Perspective as a Substitute for Hysteria

In recent posts, I have complained about the snowballing trend in the media to conflate fact with adjective, and that any sense of perspective prior to 4:30 last Wednesday afternoon is receding at light speed. I now advance several positive reforms in reporting to counteract these trends.

1. Indicate not only figures expressed in current dollars, but also in constant dollars. Current figures given, e.g. $(trillions and trillions) could be followed with a symbol, say, something hardly used like: "※," that would stand for constant 1932 dollars (or 1968, or whatever....thus "trillions and trillions" becomes "millions and millions" or just ※ 9.98.

2. Create a perspective index for all weather reporting. The symbol "§," (which kinda looks like a hurricane anyway) could stand for "We really don't have facts & figures to support theories such as 'super-hurricanes' that might occur, because actual weather data, including hurricanes, only goes back to 1895, which means that our projections are not only worse than conjecture, they're just fantasies."

3. The symbol "仝," when applied to reports on volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and the like, could stand for "We've said this horror will overtake you someday, but not only do we have no real idea when, we have nowhere else to suggest that you might go. And, no, you can't come and live with us here in the studio."

4. We might address the sporadic reports of some sort of Armageddon (whether by Biblical prophecy, Nostradamus, the Mayan Long Count calendar, nuclear war or the examination of entrails of the reporter's recently deceased guinea pig) by " 〆," signifying "Disclaimer: while we've done our best to scare the crap out of you, and want to take any credit for giving you sleepless nights, naturally we can take no responsibility for the actual occurrence of any such horror upon humankind. We will, however, fully warrant our prediction that in 12 billion years (±200 million) the sun will expand into its red giant phase and leave the Earth a burned-out cinder.....so worry about that."

Fashionable Catastrophe

I love reading this type of science article.....but then I have to stop and reflect that there's not all that much science in it. Right now, it's quite the fashion to blither on about catastrophe and Armageddons of all sorts and stripes, but this article -in a putatively respectable "journal of record," is typical of much of what one reads and/or views. A theory built upon linked hypotheses, all resting on very limited and even tenuous physical evidence. The problem is that once the "fashion effect" takes hold, and the theory begins to appear on multiple web sites, then The Hysteria Channel takes over, or The Discovery of a New Disaster Channel, The Learning about Lahars and Tsunamis Channel, or The All Weather is a Disaster Channel....and suddenly a fringe theory has become a sort of "fact" in the common wisdom, a mountain of speculation with only the most tenuous base of support in fact. But facts are such dreary things......

Weather....or not

Seen on The Weather Channel today; heading "Traffic Delays"

Milwaukee- heavy rains

Boston- Heavy rains

Texas- Torrential rains with possibility of tornadoes

San Francisco- wrecked tanker truck burns and melts expressway

Uhhhh....what was that last bit again?

Maybe tomorrow: "Downpour of freight trains slows traffic to a crawl on the Dan Ryan Expressway," or "Backup of crescent wrenches stalls traffic on Triborough Bridge."