SIX, not Eight. Boneheads!

Oh great... now I will be counting snowflake points on the tv.

As a graphic design, ahem, I know we often get those images from stock or clip art. Not saying that's any better, but it's usually a matter of not paying attention & just grabbing what looks pretty, manly, aggressive, passive, or whatever the campaign calls for.

You are right though, we really should pay attention to the details.

Good eye.

Just wait! One of those politically correct idiots who has been campaigning against Santa being fat, Cookie Monster eating cookies and Christmas trees called Christmas trees, will probably come out soon with some reason why it's just wrong to have 6 pointed snowflakes. Probably something to do with the devil or some such nonsense.

When I first read the title I thought it was going to be about menorrahs (I think I spelled that wrong).

when i first read the title i thought it was going to be about III and ray and haggis and thunder and meerkat and ben

Snowflakes have points? They look like cotton candy to me.

Better get those eyes checked, Ray.

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment of the OP, the general public's knowledge of science is abysmal, it shows up in a lot of places, and even big-name news sources get things wrong. Here's one I did a screenshot of a while back, just because...
http://frontiernet.net/~benbradley/cnnorbit.jpg
"Space Ship One goes for orbit again" it says - no, the thing didn't ever go into orbit, it only went straight up about 62 miles (the accepted edge of outer space) and came back down. Going into orbit takes a lot more energy/rocketpower to achieve the seven-miles-per-second horizontal speed, and coming out of orbit back into the atmosphere takes a lot more heat protection that that thing has.

But it's like correcting common writing and grammar mistakes among the public, I think there IS progress, but it's excruciatingly slow. It only took two or three decades for the supermarket express-lane aisles to be labeled "10 Items or Fewer."
At least CNN has Miles O'Brien (a well-qualified reporter and private pilot whom I've always thought highly of) working for them, though he of course isn't there to check every headline put up on cnn.com.

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:

Better get those eyes checked, Ray.

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Don't you have a laser eye surgery auction coming up soon?

"Just wait! One of those politically correct idiots who has...."

How little you know. Eight pointed snowflakes are satanic. Those extra two points are Beelzebub's horns. They are of the devil... the devil, I say!

ok. maybe not.

For the correct answer I'd check Wikipedia. It's never wrong.

JJ

Maryn said:

It's hard to count them fast enough when they're falling across the TV screen, but if it's got points at 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clock, it's wrong.

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Great. Another thing to add to my list of things to be obessive compulsive about.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good advertisement.

Maryn said:

Every winter graphic designers and artists sprinkle print and TV ads with snowflakes. Some of them didn't pay attention in elementary school science classes, because year after year, there's an increasing number of snowflakes with eight points, not the six required by Mother Nature.

It's hard to count them fast enough when they're falling across the TV screen, but if it's got points at 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the clock, it's wrong.

TNT, TBS, Kohl's, Penney's, and Lowe's have gotten it wrong so far this year. (Lifetime, Macy's, and Target got it right.)

Maryn, who had to get that off her chest

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I understand, Maryn, they crossed the genetics with spiders for that 'creep' effect. The odd numbered points are the ones I find most disturbing.

my stars have 7 points...the 6 plus my head makes 7.

Perhaps our government's intelligence officers have been leading another foray into the scientific realm, for their long list of "Just So" stories.

I know this will make me sound like an idiot, but I have to ask--if you hold a snowflake in your hand can you actually see the pattern or would you need a microscope for that?


Salem, who has never seen a snowflake before.

...and three-leaf clovers are screaming for their due.

Salem Ollivander said:

I know this will make me sound like an idiot, but I have to ask--if you hold a snowflake in your hand can you actually see the pattern or would you need a microscope for that?


Salem, who has never seen a snowflake before.

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As long as the snowflake is individual and not in a clump of other snowflakes, yes, you can see the pattern with the naked eye.

I can't even imagine never having seen a snowflake. If I could send some to you, I would. Believe me.

I'm glad I never paid attention in science so things like this don't bother me.

Who knew snowflakes only had 6 sides? I always went by the theory, "no two snowflakes are alike."

Shadow_Ferret said:

"no two snowflakes are alike."

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Is this true? Wouldn't the number of snowflakes eventually outnumber the amount of possible patterns?

Salem Ollivander said:

Is this true? Wouldn't the number of snowflakes eventually outnumber the amount of possible patterns?

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I was told in science class the one day I actually attended, that snowflakes are like fingerprints. No two are exactly alike.

I don't know if that means in the same snowfall, in the same winter, or over the course of several billion years that it's been snowing on this planet though.