“What are the facts? Again and again and again-what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history”--what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!”
-Robert A. Heinlein
I love science. No really, I do. I've enjoyed science since I was a little child. At first I was drawn to it by things that many children usually find cool. Dinosaurs and Astronauts and eventually Computers, which only a small percentage of children find any great interest in. I have to admit that I was drawn to computers because you could play games on them, but my desire to play games is what drove me to learn as much as I could about them. As I'm sure many of you remember, DOS was not always the most cooperative OS when it came to playing games. But I digress.
One thing that I was taught early on was that many of the scientific “truths” that we hold with are in fact theory, and that we accept them as plausible based on how well they fit the facts. If the facts change, that is, if new facts come to light, we change the theory as needed. One thing that has always bothered me though, is the willingness of many people to accept theory as fact, if for no other reason than it sounds good and it is easier than checking the facts themselves.
This, in and of itself, I don't usually allow to cause me any grief in my daily life. I've made it a point to not go out of my way to criticize people for their beliefs, after all, its their right to believe what they want. I just tend to group incorrect scientific “beliefs” along with religious beliefs that I don't happen to agree with, and go on about my business. But every so often, I get an email claiming this or that scientific “fact,” and oddly enough, it's normally from people that I would rank among the smartest that I know.
But more often than not, I find that the emails in question are filled with fallacious info. As an example, I received an email this morning from and individual whom I greatly respect, both for the work that she has done during her lifetime, as well as her mind. In this email(with which is included a power point presentation) it is claimed that on August 27th of this year (although it doesn't actually state what year it is referring to, it's only implied) that the planet Mars will pass closer to the Earth than it has in recorded history. It also states that this will not occur again until the year 2287. It punctuates these statements by closing with “NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.”
Now I have to admit, I wasn't driven to check the facts in this particular situation because of an overwhelming since of duty to my peers, or to the scientific community, but rather, because I had a nagging gut feeling that this was incorrect. That, together with another fact that I will share below, started me on a web search(remember, Google is our friend) that revealed what I already knew. These statements are incorrect. This event will not be happening this year. The email is a HOAX*. Some of you are already aware of this because you've checked the facts. But how did I know that it was wrong before I did the research you ask?
The event that is described in the email did in fact happen, more or less the way that it is described above, but in August of 2003! I knew that the email was wrong, because I was (just like many others) an eye witness to the events described. I suppose that could be considered an unfair advantage, or that I can't take a very scientific position because I was too close to the event. Well, guess what, I'm not conducting a study! I'm just trying to make a point. Check the facts.
In the end, this specific case resulted in no loss of life, no casualties of any kind really, and wasted no funding. The only loss was time spent doing a Google search, and lets face it, that takes less than 5 minutes(which is why there is no excuse for not doing one!). So why have I decided to go on about something that is really a non issue. Well, as I said, the email just gave me a basis upon witch to make my case.
You see, in this case, the worse thing that can happen is that you can make an ass out of yourself, one way or the other. But in other scenarios, people can die. I recently watched a special on NASA, which include facts about both the Challenger and Discovery disasters. Both of which could have been averted had people been patient, and checked the facts. Instead they didn't, people lost their lives. So there you have it. Remember, check the facts, because the life, or even just the dignity, that you save could be your own, or that of someone close to you. ;-)
Well, thats one small Rant for me, and an even smaller group of Bytes for Human kind. My next post will most likely be on the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. It's been out for 4 years now, and I'm going to be taking a look at the state of software that is currently available for it, as well as possibly going into detail on some clever hacks for the device. Look for that in the next several weeks.
*The email mentioned in the article can be viewed at: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/mars-earth-close.html
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