In Inbox We Trust

Inbox Trust (TM) is one of those things you have to be really careful with. The reason people are able to spread malware and bilk too many people out of money is the same reason people sometimes take the wrong person home at the end of a date. The person crying over the “perfect guy” who...

T’was the Week After Christmas

Twas the week after Christmas, when all through the halls Not a student was stirring – they’d gone out to the malls The professors were all doing their research with care In hopes that peer review would be gentle and fair. The servers were whirring all snug on the cloud While theorists muttered...

The Twenty-Four Hour Work Day (while on vacation)

I’m currently sort of on vacation. I say “sort of” because modern day technology and society combine to really makes it impossible for many of us to be totally off work, totally away for a couple of days, and totally removed from instantaneous communications. Everyday of this trip, either...

Up, Up and … Home

On January 13, 2005 I joined the American Airlines “AAdvantage” frequent flier program. The podcast I was part of, “Slacker Astronomy,” had taken off, and I had been invited to go to AAS in Washington DC and AAPT in Anchorage, Alaska to give talks 2 weeks apart. This was something...

Universal Education

Here in the USA (or I should say there, since I’m currently in France), education tends to be somewhat nationalistic. It has to be. Teachers are tied to state and federal learning standards and if students don’t learn what is specifically listed in those standards, and specifically tested along those...

Can you help 365 Days of Astronomy get thru to 2012?

Back in 2008, while planning for the International Year of Astronomy, a group of us came up with the idea to do a daily podcast that gives voice to all the people around the world who are passionate about astronomy. This idea became the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, and in 2009 this little show filled every...