Astroengine Featured on CNET

cnet

In an article written by Don Reisinger for CNET News, Astroengine.com was selected as one of the “18 cool sites and apps that teach you about space.”

This is awesome as one of my main effort on Astroengine is to not only promote space news, opinion, skepticism and logical thinking, I also hope the site serves as an educational medium, so readers can understand the science that hides beneath the headlines. “Outreach” is a lot more than a group of scientists trying to work out how best to promote their work to the world; it’s a way of communicating advanced scientific theories to an audience who don’t necessarily have a specialized knowledge of the subject matter. Even though I have an education in a small aspect of astrophysics, it is often hard to understand the next big discovery in cosmology (don’t get me started on quantum dynamics, that stuff is insane!), so the more explaining the better in my books.

Also, to add to the coolness, by virtue of alphabetical luck, Astroengine.com takes the #2 slot in the top 18 space websites. And to top the whole thing off, Don Reisinger’s article hit the front page of Digg.com this morning. Needless to say, Astroengine was busier than Grand Central Station on a Friday evening this afternoon (thank goodness I have a brand new server to deal with demand)!

Thank you Don, I really appreciate the mention and the really cool review!

For more, check out “18 cool sites and apps that teach you about space” on CNET.com »

Astroengine.com Now Featured in Alltop.com!

Astroengine.com is now listed in the Alltop web directory! This ranks in the upper echelons of “coolness” as Astroengine now features alongside space news behemoths such as the Universe Today, Bad Astronomy, Space.com, Discovery, New Scientist, Space.com, Space Examiner and loads more besides!

From the Alltop homepage: Alltop is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the topics, all the time.

Be sure to check out Alltop.com, I’ve used it a lot. I like the format as you can access all your favourite space and science news websites on one page and organize it as you see fit. I suppose it’s like an RSS feed reader, only easier. That seems to be the trend of social media these days, speed and ease of use… perhaps I need to start cutting back on some of my gadgets

Astroengine Featured on the Geologic Podcast #106!

geologicpodcast-art-shado-med

From now on, I will listen to Prince’s “Sexy Mother F*cker” with great affection…

I mentioned I had listened to the Geologic Podcast the other day to hear George Hrab’s rendition of the awesome Occasional Songs For The Periodic Table.

It was strange, as I remembered chatting to George about that when I was ordering my nth beer at the AAS party in January, but I thought nothing more of it until I was idly chatting about something on Twitter. Like so many micro-blogging conversational experiences, I have no idea what we were talking about or how we got onto the topic of the Periodic Table and I remembered my drunken chat with George. At that moment, like a flash of enlightenment, @MsInformation pointed me in the right direction so I could listen to that particular song. It was in fact a series of songs compiled into one epic feature. This is one of the many reasons why I love Twitter, I can think without needing to think.

To my complete surprise, earlier today @MsInformation (I really should ask for Ms Information’s name…) dropped me a message to say I was featured on today’s yesterday’s (Thursday’s) Geologic Podcast. Happily surprised about this turn of events, I navigated to the podcast site, intrigued by the warning, “I hope you won’t be offended.”

I certainly was not offended, more extremely flattered and very, very entertained! You could say I’m a huge fan of the Geologic Podcast, and not just because I was featured, but because it is bloody fantastic! In episode 106, there’s everything from cows urine, “Religious Moron of the Week” to some great views from the maestro himself George Hrab, featuring Ms Information. I love George’s strong opinions and unwavering wit, so be sure to check it out.

Warning: Some of the content of the Geologic Podcast is not suitable for minors, might not be suitable for work (depending on whether you work in a hospital or a brothel – the latter will probably be fine), but it will certainly give you tough love in the sceptical thought department!

Listen into Episode 106 (March 5th, 2009) of the Geologic Podcast »

Thank you George and Ms Information!

“Zapowiedzi Końca Świata na rok 2012 to kompletne bzdury!”

No Doomsday in 2012 Article Now Available in Polish!

No Doomsday in 2012
No Doomsday in 2012

Great news. My original “No Doomsday in 2012” article is available not only in Spanish and Portuguese, it’s now available in Polish!

