Look down the left side of this blog and you’ll see my Blogroll. Like every other blogger, I can’t resist posting links to places that I like to visit so that you can visit them, too. I thought I’d introduce you to a few of them today, and I’ll work my way through the list over the next few weeks.

Friends of the Observatory is a non-profit group that supports Griffith Observatory. I’ve been under contract to them to work on the Griffith exhibits, and they are a fine group of people to get to know. Membership (at various levels) in the group gets you various goodies, including the chance to spend as much time as you can spare in one of the world’s most beautiful public observatories. You don’t have to live in LA to be a member; the membership hails from far and wide, and each month you get a copy of the world-famous “Griffith Observer” magazine.

BadAstronomy is the page of Phil Plait, the infamous Bad Astronomer. He got started writing his site back in grad school, debunking the silliness of pseudo-science and science poseurs (like the folks who believe in gods on Mars and Planet X and all that other stuff that makes for fascinating reading on Usenet). He also makes legitimate sport of all the bad science we see in movies and on TV. You know the kind: spaceships making sounds in space, Arnold Schwarzenegger breathing CO2 on Mars, that sort of thing. Phil’s in the running for a Weblog Award, so go vote for him here. He’s a great guy, and his head probably won’t swell too much with all this praise I’m heaping on him. Besides, he has a link to me, so that counts for something. And, he’s offering a bribe, er… incentive. If you vote for him, write about it on your blog, and send him the link, he’ll let you post the cool image below on your site.

The third one I’ll write about today is Olduvai George. George is the Indiana Jones-esque pen name for illustrator Carl Buell, whose page I first ran across from a link on another site (isn’t that how we find our best ones?). This guy does the most fantastic natural history illustrations you’ve ever seen. If you (or someone you love) is into ancient animals and enjoys delving back into time to see how animals have evolved throughout history, this blog is the place for you. I’ve learned things there I never learned in geology class (probably because geology focused on rocks and not on animal evolution). This guy is amazing.