Why Do News Broadcasts Mix Up Arctic and Antarctic Wildlife?

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A recent NBC evening news segment featured a heartwarming story about a 15-year-old girl who took a ski trip to the North Pole with her father to raise awareness about the loss of sea ice in the Arctic. The girl plans to distribute a documentary of their trip to schools in the UK and the US. However, the segment faced criticism for including spliced footage of penguins, which are not native to the North Pole, leading to frustration among viewers about the accuracy of the news reporting. Some participants in the discussion suggested contacting NBC to express their concerns about the misleading footage. The conversation also veered into humorous exchanges about the absurdity of the situation, including jokes about Santa Claus and penguins flying, as well as playful discussions about language and food. Overall, the thread highlighted the importance of factual accuracy in news media while also showcasing a light-hearted community interaction.
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I just watched a heart-warming story on the NBC evening news about a 15-year-old girl that made a ski trip to the North Pole with her dad. They wanted to highlight the loss of sea-ice in the arctic, and she wants to give every school in the UK and the US a documentary film of the trip. So far, so good. The idiocy? The geniuses at NBC spliced in footage of penguins on an ice-floe. What kind of bone-heads are feeding the US public their news?
 
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D'oh! You should write them and complain. Maybe at least they'll removed the spliced in footage for reruns of the story.
 
LOL, give them a call and tell them Dr Turbo.
 
Dadburned global warming done messed up the ice floe drift patterns right bad.
 
Those of you who live in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific zones should tune in near the end of the NBC evening news for the howler.
 
Even the name should give them a clue since it comes from the greek for bear.
 
Moonbear said:
D'oh! You should write them and complain. Maybe at least they'll removed the spliced in footage for reruns of the story.
I tried searching their web-site and it's impossible to find a direct email link, so the whole story will likely run all across the US time-zones (with penguins). Idiots!
 
They may be flying penguins.
 
TVP45 said:
Dadburned global warming done messed up the ice floe drift patterns right bad.

Yep, they started getting too warm and headed north. :biggrin:
 
  • #10
wolram said:
LOL, give them a call and tell them Dr Turbo.
I didn't graduate from college, Woolie, and only got hired as a process chemist for a new high-tech pulp mill because I had been a soils and materials inspector during the construction of the plant. During my interview with the manager of the tech department, his environmental engineer popped in and complained that the pulp mill was going to shut down and they were going to do an acid boil-out of the Kraft digester, and the waste treatment plant was unprepared for the pH shock. I asked if I could chime in and the manager said "sure", so I told the engineer that the pH shock would be greatly diluted over time, and that he should spend the day pumping sludge (full of good bugs) from the clarifiers to the sludge ponds, along with liquids from the aeration basins to the sludge ponds, then when the pH shock had hit the aeration basins and had stabilized, pump the sludge back into the aeration basins to get the organic processes back in gear. The tech manager asked how I knew that, and I explained that I had worked on that waste-treatment plant and knew of all the valving/pumping options available, and my chemical training had given me a decent overview on buffering and pH. When I got back home from the interview, my wife told me "You go for a physical tomorrow, and you start Monday." Dr. Turbo, indeed.
 
  • #11
What's the problem? Everyone knows penguins can fly. Apparently some now migrate from pole to pole.

Here is the BBC video on penguin flight, released 26 days before the NBC story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrxmpihCjqw"
 
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  • #13
Astronuc said:
So - she didn't visit Santa Claus?
Santa was in Costa Rica sipping boat-drinks with Jimmy Buffet.

The elves were busy making "Made in China" stickers to put on the lead-based toys, and were unavailable for interview.
 
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  • #14
turbo-1 said:
Santa was in Costa Rica sipping boat-drinks with Jimmy Buffet.

The elves were busy making "Made in China" stickers to put on the lead-based toys, and were unavailable for interview.

:smile: :smile: :smile:
 
  • #15
turbo-1 said:
Santa was in Costa Rica sipping boat-drinks with Jimmy Buffet.
With the Easter Bunny? Or is that Peter Pan?

Those news folks make it awfully difficult to get feeback. Perhaps if one has an MSN account it's easier. They have a discussion blog on something they call Newsvine, or some such.

I have to wonder if they just sucker people into discussion forums so they can advertise at them (I'm using that verb transitively - :biggrin:).
 
  • #16
That's OK, someone verbified pizza earlier today, right?
 
  • #17
turbo-1 said:
That's OK, someone verbified pizza earlier today, right?
That was me. :redface:

I'm reconstructing the English language. I'm now testing it.
 
  • #18
How do you verbify pizza?
 
  • #19
Astronuc said:
That was me. :redface:

I'm reconstructing the English language. I'm now testing it.

As long as you get biscuit right I couldn't care what else you do :-p
 
  • #20
I will pizza tonight.

Will you pizza with me?


Let's biscuit the whole thing.
 
