Given that I am a science writer of a certain age and that the mere mention of my blog incites boredom in this much younger and technically hip community, all of whom, know doubt, are able – in a way that I am not – to tell the difference between a seven-transmembrane-helix G-protein-coupled-receptor and an hole in the ground (see? even my scientific metaphors are old hat) I entreat my dwindling readership to hie immediately to this excellent blog from my friend Mr C. Z. of Connecticut and ignore my own arse-dribbling … continued on p13 of the Galloping Grannies supplement, below the advert for mobility scooters
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I, Editor by Henry Gee
This is the Nature Network and therefore Terribly Extremely Very Serious foothold for Nature Senior Editor Henry Gee. If you want fun and games, visit http://cromercrox.blogspot.com/
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All the Zees, from Zimmer to Zivkovic
- Date:
- Wednesday, 25 Mar ch 2009 - 11:04 UTC
Clear the sidewalk in seconds with the new Dalek-O-Matic™ from Bad Mob Scooter. Metallic paint, wheel-scythes and death ray as standard.CarlZimmer along to your stockist now. Or, really, whenever you can manage it, dearie, we’ll wait. Just please don’t die on the way… excuse for a contribution. Posterity will view Mr Z., for it is he, to have been almost the greatest stateman of this or any other era, so his views on the current flamewar between science bloggers and regular science journalists are worth serious mastication.
You will no doubt be aware of two things. Well, I’m sure you’re aware of more than two things, but now you’re here, please put down that copy of Nature Chemistry with that fetchingly empurpled cover and listen up.
The first is that science journalists at newspapers are disappearing faster than a very fast thing. The second is that the science blogosphere is up in arms, and possibly legs (it’s hard to tell on the internet)
at what they see is the poor quality of mainstream science journalism, and that it’s blogosphericus ueber alles all the way up the cyberpipes.
Mr Z. shows – convincingly, I think, that despite the color of newsprint, the matter is far from black-and-white. For example, newspaper sales have been declining for decades, so when the credit goes all crunchy, specialist correspondents are first to go. But that doesn’t mean that excellent science journalism isn’t done by more generalist news correspondents. In fact, I’d say that some of the very best mainstream science news comes from correspondents with a broader experience than just science. They can put the science into context, whereas science-specialists can fall into a kind of old-fashioned boffin-bothering that sometimes seems irrelevant to current concerns. As one of the commenters on Mr Z.‘s post says, the science journalists, such as they are, do their best, but their copy is often at the mercy of news editors and subeditors, who have different agendas – a problem that generally doesn’t present itself in the blogosphere, where one has greater freedom to say what one likes (provided that Frank says it’s OK, OK? – Ed)
On the other hand, bloggers can get a bit hysterical about what most people would see as small errors. In that way, bloggers have many of the attributes of fandom, including a passion that sometimes transcends reason. For example, you’d be amazed to learn that some Tolkien fans get seriously worked up about the eternal question of whether the balrog in The Lord of the Rings had wings or not. Seriously. That’s just the internet for you.
A Balrog, which, believe it or not, is a work of fictionTo be sure, accuracy is vital, but as Mr Z. says, one tends to see bloggers home in on errors rather than commend the majority of mainstream journalism for its accuracy. In other words, bloggers can be as driven by sensationalism as anyone else.
However, what caught my eye in Mr Z.’s post was his quote in this article by Geoff Brumfiel in your favourite journal beginning with N from another friend of mine, a Dr B. Z. of Chapel Hill, NC.
- You get a press release that is slightly rehashed by somebody in the newsroom and it goes in the paper! It’s wrong, its sensationalist, it erodes the public trust in scientific endeavour.
I’d like you to home in on those two words I’ve highlighted in the quote above from Dr. Z., for the matter of press releases is an elephant in the room – a matter concerning which too few people pay attention, and yet which turns out to be vital – vital, ladies and gentlemen – in the current brouhaha.
As I am sure you’ll realize, journalists are bombarded, and I mean deluged, with press releases all the time, for all sorts of things – book releases, openings for exhibitions, bun-fights, baby showers, fisherman’s balls, the latest pronouncement from the European Commission on the Bathplug Diameter Regulation Directive, the launch of the latest plurdle-free grommet-nadger’s scrode, whatever. Almost without exception, these press releases are recycled before they are read, or, as we’re in the Age of the InterSurfTubes, the bored recipient presses the ‘delete’ key.
