The 107th outing of the Carnival of Space is up and running at the Innumerable Worlds blog. It’s a short list this week for some reason — I blame the upcoming solstice for no reason at all — but it may make your Sunday afternoon a little more edumacational.
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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.
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DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #50: Magnetic Mysteries of Sunspots Decoded
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #2: NASA Braces for Course Correction
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #5: Astronomer Alan Dressler
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #8: Earth-like Worlds Come Into View
- Top 100 Stories of 2009: #16: The Moon: Cold, Wet, and Breathing
- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
June 14th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Likely a bunch of folks are on vacation. Me, I’m packing. Seems like I’ve been packing for weeks now. Oh, wait. I have been.
June 14th, 2009 at 11:59 am
Space Carnival 107 | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Astronomy | The 107th outing of the Carnival of Space is up and running at the Innumerable Worlds blog. It’s a short list this week for some reason — I blame the upcoming. … working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy educat…
June 14th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Heading over for getting me some sorely needed illuminatational edumacation, but I note off topic on passing: funny blog name – if I put spherical shells around me and start counting, unless I’m mistaken I get a mapping from the set of stars to the set of natural numbers and so a countably infinite set, not an “innumerable” one. Are astronomers prone to embiggenation? [On second thought, that question may not need an answer here.
]
June 14th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I know that this is off topic, but I have no idea on how to contact Mr Plait any other way, but also coming up the week of the 20th on the Science Channel is SPACE WEEK!! Woo Hoo!!
I know I will be watching. Maybe something you can promote on the blog in general. I am not affiliated with them in any way, just a science teacher off for the summer with a lot of time on his hands
June 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Like #4 I am posting off topic for lack of knowledge of where else to pose my query. What research has been done into converting and using the EFT’s as orbital habitats. We only have a limited number left going up. I know I have seen discussions along this line before and there are issues with the conversion from booster to usable people storage.
This thought stems from an idea that I am sure others have had that the ISS could use a play room. I am talking a large padded water proofed room for recreation and experimentation. Though I am sure such a room would be useful for more… controversial experiments in space, the idea comes from watching the various water and bubble experiments ISS crew has performed in the shower area of the ISS and the interesting fun experiments performed by the Japanese Astronaut Wakata.
I would think that a large hollow booster converted proberly would make an excellent space for a playroom/”amusing experiments lab”.
-Joseph
June 14th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
OK, as long as everybody else is posting random bric-a-brac, I was just pointed to this on the BBC website:
Under the headline “The truth about Roswell?“. Yes.
June 14th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I have always been aware of the summer solstice because it happens to be my birthday. For the record, I’ll be 61(!) this time. It also happens that I was born in Salisbury, England, within sight of Stonehenge if you climb a really high steeple and you have good eyesight.
I never made that particular connection until some years ago when I started dating a woman who had a lot of new age beliefs. She thought I must have some kind of extra-special, super-duper paranormal powers as a I result of this miraculous juxtaposition in the time and place of my birth. I told her as gently as possible that, no, I was a scientist and a skeptic and did not believe in such things. I also told her there was nothing miraculous about it. My parents were there visiting and I decided to arrive early, as babies are wont to do.
The relationship didn’t last long.
June 15th, 2009 at 3:25 am
@Ad Hominid – the relationship didn’t last long, but with your super mind-powers you could see the break-up coming, right?
June 15th, 2009 at 8:58 am
WHO (#9): Obviously the same place you learned about humor.