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  • #21
I may have to verbify chili, since those peppers are some of my favorite things. "I chilied my sandwich" or maybe "Chili that soup, please - it's too bland"
 
  • #22
Kurdt said:
As long as you get biscuit right I couldn't care what else you do :-p
A biscuit is a flaky, layered baking-powder-leavened pastry that melts in your mouth. Period.
 
  • #23
Astronuc said:
I will pizza tonight.

Will you pizza with me?


Let's biscuit the whole thing.
I say chili, you say chilie. Let's call the whole thing off. (Still saving some red habanero relish in case you can visit this summer...)
 
  • #24
turbo-1 said:
A biscuit is a flaky, layered baking-powder-leavened pastry that melts in your mouth. Period.

Argh! Just look up the etymology of the damned word. *goes mad*
 
  • #25
Or possibly chilify it, which works better than chilicize.

Of course, one could put it in a skillet and chilifry it.
 
  • #26
Astronuc said:
That was me. :redface:

I'm reconstructing the English language. I'm now testing it.
At least you don't have to construct and critique physical models for the degeneration of the language. You can just throw it out there and there will be no melt-down in the case of failure. :smile:
 
  • #27
Kurdt said:
Argh! Just look up the etymology of the damned word. *goes mad*
Don't go smad! Be glad!

I'm planning to consrv th' ltr e. It's way ovr uzd.
 
  • #28
turbo-1 said:
At least you don't have to construct and critique physical models for the degeneration of the language. You can just throw it out there and there will be no melt-down in the case of failure. :smile:
Quite right.

I have GW to thank.


GW = free entropy.
 
  • #29
Astronuc said:
Or possibly chilify it, which works better than chilicize.

Of course, one could put it in a skillet and chilifry it.
Just chill, bro, and we will have some food in the future that will make "chill" look like a distant dream. I've been dressing 'dogs with habanero relish, mustard, and jalapeno dill pickles, and now my wife brought home some really killer "Beer Mustard" to toss that all into a brand new mix. The same outfit makes some prepared horseradish that is very nice. How many condiments is overkill on a single hot-dog and roll?
 
  • #30
turbo-1 said:
Just chill, bro, and we will have some food in the future that will make "chill" look like a distant dream. I've been dressing 'dogs with habanero relish, mustard, and jalapeno dill pickles, and now my wife brought home some really killer "Beer Mustard" to toss that all into a brand new mix. The same outfit makes some prepared horseradish that is very nice. How many condiments is overkill on a single hot-dog and roll?
There's no limit on the number condiments on a single hot dog, as long as you can taste each one.
 
  • #31
Astronuc said:
There's no limit on the number condiments on a single hot dog, as long as you can taste each one.
I like that answer! That's my hot dog philosophy. I still have a quantum hot-dog problem, though. It relates to symmetry. Why does one component of a ball-park frank (the dog) seem to appear in groups of 8 while the complementary component (the roll) seems to occur in multiples of 6? If we can solve this, the TOE is just around the corner.
 
  • #32
Astronuc said:
I will pizza tonight.

Will you pizza with me?


Let's biscuit the whole thing.

:smile:

Okay, I found an email address for the nightly news (nightly@nbc.com) and sent them a short note about their error, suggesting they at least change it in the version on the website that will continue to be shown. Who knows if they actually read their email though, or how quickly they get to it.
 
  • #33
Moonbear said:
:smile:

Okay, I found an email address for the nightly news (nightly@nbc.com) and sent them a short note about their error, suggesting they at least change it in the version on the website that will continue to be shown. Who knows if they actually read their email though, or how quickly they get to it.
Once that gets through the lackeys, assistant-aides, aides, a$$-kissers, etc to the producers, it will be a moot point. The spot will air uncorrected all over the country. Ivan and Tsu, please watch NBC tonight and see if we still have arctic penguins! My money is on NBC-mandated arctic penguins.
 
  • #34
I JUST SAW THE PENGUINS!

Wow. Nice, NBC...nice.
 
  • #35
Thanks, lisab. I know that I am not crazy, but that clip was just out of this (rational) world. I'm certain that the penguins featured prominently in that 15-year-old girl's trek to the North Pole, if only the NBC producers could educate us dummies.
 
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  • #36
turbo-1 said:
Thanks, lisab. I know that I am not crazy, but that clip was just out of this (rational) world. I'm certain that the penguins featured prominently in that 15-year-old girl's trek to the North Pole, if only the NBC producers could educate us dummies.

It's a shame that she probably had some really cool footage they could have used, and instead they resorted to some stock footage, probably to avoid paying a 15 year old royalties.
 
  • #37
Good catch Turbo! I saw the news spot but didn't notice the blooper.
 
  • #38
Geez, guys. Try reading a book once in a while ... like Mr Popper's Penguins.

Hmmm, it turns out that was a children's fiction book, not a documentary. How depressing. :frown:
 
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