I’m not one to celebrate anniversaries and such; to me they seem a little bit arbitrary. But still, they do remind us how far we’ve come, and how far there is left to go, so a moment’s reflection may not be a bad thing.
On March 21, 1993 — fifteen years ago today — I wrote my very first webpage.
I was in graduate school at the University of Virginia, heading into my last year on my PhD research. I had just watched the local news, and they had done a story on kids in an elementary school standing eggs on end on the vernal equinox. I was flabbergasted that any actual journalist could report such a thing so credulously, so the next day I wrote up a few paragraphs and stuck it on my personal web-accessible directory on the astronomy department’s server.
You have to realize, in 1993 there wasn’t a web as such. There were only a few sites out there, and people used Mosiac to browse them. I thought "hyperlinking" was so cool, and being able to put an image on a page… well, wow! Welcome to the future!
That page I wrote still exists, though it has changed almost entirely in the intervening 15 years. It sparked an entire career for me, though at the time it was a frivolous time-waster for me. But it eventually grew into more pages, got plagiarized quoted on "The West Wing", landed me a picture on APOD, led to a book, a blog, a series of TV interviews, another book, and eventually to settle in Boulder, Colorado, where I am far happier than I ever thought I could be, or ever deserved.
Walking this path also led me to encounter an extraordinary number of extraordinary people. Sure, there’s Randi and Penn and others you’ve heard of, and many folks who have honored me with their friendship and who have supported me. But I hear from people every single day, curious people, people who want to know about the Universe, about reality, and somehow they’ve had their minds sparked by something they saw here. That’s you! I cannot express what it means to have so many people reading what I write. It’s any writer’s dream to simply be read, and I thank all of you for taking time to stop by here and fulfill that. That surprises me and astounds me and moves me almost beyond words.
And even then, it gets better. Just yesterday a young woman befriended me on Facebook, and said that due in part to my blog, she decided to go back to school and take astronomy classes. I’ve gotten a few emails like that, and there are no words in the English language to properly describe the emotions that invokes.
Sure, I’ve also made some enemies along the way. People who have their world-views shaken tend not to be appreciative of it, and just as obviously those who prey on the innocent would rather not have someone show everyone the charlatan behind the curtain. But those are enemies I don’t mind having. Anyone who wants the shadow of ignorance to be deeper and darker is someone who is the enemy of us all. It’s our duty to fight them.
Still… Fifteen years. Wow. I never would have suspected back in ‘93 that sitting down and venting my spleen would lead to this. It’s been a lot of work, fun work! But the important fact here is that you just don’t know where a hobby, a moment of indulgence, a lark, will lead.
If you get that chance, if you find yourself (or someone you know) facing one of those moments, jump on it! It might be a terrible decision, sure. Being alive at all is a risk, but the best stuff comes when you take a chance. That decision might turn out to change your whole life, and make you very happy, very satisfied, and very, very ready to continue on for another fifteen years. At least.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:38 am
Happy Anniversary Phil! Keep it coming!
March 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Yes! Happy Anniversay, do not remember when I started reading your blog, only started posting here recently. It has been an illuminating experience.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:46 am
Happy Webiversary!
(I’m not sure that’s a real word, but perhaps it should be? Maybe?)
March 21st, 2008 at 10:53 am
Darn. The oldest file on my first website is from 12-Feb-1995. I haven’t touched those files in years, having since built a website for my wife’s consulting company, but they’re still on my ISP’s server.
http://users.bestweb.net/~kenbrody/images/l_hand.gif
The oldest “real” file has a datestamp of 29-Sept-1995, though the file itself says “08/01/94″.
http://users.bestweb.net/~kenbrody/fp50.txt
I can’t say when I wrote my first page, as even I am not _that_ geeky to have noted it.
I remember Mosaic — it came with “Internet-in-a-Box”, which my first ISP gave me when I signed up. As I recall, it was for Windows 3.11.
Oh, “Happy Anniversary”.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:11 am
Wow! Mosaic! Flashbacks!!!
Happy anniversary, and quite pleased to have been here for a good chunk of if, something like 8-9 years.
Back then, I had asked if you could break down NASA’s budget compared to the military budget so I could “inform” (shut up was more like it) a sister-in-law who kept badgering me about “ALL that money wasted”.
Your answer helped me show her that there was other places to ease of the spending first.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:13 am
Happy 15th BA!
