| Bob Novella | ||
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Name: | Bob Novella |
| Date of Birth: | July 4th, 1963 | |
| Place of Birth: | A hospital in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy | |
| Father: | Dad | |
| Mother: | Mom | |
| Siblings: | Sister Sandra. Brothers: Jay, Steve and dizygotic twin Joe. | |
| Spouse: | Just one. Claudette | |
| Children: | My favorite person on the planet: Ashley. I’m determined to Geekify her. | |
| Education: | BS Marketing, BA Computer Science (almost) | |
| Occupation: | Lead Configuration Management Analyst (software development) | |
| Currently Residing in: | my cranium | |
| Astrological Sign (Just kidding!): | Ophiuchus | |
| Likes: | Skepticism, Science, Halloween, Technology, Fitness, the Macabre, Anticipation, Crisp colorful fall days, cool words, a dizzying intelligence, That little involuntary laugh you make when reading or seeing something way cool. |
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| Dislikes: | Extraordinary claims without extraordinary evidence, Mortality, Ennui, Forgetting, Searing pain, gristle |
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| Favorite Food(s): | Italian, Chicken Tikka Masala, Dad’s meatballs, Mom’s Lasagna, Anything with peanut-butter and chocolate as the main ingredients |
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| Favorite Book(s): | Hitchhiker’s Guide series, Asimov’s Robot/Foundation series, Engines of Creation, Memoirs of a Geisha, Full House (Gould), Steven King’s short horror stories, any book-on-tape read by Tim Curry. |
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| Favorite Movie(s): | Aliens, Terminator 2, Pirates of the Caribbean, 300, Princess Bride, Evil Dead 2, Day of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Enter the Dragon, Nightmare Before Christmas, Spirited Away |
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| Favorite TV Show(s): | SG1, 24, Ghost in the Shell, SouthPark, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy…..Farscape,TrekNextGen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
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| Favorite Music: | funeral dirges | |
| Drink/Smoke: | cigars | |
| Most respected scientists/skeptics: | Einstein, Hawking, Asimov, Sagan, Kurzweil, Randi, Drexler, de Grey, Jimmy Neutron |
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| Best Scientific Discovery: | Fire/Wheel, The Scientific Method, Twinkies | |
| Most interesting area of science: | Quantum Physics | |
| Most disliked pseudoscientific/paranormal claim: | ID/Creationism | |
| Most disliked pseudoscientific/paranormal proponent: | “The Biggest Douche in the Universe” |
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| Space Travel, Humans or Robots? | Both but with an emphasis on robots | |
| Favorite website: | ||
| Other podcasts you listen to: | SETI: Science and Skepticism, Rotting Flesh Radio, Pseudopod, This Week in Science, Science Talk, Popular Science, Point of Inquiry |
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| Dumbest thing you've ever heard: | “Bob, you’re stupid” |
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| When and how did you become a skeptic: | I’m not sure, I just swallowed the red pill and…Actually, my journey started around 30 years ago when Steve told me ESP was bullshit and introduced me to Skeptical Inquirer. |
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| What you would like to see science achieve before you die: | The Singularity. If not that then…Mind-Boggling Nanotech, General AI, A-Life, Oh…and a cure for death | |
| What would you like to accomplish before you die: | I’d like to live to see the heat death of the universe (or at least the Big-Rip). In the mean-time, my goal is to get to the point where going to work is a distant memory, money is no object, and I can spend all my time on Family, Learning, Skepticism, and Halloween projects. |
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| Anything else: | Yes | |
| Do you believe in UFOs, astral projection, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full-trance, mediums, the loch ness monster and the city of atlantis? | “If there’s a steady paycheck in it… I’ll believe anything you say” |
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