Author:		GuessWho
Email:		GuessWho@my-dejanews.com
Date:		1998/08/22
Forums:		sci.skeptic, alt.paranormal, alt.alien.visitors

I bought the two latest copies of Sky & Telescope, on the one hand, and of a
certain UFO magazine, on the other.

The UFO magazine's claims were the same old conspiracy theories, with its
two main articles claiming that NASA is "covering up" the (non-existent)
"face on Mars", and that "experienced remote viewers" had "viewed" aliens
landing on earth (now, THERE is proof for you!) but are now "prosecured" by
NASA. There was also the usual run of blurry UFO photographs.

Sky & Telescope, on the other hand, reported the newest discoveries:

Solar "sun-quakes", at the point where solar flares originate, were
discovered; the energy of one such quake was calculated to be 40,000 times
stronger than the strongest earthquakes ever recorded on earth.

Neutrinos were, finally, shown to have a non-zero mass, a discovery that has
major effects on our understanding of the beginning, development, and end of
the universe.

Newly discovered pulsars were shown to have the strongest magnetic fields
known in the universe, 100 trillion (100,000,000,000,000) times stronger
than Earth's magnetic field.

A photo of what might very well be the first directly observed planet outside
our solar system was shown, although the reader was warned that the issue is
not yet decided.

For the first time, a star was directly observed in the Milky Way that has
the surface temperature of only 1,700 degrees Kelvin (approx. 1400 Celsius,
or 2500 Farenheit) - which means (as was explained in the article) that it
is over 10 billion years old, that is, it shined since the Milky Way galaxy
formed.

-----------------

What made me REALLY sad reading these two magazine is not that, as usual,
the UFO magazine wrote utter nonsense. What made me sad was the realization
that even if ALL that the UFO magazine wrote was 100% true, Sky & Telescope
STILL would have the more exciting stories on its side!

After all, government conspiracies and coverups are nothing new; but
observing ten billion year old stars, the first planet discovered outside
the solar system, and the most powerful magnets in the universe IS new - and
by far more exciting and interesting that all these claimed "conspiracies"
put together.

It is REALLY sad that the same people who have SUCH a strong need to find
wonders and mysteries in the universe - so strong that they are ready to
believe in weird conspiracy theories without one shred of credible
evidence - are the SAME people whose sense of wonder and discovery is so
limited, and their knowledge of science and its discoveries so incomplete,
that they do not realize that those looney "conspiracy theories" are far
LESS exciting and amazing than many of the REAL discoveries of science,
which are there for them to be amazed by if they only look!