So, are we still alive?
(checks outside)
Hmm, beautiful day, a little nippy, but blue skies. The Rockies are still standing. The news sites are reporting on the Republican primary in Florida and Britney Spears, so clearly that’s normal.
But wait! My pwnage by Wil Wheaton got on both Fark and Digg and my server is still running! It must be due to TU24!
Feh.
So, let’s see; I said this would be a non-event. Others — specifically someone going by the moniker TU24dotORG claimed it would rain down death and destruction, going so far as to make videos, create a website, and even make up a threat level assessment (which, as I write this, is still at its highest setting):
And here we are, many many hours after closest approach, and nothing happened. Nothing at all.
Shocker. Man, I really really can’t stand the type of people who take a harmless event (or a non-existent one) and scare people with it. I still don’t know their motives; hoaxers, honest but misguided, or mentally unbalanced. But it’s clearly one of those three. Because, as I have said many times, they are most certainly wrong.
Now if I hadn’t been overrun with things to do (and suffering through a massive sinus attack right now), I would have posted making predictions about how this doomcrier would backpedal furiously when the time came… and passed. In all honesty, my first prediction would have been that (s)he would say something like "Give it some more time."
That is what TU24dotORG did. On the TU24 website, now 8 hours past perigee (closest approach) as I write this, it says:
For those who can’t read the image, it says:
For as long as TU24 is near Earth’s magnetosphere there is a possibility of disturbance. This website is not (and was never) about impact. If you’re wondering why “nothing happened” you’re counting your chickens too soon.
That’s right, you must wait for the consequences, because, after all, electricity flows so slowly it may take days or weeks for the effects to occur!
Yeah, right. They dare say something like that, after showing a video that had all sorts of dire consequences listed.
There is a link that goes to a section of that site with a discussion forum. It says:
This is about effect, not impact. There was never a real chance for impact. (Why do people continue to talk about it?)
TU24 will be tracking us for about 6-7 days, starting from the 29th. This is made clear on the front page of this website.
During this time there could be some effects.
I’m not sure what (s)he means about "tracking us". Does the asteroid have a gun, and it’s waiting in the bushes? What the asteroid is doing in reality is moving away from us at many miles per second. If anything were going to happen, it would have happened hours ago.
When someone (quite correctly) posts "Oh, please. The asteroid has been approaching us for weeks. Now, it’s past the point where it was closest to us. NOW you say there will be effects?" the website owner replies:
This is the last time I will answer this very simple question.
It is not about the closest approach date and time.
It is about TU24 being in our magnetosphere. (As per the video)
For now and the next several days this is a very real possibility.
That’s just plain old ridiculous. If the asteroid ever did enter our magnetosphere (it’s unclear; it depends on the exact shape of the Earth’s magnetic field at the time and the path of the rock) then it did so before perigee and stayed in there for some time. Magnetism doesn’t just hang out and wait a few days to make its effects known. Had this Electric Universe nonsense had any validity at all, the effects would have been immediate.
TU24dotORG was wrong. Totally and completely. It’s just that simple.
I’ll also note that replies are turned off on the TU24 discussion board for that thread. Hmmm.
So now I predict the doomsayers will backpedal more. The asteroid didn’t have an electric charge. It was charged, but it wasn’t a negative charge. It didn’t penetrate our magnetosphere deeply enough. Something from the Sun neutralized it.
Or they might go the Nancy Lieder route and point at every little thing as a sign from the asteroid: a storm over the central US. An earthquake in Turkey. A light bulb breaking in Piscataway. Their dog barked in the middle of the night.
Mark my words: there will be many, many excuses, but no apologies. And no doubt they will play up the January 30th encounter of asteroid 2007 WD5 with Mars, though again, nothing at all will happen.
There is one absolutely guaranteed truth out of all of this (besides that science was totally right and antiscience was totally wrong): they or someone else will be back. It will be the Sun’s new cycle, or the Mayan 2012 nonsense, or something pulled right out of thin air. I sometimes wonder if it matters what the event actually is. All that really seems to matter is that something cool happens in the sky, and someone, somewhere, has to soil it by using it to scare people.
