Two of my favorite things in the world are Doctor Who and My Close Personal Friend Adam Savage™. So what could be better than a video combining them, and throwing in two giant Tesla coils and a Faraday cage?

I think I have nothing to add to this.

With the new series of Doctor Who premiering today, why not poke a little fun?

It took me a second to recognize the voice as David Hyde Pierce, and the words are from "Treasure Planet", which I thought was actually quite an enjoyable movie.

But as an astronomer myself, I have to question the word "useless". Why, we have many uses! We help keep the coffee and polyester industries afloat, for one. And without us, people with no actual sense of humor wouldn’t be able to say "So, what’s your sign?" when they meet us, which, let me tell you, is awesomely hilarious every single time we hear it.

Anyway, if you’re expecting more out of me today, you don’t know me very well because I’ll be camped out in front of the TV waiting for the new series to premier.

Trust me. I am a doctor.

You know what you don’t get enough of? Hearing me blather on about astronomy and skepticism on a Sunday. So you’re in luck: I’ll be doing two interviews on Sunday:

1) At 6:00 p.m. Eastern (US) time (22:00 UT) I’ll be on Star Talk Radio with my old pal and all around cool dude Neil deGrasse Tyson, and my new pal, comedian and all around cool chick Leighann Lord (we’re the three on the left of that pic with producers Helen Matsos and Leslie Mullen on the right). We’ll be dissecting the science in science fiction movies and basically having a good time with it. You can listen to the show when it airs, but keep in mind we pre-recorded it when I was in NYC last week for NECSS.

What I will do, though, is listen along when it airs Sunday, and then I’ll be on Twitter making dumb jokes and snarky comments as usual. So join me there and I’ll answer your questions if I can.

2) I’ll be on the Think Atheist radio/podcast at 8:00 Eastern (US) time (midnight UT), and this one is live! So you can call in and ask questions. If you need more info, a pink unicorn will help:

So there you go. Mark your calendar! Twice!

I have a new article up on Blastr, the SyFy channel’s web site for news and info and scifi-y stuff.

The article is about asteroid impacts, and the lack of Hollywood accuracy thereof. I take a typical movie synopsis and destroy it plot device by plot device. It’s like taking all my movie reviews and condensing them down into one run-on snark.

And yes, I know that the illustration for the article (seen here) is scientifically inaccurate. I know what you’re thinking; it’s so obvious: no asteroid is actually flying saucer shaped! At least, that’s what they want you to think^*.

So go over there, read the article, and leave your own complaints in the comments. I promise I will read them all and take them into consideration^†.

^* Dear readers with an impaired sense of humor: I know that’s not really how the picture is scientifically inaccurate. Of course, the actual mistake is that you should see thousands of stars in the background.

^† No I won’t.

OK, this made me laugh.

I remember seeing E.T. in the theater when it came out. Just before it was released, I was at a scifi con in DC and talking with a guy who had just been to a sneak peek. He was, ah, enthused.

"E.T. makes Yoda look like a puppet!" he kept saying.

It’s too bad the Doctor doesn’t care for cats. Turns out they could’ve been a valuable ally.

Other possible titles for this post:

• EXTERMICATE!
• EXTERMISPAYED!
• EXTOMINATE!
• CONCATENATE!
• EXCHEWMINATE!
• CATSPITENATE!
• EXPURRMINATE! (sounds a bit racy said out loud, however)
• Whiskaro

Seriously, though, anyone have the pedigree (harhar) for this picture? I found it via the tortuous path of Buzzfeed -> EpicPonyz -> BonnieGrrl -> Kimmi_Page, who doesn’t know where it came from. A google image search turned up, um, interesting results but no help in figuring out the original photographer.

[UPDATE: Original found on M E Faulkner's Flickr stream! Thanks, Tayster (#22 in the comments below).]

[UPDATE #2: I heard from the photographer, M E Faulkner and she has given me permission to use the photo. Yay!]

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Related posts:

- PRECIPITATE! PRECIPITATE!
- CONFLAGRATE! CONFLAGRATE!
- EXTIRPATE!
- Extermiknit Part II
-Trick or geek

If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan, then here’s something you’ll need to navigate the colonies: a star map of the Colonial systems created by BSG writer and co-executive producer Jane Espenson and science advisor Kevin Grazier!

OOOoooo, can I get a "frak yeah!" from the flight deck?

That’s pretty cool. And given that Kevin has a degree in astrophysics and works on the Cassini Saturn probe, one assumes he knows his stuff. Heck, I know he does: we’ve been friends for a few years now. The link above goes to the sci-fi blog io9 which has an interview with Kevin and Jane about the map, too. And if you like it, you can order a 27″ x 29″ poster of it from Quantum Mechanix.