No. Originally boffins were much rspected and were people you relied on to sort things out. They would have included people like Alan Turing, Bernard Lovell, Arthur C Clarke (and Quatermass and Doctor Who ). Boffins only got a bad name when antiscience took hold.

Apparently Sunspot has been associating with the wrong sort of boffin.

??
used MOLA ????

Despite spending (collectively) about a year of my life in the UK, until recently I always thought it was just a different way of saying buffoon.

Nope - Boffin really means adult geek/nerd. Normally middle aged, preferably with patched elbows on his jacket.

The word is a relic of British social attitudes in the mid twentieth century. The ruling elite was educated almost exclusively in private schools each of which had its own peculiar schoolboy slang. Science was not among the branches of learning most highly valued in these institutions. Nevertheless the second world war and the new world it ushered in required people who could break a code or build a radar. The classically educated toffs (now there's another one) needed a handy word for these fixers.

While it would seem the exact etymology is different (From the Eton, boffin, meaning vocational loser) the social attitudes aren't that different... as Doug pointed out, we've got "geek."

This requires reinterpretation of so many conversations I've had and things I've read.

In an effort to help settle this very debate, the IAU recently held a conference to discuss adopting an official classification. Here's what they came up with:

Click to view attachment

Here's a book that might help clarify matters:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Backroom-Boys-Secr...0420&sr=8-1

Covers a variety of topics including the UK space programme.

Since Betelgeuse has been brought up, does anyone know the correct way of saying "Betelgeuse"

I get irritated when its pronounced "beetlejuice".

My understanding is Belt-ta-gus. Am I wrong?!

I usually call it "Beetlejuice" Habit.

Also heard it pronounced as "Bett-ell-gurz" and even "Beetlejuicy". Which is just... wrong.

Good question, Decep. I've never known, either.

Stu:

Well, the first European version of the Arabic name yad al-jawz’ is the French Bételgeuse, pronounced Bay-tell-goose

I'm not really bothered by the various Betelgeuse pronunciations that I've heard but I've never heard it pronounced "Belt - ta - gus", that really doesn't sound right to me.

I pronounce it with a shorter initial "e" sound (like Bet) and the final part like "jews".

Win.

bettle-jews
--or--
beetle-jews

I think.

The info box at Wikipedia lists the pronunciations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_English

I just saw this headline from the AP.

"NASA: Mars rover, phone home after yearlong sleep."

And no she did not phone.....

Grrrr.

(sigh)...prepare for bizarre questions about Mars & nuclear explosions from friends, family & neighbors, all. This is wrong on so many levels I don't wanna even think about it, but of course it's getting media coverage...Google News picked it up.

Well I'm glad I finally know why Mars is red!

Natural fission explosions are all the rage:
http://www.physorg.com/news183884450.html

Another great headline today, "Aussie Student Find's Universe's Missing Mass." Well, turns out it's not all of the missing mass, just some of the "regular" matter, lurking in intergalactic filaments. And didn't I read about that somewhere else in a popular magazine in the past month?

Damn Aussies ... first we found Australia that Aborigines knew of before and now we've found some missing universe that some astronomer had found before

Yeah, but Skippy always found those stupid kids who fell down wells long before the rescue teams did...

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo always had a copy of the episode's script in her pouch. So of course she knew!

Skippy was even capable of skipping over the Iron Curtain

Sadly, as often happens when young stars rise to success and fame too quickly, after the show ended poor old Skippy let herself fall into a life of wild parties and drinking that would embarrass Lindsay Lohan.

And I thought the "truth" about Lassie was disillusioning!

Kangaroos are by common consent “dumber than sheep” and
can’t be trained to do anything, even to stay on set. The
solution was to have at least a dozen on hand at all times –
which is why Skippy often changes size, shape and colour.

“The kangaroos,” Goddard remembers, “were always bogging off
into the bush, and there was a prize for whoever captured the
most Skippies at the end of each day.
[Telegraph]

That explains a lot. Damned unreliable creatures, kangaroos.

You always know exactly where you stand with a Dalek.

Not so good at the "getting kids out of wells" thing tho, has to be said.

Here's a very lazy headline, courtesy of space.com

Unusual Total Lunar Eclipse Coincides with Full Moon Tonight

That could have been worded so much better.

Andy

I'd like to see a "usual" total lunar eclipse that DOESN'T coincide with a full moon...

Sadly we didn't see anything of the lunar eclipse from here in Cumbria, too much cloud and crud, but we still had a hugely enjoyable public event up at the castle...

Click to view attachment

Two posts that gratuitously broke the no politics rule deleted.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/technology/8257...covered-on-mars

(sigh)...It's times like this when we REALLY need a "facepalm" emoticon...

The HRSC team have already debunked that. IT's the result of a map projected on a serious of hot/dark pixels -
http://hrscview.fu-berlin.de/5620_0000_artefact.html
http://hrscview.fu-berlin.de/cgi-bin/ion-p...ATE=Update+view

CNN linking to a Time magazine article on the Dawn mission with a link to Saturn images:



....Maybe 'cause Vesta images aren't so numerous?

CNN finally reports on Dawn mission (and messes it up): http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/01/dawn.spacecraft/index.html?


Would that be the Big Bang that made the Big Crater at the South Pole?

Pfft, solar system, universe, whatever! Not all is lost; they do mention the early solar system in the quotes and captions.

Terrible.

Yet I feel like the gamma ray / neutron detector experiment could somehow be related to the big bang in some fashion. Ya know, background radiation and all that.

What that sentence has incorrect:
1. Big Bang?
2. NASA scientists did not say that!
3. And not the most recent images!

What that sentence has correct:
1. It was Monday.

Facepalm.

I wouldn't normally pick on something like this, but the realization that this person has a job reporting on such things nearly caused a stroke.

Wow... I mean... wow...

I've taken screengrabs of that, cos they're bound to take it down once all the comments start coming in...!

One of the article comments makes a good point, it could be interpreted as Mars being the final resting place, not Endeavour.
Could still be worded a lot better though!

Wow... we thought MSL was a badass... the Russians are planning a SUN rover!!

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/199714.html

They should make sure to land at night....

from Aviation Week (but I have seen this story elsewhere on the internet and I suspect that the origin of the sloppy reporting is a NASA site)
Juno Probe Launched From Cape Canaveral



for us poor metric system oriented humans, that's 71.5 km/s. From the context I take it to be the speed relative to Jupiter at periapsis and orbit insertion. What they mean is that this is faster than Helios 2, which reached 70 km/s at perihelion...
wait a moment... they are comparing apples (71.5 km/s in a Jovian reference frame) with oranges (70 km/s in a heliocentric frame)!
based on this sloppy reasoning, I could say that my top biking speed is 29.8 km/s (Earth's average heliocentric speed)...

Not to mention the speed at perijove won't be 160 000 mph, but kph...

The article says: "...Opportunity will revisit the rim of Endeavour crater on Mars, where its rover twin Spirit finished its 6-year-long mission in May."

Another comment makes a better point: How can Opportunity "revisit" Endeavour without Spirit having been there first (in the mind of the reporter)?

Oh dear, Time Science has dropped the ball...

Apparently Mercury is tidally locked and always presents one face to the sun...

Planetary Mystery: How in the World Did Mercury Form?



Maybe Mr Kluger should reconsider his choice of vocation?