Mars defect

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Aug 27 2003 - 20:57:45 MDT

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    I mentioned the other day that the anchor on a classy Aussie news program
    (SBS news) bizarrely confused astronomical and astrological in her
    announcement of the then-impending Mars-Earth opposition. Last night was
    much worse.

    After some touchy-feely shots of kids and parents swarming over telescopes
    in local parks, and a talking head astronomer saying yes it was awfully
    exciting but no, actually we won't learn anything until the probes arrive
    in December and January, they cut to a lengthy assessment of the import of
    it all by an actual dyed-in-the-wool astrologer, who told us that Mars was
    traditionally the god of war, so this explained all the recent strife, but
    luckily once the planets had pulled apart from their fatal proximity we
    could anticipate a new epoch of peace and tranquility.

    This was not presented as comic relief; no, folks, this is pluralist
    respect for different opinions in action. (There was a lot of reiteration
    of how Mars was now `five times closer than usual', which must have made
    people think it was hovering right overhead, perhaps ready to crash into
    us, rather than 67 million km away. (In fact, it's only 30% closer than the
    average opposition.) No faintest notion of scale, none of the elementary
    fact that the two planets come into opposition every couple of years, none
    of the insignificant difference in gravitation effect in being this little
    bit closer.

    I was deeply hurt that they didn't also include a snippet with a
    spokesperson from the Flat Mars Society (there must be one somewhere).

    Damien Broderick



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