Bob doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’ve said that he’s wrong.
There’s a difference.
July 19th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
You did the chat a day early? … I don’t remember you mentioning anything earlier this week. Does this mean no chat on Sunday afternoon?
Or is it really Sunday right now… (Oh no! Memory loss, lost time … I’ve been abducted!)
July 19th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Hah, wow… guess I missed that post.
July 19th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
I saw the post, but I forgot about this.
July 20th, 2008 at 12:29 am
Great chat (as always) No lag from here (UK) some really good questions and very good use made of the squishy brain (and minty) of SCIENCE!
July 20th, 2008 at 12:36 am
PS I was concerned at irresponsibility and the wanton destruction you exhibited as an innocent piece of paper was violently crushed on camera. Plus no public warnings of the danger of sustaining paper cuts. Just so you could show off your superhero strength. I thought this was a family show
July 20th, 2008 at 1:31 am
A live video chat from the Comic-Con would be great, especially if you can find people to interview. We could supply the interviewees with additional questions. I wonder if the event organizers would agree to assist you in any way.
July 20th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
[...] the live video chat over the weekend, I was asked a GREAT question: can you see more stars from a high altitude, like [...]