Universe Today » Fraser Cain

My Dad's Treehouse

Fraser Cain — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:11:24 +0000

I know this has nothing to do with space exploration, but my Dad posted a video of his trip up and down the spiral staircase he built around the outside of a tree on his property (I grew on up Hornby Island, BC). The staircase has 99 stairs and goes up for about 75 feet (25 meters). He's built a platform at the top where you can sit and see mountains and the ocean. And I spend my summer visits pulling the kids off the thing. Here's a link to Dad's blog (he's a photographer, by trade, so I have a well documented childhood).

P.S. Oh, and Dad made it clear that the bird's nest was old and empty.

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Bad Email Address for Universe Giveaway

Fraser Cain — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:07:31 +0000

Oops, I goofed the email address for the Universe DVD giveaway. It should be info@universetoday.com. So if your email was bouncing… that's why. I've fixed the link on the website, but you might have the wrong one in your RSS feed. Some day I'll learn to spell my name.

Frasre Cani

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The Universe DVD Giveaway

Fraser Cain — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:37:49 +0000

In case you haven't heard, Season 4 of the History Channel's "The Universe" has begun. To help celebrate, they've generously offered to give away two sweet prizes related to the show. One person will get "The Universe Collector's Set", which contains Season 1, Season 2, and the 2 specials. And another person will get to choose between Season 1 on Bluray, or Season 2 on DVD.

To enter the giveaway, just email info@universetoday.com with the Subject Line: "Universe DVD Giveaway". I'll collect all the entries and pick two randomly as winners. Then I'll delete all the emails.

The deadline to enter is Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 12:00 noon (Pacific Time).

And if you want to check out The Universe now, you can buy full episodes on iTunes, order DVDs from the History Channel, and even watch it on the television. The next episode, "It Fell From Space" airs on September 1, 2009

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Nancy Sings the Praises of the Mars Global Surveyor

Fraser Cain — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:56:13 +0000

Sure, I love the Mars Global Surveyor, who doesn't? But Universe Today minstrel Nancy Atkinson has put her heartfelt feelings to song in today's episode of 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. Seriously, Nancy wrote a song, and performed it for the podcast. Of course, this is the second time Nancy has performed a song for the podcast. Her first was an ode to the International Space Station. Thanks Nancy… you rock!

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Universe Today Guide to the Constellations

Fraser Cain — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 21:16:44 +0000

I just like to take a second and direct your attention to an amazing resource developed for Universe Today by our astronomy guide Tammy Plotner. It's a guide to all 88 constellations in the sky. Each entry has a chart for the region of the sky, descriptions of the major objects you'll find there, background mythology, and a guided tour through each constellation with binoculars or a telescope. I'm really grateful for Tammy's work on this, and I hope you find it really helpful, whether you're an experienced astronomer or want to start exploring the constellations. Of course, it's totally free for you all to use.
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Read the rest of Universe Today Guide to the Constellations (109 words)

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Universe Today is Hiring… a Researcher

Fraser Cain — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:16:52 +0000

Universe Today has a new position open for a researcher, and we were wondering if anyone out there on the Internets is interested in applying.

We're looking for a researcher who can help support the blogging team to find space and astronomy news stories and aggregate them together. This means tracking thousands of RSS feeds, watching twitter feeds until your eyes bleed, and lurking through many many discussion forums. You'll cosy up to NASA press officers and university researchers, deriving hidden meaning from their slightest innuendo. And then, like a mighty hunter, you'll return to Universe Today HQ with a bag filled with breaking space news to keep the bloggers busy.

Are you the right person for the job? Ask yourself:

Do you love space and astronomy?
Do you love to make lists? Do you have lists of your lists?
Do you have a burning need to know everything? Does it annoy you that somebody out there might know something that you don't?
Do you have a strong opinion of what's interesting, and what's boring. What's cool and what's lame?
Are your friends tired of you telling them cool stuff you've found out? (we'll never tire of it)
Do you already have a fully stuffed RSS reader pulling in stories from all directions like a hungry black hole?

