“Death from the Skies!” promotion is ended

2009 May 31

Podcast: Download

By Andy Kaiser
Article ID: 1324

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the “Death from the Skies!” promotion. Per my request, you DID generously help me to run out of supplies! Sadly, all the books are gone – there’s no more to give out – but you can still purchase “Death from the Skies!” at this link.

I’m keeping the text below for archival reasons, but am crossing it all out to make sure you realize it’s no longer valid.

Thanks,

Andy

Hi everyone, Andy Kaiser here.

Do you know who I mean when I say “Phil Plait”? He’s the president of the James Randi Educational Foundation, appointed by James Randi himself. Phil is an astronomer who, along with a healthy understanding of critical thinking and skepticism, writes as the “Bad Astronomer” for his “Bad Astronomy” blog.

Death from the SkiesDo you know what I mean when I say “Death from the Skies!” That’s the title of Phil Plait’s latest book.

Here’s a brief summary from Publisher’s Weekly:

“Plait… presents in loving detail the many, many ways the human race could die, from temperature extremes and poisonous atmosphere to asteroid impacts and supernovae explosions. Such a state of destruction existed some 65 million years ago, when a giant meteoroid struck Earth, sending up so much flaming debris that the whole planet caught fire and the dinosaurs were wiped out. Solar flare activity could bring on another Ice Age. Worse yet would be a gamma ray burster, a collapsed star whose radiation would be comparable to detonating a one-megaton nuclear bomb over every square mile of the planet. Plait discusses insatiable black holes, the death of the Sun and cannibal galaxies—including our own. Balancing his doomsday scenarios with enthusiastic and clear explanations of the science behind each, Plait offers a surprisingly educational and enjoyable astronomical horror show, including a table listing the extremely low odds of each event occurring. He gives readers a good scare, and then puts it in context.”

Sounds fun, right?

So, I contacted Phil Plait. After an enjoyable conversation, I’ve got my eager hands on a bunch of hardcover copies of “Death from the Skies!” And they are all autographed by Phil Plait himself.

I want to give this book to you.

At the time of this writing, Amazon has “Death from the Skies!“ for $17 USD. Throw in shipping, and you’re somewhere over $20.

In what is honestly a complete coincidence, a Digital Bits Skeptic membership is $20 per year.

We’re all pretty smart here, so you see where I’m going with this: if you sign up for a DBSkeptic membership, I will send you an autographed, hardcover copy of “Death from the Skies!” for free. You’re paying about the same cost you’d pay to get the book, AND the copy you’ll get from me is autographed by Phil Plait, AND you’ll become a Digital Bits Skeptic Supporter, which means you get that cool badge next to your name every time you visit DBSkeptic.com and leave an article comment.

I’m actually losing money on this for the short term, since I have to pay for the book, as well as packaging and shipping to you. But I’m willing to do it if you can commit to supporting Digital Bits Skeptic. With that said, I can only ship to locations in the United States – overseas shipping is outside my price range.

If you were planning to buy “Death from the Skies!” anyway, now’s your chance to get it autographed, and at a discount. If you were thinking about supporting Digital Bits Skeptic, now’s your chance to do so, and to get a cool book while you’re at it. I’ll continue this offer until I run out of supplies.

Please, help me to run out of supplies.


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