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NASA On Full Court Press To Deflate Doomsday Prophecies
coondoggie writes "Insidious unknown planets lurking behind the sun ready to slam into Earth, supernova set to engulf the planet and giant, unseen asteroids screaming toward our globe are all theories espoused across the Internet as to how we will meet our demise on 12/21/2012. Do any of these theories even remotely hold out a scintilla of evidence they could happen? Not even remotely if you look at the material NASA has put out which pretty much debunks any and all of the notions being floated in across the cybersphere."
...we have NASA. I was really beginning to think it was The End.
In the event the world ends or the source is /.'ed here's additional linkage
Article links to a NASA video via YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QY_Gc1bF8ds
And NASA.gov has much the same information. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/yoemans20091110.html
There's 2 options here:
1. Everything is fine, no gobal apocalypse
2. There's something on the way that's going to kill us all, but if we tell you about it the whole world will panic and riots will stop the government getting itself to safety along with a handpicked few 'key' people
Either way - they'll say it's safe
And on that note, I'm going to hang up my tin foil hat
This hardly seems like it's worth NASA's effort. You already know that the loons won't be convinced by it. A press release consisting of the single word "NO" is all it should really take.
But it's also a great opportunity. Not on the 20th, but on the 22nd. When everybody wakes up, they say, "Wow, NASA got it right, and the kooks were kooks. Score one for science." It's nice to see science be able to just slam-dunk something without it getting balled up in revisionism, hedging, and accusations of malfeasance.
And if people learn just a little bit more about gravity, seasons, the solar system, and the galaxy, so much the better.
So kudos to NASA for seizing the day. "Proving that the world isn't ending" isn't really one of NASA's missions, but if it results in better support for NASA's real missions (both financially and in terms of having their results taken seriously), then I want to say "Good job" to their PR department. (Cheap, too!)
I'm postponing my doomsday-device test until December 22, just so I can laugh at those idiots who believe all that nonsense.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
They wouldn't deny it unless it were true!
Smart people know things that dumb people don't?
Remember, only 4 shopping days until the apocalypse.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
Eschatology is simply a matter of your particular brand of religion.
Every Unix user knows the world doesn't end until January 18th or 19th, 2038.
Mac users know the world doesn't end until February 6, 2040, at 6:25:15 a.m.
Windows users know that the world ended at the dawn of the Ballmerzoic Epoch in January 2000.
(I couldn't remember when the Ballmer Epoch began, so I asked Google and somehow got "Did you mean: when did batman take over Microsoft?")
Of course NASA doesn't know that the Vogons will destroy the Earth on 22 December 2012 to make way for an intergalactic bypass. They missed the notification. The Vogons will miss their originally scheduled date of the 21st because, as usual, the construction project is behind schedule. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Except that they could. Obviously they wouldn't have any warning before the energy front hit, but assuming they correctly understand the physics behind supernovae they can make a pretty solid prediction as to which stars are capable of going supernovae, as well as how close the resulting explosion would have to be to cause damage to the Earth. And none of the stars close enough to cause damage if they exploded is capable of doing so.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Whoosh.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
On NPR a while back there was an interview with a NASA scientist about the doomsday predictions. He runs the Q/A column "Ask an Astrobiologist" responsible for answering questions posed to NASA, which as of late have mostly centered around Dec 21st. He was incredulous that anyone would believe these stories, but as the same time took it very seriously; he mentioned that many of the people writing to him were of the younger generations (i.e. schoolkids) genuinely concerned about whether the world was going to end. This was the demographic that concerned him. One such excerpt -- "Though some of the questions may seem frivolous and outlandish, Morrison receives queries from people who are legitimately concerned and contemplating suicide. "Another extreme one ... I got was quite touching. It was: My only friend is my little dog. When should I put her to sleep so she won't suffer in the cataclysm?"
It's easy to dismiss the doomsday people as loons (and most are), but some of them are just kids so we should focus more on taking them seriously and helping educate them to understand that it's a myth rather than dismissing the entire thing offhand. This can be a very good opportunity to show the community that science > superstition.
Interview is at http://www.npr.org/2012/11/26/165928588/as-dec-21-draws-nigh-the-facts-about-doomsday
I hate you arrogant liberals.
You are welcome on my lawn.
We may not have to worry about supernovae, but a gamma ray burst is quite another thing.
As Phil Plait points out, we're practically staring down the barrel of WR-104!
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
...you can't fix stupid.
At least, not yet.
Unforgettably, NASA is wasting our tax dollars trying. If 6 to 12 years of public school education couldn't give them enough reasoning power, why would they believe anything NASA had to say? We've spent enough money on these idiots.
Personally I have no problem with the incredibly gullible running for the hills, committing suicide, or what ever it is that one does in preparation for the end of the world. As long as they do it to themselves. I see no upside of trying to convince them of their folly.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
If people are going to call Dec 21 the "Mayan Apocalypse," I'm going to start calling Dec 31 the "Gregorian Apocalypse" ... every year.
Yep. But yah know, if you listen to the wind you hear the same nonsense every year, often multiple times a year....
Yep!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
What you won't hear: