this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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[–] 133arc585@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What a horrible source. This is really shit reporting.

They've hyperlinked the word "hot dogs" to another article on their site titled "Hot dogs sold as ‘vegan’ dogs at Tel Aviv Hanukkah event".

They've also spent part of the article estimating the average hot dog size, converting it between units, and converting the reported asteroid size into hot dog units.

All of the section headers are lame hotdog based puns.

This whole shitty presentation adds nothing to the article. It's distracting. In fact, if you take out this bullshit, the article is really only a couple of meaningful paragraphs. And while there is absolutely value in comparing an asteroid size to a daily object (say, "the size of a car"), there is absolutely zero value, perhaps negative value, in comparing an asteroid size to a collection of sequential hot dogs, or two superbowl trophies.

I could somewhat understand if NASA themselves where putting out press releases with these weird comparisons: that would be a somewhat playful and innocent way to increase public interest. But when it is coming from third-party sources, who push it way past the point of playfulness into absurdity, it loses any value.

Also, unless I'm missing it: they don't even link to a NASA statement. So it's pure editorializing without linking to their primary source.