Which is More Depressing, the Near-miss, or..?

[fhaber]

Good pop-science story...

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27264/

Go to the link at the end and read the PDF - nice work; passable English.

But...

I think I can handle the End of the World, but to have had it presented in Comic Sans may be a bit too much for me.

[terrie]

I didn't see Comic Sans anywhere...almost wish I had...what better font for the delcaration of the end of the world...'-}}

Terrie

[Franca]

I didn't see Comic Sans either ... ?

[fhaber]

Did you guys download the PDF from Cornell? The news article is normal.

Otherwise, are you Mac users without Word? I thought Comic Sans was endemic^H^H sadly universal?

[Howard Allen]

I am a Mac user without Word. And yes, I do see the Cornell PDF in Comic Sans. Strange choice for a scientific paper, but an interesting article.

[terrie]

fhaber: Did you guys download the PDF from Cornell?I didn't download it to my harddrive but just opened in via my browser (Firefox) which shouldn't make a difference???

Ok...just downloaded it to my harddrive and it doesn't make a difference. The text is in a san serif font--Tahoma, I think--but in looking at the properties, I do see Comic Sans listed in the font list. I didn't have Comic Sans loaded (using Font Nav) and so I loaded it and opened the pdf again and now it displays in Comic Sans...rather funny...'-}}

Terrie

[Franca]

I see what Terrie sees, no Comic Sans in the PDF. But Terrie and I aren't on Macs of any sort. ;) I don't use Word.

[terrie]

franca: I see what Terrie sees, no Comic Sans in the PDF.Do you have Comic Sans loaded on your system as an active font? My guess is that you don't.

I just did another test with Comic Sans active on my system and right-click/open in new window for the pdf so it opened via the browser (Firefox)--rather than downloading it to my harddrive and then opening it as I did earlier today--and the text is in Comic Sans...'-}}

Terrie

[ktinkel]

Did you guys download the PDF from Cornell? The news article is normal.

Otherwise, are you Mac users without Word? I thought Comic Sans was endemic^H^H sadly universal?Once I figured out how to get to the PDF I saw the Comic Sans.

I think many Mac users have the MS fonts — either because they have MS Office (or some part of it) or because Apple licensed them from Microsoft at some point. They are pretty common.

Comic Sans is kind of weird to see in a scholarly paper, but you have to admit that it is clear and readable.

[fhaber]

>but you have to admit that it is clear and readable

And big. Clear it is - probably for all us superannuated Cassandras.

[Kayza]

It's an interesting story. Here is an interesting take on it:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/17/did-a-fragmenting-comet-nearly-hit-the-earth-in-1883-color-me-very-skeptical/

[Franca]

Do you have Comic Sans loaded on your system as an active font? My guess is that you don't. Probably not. ;)

[terrie]

franca: Probably not. ;)I don't have it loaded normally either but loaded it to test this...'-}}

Terrie

[fhaber]

>Here is an interesting take

Good points. There were probably too few telescopic observation points at that latitude in the 1880s to be sure either way.

There seems to be a trend these days towards "TV quality" "discoveries" in astronomy, geology, et. al. They differ from junk science in being backed up by a plausible rationale **with some numbers**. At least you can debate that kind of paper.

Remember when the History Channel and Nova contained actual arguments, a few numbers, and a diagram or two, instead of thumping music and whoooshy SFX? Harumpf.

-Spengler