What we would do without Twitter? If not for that 140 character service, I never would have found out that Dr. Chaotica wrote and performed a song called "Death from the Skies!", based on what is considered by some (OK, just me) to be the finest book to come out in 2008 (and 2009 in paperback).
I’m more of an ABBA and Shostakovich guy, but I have to admit I found my toe tapping to this happy tune of death and destruction from space.
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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"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
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October 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Phil, I recommend you record your next audio book in a quieter environment; that way you wouldn’t need to read so slowly …
October 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
You wrote a book?
October 28th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
“ABBA and Shostakovich”?
I would never have thought of putting an “and” between those two… though it is true that both use sounds.
October 28th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Du har skrevet en bog?
October 28th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Okay, it’s not They Might Be Giants, but not bad.
J/P=?
October 28th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Man if only that song’s genre were a tad different. It would so fit with my Geeky Pleasures radio show. It would be awesome to play Sagan ft Hawkings followed by Plait.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Ha, I listen to both death metal and ABBA…incidently, there are some very good death metal bands from Scandinavia, including one from Sweden
October 28th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
absolutely awful, but still, nice to have a tribute
October 28th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
So, if I’m given to understand you correctly, you are saying that you penned a manuscript of some sort?
Yes, someone beat me to the “You wrote a book?” line but what the heck, its still funny.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I’m actually still not on Twitter. The format doesn’t appeal to me, plus some bastard’s already claimed my standard moniker. I hate that.
October 28th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
If anybody is interested (and I assume if you’re reading this blog you are), here is the video of today’s Ares launch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTwuEoJoPEA
October 28th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Glad to hear there is someone else not using twitter.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I think I’m gonna prefer the Hrabian version.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
Phil, this is your theme song. You should start your public appearances by playing this song
Metal rules!!!
October 29th, 2009 at 12:01 am
PBS is running the series “Keeping Score” about famous composers. This week’s episode is Shostakovitch. It’s cool because my brother-in-law is the executive producer (he’s GM of the San Francisco Symphony). The production company, Inca, is the same guy who did “Connections” with James Burke and “Hal’s Legacy.”
Keeping Score airs Thursday’s in the Bay Area. Hopefully you won’t have already missed it wherever you are.
- Jack
October 29th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Phil, you are the most prolific Tweeter I have ever seen. Of all of the SMSs I got on my phone from Twitters I subbed to, half were from you, and I would get in the nieghborhood of hundreds per month.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:44 am
A real toe-tapper, that! Sheesh!
October 29th, 2009 at 5:57 am
ABBA and Shostakovich… intriguing combination there.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:08 am
What we would do without Twitter?
I’m getting along just fine, thank you.
October 29th, 2009 at 6:57 am
“What we would do without Twitter?” So you’re saying, without Twitter, you never would have heard about this? Ever? I find that…unlikely.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Haha!
This is good stuff!
I’m not a death-metalhead, I listen mostly old 80’s thrash metal, but this thing is pretty cool!
Ahm, yeah, if you could tell him to work his shredding a little bit, maybe it’s gonna be even better.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:02 am
It appears that I’m now famous on the internet.
-Frozen Summers
aka Dr Chaotica.
October 29th, 2009 at 8:20 am
As a proud metalhead, I must say that the song is really awful
Sounds like someone bored was having time with his guitar and microphone at home…
But it’s nice to see that someone wrote a song based on the book!
October 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Same as I do now.
I don’t have twitter &, frankly, I’m have no intention of getting it.
I waste too much time on utterly inconsequential stuff as it is.
@ 18 MarkH – I agree. There are lots of better ways to get news than twitter.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Shostakovitch! Man alive, Phil! The right-wingers already think you’re a pinko-commie enough as it is!
October 29th, 2009 at 9:21 am
@20 Some Canadian Skeptic :
Yeah, quick! Redress the balance – tell the world you’re a Wagner fan!
(Hmm .. the Jews here may not like that ‘un. Hitler’s fave composer, works banned in Israel & all. Oh well.)
PS. Actually, I always figured you for a Gustav Holst fan. Ever heard The Planets suite?
PPS. Like what the right wingers “think” matters? Nah it doesn’t.
October 29th, 2009 at 9:29 am
@ 16. Kevin Says:
ABBA and Shostakovich… intriguing combination there.
I hate to tell you but I don’t think they ever have or ever will play together in combo somehow!
October 29th, 2009 at 10:33 am
This is a reply to Jack Haggerty.
Jack, you may like to know that the Keeping Score episodes are being streamed by PBS Video at http://video.pbs.org/searchForm/?q=Keeping+Score. Hopefully, the Shostakovich will be among them.
October 29th, 2009 at 11:08 am
Re: Abba and Shostakovick
I’ve got to applaud you for showing that kind of range. The analogous movie taste would be teeny-bopper (Twilight) and David Lynch films.
October 29th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
25. Petrolonfire Says: “I always figured you for a Gustav Holst fan. Ever heard The Planets suite?”
Would it destroy your world view if I told you that Holst was a fan of astrology, not astronomy, and that he wrote “The Planets” according to their astrological “personalities”?
- Jack
October 29th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
26. Petrolonfire Says: “@ 16. Kevin Says: ‘ABBA and Shostakovitch… intriguing combination there.’ I hate to tell you but I don’t think they ever have or ever will play together in combo somehow!”
Depends on who the conductor is. The San Francisco Symphony and Metallica did a joint concert a few years ago that was sold out and got new crossover fans for both genres.
- Jack
October 29th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
27. Angela Duryea Says: “Jack, you may like to know that the Keeping Score episodes are being streamed by PBS Video at http://video.pbs.org/searchForm/?q=Keeping+Score. Hopefully, the Shostakovitch will be among them.”
Thank you. I’ve been watching them live (well, broadcast), and I usually get a copy of the DVD from my B-i-L as a Xmas present (it’s cool to have connections!).
- Jack