Bad Astronomy

Alien Hunter book/CD giveaway!

It’s time for a new BA Giveaway! And this time we have a twofer.

Seth Shostak giveaway items
Alien not included.

Seth Shostak is an astronomer who hunts for aliens… with SETI. He just wrote a book called Confessions of an Alien Hunter, and it’s wonderful. It’s a fun discussion of looking for other civilizations among the stars and Seth’s involvement with SETI. In my opinion this is his best book yet, and that’s saying something.

I also have a two-CD set of Seth’s podcast/radio show “Are We Alone”. It has recordings of several episodes, including one with moi – I do a Skeptical Sunday bit with Seth called “Brains on Vacation”.

Both the book and the CD are signed by Seth his own self, and I put my signature on the CD too (the book actually has an official “Are We Alone” sticker that Seth signed for me because I stupidly forgot to get him to sign the book directly when he was here in Boulder last month). These items will be given away separately. I may throw in extra junk I have lying around my office too.

So how do you win these fabulous things? Easy.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. Just post something in the comments below, like “Phil rulez and Seth droolz” or something equally elegant. It doesn’t matter what you post as long as you post something. On Friday, May 8 at noon Mountain time (UTC - 6), I will generate a random number, and the person who leaves that number comment wins the book. I’ll then pick a second number, and that person wins the CD set. I’ll send the winners emails notifying them, and they’ll have until Monday May 11th at noon MT to get back to me. I’ll pick another commenter if I don’t hear back by then. That person will have until noon the next day to get back to me, and so one, until winners are chosen.

Here are some rules for you. READ THESE. Violate them and I’ll send your email address and IP to the ShamWOW guy.

1) Leave a comment ONLY ONCE. I trust you folks, but I feel I must make this warning: No matter how tempting it is to followup on someone else’s comment, don’t do it. Anyone caught doing that (or cheating in any way) not only won’t win the book, but your comment will simply be deleted. Be ye fairly warned, says I.

2) Make sure that you enter a valid email address in the form when you leave your comment. If you don’t, you won’t win, since email is how I will contact the winner. Since I’m busy and bore easily I won’t try to figure out your address; if there’s no valid email, I’ll simply pick another winner.

3) To be fair, if you’re an actual friend of mine IRL then please don’t apply. I’ll leave it up to your own judgment if you fall in that category or not.

4) Anyone else is eligible, including all you foreigner types.

Remember, you have until noon Friday! So comment away!