One reason is that press releases are often sent with very little discrimination, rather like those cold-calls you get for double glazing or new kitchens, usually when you have just got Gee Minima into bed and want to read her another wearisome episode of Harry Potter and the Fissure of Sylvius. The recipient will conclude that the dissemination of such press-releases is regulated by a controlling intelligence no greater than that of a free-spawning sea anemone.
The second reason that press releases are held in such low esteem is the prevailing view that any bozo can write them, so what you get is some young deb called Candida Albicans who’s on work experience in her Daddy’s PR firm who gets to write the press releases because nobody else can be bothered – writing press releases is seen as something for very junior staff. I’m afraid to say that publishers and science journals (present company excepted, naturally) can and do fall into the same trap.
So, what happens? A busy journalist on a deadline gets a press-release that hasn’t been checked properly, and, up against the prospect of
opening timea deadline, finds a short news-brief to fill. Just the thing that can be plugged by regurgitating a press-release. Yes, I know, it shouldn’t happen – journalists should always check their information independently, but, hey, time is pressing, the scientists didn’t return that call or email before press time, and, well, put it this way … I used to write the press-release for Nature, long ago, and often saw my words come back at me over someone else’s byline.So, perhaps when the industry regards writing press-releases as a craft every bit as important as journalism, fact-checking, sub-editing, picture research, administrative support, and everything else that makes a newsroom run, we’ll see a general improvement in some aspects of reporting.
I conclude with a joke, which I did all by myself, though with a nod to a well-known magic-lantern production.
Q: What kind of science journalism do you have here?
A: Oh, we’ve both sorts: Zimmer and Zivkovic.‘Ba-boom’, and moreover, ‘tish’.
Last updated: Wednesday, 25 Mar 2009 - 11:04 UTC
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Comments
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Henry – you’ve hit a big nail on the head here. Of course press releases have to make the point as dramatically as possible, otherwise they will be lost in that immense flow you describe. But even so they need to be factually correct or science is hoisted on its own whingeing petard. (Can you have a whingeing petard? Sounds painful.) It’s important that either we employ PR people with suitable scientific qualifications, or get releases fact checked by people who know. (I rarely see the press releases for my books, for instance.)
P.S. Most PR people I know are called Sam, Susie or Tanya. I haven’t spotted a Candida in the wild yet.
is this post missing a picture of a free-spawning sea anemone? Enquiring minds etc. etc.
Enquiring minds also want to know what press are released from.
1. My free-spawning sea-anemone picture kept not appearing in this post. So I
eatededited it.2. Wapping.
Henry, I’m glad you blogged about this:
Also, as this was published in Nature, I am surprised that there was not more discussion here on NN – the good article about science blogging and journalism that is now spreading around the blogs
… so that I can get on with my own bloggy agenda. Phew!
Harry Potter and the Fissure of Sylvius is my favorite of the Hogwarts neuroanatomical adventures.
Thanks, Kristi. After that we’ll try the next one – it’s called Harry Potter and the Organ of Corti – did you hear about it? We just finished Harry Potter and the Crypts of Lieberkuhn, an enormous tome that takes some digestion, though the ending is quite gut-wrenching.
Everything will come together in the next installment, Harry Potter and the Circle of Willis.
A welcome relief after the sentimental and syrupy Harry Potter and the Islets of Langerhans.
Sir, I bow to thee. A timely point well made… and an excellent addition to Kristi’s post as well.
But… I’m still worried about those small institutions that have good, interesting science going on, but no PR department…
p.s. sooo…. does a Balrog have wings?
David Crotty touched on a similar point recently… which helped, if I can remember back as far as a few days, to put science blogging in perspective.
But, wait – so do Balrogs have wings or not? Ah, I see Steffi beat me to that question. See, this is what people wonder after reading this post.
Also, I put up a short little snippet from the interview we did at Science Online 09 over here . It took me a while to find that photo – I knew it existed, so I did a Google image search for your name, but that gave me mainly pictures of crocs and puppies and other weird things.
