Comments on: Seeing things

By: Matt M

Matt M — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:32:19 +0000

@AndyD

No, she got it wrong…it actually spelled DOG.

By: Marvin Rabbit

Marvin Rabbit — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:00:21 +0000

The Ms-mbc story could be taken word-for-word, with the picture, and published by The Onion. If I read it there, I wouldn’t even think twice.

“… the griddle has been taken out of service and placed in a shrine in a storage room.” That’s some beautiful satire writing!

By: James E.

James E. — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:45:18 +0000

What ever the reason they ran the story you would think they would get their facts strait.

“UFO spotters are claiming they have spotted an alien skull on Mars after NASA beamed back satellite images from the planet.”

It was not a “satellite image”, it was transmitted by satellite communication.

“Internet forums are full of chatter about the picture, taken by a panoramic NASA camera known as Spirit.”

The rover is named Spirit, not the camera.

I know this is a small detail here, but if they can’t get this right how can we trust the information in the more important stories?

Allowing this type of misinformation to persist, saying “you know what they meant”, that allows leaps of logic like the one taken by anti-vaccine people when they went from Thimerosal in vaccines causes autism to vaccines causes autism when the Thimerosal was removed. Science is biased on facts but we communicate those facts by language. If you dilute your language and allow that to be imprecise and accept its rules as suggestions, then you dilute the facts that are being relayed, making them useless.

By: Naked Bunny with a Whip

Naked Bunny with a Whip — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:23:43 +0000

I once had an albino puff in a bowl of Cocoa Krispies. Is this an omen?

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:26:21 +0000

“two Mexican wrestlers staring at a griddle they think has the Virgin Mary on it. ”

Now I know, religion is fake….

By: Todd W.

Todd W. — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:23:27 +0000

Finally, proof that X-Com: UFO Defense was a training simulator!

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:20:09 +0000

The rock looks like Baby Dinosaur from the Dinosaurs TV show. Them Martians sure loved our sitcoms.

By: Ismael

Ismael — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:12:56 +0000

Everyone’s being sarcastic, and nobody understands each other… maybe we should TAKE A HINT…

By: Lousy Canuck » “Holy Pancakes”, MSNBC? Really?

Lousy Canuck » “Holy Pancakes”, MSNBC? Really? — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:52:34 +0000

[...] Hat tip to Phil Plait. [...]

By: ColonelFazackerley

ColonelFazackerley — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:51:28 +0000

There is so much real science they could be talking about. They are a waste of readers brain bandwidth.

By: ColonelFazackerley

ColonelFazackerley — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:49:15 +0000

Shame that telegraph page has no facility for comments. I would like the opportunity to let them know how dumb they are.

By: fruit fly

fruit fly — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:41:36 +0000

Is that the best the Telegraph can come up with? Heeeeeeere’s Hoagland with even nuttier nuttiness. Crashed shuttles, gas masks and hi-tech objects (which look remarkably like rocks) everywhere.

Folks: YOUR GOVERNMENT IS LYING TO YOU!!!

http://enterprisemission.com/spirit.htm
http://enterprisemission.com/spirit2.htm

Think how much sleep I lose over a dead alien skull on Mars??? (hint: none)

By: Grenangle

Grenangle — Thu, 07 May 2009 08:12:42 +0000

Chill Phil. I thought the tele article pwned the crank well and as for the wrestlers pure gold. I would hate a world without nutters. Just keep them away from important knobs and buttons.

By: Taunide

Taunide — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:44:07 +0000

You want a skull on Mars?? I’ll get you Skull on Mars: http://zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eidh/apod/image/0609/cydonia_marsexpress_big.jpg

Just check a little left of the “Face”

By: Lee Hadley

Lee Hadley — Thu, 07 May 2009 07:20:47 +0000

Just looks like a ‘rock’ to me…

By: Jeff Fite

Jeff Fite — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:08:47 +0000

@Alan French

I’m assuming the motive was benign, at least to superficial thought. Clicks = revenue, and the story wasn’t considered serious, just popular.

Of course, that kinda leads to your recent point. We may take seriously the role of the debunker, but a reporter may simply be trying to satisfy an editor who wants a fluff piece. One doesn’t even have their full attention, much less their interest.

Cattle prods might help, I’m thinking. Focuses the mind.

–J

By: Alan French

Alan French — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:06:03 +0000

It’s always dangerous to talk to news folks, plain and simple. I don’t know if it is time pressure, or disinterest, but it is amazing how often they get things wrong or mixed. Some completely innocuous remark can get turned into something else. Things get changed in strange and unexpected ways.

Even printed copy is not immune. I once had a news release printed almost verbatim, except that “Scientific American” got changed to “Popular Mechanics” – who most certainly didn’t publish the classic ATM books. A release on the Perseids had the added advice “sit under a tree.”

Clear skies, Alan

By: Cairnos

Cairnos — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:50:33 +0000

@equinox

Looks like your a victim of Poe’s law

By: Cairnos

Cairnos — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:49:26 +0000

equinox Says: “or 3) government agents set on distracting the populace with stories of aliens on mars while robot drones are being launched into the cities of the world”

Isn’t this exactly what we’d expect government agents to say if they were trying to distract us? Nice try MiB’s, we’re onto you.

By: AndyD

AndyD — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:22:03 +0000

AND THEN... there's this one about lunch meat spelling "GOD". It looks like "GOO" to me.

By: equinox

equinox — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:35:20 +0000

Hi, I am one of the two people “quoted” in the Telegraph article. The telegraph chose to obscure their source on what was obviously a slow news day for them. The original source is http://www.marsroverblog.com/discuss-128917-whos-this-bloke-on-mars.html from the Mars Rover Blog – a really cool, but mostly scholarly blog reviewing the geological and cosmological discoveries made by the Mars Rovers. But they took a break one day for some humor.

Please, no one ever seriously believed it was really a head! Do I actually have to say that? Yes, I do, because now, the internet pipeline has picked up the Telegraph’s unreferenced story and insanity has busted loose. Now, apparently we are either 1)Roswell ufo “experts” seriously discussing this “discovery” 2) disturbed scare-mongers out to terrify everyone or 3) government agents set on distracting the populace with stories of aliens on mars while robot drones are being launched into the cities of the world. I kid you not. I’m just amazed at how a bit of satire has spawned such nuttiness.

By: Markle

Markle — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:32:30 +0000

Stupid? Clearly Ms. Brenda Martinez has found a way to double up free press with partially financing the new griddle top. 5 bucks will get you and a friend into the stora^H^H^H^H^H shrine.

By: spencer

spencer — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:29:47 +0000

yay for my 3rd mention on the blog! boo for reading this crap way too early in the day

By: EJ

EJ — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:59:50 +0000

They just report on this stuff for the entertainment value. And Mexican wrestlers doing almost anything is usually entertaining.

By: SleepNeed

SleepNeed — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:56:43 +0000

A kid saw the face of Jesus in a piece of wood in shop class when I was in middle school. Then I sanded it off with the belt sander, painted it and attached it to another piece to make a trebuchet.

Still have that project even after making it almost 6 years ago.