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News Of SETI Signal Just Bad Reporting
The Bad Astronomer writes "Rumors have been flying in recent days that the SETI project has received a strong signal from space, indicating the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Bad Astronomy breaks down the origins of this (false) claim, which mostly amounts to a heaping helping of shoddy journalism. 'I just talked to Dan Wertheimer, the astronomer quoted in the article. He told me that the original interview was about sending signals into space (so-called active SETI) as opposed to just listening for aliens. After the interview, he talked to the reporter about some of the astronomy he does, including looking at what are called radio transients: bursts of radio waves that are seen once and never repeat. These may come from one-off events like colliding neutron stars, exploding stars, and so on. Somehow, in the article the reporter mixed up the observation of the transient signals with detecting a signal from E.T.'"
Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.
That saying proves itself everyday. I know most people don't understand science, but if you are reporting on it at least pay attention long enough to accurately report what you were told by someone who does understand. Why do people think it's ok to be proud of their ignorance? Its one thing to own your weaknesses having tried and failed, but it seems like most non-technical people stopped trying.
Is that they aren't likely to let the facts get in the way of a good story.
It also pisses me off greatly when newsreaders append their own opinion to the end of a news story. You are a newsreader dammit. Just supply the facts and let people make up their own mind - that is if it is possible for you to supply the facts without your personal bias in the first place.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
The problem with journalism is that journalists tend to report on so many different topics, they often don't really understand them. It's like if a programmer was given a totally different assignment every day. Even the best one couldn't do a good job because it would take weeks for them to understand how things work and all the terminology.
Ideally, instead of relatively few full time journalists, they should have many part time journalists who work full time in the industry they report on. The quality of the writing might suffer a bit, but it would be far more accurate.
Fortunately, we are seeing the rise of blogs where there are many people who know what they are talking about.
The web, as a reflection of the population as a whole, is chock full of wishful thinking about fantasies. The youtubes seemed to be clogged with "evidence" of UFOs, angels, monsters, ghosts, etc.
Frankly, it's a little disappointing to see a lack of critical thinking. I'm all for discovering amazing new things, in any topic. But defending the stories wholesale under the guise of "how can you deny all the evidence?" kinda paints a picture of cultist mentality. Somewhat scary and journalists are not immune. They just want something that sounds like a "scoop" and grab the eyeballs (and sell the ads).
SETI is a worthwhile endeavor to me, but of course they'd hold a press conference if something big didn't filter away.
Maybe, but FOX is definitely on the far incompetent side of center and way, way far from good and unbiased, where center is simple boring neutral news.
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
Actually it would make sense that this is a reversal for the sake of coverup, the world already has lots of civil unrest, actual alien contact could spin it all out of control and everyone goes apeshit for a while, until we realize the signal is from a long since gone species (unless they're already on the way here).
The nice part would be increased focus on space faring technology and more defense spending towards space based defenses (from the outside, not all point down at us).
Cheers.
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What you get with that scenario is news written by hobbyists, which is not necessarily bad, but they are only writing about what they find interesting. Which explains why Wikipedia has more information about He-Man and the Masters of the Universe than string theory.
And besides, the pay in journalism is shitty enough now, you're not going to get very skilled writers/researchers/thinkers for part-time wages. Unless you outsource reporting to India, which has already been done (http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story3306.shtml)
But people want news now, they want it accurate, and they want it free. Just remember you get what you pay for.
"actual alien contact could spin it all out of control and everyone goes apeshit for a while"
no it wouldn't. Not at all, please stop spouting Hollywood nonsense.
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