Oh, you are assuming I was quoted correctly? ;-)
But you have a point. And at least here in the USA, the Journalism school graduates who want to specialize in science reporting are realizing there is no place in mainstream journalism so they are getting jobs…writing press releases for universities and companies! So, we can expect the quality of writing of press releases to go up as these youngsters replace the usual old hacks that have been writing press releases for decades.
Balrogs DO have wings, apparently. Now we can move on to another pressing matters, such as:
Captain Ahab: did he have OCD?
Outlandish Cetacean Desires? Sure he did.
@ Brian: It’s important that either we employ PR people with suitable scientific qualifications – this now appears to be happening, something that Bora discusses in his comment above, and which Geoff delves into in his article in some detail. This could be a good thing … sort of. But as Fiona Fox, Director of the very successful Science Media Centre in London says (quoted in Geoff’s article), ‘We are successful because of a serious problem in journalism, and it’s not one to be celebrated’.
It reminds me of trends in book publishing. Once upon a time, editors in publishing houses could spend time developing an author’s ideas. Now, editors are more like product managers, and the development has been devolved to agents and increasingly the authors themselves, who must come up with material that’s ready-to-go before publishers will take them on. So it is with journalism, in which in-house reporters are going the way of the dinosaur – or becoming more like news editors, getting copy in from PR fims and syndication agencies.
@ Kristi: I do so agree about Harry Potter and the Islets of Langerhans. Pure schmalz. Harry Potter and the Ampullae of Lorenzini, though – that really gets under your skin.
Your own post on this, to which Steffi alludes, asks the question – it seems to me – of balance. Are science blogs more or less balanced than MSM? Or do they wear their biases more on their sleeves, more like editorials than pure reportage? That distinction – between editorial and reportage – is not as easy to make as it used to be. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad. Just sayin’.
@Steffi: thank you. You can get up off the floor now.
about those small institutions that have good, interesting science going on, but no PR department
Good point. It could be that scientists in such places have to cultivate their own media contacts … but this will detract from time spent doing science. Perhaps such institutions might see the value in getting their own in-house PR. All those journalism-school graduates looking for a job…
@Stephen: I did see David Crotty’s post, which I thought rather good, if somewhat dismissive. He’s very snide about NN, isn’t he?
@All. The argument about whether balrogs have wings will surely run and run, but I disagree with Christian – according to the latest research by the most eminent scholars, balrogs are wingless – or if they had wings, they’d have been purely decorative, like Superman’s cape, and not useful for flight.
@ Eva – thank you for that musical expose – how is the project going, as a whole? On the music news, the credit crunch is affecting musicians in North Norfolk rather badly, as the pubs we play in are closing down!
Henry, I have no time! I have a list of people (about 20 by now) to talk to, and everyone is so supportive with suggestions for people I could interview, but in the end I need to find time to actually talk to them, and all I do is work and sleep! Should be better after April 4, and then there’s the long Easter weekend to catch up on stuff so I can send out a bunch of e-mails.
which I thought rather good, if somewhat dismissive. He’s very snide about NN, isn’t he
Bloggers as dismissive or snide? Get OUT!
Henry, apparently you’ve forgotten that spacious and sweeping saga, Harry Potter and the Sinus of Morgagni. Not to mention the adventure set in a magical underwater maze, Harry Potter and the Foramina of Luschka.
Clearly titles for Gee Minima’s birthday list! I was intrigued by Harry Potter and the Columns of Sephadex. Almost Lab-Lit, I thought.
… and I’ve just pre-ordered the latest, Harry Potter and the Loop of Henle. I think it’s about a werewolf who gets cured, except for a residual passion for devilled kidneys.
LOL! Anatomy eponyms are perfect for Harry Potter titles. Perhaps we should collate a list for Maxine.
I explained to the students last week that my neuroscience background is in comparative vertebrate neuroanatomy and development, rather than in proper medical neuroscience. I told them that because of this, I occasionally get invited to lecture on the Neuroanatomy of Magical Creatures, at Hogwarts. Then I showed the photo my friend took at Platform 9 and 3/4: their professor, catching the train to give her lecture.
Last year, I awarded 5 points to Gryffindor, during the same lecture.
I just wanted to really quickly share a thought I had over making dinner (aren’t those the best?): we all (science journalists as well as science bloggers) just need to bloody get over ourselves. Once we do that, all will be good (well, eventually. maybe.).
