December 24, 2009: DD's podcast for the International Year of Astronomy project, 365 Days of Astronomy, has now been posted at the project website. The title is "Dancing in the Dark: Deities, Celebrations, and the Bottom of the Year."

There’s something about the end of the year that makes people a little crazy… maybe because the Winter Solstice and the dark days surrounding it have presented human beings with numerous problems over the millennia that people have been building calendars and trying to run their lives by them. Will the days get longer again by themselves, or do we need to give the Sun a helping hand? Should this be our god’s birthday, or would Spring be better? Is this a bad time to end the year, or a good one? And when it does end… where’s the party?

Click here to read a transcript or download the podcast.

If you've already heard the podcast or read the transcript and are looking for the supplementary materials, click here for the additional-info link page.

People keep referencing this story (and this one and various others) and, after a Google search, winding up here.

Here's the book they're all talking about. If you've seen media references suggesting that Spock's World is a favorite of Star Trek film writer Roberto Orci, and something in which he immersed himself (and others, including Alex Kurtzman) while working on the movie, well, those stories are true. (Check this interview for more info.) There are various other references and interviews to the same effect here and there on the Web.

It's fun to be involved with something like this even at such a remove. Thanks, guys!