Re: [ATM] Read and Weep

[Guy Brandenburg <gfbrandenburg@yahoo.com>]

On the other hand, Richard S was not without sin himself on the accuracy issue. He got the name of the NRA's magazine wrong. I know because I tried to look up the article to see what they wrote. (Not being an NRA member, I couldn't, but I could at least see the correct name of their publication.) (Having been a mild-mannered reporter many decades ago, for about a year, I know from bitter experience how easy it is to make little mistakes that drive people crazy.)

There is good science reporting, and there is bad science reporting. Mostly it depends on the individual editor and reporter and whether they have bothered to learn any science and can understand what their 'sources' are trying to tell them. Sometimes it depends on the biases of the publisher. 

The New York Times and the Washington Post often have excellent science articles. Natalie Angier is fantastic.
Guy

Ben McIlwain <cydeweys@gmail.com> wrote: Richard Ozer wrote:
> The quality of any kind of science reporting has reached an all time 
> low.  Here's one I found the other day
> related to the discovery of an exo-planet orbiting 55 Cancri.
> 
> "The new planet has nearly the same mass and age as our sun, is "easily 
> visible'' with binoculars, and is located in a so-called "habitable zone'',
> a band around the star where the temperature would permit liquid water 
> to pool on solid surfaces, Nasa said."

Holy moly, a planet the same mass as our Sun!  It really makes you
wonder if these writers have even a rudimentary understanding of science
(my guess: no).  Of course, any object as massive as our Sun would
undergo fusion at its core, thus being, by definition, a star, not a
planet.  Hrmmm.  But I digress.

Anyway, I'm hopefully close to done with final figuring on my first
telescope project, an 8"/f6.2 Newtonian.  It's past spherical and
seemingly very close to the ideal paraboloid.  I can't wait to finish.
Hopefully before Comet 17P/Holmes vanishes.
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Guy Brandenburg, Washington, DC
My home page on astronomy, mathematics, education:
http://home.earthlink.net/~gfbranden/GFB_Home_Page.html
or else 
http://tinyurl.com/r6fh2

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