@ Kristi – I can tell you were avoiding the low-point in the series, as was I, but it needs to be said. We have to clear the air. Confused, rambling and grotesque, reading Harry Potter and the Bursa of Fabricius feels like one is staring for hours up a chicken’s backside, looking for an egg that never comes.
@ Steffi – I hope you enjoyed your dinner – and can you clarify what you mean? I am intrigued.
Oh, yes, Henry … that one was awful. And the movie version earned mere chickenfeed at the theaters. More than just a peck-cadillo.
I’m rather fond of the account of the young Gryffindors’ exchange year at the Haarpititz Wizarding School near Amsterdam, Harry Potter and the Canal of Nuck. And then there’s the rambling post-modern road story of driving on Muggle streets and highways in the London area: Harry Potter and the Artery of Adamkiewicz.
Slandering Harry Potter and the Bursa of Fabricius like this is just fowl. I found it to be the darkest and most intriguing of all – while some of the prose shifts fast back and forth, like a weather-cock, between feather-weight and brooding, I found it spoke directly to the quail in me.
Henry: I mean it’s time for a dialogue, instead of each group claiming that they have the only True Way and slinging mud at each other.
As usual, I’m a little lost. Are you (And Mr. Zimmer, presumably) considered a journalist or a blogger in this particular context?
Or are you (as I suspect) joyfully slinging mud at whatever moves?
P.S.
Have you ever seen Superman flying WITHOUT his cape? Maybe it’s not “purely decorative” after all. He might have a smallish pair of wings under it. Not useful wings, of course. Decorative wings. Like a balrog’s. Or a cat’s.“if they had wings, they’d have been purely decorative, like Superman’s cape, and not useful for flight.”
@Steffi and John: you’re both right, of course. And I think that’s what CZ was getting at. MSM and blogging serve different needs and audiences, but their relationship is changing as MSM try to survive in changing climes. I’ll think more about this when I’ve had breakfast. And John, don’t get me started or I’ll have to do my Baltic aerodynamics tutorial.
@Kristi and Bora: as a complete contrast there’s Harry Potter and the Striae of Retzius – brief and pithy, you can really get your teeth into it. Something to chew over.
Baltic → Balrog. Damn predictive txts.
At the breakfast table, Gee Minima has just thought of Harry Potter and the Bora of Zivkovic. I really must order that one from Amazon, it could be the best yet.
At the breakfast table, Gee Minima has just thought of Harry Potter and the Bora of Zivkovic. I really must order that one from Amazon, it could be the best yet.
Enquiring minds also want to know what press are released from.
Huh? Oh. Intracellular stores, I thought.
No, Amy, that’s just calcium. Do please try to keep up.
As for the more serious questions raised by John C above – well, I think the best bit about Mr Z.‘s blog post was its balance and fairness. Mr. Z. is well known for his objectivity. However, there are a few things more I’d like to add, which I hope will go some way to allaying John’s unease.
On confronted by the electric light, the astute candlemaker doesn’t fight back with more and bigger candles – he embraces the new technology and relauches himself as an ‘illumination solutions conssultant’. Mr. Z. and I were both print journalists back in the day – there was no other option – but as MSM looked at their declining sales and saw a future online, we were both carried along. Mr. Z. has been a successful and influential blogger for some time now, and I find blogging much more enjoyable than print journalism. For me, at least, the two activities are complementary. The problem that news media have with online is trying to make money out of it, which is extremely difficult.
History shows, however, that the most successful online businesses tend, in general, to be spinoffs from businesses that are already successful – in other words, they already know their customer base and what they want. This, I think, is the nub, crux, centre and girrafe of the problem – blogs and MSM will always be separate because MSM use them as an extra feature to retain existing customers rather than to raise revenue – and independent bloggers don’t do it for the money anyway.
I’d be interested in Dr Z’s view of this, as he is, I guess, in the epicenter of this parrticular earthquake.
Has anyone read Harry Potter and the Great Vein of Galen? It’s a cerebral account of mining for valuable alchemical ores, deep in subterranean channels.
Perhaps it’s worth making a list for McSweeneys? “If J.K. Rowling were an anatomist”?
