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NASA Attempts To Assuage 2012 Fears
eldavojohn writes "The apocalyptic film 2012 has dominated the box office, taking in $65 million on opening weekend. But with all those uninformed eyeballs watching the film, NASA has found itself answering so many common questions that their Ask an Astrobiologist blog offers calming, professional reassurance that there is no planet Nibiru, nor will it collide with Earth (although I do recall a massive solar storm forecast). NASA's main site even offers a FAQ answering similar questions. NPR has more on NASA scientist David Morrison and his efforts to calm the ensuing public hysteria, but survivalists are already planning for the big one. Pretty funny, right? Not according to Morrison: 'I've had three from young people saying they were contemplating committing suicide. I've had two from women contemplating killing their children and themselves. I had one last week from a person who said, "I'm so scared, my only friend is my little dog. When should I put it to sleep so it won't suffer?" And I don't know how to answer those questions.'"
The War of the Worlds (radio)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio)
Quote: "Some listeners heard only a portion of the broadcast, and in the atmosphere of tension and anxiety leading to World War II, took it to be a news broadcast. Newspapers reported that panic ensued, people fleeing the area, others thinking they could smell poison gas or could see flashes of lightning in the distance."
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
How many of those sending their questions to NASA are part of the 2012 movie marketing campaign?
Or just do what Penn & Teller did. Offer "2012 Reverse Mortgages". To paraphrase, "We'll give you a bunch of money to spend on whatever hedonism you like for the next 2 years, and in 2013, in the infinitesimal chance that it's still standing and we're still alive to claim it, we take your house!"
This is the first film I've worked on that caused actual general panic. Grudge 2 scared people, but it's actually a little gratifying to think that work I did is scaring people even AFTER they walked out of the theater. At the time we were making it I knew the whole black president/conspiracy thing was definitely going to push a lot of buttons, just considering the way things are right now, but to be honest, the whole scientific backstory of the film is so thin I never actually considered that people would genuinely fear a cataclysm as depicted in the movie. "Mutating neutrinos"... really?
ps. I was the lead sound effects editor on the show. Along with blowing up Yellowstone and other sundry destructions, I personally cut about 80% of the computer screen beeps. And I cut every one of them just for you guys, because I know you love them so much :D
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
You know if people are so stupid that they watch a movie and think that its, really going to happen, to the point that they are going to commit suicide, I say let them. we definitely don't need any more stupid people on this planet.
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
No NASA should respond with "Yes it's real and we need $1 trillion in funding to determine how to stop it" and then spend that on real research.
Stupid people raise stupid people.
Whatever the genetic component of intelligence may be, it is clear that environment and education make a huge difference. These kids would end up a lot smarter simply by being brought up by someone other than their stupid bitch of a mother.
The enemies of Democracy are
If that were 100% true, then children would always share the same religious beliefs as their parents, and I can tell you right now that I certainly do not share my parent's religious beliefs.
(No I am not going to tell you what my beliefs are or those of my parents, I want to leave this intentionally ambiguous.)
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
I remember from my psychology class that what religion you follow has no heritability, but how religious you are is at least partially heritable.
Also, Intelligence has a negative correlation between children and parents, at least according to Wikipedia.
And if the "ritual" have been performed in the right way (after some training of course) the planet never shows up. So you were right, weren't you. And so you are a real Mao Shan Master.
Apart from Judaism, they consider it inheritable on the mothers side IIRC.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
"That's a ridiculously low amount of money for an agency that's charged with a major component of our future and probably the whole future of the Earth and its inhabitants."
The scale compared to defense spending implies the amount of resources necessary just to keep humanity from destroying itself, before NASA can keep nature from doing it for us.
Funny part is I give NASA better odds, though the people in charge of our world's various militaries also have a lot of personal profit to gain and lose by ensuring general continuity of human inhabitance, so they aren't as likely to push the "annihilate" button as some might think.
wormwood can also be meant to imply poisoned or rotten. thats what (allegedly) makes true absinthe dangerous, in that pure wormwood oil is poison.
i wage a holy war against the apostrophe.
Absolutely.
Knowing nothing about science, astronomy, logic, or reality = ignorance.
Buying into the 2012 claptrap = gullibility.
Seeing an action movie and thinking it's real = stupidity.
I'm glad we could clear that up. (seriously though, I agree with your assessment that magical thinking is a cultural thing, and we should all have far less tolerance for it.)
Notice that in movie trailers whenever the death of an animal is implied (@ 1:34), they specifically show that it turns out the animal is alive, of course, in the same trailer they can kill oodles of humans. They go out of their way to show the animal is alive despite the fact that it can take away from the joke and waste precious 'trailer' time.
The 6 "days" of the creation are actually representative of 6 "creative periods" the duration of which has not been revealed, but is suspected to be between 1-2 billion earth years each.
That still doesn't make any sense, the bible has earth, daylight and plants made before the sun and stars.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
So despite living in a country completely dominated by Christian beliefs, to the point where even HINTING that a Presidential candidate isn't Christian is a viable campaign tactic, some people (such as the parent) will insist that Christians are persecuted and looked down on for their beliefs. For people who hold religious beliefs that are ACTUALLY in the minority, this is incredibly irritating and not a little bit self-promoting. And it's worth noting that a post filled with whining and putting words into other peoples' mouths, despite predictions of getting "modded into oblivion" is actually 3: Insightful as I post this.