THE END IS NIGH… or, not

You’ve all heard it.  The end of the world is coming on December 21st, 2012.  The Mayan Calendar ends, the planets align, the Earth will flip it’s axis, Nibiru is going to crash into Earth, a solar storm so strong it’s going to burn us all alive, and the plus side of it all, no more mortgage.

Of course, this is all true if you believe non-factual, no-evidence, apocalyptic theories.  Here’s an article debunking these theories straight from NASA:

2012 – A Scientific Reality Check

11.10.09

On December 16, 1992, 8 days after its encounter with Earth, the Galileo spacecraft looked back from a distance of about 6.2 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) to capture this remarkable view of the Moon in orbit about Earth. Image credit: NASA/JPL There apparently is a great deal of interest in celestial bodies, and their locations and trajectories at the end of the calendar year 2012. Now, I for one love a good book or movie as much as the next guy. But the stuff flying around through cyberspace, TV and the movies is not based on science. There is even a fake NASA news release out there… So here is the scientific reality on the celestial happenings in the year 2012.

Nibiru, a purported large object headed toward Earth, simply put – does not exist. There is no credible evidence – telescopic or otherwise – for this object’s existence. There is also no evidence of any kind for its gravitational affects upon bodies in our solar system.

I do however like the name Nibiru. If I ever get a pet goldflish (and I just may do that sometime in early 2013), Nibiru will be at the top of my list.

The Mayan calendar does not end in December 2012. Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period, but then – just as your calendar begins again on January 1 – another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

There are no credible predictions for worrisome astronomical events in 2012. The activity of the sun is cyclical with a period of roughly 11 years and the time of the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in the period 2010 – 2012. However, the Earth routinely experiences these periods of increased solar activity – for eons – without worrisome effects. The Earth’s magnetic field, which deflects charged particles from the sun, does reverse polarity on time scales of about 400,000 years but there is no evidence that a reversal, which takes thousands of years to occur, will begin in 2012. Even if this several thousand year-long magnetic field reversal were to begin, that would not affect the Earth’s rotation nor would it affect the direction of the Earth’s rotation axis… only Superman can do that.

The only important gravitational tugs experienced by the Earth are due to the moon and sun. There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and Sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

The predictions of doomsday or dramatic changes on December 21, 2012 are all false. Incorrect doomsday predictions have taken place several times in each of the past several centuries. Readers should bear in mind what Carl Sagan noted several years ago; “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, the burden of proof is on the people making these claims. Where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and all the passionate, persistent and profitable assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.

For more information on the silliness surrounding December 2012, see:

• http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/nutshell.html
• Wikipedia: look under “Nibiru collision.”
• http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Written by Don Yeomans, NASA senior research scientist

So, there you have it.  It’s all garbage.  Go see the movie if you will, but know that it’s “for entertainment purposes only” and if you take it for prophecy, you’re a fool.

Tied

Today I got all dressed up for a court appearance (contesting a speeding ticket).  Wearing nice shoes, slacks, button up shirt, and a tie.

Very uncomfortable.

With a mind as, well, how do I put it… empathetic yet controversial as it is, takes this dressing up versus uncomfortableness thing and tries to make sense of it.  I try to put myself in the “the man’s shoes” and figure out the reason they came up with their jackass ideas.  I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Why couldn’t “the man” (whoever he was, or whoever the group was collectively) just think about all the people on a hot summer day and decide shorts and a t-shirt was the nice and respectful thing to wear at events such as court, places of business, or any other special event?  This is my conspiracy: They did it to piss me off.

So anyway, here I am, it’s hot out and I’m wearing an entire suit minus the jacket.  Uncomfortable as I can possibly be.

What a stupid idea.  Why can’t we be more like India where their nice attire is comfortable and breathable.  Like the Kurta:

I vote that this country takes on a new endeavor to challenge this practice and blow this custom out of the water.  The Kurta would be an improvement, but I like the shorts and a t-shirt idea much better.

Who’s with me?

Stupid Monkey

I need no source links here.  Just look on any news site, channel, paper, what have you… You’ll read or see a bunch of people up in arms about this cartoon:

People are saying it’s racist and an outrage.  Especially the likes of Al Sharpton and those people that supposedly fight against racism.

Problem is, if these people had an ounce of intelligence in them, they’d realize that this cartoon is not racist against Obama.  It’s not even racist.

The quote in the cartoon says “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” while showing a pic of a shot down monkey.  There are several inaccuracies when relating this to racism:

• They are comparing the monkey to the person who wrote the bill.  Sure, that would be easily translated as racism if a black person wrote it.  But… it was Nancy Pelosi who wrote it.  Last time I checked, she’s an old white lady.  Obama didn’t write it, he just signed it when it finally made it to his desk.
• Knowing that Nancy Pelosi wrote it, immediately assuming that the cartoon was aimed at Obama is an immediate racist act on it’s own just by assuming it was an attack on one’s color.  Al Sharpton, you are the one calling Obama a monkey.
• Relating a monkey to our brothers from different colored mothers is widely out of date.  We should all know this, especially after 8 years straight of comparing, name calling, sh*t talking, and defamating George W. Bush.  If anything, this cartoon could be considered as racist against white people since monkeys have now been referenced in regard to GWB and, when reading the cartoon intelligently, Nancy Pelosi.

In fact, here’s just a snapshot of what referring to a monkey has been for the last 8 years:

You now, besides the redneck white supremicists in the backwoods of our southern states who have no national voice, people of the United States have honored Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream and left racism behind us.  The people who have not left racism behind us are people like Al Sharpton, who still think the world is out to get him because of his skin color.

You want equal rights and eliminate racism?  Stop this bullshit and fight for something that is actually still an issue.  Why not be pissed off about someone insulting Nancy Pelosi’s or congress-in-general’s intelligence or making fun of the woman who had her face ripped off by a monkey?  Or, better yet, stop trying to put your burnt-out self back in the spotlight and just let it go.  Your work as an anti-racism activist is done, and has been for quite some time.

Now, Sharpton is trying to get the New York Post shut down for publishing this cartoon.  Yup, that’s real smart.  Let’s see… You misunderstood the cartoon, don’t have the intelligence to see who the cartoon was actually aimed at, and want to shut down a company forcing hundreds of people into the unemployment line in spite of a legitimate issue out there – our economy.

Who knows, maybe Nancy Pelosi wrote Sharpton’s speech and we’re all just sorely misunderstanding his statement.

Can’t we all just get along?

Idiotic Conspiracies, Vol. 1

When I woke up this morning, I did my usual routine – put my robe on, let the dog out, grab some breakfast.

I usually eat cereal in the morning.  My wife just bought a bunch of cereal and I found myself with choices, Cocoa Puffs or Trix.

Staring at the boxes, I couldn’t help but notice: Using the colors, one could relate Cocoa Puffs to the heterosexual rainbow, versus Trix to the homosexual rainbow.

I’m not knocking either “preference”, but the similarities were eerie:

I couldn’t help but wonder if General Mills is subliminally targeting certain audiences for specific products of theirs.

Needless to say, I chose the Cocoa Puffs.  Not because I’m a homophobe (which I’m not), but more for the fact that I really like the conversion to chocolate milk in the end.

Mmmm… chocolate milk…