OIL IN A BOTTLE – Submission to Smithsonian Magazine 2012
I have a lot of things on my desk on my desk at the Memphis Pink Palace Museum & Planetarium education department offices: the ever-necessary telephone, coffee mug, pictures of my wife and kids, assorted pens/pencils, a rock paperweight from a vacation in Maine last year, a quart of oil mixed with sand in a former bottle of fruit punch…
What? You don’t have all that on your desk? Wow… you’re a lot more organized than me. I’m impressed.
Oh, the bottle? Yeah… as a rule – unless you’re an oil company executive – most people (as far as I know) don’t keep oil of any sort on their desk. You’ll have to forgive the bottle: it’s been through a lot in the last month. It was a very tasty way to beat the heat on the beach. On our family trip to the Gulf of Mexico, I asked everyone in our family to do their best to pick up whatever garbage they found and save it in a pile for disposal later. I was wondering what we would find in the way of tar balls or blobs of oil that might have washed ashore. After downing the contents of the bottle one warm Monday afternoon, I had the bottle in the trash bag ready to be taken up to the beach trashcans. My daughter, Emma, came out of the surf with a mark on her left leg. As it was the beach, and not the backyard, we weren’t expecting to come out of the water with something that looked like dirt or mud on her shin. Turns out, at some point during her swim, she had come across a tar ball that had slimed her leg with a long swipe. She wasn’t hurt, but she was a bit mortified that she had come in contact with the oil from last summer’s Deepwater Horizon disaster.
My wife, Melissa, and I discussed whether or not the water was safe for swimming. Coming to the conclusion that the authorities along the beachfront communities had probably done their level best and beyond to make sure the areas were as oil free as possible, and there were no warnings along the beach area that were posted, everything should be as normal as possible.
It was only after this that I noticed the added visitors to the beach. One of my favorite things to do when I get to the Gulf beaches is to just sit in the surf and not think about things. (Friends who know me would say that I don’t think about things enough as it is. Kidding.) I like to sit and sift through the sand for shells, look for sea glass, find unique detritus that washes on shore, and – of course – my favorite thing to do is dodge jellyfish. Simply sitting still, sifting seashore stuff (try saying that three times fast) I noticed that as the waves came in, there were several objects that moved differently in the water than the usual shells and sand. Charcoal grey, and usually about the size of a half-dollar or golf ball, they would half-way float, half-way tumble their way out of the water to the tide line on the sand, coming to rest as the water rushed away. Picking them up for examination, they were crumbly if pressed together in your fingers, but could also be squished together into a larger clump if you had several of them.
As I had the empty juice bottle handy, I started to collect them the lumps and clumps. Being a science instructor for the Pink Palace Museum, it would be amazing to have a collection of these to take home to Memphis to have on display for our visiting school groups. But I was also hoping for another use for this unusual desk display in the future, if all goes well.
There is always a threat of disaster looming just around the corner. Most people when you ask them what they know of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent oil spill, most will tell you that it is all BP’s fault; nothing but greed and negligence on their part, pure and simple. Most people when they saw me – and eventually my kids – prospecting for the tar balls for collection couldn’t believe that we had hauled a quart bottle’s worth out of the ocean in just under 24 hours time. They looked at the oil with disbelief, thinking that it had all disappeared into oblivion, never to be seen again. That’s what they were told, after all, in the media from the oil companies. In truth: it will never be gone. Most of the largest piles of tar were removed, sifted, pulped, buried, dissolved. There is always going to be that last percentage left over; The Ghosts of Deepwater Horizon that will haunt the beaches for the rest of time, reminders of a disaster that could have been prevented from a spill hundreds of miles out to sea. In diminishing returns as time goes by, to be certain. But, always some parts of it will remain.
So, what’s the point of holding on to a bottle of oil that 11 people paid for with their lives? Why not just chuck it into the nearest trash can with the rest of the human-made garbage that floats in the coastal foam? The bottle of oil droplets / tar balls have collapsed under their own weight and now form one large lump. The only way to get any of it out now would be to scoop it out piece by extremely smelly piece.
Because, some day, this bottle may be a throwback, an antique, a remembrance… more importantly, it could be a lesson. Perhaps even: an exhibit piece.
One of the neatest things about working in a museum is the absolutely incredible amount of coolness this place has to offer. The Memphis Pink Palace Museum has been called “the Attic of the Mid-South” before. We have incredible collections of antiques, items of days-gone-by, exhibits of natural history and demonstrations of science and local area history all in one incredible facility. Located in central Memphis, the original mansion built by Piggly-Wiggly supermarket founder Clarence Saunders added on to in the early 1990’s to include a new planetarium and the world’s only underground IMAX theater, the Pink Palace is one of the most incredible educational facilities in the United States (if I do say so myself) for exploration and knowledge.
I would hope that – in time – as knowledge and desire grows for change, as the practice of “same-as-it-ever-was” slowly starts to erode, as the knowledge of our self-polluting ways spreads and takes hold, the time is coming when the use of oil will be seen as nearly as reprehensible or confusing as cigarette smoking is today. It would be my fervent desire that – some day – there could be an exhibit on energy here, and my bottle of oil could be a part of that exhibit.
The age of coal and oil are over with. It’s time to leave it in the ground.
AO
—
RUMOR CONTROL, CAN I HELP YOU?
The experience of dealing with students as a substitute teacher in my work at Bartlett City Schools has been eye-opening, in that I have a new appreciation for what actual full-time teachers go through on a daily basis. Keeping the kids focused, planning classwork and tests, dealing with pre-and-post school meetings as necessary, observations and evaluations, all make me very glad that I’m just a substitute; I pop in as needed, they’re the ones who do the real work. (Don’t believe me? Visit your kids’ classroom(s) some time as a volunteer to find out for yourself.)
Throw in a healthy dose of curiosity (and confusion) regarding the recent coronavirus outbreak and it makes a typical day in the hallways between classes interesting. Hearing the students talk about the virus, and passing along what their uncle’s barber’s cousin’s attorney’s pastor’s wife may have said about the situation at hand is pretty normal these days. Hearing the information get repeated (and augmented) in the wrong direction(s) like a school-wide game of Telephone is worrisome. Working in the news business – especially in science communication – you realize how fast rumor and falsehoods can work through social media, even faster in the school hallways.
Recently I have begun putting an FYI section on the classroom whiteboard for the students’ benefit so they can get information directly from the scientists at the sources for the public’s knowledge and understanding: websites of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention coronavirus page, the United Nations – World Health Organization and, locally, the Shelby County Health Department in Memphis. Reminding the students that their friends – at school or otherwise – stating: “I heard someone saying X, Y or Z….” is codewords basically saying “They don’t know the facts either, they just want you to confirm/deny/know what *you’ve* heard.”
The best way to combat fear and dissipate confusion is with knowledge and information. Giving the students the direct links to that information, and allowing them to talk and ask about subjects like coronavirus in class, watching the students actually going to the websites to examine that information, get their questions answered (maybe get ideas for a future scientific career choice?) is the best way to reduce that confusion. At the very least, their becoming better informed on science and world events gives them better opportunity to become better students and citizens. Reducing their confusion is an added benefit.
The emergence and subsequent spread of the coronavirus has been trying and difficult as cases grow ever more widespread. Quieting the fears by combating misinformation and rumors, especially for our students in schools, is one of the best ways to keep falsehoods from growing out of control in society. We owe our students to be as straightforward as possible, especially in times like these, by showing them how to be better citizens and scientists.
AO
OP/ED: IGNORANCE AND THE ZEN OF CHESS
One of the lessons I learned from my dad while he taught me how to play #chess was how to behave in life based on what happened on the chessboard or the school playground: if you’re not going to get along with people, you’re going to find yourself alone in the sandbox before too long, and the only one you’re going to have to blame is you.
As with election results or life in general, there are no such things as #AlternativeFacts or another person’s science: #Science is true whether you believe in it or not. One plus one equals two, there is no other result. As Neil Degrasse Tyson has said so wonderfully straightforward: “You get to say that the Earth is flat because we live in a country that guarantees your free speech. But it’s not a country that guarantees that anything you say is correct.”
