Tag: science

Modern Journalism: Retyping press releases

10:45 am

This post is really about the monthly NOAA update of the solar cycle, but before I do that, I must note some really bad science journalism in connection with that solar minimum.

This week NASA released a poorly written press release describing how the Sun’s magnetic field flips whenever it goes through solar maximum, the period when sunspot activity reaches its maximum. The article gave the incorrect impression that this “flip” will be some grand singular and spectacular event and when it happens the consequences to Earth could be significant. Then it buried this most important little detail to the article’s final paragraphs:
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An inspector general report has found that the 24 health co-ops formed under Obamacare are going bankrupt, even before they have opened.

9:20 am

Our government at its best: An inspector general report has found that the 24 health co-ops formed under Obamacare are going bankrupt, even before they have opened to their first customers.

And that’s not all:

Examiner Watchdog investigative reporting project focused on the co-ops began in 2012 and has since uncovered extensive evidence of financial mismanagement, conflicts of interest, failure to file required tax returns, inadequate capitalization and evasion of public disclosure requirements such as the federal Freedom of Information Act. A recent Examiner survey found, for example, that all but one of the 24 co-ops failed to file required tax returns, and several may invoke a highly questionable loophole allowing them to avoid doing so in the future. Even more troubling, two of the co-op loans were awarded to organizations headed by individuals with questionable backgrounds, the Examiner has learned, including an insider trading conviction and a history of child sexual abuse.

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New satellite data covering the period from 2000 to 2011 now shows that the atmosphere traps far less heat than predicted by every global warming climate model.

10:08 am

The uncertainty of science: New satellite data covering the period from 2000 to 2011 now shows that the atmosphere traps far less heat than predicted by every global warming climate model.

The models had predicted that the increase in CO2 — which is insufficient on its own to cause a greenhouse effect — would cause feedbacks with water (the atmosphere’s real greenhouse gas) that would increase the amount of atmospheric humidity which would thus trap heat in the atmosphere and raise the global temperature. The new data instead shows the opposite. The atmosphere is not trapping any heat. The greenhouse effect is not occurring as predicted.

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A supernova has exploded in the galaxy M74, only 30 million light years away.

3:57 pm

A supernova has exploded in the galaxy M74, only 30 million light years away.

This is one of the closest supernovae in recent years. Though it is still brightening and has reached 12th magnitude, it is not expected to brighten to naked eye visibility (about 6th magnitude). Astronomers however have spotted the progenitor star in archival Hubble images, which they have identified as a M-type red supergiant that was also particularly bright in the infrared.

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A Norwegian town, sunless for five months of the year, is building a giant array of mirrors to light up its town square.

7:20 pm

A Norwegian town, sunless for five months of the year, is building a giant array of mirrors to light up its town square.

Three mirrors with a total surface area of about 538 square feet will sit at an angle to redirect winter sun down into the town, lighting up over 2150 square feet of concentrated space in the town square. A similar idea exists in the Italian village of Viganella, which has used brushed steel to reflect light since 2006.

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Observations of Comet ISON have detected strong carbon dioxide emissions escaping from the comet.

3:05 pm

Call Al Gore! Observations of Comet ISON have detected strong carbon dioxide emissions escaping from the comet.

Images captured June 13 with Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera indicate carbon dioxide is slowly and steadily “fizzing” away from the so-called “soda-pop comet,” along with dust, in a tail about 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) long. “We estimate ISON is emitting about 2.2 million pounds (1 million kilograms) of what is most likely carbon dioxide gas and about 120 million pounds (54.4 million kilograms) of dust every day,” said Carey Lisse, leader of NASA’s Comet ISON Observation Campaign and a senior research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. “Previous observations made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and Deep Impact spacecraft gave us only upper limits for any gas emission from ISON. Thanks to Spitzer, we now know for sure the comet’s distant activity has been powered by gas.”

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