People are quick to believe what they read in a newspaper. Unfortunately, not unlike politics, sloppy journalism has a powerful tendency to influence popular thought and perpetuate mass ignorance.

For example, most people believe the myth that nuclear power is, without question, more dangerous than fossil fuels, despite history proving otherwise. We all experienced the hysterical anti-nuclear alarmism that was shoved down our throats during the Fukushima disaster; you’d be forgiven for thinking that thousands died from a radioactive fallout instead of a colossal earthquake and tsunami. In reality, not one person died from that power plant’s minor leakages; yet, thousands die, each year, from coal mining accidents and fossil-fuel-related incidents.

Much the same misguidance can be said about most things relating to science. And it usually boils down to one common denominator.

Sources.

Watch this video. It’s worth the few minutes of your time.

Here’s a visually beautiful story. In an attempt to tame two beluga (or “white”) whales, a naked Russian swam around with them.

In subzero temperatures in the Arctic.

Natalia Avseenko, 36, was persuaded to strip naked as marine experts believe belugas do not like to be touched by artificial materials such as diving suits.
Belugas are famed for the way in which their faces are able to convey human-like expressions. Certainly Matrena and Nilma seemed to enjoy frolicking with Natalia. The taming of the whales happened in the Murmansk Oblast region in the far north-west of Russia at the shore of the White Sea near the Arctic Circle branch of the Utrish Dophinarium. [Mail Online]

Being a yoga instructor and all-round hippie, she is able to hold her breath for around ten minutes, which is pretty incredible, considering that the average human will hit hypothermia within five minutes under such conditions. (Yes, we all know about endurance swimmer and fracktivist, His Highness Lewis Pugh, but a nude chick rubbing up against porpoises is a lot less boring and way hotter.)

Magical photography, that.

My sister is a member of Mensa and works as a computer programmer. I am not a member of Mensa and I colour in pictures for a living.

But at least I can parallel-park better than her.

Meanwhile, if you navigate to the South African branch of Mensa, then you will find their “home test”. The idea is to determine, within about 20 minutes, whether or not you stand a chance of passing an official Mensa test and, thereafter, joining the ranks of the world’s intellectual elite and given licence to use unnecessarily big words.

Give it a stab. Unless, of course, you are already a member of Mensa. In which case, your parallel-parking probably stinks.

Egypt’s revolution, Nelson Mandela’s ailing health, and even the new Pirates Of The Caribbean, are all completely insignificant when you take a step back and consider them from a distance.

That is, a distance of six billion kilometres.

You see that little white dot (towards the upper right)? That is Earth.

You see everything else? That is Space (or more specifically, a microscopic part of it). The vertical rays are from The Sun.

The photo (from six billion kilometres away) was taken by Voyager 1, a little probe that was launched, by NASA, in 1977 and is still flying today (and sending back data). According to Wikipedia,

As of February 10th, 2011, Voyager 1 was about 116.133AU (17.242 billion km, or 10.788 billion miles) or about 0.00183 of a light-year from the Sun.

To contextualise that a bit,

Voyager 1 is not heading towards any particular star, but in about 40,000 years it will pass within 1.6 light years of the star AC+79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis.

So, if you eat all your vegetables and stay healthy, then you might just live long enough to witness Voyager 1 passing its first star. If not, then don’t worry, because Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 (two such probes were launched) are prepared.

Each Voyager space probe carries a gold-plated audio-visual disc in the event that either spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from other planetary systems. The discs carry photos of the Earth and its lifeforms, a range of scientific information, spoken greetings from the people (e.g. the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United States, and the children of the Planet Earth) and a medley, “Sounds of Earth”, that includes the sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking on a shore, and a variety of music.

Anyway, I’m done typing. You may now return to watching a bunch of angry people running around, with signboards, in some country alongside some really long river.