Comments on: Dramatic reading OF DEATH

By: Followup commentary of DEATH | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine

Followup commentary of DEATH | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:03:04 +0000

[...] Dragon*Con, I did a dramatic reading from my book, Death from the Skies! which was a lot of fun. I read from Chapter 1, about asteroid and comet [...]

By: ctcoker

ctcoker — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:08:09 +0000

Phil, it’s KT for Kreide-Tertiaer. Kreide is the German name for the Cretaceous (it was so named because of the vast chalk deposits formed during that period in Western Europe; Kreide also means “chalk” in German). Tertiaer is obviously German for “Tertiary”.

By: Evo Terra

Evo Terra — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:48:47 +0000

I’m with Johny Ho, Phil. A podiobook sounds like a great idea. I know a guy…

By: «bønez_brigade»

«bønez_brigade» — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:15:53 +0000

Enjoy that, I did.

By: holastefan

holastefan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:18:25 +0000

Agreed with the other posters here, that was really interesting, thanks for posting. After that plot cliffhanger, I think I’ll have to get the book — now I gotta know if the asteroids are joined by more villains later in the story…

By: Joe Meils

Joe Meils — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:20:30 +0000

Phil got “wenched!”

By: Derek Colanduno

Derek Colanduno — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:43:17 +0000

You should ALWAYS assume that there is always someone recording everything at Dragon*Con!

By: MarkW

MarkW — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:01:16 +0000

BTW the “Dinosaurs hunted to death” idea was done in the British comic “2000AD”… back in 1977. The strip was called “Flesh”. See my name for wikilink.

By: Jeeves

Jeeves — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:52:17 +0000

I looked at the picture and thought: “Hey look, a bad-ass and a bad ass-tronomer!”

I’ll get my coat. Sorry.

Nice reading BTW. But what are these Farren Heights you speak of?

By: Johny Ho

Johny Ho — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:16:54 +0000

Nice read Phil, you should consider doing ‘Death’ as a audio or maybe podiobook, would be really good. The complicated part would be pages with pictures in them, but it’s really good hearing you reading the chapter, especially the introduction “case” at the beginning of the chapter.

By: Richie

Richie — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:52:09 +0000

Phil, please thank Brandon.

Because of this video, I’m now buying the book online.

Ok, yes I admit that I was planning to look it up anyway…. but this just catapulted the book from “look into getting when it arrives in NZ “to “BUY NOW!”

and I’m definitely interested in a Titanic and A51 Shorties. I recall a small Shortie a while ago in a similar vein – The mystery of the Marie Celeste was caused by rookie time travellers going back and kidnapping them to ask them what happened…

By: Egaeus

Egaeus — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:46:18 +0000

Okay Phil, a question about your reading.

You have mentioned several times that the popular ideas of small meteors being hot rocks when they hit is a misconception, and that they typically slow to terminal velocity by the time they impact, and are relatively cool.

Why is it that the ejecta from the Chicxulub impact , at suborbital velocities, would not also have slowed and cooled by the time it landed?

By: IBY

IBY — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:24:30 +0000

Hhmmm… So what is that below UFOs in Area 51? Also, I would like to hear about the short stories on how future travelers hunted dinasaurs down and sank the Titanic. Hey, there should be a “future time traveler causing disasters” collection of short stories! ^_^

By: Brett G

Brett G — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:21:07 +0000

heh, actually, the reading was on Sunday, which is the next to last day, not the last day You did the book signing on the last day.

But close enough.

By: llewelly

llewelly — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:00:15 +0000

Phil:

The asteroids had a very bad day …

How TYPICAL of an astronomer, to mourn for a hunk of rock, just because it came from space, and shed not a tear for the billions of dinosaurs and other Cretaceous creatures that died on that day.

By: FC

FC — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:31:29 +0000

Phil, have you ever read a short story called “Merlin’s Gun” by Alastair McReynolds? I’d like to know how realistic that Doomsday scenario really is in its scope (Won’t specify to avoid spoilers, but you’ll get the point as soon as you reach the end).

By: MarkW

MarkW — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:29:57 +0000

Further to Todd W at #3: You read a book

Awesome. I love the Titanic idea lol.

By: Sespetoxri

Sespetoxri — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:26:08 +0000

Special Phil Torture. Make him imitate eraser-y noises for hours on end with no access to water. And nice one-hand cap removal/table toss- good thing you didn’t blow it as you KNOW we’d point it out.

By: bharat211

bharat211 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:19:20 +0000

@ kingnor: I second!

I would love to hear the Titanic and the Area 51 story. BTW have you seen Neil de Grasse Tyson’s account of the Apophis asteroid for 2029: http://fora.tv/2007/02/09/Death_By_Black_Hole#Neil_deGrasse_Tyson_Attack_of_the_Killer_Asteroid_Apophis

By: kingnor

kingnor — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:15:32 +0000

vote #1 for an audio book.

By: Tree Lobsters

Tree Lobsters — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:40:51 +0000

So, when do we get to see this as a documentary? I’m assuming it’ll be narrated by Morgan Freeman, of course.

By: MichaelL

MichaelL — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:26:08 +0000

I’m more interested in what happened the night/early morning before….

By: Brandon

Brandon — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:25:42 +0000

Hi, I’m the guy that filmed that. I didn’t even think to ask your permission to post it, my bad. But since you don’t object, thanks.

I posted it because it gives a nice preview to the book, I hope it gets the word out more

By: Personal SinR

Personal SinR — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:14:54 +0000

more! more! I must have this book now. Phil, why couldn’t you have done this earlier? I’d have bought the book by now.

By: Paineroo

Paineroo — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:05:32 +0000

LOL at the mistake at the end when you said “the asteriods had a very bad day” instead of the “the dinosaurs had a very bad day”.

Technically that WAS a pretty bad day for the poor asteroid as well!