From the comments: "No mention of the four comets currently in the Solar System. I'm no genius, but don't you think four electromagnetic balls of energy might have an effect on the Sun's magnetic field."

(In case anyone here isn't aware, comets are basically big balls of ice, not "electromagnetic balls of energy")

This comment makes me think that there is remaining ground to be covered in the "online commenting" field. Youtube comments, for all they are made fun of, do a decent job of allowing video authors to respond to particularly inane or confused comments and provide clarification. Those comments are typically then stuck to the top of the comment section, allowing other commenters to see the correction.

Perhaps a commenting system that allows scientific educators of various sorts to single out comments and write highly visible responses to them could 1) improve the state of online commenting, 2) increase scientific literacy among the general public.

I used to think newspaper comment systems were going to create more informed citizenry and that everyone would engage in Adult Discussions of Serious Issues. I tirelessly evangelized the gospel of reader participation at every opportunity.

I was catastrophically wrong. Most people are idiots, and idiots like to travel in packs. Sorry about that.

Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

Small correction, but I can't resist: Comets, like most matter, are electronically balanced electromagnetic energy balls, i.e. have no net charge* but plenty of charges. ;)

* Of course they can pick up a charge from, e.g. collecting solar wind... I'm not an astrophysicist so I can't say how big it would be.

Ah, technically correct... the best kind of correct.

I thought that was sarcasm. I went to wsj to see the context but couldn't find the comment.

Anyway, here are pictures of the aforementioned comets: http://www.universetoday.com/105834/weekend-comet-bonanza/#i...

I would donate to a crowd-funded thing that did that.

A scientific rapid response unit - finding and correcting errors in online comments, with links back to a blog that has a nice easy to understand article about the subject, with clear diagrams and examples.

The WSJ comment community is a) right wing and b) terminally stupid. I am not trying to suggest that the two are equivalent, but whenever there's a story like this 80% of the comments consist of dismissing global warming as a hoax.

You need something to counter the kinds of comments you find on Huffington Post or Democratic Underground!

Indeed the orioginal article comments do have a somewhat colourful selection from the walks of human life. Like yourself I like to read the comments and the linked article original comments before dipping in, but in this case nothing was easily added to the conversation, though I saw no spam or sdrawkcab level posts.