A loon from my home state of Michigan believes that NASA's Mars exploration activities are affecting weather on the earth.

[Via emailer Frank Johnson]

OMG. Please tell me that idiot wasn't serious. How can someone that claims to have written for a magazine for 33 years be so completely ignorant of the physics involved in what he's talking about. Yeah, sure a launch is a spectacular event, but the amount of force involved is the equivilent of a small gnat pushing off of a human. It's not something you notice, and it sure doesn't change your orbit. as for those itsy-bitsy probes we've sent out into the solar system, if that's all it takes to throw the solar system's balance off, I'm surprised that we're even here at all. The K-T impacter should have flung the earth out into the void. What a moonbat...

He must be sniffing the JP-4 again.

Rich

I remember reading that and just assuming it was a satire piece.

It's parody all right -- self- or otherwise. These days sometimes it's hard to tell who's trying to be funny and who's just ... funny.

The givaway is "Some eminent authorities on subjects such as hydraulics and beekeeping have suggested it might be wise to cut back on NASA's budget until we know more about its effects on climate change."

Beekeeping? ;o)

I assume the hydraulics expert cited is the guy who drank the most beer while the article was being written.

The impact must be much worse than he claims. When you factor in all the northerners driving south for the winter, and back north for the summer (actually spinning the earth southwards) then Michigan should actually be getting warmer summers, not cooler, as the population grows!!!

It's a parody, but a poorly-written one.

You know, just last night my 13 year old was complaining that he had to have longer math classes because of "No Child Left Behind." (You know, the teacher saying something like 'I know you don't want longer math classes, but it's George Bush's fault) I explained that the level of math illiteracy in the US is staggeringly disgusting.

Then Mr. Callander writes this.

I may have to revise my estimate downward.

Bob

I think you could file this one into the same debate as to whether everyone in china jumped up and down at the same time we'd go spiralling off into the sun

This has to be a parody, can anyone really be this ignorant?
There's this quote

"Some eminent authorities on subjects such as hydraulics and beekeeping have suggested it might be wise to cut back on NASA's budget until we know more about its effects on climate change."

Maybe he's making a parody of the "spend NASA's money to solve all the world's problems" mindset.
The troubling thing is, he goes on to display other areas of ignorance in the same article, it seems like he's trying to be serious.

This has to be a parody, can anyone really be this ignorant?
There's this quote

"Some eminent authorities on subjects such as hydraulics and beekeeping have suggested it might be wise to cut back on NASA's budget until we know more about its effects on climate change."

Maybe he's making a parody of the "spend NASA's money to solve all the world's problems" mindset.
The troubling thing is, he goes on to display other areas of ignorance in the same article, it seems like he's trying to be serious.

I emailed the managing editor to ask if that was a serious article and recommended that if it was, the guy needs to stop getting his science from Captain Planet cartoons.

No one mentioned this at the end of the article:

[If launches cause bad weather] we can resume launching but set off a corresponding explosion on the other side of the world each time we fire one from Florida. Bangkok looks like about the best place to do it.

Heh. He should have added "and only launch on April 1."

This guy needs to study chaos theory. Extreme weather is caused when butterflies in Brazil flap their wings. Once the butterflies have been exterminated, the weather will stabilize.

I was looking for information on this guy's piece because we were having a discussion over at the Bad Astronomy BB,
[url]http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=15968&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0[/url], when I found you all were having almost the same discussion. I thought I would invite you over to chat if you were interested.

Sorry, I never posted here before. Left my ID off and the url didn't make a link. I'll try it without the url tags.
http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=15968&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Oh well, cut and paste. It's worth it if you haven't seen Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site before.

it is true that each time you lauch a space shuttle that the orbit is thrown off course, but it's just a little percentage. not enough to notice the differece, but it still moves the earth.

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