What was new at Bad Astronomy in 2005?

December 29, 2005
If you are reading this message, then badastronomy.com has moved to a new server! You shouldn't see any real difference, but this will make things easier on me. I have more details on my blog.

December 13, 2005
I "debated" Moon Hoax purveyor Bart Sibrel on the radio Monday. It went fairly well... for the good guys, that is. I wrote up my thoughts on my blog.

October 31, 2005 BREAKING NEWS
Pluto has three moons!
A team of researchers has found two tiny moons orbiting distant Pluto. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, the two moons were found in May of 2005. I have more details on the Bad Astronomy Blog.

October 2, 2005
Tonight is another edition of Brains on Vacation! Tune in at 7:00 Pacific time to hear astronomer Seth Shostak and me take on another bit of scientific silliness.

September 19, 2005
The twinkies at Yahoo News are reporting that a killer cloud of space matter will destroy the Earth in 2014. First off, no, duh, it's not true. Second, stop emailing me about it! Third, read my webpage about this. Bottom line: the story is originally from the Weekly World News. 'nuff said.

September 4, 2005
I was on "Are We Alone" radio, talking about Intelligent Design's setback in Utah. Read all about it! The interview will be available for download a few days from now.

Big Website News! September 3, 2005

So join this new community and talk about science, space, astronomy, skepticism, and the latest news from the ground up!

August 24, 2005
Have you gotten the Mars email yet, claiming it'll be as big as the Moon in the sky? Then you'll wanna see this.

August 10, 2005
UFO Magazine's website is reporting that UFO debunker Philip Klass has died. I have not been able to confirm this with any news organizations, but word is spreading around the web, and I saw a post by my friend and fellow skeptic Jim Oberg about it on USENET. That's sad; he was a tireless pursuer of bunkum.

July 10, 2005
The latest Hollywood blockbuster to suffer the Bad Astronomy Review process is War of the Worlds. Can even Steven Spielberg save this movie from the goofy hype of Tom's Cruise's, um, eccentricities? Read the review and find out!

June 27, 2005
According to Publisher's News Wire, Moon Hoax proponent (and according to some, the originator of the idea that the Apollo landings were faked) Bill Kaysing died in March. Kaysing was a grade-A kook, who sent me several letters over the years asking (no, demanding) that I debate him on-air. I never replied, as that would only encourage him to send more letters, and I have no desire to debate anti-scientists like he was. I am saddened by his death, and sadder that he devoted so much effort and energy to such a collossal waste of time.

June 9, 2005
This somehow slipped between the cracks of my synapses: I did an interview with the good folks at Skepticality, a skeptical podcast. We talked about Star Wars, creationism, and various other creduloid nonsense. It was a fun interview, and we're planning on doing a more in-depth discussion of the evils of creationism soon. Stay Tuned!

New! (May 19, 2005): My Bad Astronomy movie review of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith

BIG NEWS!

Not Quite So Big News

April 3, 2005
It's taken me way too long to tackle the oldest, baddest astronomy there is, but I finally did it. Here is my debunking of astrology. I've tackled this now because I wrote a brief article for Night Sky magazine about it, and I had, well, quite a bit more to say than I could in the article. I don't mean for this to be the end-all debunking of astrology (that would be approximately 87 gazillion words long) but I think it'll give you a pretty good place to start when the topic of horoscopes come up at your next dinner party.

February 17, 2005
You may have heard that a pair of NASA scientists said that they have found evidence for life on Mars... current life. Well, don't believe everything you hear. I was on Coast to Coast AM talking about this story from Space.com (mirrored at Yahoo and MSNBC.com). An interesting follow-up has been posted on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's website as well.

This topic is being discussed on my discussion forum, and here is my post on the board that has specific info about this story.

February 7, 2005
If you're coming here from Coast to Coast AM radio show, here are the links I mentioned on the program:

The non-decay of the speed of light on the Talk Origins site.

Gravity of planets cannot affect us

Tides, and why the Moon always shows one face to the Earth.

January 27, 2005
I've been on a tear of getting public talks set up for the next few months. I'm giving one in Fort Worth, a second in Los Altos Hills (California), another in Las Cruces, New Mexico, then one in New York State and another a week and a half later in Newark! If you live in those areas and you want to hear me lambaste the Face on Mars or talk about the astronomy of Hollywood movies, then take a look on my calendar page to get more information!

January 24, 2005
I wrote up a travelog about James Randi's "The Amaz!ng Meeting 3". It's in the Fun section of the site. Don't know what a skepchick is? Find out there!

January 23, 2005
In Memoriam
I am terribly sad to write that we have lost a great skeptic, humanist, and rationalist. Johnny Carson died Sunday morning. Most people think of him as the host of the Tonight Show, but he was actually a driving force behind the scenes in the skeptic movement. By having Carl Sagan on his show, he catapulted Sagan to fame, and gave Sagan the chance to inspire a generation of astronomers, including me. James Randi was also a regular guest, and the Tonight Show was the first time I ever saw Randi. Johnny felt skepticism was so important that on many occasions he donated money to Randi's foundation, including, at Randi's second Amaz!ng Meeting, giving Randi a check for $100,000.

He did more for people than they know. He'll be missed.

NEWS ALERT #2! January 21, 2005:
I'll be on the Coast to Coast AM radio show tonight at 11:00 p.m. Pacific time to talk about the news alert below.

NEWS ALERT! January 21, 2005:
The Bush administration has asked NASA not to service Hubble again, and instead to concentrate on dropping it safely into the Pacific ocean at the end of its lifetime. This may be a political ploy to gain ground later, but it strikes me as having a ring of truth to it. I have mixed emotions, personally: I used Hubble for many, many years, and it has done more to bring the beauty and awe of astronomy to the public than almost anything else. However, a new mission to refurbish it would cost over a billion dollars in real money, and that might be best spent other ways given NASA's limited budget (of course, I think NASA's budget should be doubled, but that is sadly not going to play here). I also fear that this might be another thrust in the "men not machines" debate going on in space circles these days. Either way, we'll have to see how this plays out in the coming few weeks. The national budget (including NASA) will be made public in early February. In the meantime, you can discuss this topic on the Bad Astronomy Bulletin Board, or read articles about this on space.com, MSNBC, cnn.com, and NASA Watch. I was also on Coast to Coast AM discussing this on Friday, January 21.

January 2, 2005:
I was on the December 22nd edition of the Coast to Coast AM radio show, discussing an asteroid that made a very close shave of Earth in December. Here is a webpage with more info on the asteroids we discussed on the show.

January 2, 2005
ALERT There may be interruptions in service for this website over the course of the evening; my webhost is updating the computer's operating system. Everything should be back to normal by morning.