The Moon is not made of green cheese. Vaccines do not cause autism. No matter how much you wish it away, the train barrelling down the tracks at you standing on the line may not be able to stop in time just because you speak your reality into existence. Q-Anon’s “theories” are hogwash. The time comes when you are going to have to be the adult in the room, despite how much you wish to stomp your feet and shout your lungs out. If not, as my dad taught, others are not going to want to be associated with you. Character matters: it’s called having it, not being it.
As you go forward in learning about #chess, you will see that in competition there are no take-backs, no do-overs, much as in life or nuclear war – you’d better look ahead as far as you are able to see potential pitfalls. Our elected leaders need to play more chess to help them when it comes to constructing the future well-being of our country, whether it involves rejecting alternative fact Q-Anonsense believing legislators, accepting and understanding the reality of #climatechange or diplomacy with other countries. Looking ahead on a chess board during a match is a necessity, as is being the bigger person when you have been outplayed. “Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.”
I have not spent much time dealing with the I Lost So I’ll Overturn The Chessboard Drama Kings/Queens players, nor will I do so in the future. Your reputation precedes you. I pay close attention to how you have played chess in the past (so to speak) and I will remember it if I am ever in a match against you. #MakeYourMove
MUSEUMS AND THE EUREKA! EFFECT – 2013 OP/ED
“Far too many people think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old means being grownup. When I’m with these people, I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grownup, then I don’t ever want to be one.” – Madeleine L’Engle
The Mid-South area of the United States encompasses the lower Mississippi River valley south of southern Missouri, through western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and parts of northern Mississippi. Summer in the Mid-South lasts a very long time. Sometimes the summer season begins around late March and doesn’t relent its hold on the area until Halloween… or later. The very air itself is stuffed thick with humidity, day and night, and the highs can reach the 90’s or higher and remain there for weeks, if not months. In light of this ½-year-long season, the people of this area work to stay cool as much as possible. (With this weather, who can blame them?)
I’d like to think it’s more than our incredible air conditioning system that draws visitors to the City of Memphis Pink Palace Museum, with accompanying planetarium and IMAX theater, during the long, hot summer of the Mid-South.
But, it surely doesn’t hurt. Science is cool. History is cool. The A/C is cool. Knowledge is power. It all fits.
Surviving the summer season in this area of the country involves knowledge of how to keep cool. Whether that involves shade from a tree and water from a hose, air conditioning, a tall glass of ice water (or, if its your favorite choice of Southern beverage: sweet tea) there are always ways to stay cool in summer. What better way to stay cool and learn something at the same time? There are museums and science centers across the country that would love to have you visit and sample their air conditioning… and learn stuff too.
The summer months here are usually the least busy when it comes to large groups, and the most for individual or family museum attendees. Places like this, when the Sun shines heavily on the outside and the drone of the air conditioning units, are great places of sanctuary from the rising thermometers and fuzzy-wavy heat-soaked asphalt roads and parking lots of the season. Inside, there is the huge IMAX movie screen, dinosaur fossils, wonderfully-engaging science demonstrations, pieces of our past and the knowledge gained there that teach us and inspire us to look forwards to the future (and sure beats the heck out of the sweltering heat outside).
The name ‘Pink Palace’ might raise a few eyebrows (my grandmother-in-law was a bit worried about the name thinking it was akin to a local strip club in Knoxville). For those of you out there in that category, you can let your brows come to rest. The Pink Palace was the nickname of the mansion built by Clarence Saunders (originally named Cla-Le-Clare for his children, out of pink marble) the inventor of the early 20th century modern supermarket: Piggly Wiggly. Over time, the mansion passed into the hands of the City of Memphis, and was expanded with an IMAX theater and new underground facilities in the early 1990’s. Known as the “Attic of the Mid-South” it contains some amazing specimens of widely-varying interest areas, not all science. Over time, the Pink Palace became the place to donate the odds and ends of travelers and historians from all over the Mid-South.
