Astronomers thought they had it all worked out — how solar systems form, planets and all. They were wrong — it seems that nearly 25% of solar systems have a planet that moves in the “wrong” direction. Where “wrong” means “in a manner inconsistent with accepted theory”, rather than, you know, wrong.

(The Big Bad Blog does not know who to credit. FFFFound tells us it’s from this LiveJournal. But who made it?)

Richard Dawkins wants to have the Pope arrested for crimes against humanity. I’m guessing that I missed the point in which covering up abuse was classified as a Crime Against Humanity. I would think that the rape of children would have to be a “systemic practice” for this to stick, and whatever you might think of the Pope or the Catholic Church, that’s reaching a bit.

A new low in academia? A professor (or, perhaps, his wife) has allegedly been taking an aim at his rivals by trashing them in Amazon reviews.

Richard Dawkins is probably not a reader of the Big Bad Blog. Also unlikely — though less so — is that a loud voice at the British Humanist Association is reading this. But if you are, please read this reaction to the row over your new posters in Belfast. Then, think about who your target audience was, and what might be a good way to reach them.

Dear Denmark: A domestic violence awareness campaign is good in principle. Your Hit the Bitch campaign seems a little out of whack, though.

A cold blooded goat? Yes, a cold blooded goat. Which means that mammals can evolve to be cold blooded. Which means that some day we might really have “cold blooded killers”. Awesome.