I have a problem with some spectra I took last fall at our observatory, and despite having a list of 4-5 things I want to blog about, I’m just worn out tonight.  It’s hard to keep banging your head against a problem.  I’m really good and experienced with spectroscopy, but this problem has been kicking my ass off and on during the last month, and I’ ( Read more... )

Launch Pad 2011 ended last week, and I wanted to jot down some thoughts to share before they faded.  I also want to point out a post on the SFWA blog that links to some participant webpages where they discuss their workshop experiences:

Five students, James Cambias, Greg R. Fishbone, Pembroke Sinclair, Deborah J. Ross, and Jennifer Willis are ( Read more... )

I did it today, finally, when I should have been doing it a lot more this year per my New Year’s Resolution.  I was asked to referee a paper about quasars that sounded pretty interesting, something most of us do in the astronomy community when we have time both to learn and to help exercise some quality control in our field.

I didn’t have much of a ( Read more... )

Launch Pad is sucking up all my time, but I wanted to point out an article I wrote that’s just been released.  Check it out:

Neptune has just completed its first full orbit since being discovered in 1846. Steve H Silver marks the anniversary in his latest issue - Argentus: Neptune [PDF file] - with articles by Mike Brotherton, Michael A. Burstein ( Read more... )

Launch Pad 2011 has begun, and with fewer problems than ever! Only a couple of short delays, and everyone to Laramie on schedule. Now for the real stuff, starting tomorrow morning…

I think a few attendees are blogging about this, and one or two may be writing articles, and I’ll post links when I have them (feel free to leave in the comments, too ( Read more... )

Mostly I think that readers and fans should separate art and artist.  Cliver Barker does not want to sign your book in blood.  Stephen King is not a serial killer.  The author of that true-to-life book about the Green Berets is an overweight housewife from Sacramento.  Atheists can write convincingly about the religious, and vice versa.  With a ( Read more... )

This is a huge issue to me personally and my professional field, so expect me to continue to post news about this as I get it.  I’d heard some grumblings in some quarters about the schedule and budget of the project, as well as the possibility of termination, it’s still shocking to me and the field if it happens.  Not quite like the Supercollider ( Read more... )

AAS Informational Email 2011-05

Subject: House Subcommittee Proposes Canceling JWST along with Additional Cuts to NASA’s FY2012 Budget

Kevin B. Marvel, Executive Officer

Background

As part of the annual appropriations process, subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee are the first to draft proposed appropriations bills for the coming ( Read more... )

Another excellent video from Brian Malow for Time.com, pro-science, science fiction, and space, that reflects a lot of my own feelings:



Originally published at Mike Brotherton: SF Writer. You can comment here or there.

I was going to let this one go by.  I really was.  But it’s such a good example of how conservatives use the “Big Lie” of 1984 to paint their enemies as guilty of what they themselves are guilty of, while painting themselves as the opposite of what they are.  No, really, I’m not just being biased or hypocritical, even though that’s what they’d say ( Read more... )