I'm thinking that this'll be a part-time job – 20 hours/week? And you'll be able to work from the comfort of your own home – in any country. Oh, and it doesn't pay very well. But it does pay.

So, if that's you, send in an email to info@universetoday.com and tell me your story.

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Miles O'Brien is Hubble Blogging Over at True/Slant

Fraser Cain — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:34:17 +0000

I just got an email out of the blue from former CNN anchor Miles O'Brien letting me know about a recent blog post at True/Slant about the recent repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. It's a great article, go read it and then dig back through the archives. I think the first article is here.

When I first got the email, I was a little puzzled about why it was coming from regular Miles O'Brien, and not CNN anchor O'Brien, so I did a little digging and it turns out CNN started dismantling their science and technology division earlier this year. Yes, I'm completely out of touch with current events, and possibly even reality.

Are they insane? Universe Today has been growing in leaps and bounds, to the point that I've got several writers working with me to feed your voracious appetite for space news. And as science progresses at an exponentially faster rate, people will need better and better coverage to comprehend the complicated implications of scientific discovery. I can guarantee that the demand is there, we just need people who can explain it better, and stand up for the science.

Science and technology is doing just fine thank you very much. Feel free to leave the field CNN, I'm happy to fill the void.

Anyway, if you want to catch up with Miles O'Brien, he's got his blogging gig over at True/Slant and he's doing a weekly video cast for Boing Boing called This Week in Space.

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Discovery Discovers Ian O'Neill

Fraser Cain — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:16:04 +0000

Ian O'Neill

You might have heard through the celestial grape vine that Universe Today correspondent Ian O'Neill has been tagged to lead the space news team over at the Discovery Channel's space blog network. So if you're wondering why there aren't many O'Neill articles over here, or at his own website Astroengine.com, that's because he writing (and editing) his big heart over at Discovery.com: Space Disco. The previous producer, Dave Mosher has moved on to manage the web development for a non-profit foundation.

A big thanks to Ian for all his dedicated work on Universe Today and I really hope everything goes well with his work over at the Discovery Channel.

Ian has promised he'll still be contributing the occasional article for Universe Today. And if he's too busy for that, we'll still be linking to his coverage when we can.

So congrats Ian!

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Comments: The Crackdown

Fraser Cain — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:40:50 +0000

I'm sure you all knew this was coming. I enabled comments on Universe Today about 6 months ago, and it was great to have everyone's feedback. But now people are abusing the system, being rude to each other and advertising their personal theories, so it's time to crack down. I'm going to implement some new policies that should keep things cleaner. This is a shortened version, inspired by the powerful (but fair) rules over at the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum.

The writers and I will be deleting any posts that break the following rules:

Be nice – Don't abuse other readers, the writers, or the Universe in general. Don't swear, make racist or sexist comments, etc. I think you know when you're being rude. Stop it.
Be brief – Don't write a long rambling comment that's longer than the original article.
Don't advertise – Don't use the site to promote your product, service, or your own website. If you'd like to promote your stuff, buy advertising.
Don't promote your personal, alternative physics theories – This is the same as advertising. You've got an idea and you want the world to know about it, then start up your own website, and blog away, but don't do it here.

I'm also going to make commenters register with the website shortly, so you have to create an account to be able to comment.

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Woowoo Ads on Universe Today

Fraser Cain — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:18:02 +0000

Hey everyone, I've noticed there's a Twitterstorm going on out there over the kinds of ads showing up on Universe Today. You know the ones for 2012, and strange theories about how Einstein was wrong. These are the contextual ads provided by Google Adsense, and without them, Universe Today would be a shadow of its former self.

Tim Farley over at Skeptical Software Tools wrote a reasoned response to the controversy of allowing woowoo ads on a scientific site, and it pretty much matches my point of view. But I chimed in on the comments of his site with a more detailed response. Here's what I had to say:

Thanks Tim, I appreciate the reasoned response to the situation. What you’ve described is essentially my position on the matter. Google Adsense is the only advertiser out there that will actually pay the bills, so I can pay the writers, server costs, etc. Without the money from Adsense, Universe Today would be a shadow of its current self. I’d layoff the writers, move the site to a $10/month host, and go get a real job.

