So my TV show “Phil Plait’s Bad Universe” premieres on the Discovery Channel this Sunday, August 29, at 10:00 p.m (did you see the sneak peek?). And I figure, what better way to promote it than another BA giveaway contest?
Yay! So I’m giving away a lot of swag related to the show, plus some other neat stuff. To wit [click the pix to embiggen]:
Specifically, the winner will receive:
- A signed copy of my book Death from the Skies! on which Bad Universe is based
- Actual shrapnel from the rocks we hit to test asteroid mitigation techniques (see pic on right)
- Shrapnel from the aluminum ball used in the kinetic impactor test (on the upper left of that pic)
- A (really funny) Bad Universe promotional postcard
- Hubble paper clips
- Stickers, including a CfI “Science Saves” bumper sticker
- A NASA 2010 calendar (I know, but the pictures are really pretty)
- Space images DVD
- Hubble Space Telescope documentary DVD
- An official NASA Hubble pin
- A Hubble cookie cutter. Seriously.
- Other miscellaneous stuff I have lying around with an enormous coolness factor.
… and, oh, how about also
An actual honest-to-FSM meteorite, a piece of asteroid that fell to Earth!
Yeah, I thought that might get your attention. This is a chunk of Sikhote-Alin meteorite that fell in Russia in 1947. It weighs 129 grams (4.6 ounces) and is about 5 x 3 x 2.5 cm (2 x 1.2 x 1 inches) in size. It’s almost solid iron, very heavy and dense, and if you’ve never held a meteorite before, well, you’re in for a treat. It’s awesome. I’ll include a writeup I did of the meteorite as well.
RULES:
So how do you win this great stuff? Here’s the deal: 0) This contest is free.
1) This contest will be held on Twitter. Leaving comments here will not enter you in the contest. So yeah, you need a Twitter account to win, but it’s easy and free to get one.
2) On Wednesday, August 25 at 2:30 p.m. Mountain time (20:30 UT), I posted a tweet that says:
Bad Universe giveaway: book, TV show swag, a real meteorite! Retweet to enter. Rules: http://is.gd/eDbwy #BadUniverse
The #BadUniverse hashtag is critical! See #4 below.
3) To enter the contest, you must retweet that tweet.
4) All retweets must be posted between Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 11:00 MDT and Friday, August 27, 2010 at 11:00 MDT. After that time, I’ll pick two random numbers, and then search Twitter for all instances of the hashtag #BadUniverse. The first random number will be the search page result (using 50 results per page), and the second will be the number of the retweet on the page (1 - 50). That person will then win the Bad Universe swag!
I will notify the winner via Twitter, who will have until Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 11:00 MDT to respond. If I don’t get a response, I’ll pick another random retweeter, who will have until Sunday at 11:00 MDT, and so on.
5) Anyone on Earth is eligible, except (to be fair) for people who know me in real life. I’ll leave that up to you to decide if you count or not. People who know me can certainly retweet it, but they cannot win the bounty. Those retweets will count in the random numbers I pick (in other words, if my wife retweets it, I won’t give her the prize, but her RT will be counted in the search results). Please don’t retweet it more than once. That’s a tasing.
6) Just so’s you know, this is not an official Discover Magazine or Discovery Channel or Bad Universe contest. It’s just me playing around and having some fun. I’m doing this, duh, to promote the show. Remember, this first episode is a pilot, and the more eyeballs watching it the better the chance Discovery Channel will do the right thing, which in this case is pick it up as a series and send me wheelbarrows full of hundred dollar bills. And we all want that, don’t we?
Well, I do. So go and retweet for great justice!
