tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1323036399959773548.post3418351290521866347..comments2023-11-02T12:07:22.218+01:00Comments on Breaking News for sky aficionados: RANT EXTRA: On the state of the astro-blogosphereDaniel Fischerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06585730984676051351noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1323036399959773548.post-73488919971054227932009-11-24T11:44:31.641+01:002009-11-24T11:44:31.641+01:00Very interesting thought, Daniel. But what you see...Very interesting thought, Daniel. But what you see in the astro-blogosphere is in no way different to more proffesionalized fields like, well, journalism: copy & paste is the rule. Problem here is that few people is able to see "patterns" in the news and apply critical thinking to them. Experience is plus.<br /><br />What I've also seen in the recent years is a burst of news releases which aren't news at all, but "potential news, maybe". Separate signal from noise now is a hard task.<br /><br />And at the end, I don't think the average astronomical readership see any difference between high reporting standards and "copy&paste" one. That's why my astro news site is almost left.vrruizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12778359282640544448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1323036399959773548.post-16651250200139906142009-11-17T15:32:47.566+01:002009-11-17T15:32:47.566+01:00Particularly infuriating to me was an unbelievably...Particularly infuriating to me was an unbelievably wildly popular Facebook "event" which was promulgated--which gained nearly 1 million attendees!--stating: "It is going to be very great with one of the biggest meteor shower events of our lifetime. I would recomend (sp) everyone mark their calendars for this historic event.... five hundred or more Leonids per hour"<br /><br />This verges on being a hoax, akin to the Mars hoax. And I would argue that this also amounts to crying wolf, which doesn't much endear people to going outside and looking up *when the time is actually right* (say, if we got a actual meteor storm one day, or a good shower more conveniently timed for most people's schedules!). Now, people will say, "Eh. Last time, they said it was going to be fantastic. And I got up at 2am on a work night. And it sucked."doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18197363433396645938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1323036399959773548.post-89826817721767442882009-11-12T15:23:31.909+01:002009-11-12T15:23:31.909+01:00This isn't the first time "asteroid"...This isn't the first time "asteroid" near misses have been reported as big news. There was a paper out of the RASC a while back that had a cutoff size. Under 50m diameter was a meteoroid and over an asteroid. On that scale, an asteroid near miss is big news.Mang (433rd)https://www.blogger.com/profile/03917086753736981397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1323036399959773548.post-14038568130376835192009-11-12T13:05:15.311+01:002009-11-12T13:05:15.311+01:00This isn't the first time a small meteoroid ne...This isn't the first time a small meteoroid near miss has been billed as an asteroid near miss. I've always found it annoying. I recall a paper from a RASC member that used a 50m diameter cutoff. Below that it's a meteoroid and above that it's an asteroid. Use that scale and an asteroid near miss really means something.Mang (433rd)https://www.blogger.com/profile/03917086753736981397noreply@blogger.com