Ah yes, that's why people are generally wary about talking to the media: to (poorly) quote The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "much of what they write is apocryphal, if not wildly inaccurate".

Let's count the dodginesses in the newspaper report from the Herald yesterday:

1. 'Tania had the white stuff'? Apart from being a dodgey pun, it sounds like I am doing cocaine or something.

2. I didn't have a "very white festive season" at all. The ground was made of brown rocks and dirt on Christmas day, as usual - Davis is located on one of the largest ice-free areas of the Antarctic landmass. Because only 3 or 4% of the continent is not permanently covered in ice, the fact it is not white here makes it very interesting indeed. However, saying "Tania can honestly say she had a dusty Christmas in a station that looks like a mining outpost" does not live up to the stereotypical expectations of Antarctica.

3. Eighty-four is the total Davis population. There were less people here at Christmas due to several parties working out in the field, staying at other bases or camping out overnight. But this is just a small carelessness compared to the mistakes coming up.

4. There is no "team that services and maintains magnetometers". It makes us sound like an atmospheric-sciences version of Lube Mobile or something: We're on call for all your magnetometry needs! We deliver to all seven continents!

5. Davis is not Australia's most southerly outpost. It is the most southerly permanently-manned Australian station, but we have equipment and field camps further inland.

6. IT IS NOT the "small changes in the earth's magnetic field" that cause all the destruction listed in the article. It takes a huge solar mass ejection of particles that slam into the earth's magnetic field to wreak that sort of havoc. This is a classic example of a reporter making something up, because he doesn't understand what he's talking about and he figures most of his reading population won't either.

7. Lastly (and most nitpickingly) we didn't eat outside, just retired there after dinner to drink champagne and stuff. Just another misquote that pales into insignificance with respect to the science reporting. However he had a run of mistake-free paragraphs at the end of the story so I suppose he had to sneak one in at the end to balance it up a bit.

Oh yes, there's also a point 8: Lloyd in the photo is not the helicopter pilot! He and I are sitting in the back seat of the chopper. I think the journo saw the headset and made the rest up. If you take a moment to look you will see I am wearing a headset as well. If you take another moment, think about where the camera would have to be, if it was taking a photo of the pilot and front-seat passenger. The camera man would have to be hovering about two metres infront of the windscreen. Not to disparage cameramen (or Damon who actually did take the photo) but I assume that it's not something they'd do voluntarily. Well, if they're all on cocaine in Antarctica, maybe they do some pretty crazy things down there.