26 August 2004 - news story processing

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Processing Stages Of A News Story

1. Origin. “Current planetary formation models are still far from being able to account... we can only speculate... hence it is unlikely that... therefore it probably qualifies as a super-Earth and not as....”
2. Sound-bite filtering. “Super-Earth”.
3. Factual reinterpretation. “Balmier region... may be habitable.”
4. Prioritization. “No human interest—page 14.”

clue:

The quotes in the origin are from the scientific report of a newly-discovered extrasolar planet (by N.C. Santos and 15 other astronomers). The words under 3 are from a news story about it (honest!).

take oh take this clue away

the Daily Whale || copyright 2004, 2024 Jay J.P. Scott <jay@satirist.org>