Henry’s comment above raises the issue that I suspect accounts for some of the mud-slinging between journalists and bloggers: money. How much are you willing to pay to read something, and in what contexts will you relinquish your money? Even when I was
poornot very comfortable financially, I was willing to pay for books, magazines, and newspapers. I still purchase books and subscribe to magazines, and buy newspapers when I’m in a city that has decent ones. In the context of blogs, I’ll relinquish my money for defined charity projects, such as Donors Choose. I read several knitting and craft blogs (which are refreshingly free of whingeing, btw), and those bloggers typically sell patterns, yarn, and other items online. I happily support such endeavors with my dollars, and have been very pleased with the items I’ve purchased in this manner. As a naive youngster, I tried making money by selling some of my crafts and artwork, and it strikes me as a bloody difficult way to make a living; more power to those who can be successful.However, I have not, and don’t think I would ever, just send money to a blogger as a donation. Nor would I buy them anything through Amazon.com or whatever. I’m certainly not opposed to charity (I donate money, time, and auction items to various causes frequently), but I’m not going to contribute to blogger charity.
Further discussion of Harry Potter and the Eponyms of Anatomy might take place here . Kristi has a point – what makes us pay money for things, and what gives us pause? I think people pay money for things if they perceive it has value, either because the thing (a publication, in this case) is perceived as essential for one’s well-being and/or it is perceived as somehow authoritative, and/or it conveys information in a timely manner that might otherwise be hard to find. Peer-reviewed journals fulfil all these functions. I guess some blogs do that, too – but as most of them are things we can live without, and are likely to be partisan, we don’t attach any monetary value to them. Things can be sold from blogs, other than the blogs themselves, but I only know one case in which a blogger has raised any kind of money or donation to support their blogging activities. I know there are more, but they usually fulfil one of the criteria above.
I came to say something intelligent, but I forgot what it was. I am now thinking of The Incredibles and of “X of Y”-named science phrases. Neither thought is leading anywhere.
As soon as I clicked away, this popped in my head: “Harry Potter and the Son of Sevenless”
You know you want to read it!
This morning I was reading my print copy of The Nation, and there’s an interesting article entitled “Philadelphia Rising”, by independent journalist Robert Eshelman, which describes community responses to proposed closures of public libraries. This story is important, IMO, and not just because I’m a fan and patron of public libraries; it reveals related information about the economy, and about the function of libraries as intellectual and community centers for impoverished citizens in large American cities. Impoverished people who can’t afford to own a computer, and who live in public housing or ramshackle buildings where parasitizing your neighbor’s WiFi isn’t an option, even if you did have a computer. IOW, people who aren’t necessarily going to get the information they need from blogs.
Was this story about Philadelphia public libraries covered by bloggers? The only library blog I read is the one for the Prelinger Library, so I don’t know … perhaps Frank can help on this one? Although I have WiFi and multiple computers at work and at home, I found out about the response to proposed Philly library closures, as well as the importance of these libraries to the people, in an article in traditional print media.
@ Eva – that’s brilliant! The whole universe of Drosophila genetics suddenly opens up.
@ Kristi – very interesting. In the UK the role of public libraries is less and less that of a book
suppositorydepositorygrassy knolllending service, and more of a community centre, partly for the reasons you describe. I’m not sure whether the population of people who regularly borrow books from the library is growing or shrinking, but I suspect it’s ageing. Cromer is a rather poor, down-at-heel place, and the library offers a lot of public information, computers and so on. It’s a kind of day-centre for the silver surfers. They have a member of staff whose job it is to bring people in, especially children – I’ve been roped in as a storyteller from time to time. I guess that if the local council thinks the library isn’t being used enough, they’ll close it down.Hmmm, I want this book now – it contains the details of all of this
Holy Caruncula of Santorini, Batman!
@ Henry – My direct, recent experiences with US public libraries (in San Antonio and in Houston) indicate a similar community center function. There are queues for the computers almost every time I go to my neighborhood library, but there are plenty of people checking out books, and reading newspapers or magazines as well. There are storytellers for children, and notices for book clubs or community issues meetings. The library closest to my house is quite new, and meeting rooms were built into one small wing; there’s also a community park, and an outdoor meeting space under the spread of a huge live oak tree. San Antonio has a fairly large retired/senior citizen community (particularly retired military), similar to parts of Arizona and Florida, and patronage of the public libraries reflects that.
