Keep an eye on Carl Zimmer AND Phil Plait…

Posted by Greg Laden on June 30, 2008
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Both have gone dark. Both are making announcements today at 5:00 EST. This could be big. A BloggoBlockbuster of some kind in the making.

Maybe they have been having a secret affair all along and are moving to CA to get married!?!?!?

Maybe they are starting their own blog, what with Phil being cosmic and Carl being more life sciencey, they could cover EVERYTHING.

Maybe they’re coming out with a new Theory of Everything!!!

Who knows?

One thing I do know: I know where I’m going to be a five o-clock Eastern Standard Time today…

… looking at The Loom and Bad Astronomy.

(Hat tip on Phil’s announcement from TUIBG … Maybe Mike will have more observations later)

UPDATE: What if this is linked to the Large Hadron Collider going on line?!?!?!?!?

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Comments

  1. #1 kevin
    June 30, 2008

    I didn’t know Carl and Phil were hadrons, but it will be something else when they are run through the collider.

  2. #2 Phil Plait
    June 30, 2008

    Patience, young Paduwan.

  3. #3 Greg Laden
    June 30, 2008

    Hey, Phil, how’s the weather in Geneva? That things’ not gonna blow, is it?

    (What’s a pad ooo wan… have i been insulted?)

  4. #4 Stephanie Z
    June 30, 2008

    That depends on how you feel about midichlorians. It’s a Jedi in training.

  5. #5 Andrew
    June 30, 2008

    Well, if he is there then he must believe his own posts on how it is totally safe… So that’s good.

  6. #6 sue
    June 30, 2008

    This is bigger than OJ.

  7. #7 Greg Laden
    June 30, 2008

    It’s a Jedi in training.

    OK, that’s not so bad then…

  8. #8 Stephanie Z
    June 30, 2008

    Well, unless you’re seduced by the dark side. When that happens, your acting abilities go all to hell.

  9. #9 Carl Zimmer
    June 30, 2008

    I just got back from California, and Phil ain’t my type. Sorry, Phil.

    All will be revealed.

  10. #10 Kevin W. Parker
    June 30, 2008

    Is that EST or EDT?

  11. #11 Mike Haubrich, FCD
    June 30, 2008

    Stephanie – Who needs to act when you have a black helment and James Earl Jones?

    Oh – you meant while being seduced by the dark side. I saw “Jumpers.” I don’t think it has anything to do with the dark side.

  12. #12 Stephanie Z
    June 30, 2008

    The end of Episode 3 managed to ruin even James Earl Jones for me, I’m afraid. Judging by the reactions of others in the theater, I don’t think I was supposed to break into hysterical giggles at “Nooooo!”

    And Christensen’s been good in other stuff, although I can’t think what without recourse to IMDB.

  13. #13 Alex
    June 30, 2008

    I Hear “Discover” Magazine is looking to expand online…

  14. #14 lylebot
    June 30, 2008

    All will be revealed.

    Holy crap, Carl’s the last Cylon!

  15. #15 Virgil Samms
    June 30, 2008

    All will be revealed.

    Hide the women and children! Carl Zimmer threatens the Interwebs with full frontal nudity.

  16. #16 llewelly
    June 30, 2008

    This is definitely a part of Phil’s devious plan to steal the Large Hadron Collider and destroy THE wORLD !!!!

    If you feel the all-consuming urge to head off to the Franco-Swiss border, DO NOT GO! It means the mind-control fungus has taken control of you, and will force you to head off to the Fraco-Swiss border and help Carl and Phil in their EVIL PLAN!

  17. #17 Virgil Samms
    June 30, 2008

    …at 5 today. [That's 5 pm EST--sorry for the confusion.]

    How very odd. Why would he base a time on EST when the reigning standard is EDT?

  18. #18 Phil Plait
    June 30, 2008

    I’m in Canada, not Geneva. My LHC trip was months ago! :-)

  19. #19 Virgil Samms
    June 30, 2008

    Well Carl missed 5 EDT, so maybe he did mean EST. Must have forgotten to set his watch ahead last Spring…

  20. #20 Carl Zimmer
    June 30, 2008

    Let’s pretend 7 pm is the new 5 pm.

