1249: Meteor Showers

2013-08-09T08:11:37Z

Cybornut:

{{comic
| number = 1249
| date = August 9, 2013
| title = Meteor Showers
| image = meteor showers.png
| titletext = Remember, meteors always hit the tallest object around.
}}

This comic spoofs the way that astronomical events are often reported in the mass media -- events are often tagged with undeserved superlatives or described as being more dramatic than they actually are. In some cases, outright misinformation is spread. This phenomenon occurs in part the result of over-eager scientists, and in part because of journalists misunderstanding the subject.

Meteor showers, for example, typically occur regularly each year. Sometimes meteor showers are in fact likely to be relatively spectacular - for example when the peak of the shower occurs when North America is in darkness and there is little moonlight. However, even in these cases it must be understood that there is nothing unusual about the meteor shower itself.

Some of the meteor showers listed in the comic are real. These include the Quadrantids, Perseids, Taurids, Leonids and Geminids. Some of the showers are made up, for example Tricuspids (apparently a play on the tricuspid valve in mammalian hearts) and Dromaeosaurids (inspired, apparently, by the velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park; real-life velociraptors were members of the genus dromaeosaurus). The "Chelyabids" are a reference to the February 15, 2013, Chelyabinsk meteor whose explosion shattered windows within a large radius. The "Tau Pyramids" are probably a reference to pyramidal cells, a type of neuron in the brain that is linked to cognition. The "Geminids" may be a reference to the tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, who are sisters, though not, as the word implies, twins.

The "50/50 mix of meteors and shooting stars" listed for the "June Boötids" is a joke, as "meteor" and "shooting star" are synonymous.

The tag-line refers to the folk wisdom that lightning only strikes the tallest object in a given area. While this is often true, lightning will always follow the path of least resistance, and so might be drawn to a shorter metallic column rather than a taller rubber column.

The mention of "Region 2" is a reference to {{w|region locking}}, a DRM scheme intended to limit media to certain areas. DRM of course does not apply to natural events. But ironically, meteor showers are also geographically restricted, and the visible area might roughly coincide with a DRM region. Further irony is that "Region 2" is actually Europe, Middle East, Egypt, Japan, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Greenland, French Overseas departments and territories, meaning that it's not strictly geographical, much is the mess that is DRM.

==Transcript==
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1249: Meteor Showers