I applied to be an astronaut candidate yesterday; if I’m actually selected, expect this blog to become “Galileo’s Pendulum…IN SPACE!” To celebrate the application (since it will be some time before I know whether I’ve made the initial cut), here’s video footage of astronauts falling down on the Moon.

• Letters of Note is a great website documenting correspondence from the past, sometimes between famous people, but often not. However, it’s hard to get more famous than this brief exchange between Albert Einstein and Mohandas Gandhi, who expressed their mutual admiration. Unfortunately, they never actually met, but the page includes a brief audio clip of Einstein praising Gandhi’s adherence to nonviolence, recorded in an interview after Gandhi’s death.
• Rolling Stone interviewed Shawn Lawrence Otto on the publication of his book Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America. Many observers have noted that very few people explicitly oppose science, yet they hold antiscientific viewpoints. Though it’s natural to ascribe to science beliefs about how we want the universe to be rather than how it is, it’s not healthy for us or for society.
• On a similar note, Sheril Kirshenbaum takes bad science journalism to task: “It’s not just the responsibility of scientists to reach out. It’s also on science journalists. And we need more skilled, credible, and honest storytellers doing their part to get the narrative right–particularly on topics like climate science, vaccination, and energy.”
• One frustrating thing I’ve found dealing with young-Earth Creationists is that they often believe science is on their side, and somehow those who study evolution, geology, cosmology, and so forth are just too benighted to see the evidence. The Sensuous Curmudgeon highlights a new tract from Jack Chick accusing scientists of stupidity and superstition.

Finally, please check out the links on the right sidebar; if I link to these sites, I think they’re something you might appreciate. I especially want to highlight the Double X Science blog from Emily Willingham and colleagues. It’s only two weeks old, but it’s poised to become a really great resource for all of us interested in science communication to the public. Please go read it.