Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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RECOMMENDED READING 261 Mikolaj Sawicki is a physicist at John A. Logan College in Illinois. His web site on tides (http://www.jal.cc.il.us/~mikolajsawicki/gravity _and_tides _ .html) cleared up some of my own tidal misconceptions. It has a very clear and interesting explanation of tides, and is one of the very few that not only is correct but carries out the idea to its logical conclusions. One of the great aspects of the web is the amazing amount of information it contains—sometimes it’s even accurate. So many questions come up so frequently that people often put together Frequently Asked Questions lists, or FAQs. The Astronomy FAQ (http://sciastro.astronomy .net/) may, then, answer many of your questions. The Physics and Relativity FAQs (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/) do the same for their fields and would please Uncle Albert himself. Each of these FAQs has links to even more web sites, which keep even a hardened geek like me busy for hours on end. If that’s not enough, try astronomer Sten Odenwald’s Ask the Astronomer web page (http://itss.raytheon.com/cafe/qadir/qanda .html). He has answered over 3,000 questions, so any you have might already be there. Once again, if pictures are what you’re after, then try either the Space Telescope Science Institute’s web site (http://www.stsci.edu) or the amazing Astronomy Picture of the Day (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov), which, true to its name, has a new beautiful picture posted each day. These are two of the most popular sites on the web, in any topic, and it’s not hard to see why. While researching the chapter on the Apollo Moon Hoax, and later when looking for images and information about Apollo, I turned again and again to the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/ office/pao/History/alsj/. There you will find an astonishing amount of detail about the most ambitious and successful space adventure in human history. I fell in love with space travel all over again after going through the images there. There are a lot of great web sites promoting skepticism in general. I highly recommend the Talk Origins Archive (http://www .talkorigins.org), which is a pro-science web site that is mostly an answer to creationist arguments. It leans heavily toward evolution, but has great astronomy pages, too. There are a number of web sites devoted to Immanual Velikovsky’s ideas, both pro and con. The biggest one on his side is http://www .varchive.org, which has many of his writings. A good web site debunking Velikovsky is the Antidote to Velikovskian Delusions at http://abob .libs.uga.edu/bobk/velidelu.html.
262 RECOMMENDED READING One of the most wonderfully rational and skeptical sites on the web is run by none other than James Randi, the Amazing Randi himself. Randi has devoted his life to debunking pseudoscience and paranormal claims, and does so in a tremendously entertaining way. His web site (http://www .randi.org) is a vast store of rational treasures, from his now-famous $1 million challenge for proof of the paranormal to his essays railing against fuzzy thinking. Finally, if you’re an aficionado of bad movies, as I am, try the Stomp Tokyo Video Reviews (http://stomptokyo.com), a loving, and sometimes not-so-loving, look at B movies. These guys really need to get out more, but I love their site.
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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Bad Astronomy PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad
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CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
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2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
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4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
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6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
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PART I PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Begins
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1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
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2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
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38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
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40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
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42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
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44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
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46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
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5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
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50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
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52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
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54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
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56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
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58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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60 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the d
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62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That
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7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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66 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON is co
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68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
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70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
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72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
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74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
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78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
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82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
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84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
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88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
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100 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
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PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
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17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 171 The shadows
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 173 they put tog
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WORLDS IN DERISION 175 Many people
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WORLDS IN DERISION 177 Today, we wo
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WORLDS IN DERISION 179 do now for t
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WORLDS IN DERISION 181 This premise
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WORLDS IN DERISION 183 Venus’ orb
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WORLDS IN DERISION 185 or mainstrea
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19 PPPPPP In the Beginning: Creatio
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IN THE BEGINNING 189 want to believ
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IN THE BEGINNING 191 squarely at th
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IN THE BEGINNING 193 tem started ou
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IN THE BEGINNING 195 it’s natural
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( a.) ( b.) ( c.) IN THE BEGINNING
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IN THE BEGINNING 199 their lives, e
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IN THE BEGINNING 201 ence isn’t l
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203 la
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 205 In
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 207 an
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MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 209 Ne
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Page 224 and 225: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 213 Th
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Page 232 and 233: PART V PPPPPP Beam Me Up We’ve tr
Page 234 and 235: 22 PPPPPP Hubble Trouble: Hubble Sp
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Page 242 and 243: HUBBLE TROUBLE 231 staking your sci
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Page 248 and 249: STAR HUSTLERS 237 That’s a tall o
Page 250 and 251: STAR HUSTLERS 239 the names aren’
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Page 254 and 255: STAR HUSTLERS 243 The star “Phili
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Page 260 and 261: BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 249 si
Page 262 and 263: BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 251 it
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Page 266 and 267: BAD ASTRONOMY GOES HOLLYWOOD 255 In
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Page 275 and 276: 264 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vergano, for gi
Page 277 and 278: 266 INDEX “Astrology: Science or
Page 279 and 280: 268 INDEX earthquakes, 130, 182 pla
Page 281 and 282: 270 INDEX Islam, 58-59 “It’s Sp
Page 283 and 284: 272 INDEX neutrons, 34 in stars, 98
Page 285 and 286: 274 INDEX Sirius, 100, 107 size con
Page 287 and 288: 276 INDEX triangles, 148 true scien
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