Posted on 07/10/2011 11:13:53 AM PDT by smokingfrog
Renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan once described a "baloney detection kit" — a set of tools that skeptical thinkers use to investigate any new concept. A few of the key tools include a healthy distrust of information that isn't independently verified, critically assessing an idea rather than becoming irrationally attached to it simply because it's intriguing, and a preference for simple explanations over wildly speculative ones.
The waxing obsession with Nibiru, which conspiracy theorists say is a planet swinging in from the outskirts of our solar system that is going to crash into Earth and wipe out humanity in 2012 — or, in some opinions, 2011 — shows that an astonishing number of people "are watching YouTube videos and visiting slick websites with nothing in their skeptical toolkit," in the words of David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
Morrison estimates that there are 2 million websites discussing the impending Nibiru-Earth collision. He receives, on average, five email inquiries about Nibiru every day.
"At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday," Morrison told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com.
What's the origin of this mass panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn't exist?
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
That is because it can only be seen from the lower hemisphere. It can only be seen just before dawn. However, this will change to the upper hemisphere in very late August early September.
It should be visible around September 10th of this year. When we have a good look at it then the debate (for the majority) will be over.
Looks like I can hold off repainting the house.
It's no mystery, if you look at climate history. The AGW folks keep talking about "the warmest temperatures in 150 years". Well, that's easy to say, because 150 years ago, we were coming out of the Dalton minimum, which included the LOWEST temps since the Middle Ages. But the MSM never mentions that part, because it's clear that humans didn't cause the last climate swing, so it would cast suspicion on the supposed human causes today.
What kind of “act” should we being doing?
I know a group (((hug)))) should do it. :D
Baloney! There are no "mixed indicators."
Something is happening? What?
There's nothing happening except a massive propaganda program by the marxist enviro-commies to rob America and the rest the developed world of its wealth. These would-be Luddite communist tyrants cannot stand the thought of free and independent people.
We can start by making me king of the world and letting me tax everyone. Then I can hire the brightest minds to come up with a solution.
Well if the epoxyclips is coming, I’m sticking up on 3 in 1 oil.
Not me...I'm flying down south for some wings and a couple of cold Newcastles...
If Morrison were to apply a modicum of skeptical thinking to the subject, he might realize that plenty of people are following this purely for the entertainment value.
In a similar vein, that's how many scientifically-inclined readers treat articles that appear in Nature magazine, Scientific American, and the like...
No our Astronomers can see it from the Southern Hemisphere. I know we have various telescopes all over South America and even Antarctica to view the sky we cannot see in the Northern Hemisphere.
I’ve come to believe the biggest disaster to befall the world in 2012 would be the reelection of 0bama.
I believe the origin for the idea of Nibaru can be found in Zecharia Sitchin’s books. Another name that’s been assigned by a few renegade astronomers to such a hypothetical planet with an elliptical, cometary-style orbit is “Nemesis.”
If you want to read cosmically catastrophic scenarios for the current configuration of the Solar System, try the ideas of Walt Thornhill and his friends over at Thunderbolts. They’ve updated Velikovskian ideas with more up-to-date electrodynamics. Couple that up with a free hand in the interpretation of legend and you’ll find stuff that can curl your hair.
The idea of another large planet which has yet to be found in trans-Plutonian orbit is more widely accepted; it’s used to explain some of the orbital eccentricities of the outermost observed planets.
All is mist for the grill; I do fall out of lockstep with Sagan, though, on his assertion that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs. Its unthinking acceptance can impede the progress of science; witness what happened to Flieschmann and Pons...
You should see some of the paranoid rants on youtube about it.
Search for, of all things, “planet X”, “tyche”, “Nibiru”, and.. get this, “herculobus”.
Your mind will melt from the sheer stupidity expressed therein.
hhhmmmmmmm........ Ray......... NO!
Hell, some people believe it is a brown dwarf star and will yank Earf out of orbit around our sun and carry us off to deep space. You’d think if this were really about to happen FEMA would be rounding up everybody with guns, it would be the perfect excuse to disarm the citizens.
I’m more worried about the Zombie Apocalypse since I live in Garland.
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