Its orbit is elliptical, meaning it does not follow a circular but rather an oval path.

It is currently approaching the point where this oval orbit is nearest to the Earth.

Gotta love the generic term “oval”. From the latin word for egg (ovum), it’s a rather generic word for a squashed circle and is often used to describe an ellipse in common speech.

However, that’s where the “dumbing down” comes. The ellipse is a precise term used to describe the shape of an orbit (like that of the moon) – it is the bounded case of the conic section produced by the intersection of a plane and a cone. It has two foci, and can be described by a clear mathematical formula: (x/a)^2 + (y/b)^2 = 1.

So why use the rather inaccurate “oval”, especially since you’ve already used the words “ellipse” and “elliptical” earlier in the article? Where’s Kepler when you need him?

At the same time, the crescent Moon will eclipse Venus and, if you watch the Moon at sunset through binoculars, you will see an occultation of Venus by the Moon.

What? It’s not an eclipse! It’s an occulation! How can you manage to refer to the same event twice in the same sentence, make them appear like separate events, and then get the event description wrong one time out of the two?!?!?!!?

And so stand up Roland Pease for one of the poorer pieces of science writing I’ve seen in a fair while:

(talking about quantum encryption – the quote is from Gilles Brassard of Montreal University, but the text that follows isn’t!):

“Because of that, one can have a communications channel between two users on which it’s impossible to eavesdrop without creating a disturbance. An eavesdropper would create a mark on it. That was the key idea.”

In practice this means using the ultimate quantum objects: photons, the atoms of light.

What?! The “atoms of light”?? Huh???

The photon is a quantum of electromagnetic energy, which is regarded as a particle with no rest mass and no charge. I’m unsure how this is anything like an atom.

Grrrrrrr.

(PS: next time you drive along there, note that the Bus Lane also has cycle and taxi signs, and hope your employer takes note of your lack of driving skills and the good impression you have made on their behalf).

Ooh – by the way, this may work or not – I’m probably currently doing 125mph in a train between York and Darlington – wifi on the train, and it works too (fairly well – sketchy in places, but better than nothing).