[hellepardo]

> This field pushes away the Van Allen Belts, a radiation swim-floaty that surrounds Earth's middle.

"swim-floaty"? I get what they are referencing, but can we really not come up with a better term than... "swim-floaty"?

[paledot]

That was my reaction as well. That's the point where I decided to stop wasting my time with the article, which is a real pity given that it's the second sentence.

I used to respect Popular Mechanics as the more technical and less overtly pro–military-industrial–complex cousin of Popular Science, but evidently they've fallen victim to the dumbing down of science too - not to mention the sensationalism, as evidenced by the headline.

[sundarurfriend]

I searched "swim-floaty" on DuckDuckGo, just in case it was a dialect thing, and amusingly this article is the first result, and seemingly the only one in the page that uses this exact phrasing.

[BitwiseFool]

I figured "Belt" is enough of a descriptor/visual, but apparently "swim-floaty" is the better choice of words. Go figure.

[sneak]

Belt is used already for the radiation belts, and I think this is referring to the equatorial toroid where those aren't.

[jrootabega]

It's popular mechanics. It's meant to get clicks from...a certain type.