And don’t think that I haven’t tried to bring in real advertisers. I’ve started up advertising networks, cold-called every telescope manufacturer, and begged my readers to help find sponsors for Universe Today – and that was met with silence. I know that it’s just a matter of time before lots of advertising moves online, but until then what do people suggest we do?

So for now, it’s Adsense. Big, bold Adsense ads that take up a tiny fraction of the site’s total real estate. Compare that to a newspaper or magazine and you’ll see that UT has less advertising.

The big complaint, obviously, is that there are 2012 and woowoo ads selling all kinds of nutty theories. But those ads paid for a multi-part series of articles that debunked every aspect of the 2012 silliness. Those ads keep the BAUT forum going. And they’re not the only ads on the site, there are also ads for telescopes, trips to the Kennedy Space Center and other space-related stuff.

So why don’t I filter out the woowoo ads? I tried that. Within a day or so, I filled up my filter list completely and it was just a fraction of the ads out there. And there’s no way I can see them all. And if you filter some, it just lets others float to the top.

We’re at an uncomfortable time in the world economy, with massive advertising resources shifting from the old media publishers to the new online world. Universe Today and the other space media sites are perfectly positioned to reap the rewards when the shift is actually finished. And when it does, we’ll have lots of very appropriate advertisers, spending the kind of money required to keep these kinds of sites going. It’ll be awesome, and there’ll be ice cream for everyone.

But until then, we have to do what we can to survive. I’m grateful that I can pay salaries to 6 full and part time writers and still feed my children. And the woowoos are contributing to that. I think it’s a hilarious transfer of wealth, honestly.

Universe Today is financially stable and growing nicely. As it grows, I can bring on more writers and provide better coverage. The site is almost completely immune the current troubles in the world economy. (I’ve worked in my basement developing Universe Today in my spare time before and I can do it again)

If you don’t like ads, I suggest you install Adblock for Firefox. Zip done, never see an ad again. And the when the future has arrived, I’ll let you know.

But if you want to complain about Universe Today, I beg you to complain about the content, tone and coverage of the articles and our respect for science and skepticism. Don’t worry about the ads, they’ll get sorted out soon enough.

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

So there you go.

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Carnival of Space #98

Fraser Cain — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:15:54 +0000

I thought we'd give all the hosts a break for the holiday and host the Carnival of Space here at Universe Today. This is the 98th edition of the mighty carnival, which has been growing larger and larger with each week. Fortunately, space is a really big space, so there will always be room.

Why Homeschool (the founder of the Carnival of Space) has this story on the agenda for Space Access 2009.

Dr. Ian O'Neill (and Universe Today contributor) writes over at his own Astroengine blog about how extraterrestrials might have DNA that's similar to ours.

At Alice's Astro Info, there's a call for scientists to work in astronomy-related fields.

At the Lounge of the Lab Lemming, we learn that Asteroid 2008TC3 is now the Almahata Sitta meteorite. That's what happens when you go and hit the Earth.

The Chandra Blog asks, is it easy being green?

Out of the Cradle has a review of Moon. I really want to see this movie.

The Spacewriter has the beginning of a two-part series called, "If it Bleeds, it Leads". Why can't astronomy get any love from the mainstream media? Oh right, that's why we're blogging.

The Space Cynic notes that the Pentagon is running war games that look at economic conflict rather than the traditional guns and bombs variety.

Beyond Apollo looks at the post-Skylab missions study (1971).

Kentucky Space has this video from the Emerging Commercial Applications for Small Satellites Conference.

Space Video of the Day has the unaired pilot episode of Star Trek.

The Meridiani Journal has a view of the next objectives of NASA's Spirit rover: Von Braun and Goddard.

