Halloween Costumes made of Awesome (and velcro)

Wired recently ran a Halloween costume contest. Here are the winners!

My favorite is "Sexy cosmic microwave background radiation"!

No, really.

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George Hrab: Skeptical Rockstar

If you've been listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, you've heard the abridged version of George Hrab's "Far". Here's the even more awesome full version:



George is one of my favorite musicians. He's also wicked smart and one of the most fun critical thinkers around. He was at Dragon*Con last year and will return in 2009.

More things you should read

Hey everybody! Erich von Däniken is a loon! I've been following this guy's wacky career for a while now. If you're unfamiliar with his theories on how aliens have visited the Earth, you're in for a treat. If you are familiar with them, you can check out how he's still crazy after all these years. He's a wonderful, walking paradox. He uses ancient religious texts to "prove" his theories then chides religious figures for interpreting them in their own ways. It's like watching blind people fight.

Emily always does a great job of capturing what it's like for parents of autistic kids. Here's an example.

Alan Boyle wrote an excellent article about science in the Obama era. He's got high hopes for the next president and I share them. As long as he doesn't make RFK Jr. the head of the EPA, that is.

On a related note, a bunch of scientists are all up in Obama's grill saying "Appoint a science advisor! Now!" I kinda agree.

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Skeptrack at Hypericon

I am the vice-chair for a sci-fi/gaming convention in Nashville, TN called Hypericon. We are looking to set up a programming track similar to DragonCon's SkepTrack and we need your help.

If you would like to come to our con and talk about critical-thinking-type stuff, email me at Gaming AT Hypericon DOT Info and we'll work something out. The con isn't until next June so we've got plenty of time to get you set up.

We are also looking for people to talk about science. Any kind of science. The lovely and talented Rob Knop gives a couple of talks each year and they are awesome. Come join him in the awesome.

The picture in this post is the promotional art for Hypericon 2008, painted by my awesome wife!

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365 Days of Astronomy

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. The International Astronomical Union and UNESCO said so! I think this is a marvelous idea and so do a bunch of podcasters.

365 Days of Astronomy is a project that will publish one podcast per day, 5 to 10 minutes in duration, for all 365 days of 2009. This is awesome! I'm going to volunteer. If you're a podcaster, if you've ever wanted to be a podcaster, or if you just want to talk about the stars for a few minutes, sign up and send something in.