It never fails to amaze me what utter nonsense some journalists write. Take the story of how astronomers accidentally confused the European space probe Rosetta with a killer asteroid heading for Earth.

Apparently space experts at the Minor Planet Centre, (which is a group that actually looks out for incoming asteroids), were just about to tell the world that a deadly asteroid was due to skim our planet by only 3,500 miles and there was a very real risk that it might collide with Earth.

Then somebody realised that no, it wasn’t killer asteroid, it wasn’t even a smash-n-grab asteroid. It was in fact a space probe called Rosetta.

This is where the reporter really allows himself to be carried away. Apparently, Rosetta is ‘about the size of a Transit van and with a 32-metre wing span’. The journalist then strays off to mention Bruce Willis in Armageddon having to deflect an asteroid that was heading straight for Earth. (Hello??? It’s fiction!)

Back from the land of dreams, the reporter then goes on to say that, ‘Scientists believe that an asteroid of around 2 miles in diameter hitting the Earth would result in enormous devastation on a massive scale and the end of the human race.’

Now stop there. I can accept that an asteroid the size of Treorchy might well do quite a bit of damage, the but ‘killer asteroid/space probe’ was actually the size of a Ford Transit van.

Unless I am much mistaken these are considerably smaller than 2 miles, even allowing for a 32 metre wing span.

Here’s a memorable quote : "If it hit London, there would be no London,” says Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty, one of a group of astronauts which is urging Nasa to prepare for a possible impact.
Yeah – Rusty who? No idea.

And here’s another quote : “We're living in a shooting gallery," said Schweickart, who is never once identified in the article. He could be the man who empties the dustbins at the Daily Mail offices for aught I know.

We’re not living in a shooting gallery. We’re living in a lazy, stupid society that takes rubbish at face value.

If you are a chronic insomniac you can read the whole sorry article here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=493152&in_page_id=1965

Sweet dreams!

For those of you who are regular visitors to this blog, you may recall that between the 24th and 26th October I was ranting about how all my electrical appliances seemed to have inexplicably malfunctioned.

Well, yesterday I visited Nasa's website, clicked on various links and discovered that around that time there was a sizable geomagnetic storm going on, the sort that often interferes with communications equipment. So maybe, just MAYBE I am not as paranoid as I often fear.

Maybe they really are out to get me......