Arrival in Buenos Aires (Sunday, November 21/Day 2)

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

The plane trip from Miami to Buenos Aires was surreal. It barely felt like I was on an airplane. Except for take-off and landing, the sounds, the movements, the whole environment felt like I was spending the night in a hotel room with great room service. The 777-300 is so big that it doesn’t seem like you are flying. It’s just another day on Terra Firma.

But, I digress. This is about today.

We landed at 10:40 Buenos Aires time which we have calculated is five hours ahead of our home Pacific Standard Time zone. I say that assuming that Miami is in the Eastern Time Zone with New York. If it’s Central Time, then it is four hours. Something tells me that it might be four hours. I’ll leave that for you to figure out. The Captain warned us that it was hot (37-38 degrees Celsius) and when we stepped out of the climate controlled comfort of the plane, that proved to be an accurate statement.

We got through with Customs in a quick and efficient way with no problems and then made our way over to the Baggage Carousels. Flight 931’s bags began coming off an coming off and coming off. But not ours. Bob and I waited for many a cycle seeing folks gleefully pull their bags off the Carousel. When it became apparent after about a half hour of this (and the fact that the red light went on and the Carousel stopped), we went over to Baggage Claim as suggested by a helpful AA attendent.

After standing in line there for several minutes, the second AA employee had checked the system and told both Bob and I that our bags would be arriving TOMORROW from Miami. It was our good fortune that we will be here all day tomorrow (to get COVID antibody tests) as well as spending the night here before traveling as a group to Ushuaia where we will meet our ship, the “Seaventure.”

The next step was to go out and see if our hosts from Wilderness Travel were still there to deliver us to the Alvear Art Hotel, several miles from the international airpot. As I expected, they had long since gone, but the next wave of hosts was there and one of them took us under his wing. He first tried to see if his friend, a Concierge at the Alvear Art hotel could arrange a ride for us. When that didn’t work, he guided us to a Cab company and for 3000 centavos ($30) we got a ride to the hotel.

Since being here, we’ve started meeting fellow passengers (like Jim), Polar Latitudes staff members and Sarah, the Wilderness Travel rep in Argentina. The first person we met was the Polar Latitudes trip Ornithologist whom we saw again at Dinner this evening. I will learn her name tomorrow when the group gets together. She noticed that I was a photographer, which is a major complement as I still think of myself as a guy with some decent camera equipment.

I wandered up to the 17th Floor Fitness Room and did 25 minutes on the Exercise bike. while being conscious not to work up too much of a sweat as I don’t have any clothes to change into yet (remember that?). Took a shower and now am writing this account of the day. Bob has been resting and reading. Even if there was much to see and do around the hotel, it is hot without clean clothes to change into, I couldn’t convince the natural adventurer in me to go outside. There didn’t seem to be enough upside to working up a sweat today.

Tomorrow is when things officially get started and it starts feeling like this is really going to happen. I guess the anticipation is still going on!

Bruce