Death from the Skies, and blood offerings!

This little guy was deceivingly heavy.

Last night I had the privilege of attending skeptic/astronomer/blogger extraordinaire Phil Plait's talk at The Ohio State University, jointly hosted by Students for Freethought and the Astronomical Society.  It was, as expected, full of the witty and nerdy humor usually seen on his blog.  He ripped on the bad science in Armageddon, discussed how we ought to keep a close eye on the sky because the universe is trying to kill us, and passed around a chunk of an iron-nickel asteroid (pictured) that survived impact with the Earth once upon a time.


I stuck around for a bit after the show for the book signing, got to shake Phil's hand, and have an autographed copy of Death from the Skies! to show for it.  I also got to meet Ashley Paramore of the Secular Student Alliance, as well as a few board members of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio, two organizations in which I'd really like to get involved.


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In other news, today I did my humanistic duty and donated blood so that some lucky person in need of a transfusion will live to see another day.  It's really the most low-budget way to significantly help someone, and I try to do it as often as I can; I may not have much money to spare, but I can always grow more red blood cells.  Anyone reading this blog (ok, I can probably count that number on one hand, but still!) should do the same if you're eligible.