In the last five-and-a-half years since I have been a member of the incredibly amazing Educational Department staff at the Pink Palace, we have instructed several dozen classes to visiting large groups on various topics per school year. We have laboratories on physical science, rocks and minerals, microscopes and – one of our more popular – sharks. On our busiest days of the month, called Discovery Days (the last Thursdays and Fridays of the month during the school year), we have many students on their way through to the Crew Training International IMAX Theater, or the Lida Gamill Planetarium. We have several theater-style presentations as well.
My favorite (in my humble science-geek/dork opinion) show/presentation, called “Magic of Science” where we demonstrate scientific-based principles to students from second through eighth grade in a performance-style setting, is the best of the best.
The second-best part of the Magic of Science show is when the kids volunteer to join us in the demonstrations, being able to take an active part in the shows.
The best part? That look on the kids’ faces when they “get it”.
You may know what I’m talking about (if you’re a teacher of any kind, you definitely do): that magical moment – some of us have had it, whether it’s about taxes, math, computers, art or (name your own confusion here) – when the kid’s face lights up with the full wattage of the sun behind their eyes. They know, they understand, they’ve got the idea! The “Eureka!” moment of Archimedes, the “Watson! Come Here!” moment of Alexander Graham Bell. The moment the darkness is dispelled and the light of learning is rekindled once again, brought to you by your neighborhood science center.
In the Magic of Science, they see that the air you blow into a plastic bag is replaced by other air flowing into that gap you create with your breath. They experience that gas has mass and weight by the carbon dioxide vapor coming off pellets of dry ice, poured into a plastic bag on a balanced yardstick, dropping the bag slightly. They experience the energy of a brick attached to one end of a catapult, flinging a stuffed toy hippo across a room and understand the transference of energy.
They walk somewhat fearful into a laboratory of rank smells, where dead (read: preserved) sharks are laid out on platform tables waiting for them to discover. Urging them to explore, to conquer their fear, revulsion and worries about appearing ‘uncool’ to their schoolmates, they gingerly (at first) touch the shark, locate the fins, find the gills, trace the shark’s lateral line, run their fingers carefully along the numerous teeth and the sandpaper-like skin of an ancient and graceful predator of the ocean.
Was science boring to you as a kid? Did you not consider science to be fun and interesting? Invoking the immortal words of the Eleventh Doctor (played wonderfully by Matt Smith) on the long-running BBC sci-fi hit “Doctor Who”: “How did boredom even get invented!?” What perks up your ears when it comes to science? What would you like your kids to know? What inspires you when it comes to science and education? What moves you to learn?
If your area has a museum or IMAX theater or science and learning center (or, better still, like us in Memphis, all wrapped up together), how long has it been since you have visited? Does it take the heat of summer to drive you through the doors into the cool, knowledge-soaked interiors? Is it just because you now have kids? Is it your parental duty that you reluctantly trudge with their school group as an adult chaperone, occasionally picking up a snippet of information that might be considered slightly interesting?
If you haven’t been in years, maybe now is a good time to consider visiting your local science center, or museum, or anywhere that science and history and imagination can interest not just your kids, but YOU too!
In his amazing work The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark popular scientist Dr. Carl Sagan talked about his town of Ithaca, New York, and how the dream of a public science center became a reality. Whether a small town or a large town, size and location doesn’t really matter. No matter where a center of learning is established, it would be a benefit to the local educational system, the area tourism and promotional teams, the parents and babysitters of the region with one more option of a place to take their kids to be entertained and educated at the same time. If your local science education center is around the block or a day’s journey away, it is worth the trip. Your vote with your dollar when it comes to the cost of admission is just as important as the idea and the following-through of making the visit happen in the first place.
As a meteorologist, I have always been interested in the weather (and other science stuff, too): the sinister-green color of the sky and clouds before the worst of a thunderstorm hits, the calm cold dreariness as the Sun is swallowed by the front-running clouds of an oncoming winter storm.
