ethan siegel

Check out our detailed interview with the famous and amazing Ethan Siegel. We talk about the history of understanding the universe, why you should believe in Dark Matter even though it is obviously fake, why exploring uranus can lead to the discovery of amazing things, and more.
"Where there is no imagination there is no horror." -Arthur Conan Doyle Halloween, for those of you who've been here a while, is my favorite holiday. Every year for the past dozen years now, I've dressed up as whatever I've wanted for Halloween. And -- if you haven't seen the pattern yet -- it's almost always a partially-clothed, revered hero (or villain) from when I was a young child. In case you haven't figured out what character I've chosen for my Halloween costume this year, maybe this piece of music will make it more clear, from the video game Street Fighter II. It takes a bit of courage…
"Art has never been a popularity contest." -James Levine Sometimes, you might feel like you've heard it all, seen it all, and that nothing's original anymore. But I beg to differ. Just because great things have come before doesn't mean that there aren't great things happening right now. While it might "only" be a cover of a Kanye West song (which itself heavily samples a Ray Charles song, at one time featured here), I encourage you to listen to the Automatic's brilliant version of Gold Digger. And while the stories of the Universe I tell you about here don't tend to be my personal, original…
Have you seen Ethan Siegel? He's the blogger behind Starts with a Bang. The guy has got a lot of hair! And he's offering to shave his head if 100 unique commenters each give at least $10 dollars or 4 hours of their time to the charity of their choice. What a great way to give people a little kick in the butt to do something good. Ethan's post reminded me that I still hadn't completed our promised giving for the Silence is the Enemy project. Alice and I promised to double the amount we were paid for clicks in the month of June. We gave half of that money to Doctors without Borders (MSF) and…
Swiss astronomers recently discovered the small exoplanet, Gliese 581 e, calculated to have a minium mass less than twice that of our own dear planet. This planet resides within the same solar system as Gliese 581 d, which scientists speculate could be capable of supporting life. "With a minimum age of these planets of 7 billion years, you can bet that if life did form there, it's probably awfully interesting by now," ventured ScienceBlogger Ethan Siegel from Starts With a Bang. Related ScienceBlogs Posts: Say Hello to my Little Rocky Friend! Two Earth Mass Planet "It's Life, Jim, But Not As…
Tonight, from 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Pacific Time, I will be Dr. David Livingston's guest on his radio program, The Space Show! I have no idea how it's going to go or if I'll be able to communicate clearly on an audio-only format, as I've never tried before, but I'm really looking forward to the experience. You can listen live via internet radio by going to http://www.thespaceshow.com/live.htm at the appropriate time, or by heading to the RSS feed afterwards and downloading the episode. Don't forget to leave your comments if you listen to it!
First things first: this week's Carnival of Space is up at Brian Wang's site, Next Big Future. You can find my post on Mars or Arizona? up there. Now, what comes next for me, since I don't like it here in Arizona? Well, the Dangerman audition didn't work out (I never heard back), and I've been scoping out the Portland, OR area, which could work out well. But I got an email earlier this week about a job vacancy at ESO (the European Southern Observatories). They are looking for someone to take on the role of being head of the ESO public outreach office! Really, this would be a wonderful…
Well, it's not technically a weekend diversion, but something awesome happened in the wake of my recent Awards-show posting of the Carnival of Space. David Livingston, a blogger over at Space Cynics and a radio host of The Space Show, has invited me to be his guest on his April 8th broadcast of his show! So get ready to listen up, because this is going to be available worldwide for download! I'll definitely have an entry for you after the recording to let you know how it goes and what we talked about, but I hope to get to talk about all the things that excite me about doing this, including…