Blogs / Bad Astronomy

Of course I’m Mal Reynolds. I already know Serenity is my best fit. But Wash is probably closer to who I really am.

Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 90% Wash (Ship Pilot) 80% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 75% River (Stowaway) 70% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 55% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 50% Inara Serra (Companion) 50% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 50% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 30% Alliance 20% A Reaver (Cannibal) 15%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Click here to take the “Which Serenity character are you?” quiz…

And what is it with me being rated as Captain all the time? IRL the crew would mutiny in about three minutes.

Well then, what do you make of this?

(CBS) BODEGA BAY, Calif. They are deadly, huge and fast moving. Their tentacles can suck the life out of a human being and they’ve arrived in Northern California.

They are giant squid. Nobody knows why, but for three years now fishing boats out of Bodega Bay have been catching the ink spewing fish by the droves.

How sick is this? Bodega Bay is only a few miles from my house! And PZ is so nefarious, so evil, that he started sending those squid here a full year before he had even heard of my blog!

Biologists. Sheesh.

I am really pleased to hear that John Mather will be the head of the new NASA Office of the Chief Scientist. He was chosen by incoming NASA Associate Administrator of Science Alan Stern.

As Stern says,

John Mather is a scientist of legendary reputation, technical ability and space science mission experience. His office will provide independent scientific advice to me to guide decision making regarding all aspects of the NASA science program.

Yeah, no kidding. John was the Project Scientist for COBE, a satellite that pretty much nailed it that the Big Bang is right (deal with it, creationists). He’s also the Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, the observatory that will be NASA’s next great thing (it doesn’t replace Hubble, as many say, but will augment and carry on the work Hubble has done).

And wasn’t there something else? What was it… let me think… oh yeah! He won the 2006 Nobel Prize for physics.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I know John somewhat tangentially. I worked on COBE briefly, and I’ve talked to him now and again about Big Bang stuff. He worked down the hall from me at Goddard Space Flight Center, and I remember one day getting this bright idea about neutrinos and the Big Bang. I stopped by his office to ask him about it, and he patiently explained to me that while my idea was clever and technically correct, it was useless in reality with no real practical applications. And yet I felt better after talking to him! That’s how nice he is.

With Mary Cleave gone (hurray) and Alan Stern in (hurray!), and now John stepping up (w00t!), I’m hoping that the recent turn of events we’ve seen at NASA — the gutting of science — will finally stop, or at least be stemmed. I know these are difficult times, and difficult decisions must be made, but with this kind of firepower this high up in NASA’s hierarchy I see some light on the horizon. The AA and Chief Scientist will probably wind up talking to Congress on occasion, so maybe they can beat some sense into our politicians, and get the money NASA needs to feed all its programs… and maybe wean the programs that need it, too.