Centauri Dreams sends in Friedwardt Winterberg on Starship Design; an article based on email excerpts from the man whose work on fusion ignition forty years ago played directly into the Project Daedalus starship design that emerged in the 1970s.

Discovery Space has the creepiest space photo you will ever see.

Starts With a Bang thinks you should know more about colliding dark matter. I agree.

Next Big Future has an interview with Tom Shelley, VP Marketing at Space Adventures.

Astroblogger reports on the discovery of comet C2009 G1 in images from he STEREO spacecraft, possibly the second time a comet has been found first in the STEREO imager.

The Planetary Society Blog has an update on some Mars weather.

FlyingSinger discusses learning to operate a simulated shuttle arm after meeting an astronaut who's an expert in the real thing.

21st Century Waves has a list of space-related predictions made by the World Future Society.

Nancy Atkinson at the home port of Universe Today had an exclusive interview with Kris Koenig, the producer the IYA PBS documentary "400 Years of the Telescope."

I believe Stuart at Cumbrian Sky speaks for all of us when he says, "Go Spirit!".

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Universe Today Turns 10

Fraser Cain — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:47:25 +0000

Hey everyone, I just wanted to inform you of a little anniversary. I started up Universe Today exactly 10 years ago today, on March 23rd, 1999. Since very few of you know the actual story of Universe Today, I thought I'd regale you with it on this 10-year anniversary.

I was living in Vancouver at the time, working as a project manager in an Internet company. We were helping clients develop websites, but I felt that I didn't have enough personal experience developing and maintaining a website to really give good advice. I was thinking I should run a website on the side about a topic I was passionate about… but what subject?
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Read the rest of Universe Today Turns 10 (532 words)

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Atmospheres of Super Earths

Fraser Cain — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:22:02 +0000

We stand on the edge of the next phase of planetary discovery. Hundreds of massive, Jupiter-like planets have been discovered, but now astronomers are turning up smaller, more familiar planets. Planets the mass of Earth are out of reach today, but a new class of super Earth planets are now being discovered, and more will be turned up with the next generation of ground and space-based telescopes. Perhaps the most interesting research will be in the atmospheres of these planets.
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Read the rest of Atmospheres of Super Earths (464 words)

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International Year of Astronomy Opening Ceremonies

Fraser Cain — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:56:07 +0000

George Hrab performing at the IYA 2009 Opening Ceremonies

Nothing works better than repetition. 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy! We've said it more than a few times before, and you'll read a lot of coverage over the next year here on Universe Today. But last night we got to officially kick things off and celebrate the beginning of IYA 2009 events in the US.
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Read the rest of International Year of Astronomy Opening Ceremonies (459 words)

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Podcast: How Old is the Universe?

Fraser Cain — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:08:57 +0000

WMAP image of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

We did a wildly popular three part series about the center, size and shape of the Universe. But every good trilogy needs a 4th episode. This week we look at age of the Universe. How old is the Universe, and how do we know? And how has this number changed over time as astronomers have gotten better tools and techniques?

Click here to download the episode.

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

How Old is the Universe? – Transcript and show notes.

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If Brown Isn't a Color, What Color are Brown Dwarfs?

Fraser Cain — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:50:45 +0000

We've talked about brown dwarfs here on Universe Today for years and years. These are the "failed stars"; objects with too little mass to fully ignite nuclear fusion in their cores. Instead of blazing with red, yellow or the white light of our own stars, they're heated by the gravitational collapse of material. They're called brown dwarfs, but you might be surprised to know that they aren't actually brown. In fact, it's impossible to have brown light. So what color are they?
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Read the rest of If Brown Isn't a Color, What Color are Brown Dwarfs? (449 words)

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American Astronomical Society Meeting, Long Beach – Day 2

Fraser Cain — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:06:16 +0000

Long Beach Convention Center

After a day of crazy traveling through a Vancouver blizzard I'm now having my first full day down at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Long Beach, California. As you've probably read, Ian's here with me and Nancy's supporting us back at Atkinson HQ.

