Real experts are too boring.

Sadly, there's a lot of truth to it.

Via Alan Boyle]

Looks like hobbyspace.com registration expired yesterday. Did Clark forget to re-up?...

Yes, apparently there was a miscommunication between him and his registrar.

Which do you mean by "there's a lot of truth to it"? Do you mean that, sadly, most experts are really too boring to listen to, even in an academic setting? Or do you mean that the article is probably more truth than satire in its portrayal of news agency execs and their need for sensationalism?

I say both.

Wait, Satire? I am not familar with the Onion, but if it isn't true let me know. I completely believed it. Says a lot about me, and even more about the MSM...

Dan -- The Onion is a satire site, and the article is fictional. But I can't blame you for being confused...it may be satire, but it's perfectly believable.

The idea being illustrated here (that the sensationalistic, emotion-based, and error-riddled view gets covered because it is more "sexy" than the sober, fact-based view) goes a long way to explaining nuclear power's portrayal in Fox's "24" and the current nuclear power themed absurd-techno-disaster-of-the-week flick on SciFi Channel. Technological accuracy only gets in the way of telling the story (and, perhaps, scoring a few political points in the process).

The issue isn't that science is boring, or that scientists are. The issue is that the general public lacks the education to be capable of being interested. It's hard to be excited about something when you don't know anything about what's going on.

It's like me, watching high-level volleyball. Everyone is continually running around the court. Some of the players hit the ball, some just stand there and yell. Every now and then they stop hitting the ball and run around some more. I can _sort of_ follow the idea that "ball hits ground = significant", but that's about it. And it's _boring_ to watch!

Now, having laid that out there, I'll say that I've always thought the true test of understanding to be explaining it to someone else. If you can't get another person to understand it, then do _you_ really understand it?