Blogs / Bad Astronomy

A few people have mentioned this video to me:

It’s funny, though predictable. And of course, it’s Bad Astronomy: the lens wouldn’t be able to burn things as it spun around; it only works if the lens is more or less perpendicular to the Sun. Plus, the beam wouldn’t be visible. Plus, cars don’t explode like that. Plus, they would use machines to winch the lens up. Plus, really, they’d dismount the telescope, put in the lens, then put the whole assembly back on the mount. Plus, the lens would be covered to prevent it getting damaged. Plus, it would be done inside the dome.

But other than that…

This image is way, way cool:

It shows Io and Europa, Jupiter’s moons, and it was taken by the New Horizons spacecraft on its way out of the jovian system. I could explain it in detail, but Emily already did, and since I stole the image from her, I should at least let her do the talkin’. But go read it; it’s interesting.

Hey, one of my fave podcasts, Skepticality, was mentioned in the online version of Business Week magazine. The article is about podcasting and careers, and, while some make tons of money (or like Skepticality, found corporate sponsors), most podcasters don’t make it big.

Duh.

But the article makes some interesting points, and if you’re interested in podcasting it’s worth the three minutes it takes to read it.