A huge thank you goes to Dr Piotr Dybczyński from Astronomical Observatory of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań (Poland), for taking on this huge task.

I am still completely overwhelmed by how popular my writing about the 2012 hysteria has become, and it is quickly becoming clear that word is being spread throughout the non-English speaking world as well.

Check out Piotr Dybczyński’s website. He’s working his way through each of the six (so far) English versions so they can be accessed in Polish too.

No Doomsday in 2012 in Polish:

As the translations are coming in thick and fast, I have decided to build a sidebar widget for a mini-directory of all my “No Doomsday” articles so they can be quickly accessed and brought together. I’ll let you know once this is up and running on Astroengine. I also plan to add links to the translations on the original articles on the Universe Today.

Thanks also to Manuel Herman who has painstakingly kept up with my Universe Today 2012 articles (and others!), translating each into Spanish on his space news website Ciencia Kanija. Also, thank you to Roca at Eternos Aprendizes for translating my recent “2012: No Comet” article into Portuguese! More to come soon

Astroengine.com Selected for “Top 10 Space Blogs”

Astroengine in the Top 10!
W00t!

A huge thank you goes to Dave Mosher at the excellent blog Space Disco for adding Astroengine.com to the Blogs.com “Top 10 Space Blogs”! Not only did my site make it into the top 10, by sheer alphabetical luck, Astroengine is also right at the top. Awesome! I’ll wear my badge with pride.

Dave, I owe you a pint some time!

Cheers, Ian

New 2012 Article Published: No Geomagnetic Reversal

The 2012 doomsday scenario: geomagnetic reversal. Not in our lifetime...
The 2012 doomsday scenario: geomagnetic reversal. Not in our lifetime...

Universe Today: 2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal

After a long four-month break, I’ve finally written my next in the “No Doomsday in 2012” series of articles. This time we tackle the prediction that the world will end on December 21st, 2012 after being subject to a massive internal disturbance, effectively weakening the Earth’s magnetic field and flipping the magnetic dipole on its head (i.e. the north magnetic pole will be shifted to the geographical South Pole and vice versa). While this makes for a cool plot for a disaster movie, the doomsayers theory is only half-baked. Yes, geomagnetic reversal has happened in the past, and it will happen again. However, any geomagnetic shift in the future will not happen in four years, it probably won’t happen for a few thousand years. It appears to be a rather chaotic system, and all the (scientific) indications suggest our strong magnetic field wont be doing anything dramatic any time soon…

The series so far:

2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal Now Available in Spanish

With a special thanks, once again, to Manuel Herman, my most recent 2012 article has been translated into Spanish. Thank you Manuel for all your hard work!

Here’s the series (so far) in Spanish:

2012 Doomsday Series Now Available in Spanish

Doomsday articles are now available in Spanish
Doomsday articles are now available in Spanish

With special thanks to Manuel Herman at Ciencia Kanija (Puny Science), four of my Universe Today 2012 No Doomsday articles have been translated into Spanish. Today, as many as 322 to 400 million people speak Spanish world-wide, making it the second most-spoken native language in the world (second only to Mandarin Chinese), so I am overjoyed that my 2012 articles will extend to this huge population of Spanish speakers!

Previously, the popular “No Doomsday in 2012” article was kindly translated into Portuguese by Nisia Chaves at Chá de Camomila, so to have the complete series translated into Spanish is a massive bonus. I didn’t think that these 2012 articles would be so popular, but it would seem their scope extends far beyond the English-speaking world. So thank you to Manuel for his tireless efforts in translating my work!

Here’s the series (so far) in Spanish:
» No habrá juicio final en 2012 (No Doomsday in 2012)
» No, tampoco habrá Planeta X en 2012 (2012: No Planet X)
» 2012: El Planeta X no es Nibiru (2012: Planet X is not Nibiru)
» 2012: No habrá llamarada solar asesina (2012: No Killer Solar Flare)

This has motivated me to continue writing my 2012 articles. Next up is an investigation into geomagnetic reversal and then the mother of all doomsday theories: galactic alignment. The next two could be the biggest articles yet, so be sure to keep an eye on the Universe Today and Astroengine.com for announcements…