From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Mon Jul 05 2004 - 16:28:33 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer<mailto:badastro_at_badastronomy.com>
To: badastronomy_at_yahoogroups.com<mailto:badastronomy_at_yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2004 2:56 PM
Subject: [badastronomy] The Bad Astronomy Newsletter Issue #52 (July 5, 2004)
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THE BAD ASTRONOMY NEWSLETTER
Issue #52
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Bad Astronomy Newsletter #52
Contents:
1) Several new web pages added to BA!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
1) Several new web pages added to BA!
Things have been busy for me the past year or so. My day job (developing
Not this time! I wrote quite a bit lately (staying up to the wee
a) I generally don't focus my debunking efforts on individuals,
He's been pretty low-level, but is now starting to get more air
You can find the pages about him here:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/mccanney/index.html There are some more things he has said and done about which I
b) The issue of debating pseudoscientists has been coming up a lot
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/debating.html c) I have a web page that will go live when I go on Coast to Coast AM
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/c2c_july52004.html Some of the topics with links will be covered there. I may even update
* * * * * * * * * * * *
2) Coast to Coast AM reminder
Speaking of which, I will be on the Coast to Coast AM radio show
You can listen live on many stations across the US and Canada, and
http://www.cfun.com Also, the C2C main page is
http://www.coasttocoastam.com There will be a thread running with comments on the Bad Astronomy
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14794 Not only that, but there is a new kind of chat room where you can actually
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14453 * * * * * * * * * * * *
3) An anniversary with a bang
Yesterday as I write this was the 228th anniversary of the signing
See for yourself:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search?crab You'll find lots of amazing things to see and read there about the Crab.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bitesize/sn87a_discovery.html It's the story of another exploding star, Supernova 1987A,
And before I get a zillion emails saying "But the Crab is 5600 light
Confused? Me too! So go here and read about all this:
http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ * * * * * * * * * * * *
4) Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information
If, for some weird reason, you want to unsubscribe to this
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/groups-32.html for more info.
Remember, the newsletters are archived on the website at
http://www.badastronomy.com/newsletter/index.html so even if you unsubscribe you can still read them there. I suggest
Also, I do *not* sell your email addresses, but I am pretty sure the evil Yahoo!
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/ Note that the email addresses *are* visible to me, but I have no prurient
**************************
Phil Plait
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July 5, 2004
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2) Coast to Coast AM reminder
3) An anniversary with a bang
4) Subscribe/Unsubscribe info
educational activities based on the several NASA space science missions)
has kept me so busy that I haven't had as much time to work on my
web site as I used to. I've been able to squeeze out some stuff, but it's
been in dribs and drabs.
hours to get them done), and it's now online:
since usually weird astronomy ideas are all over the place, coming
from different sources. The exceptions have been notable, including
Nancy Lieder, Bart Sibrel, and Richard Hoagland. Now I have added
a new pseudoscientist to the mix: James McCanney. He is the newest
vulture to attack Nancy Lieder's Planet X carrion, having been circling
overhead for some time now.
time on late night radio shows and the like. I really don't know
how many people are listening to him, as unlike Lieder he doesn't
do chat rooms or bulletin boards or the like. But given that he's been
on Coast to Coast AM so many times, and he's spreading so much ridiculous
garbage about astronomy, I figured maybe it's time to take him on.
want to comment eventually, but the basic ground is covered here.
I'll send out a newsletter when there is more.
lately. I've never really thought of myself as a gunslinger, but
sometimes I feel like it's the Old West in cyberland, and everyone
with a goofball theory has been calling me out to a shootout at high noon.
I almost always turn down such generous offers. Why? Read all about it:
tonight (Monday, July 5). It will be protected until then, but when the
show starts, go to
it during the show as we cover different topics!
tonight! :-) The show starts at 10:00 p.m. Pacific (US) time, and I will
be on shortly after 11:00. I get three hours tonight, so we'll cover a
lot of ground. Check the web page listed above for details on topics.
some of them stream the broadcast. I have found several good streams,
but a Canadian station is the most reliable:
Bulletin Board, too:
talk (if you have a microphone). PalTalk is a free voice and text chatroom,
and you can find out how to download it and join the Bad Astronomy
Chat Room here:
of the United States Declaration of Independence. That's a long
time by human standards, but yesterday marked an even longer one:
the 950th anniversary of the supernova explosion that signaled the
birth of the Crab Nebula! On July 4, 1054, a star exploded in Taurus.
Over the centuries, the expanding gas formed into one of the most
beautiful and intriguing objects in the sky. It's been studied
so much that some people say all of astronomy can be divided into
two areas: the Crab Nebula, and everything else.
If you're unsure about what a supernova is, don't fret! I took
care of that here:
but the tales are similar.
years away, so it really blew up 5600 + 950 = 6550 years ago!"
I'll note that this isn't really the case. You aren't thinking
Einsteiningly (which may very well be the first time that word
has ever been used!). There are odd relativistic ways of looking at
this. I need to do some more research about this, because it's been
a while since I studied it, but since information cannot travel faster
than light, it's legitimate to say that what we see is happening
"now". In other words, since we cannot go faster than light, it
is perfectly fine to say that this is the 950th anniversary. It just
depends on your definition of "now".
newsletter, just send email to badastronomy-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com<mailto:badastronomy-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com>
with no body text. Make sure you send it from the address to which the
newsletter is sent! Alternatively, you can unsubscribe from the
Yahoo!Groups website. Go to
staying subscribed so you get them as soon as I send them.
people, which is why I am moving this newsletter to my own website eventually.
Take a gander at the Yahoo!Groups privacy message if it makes you
feel better, or worse:
use for them. If that makes you nervous for whatever reason, feel free to
unsubscribe and simply read the archived newsletters at the website listed
above.
The Bad Astronomer
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