# In Case You Didn't Know, The Bad Astronomer Made the Paper! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758 "2002-04-21T03:08:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/1 "2002-04-21T03:08:01Z")
[The State Journal-Register](http://www.sj-r.com) of Springfield, IL, published an article about **The Bad Astronomer** in today’s edition. And FTR, **David B** wrote it. Don’t know if it’s up on the website yet… ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/2 "2002-04-21T04:41:54Z")
Cool. [http://www.sj-r.com/news/saturday/n.htm](http://www.sj-r.com/news/saturday/n.htm) > [@](#): > > Just the facts > By DAVID BLOOMBERG > CORRESPONDENT > > Philip Plait wishes every day was International Astronomy Day. > > Although today is the official day used by scientists and hobbyists to bring astronomy to the general public, Plait, research manager at Sonoma State University in Northern California, wants to do something similar the other 364 days a year. > > Plait, who received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of Virginia in 1994 and worked for NASA contractors on the Hubble space telescope, soon realized that he wanted to focus on public outreach. Now his job is to look for ways to get NASA science into the classroom. > > That isn’t the only way Plait tries to get science into public hands. Plait is better known for having created the “Bad Astronomy” Web site, [www.badastronomy.com](http://www.badastronomy.com), on which he has tackled science-fiction movies, misconceptions and out-and-out pseudo-science… It probably won’t be at this URL same time next week, as the URL only says “Saturday”. It’ll be in the S-J archives somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/3 "2002-04-21T05:46:52Z")
Ah, it’s good to see the SDMB Illuminati are hard at work! Our agents are everywhere! ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/4 "2002-04-22T19:06:36Z")
All right, **David B**! ---
**Author:** ![Arwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Arwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arwen)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/5 "2002-04-22T20:03:19Z")
Awright **David B** and **Bad Astronomer**!! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/6 "2002-04-22T20:17:16Z")
Cool! . . . Now, it’s about time the State Journal-Register did some hard-hitting articles on that wonderful British comedienne, Kay Kendall . . . ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_griffin-kentzel/32/14787_2.png) [@Larry\_Griffin-Kentzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Griffin-Kentzel)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/7 "2002-04-22T23:45:11Z")
:o > [@](#): > > All right, **David B**! . . . and of course, **The Bad Astronomer**! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/8 "2002-04-30T04:44:19Z")
Heh. I just noticed this thread. 😉 Thanks for posting it. Since the book came out, I’ve been trying pretty hard to get some airtime for it, and it’s paying off. The publisher put a press agent on it, and we have one at my University too. We just went into second printing, which is pretty cool. It’s a small run, but I was able to get some typos and errors corrected. Now if we can get into a third run, I can fix some of the more subtle errors… ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/9 "2002-04-30T05:20:54Z")
Is this what you needed those _Simpsons_ clips for? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/10 "2002-04-30T06:50:42Z")
There’s also a nice little write up in Bob Berman’s “Sky Lights” column in the June issue of _Discover_ magazine. (From the table of contents page: “A warrior for scientific truth takes on the dark forces of bad astronomy.” Geez, man, when’s _Bad Astronomy: The Movie_ coming out? I could just hear that being intoned by the Movie Preview Guy.) ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-case-you-didnt-know-the-bad-astronomer-made-the-paper/104758/11 "2002-04-30T07:38:15Z")
You’re in the _Australian_ as well (and I offered to send the clipping but I think it fell off the first page too quickly or you hate me and are just ignoring me). A brief but good mention.