Phil Plait of badastronomy.com is doing a live chat on his website – an experiment that, he says, might turn into a regular feature. I sure hope so and I hope he will do an “european edition” at a time that is a little more convenient for us here (this chat will start at three o’clock in the morning and I don’t think I’ll hold out until then).

And while I’m at it I can just as well plug his books a little – one is already published, it’s called Bad Astronomy (well, what else) and describes 24 common astronomical fallacies, including the beliefs that the Coriolis effect determines the direction that water drains in a bathtub and that planetary alignments can cause disaster on Earth. The author sharply and convincingly dismisses astrology, creationism, and UFO sightings and explains the principles behind basic general concepts (okay, so I copied the blurb from amazon.de).

The second one will be published this year and will be called, if I remember the announcement correctly , “Death from the Sky”. It will describe several way the Earth could possibly (but isn’t likely to, so no worries) be destroyed, and since I happen to do a talk about the end of the world in December I think I will do a little inofficial book promotion for the Bad Astronomer.

Okay, I won’t make it to the chat. I’m off to bed now.