11th September - Today's News: Can We Trust Anything The Media Tell Us?
There's some relief for emergency crews in Victoria dealing with the floods, whilst SES turns to Echuca as Murray River rises.
And more flood fears in Delhi as Yamuna river overflows
In the Atlantic, tropical storm Igor gains strength; system in Caribbean may threaten Gulf
Hermine death toll climbs to 6 as 2 bodies found
Although there are suggestions nation's highest temperature for September may have been incorrect, there's no question sea temperatures around Japan hit record high.
And NOAA reports that overall it was the fourth warmest US summer on record with several States in the east experiencing their warmest ever.
Spectacular Northern Lights display pictured after a violent space storm
Research shows continued decline of Oregon's largest glacier
Some good news: Amazon deforestation falls significantly in 2010, according to prelimary data
Some bad news: Peru's rainforest highway triggers surge in deforestation
Alien oceans could be detected by telescope - and where there's an ocean there's quite likely life!
And finally - the subject of today's headline - another cautionary tale about not believing all you read in the media. This week there was a simulated earthquake rescue exercise centred on Hampshire and involving 500 rescuers from all over Europe, plus a team from Saudi Arabia, to practice coordination in the event of a major earthquake in Europe. Most of those involved also help out around the world, and the Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service which hosted the exercise provided the HQ for coordinating the whole of the the UK International Search and Rescue operation in Haiti earlier this year. The exercise was funded entirely by the EU and would have brought some additional trade to local businesses. The Daily Mail, however, reported that there were hundreds of officers in earthquake training despite only 11 deaths in 1,000 years and made no reference to the above information, choosing instead to falsely claim that hundreds of police officers were involved (instead of being out catching criminals) and that it was all a waste of taxpayers money since such a quake could never hit Britain. The Daily Telegraph was equally misleading saying that police given 'powerful' earthquake training for 'extremely unlikely crisis'. I'm not sure whether any policemen were involved though it's likely there may have been a few; the majority of those involved in the exercise were from fire and rescue teams. There is no question that 1,000's have died from such events this year alone and that it is highly likely such an event will occur again soon, and quite likely in Europe. Fortunately, in the search for the truth, the local media came up trumps correctly informing us that Hampshire fire crews lead disaster training and filling us in with lots of useful facts.
More information about Exercise Orion, on the official website.
Sadly, such distortion of the truth in order to fit a political agenda, or simply just poor research, is commonplace. A friend has just told me of a local BBC news report that was highly inaccurate - though only those involved would have likely known - about harness racing. Whether we look we see the media are not to be relied on. Sad.
I do try to post links here only to news reports which I believe to be fairly accurate (and will comment if I think otherwise) but the message has to be: never take anything you read at face value.
And more flood fears in Delhi as Yamuna river overflows
In the Atlantic, tropical storm Igor gains strength; system in Caribbean may threaten Gulf
Hermine death toll climbs to 6 as 2 bodies found
Although there are suggestions nation's highest temperature for September may have been incorrect, there's no question sea temperatures around Japan hit record high.
And NOAA reports that overall it was the fourth warmest US summer on record with several States in the east experiencing their warmest ever.
Spectacular Northern Lights display pictured after a violent space storm
Research shows continued decline of Oregon's largest glacier
Some good news: Amazon deforestation falls significantly in 2010, according to prelimary data
Some bad news: Peru's rainforest highway triggers surge in deforestation
Alien oceans could be detected by telescope - and where there's an ocean there's quite likely life!
And finally - the subject of today's headline - another cautionary tale about not believing all you read in the media. This week there was a simulated earthquake rescue exercise centred on Hampshire and involving 500 rescuers from all over Europe, plus a team from Saudi Arabia, to practice coordination in the event of a major earthquake in Europe. Most of those involved also help out around the world, and the Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service which hosted the exercise provided the HQ for coordinating the whole of the the UK International Search and Rescue operation in Haiti earlier this year. The exercise was funded entirely by the EU and would have brought some additional trade to local businesses. The Daily Mail, however, reported that there were hundreds of officers in earthquake training despite only 11 deaths in 1,000 years and made no reference to the above information, choosing instead to falsely claim that hundreds of police officers were involved (instead of being out catching criminals) and that it was all a waste of taxpayers money since such a quake could never hit Britain. The Daily Telegraph was equally misleading saying that police given 'powerful' earthquake training for 'extremely unlikely crisis'. I'm not sure whether any policemen were involved though it's likely there may have been a few; the majority of those involved in the exercise were from fire and rescue teams. There is no question that 1,000's have died from such events this year alone and that it is highly likely such an event will occur again soon, and quite likely in Europe. Fortunately, in the search for the truth, the local media came up trumps correctly informing us that Hampshire fire crews lead disaster training and filling us in with lots of useful facts.
More information about Exercise Orion, on the official website.
Sadly, such distortion of the truth in order to fit a political agenda, or simply just poor research, is commonplace. A friend has just told me of a local BBC news report that was highly inaccurate - though only those involved would have likely known - about harness racing. Whether we look we see the media are not to be relied on. Sad.
I do try to post links here only to news reports which I believe to be fairly accurate (and will comment if I think otherwise) but the message has to be: never take anything you read at face value.
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