"Scientists Baffled" by Common Ordinary Thing
OK, it's still a very nice example of that common ordinary thing, but the only scientists who might be baffled by this are those who don't study the sky.
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I’ve probably mentioned before that I have a Google Alert set up for the phrase “scientists baffled”. About twice a day I get an email with links to the day’s articles in which an editor threw that phrase into the headline; apparently, after literally centuries of service in the press, it still draws eyeballs. It was used this weekend to (purportedly) describe the reaction of scientists upon seeing the above photograph, taken in Chicago, of a strange light phenomenon in the night sky. But were any atmospheric scientists actually baffled by it?