  21. #21 Virgil Samms
    June 30, 2008

    Nightey night, Carl. I guess the Rapture will just have to wait.

  22. #22 Greg Laden
    June 30, 2008

    Interestingly, Carl is saying to wait till around 7, while Plait is also saying roughly the same thing … (maybe 7 or 8, he says).

    The possibility that these are not related events has gone way down. However, I now have reason to believe that they are not in Geneva about to throw the switch on the LHC.

  23. #23 Peter Mc
    June 30, 2008

    If it is the LHC, the switch-on should be delayed until they have checked any work done by the French. I have collected several boats from French yards, and every time have had to deal with a French ‘engineer’ in oily overalls with a few pieces of the boat that were ‘left over’ when they built it. On one occasion it was an alternator for an engine. Really. I love the French, but if they’ve anything to do with the LHC, find them, ask for the left over bits, then go through the bit they built and remove the fag-ends (cigarete butts) and spanners that will have been left there. And – LHC peeps – check the wiring on alarm circuits. Discovering they’ve disconnected the bilge alarm and engine overheating alarm is bad in the North Atlantic. That’s happened to me. Finding that stuff on something which could make black holes is another size of feurque-eurp altogether.

  24. #24 ColinB
    June 30, 2008

    Arrr! I’m going nuts…

    or should that be

    Arr nuts! I’m going…

    Hee hee

  25. #25 JanieBelle
    June 30, 2008

    If I recall correctly, Dr. BA has turned down SciBlogs (or at least considered and rejected the notion) in the past, giving his autonomy as his reason.

    (I tried to leave that at Tangled Up, but am getting a weird ‘please type a comment’ error.)

  26. #26 Don Cates
    June 30, 2008

    So, is Phil the person in Toronto who went to see Expelled?
    Perhaps they’re going to be hosting the initial publication of Ray’s paper. (t.o. in joke)

  27. #27 Citizen Z
    June 30, 2008

    I think they’re going to band together and explain to Ben Stein how the Theory of Evolution explains gravity.

  28. #28 Don Cates
    June 30, 2008

    [follow-up] That would explain the delays.

  29. #29 Jud
    June 30, 2008

    Speaking of blogs going dark, whassup with Larry Moran’s Sandwalk? Server hiccup, or something more significant?

  30. #30 richard murray
    June 30, 2008

    Isn’t the answer obvious… astronomy… e. coli…

    Living Bacteria found on Mars, and these telekinetic organisms were responsible for 9-11. The server “delays” are obviously because NASA’s trying to silence the truth.

    It’s all so clear now…
    :)

  31. #31 Blake Stacey
    June 30, 2008

    Now both of them are saying it’ll be postponed until tomorrow morning.

  32. #32 Measure
    June 30, 2008

    Dang. These are my two favorite science-related blogs, and they’re both teasing me at the same time!

    I’ll put my trust in Zimmer. He’ll come up with something worth the wait.

  33. #33 themadlolscientist
    July 1, 2008

    the switch-on should be delayed until they have checked any work done by the French.

    Wasn’t it the French who built that rifle/machine gun/whatever that got dirt in the works and jammed up if you looked at it crosseyed? I forget which World War it was in, but I’m told the thing worked better as a club than as a gun.

  34. #34 DDeden
    July 1, 2008

    “All will be revealed. ”

    “Hide the women and children! Carl Zimmer threatens the Interwebs with full frontal nudity.”

    My guess: tattoo displaying the secret colonization of E coli on Mars providing a repository for New York City refuse.

  35. #35 Virgil Samms
    July 1, 2008

    Zimmer pulls a FailFox

  36. #36 Virgil Samms
    July 1, 2008

    If I recall correctly, Dr. BA has turned down SciBlogs (or at least considered and rejected the notion) in the past, giving his autonomy as his reason.

    What does Phil’s anatomy have to do with Scienceborgs?

  37. #37 Greg Laden
    July 1, 2008

    Virgil: Good question. The only autonomy I lost by joining Scienceblogs is the ability to muck with the code that delivers my site more than a tiny little bit. That is not necessarily a bad thing.