I've taken some heat for this at work myself. I was contacted by both reporters the same day, (though only quoted by one-Patrick, what's your secret?) but only being an interested bystander at this point I limited my comments to those of an observer, noted the pros & cons of the idea as I saw them, but certainly did my best to offer encouragement, and told both pretty much the same thing. In retrospect, and here speaking as an observer only-please let me know if you think I'm missing something or incorrect- I think what gave this idea "legs", in addition to the magic words "Salt Flats", "bowling ball", and "aircraft", was that in neither story was it made completely clear that at this stage, this was just brainstorming and no serious schedule to CARRY OUT such an experiment was ever really discussed, to my knowledge, although the statement in the Trib story that "We have an aircraft lined up..." does imply that the experiment is in-progress. Also the statements in the News story, "We'll do it" and the statement that a local charter service WILL supply a Cessna AND pilot played into this also. The News story did present it as serious science, whereas the Trib story made light of it several times, and this is what I think triggered the morning DJ's to latch onto it, combined with the Trib follow-up bringing the BLM concerns to the public. BTW, if the BLM were genuinely concerned, rather than after PR, I'd think that they would have contacted the principals directly. And think about this: if the word "bowling ball" was never mentioned, "projectile" replacing it- this wouldn't have gotten as far as it did. People tend to ridicule what they don't understand, unfortunately. All they saw was that phrase "dropping bowling balls from airplanes", and the villagers headed for the castle with torches lit and pitchforks waving. Finally, knowing both newspaper writers personally, I hope that this little "adventure" doesn't bring any ill will. Both are avid amateur astronomers, I enjoy the company of both, and I plan on seeing both again under the stars many times in the future! Chuck --- Patrick Wiggins <paw@trilobyte.net> wrote:
Augh!
__________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com