The highest compliment I have ever been paid was two years ago. A girl had just finished our Dive Into Sharks! laboratory. After an hour of new experiences, on her way out the door with the rest of her classmates, she was heard to say, “That settles it: I’m definitely becoming a marine biologist when I grow up!”
Like many people, the PBS series “Cosmos” was a true inspiration to me to learn more and be a discoverer and pioneer and advocate of science and education. I can’t wait to see the re-imagined series with Neil deGrasse Tyson next year.
The world and the Universe is waiting for your kids, and YOU, to discover it! Your local science center is waiting for you, and filled with stuff that you might just have missed last time.
MID-SOUTH CLIMATE FORECAST FOR SUMMER 2014
made by request of WREG webmaster
WHAT IS EL NINO (OR LA NINA), ANYWAY?
In the world of weather prediction, a phenomenon known as El Nino – also known as the Southern Oscillation – appears to be strengthening of warmer temperatures in the waters of the southeastern Pacific.
The effect, which may not seem to be a large problem or concern in the Mid-South, several thousand kilometers away, is capable of causing large shifts in weather patterns for a long period of time, sometimes decades long, which can cause changes in a regions’ activities, production of food, ability to develop and advance.
This phenomenon has been occurring since Earth has had its oceans, but has only become more understood recently thanks to advancement in technology and forecasting methods.
The effect causes the warmer waters, usually found around and just south of the equator near Australia, Micronesia, Indonesia and the southwest Pacific Ocean, to shift eastwards by thousands of miles to just off the west coast of South America. (The red color in the right hand side picture above.)
(Image courtesy of Accu-Weather)
The opposite of El Nino is La Nina, a cooling of the waters instead of a heating up, that alters weather patterns but in different ways.
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
As our planet goes around the Sun, it is kept warm by the Sun’s energy. Some of that energy is bounced back to space by the ocean, the Earth’s atmosphere and the snowpack in various place. Ocean water holds a great deal of heat, and that heat is transported around the planet via the conveyor belts that flow around the continents, down to the colder depths and up again to the surface, helping the temperature of the planet stay stable.
Warm water expands and spreads out, becoming more buoyant. Colder water is less energetic and sinks to lower depths. As the planet is constantly turning in its orbit around the Sun, the water of the ocean moves, flowing from place to place, gaining more energy and getting warmer here, cooling off and losing energy there.
SO, OCEAN WATER TEMPERATURES CHANGE ALL THE TIME? WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ANYWAY?
The big difference is where the different temperatures of ocean waters are, and their effects on the air above them.
In what could be considered a normal year (between El Ninos or La Ninas), weather patterns will bring dry cold air to one location, colder moisture-rich air to others. Some areas of the globe are used to more warm and wet winters, or some very warm and dry. The Southern Oscillation has the potential to change things in a big way.
The warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean, usually in one place, allow the atmosphere above the surface to become heated, creating weather patterns that normally allow for other areas (such as the Americas) to experience what could be called a “typical” pattern. When an El Nino year(s) occur, the warm water moved to another place causes the atmosphere to behave differently, causing warmer summers and colder winters, or vice versa, depending on the warmer waters’ location and strength.
The discovery of the Southern Oscillation is responsible for dramatic changes in temperature and moisture over the course of many years’ time. There is growing evidence that past El Ninos or La Ninas are possibly responsible for cultures around the world experiencing good or terrible weather situations. If weather in winter in one location is usually cold and snowy, and – due to El Nino – are dry and warm, then that location will probably experience drought and lessened chances of growing good crops in the spring and summer, especially if El Nino persists. If a La Nina event occurs, and area that usually is
CAN THESE OSCILLATIONS BE STRONGER OR WEAKER?
Absolutely, yes.
(Info graphic courtesy: Accu-Weather)
If the temperatures of the ocean water are much higher or much lower than usual, the effects of the disruption of the atmosphere can be much more noticeable.
SO, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE MID-SOUTH?
Good question.
(Picture courtesy Accu-Weather)
Each El Nino or La Nina event is different, just like every day has slightly different weather, even if it seems to be very similar in nature.
