Blogs / Bad Astronomy

I was recently at the James Randi Educational Foundation for a meeting, and while I was there I was presented with a large box. Inside said box, and in fact stacked up next to it, were over 50 copies of my book, Death from the Skies! So, pen in hand, I signed each and every one of them.

This is a photo from an older batch; the ones I just signed don’t have the sticker, just my name. Those are Randi’s hands, if you’re wondering.

If you’re looking for an autographed copy of the book — because the holidays are right around the corner, and nothing says "Merry Christmas!" like reading about a giant asteroid impact — then head on over to the JREF store and grab yourself one (they’re $6 off cover price). Copies are limited! And so’s your time: in 10³⁷ years, all the protons in the book will have decayed. So hurry!

During the 10-day long voyage to the Galapagos Islands in August sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation, we took along a copy of The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, Darwin’s diary of his ground-breaking trip 150 years ago. Some smart cookie asked all of us to sign the book, and now that autographed copy is being auctioned! It has signatures by Randi, me, PZ Myers, George Hrab, and a whole lot more. The auction winner will also get a signed photo of Randi posing next to a Galapagos tortoise.

This is a pretty cool auction, and the proceeds will go toward a scholarship to help people attend the premier critical thinking conference The Amaz!ng Meeting 7, which will be in Las Vegas on July 9-12, 2009. We’re working on the speaker line-up and it’s already looking, well, amazing. So bid on the book and help some deserving person attend the meeting!

Cectic is a skeptical web comic; I’ve linked to it a few times in the past. I woke up this morning to quite a few emails telling me to check out today’s strip…

Heh. Click it, It may not be what you think.

For those BABloggees in the Big Apple area, James "The Amazing" Randi will be giving a presentation called "I Doubt That!" on October 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. The location is the Caspary Auditorium at Rockefeller University (1230 York Avenue (66th St.) New York City). The talk is free and open to the public, and it’s hosted by the New York City Skeptics.

If you’ve never heard Randi speak, this is a great chance. He’s very entertaining, and in this overview of skepticism I have no doubt — ironically — that he’ll be a lot of fun.

The SETI Institute has a regular podcast called "Are We Alone", hosted by astronomer Seth Shostak. I have a semi-regular feature on it called "Brains on Vacation", and the new one was just uploaded. Seth and I talk magic, belief, the JREF, and what I want to do as the new President.

You can grab the higher-quality MP3 directly, or a somewhat lower-res but faster download version in WMA format. My segment starts pretty much right away, but of course you should listen to the whole show!

Funny– I’m listening to it now, and I say that there are no skeptic shows on TV. That’s not right: I forgot about Mythbusters! And someday, maybe, Skeptologists will air…

I was interviewed recently by Dan Sondak for the Discovery Channel podcast, and the ‘cast is now online (direct download here). I was unusually lucid during this interview — coffee, is there nothing it can’t do? — and we chatted about JREF, the Mythbusters, and Death from the Skies!

I’ve also embedded the player below, so you can listen from the comfort of your very own home… page.

Yesterday I did an interview over the phone for Talking Head TV, and it’s already online! We talked about JREF, the book (due out in less than two months!), and the blog. Justin Young and the THTV crew created a video from the call, and put it up in three parts on YouTube. Here’s Part 1, and the other two are linked from there (but are here and here to make it easier on you). You can also grab it from iTunes, too.

Someone tell Wil about the shirt I’m wearing in the first part of the first video…