Monday, July 18, 2005 HD 188753, you are planet of the week!
When I was checking MySpace to see if I could find my absent housemates' tour schedule (and for this reason alone. Now that I'm no longer secretly trying to e-score, the thrill of MySpace is largely gone.), I found a bulletin about the discovery of a new planet. The poster couched it in terms like "This is freaky! LOL!1" And I hate to say it, but it is totally freaky. Because it's covered with ape-men and radioactive spiders. Oh, just kidding: freakier.
It has three suns. Damn, damn, damn. One for each sun. I didn't even know that was allowed. Neither did science, I guess.
The article in the bulletin was an awesomely bad ABC news article, from which I will spare you, internet. The reporter obviously took "throw it together from a press release" challenge, and I guess that's understandable, because who wants to talk to scientists?
But: come: on:
>The planet, a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star of a triple-star system known as HD 188753 in the constellation Cygnus ("The Swan").
>If you stood on the planet's surface, you would see three suns in sky, although its orbit centres around the main yellow star among the trio.
Emphasis effing mine.
It's a banner day for stupid journalism. When I was waiting for the bus home today (Some people go to church on Sunday: I go in to work for a meeting.) Tracy pointed out an internet-related article on the front page of one of the papers displayed in the machines around the bus stop. It was about how tech-savvy young pioneers were going to change the face of journalism, because the internet allowed anyone to instantly publish! The tone of the part of the article that was visible through the glass was so credulous that I was shocked that they didn't say information super highway.
It's 2005, and I think it's time to stop pretending you don't know the internet, regular journalists. We're here, we're self-involved, get used to it. Write about the internet in some interesting way, or risk upsetting me.
Stand on the surface of a gas giant. Assholes! (Nit-picking the phrasing of a science-related article on one's personal homepage: a.www.some.) posted by Frenz | 7/18/2005 03:26:00 AM
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