Subject:
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Re: LEGO.COM/mars now running!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.year.2001, lugnet.space
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Date:
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Sat, 25 Nov 2000 11:19:22 GMT
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Reply-To:
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MICAHX@KIHnospam.NET
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Viewed:
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24 times
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There are about 5000 stars (3000 in the northern hemisphere and 2000 in the
southern hemisphere) visible to the naked eye from Earth. The number would of
course be higher in outer space, with more lower-magnitude stars revealed from the
lack of atmospheric effects, but certainly not 'millions' of stars. As far as
seeing planets (other than Earth), not likely, not unless you know where to look,
and even then they would at best look like oddly colored stars. As stated by some
previous posters, stars most definitely do not twinkle in outer space; this is
wholly an effect of our atmosphere. The LOM page also mentions that there's no
gravity in outer space, which is absolutely untrue...no perceivable gravity
perhaps, but the kids who are going to be reading this will suffer from long-term
misinformation. To a six year-old, everything in print is a canonical text.
Although humans continue to learn throughout life, they learn with the greatest
velocity and permanency when they are children. TLC has a responsibility as a
major toy manufacturer to present their media in either an obviously fictitious
manner, or in a shockingly accurate factual manner. To mingle subtle yet wildly
inaccuate fiction with real science is a serious mistake.
Regards,
Micah J. Mabelitini
Thomas Main wrote:
> In lugnet.announce, Nick Cameron writes:
> > The LEGO company must have been waiting untill one of us found the mars sets.
> > It looks like a mission log. Pretty cool. it has some real space photos, but • so
> > far it is only one page. Check it out!
> >
> > http://www.lego.com/mars/
>
> I know this is supposed to be fiction, but I think the folks who write this
> should do a little more research before posting stories like this for worldwide
> consumption. The story talks about looking out of a porthole and seeing
> millions of stars and planets...not likely. From what I understand, you would
> see mostly blackness...certainly not millions of stars. The story goes on to
> state that the stars really do twinkle...do they? I thought that was caused by
> our atmosphere. I know the point of these stories is supposed to be to
> generate excitement about a product and it is written for kids, but I wish TLC
> took a little more responsibility with factual information (especially
> since it is seen as a company that produces a pseudo-educational toy)...you can
> write something exciting that is plausible too!
>
> --
> Thomas Main
> main@appstate.edu
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: LEGO.COM/mars now running!
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| (...) so (...) should do a little more research before posting stories like this for worldwide consumption. The story talks about looking out of a porthole and seeing millions of stars and planets...not likely. From what I understand, you would see (...) (24 years ago, 22-Nov-00, to lugnet.year.2001, lugnet.space)
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