Carl Sagan was born 77 orbits ago. He was responsible for getting me, and millions of others, interested in science and astronomy as a kid. We lost him way too soon. I will never get tired of listening to his “Pale Blue Dot” essay. It’s one of the best things ever.

The days are quickly getting shorter and shorter. Many people hate this time of year, but I kind of like it. I love star gazing, and this time of the years give me more time to do it before it becomes too cold to be outside. I use to be able to find many constellations, but now that I live in a bigger city, I can’t really see much and have forgot most of them. Thankfully there are many iPhone apps to help me out now. Last night at work I had to head south of town for a bit, and it was great. I almost wish I lived more out of town, so I could see more stars.

One thing I’m really enjoying it watching Jupiter every night. It is currently in opposition to the Sun. Which means it rises when the Sun sets, and it visible all night as it rises in the east and sets in the west. It is real easy to spot. Because Venus isn’t currently visible, It’s the 2nd brightest thing in the sky at night after the Moon. Every night at work I see it in the east and I watch it move across the sky, and I see it in the west when I get home from work. I wish I had some binoculars or a telescope. It would be cool to try and see some of Jupiter’s Moons.

Many people never look into the sky at night. That’s the first thing I do when I walk out at night. I can’t name a ton of stars, but I can find Betelgeuse and Rigel in my buddy Orion, and Polaris is another no brainer to find. If you’re out and about at night this month, look up and try and find Jupiter. Then just think that that little speck of light is 369.8 million miles away, and it would take 1321.3 earths to fill up the volume of Jupiter. Our Solar System, and the Universe is filled with amazing and beautiful stuff that most people take for granted.

Now that the days are getting shorter, it’s always dark when I’m going to work in the morning. Our house faces south, so all winter long I will be greeted by Orion every morning when I walk out the door.

About a week or so ago I noticed a really bright star just a bit to the west of Orion. It looked like it was close to the ecliptic, so there was a good chance that it was a planet. I just wasn’t sure which one. So like anything, when I’m curious about it I look it up. I have many star map apps on my phone, so when I got to work I looked it up, and it was Jupiter. So for the past week, every morning when I have been greeted by Orion, I have also said hello to Jupiter.

Today on Universe Today, they have an article about that very bright star in the sky that is Jupiter. So if you’re up early every day like I am, look up and try to find Jupiter.

I love the all the great things on the internet and YouTube. I just watched an episode of Bill Nye: 100 Greatest Discoveries. I watched the Astronomy edition and it was great. I don’t know when they were one TV, but they are on YouTube now. Bill Nye covers a bunch of different science topics. I will have to work my way through all of them. Here is the episode I just watched in three parts.

So yesterday in our local paper there was an article about a local guy that sells HCG for weight loss. It was a reasonably good article, but they were a little easy on him. They tried to explain how it works, but anybody with more than two brain cell could read right through it and realize it doesn’t work. The reporter should have came right out and said HCG is homeopathic, and homeopathy is a scam, but I suppose that wouldn’t have been much of an article.

The best part of the article though wasn’t in the paper. It was the comments online. I am pretty happy about how many people of reason left comments. It was quite funny when the owner of the company started to chime in and tried to defend his snake oil. I find it sad that people like him are taking money from people looking for an easy way to lose weight. Losing weight is simple, take in less calories than you burn. Simple as that. It’s not easy, and can be very tough, but it’s simple physics.

This video is depressing and the amount of ignorance, discrimination, and hatred toward Atheists is amazing. It boggles my mind how we can be the most hated and mistrusted minority group despite being the “least violent, most tolerant, most intelligent, most progressive” minority group out there.

To me science and religion don’t mix. If science showed even a sliver of evidence of a God I would feel different, but the more we learn, the more obvious it is that there isn’t a God. I don’t understand how I’m part of a minority because I believe in science, but maybe someday the majority of the populace will wake up to science.

Thankfully I don’t live in the bible belt, so I haven’t been discriminated against too bad. I still believe the reason we were denied the ability to adopt a child was because we left the religious questions blank since they didn’t apply to us, but I don’t really have proof of this. That is just my speculation. My family is pretty battshit crazy about religion though. When I’m hanging around with my family, and reading their ignorance on Facebook, is about the only time I have to deal with religion. I just keep my mouth shut when I’m around my family, and chuckle when I read their Facebook comments.

I just watched a lecture that Neil deGrasse Tyson did at the University of Washington back in May entitled “Adventures of an Astrophysicist”. It was so good. Neil deGrasse Tyson is so good at explaining science and making it exciting. I try to watch and read everything he does. It’s all so great.

From time to time I ask people when they think Earth is closest to the Sun. They almost always say in the summer. That isn’t true. We are furthest from the Sun in the summer (in the northern hemisphere), and closest in January. I never really knew when we were the furthest, but thanks to Phil Plait, I know that day is today, and it’s called aphelion. Perihelion is when the Earth is closest to the Sun, and it’s in early January with aphelion happening six months later.