Harry Potter and the light-harvesting apparatus
Sorry, I’m just editing a phytoplankton modeling paper {groan}
Is the phytoplankton modeling dressed or in the nude?
Nude phytoplankton. Oy, that it’s come to this.
Bora: can you add to the discussion about MSM vs blogs and our attitude to them in terms of revenue generation and peoples’ attitudes to this? Of all the people I know, you’d be best placed to say useful things on that subject.
I have been collecting all the responses here so I can have them in one place as I slowly think through and write a ginormous blog post on the topic! Patience, please… ;-)
I dribble with anticipation.
Is the phytoplankton modeling dressed or in the nude?
If it only was that exciting.
It’s all a matter of your point of view. The other phytoplankton might be quite interested.
When you find the time to put away your copy of Harry Potter and the Synaptic Cleft for a second, I would like to draw your attention to a blog post by the esteemed blogger A. P. (and friend of Bora Z.) who a few days ago wrote so eloquently about Scott Hensley, one of the true ‘good guys’ leaving WSJ and Health Blog. Scott Hensley is one of those science journalists that also happen to be a wonderful science blogger, just one example where the distinction journalist vs. blogger falls short.
Oh, and for some good reading on health care (often related to science), look at the 2008 health care journalism awards that were announced today.
Thanks for your valiant effort to get us back on-topic, Martin. Yes, A.P.‘s article kills two birds with one stone. First, it shows that there needn’t be a clear difference between print and online journalism. It also demonstrates a business model that can work in e-publishing, if it’s something you want badly enough.
Some perspective though. All of us here make up a strongly
Self-selected group . Most people have never even heard of blogs. You may be surprised to learn that most of my editorial colleagues at Nature rarely even look at blogs, let alone comment on or write one.
PS I couldn’t work out why Scott Hensley is leaving WSJ. Is he another victim of the cull on specialist writers?
I can only think that Scott Hensley wanted to start something new. For the time being, you can follow him on Twitter. Which has a crowd that is even more self-selected.
Apologies, I couldn’t seem to post to the other site. “Harry Potter and the Anatomical Snuffbox”
“Harry Potter and the Golgi Apparatus”
Wow! Nigerian spammers are moving from e-mail to blog comments, even here where one has to register first!
Watch your Facebook accounts, folks!
We ran a great Futures story about Nigerian spam. You can find it here (Nature 436, 1206: 2005)
You have to admit that they are getting more and more sophisticated. Some of their new stuff reads almost like poetry:
I will like you to send me your full details like
your full name,
Telephone number and fax number,
your work
and address were you will like them to ship this trunk box to.
Well, as you can see, the moderators have hidden the spam comments (at my request), leaving only the poetry cited by Cristian.
Like the Cheshire Cat, leaving by degrees until only its smile is left.
Finally here! It took two weeks to think, collect and read links, and write
That’s great, Bora! I shall go there straight away, read it, and pepper it with rude comments. Comments, anyway.
Finally got around to reading this post (and the copious comments, although rapidly).
I hate “science by press release”. In the human genomics field, we see a lot of this – labs that tie up with companies for collaborative projects (possibly including a beta-test of a new technology, or more likely a re-jigged old technology that now works, sort of). Somebody sequences some genome of questionable interest, and press releases that they’ve done it.
Of course, there’s no primary publication, no data, and no details on the methodology used, so it’s impossible to ascertain whether the experiment was scientifically useful or not. But more often than not, it trickles its way into the scientific literature (or editorial pages) as a sort of repechage way of publishing.
Particular culprits – GenomeWeb news, which is a de facto method of getting into the printed pages of Genome Technology (which is, it must be admitted, most emphatically not a peer-reviewed scientific journal).
Argh. Makes me want to go back to working on worms, or something.
Fancy doing some grunt data entry? Over the weekend I’ll be typing loads and loads of measurements of Ice-Age bison bones, some of which I took more than 20 years ago, for the purposes of collaborating on a paper tthat seems just about to happen after a decades-long dormancy
Sorry – come to this very late.
