Finally! I get the worship respect I deserve.
Now all I need is to pass the collection plait.
Thanks to SkepticSean, TrueNorth15, and HealthyAddict!
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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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."
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July 14th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Bullwinkle: What are you looking at me for?
Rocky: Well I ain’t gonna say it.
Narrator: Don’t ask me.
Rocky: Oh, OK. It’s the Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayaam….
All: Booooooo!
July 14th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
I dig your books, blogs, interviews, and everything you do for skepticism. Unfortunately, this skit was lame and doesn’t do you justice.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
i love HealthyAddict, she convinced me to join a group of local skeptics and humanists,
SUBSCRIBE TO HER, you wont be sorry
July 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
We need to have the Book translated into more languages.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Don’t encourage Phil…he has enough of that already
July 14th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
My husband served a Mormon mission in Finland back in the day. He will appreciate this. Mormons don’t pass a plate, they use the tithe or you won’t prosper and your family will go hungry approach.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Holy crap!
That was shot right across from me. I was staying in Room 979!
-Derek
July 14th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
@lisa,
My wife and I often take respite at a lake near us here in North Carolina. As you might guess, it is in a rather rural area. Just before we turn off, we pass a place called (seriously) “The Church On Fire!”
They have a pithy saying sign, as it so often goes with places such as these. This week’s was
“DEBT – Doing Everything But Tithing!”
Now is tithing pre-tax or post-tax? Is it tax deductible?
July 14th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Okay, I guess…
What would have made it creepy is seeing BA listed as the writer/director of that little piece!
July 14th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Dammit, guys, so this is what you’ve been up to! Always having so much fun without me!
(I’m in their skeptics group, but have notoriously bad luck with event scheduling such that every single event they’re in takes place when I’m booked solid. This included TAM7, which coincided with a course I’m required to take, and the local aftermath wrap-up discussion yesterday.)
July 14th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I just tried to play the video but got an error message indicating “Invalid parameters”. I think FSM is trying to send you a message concerning your attempt to invade his Holy Pasta Plait… um Plate.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I don’t know, there is something really creepy about those guys. Sorry, I might have to back up from the church for a while. ^_^
As for the book, I am really enjoying it. My favorite chapter so far: Death of the sun.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Nicely done clip! Well, i don’t really like it when two guys with books knock on my door and try to offer me things like salvation ‘n shiat
This would be an exception. I still wait for the german translation.
/BTW: Yesterday I saw a report on Hubble at the German National Geo Channel, guess who was the first guy I saw to comment about it
July 14th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Can’t watch the movie at the moment but for some reason I have the scene from MIBII in my head. You know where they open the locker where thera bunch of hairy creatures thinking K is god.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Cute … but what does the Vulcan hand wave have to do with you? That just seems kind of … ok, I’ll say it… stupid. It’s just dumb.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Hahaha, Phil Plait is a Phalse Phrophet. Nice alliteration, guys.
Wait a minute, wait a minute…. that teddy-bear guy with the beard reminds me of….
OMG!!!
July 14th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Oh great. First he becomes president, and now he’s a deity! We’ll never hear the end of it.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Holy Haleakala!! Ivan3Man, she’s not using Adblock!!
July 14th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Wow, I never really considered myself a follower of Plaitanism, but I’ve done most everything your prophets suggested to do. I guess I must be a Plaitanist!
So Phil: Can you tell us about the central tenets of Plaitanism? What are the Plaitonic ideals? If I asked you for a favor, would you be doing me a Plaitonic solid? And of course, I am very curious to learn what you think about Plaitonic relationships.
July 14th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
So why didn’t I turn into a pirate when I first read this blog?
July 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Keith:
I really don’t (AARGH) know why you (AARGH) didn’t morph into a (AARGH) Pirate. Are you using Firefox with (AARGH) PirateBlock add-on?
J/P=?
July 14th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Holy Haleakala! Plait be praised!!
July 14th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Now all I need is to pass the collection plait.
Um, do you accept SA rand(i)?
July 14th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Brian @ #19,
In order to be a true Plaitanist, you need to
be endowed withhave a big telescope. No, not those wimpy Galileoscopes. You know, like the one Phil has in his Facebook/MySpace picture gallery.July 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
PZ is just minion nothing less, nothing more.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Plaitanists agree with the “Sidereus Nuncius” and the “De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium” so long as they’re translated correctly.
By the way, who is Plaitan? Is he related to Philzeebub”
July 14th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
So that’s how you pronounce Holy Halealli– Holy Hallelu– Holy Hackensack– that thing. I did wonder.
Now what the Holy Hallmonitor does it actually mean???
(And yes, I know I can look it up – and I did. There Is No God But Google, And Wikipedia Is Her Prophet. Sorry, Phil, you’re out!)
July 14th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
And if the Earth moves for you, is that Plait Tectonics?
July 14th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Stone Age Scientist @ #24…
I use a 17-inch dob, a 16-inch SCT, and a 14-inch SCT on a Paramount. Do I qualify as a true Plaitanist?
July 14th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Plait be Praised one and all!
glad you enjoyed it Phil
July 14th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Haha, enjoying all of those Plait based puns. They are true to the forms and styles of Phil Plait. ^_^
July 14th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
When will HE appear? and on what? toast? treestump?
to be continued….
