Back in the day when I worked on Hubble, I had an ever-growing mound of paperwork that included FAQs, software instructions, how-to guides for the instruments, and the usual exponentially increasing stack of forms to fill out and process.
How I wish I had this way cool Hubble paperclip to hold those sheaves together!
Now I just need to figure out how to mass produce paperclips bent into a BA shape.
Tip o’ the green-tinted paper-pushing accountant’s visor to Jenny Williams.
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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October 16th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Okay, did they do that in a back-shop, or did someone actually commercially produce those for them? Either way, that is pretty cool!
And paperwork…. ugh!
October 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Actually, I can kind of see how that looks like the Hubble. But being from farm country that is obviously the CASE International logo…
October 16th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I work for a large aerospace company and have airplane shaped ones that they passed out for some attaboy award or other. They come in a can like the GE one on the link so I suspect they’re from the same place. Unfortunately they aren’t very good at actually clipping paper together!
October 16th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
I’m with you, Erik. That’s “International Harvester” if ever there was.
October 16th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Now, would that be a paperclip shaped like the letters “BA” or a paperclip shaped like a balding, scruffily bearded and bespectacled skeptic?
October 16th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
NEEEEEED!!!!
THAT would be cool for all the papers full of formulae and nothing to clip them suitedly.
October 16th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I have a whole bag of these things. If you’d like, I’ll send them to you.
October 16th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
DO WANT
October 16th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Sure, I can see the logo too, but in actual examples, the “i” is the same width top and bottom. Here, it is clearly not.
October 16th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I think the BA paper clip would be some variation of the infamous BIG TELESCOPE calendar shot, and thus NSFW.
October 17th, 2009 at 4:35 am
I think the BA paper clip would be some variation of the infamous BIG TELESCOPE calendar shot, and thus NSFW.
Sorry, forgot to add great post! Can’t wait to see your next post!
October 17th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Just realized that the clip also looks a lot like this spaceship:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:52 am
I guess some kind of robot arm with pliers and a suitable wire dispenser can do the job. And yes, personality portrait in profile is probably achievable, just, but The Simpsons is probably easier.
I suppose a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldog_clip with an image glued to the handle or blade is cheating?