[Solatar]

All today and yesterday in science class, the teacher was talking all about the American mars lander, and how much of a success it was. I asked her if she knew what happened to the beagle probe. She asked what I was talking about and I told her it was European. She still hadn't heard of it. And what is really abnormal is that our teacher is usually very well informed about things.

I asked another science teacher I had that day about it, he didn't know either.

All they knew was the American one fed to us through the media...that's kinda sad...

EDIT: And yeah, I had just had a brainfart and forgotten what happened to the beagle.

[Falcon]

Thats funny

[Drew]

the media here reported it, but didnt report it as the "Beagle 2". Mars Express has not yet made contact with the *lander* which was cause of all the fuss. It hasnt been confirmed that Beagle 2 has been lost or not. look here

From Beagle 2 website[/b]

An attemt will be made to contact Beagle 2 via Mars Express on
7th January 2004 at about 12:15 GMT. Results should be available by 15:00 GMT.

the reason we arnt reporting that it was destroyed is because they havnt confirmed if the lander\probe was lost or not.

[Carl]

i don't know what is wrong with your teachers. it was on the news over here. not as much as ours, of course, but that's because ours was sucessful and becasue, of course, it's local news, so it'll get more coverage.

[Knight Templar]

OMG teh evil Media is trying to corrupt our mindz with American Pride Propoganda!!!1

[IceFire]

Heard plenty of it here...but I'm a regular watcher of the BBC World News, and the BBC World website as well as CNN, CBC, and CBS. (apparently having a C in the name is a pre-requisite for national coverage )

[StratComm]

Yeah I thought the main reason for not hearing much about the Beagle lander was because no one knows what shape it's in.  It would have gotten more coverage, but right now we're getting a lot of pictures back from the American lander.  Had the beagle worked and the *can't remember the name of the American probe* had failed, we'd be fed pictures taken from the European probe and the failure of the American probe would be hushed.  Having two so close together will always result in one being pushed to the back burner of public knowledge, simply because the more successful one will be more interesting.

EDIT:  Oh yeah, it's called Spirit.  Who knew

EDIT 2:  Actually, thinking back, prior to launch I think the European probe got a lot more attention than the American landers.  We had that one crash a while back (the polar lander, which would have been the most interesting of all of the landers from a colonization perspective) under circumstances much like those of the Beagle, and it made NASA look kind of bad.  Especially since we decided that the mistake was a units issue  There was more hope that the ESA would get it right, and so the twin American probes were sort of ignored by the media.

[Stryke 9]

Major space expeditions aren't really so common or insignificant that the "media" can just pick and choose which ones to report and which to dump.


What is it with this whole deal about the "media", anyway? Like there's one all-powerful news source that controls every information system in the country or something? There's no single coherent agenda, there's no organization or intelligence running even the greater majority of news services, they're just companies that report what's profitable, with some targeting niche markets like Democrats or Klansmen or what have you. Sometimes, this means toeing the government line, as said government is their main source of info, but other than that...

Yeah, yeah, I know most people are aware of that and just use the term out of laziness (myself included, when I'm not paying attention), but it's still wierd.

[Knight Templar]

No! It's the MEDIA! They are conspiring against you.

[Drew]

Originally posted by StratComm
EDIT 2:  *snip*

The two Beagle probes were covered by a number of science magazines. The Pop-sci i get in the mail had like a 10 page article on it. on the other hand, i didnt even know Spirit existed untill the landing was announced.

[Nico]

Sad? I'm not surprised... Have you even heard about the boeing that crashed next to Egypt yesterday? 148 deads, but who cares? they were french ( bare the egyptian crew and a japanese woman ).

[karajorma]

Heard about it. It led the news over here in the UK.

[aldo_14]

Looks a bit of a scandal, especially as the airline (Flash Airways, I think) was banned by the Swiss over concerns over their safety / maintenance.

Brings a strange sense of Deja vu, actually.... I remember another air crash a few years back in - I think - the sea near Saudi Arabia... thing that stays with me is that it was in crystal clear water, so you could clearly see chunks of the aircraft and stuff under the surface... wierd juxtaposition of a beautiful, clear sea and this disaster.

[Nico]

Yeah, it's Flash Airlines.
Well this time, the plane has fallen into deep sea, it's seems.
They said that the only way to identify the remains of the passengers where through ADN tests...

[aldo_14]

Flash would appear to be a somewhat (sickly) ironic name, don't you think?

[karajorma]

Yeah I heard that too. Oh well they'll all be out of a job when the lawsuit is resolved. They might even face stiffer penalties depending on Egypt's corprate manslaughter laws.