Usually, in the Mid-South, we can expect strong storms to occur between late January and early May, and again late in the year towards late October and into late December. Occasionally, if El Nino is present, the Mid-South could see a major difference in storm pattern, number and behavior.
(Picture courtesy NWS/NOAA)
Storms could head much farther south than their usual trek from the mid-Rockies states through the Mid-South and towards the Atlantic Coast states. This could mean less rain for us and stronger drought conditions down the line in the Mid-South area.
The above temperature map is an estimated forecast from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center for the months of July, August and September 2014. The Mid-South (Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee) reside just at the top of the light brown color, indicating that – according to this model run’s forecast – temperatures will be slightly above normal for most of the area. Not exactly major heat wave territory, but noticeable when the summer numbers are collected.
Bad news for farmers along the Gulf Coast, as the precipitation forecast appears drier than normal from Texas to the Florida panhandle. The chances of precipitation appear to be close enough to normal to forecast a standard amount of rain for the Mid-South region, neither above nor below expected limits.
WILL THIS YEAR’S EL NINO BE AS BAD AS 1997-98’s VERSION?
As of now, there’s no real way to tell. Forecasts are not that accurate where long range El Nino or La Nina effects are concerned.
SO, EL NINO IS ALL BAD, RIGHT?
Not necessarily.
As moisture is diverted one way or another, areas that depend on rainfall – such as agriculture or construction or water management or recreation – that receive little if any rain in a given season as part of that area’s normal readings can be pleasantly surprised (even inundated) by more moisture than is usually seen.
THIS IS ALL A GIANT GLOBAL WARMING CONSPIRACY THEORY!!!
No, it most definitely is not. This phenomenon has been tracked and studied over several decades and is becoming more and more understood as more data is collected and more effort is given to studying the numbers. Theories have developed connecting El Nino or La Nina with the climate over time, explaining why some civilizations rose and fell due to the changes in weather patterns. It has been proven to exist. It has been correlated with other effects, including population growth, crop failure, amount of hurricanes forming, amount of dust in the atmosphere… If there is one thing that the Southern Oscillation can be called, it is most certainly not a conspiracy theory.
STAY TUNED FOR MORE…
We’ll keep you advised on the potential of an El Nino season as it develops. Stay tuned to News Channel 3.
Austen L. Onek, AMS Meteorologist / Station Scientist
WREG-TV News Channel 3
Memphis, TN, USA
THE GREAT METRIC FORECAST EXPERIMENT OF 2019
In March of last year, trying to come up with new and interesting science/math related Twitter polls to feature on WREG Daybreak weekend news, I decided to poll people to see if they would be interested in one – just one and only one – forecast to be done in metric temperature measurements rather than the usual English units. The response was about as expected.
What follows was a typical response… (all spelling & syntax sic)
Dear Austen,
I am amazed at the response you received regarding “metric” weather forcasting. Perhaps there are a lot more out here like me who did not even know until today that there was a poll on the subject. I would absolutely vote NO. If you want to use metrics in your forecast, even once a day, you should show the NORMAL forcast numbers at the same time. I feel the same way about “metrics” as I do our English language. If someone moves to this country, they should learn to speak, read and write English as well as learn our mathematical system. We should not have to conform to THEIR language or metrics. If we go their countries, we have to learn their language, and they must do the same or stay home!!!
I know these comments will not do any good, but please note there are a lot of us who feel the same way.
Thank you,
[Name Withheld]
For those still asking: yes, I did one – just one and only one – forecast in metrics as the poll numbers ran slightly ahead on the “Yes, do the forecast in metrics” selection over the other two choices of “No, don’t do the forecast in metrics” and the ever-popular “Don’t care either way”. As promised, I did one seven day extended forecast in metrics. Many responses of “It’s just not American” were met with “Why is that?” from me. A small percentage chose to respond to my Why? with a repeat of their Not-American choice.
