Popular Mechanics Article: Total Rubbish

From: campbell@ufomind.com (Glenn Campbell, Las Vegas)
Date: Fri, 16 May 1997 17:12:25 -0800
Subject: Popular Mechanics Article: Total Rubbish

I finally got a copy of the June "Popular Mechanics" article on "the
new Area 51."

I have never seen such garbage in a national magazine!  In nearly
every paragraph there is a major glaring factual area.  Doesn't
Popular Mechanics have editors?

Nearly everything mentioned about "Area 51" is false.  There is no
obvious change of activity here.  The same number of workers park at
the Janet terminal.  There are no locked gates anywhere, except for
remote dirt roads that no one uses and that have always been locked.

The rest of the article sounds mighty weak, too.

The "Area 6413" mentioned is an AIRSPACE not a ground area. I looked
up R-6413 on a recent air chart.  It isn't even restricted except by
48-hour NOTAM (advanced notice to pilots). In other words, before you
could launch or land a secret craft there, you would have to tell the
world, HEY, WE'RE GOING TO USE THIS AIRSPACE IN TWO DAYS.  Is that any
way to run a secret base?

On the land use maps I have, the land under the airspace looks open --
mostly BLM and state land. You could go there to look around if you
wanted, but it seems to me it isn't worth the effort.  What's the best
way to find out what R-6413 is used for?  CALL UP WHITE SANDS AND ASK
THEM -- something the author apparently never tried.  (My guess is
that it is a rarely used missile launching area.)

I wish I had time to list all the errors in the article -- but the
list would be as long as the article itself,  It is a follow-on to the
previous article on Area 51 in Popular Mechanics.  I "helped" on that
one, but it was clear from the beginning that it would be a cheap
rip-off of articles by Popular Science.  This latest article can't
even aspire that high.

As the name implies, Popular Mechanics aims for the downscale
lawnmower market, so who cares about facts?

Glenn

+---------------------------------------------------------+
|    GLENN CAMPBELL - Government Disinformation Agent     |
|             "Who does he really work for?"              |
|                                                         |
| Area 51 Research Center            campbell@ufomind.com |
| Las Vegas Annex                  http://www.ufomind.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------+