Re. press release journalism, I heard a discussion of this point on the radio the other day. Someone (call him John) had issued a press release and it was duly reprinted in one news magazine. Then he was called up by a journalist from another place who explained that he wanted to run with the story, but since the other magazine had already printed the exact text of the press release, please could John rewrite the press release! John did so and the second magazine duly reprinted it. Incredible.
Re. public libraries, I am not sure about Philadelphia libraries, but I have seen Tweets and blogs about threatened closures in the UK – Wirral and Swindon in particular.
Frank – that story about press releases is incredible. Many years ago when the world was young, the (now former) Editor of Nature, John Maddox, who was an old-fashioned newspaperman, was very strong on journalists not acting as the unpaid PR agents of the people whom they interviewed. Clearly, things have changed.
By the way – it’s just occcurred to me – shouldnt’ those be “Zeds” and not “Zees”?
You’re quite right, Richard.
Help! Help! I am the Victim of Cultural Imperialism!
I think Zees is appropriate, since they’re both in the US. Anyway, ‘Zeds’ would look funny. Don’t be so picky, Richard.
I will defend the “Zed” to the death, Steffi, especially when used by
Norfolk cootsBritish people.HumoUr, me, ok?
Methought I would fain use the title All the Z’s from Zimmer to Zivkovic an it appeaseth all parties. Although in my youth I was fond of maintaining the older style, and staunch in its defence leapt ywrake. But latelye have I adopted a more ‘transatlantic’ mode, without conscious intervention. But I do not mind – else where would we stoppe? Zounds! One might as well have our fair tongue Englisc yclept, and re-introduce those runic barbarisms of yore from thier well-deserved obscuritye.
The Shibboleth of Ëditor
Eru! It’ll be Laws and Customs among the Ëditórë next. (Those who aren’t seriously, and I do mean seriously geeky Tolkieniastes should talk amongst themselves).
Perhaps Bora will pen the Twitterlindalë next. Or perhaps Of Bloginor and the Two Zees?
At this point I should refer one to the Reduced Silmarillion Company while Elvish leaves the building.
It’s no good, Henry; you’ve gone and introduced the subject- just how aerodynamic ARE balrogs? I was wondering exactly how large the “Great Eagles of the North” must have been in order to carry off the company of “The Hobbit”, and what they could possibly be feeding on in order to maintain that kind of size, as well as apparently maintaining a fairly good sized breeding population of their own.
(Or were you thinking of the aerodynamic qualitys of bald bloggers?)
Right, you’ve gone and done it now. The full exegesis can be found in The Science of Middle-earth (in the proverbial All Good Bookshops) but the basic argument goes like this.
I maintain that Balrogs don’t have wings, for two reasons.
The first is literary. Whenever any of Tolkien’s creatures have wings, he explicitly mentions them as having wings – eagles, Nazgul-birds, dragons and so on. In fact, he makes a big deal that the dragons of the First Age generally don’t have wings. Glaurung (the adversary in the Tale of Turin) is wingless, but Ancalagon the Black does have wings. No mention of Balrogs, however, whether in The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion or the various papers in The History of Middle-earth explicitly mentions Balrogs as having wings. They do move very fast, but so does Superman – and he doesn’t have wings, either.
The second is scientific. Suppose Balrogs did have wings, what would they have been like? From rough calculations based on the inferred size of Balrogs (man-high to about twice that) and the spread of the wing-like ‘shadows’ described in The Lord of the Rings we can calculate the aspect ratio and wing-loading of Balrogs – the aspect ratio would have been huge, the wing loading tiny, suitable for a sailplane or glider – something that could only have flown very slowly, quite unlike the furiously fast ceatures we know Balrogs to have been from their description in The Silmarillion.
It’s magical Henry. Aspect ratios and wing-loading don’t enter into it.
But I like the rest of your reasoning.
Magic Schmagic.
Magic is only science that we don’t yet understand.
Thank you, Arthur C. Clarke.
But – if there’s a scientific reason Balrogs could exist, I’m all for it (as long as they’re a looooong way away from me, of course).
Not balrogs, but eagles – back in the Miocene there was a kind of raptor in Argentina called Argentavis magnificens, the largest flying bird ever known, probably quite large enough to have shifted a couple of hobbits or a half-starved wizard.
“Science is but one of the doors to the inner workings of the Universe…and it may be a side door, at that”
Blaylock