I get my news primarily from News.google.com.
Other significant sources include my car radio, and sometimes someone starts a thread in this forum that prompts me to look up something, but google news is really the primary source.
In the "science" section, I frequently see headlines about asteroids that might kill us all, or at least that's what the headlines suggest. They might be "near miss as asteroid grazes Earth" or "Newly discovered asteroid might hit earth this weekend." The source is usually something called Express from the UK, or occasionally the International Business Times. Upon inspection, the "near miss" is usually around 3 million miles. For those who don't keep up on these things, that's more than 10 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.
If it is an actual "might hit Earth this weekend" story, it's inevitably a very small rock with a 0.1% chance of hitting Earth.
Today's headline, from International Business Times, Singapore edition, is "NASA Confirms New Asteroid Heading Toward Earth; Will it Pass By or Destroy the Planet." I haven't clicked on the article yet. I figured I had better alert all of you so that you have a chance to start your end of the world preparations before it's too late. However, I suspect that if I do click, I'll find that NASA is pretty sure it is in the "pass by" category, and is certainly not in the "destroy the Earth" category. If there was even a slim chance of Earth destruction, I'm pretty sure it would be covered by some other news source.
I've gotten to the point that I feel reluctant to click on the articles at all, because I hate to encourage click-bait style "news".
I wonder if these headlines have any real effect. Do they cause anxiety in real people? When survivalists stock up on supplies, do they add "asteroid survival" to their list of reasons to put bottled water in their cabin cellar, just after "nuclear holocaust", and ahead of "coming race war"?
Oh, I'll probably click on the article, just for the amusement of finding out what the truth is behind the "We're All Going to Die!" headline, but I really wish Google would stop pushing these headlines, and replace them with some reputable science news.
But then again, why should they? Clicks is clicks. I'll report later on whether I succumbed to temptation and became Part of the Problem.
Other significant sources include my car radio, and sometimes someone starts a thread in this forum that prompts me to look up something, but google news is really the primary source.
In the "science" section, I frequently see headlines about asteroids that might kill us all, or at least that's what the headlines suggest. They might be "near miss as asteroid grazes Earth" or "Newly discovered asteroid might hit earth this weekend." The source is usually something called Express from the UK, or occasionally the International Business Times. Upon inspection, the "near miss" is usually around 3 million miles. For those who don't keep up on these things, that's more than 10 times the distance from the Earth to the moon.
If it is an actual "might hit Earth this weekend" story, it's inevitably a very small rock with a 0.1% chance of hitting Earth.
Today's headline, from International Business Times, Singapore edition, is "NASA Confirms New Asteroid Heading Toward Earth; Will it Pass By or Destroy the Planet." I haven't clicked on the article yet. I figured I had better alert all of you so that you have a chance to start your end of the world preparations before it's too late. However, I suspect that if I do click, I'll find that NASA is pretty sure it is in the "pass by" category, and is certainly not in the "destroy the Earth" category. If there was even a slim chance of Earth destruction, I'm pretty sure it would be covered by some other news source.
I've gotten to the point that I feel reluctant to click on the articles at all, because I hate to encourage click-bait style "news".
I wonder if these headlines have any real effect. Do they cause anxiety in real people? When survivalists stock up on supplies, do they add "asteroid survival" to their list of reasons to put bottled water in their cabin cellar, just after "nuclear holocaust", and ahead of "coming race war"?
Oh, I'll probably click on the article, just for the amusement of finding out what the truth is behind the "We're All Going to Die!" headline, but I really wish Google would stop pushing these headlines, and replace them with some reputable science news.
But then again, why should they? Clicks is clicks. I'll report later on whether I succumbed to temptation and became Part of the Problem.
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