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Bad Astronomy Blog

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An astronomer's personal view on life, the Universe, and everything. Informative, funny, skeptical, and topical, it's mostly cool astronomy stuff and science in general, with a definite slant against antiscience and uncritical thinking.

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Recent Posts Tagged With 'jref'

  • Another circuit around the Sun begins

    Posted on Friday January 1st, 2010 at 01:01 in astronomy, about this blog, jref, piece of mind

    I know it’s traditional to take this time to look back, and to look ahead. And while I’m not a traditional sort of fellow, I do want to take just a moment here and indulge myself. New Year’s is rather arbitrary for a number of reaso...

  • Randi, skepticism, and global warming

    Posted on Thursday December 17th, 2009 at 12:58 in global warming, skepticism, jref, james randi, antiscience

    Yesterday, James Randi posted an entry on the JREF’s Swift blog about global warming. In it, he expressed some doubt over the consensus that humans are causing global warming. He does not doubt that warming is happening, as he made clear, just ...

  • TAM London followup

    Posted on Wednesday November 18th, 2009 at 12:30 in cool stuff, skepticism, jref, tam london

    TAM London was last month, but has created a lasting impression: Skepchick Rebecca Watson and Neil Denny (from Little Atoms) interviewed a bunch of people at TAML, including speakers and audience members. It’s a fun listen. Not only that, but t...

  • When antiscience kills: dowsing edition

    Posted on Wednesday November 4th, 2009 at 12:16 in politics, iraq, skepticism, jref, piece of mind, antiscience, debunking, dowsing

    I am no fan of pseudoscience, as you may have guessed. Dowsing is a practice that falls squarely in that field. It’s the idea that you can detect an object — usually water, but sometimes gold, or people, or whatever — using a y-shap...

  • Carl Sagan Day: November 7

    Posted on Monday November 2nd, 2009 at 08:45 in astronomy, carl sagan, jref, james randi, deathfromtheskies!, david morrison

    If you’re anywhere near southern Florida on Saturday, November 7, then you need to get yourself over to the Broward College, which is holding the very first celebration of Carl Sagan Day! It’s in honor of Sagan’s birthday, which i...

  • Houdini escapes skeptics on Halloween

    Posted on Sunday November 1st, 2009 at 13:00 in humor, skepticism, jref, harry houdini, james randi, seance, antiscience, debunking

    On Halloween, Justin Robert Young and my friend Andrew Mayne tried to raise the spirit of Harry Houdini in a seance at the James Randi Educational Foundation HQ in Florida. The event was live on the intertubez and and the recorded stream is on UStrea...

  • TAM London video 3: Brian Cox

    Posted on Wednesday October 21st, 2009 at 09:00 in humor, skepticism, jref, deathfromtheskies!

    Regular readers know Brian Cox: he’s a physicist, a rock star, a TV science documentary host, a skeptic, and a friend. At TAM London I did a very brief interview with him. Since he works at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, I had something o...

  • Amaz!ng Adventure 5

    Posted on Tuesday October 20th, 2009 at 17:00 in cruise, jref

    Just a reminder: the James Randi Educational Foundation is holding its FIFTH Amaz!ng Adventure, this time a cruise to the Caribbean. The ship (which looks very nice!) will be visiting St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk Island, Bahamas. This will be...

  • TAM London video 2: Ariane Sherine

    Posted on Monday October 19th, 2009 at 09:00 in atheism, skepticism, jref, ariane sherine, tam london

    Last week I posted a video interview I did with George Hrab at TAM London, but I was able to snag a couple more with other interesting and cool people. Ariane Sherine qualifies for both. She is a warm, funny, unprepossessing woman, yet organized the ...

  • TAM London video 1: George Hrab

    Posted on Friday October 16th, 2009 at 09:00 in humor, miscellaneous, jref

    While at TAM London I grabbed some short interviews with a handful of the speakers. Here’s the first one: me screwing around with podcaster, musician, skeptic, and funny guy George Hrab. I’ll post the others next week. But if you like t...

  • London Calling Part 1

    Posted on Friday October 2nd, 2009 at 08:49 in jref

    Pip pip, ladies and lords! I’m in England, getting ready for TAM London! That starts tomorrow, though there are some festivities tonight (George Hrab in concert!). My hotel charges as much for internet as my last hotel room in the States cost i...

  • TAM London auctions and an award!

    Posted on Friday September 18th, 2009 at 10:18 in jref

    The Amaz!ng Meeting London is now just a couple of weeks away, and we’re busily working on making it a real extravaganza. I’m very excited about our speaker lineup and all the activities planned! Tickets sold out rapidly, but we still h...