J/P=?
July 14th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
I’m just wondering if I now have to give 10% of my income to FatherGod Plait…
Our Phil, who art in Boulder,
Hallowed be Thy Blog,
Thy Truthiness be Preached,
Thy Bidding be Done
In earth as it is in Boulder
Give us this day our daily Blog
And forgive us our trolling
as we forgive them that troll against us.
And lead us not into pseudoscience;
but deliver us from Jenny, RCH, and Moon Hoaxers.
[For thine is the blog, the truth, and the reality]
Amen
BAD MA, I keep thinking you are Phil’s Mom!
July 14th, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Cute!
July 14th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Tsk. Some of these comments are full of Plait-Hate. Come to the light! Accept heliocentrism into your heart and reject Pluto!
Edited to add: Truly devoted followers leave copies of BA and DftS in hotel rooms.
July 14th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Finally I have something to believe in! Well done guys!
July 14th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Okay, were they playing that as gay guys, or am I just reading something into the (deliberate) overacting? ‘Cause I liked the David Blane gay guys better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqsV3q7rRU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbYTm8U1v8
July 14th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
It would have been even funnier if they attempted to convert Hal Bidlack
July 14th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
@38 mikeD
Who do you think converted them.
July 15th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Kevin @ #29,
I use a 17-inch dob, a 16-inch SCT, and a 14-inch SCT on a Paramount. Do I qualify as a true Plaitanist?
By the specs of your equipment, yes, I’d say you qualify. However, you still have to undergo the Plaitanistic ritual of Haleakala, a trial by
orgyfire, in order to verify your ’scope.July 15th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Holy Haleakala.
J/P=?
July 15th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Cute. Unsettling though.
There’s an element of juvenalia here that is disconcerting. I’m not trying to be a killjoy, but while there is a lot to mock in the evangelistic world, this just misses the mark. I don’t know how best to typify it other than to say it smacks a little bit of kids trying to make fun of something they know only a bit about. I’ll just leave it at that.
The other “icky” factor here is that there is at times an element of evangelical fervour on the part of skeptics that can approach the irritation-inducing “in-yer-face” aspect of the door to door god salespeople. (The “we have the truth and you’re an ijit not to see it” attitude that at the extreme can become overbearing arrogance).
Not that I’ve seen it on this site, but it’s there. Heck, even calling it the church of “Plaitanism” feeds some of Phil’s detractors who see skeptics as being cultish.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a recovering religionist and consider myself a skeptic, and I do see the intent of the attempt at humour here, but it just
doesn’t resonate with me.
Not all jokes have to – that’s the joy and pain of humour I guess.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Hey Phil, do your evangelists get to keep a cut of the sales ?
Those guys used to be Amway Reps, right ?
July 15th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
On the surface another one of those fatalistic sects. But I’m skeptic.
Because there is so much to know about the difference between Santa, the Tooth Fairy and various gods.
…, um, well, not really. WYFSIWYFG in parodies. Always have been, always will be, least common denominator and all.
And, what would be hiding beneath the improbable and lackluster surface of gods? Illuminati?
Truth and facts are very different in nature, and one is well served by trying to learn that fact.
For starters, truth systems differs so are relative to some formalism (say Euclidian geometry vs hyperbolic, or predicate logic vs intuitionistic logic) or ideology, what one has as true another can have as false (say only one parallel line through a disjointed point vs possibly several).
While facts are shared by all local observers. And so one would indeed be an ijit to reject them, which skeptics are well aware of.
But being aware of the facts isn’t the same as trying to imply that not knowing or understanding facts makes another an idiot. This is something I believe skeptics are mostly aware of and avoids. But unfortunately this difference can be dismissed as arrogance by those who meets empirical descriptions and for some unreason or other would like to reject them.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Torbjörn,
I guess I get antsy when people move beyond the realm of discussing and even ridiculing ideas to ridiculing people.
If the aim is to get people to think critically then you get more flies with honey than vinegar.
Else it does smack of arrogance because it becomes “Look at those idiots” rather than “I disagree with this idea / policy / belief… because of the following reasons.”
Again, I know I’m being a killjoy here, and I did laugh at the video, but there is an aspect to the skeptical community that I think needs to be addressed.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Grizzly @ #42 & 45,
No, you’re not a killjoy. In fact, I find it quite courageous of you to point that out. The arrogance you pointed out, personally, I have learned to take such things for granted. This is because Americans are for the most part frank people. It is one of their enviable assets (something worth emulating in good amounts); but also a liability when it turns into hubris.
And yes, I’m aware that you yourself might be an American.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Grizzly:
“If the aim is to get people to think critically then you get more flies with honey than vinegar.”
And you can get even more with a dead squirrel.
July 15th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Darren Garrison, I believe Phil’s democratic maxim comes in handy for a situation like this:
ETERNAL VIGILANCE
For squirrels, both dead and alive, it is the price of keeping the flies out.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
But you haven’t lived until you’ve seen that skit in the original Klingon. No? OK, it was still cute.
July 18th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Bravo!
Signed,
The coolest moon of Uranus (YARRRR!)
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
sigh…and here we were just having some fun
I’m glad there are many who enjoyed the vid, my devout mormon family thought it was very funny and accepted it as the tounge in cheek production we intended it to be.