Many people don’t realize that our seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth, not by the distance from the sun. That is why the southern hemisphere has just the opposite seasons. It’s a pretty basic fact that if a person just stops and thinks about it for a bit, make perfect sense, yet people often miss it. And now you shouldn’t.

I just finished reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. It’s such a great book. I think it would go a long way in science education to require reading such book, or maybe Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy, in high school. Maybe it’s just me and my interests, but those two book really get me interested in science, and wanting to learn more. I know science classes are probably too busy teaching their curriculum to require students to read books, but science is more about a way of thinking then actual facts. It’s about the process, and both of these books stress that.

When I was in high school I had no interest in most of the required reading books, and they made me hate reading. I enjoyed reading To Kill a Mockingbird and really loved In Cold Blood, but couldn’t even tell you what else I had to read in high school. Once I was done with school it was probably ten years before I picked up another book. School taught me to hate reading. Nowadays I’m not a hugely prolific reader, but I manage to read 20 or so books a year.

Having students read a variety of books in high school may encourage more reading and better overall education, but then again a lot of kids are just lazy. It’s tough to teach the lazy.

I just listened to a great episode of the Skeptically Speaking podcast about all the latest cellphone hoopla. It’s a great listen if you scared, or just interested in the possibility of getting cancer from cellphones. There is no evidence that cellphones cause cancer, but you can never be 100% sure because it’s really hard to prove something doesn’t exists. You can’t prove their isn’t a god, Big Foot, or unicorns, but they are all highly unlikely just like getting cancer from a cellphone.

So the nonsense that cellphones can cause cancer is all over the news again. Headline writers drive me crazy. They sensationalize everything so much that often times the headlines say the exact opposite of what the the articles say.

The WHO didn’t say cellphones can cause cancer. They just categorized them in the “possibly” category, which just means more research is needed. There really isn’t any evidence that shows any dangers, but more studies are always good and maybe someday this can be put to rest. Other things that are in the same category are gasoline, pickled vegetables, and coffee, so I wouldn’t be too worried. Here is a great article about the categories and what they really mean.

Cellphone use microwaves, which are non-ionizing and cannot cause biological damage. They can cause heat though, but really can’t cook your brain. Your microwave oven probably puts out 1000 watts of energy to heat up your food. Your cell phone puts out about 1 watt. It would be like cooking a turkey by blowing on it. I’ve also heard that hats heat up your brain more than a cellphone would.

I’m sure it will come up this weekend when I am with my Mom. She swears that I am putting my life at risk by carrying my phone in my pocket. I’m sure she thinks smoking is safer than cellphones.

If you are reading this, SURPRISE!, the Earth didn’t end yesterday. When are people going to stop getting their science from the Bible? Probably not in my lifetime I am guessing.

In reality the Earth probably has 5 billion or so years left. It’s demise will more than likely occur when the Sun reaches it’s red giant phase, and it’s radius will be extend into Earth’s orbit. Humans will be long gone way before that though. As the Earth gradually heats we will probably evolve into other life forms that can deal with the elements until eventually all the water evaporates and the elements become to harsh for any life forms to live.

Personally I’m not too worried. If lucky I only got 50 or so years left, and in 150 years everyone I ever knew will be gone too. The atoms that make up my body will probably make up many more things before they go back to where they came from, a star.

That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Lawrence Krauss.

“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.” – Lawrence Krauss

One of my biggest pet peeves is the thought that products that are “natural” or organic are better for you. I struggle with the word “natural” all the time. What does it mean? I see it on products like cheese all the time. How is any kind of cheese products “natural”? Doesn’t cheese have to be made and processed? So processed food is natural? Or does natural mean all the the chemical compounds are from living organisms? Natural is a pretty generic term used mostly for marketing, and doesn’t mean much. Anything on the planet could be natural, or not depending on your definition of natural, if you trace it back to it’s elemental form. And just the fallacy that natural is good for you is just wrong. Arsenic, mercury, poison ivy and even lightning are all natural, and defiantly not good for you.

Then there is the whole organic thing. There is little difference between organic and non-organic products. In reality, organic products probably contain more pesticides and fertilizers than non-organic products do because they have to use less efficient, organic pesticides and fertilizers. Brian Dunning’s latest InFact video explains the difference between organic and non-organic products, and he explains it way better than I can.

Since the horrible disaster in Japan I have been reading and learning a lot about nuclear power plants. I am a big fan of nuclear power. It is much cleaner, safer, and even releases less radiation than coal plants. Sadly there seems to be a fear of nuclear power, probably due to the lack of knowledge about them.

While the Fukushima nuclear power plant is in tough shape, we are in no threat of a nuclear explosion, and minimal nuclear material has been released. There have been three explosions so far, but they were hydrogen explosion, NOT nuclear. Instead of rehashing all the details, here are a few articles that I found great and informative.

For more information about nuclear plants boingboing has a great article.

Phil Plait has a great article about the disaster on his Bad Astronomy blog.

