Doomsday Solar Cycle

[Jim KF2SY]

Speaking of info-babes...
You guys forgot to mention Rachel Maddow of MSNBC
(cough)

 

[WB2RJR]

I witness it, Frank.

Anything else is suspect, especially when the news outlet in question tells me what conclusions I should draw from the information they provide.

Here is a perfect example from TIME

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1161235,00.html
“For Captain Shonnel Makwakwa, it was a rare assignment "outside the wire": a chance to break the monotony of life on the base and get out onto the streets of Baghdad. But it didn't take long to realize that this was no routine mission. Minutes after Makwakwa's humvee pulled out of Camp Liberty last December, bad news crackled over the radio: a supply convoy of six 18-wheel trucks was ambushed at Checkpoint 50, a freeway cloverleaf that is a notorious shooting alley for insurgents. Makwakwa, a bright, fit New Orleans native, handles medical logistics for the U.S. 10th Mountain Division--the kind of deskbound job often assigned to women G.I.s. Now she found herself wearing a first-aid kit on her belt, gripping an M-4 rifle and crawling on her stomach as enemy fire rained down. "I could hear the rounds pinging all around me," she says. "It was surreal." The scene was horrific. Flies were everywhere, and so was blood. "I'd dealt with people dying in the hospital, but it was nothing like this," she says. Makwakwa and another soldier kicked in the bullet-shattered windshield of the lead vehicle, but the driver was already dead. The driver of the second vehicle was screaming in agony from his wounds; he later died. Makwakwa and the patrol were able to save three other wounded drivers, but the memories of Checkpoint 50 are hard to erase--a constant reminder that while the military officially bars women from combat, the insurgency makes no such distinctions. "In Iraq, female soldiers are in combat," she says. "We're out there."

WOW can you imagine? Women being shot at, bullets pinging everywhere, blood all over, people dead.

What is the most important thing about this story?

It's totally made up. It never happened, well the part about being on a routine mission out of Camp Liberty is true.
How do I know this? Well the reporter for Time and the Capt. were in my son's humvee. They left Camp Liberty and delivered medical supplies to an Iraqi hospital nearby. My son remembers it well because on returning he went to see his 1st Sgt to tell him this Capt. had ordered him into the back seat where he would not have been in his proper position to give instructions to his driver, gunner and dismounts if something did happen. She got her butt reamed for it.

I wonder how much of the rest of the stuff we get as "news" is just made up.

73

Marty

[Tom WA3KLR]

It does read like someone trying to hone their novel-writing skills rather than reporting the news properly.

[W3SLK]

It all boils down to what the one officer on "Cops" said, "Don't believe everything you hear and only half of what you see!"

[k4kyv]

For too long regarding such things as the solar cycle, climate change, oil supply and energy usage, news reporting has been based far more on sensationalism, while government policy has been based far more on politics/ideology, than either one has been based on science.

[wa2zdy]

Yea, but you have to admin, Fox has the hottest female news babes.  ; -)

Someone once told me there's news on Fox 13 in Tampa.  With Jenn Epstien, Kristin Wright and Shannon Mulaire on, I never noticed.  I watch every day too.

Best source for news?  Listen to Radio X and the Voice Of Y, add together, divide by 2, then toss it up and see what sticks.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Of course there's news on Fox13, fellow AMer Warren W1GUD sees to that. He's one of their on-air reporters BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=18941&version=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=5.3.1

Try Channel 8, the NBC affiliate, for sports. Wife's baby sis is the sports producer there. Last I heard, 8 was #1 in the local ratings, unusual considering the overall condition and ranking of the parent network.

[W2ZE]

and Robin wants to know what the sunspot count is today?

[WD8BIL]

and Robin wants to know what the sunspot count is today?

What's a sunspot?

[Jim, W5JO]

Robin

[k4kyv]

Daily Sun: 23 Dec 08
The sun is blank--no sunspots. Credit: SOHO/MDI