How to ruin a great accomplishment

Who's up for losing whatever residual faith they have in humanity? Great! Off to NASA's Google+ page, then.

We sent a robot to another planet and it took a picture of a comet. Naturally, this is cause for arguing about politics. And so much more! One of the comments:

Never except the masters tricks, people.

Of course it all goes on to discuss the President. In a post. About a robot. On Mars. Can the sane, civil people have their own internet now? We promise to be nice.

NEVERMIND So that guy who said he'd solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper? Add him to all the others who turned out to be mistaken. So says the Independent, anyway.

Turns out the DNA evidence isn't as tight as it seems, and the match to the blood on the victim's shawl could be many people. INCLUDING THE ROYAL FAMILY! In case you're still hanging on the idea of some syphlitic royal working out issues with the Masons, or something.

MUSIC Scariest film scores. Can music inherently frightening, or is it all context? "Rite of Spring" is rather terrifying, I think. Psycho? Well, if you scored it for flutes and slowed it down a bit, and you had no idea it was supposed to accompany shower stabbing but called it Bad Day at the Skating Rink, it wouldn't be scary. The author cites the "Alien" score, which works in strange ways. The opening theme, for example. It's sufficiently unnerving to fill you with dread before the first letter in ALIEN appears. You go into the movie knowing it's going to be frightening, so you're reading anticipatory dread into the sounds, but it's so remote and cold it takes you right into the place where no one can hear you scream. It's the sound of being a billion miles away.

DON'T DO THIS Anyone who's written a book knows the sting of a bad review. Oh yeah? you think. And what have you accomplished, other than sniping at the work of people who actually finished a book? It's irritating, but you mend yourself and tell yourself there will always be carpers and pickers of nits. And then you figure out a way to find out where the reviewer lives and go their house to confront them. That's the best part!

Why are you looking at me so oddly?

Of course, no, I didn't do that, but one author did - and wrote about the experience in the Guardian, a confession of such horrible bad judgment that reading it is an exercise in the gradual loss of control over the muscles that keep your jaw from falling open.

The secondary stage: blogs detailing the fallout to the story, and picking apart some key details. The MEGO factor increases 10X here, because we're getting into an online community, with all its petty eddies and log-rolling and outsized personalties. This site - which I have no reason to believe isn't coming to this like everyone else, as a stranger to the author and the reviews in question - start to disassemble the original story. I mention this only to give you an idea how confusing this can be to outsiders:

Hold on. Stop the GR Bullies it itself a bullying site that bullies people who want to stop bullying reviewers? And a bad review is now bullying?

VotD The most nerve-wracking part of launching a ship? Launching a ship.