In today's news, 7/30/2010, the founder of and artist behind the web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal presents a preview for the Bad Astronomer's new television show. The show contains such tributes to scientific pursuit as:
"We're gonna try to save the Earth."
"This may mean the difference between life on Earth and no life at all."
"We need to start looking into this NOW."
"The universe is a dangerous place. Threats can come from any direction."
"War. Violence. Explosions. Death. More Violence."
"When dealing with the universe, ignorance can be DEADLY."
"It just may SAVE YOUR LIFE."
(and, of course)
"I wanna model an asteroid impact. I need a BIG explosion."
I like the blog. In fact, that preview reminded me of a post of his that linked to an SMBC comic. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badas ... v-science/
The SMBC comic is this one. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1804
So, is it just a disingenuous preview, or will the show really be "WE COULD ALL DIE OMG: The Series", hyping low-probability events for ratings?
Also, I had a weird Almost Live-era Bill Nye flashback on the big explosion. In the sketch comedy show Almost Live, Bill Nye, before he was famous, had a running bit where he demonstrated some scientific principle for the audience, and the demonstration always involved some kind of explosion. It's funny.
Bad Astronomer
Moderator: Lethal Interjection