Evelyn Mervine of Skepchick.org has a great three part, so far, interview with her Dad, who is a nuclear engineer. It’s a great listen to get some real facts from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

It would be nice if people would look at how well this plant, which is 40 years old, is handling this disaster. Sure things aren’t good, but for the most part the built in safety features are working despite the tsunami knocking out their backup generators. In reality this will probably spread more fear about nuclear power. There is already a fraudulent map going around that clams fallout from this disaster will make it to the US. It’s always annoying how fast the fearful alarmist information that isn’t based on facts or reality spreads, while the real facts are often hard to find.

On the latest episode, episode #292 of The Skeptics’ Guide the Universe —my favorite podcast by the way— one of their “Science or Fiction” items was that adult Americans with basic science literacy has increased from 10% to 28% over the last 20 years, and it was in fact true! Sure, 28% is pretty pathetic, but at least it’s going up.

Someone mentioned that it’s probably due to the internet, and I would have to agree. I think I got a pretty poor science education in high school. Mostly what I remember about science class in high school was trying to memorize equations. Even back then I though trying to memorize things that you could look up in seconds stupid, so I cheated a little. I had a scientific calculator that I would program the equations into and it would run them for me. Sure it may have been cheating, but it’s really just something you would do if you had to use those equations in real life. In fact at my current job I did a similar thing with calculations we constantly have to make —I make an Excel spreadsheet to calculate them.

I was so frustrated of high school science that my first year in college I took a chemistry and astronomy class and found them totally interesting. Too bad I found the rest of my college classes totally boring and dropped out after a year.

The internet makes it so easy for the people that are interested in science to continue learning. I believe that is where the 28% comes from. The rest of the population that isn’t interested in science just goes on living there lives scientific illiterate. While that in itself isn’t a horrible thing; it’s the people making money off them that I find disgusting. Late night TV and radio is chock-full of scammers trying to make money off of the scientific illiterate. They drive me crazy, but until Americans become more scientific literate, we will all have to put up with the Power Balance bracelets and the many other products of similar ilk.

So everybody seems to be getting their panties in a bunch over their new zodiac sign.  This should prove once and for all for everyone that astrology is bullshit, but it wont.  If your horoscope ever sounded like it fit you, well, you were probably reading the wrong one.  If you read all of them, you would probably notice that they are so vaguely written that they would all probably relate to you, or maybe not because you may be so focused on your own sign, that you wont allow yourself to believe that the other ones relate too.

The Earth wobbles causing the sun to rise in different constellations over time.  Since the current signs of the zodiac were made 2000 years ago, they are off by a month or so, and have been for a long time.  I have no idea why this is making news now.  Probably just a slow news day somewhere. 

There also have always been 13 constellations in the zodiac.  Ophiuchus has always been there — or at least been there as long as humans have been around.  The ancient Babylonians discarded it because they wanted 12 signs.  Just more proof that astrology us bunk.  Here are what the current signs are:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.

Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.

Pisces: March 11-April 18.

Aries: April 18-May 13.

Taurus: May 13-June 21.

Gemini: June 21-July 20.

Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.

Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.

Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.

Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.

Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.

Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.

Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

So what’s the harm in believing in astrology?  It’s probably one of the least harmful pseudosciences to believe in.  Most people probably just read it for entertainment purposes.  I personally would like that section of the newspaper replaced by maybe some actual science.  How great would it be to have a different science article everyday?  There is never enough science news in papers, and we all know most Americans could use more science education.

I love Neil deGrasse Tyson, and everything he does to teach science.  Today he tweeted out his “Top five shout-outs for 2010”, and I couldn’t agree with him more.

Brian Dunning has a great podcast called Skeptoid, and has recently started producing videos at Infact. This one of exceptionally good explaining the ingredients that are included in vaccines without all the fear mongering.

I have always been a skeptical person. I don’t believe in ghosts or any supernatural beings. I believe in science, and critical thinking. I first discovered the skeptic community back in 2005 when I discovered the Skepticality podcast. Nowadays I read a lot of skeptic blogs, and listen to a lot of skeptic podcasts. I have learned so much in the last four years thanks to the skeptic community. The more that I learn to think critically, the more I learn to spot all the misinformation being spread about many topics; From the Moon hoaxers, to the 911 truthers, to the antivax crowd, and all the “alternative medicine” quacks. There is a lot of nonsense out there. Critically thinking needs to be taught more in high schools. Learning how to think really should be a top priority in schools.

One of my favorite person in the skeptical community is the Bad Astronomer Phil Plait. He has a great blog, is the President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and an excellent speaker. I have watched many of his talks online and they all are incredible. This past summer he was a speaker at Chris Pirillo’s Gnomedex and did a great talk about skepticism. You can watch it below:

How awesome would it be to be in space? I’m not sure how much I would enjoy the takeoffs and landings, but being on the space station would be frickin’ cool.

I am a big Michael Shermer fan and have read many of his books. This video is a nice little introduction to skepticism, something I have been passionate about for some time now.