Re: (fwd) Re: Worst YEC book ever

[klaes@mtwain.mlo.dec.D5NET.dec.com (IDC, MLO5-5/E60, Pole 9D, DTN 223-3283)]

        This story about the "preserved" pterodactyl is reminiscent
    of the hoax perpetrated by the New York Sun newspaper in the 1830s
    to boost sales in competition with another New York newspaper.  In
    brief, it was reported that a massive telescope erected in South
    Africa (sufficiently far away to keep most people from looking for
    it) had helped to discover a civilization of intelligent "bat
    creatures" on the Moon.  The story went on for several issues and
    hooked thousands of readers, not to mention boosting sales of the
    Sun considerably.  The hoax was not revealed until much later, but
    the public ate it up anyway.  Some things really do not change.

        Larry Klaes  klaes@mtwain.enet.dec.com
                     or - ...!decwrl!mtwain.enet.dec.com!klaes
                     or - klaes%mtwain.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com
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        EJASA Editor, Astronomical Society of the Atlantic

         "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it 
          hitched to everything else in the Universe." - John Muir