I agree with your “jump on it” sentiment. A few years ago, the high school I teach at was donated a 12.5″ reflecting telescope. I then used that a springboard to create an astronomy course, and request funding for an observatory. I just finished teaching my 3rd section of the Grade 11 Astronomy, and the observatory is scheduled for completion this spring. (We’d have finished last fall, but the winter hit with a bit more force than usual!)
Take advantage of any opportunity. It might change your life, and it might not come again.
Cheers, Colin
March 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Here’s to the next 15 years, and beyond! I wonder how many “Little Babloggers” will be spawned because of something they’ve read here or in one of Phil’s books?
March 21st, 2008 at 11:26 am
Wow, that’s a lot to have happen in 15 years, and sure you’re a little famous,but are you famous enough to have been pulled out of a movie line and asked to leave?
March 21st, 2008 at 11:28 am
Happy anniversary! I can’t remember exactly when I discovered your site, but I think it was in either ‘99 or ‘00. I’ve been a regular devotee since.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:29 am
Wow, 15 years! That’s fantastic, Phil! I look forward to the next 15.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:41 am
Let’s just hope that you have the enthusiasm, energy, and time to keep it going for another 15! We’ll be here to listen. I haven’t been following for that long, maybe four years. I got to meet you at a star party in Kankakee, Ill called Astrofest some years back, got the book signed, and was hooked.
Thanks for your efforts, Thad
March 21st, 2008 at 11:46 am
Very Happy Anniversary, BA. I just love to read your site. Go on, and never give up.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:52 am
Congratulations! I’ve been visiting this site regularly for about a year now, and I’ve become a big fan. Keep up the great work!
March 21st, 2008 at 11:55 am
Here’s to 15, 30 and 45 more!! You rock, Phil.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:57 am
Philippe:
I just heard last night that the war in Iraq has cost (so far) half a _trillion_ dollars! That’s $500,000,000,000 in 5 years. The Washington Post is saying the cost may exceed $3 trillion!
I wonder how much the NASA budget has spent in total for the past 50 years?
So, something good came out of that, at least.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:59 am
Happy anniversary indeed! Long may you continue.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Definitely looking forward for more!
March 21st, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I’m not one to celebrate anniversaries and such; to me they seem a little bit arbitrary.
I hope Mrs. Astronomer is of the same mind!
March 21st, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Gee, Dr. Plait got his PhD at UVa, the bailiwick of those eminent scientists Fred Singer and Pat Michaels.
March 21st, 2008 at 12:53 pm
It has been 15 orbits around the sun for me too since I made my first Web page, also while I was in grad school, and also because I was entertaining a diversion. However my diversion hasn’t yet proved as constructive as yours
Keep up the good work!
March 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Congratulations Phil! I first came across your site after repeated e-mails from my brother claiming the moon-landings were faked, after getting infuriated with him ignoring my rebuttals, I looked up information on the web, and came across your site.
It didn’t just stop the e-mails coming from my brother, but reminded me why I *cared* that I wanted to show him why he was wrong. You weren’t solely responsible for re-igniting my interest in physics, cosmology and science in general, but - at least partly - because of people like you I’ve re-discovered my interest in astronomy, have a nice telescope - which I can hardly use because of the almost constant cloud cover my piece of England has suffered the last couple of months - and I’m now slowly (thank you again, British weather) learning to do astro-photography.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:48 pm
congrats phil. keep up the good fight
March 21st, 2008 at 1:53 pm
happy webniversary, Phil!
March 21st, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Congratulations, Phil!!
I don´t write here much, but I do try to read you as much as possible.
Not an easy task, to keep up with your pace
15 years ago, I was starting my MSc in Astrophysics and … starting playing with Mosaic… yeeop, been there, done that!
Keep up the good work. Keep the joy, the flame and the passion.
Many thanks!
Cheers,
Carlos
March 21st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
John Wilson:
Did you convince him to at least look into the “evidence”, or did he simply get tired of being shown how wrong he was, and stopped e-mailing you about it?
March 21st, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Congrats Phil! I dated a 1994 grad of UVA, I was living in Va Bch. I liked Charlottesville, and I used to live in Colorado. Both nice places. Hey, did you know a guy named Collin Ducharme(?) No, I don’t know him but I remember hearing that he left UVA and it’ s basketball team to go to Farmville VA because the college there are a degree in astrophysics or some such.
My convoluted point is, small world!
Congrats again on 15 years!
March 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Happy Anniversary Phil… 15 years and we still have to put up with dolt-itude, what’s up with that!!
The struggle against those who tout the unprovable as fact and demean the factual as theory will never end. Not while stupidity is legal.
Keep the faith! Err… I mean keep the fact!