My last AAS meeting was a year ago. It was fun but a really frustrating experience. I spent the whole conference sitting in the press room, pounding out stories based on press releases released at the conference. I was writing 10-12 stories a day, but there was a terrible irony. I was doing work I could have done from home, without even attending the convention. In fact, I got so busy working on articles that I didn't even bother going to the press conferences at all. And the whole point of attending a convention like this is to meet with people, to find the news that you just can't find anywhere else.
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Read the rest of American Astronomical Society Meeting, Long Beach – Day 2 (182 words)

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Comments for 2012: No Planet X

Fraser Cain — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:10:33 +0000

Because of the huge number of comments on this article, it was slowing down the server. I've created a separate thread here where people can continue their discussions on the story.

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Carnival of Space #78

Fraser Cain — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:40:32 +0000

This week the Carnival of Space moves to Simostronomy. We've got news about magnetic field interactions, the Large Hadron Collider, and riding balloons to the edge of space.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #78

And if you're interested in looking back, here's an archive to all the past carnivals of space. If you've got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, let me know if you can be a host, and I'll schedule you into the calendar.

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

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Giveaway: When We Left Earth DVD

Fraser Cain — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:59:53 +0000

I'm doing a giveaway this week, and it's really simple. I've got 2 copies of the new Discovery Channel Documentary DVD, When We Left Earth – The NASA Missions (4-Disc Set in Limited Edition Tin). And I'm giving them away. To participate, just send an email to info@universetoday.com with the subject line: When We Left Earth Giveaway. Your time to submit an email ends on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 11:00 am Pacific Time.

Then I'll pick two emails out of the list at random, get your physical addresses and mail out the 2 copies of the DVD set. Then I'll delete the list of emails – this isn't getting collected for anything.

So, if you want to participate, take a second, send me an email and I'll add you to the draw.

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Universe Today is Banned from Digg

Fraser Cain — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:35:35 +0000

I've been getting emails from a few users over the last week wondering why I've been banned from Digg. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but sure enough, if you try and submit a Universe Today story to Digg, you get the error:

This domain has been consistently flagged as violating the Digg Terms of Service and cannot be submitted at this time. Please refer to our Terms of Service (digg.com/tos) for more information.

I found this unusual, and attempted to contact the admin folks who run Digg, trying to find out what happened and see how I can fix the problem, and I got a canned response.

Thanks for taking the time to contact us at Digg.com regarding your website.

As you know, Digg is a community-driven website – our community has consistently reported the domain to which you refer.

Because unblocking your domain would not be in line with the best interests of the larger Digg community, we will not reverse this decision.

For more information, please see http://digg.com/faq and http://digg.com/tos

Thank you,

—Digg Support

So there you go. Apparently I'm not allowed to be in Digg. It wasn't from me spamming links to Digg, I usually just let the community find the stories and submit them, so I have no idea what happened. The last story I submitted was back in July.

Anyway, I've removed the links to Digg from Universe Today since they don't really serve a purpose anymore. Also, a couple of powerusers at Digg who tried to submit stories let me know that people are moving over to Mixx.com. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

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Carnival of Space #75

Fraser Cain — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:51:08 +0000

This week the Carnival of Space moves to the Lounge of the Lab Lemmings. We've got news about dark matter, and how cosmology has inspired jazz.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #75

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

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Carnival of Space #74

Fraser Cain — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:04:09 +0000

This week the Carnival of Space moves to Kentucky Space. This week we've got naked singularities, a tour of the Orion Spur, and images of Saturn's moon Phoebe.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #74

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

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Comments for 2012: No Geomagnetic Reversal

Fraser Cain — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:45:33 +0000

Because of the enormous amount of comments to this article, I've had to move the comments to a separate thread, because the page was slowing down the server. You can continue commenting here.

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Carnival of Space #72

Fraser Cain — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:43:02 +0000

This week we have another new host for the Carnival of Space: Twisted Physics. Learn about the legacy of Challenger, low gravity volcanoes, and the plucky little rovers that could.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #72

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

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