At his popular Bad Astronomy Web site, Phil Plait has long corrected misconceptions about the universe, skewered crackpots, and chastised the news media for purveying pseudoscience (NetWatch, 2 June 2000, p. 1543). The Sonoma State University astronomer offers a daily dose of his insights and opinions at the year-old Bad Astronomy Blog. Plait actually highlights plenty of good science, such as a recent study showing that the bright star Vega twirls much faster than researchers imagined. But he also continues to attack ignorance, antiscience, and dubious schemes. Recent targets include a plan to have a cosmonaut belt a golf ball off the international space station. Plait notes that this will leave behind another piece of speeding junk that is “the equivalent of an invisible mine” for other spacecraft.