None of them were able (to my satisfaction) explain why they thought that way. It just wasn’t done, and to even suggest using metrics for anything was to invite scorn, contempt, ridicule and cries of “Traitor!” or “Communist!” to the comment section. The cries of foul play from some viewers were devilish in their nature, suggesting my eternal soul was at stake for doing such a thing. There were, by contrast, some supporting statements, but none as dedicatedly staunch as those who compared using metric measurements to an erasure of culture or a government takeover by some shadowy cabal overseas.
The only thing – seriously – that I was trying to accomplish was a gauging of the attitudes of Mid-Southerners (or whomever wanted to participate) of what they felt regarding the metric system, but also to apply the idea of “Why”.
Well, admittedly… it was not entirely the only reason. The “why” of it bothers me. Fear of an imminent hostile nation’s attack, I can understand. Fear of a numbers system <as> an attack? At what point do people fear numbers so much that they have to alter reality to comfort their ideas?
Oh yeah… right….
To this day, I cannot understand the fear generated when the idea of using kilometers instead of miles is brought up, grams vs. ounces, millimeters versus 1/32 of an inch, nor can I understand the double-standards applied when you have two liter bottles of soda readily available at the grocery store, yet not a soul (to my knowledge) lifts a finger to complain via phone or e-mail to the store management that <gasp!> metrics have found their way into a true blue American grocery store!
<<<Five Massive Screw-ups That Wouldn’t Have Happened If We All Just Used the Metric System (Gizmodo)>>>
I am seriously considering another metrics episode in the near future, after another poll to engage the public on their views. Doubtful that anything has changed within the last year to swing the needle towards a positive view of metrics, I would like to be able to bring the idea of metrics to the public attention, mostly for my own selfish benefit: please – beyond the idea that metrics means a foreign takeover of the United States – help me to see where the fear is coming from.
I do not get it in the slightest. I don’t think I am being thick or misunderstanding it. I think that the attitude is ingrained in the national infrastructure of thought, passed down from generation to generation, in that These Here United States are not supposed to work with the rest of the world but set the standard for everyone else.
Conversely, if nearly every other country on the planet uses this cursed system of math, it doesn’t mean that we have to do it because we are the United States. This circular, vicious-circle logic gives me a headache, and makes me want to fight harder to get people, especially students, to understand that they are just numbers and nothing to be afraid of. The two-liter bottle of root beer is 0.528344 in gallons. Doesn’t two liters (easily divided into milliliters) make more sense mathematically speaking? Why do we not have 0.528344 gallon bottles instead, if metrics is such an existential threat to our country’s livelihood and future?
Anyone?
Stay tuned for the potential of another metric forecast in the Mid-South future. Poll to be (possibly) posted on Twitter.
AO
LINKEDIN OP/ED: NEWSCAST CONSULTANT
Newscast producers with time to fill (especially on weekend newscasts or when news coverage is decently quiet) should consider more science/astronomy/STEM stories which are usually readily available packaged from various non-network media outlets. What are you able to feature that is different and unique that your competition stations are not? What is there available that your station could be covering that the other stations won’t? What are the latest findings from the landers/probes on Mars? When is the date of the next meteor shower? What are the latest efforts in teaching computer coding – younger or older students – for new career choices? What can you, as newscast producer, station weather anchor/meteorologist, or news director do to raise the number of science-related stories on your newscasts?
If your meteorologist/weather anchor is a station scientist (see link below to American Meteorological Society’s station scientist page), or at least up to date on the subject presented in the pre-weather segment package, the story can precede the weathercast with some engaging chat time between news and weather anchors discussing the topic for the benefit of the audience. Willingness to include varied topics as often as possible on newscasts can lead to increased interest from the viewing public, especially if the other stations in the market do not already do this. Setting your newscast apart by featuring something new and interesting instead of the latest standard feed packages can start to increase viewership on-air and give your digital teams more stories for online sources.
If you are a weather anchor/meteorologist that wishes to both increase your station’s science content and visibility in the local market, suggest to your news director or newscast producers to consider the positive effect that more stories of this nature would have on the station’s standing, especially on those days where news may be light on the ground.
https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/information-for/professionals/station-scientist-initiative/
Meteorologist Austen Onek 