Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Maybe the Bad Astronomy blog should tackle this one
Joe Lieberman's communications director, Dan Gerstein, claims the sun rises in the West. Really.

The latest television ad by the Lieberman campaign shows a red sun hovering over the ocean in what is supposed to be the sunrise of a better day. The video they used is stock footage sold by Getty Images of a sunset on a beach in Santa Barbara, CA. When confronted with this fact, Gerstein said, "It's actually a sunrise. It's very much a sunrise." The sun rising over the ocean, when viewed from the West Coast, would be big news because it would mean the Earth had reversed its rotation over night. And, if the Earth can reverse its rotation in that short of a time without destroying civilization and most life other than a few types of thermogenic bacteria, it would mean Immanuel Velikovsky was right and the science guys all owe him a big apology.

Update: One of Lieberman's media consultants, Josh Isay, has decided to fall on his sword and say he purchased a video of a sunset, reversed it, and inserted it into the ad, all by accident. It could happen to anyone.

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