Correcting Historical Screw-ups. (IRL)

[Kerbart]

Trivia question then: what are the most west, east, south and northern states of the USA?

Answer: (I've put the text in white, if you select it, it will become visible, otherwise you won't see it to prevent spoilers)

West: Easy! Alaska, Alaska extends all the way to the border of the western hemisphere, making it further west than Hawaii. And that also means...

East: Alaska! Part of the Aleutian Islands are actually on the eastern hemisphere, making them, technically, the most eastern part of the US

North: Once again... Alaska

South: Surprisingly, not Alaska, and not Texas either. But... Hawaii!

[Mercy]

They probably do, geologist, at least geologist students, do it. I think by and large most groups with specialized knowledge and/or experience tend to have their whinging sessions about ignorance concerning their field. It is worth pointing out from time to time that to someone else you're, that's a generic you, the ignorant one who says silly things or at least thinks some silly things.

Well the fact of the matter is most people here aren't aerospace engineers or scientists of any description, mostly people in their mid teens to early 20's who think they're superior to others because they know a few things about space they learnt from KSP.

[Monkeh]

Time for a riddle!

How is it possible for me to walk 3 miles north, 3 miles west and then 3 miles south and be back exactly where I started?

AND NO USING GOOGLE!

[wasmic]

Time for a riddle!

How is it possible for me to walk 3 miles north, 3 miles west and then 3 miles south and be back exactly where I started?

AND NO USING GOOGLE!

By starting on the south pole!

(The geographical south pole, that is.)

[The Jedi Master]

Time for a riddle!

How is it possible for me to walk 3 miles north, 3 miles west and then 3 miles south and be back exactly where I started?

AND NO USING GOOGLE!

Jump three miles east. You didn't walk!

Historical question: Who was president between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon? I promise that there was somebody!

[Moon Goddess]

Lyndon B Johnson that's stupid easy.

[The Jedi Master]

Lyndon B Johnson that's stupid easy.

Ding ding ding! A lot of people don't know, apparently.

[Moon Goddess]

Well the other day I saw people getting asked which is bigger, sun or the moon, and I just wanted to cry.

[The Jedi Master]

Well the other day I saw people getting asked which is bigger, sun or the moon, and I just wanted to cry.

That's... that's just sad.

[Monkeh]

I know right, they're obviously the same size....Durrrrr, eclipse!

Some people so stoopid!

[Flymetothemun]

I sometimes feel this way all the time :-P

Especially when I gear the Western media discuss the Middle East! Don't even get me started!! (or get me started... Middle East Politics lesson, anyone?)

However, I have most found it necessary to correct teachers throughout my life! This is an unfortunate statement to the educational system!

Don't even get me started on that.Every single teacher i've ever met pronounces The Kuiper Belt not as Kaiper, but Kooiper. I've looked pronunciations up on countless dictionaries and they all say that the Kaiper pronunciation is correct.

This is beyond correct. I am American, going to American schools, and it is ridiculous some of the things people say about WWII. I happen too find WWII one of the most interesting points in history, so I cringe at the ignorance in my classes. Most students in my high school think the allies basically won the war because of our brute patriotism power and stunning good looks. It greatly saddens me.

Right on. Almost everybody i've met in school thinks that the Germans are still Nazis. I also think that it was the one of the most interesting events in history (I LOVE the old war films), next to the American colonial era. I too thought that we won solely because of American pride, but around when i was 10 or 11, I started researching and found that many countries, not just the America that we were taught about, participated in the Allied force. It also got me into Politics and History, which is the only thing I enjoy talking about nowadays.

Well yes, as long as news and tv-shows are produced in a commercial environment, that is where the investments tend to go. If you're writing for a large audience then you tend to aim for 95% of your public understanding what you write. It's not rocket science (although that shouldn't be a problem at this forum! ) that it automatically means you're writing for the lower 5% percentile. And lets just say that it seems to be coming natural for journalists to do just that.

Also keep in mind that the editorial staff of the average newspaper/magazine/tv show is not a specialist staff, but rather a whole bunch of generalists with some vague ("science", "sports", "politics") specializations at best. The guy writing about ISS today will do a special on growing spinach in tropical environments tomorrow, and an article on raising gerbils (Gerbils! NOT Kerbals!) the day after. It's always good to read an article on a subject you're intimate with in a periodical; it's a good reminder how much BS is written in the articles of subjects you don't know about.

Every single time I look at a periodical or tune a 24-hour news channel, I say to myself "How did we go from Walter Cronkite to this?" May I also mention I'm a teenager?

[Longsok]

I remember when I was in third grade, my teacher said that our solar system was called the Milky Way. Adding to that, after playing KSP for a while, I found out about the LRO, Ceres, and a whole ton of stuff about the lunar missions, like the surveyor probes. And this is with me who has been obsessed with space since I first saw a space shuttle model. How we can be bored with space flight amazes me, as there are millions of people who just don't care at all about what is above their heads.

[Jackissimus]

Now I thought that was due to the 'Big Whack'. It's been moving away from Earth ever since it smashed into us and was formed from the orbiting debris. Something about the size of Mars iirc. This is why the Moon is made up of incredibly similar stuff to our own mantle, because it IS our own mantle.

If you think about it, what's making it constantly change it's orbit? What force is changing the orbit? Because it cannot change on its own and the Big Whack was a long time ago...

But yeah, it's all on wikipedia, nobody is smart anymore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_acceleration

[Nikolai]

By starting on the south pole!

(The geographical south pole, that is.)

Or approximately 1.16 miles south of the geographical north pole.

Seriously, though, I understand your pain. If you want to see technical screw-ups, all you have to do is watch CNN cover a launch(*). I can still remember when they explained the procedures following a launch postponement by saying that they needed to "remove the fuel from the external tank and the solid rocket boosters".

Remove the fuel from the SRBs? With what? A corkscrew?

(An understandable slip of the tongue, but it still made me giggle.)

(*) I eventually switched to NASA TV. The PAO still talks over the interesting ground-crew chatter, but not in as a consistently intrusive manner as cable news reporters.

Edited August 14, 2013 by Nikolai
Corrected spelling of "technical"

[Kranth]

Solar system != galaxy (scarily, physics teacher)

Light year = distance not time.

"Mir was an orbiter not a station." Erm... pardon? Many years of habitation in orbit, and not a station?

Naming the new thing Orion. The real orion is far far cooler. (If we ever need to launch a battleship mass into orbit in one go, thats still the best option.)

Supermoon. Wow. 8% bigger huh.