Re: [Phys-l] Earth's magnetic field

[William Robertson <wrobert9@ix.netcom.com>]

It's revealing to look first at the end of the Fox article, where they  
offhandedly mention the flipping of the Earth's field, and then at the  
end of the Yahoo article. Yahoo mentions the flipping of the field  
(which really was a throwaway in the Fox article) and then says that  
if that were to happen, then bigger changes than changing the labeling  
of runways might take place! What, new colors also? It's no wonder  
there are so many wrong ideas propagated by news outlets.

Bill




On Jan 14, 2011, at 9:41 AM, marx@phy.ilstu.edu wrote:

> John,
>
> Thanks for your excellent analysis of the article in question.  I  
> think that it is far too common for
> journalists attempting to report on a scientific issue to get it  
> wrong.  We are especially sensitive to
> science and technology reporting by our nature.  However, it then  
> makes you wonder how much of
> other reporting is factually correct.