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Re: (meteorobs) Doomsday Icarus
Hello!
Yes, this newspaper messages is a clear 'canard'. I share your concerns
in many ways, but (perhaps rather fatallistic, I am sorry) I fear little
can be done
about things like this. Perhaps, some countermeasure in the sense of
sending letters to the newspaper in question is indeed advisable, but my
personal experience is that many newspapers (including so called 'quality
papers') simply ignore those, or put them away in some little read part
of the newspaper. That does not mean you should not try. Indeed, perhaps
as 'responsible ' amateurs we have some duty here to try to rectify
things even if that is perhaps destined to have little impact (hum, wrong
word, in this context.....).
I think some journalist just mishandled some press release and made it
'spectacular'. Quite often, scientists quoted actually have said
something completely different, or in a much different context, than the
newspaper message implies.
Perhaps, the recent revival of these kind of things has something to do
with a general 'fin de siecle' feeling.
-Marco Langbroek
Dutch meteor Society
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