Happy Pluto Day to all my fellow Illinois residents. The Legislature solved all the other Illinois woes and is now solving the vital issue of the day.
Astronomers like Mike Brown continue discovering large Kuiper Belt Objects, like 2007 OR10.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/03/13/ten-things-you-dont-know-about-pluto/
Showing posts with label snark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snark. Show all posts
Friday, March 13, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Science Press Releases
Sometimes I feel for the fellows working the Science press racket. They have to distill the complicated nature of research science into a tidbit that the mainstream media will be able to digest and regurgitate into yet another tidbit.
But sometimes I am annoyed. I feel the words "strange", "mysterious", "hidden", and "stunning" have no place in a science press release. The best ones use direct references to the science, do not declare commonly known principles or phenomena as "mysterious", and work their best to educate the reader about the science being done. They do not use poor analogies. I know a few of the writers, and sometimes problems like these develop not from them but from their employers.
This is not that. And the Register called him out on it. It is in no way the worst example of the science press release. I would be more sympathetic if the writer would take the Register's criticism to heart about that analogy.
But sometimes I am annoyed. I feel the words "strange", "mysterious", "hidden", and "stunning" have no place in a science press release. The best ones use direct references to the science, do not declare commonly known principles or phenomena as "mysterious", and work their best to educate the reader about the science being done. They do not use poor analogies. I know a few of the writers, and sometimes problems like these develop not from them but from their employers.
This is not that. And the Register called him out on it. It is in no way the worst example of the science press release. I would be more sympathetic if the writer would take the Register's criticism to heart about that analogy.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Deep Time for Dummies
Snark!
"DEEP TIME FOR DUMMIES
History's Shortest Geological Column
The decade-long failure of The Congressional Record to note the 6,000th anniversary of the Earth's Creation (4004 BC-AD 1997) shows the dire need for a Geological Column that junior Senators, Congressional pages and Washington Times editors can easily master in a single session of Sunday School."
Link
"DEEP TIME FOR DUMMIES
History's Shortest Geological Column
The decade-long failure of The Congressional Record to note the 6,000th anniversary of the Earth's Creation (4004 BC-AD 1997) shows the dire need for a Geological Column that junior Senators, Congressional pages and Washington Times editors can easily master in a single session of Sunday School."
Link
Monday, February 06, 2006
Astrology: oh yeah!
Nice rant on a review of the new astrology book:
Ignorance and Anti-Science in the NYT Book Review from Mark at Cosmic Variance
Go Mark!
Ignorance and Anti-Science in the NYT Book Review from Mark at Cosmic Variance
No, Dick, the real problem is that the willful twisting of hard-won scientific progress by people like you leads to such raging rates of belief in pseudoscience and nonsense.
Go Mark!
Monday, January 09, 2006
Stardust return
Stardust will return comet dust samples to Earth Saturday night. I was amused by this statement in an Associated Press article:
My first thought was "Residents? Along I-80?"
Tongue-in-cheek, of course.
Residents in parts of Northern California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Utah should see the Stardust capsule as it streaks across the pre-dawn sky. Prime viewing will be along Nevada's Interstate 80 where residents can view the capsule's front.
My first thought was "Residents? Along I-80?"
Tongue-in-cheek, of course.
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