PHIL PLAIT: Welcome to science

[bystander]

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PHIL PLAIT: Welcome to science
Zen Pencils #52 | 2012 June 04

Phil Plait, better known as The Bad Astronomer, is an astronomer (obviously), noted skeptic and popular science writer. His Bad Astronomy blog is one of the most popular science websites around and it’s where I get my regular science fix. This quote is taken from a speech Plait gave at a student science fair. He had no idea what he was going to say until he saw a news story on television the night before the fair. The story was a typical psuedo-science fluff piece that’s unfortunately seen too often on mainstream news. It made Phil so angry he quickly wrote this speech in response. Click here to read the full speech.

Phil has been one of Zen Pencils biggest supporters and he’s responsible for making my Carl Sagan comic go viral. He was kind enough to tweet it to his followers and then wrote an article about it on his blog. That led to the comic being shared all over the world, which then led to The Washington Post ‘Comic Riffs’ section interviewing me. This comic is my way of saying thank you.

[owlice]

That's fabulous!! Thanks very much for sharing it!

[owlice]

I was listening to the news on my way to work and was pleased to hear they had an upcoming story on the Venus transit. A few minutes later, that news item comes up and was devoted primarily to .... astrology.

[Moonlady]

Thanks bystander

[Moonlady]

I was listening to the news on my way to work and was pleased to hear they had an upcoming story on the Venus transit. A few minutes later, that news item comes up and was devoted primarily to .... astrology.

Owlice do not bang your head for nothing, it is not worth it
::Gives you icepack::

[Chris Peterson]

I was listening to the news on my way to work and was pleased to hear they had an upcoming story on the Venus transit. A few minutes later, that news item comes up and was devoted primarily to .... astrology. :doh: :facepalm: :evil: :bang:

Say it wasn't NPR!

[mike_sharkey2010]

Ahhh, I have so much enjoyed Phill Plait's work on the Bad Astronomy website, and lately in some of the television programs on NTGEO or Science channel.

wrt. Venus transit - I drove to the local observatory (about 10 miles from my work), and was pleased to help two young men that had bought a brand new 6'' Orion Dob with solar filter - who could not figure out how to properly line it up on the Sun.
Good deed done, I went around the corner to another group, where a person was explaining, over and over, in a somewhat loud voice, that no-one would be able to see Venus until after sunset. (?!?!!!!??) Breaking up this mis-information - explaining exactly what a *transit* meant - took about 5 minutes.
Turned out the gentleman was a bit of 'developmentally challenged'' person known to the local astronomy club, and normally ignored.
He liked ''knowing things'' - unfortunately he had a tendency to be ''confused'' about his information - and to repeat his information over and over.
Ah well... at least he didn't have a blog.