Sunday, November 13, 2011

Good news! Killer solar flare won't destroy Earth!

 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45259420/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.TsCQ7D0b3eE

This article was about how the sun will not destroy the Earth. That and the apocalypse of 2012, and disproving the theory behind the so called doomsday. It first talks about the solar flares, and how it cannot be possible to shoot a 93 million mile solar flare towards Earth; it just doesn't have enough energy. Then It disproves another theory about how a body  four times the size of our current home, Earth, will smash our planet to smithereens. It has been named Nibiru, and is only a theoretical theory. This is because there has been no planet that has been identified as the Planet X, another name for the body. Then he ends the article with a quote of a scientist saying that there is no problems to look forward to.
The context of the article is the apocalypse, and the purpose of the article was to dissuade the audience that there is no apocalypse. The audience of the piece are people who know about the 2012 doom, and want more information about the topic. It also goes for non-believers as well. The author did a good job supporting his argument with actual information, usually a very good counter-agent against imaginary theories with no backing theory. The solar flare had some backing to it, but was countered easily by providing the information about other maxima flares and how there isn't enough energy, and Nibiru was countered by quoting a NASA scientist who has the credentials to be quoted as a counter. In terms of the triangle, he stated facts most of the time, so he used logos, and he also put in bits of quotes that were more informal to perhaps get to the reader more using pathos. He did not establish ethos. In terms of organization, he states the problem and counters it, then goes into what it could do for the flares, and how the problems that occurs isn't nearly enough to destroy the Earth, thoroughly refuting the arguments and the counter-arguments.
The Author, Mike Wall, has written a couple of science-related articles for msn, but he does not have a profile of information, but this was okay due to his use of quotes and support.

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