German astronaut Alexander Gerst, with the European Space Agency, “who is in orbit around the earth, posted a tweet that read ‘My saddest photo yet. From the International Space Station we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over Gaza and Israel.'”
Gerst’s little bit of politics (he tweeted no similar photo of fighting in Syria, for instance) backfired when Utah Valley University professor Michael Harper tweeted a reply, with a link to a pre-war nighttime space photo whose details and contours match Gerst’s.
Harper said they showed “the lights mainly of Tel Aviv, and as far away as Beersheba in Israel’s south.”
“Speaking to The Times of Israel, Harper said that it wasn’t necessarily the politics of the thing that bothered him – but the inaccuracy and ignorance it highlighted.”
No kidding. Next time, NASA, how about sending up an astronaut who can interpret space photos correctly. That would seem to be a minimum requirement.
Via Times of Israel.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 