WTF

[gfish]

AP story via Houston Chronicle:

She will spend two hours on a modified Boeing 727 jet, which will soar six miles above the Earth before dropping, giving about a half-minute of weightlessness with each cycle.

AP story via CNN:

She will spend two hours on a modified Boeing aircraft, which will soar 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the earth before dropping, giving several minutes of weightlessness with each cycle.

I particularly like how the CNN version adds the metric conversion to look extra accurate while in fact being completely wrong about the basic physics of the situation.

Comments

[sickyprincess.livejournal.com]

You should let them know. Lazy fact-checkers...

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

That's just weird. Why would you deliberately change something to make it less accurate?

[adularia.livejournal.com]

Several minutes?

... In addition to doing much better science if we'd had that kind of time, I would have tried to shed a few more 0.001-G purity points. Sheesh.

[pomma-penses.livejournal.com]

OK, I know this is completely random, but I was at the pub on Tuesday with some friends and one said "y'know, spiritrover and opportunitygrrl should really update again!

I almost got whiplash when I turned around and said I KNEW those people!

Anyways, consider this your friendly neighbourhood heckle, via a stranger in Oxford. ;)