Headlines

Headlines used to be informative. A headline would tell you what the story below it was about. Now, it seems, too many headlines are written just to sucker you into reading the story.

Headline: We spoke with the astronomers who discovered the 'alien' megastructure to find out if it's fact or fiction

Reality: No one has discovered an alien megastructure. There is a star named KIC 8462852 that is 1500 light years from Earth. This star’s brightness undergoes “irregularly shaped, aperiodic dips” of as much as 20%. An alien megastructure around the star is one possible explanation for the dips in brightness, but there are also possible natural causes, so the star’s changing brightness is not evidence, much less proof, of anything artificial.

Headline: City of Sodom Discovered: Archeological find gives insight into story of destruction

Reality: It’s true. Archeologists recently discovered a buried city in southern Jordan, along with a large sign that reads Welcome to Sin City and a smaller sign that reads Sodom Chamber of Commerce. Just kidding! It’s true that archeologists discovered an ancient city that was long buried. But hasn’t this happened before – lots of times? Anyway, the director of the archaeological team says he believes the city is the Biblical Sodom. Take that news with a grain of salt.

Headline: Gigantic Buddha statue on Mars ‘proves intelligent life existed there’

Reality: There’s no statue of Buddha on Mars. There are only rocks. The real question is: does intelligent life exist on Earth?

And of course, there is the entire field of UFOs and the endless conspiracy theories about how “the government” is hiding proof that aliens are visiting Earth. Like this tantalizing headline:

A bronze pyramid UFO has appeared over Sao Paolo in Brazil – prompting fears that the aliens from semi-popular sci fi series ‘Stargate’ are invading Earth.

Wow – a pyramid shaped UFO! That must be something to behold. But then, buried in the article, we find this sentence:

We should also point out that the UFO was captured using a Nikon P600 zoomed to 60 times, so there is a small, but significant, chance the UFO is the size of a pigeon.

Which is more likely: the UFO is a kid’s drone, or the UFO is a craft from another star system? If you can’t figure this out (hint: the two scenarios are not equally likely), then there is a small, but significant, chance you wasted your time reading this post.