Tales of DragonCon: Overview (1)
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DragonCon. Yowza. Where to start? Another typical day at DragonCon. OK, for those not in the know, DragonCon is one of the premier scifi/fantasy conventions in the country. It’s big, like 40k people big. A lot of stuff goes on: talks, movies, singing, panels on various topics, places where celebrities sign stuff, and so on. I mostly attended and participated in panels, sitting with skeptics and podcasters and scientists and educators. For example, the first ...
Palin comparison (4)
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Note: Because I can sometimes be a little vocal, I have added a disclaimer in the right sidebar. To be clear: opinions expressed on this blog are mine, and mine alone. But I’m usually right. So, Sarah Palin. I know I’m late in the game here, since I was at DragonCon (more on that later, promise). And others have said pretty much what I’m thinking (like Gia and Scalzi, particularly Scalzi’s Point Number 4), but ...
Followup: Green objects in space (7)
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A while back, I wrote about why there are no green stars in the sky (you should read that post first; some of the concepts below are explained there). But that’s not to say there are no green objects in space. There are! Low-density gas clouds, like NGC 6826 (which I studied for my Masters degree, incidentally), emit light in a very different way than stars do; they aren’t blackbodies at all. They are more ...
Mythbustin’ the Moon Hoax, Part V: The review! (13)
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The day has dawned, the clock has rung, the time has come, calloo callay! Tonight, the Mythbusters take on the Moon Hoax (check your local listings)! OK, for you newbies, read Parts 1 - 4 (here, here, here, and here). That’ll catch you up on the history. I was able to get an advance copy of the show — I have powers beyond those of mortal men… or maybe I’m just on a Discovery Channel ...
Galapagos Wrapup (1)
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I am finally getting my act back together after 11 days away from home, visiting the astonishing and wondrous Galapagos Islands. I wasn’t sure how to tackle writing about it, since there is so much to say: the trip itself, the islands, the time we spent in Quito, the friends renewed and newly made, the incredible, incredible scenery, animals, plants, and, of course, the southern skies. Maybe it’ll help to point you to my best ...
More about elitism (2)
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I like elitism. I like the idea that there are people out there who are very, very good at what they do. I don’t want a doctor who doesn’t understand biology, I don’t want a plumber who can’t use a wrench, and I don’t want politicians who cannot think properly. That last bit is the sticky one. In this case, it’s the Bush Administration’s (typically idiotic and Orwellian) recent finagling with the Endangered Species Act: ...
Massive monster in the far reaches (1)
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I am sitting in the Las Vega$ airport coming home from a party at Penn’s house (I’m such a jetsetter — long story) and I see that XMM-Newton — a European observatory that detects high energy X-rays from space — stumbled on the most massive cluster of galaxies ever seen in the distant Universe. Tipping the scale at more than 1000 times the mass of the Milky Way (most of this in the form of ...
MESSENGER of the Gods (1)
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We’re in a bit of a lull with Mercury right now; the MESSENGER probe passed it a few months ago, and it’ll be a little while before it makes pass #2. In the meantime, though, you can watch a video I made about the planet and the probe for SpaceRip, part of the high-res video series I’ve been doing with professional director/producer Tom Lucas. For American viewers, it’s also up on Hulu, and it’s available ...
NASA images archive (5)
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This is semi-old news, and I’ve been meaning to mention it, so here ya go: NASA has put up a vast archive of space images on a site they named, for some reason, NASA images. They have a ton of very cool images there, I must say. When they load, they are fitted to your screen, but then you can zoom in or out, which is fun. There are descriptions on the sidebar (generally tapped ...
Phoenix Descending (2)
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The Bad Astronomer (36)
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As I looked at the spectacular — yet understated — picture of Phoenix beneath its parachute, I decided I couldn’t just let what I wrote before stand. I needed to gesticulate, I needed to make faces, I needed to say something! So I made a video. And you know what the best part is? This picture of Phoenix was taken before it was even doing any science! The mission had just started. What will happen ...
Video of NASA rocket failure (3)
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Via Universe Today comes word that a video of a NASA rocket launch that went very, very awry is now on YouTube: Yikes. Go to UT to get the details!
Want, Part VI: Dalek edition (1)
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Yup. Couldn’t have said it better myself: And it’s a t-shirt, too! Dare to dream. How Rebecca found out about this before me is irksome. But tip o’ the plunger and whisk to her anyway.
Antivaxxers must be stopped! NOW. (13)
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Antivaxxers are people who think vaccinations cause health problems, most notably autism. This is despite study after study showing them to be wrong; there simply is no link between vaccines and autism. While there can be isolated reactions to vaccines, they are very rare, and the overall health benefits of vaccines vastly — vastly — outweigh the negatives. But these antiscience crusaders are starting to have an effect, and it’s a bad one: measles outbreaks ...
Antivaxxers must be stopped! NOW. (2)
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Antivaxxers are people who think vaccinations cause health problems, most notably autism. This is despite study after study showing them to be wrong; there simply is no link between vaccines and autism. While there can be isolated reactions to vaccines, they are very rare, and the overall health benefits of vaccines vastly — vastly — outweigh the negatives. But these antiscience crusaders are starting to have an effect, and it’s a bad one: measles outbreaks ...
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/08/22/the-beating-heart-of-w5/ (5)
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Holy frak! Check out this new image from Spitzer Space Telescope: (Click to hugely embiggen) W5 is a nebula, a giant cloud of gas roughly 6000 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It’s enormous, spanning about 2 x 1.5 degrees of the sky (15 times the size of the full Moon on the sky), and is actively cranking out stars. The valentine-shape is actually an enormous cavern, a hollow carved out of the ...
Minor planets, major thoughts (1)
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I link to Emily’s blog at The Planetary Society quite a bit, but that’s because a) she’s really good, and b) we agree on a lot of things. For an example of (b), read her post about the definition of "planet". I’m still not swayed by a lot of what I’ve read of others’ opinions, but Emily seems to be on the right track. She says this: Frankly, I think it’s much less important for ...
Worlds’ most distant webcam goes live (18)
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You can use a webcam to sneak peeks at birds’ nests, active volcanoes, watch the Shuttle launch, and even to check traffic. But that’s just local stuff. What if you want more of a far look? Then you need to check out the most distant webcam (so far) in the solar system: the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera (note: the camera page is due to go live at 13:00 UT today, but don’t fret if ...
Volcanoes! (10)
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For some brilliant reason, The Boston Globe has started a new online feature called The Big Picture, which showcases incredible hi-res images of different topics. They just ran one on volcanoes, and it’s, well, incredible. Like I said. Wow. And having just come back from an island chain made up entirely of these beasts, the pix really hit home. Amazing. I linked to The Big Picture tour of the LHC recently, and they have lots ...
Hubble’s impact (2)
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Over at Cosmic Variance, my fellow astronomy blogger Julianne Dalcanton is looking for opinions. She’s writing an article about the scientific impact of Hubble, and she’s looking to see what others come up with. Webrainstorming, if you will (did I coin a new word there? I think maybe I did). This is scientific, not cultural impact. So no things about the public being more aware of astronomy and whatnot. I can think of two things ...
The Presidential candidates on space policy (2)
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The Planetary Society has posted both Obama’s and McCain’s statements on space policy. Both sound good, I’ll admit. Obama’s is a lot more thorough, with more specifics (which I had to chuckle over, given that many of his detractors falsely claim that he only makes broad generalizations, with no specifics). Both hit a lot of the high marks: we need to explore space, they both support NASA but see that it needs work, Constellation needs ...
