‘Programming error’ caused Russian rocket failure
“The Proton launch rocket functioned abnormally, sending the three Glonass satellites and the upper-stage booster rocket on the wrong trajectory and they fell into the Pacific Ocean 1,500 kilometers northwest of Honolulu,” the statement said.
Once separated from the Proton launch rocket, the upper-stage booster rocket with the three satellites aboard should have put them in orbit about 20 kilometres (12 miles) above the earth.
Here’s the problem: reporters often write stories about matters regarding which they know essentially nothing.
From firearms to business practices to the economy to religion, not to mention science, too many reporters know way too little about the world, despite the ostensible “general education” they may have received in college.
I’ve seen stories that imply that Mexican narco-terrorists are using machine guns that were initially bought in US gun stores, except that machine guns mostly aren’t for sale in US gun stores (short of a very difficult-to-get license). Few gun stores stock machine guns for a simple reason…. they almost never have a customer who is legally allowed to buy one. That didn’t stop the media from reporting widely that “automatic assault rifles” from USA gun stores were flooding Mexico and in the hands of drug runners.
I’ve seen stories that tell us the only way to balance the federal budget (by increasing revenues) is to raise taxes. Few reporters who repeat this nonsense seem to have heard of the Laffer Curve, nor have they read basic economic history of the last 30 years, let alone the last 100.
Since most reporters have never run a business, and have never studied it either, their reporting on the realities of growing a business is usually laughable. All they know is what they hear at cocktail parties given by people who inherited their money.
The concept that reporters have of religious people, especially Christians, is beyond caricature. It is at the level of assuming African-Americans all eat grits and watermelon, or that all gay men are interior decorators or choreographers, or, for that matter, that most Muslims are terrorists. But we have to listen to these clowns pontificate about trends in American religion.
Here’s the thing: journalists think that the ability to write a sentence means they have the ability to communicate something that matters, or is true. They think they can tell who is lying to them, or distorting the facts out of self-interest. They think the ability to talk a little bit means they’re smarter than other people. They think interviewing skills replace background in the topic of the interview.
Editors don’t seem much better, since such a huge number of whoppers make it into print, and broadcast.
By the way, if you haven’t figured out what prompted this diatribe, it’s probably because you don’t know any more than the reporter(s) and editor(s) of this story about how high above the Earth is the minimum for a satellite to go into orbit. You may be forgiven for this. No one knows about everything. But people who purport to report on the events and issues of the world have a responsibility to educate themselves on the background to what they report on, just to keep from telling whoppers like this one.
Still laughing. If you could get into orbit at 12 miles above the Earth, you could get into orbit in an F-15. Check the Service Ceiling at the link. Of course, you’d need an amazing afterburner to get orbital velocity. Not that these dunces of reportage would know that.