March 21st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Congratulations!
I don’t remember the exact date I wrote my first web page, but it was the summer of 1995…sadly, I haven’t done quite as well on the web as you.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Did you convince him to at least look into the “evidence”, or did he simply get tired of being shown how wrong he was, and stopped e-mailing you about it?
A bit of both, I think
He acknowledged that my position had merit, but continued to insist that he was simply, “passing on all opinions”. A position I have become all too familiar with since.
March 21st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
SLC says: “Dr. Plait got his PhD at UVa, the bailiwick of those eminent scientists Fred Singer and Pat Michaels.”
Yeah, but it’s the UVb you really have to watch out for. SPF 50 at least!
- Jack
March 21st, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Wow, happy webiversary, BA. I started college in the fall of ‘93, and put my first webpage together on Mosaic before the end of the year. That really takes me back (and makes me feel a bit old
). Anyway, here’s to another 15! I look forward to downloading your 30th webiversary post directly into my brain. 
March 21st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
You beat me by 2 years!!
March 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Your site has certainly evolved (please don’t tell Ben Stein I used that word) over the last 15 years.
March 21st, 2008 at 5:08 pm
1993!? You have had a website for a 15 years!? Congrats!
I started to BABBle in 2003, but can’t exactly recall when I found this site. Not knowing that it has been here for a decade before that…
March 21st, 2008 at 6:26 pm
You rock, BA! Keep it up!
March 21st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
There’s an old, old bar trick involving a bet that a raw egg can be made to balance on end. It relies on a surreptitious sprinkling of a few grains of salt on the bar, which makes the task far easier.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
omg 1993
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 am
I really do enjoy your writing, Phil.
My motto has always been “Keep on doing what makes you personally happy”, so please continue!
Congratulations on 15 years of lighting those beautiful candles of skepticism and free-thought around the world. Carl Sagan would be proud! As I am!
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:54 am
And to the flail “Astronomer” above me, play on the freeway. plz k thx bai
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
Congratulations, BA. I worked on an early Australian public access version of the ‘net in 1988 — with DOS programming and a 286 processor — but I didn’t discover your site until 1998, when it was already in pretty colours with hyperlinks and pictures.
Internet years are like dog years, so I think a 15th anniversary qualifies for a telegram from the queen (or whatever you Americans get).
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:52 am
Congratulations, Phil.
15 years.
A lot has happened in that time.
Here’s to 15 more. Let’s hope that by then, the Moon Hoax is considered to be nothing more than on par with those that used to believe the Earth was flat.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:08 am
Beche… said:
“Internet years are like dog years, so I think a 15th anniversary qualifies for a telegram from the queen (or whatever you Americans get).”
I think he’d just get screwed over by this President!
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:28 am
I’m confused by the comment from fake “Astronomer” (7 comments prior to this one). Is that supposed to be an insult of some kind? What does it even mean? Why would someone’s Johnson catch on fire when they blow out candles? Is that why my pants caught burst into flames during my last birthday party? Does he realize someone hacked into his computer and stole all his capital letters?
March 22nd, 2008 at 9:46 am
Happy Anniversary, Phil!!
March 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 am
Lugosi, this “Astronomer” is troll. Some time ago, BA wrote something that rubbed in wrong way this poor mindless fellow. Not having any arguments or anyting remotely connected with Reality on his side, he resorted to rather low-class insults. Typical.
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
That’s funny, all the eggs in your photos have white shells. Is that the norm on the US? Over here (ye olde Europa) our eggs are mostly, well , biege… What’s that all about?
March 22nd, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Conblogulations Phil!
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Ah, yeah, the days of grad-hap all those years ago….
Great work–keep it up!
March 23rd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Phil,
I started my web page in late 1992 right after I started graduate school, as a way to relax from first-year classes. It was a Lynx-dominated (text-only) design, and was called the Henrietta Leavitt Flat Screen Space Theater. It became a fullfledged website with actual designs and graphics in 1995. Since then I’ve moved it through three different servers, added on a blog, and other pages, and begun doing video.
I remember reading your comments on Usenet, too, way back in the day. I used to get involved in Usenet discussions, but dropped out as I got wound up in my thesis writing; and I had a particularly hilarious run-in with the N*ncy Unit. She somehow found out my office address, snooped around and got my husband’s name, and then published a putdown about how I was pretending to a be a “woman” married to a “man” named “Mark”…
Boy, those were the days!
March 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am
I’m a few days late in saying it, but wanted to add my well wishes to the pile. Congratulations, Phil!