Blogs / Bad Astronomy

Genetic material is not a finite resource. It’s not used up like printer ink or oil or raspberry jelly (note to self: need to go shopping). Watered liberally with nurture, nature can produce a lot of talent in one family. For example, my sister sings opera, and she’s really good. Yet I can play trombone, showing that musical talent is not a non-renewable resource.

Writing is the same, y’know. My extraordinary abilities, generally eclipsing those of mere mortals, are not alone in the family font. I present to you my brother’s blog, hosted at his site Plait Solutions. He does computer tech support in his town of Roswell (I know, I know, but this one is in Atlanta, not New Mexico; the only aliens there show up for Dragon*Con), and started a blog to help out his clients and give them some basic, useful information. He does have some solid advice there, as well as the odd ramble or two.

Sounds familiar. But then, what is the root of the word familiar?

I’m traveling to St. Louis for a meeting (if you’re in the area, come to our blogger meetup!). But, in the tradition of the web, today is Caturday, a day when you can legitimately blog about your cat.

So why not take the chance to welcome everyone to my newest — sorta — family member, Dinger?

The reason I say "sorta" is because my wife and I got her when she was a kitten quite some time ago, before The Little Astronomer was even born (I have a picture of Dinger peering curiously into my daughter bassinet). We had her for several years, but when we moved to California we decided she might enjoy life on my in-laws farm more, so we gave her to them. She stayed with them for about four years, but now they are moving to Colorado (just a couple of towns over, in fact), so we took her back.

She’s 14. Fourteen. So she’s the newest member of the fam, but in subjective years she’s like 128. She mostly sits around and sleeps, purrs, and growls when Canis Major or Canis Minor get too close (C. Minor is terrified of her, actually). She still hasn’t gotten tooth and claw with our other cat, whom I will simply call Lynx, keeping with the astronomical pseudonyms (though getting her real name isn’t all that hard to do).

Which reminds me: Dinger is in fact the new cat’s real name. It’s short for Schrödinger.

Feel free to LOL her.

I’ll be attending the American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis starting Sunday (in two days! Aiiieee!), where I’ll be reporting on all the astronews goodness I can.

A bunch of astronomy bloggers will be there, and following our awesome meetup we had in Austin in January, we decided to do it again. Pamela Gay (Star Stryder, Astronomy Cast), Chris Lintott (Chris Lintott’s Universe, Galaxy Zoo), me, Nancy Atkinson (Universe Today) and probably a bunch of others will be there.

We’ll be meeting at the KitchenK restaurant on Tuesday, June 3, at 7:00 p.m. We’ll be eating, drinking, chatting, bragging, mixing, matching, gerundizing, and probably other things for which there are no words.

Be there, or B²!

I just spent the weekend at the Detroit Science Center in Michigan, where they premiered the Bad Astronomy planetarium show. Hmmm… sounds like a good idea for a book.

Haha. In fact, the show is based on my first book, and I’m in the show itself, hosting it and doing some of the narration (local radio personality Rachel Nevada also narrates). The show covers some popular misconceptions about astronomy like astrology, the Moon Hoax, UFOs, and others.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure how the show would turn out. I’ve heard rave reviews of other planetarium shows in the past, only to see them and discover they’re horrid. So it was with some trepidation I sat in the (very nice) planetarium at DSC while Todd Slisher (the VP of science shows) introduced the show. The lights went down, and it began… and it was pretty cool! I liked it! It’s got a good mix of serious and silly, with only a very light helping of cheese; too many shows really lay on the goofiness too thickly, but this one had a light touch that’s refreshing.

The audience seemed to like it too. Lots of them came up to us afterwards to tell us how much they liked it, which is an excellent sign. One man made a point to tell us that he learned a thing or two, and what better praise is there?

While I was there I also gave two talks at the DSC, and another at the nearby Cranbrook Institute of Science, and they all went pretty well. It always throws me a bit when a lot of little kids show up; my talks are geared more toward people older than about 10, but I made do… and I always get great questions from the kids (does the Universe go on forever? Are all the rocks on Earth meteorites?). It was a lot of fun.

If you’re in the Detroit area, then drop by the DSC and watch the show. And if you’re a planetarian yourself, consider buying a copy for the show for your own venue. I think it’ll be very popular, and that’s coming from a true skeptic who would never show any bias at all.

Hey, for you folks in and around the Boulder area, there is a Drinking Skeptically tonight at 6:00 at Old Chicago on the Pearl Street Mall. DS is a series of social events for skeptics, and they are held all over the place usually once per month.

DS in Boulder is new, and this’ll be my first time there. I hope to see some of you there!

So while searching for something on Google, I found out about a movie called, simply, "Astronomy". Weirdly, IMDB’s synopsis doesn’t even mention astronomy itself, and it’s difficult to find any info on it given the popularity of the two obvious keywords. The movie sounds more like a melodrama than anything else. Anyone here in BABlogland seen it? Opinions?

One thing that amazes me about Boulder is the capricious weather. April 30 was very warm, and after an 8 km bike ride I was exhausted and sweaty. The next day… well, see for yourself.

I do so love it here. When I left Maryland in 2000 to move to California, it was 22 Fahrenheit outside with piles of snow everywhere. Besides a light dusting the first winter there, I don’t think I ever saw snow in California and I certainly didn’t miss it. It’s nice to be able to enjoy it again, even if this May Day snowfall is probably it for six month or more.

And hey, this is my 50th video uploaded to YouTube! Cool. Literally.