
Satellites glimpse ultra-powerful “black hole” whirlpools in Atlantic - ColinWright
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/satellites-glimpse-ultra-powerful-%E2%80%9Cblack-hole%E2%80%9D-whirlpools-in-atlantic-151036336.html
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lutusp
Quote: "The powerful vortices of current have been described as ‘maelstroms’
and are ‘mathematical analogues’ for black holes – which is to say they do
exactly the same with water that black holes do with light."

Perfect nonsense. I wish science journalists would research these claims in
advance of making them.

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aaron695
What scared me is it seems to originate from a MIT site.

I assumed some sort of prank?

[http://www.technologyreview.com/view/518416/black-hole-
analo...](http://www.technologyreview.com/view/518416/black-hole-analogue-
discovered-in-south-atlantic-ocean/)

~~~
lutusp
> I assumed some sort of prank?

I think it's a classic case of physics envy. Some scientists in a relatively
uninteresting field want to spice up their work by associating it with
cosmology -- with black holes, a topic that everyone recognizes. It's not
unlike New Age spiritualists who try to associate their beliefs with quantum
theories.

Comparing a maelstrom to a black hole is sort of like trying to explain
spacetime curvature using a ball rolling around on a rubber sheet -- it's an
example often used, but it's very misleading.