Well, feh. When it happens there will be scientists around, people who will tell you the actual truth. And if there does come a day when something worrisome this way comes, we’ll still be there to tell you the truth.
That’s what science is, and that’s how it works. And it does work.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Thank you very much badastronomy.com
January 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Love your site, the science, the humor, the reality. However, I think you meant Jan. 30th for the date of the Mars rendezvous. Keep up the good work.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Mind you it did snow here, near Vancouver. We got about a foot, and it did start at about the time of TU24’s closest point…. Oh, wait? It was forecast a week ago.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’m just glad we are safe and I didn’t have to expend any energy worrying about it.
Instead of using the cumbersome “(s)he” pronoun combo, try using the word “xe”. It works for all occasions of literary gender ambiguity.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:17 am
you know, what you do here, on your website, I think it makes a big difference in the lives of a lot of people…Because of the way the world feels right now, everyone seems to be waiting for the apocalypse, it s just the way our minds react to post-post-modernism or whatever, lol.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to be the sane voice in the lot and helping me put things in perspective.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:20 am
I’m glad you kept me up to date with this ever-changing story. I never find this stuff for myself because I don’t look. When my students come to me asking questions I’m usually blindsided and have to make some standard retort. This time I was ready with names and timeframes so I could sound more credible.
I hope that you also keep us posted on the story as these folks tell it. That’s the part I never find out about. They make a lot of noise leading up to a [non-]event but then they fall out of public view immediately after their deadline has past.
BTW, my principal asked me about 2012 last week. Wonder if I should jump on this doomsday prediction so I can make a dollar, too?
January 29th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Whatt?….Nothing happened?…ok i just over prepared..*takes off little kids bike Helmet*
January 29th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Rock on, Phil. Keep it real.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:31 am
“Instead of using the cumbersome “(s)he” pronoun combo, try using the word “xe”. It works for all occasions of literary gender ambiguity.”
I tend to just use the word “it”, rather than she, he, s(he), she-he, or any other such variant. It’s already in my lexicon, it’s convenient, and it’s accurate.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I’ve been looking forward to this day to see how the doomsayers would squirm. I figured they would just disappear; I guess they still might. More likely they’ll pick some later date for an impact in a different point of Earth’s orbit. Man, I hope I didn’t just give them that idea!
It was great meeting you, very briefly, at TAM 5.5, Phil. (I know you likely don’t actually remember me.) You’re such a nice guy! Let me know if you ever want to come back to New Orleans.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Thanks Phil! You get around to saying what most sane people are thinking! Keep it up!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:39 am
TU24.org is really starting to piss me off. They haven’t even lower their pathetic “threat-level” (which they base on utter bull****) nor do they back down that they was WRONG. All I know about the guy making all of these posts (btw it is a HE :p) is that he is stationed in Japan.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I still want Mars to get smacked. It deserves it. Mars and me have a history, man. I won’t go into detail, but, trust me, it’s been asking for it for years!
Anyway, I think you’re right about the whole “2007 TU24 made rain in Hawaii, and it sucked the gas out of my Volvo” thing coming out of the doomsayers. I like how they’re making us wait to see the apocalyptic devastation since their “science” is so incredibly bang-on. I guess I’ll just have to keep paying attention to the headlines.
Oh! I see that some of the New York Giants’ players have come down with the flu. Curse you 2007 TU24! And, don’t you dare get me started on how my morning paper arrived late today!
When will the celestial chaos end?
January 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
This tu24dotorg guy is a nutjob. I just discovered all this mess a couple days ago. On his forum he has a big rant that includes these gems:
> “TU24 is possibly just a fragment of a much larger object (which is why I postulated that both WD5 and TU24 had the same negative charge). But, perhaps more dangerously so, these asteroids could be coming from the same place.”
That is purely speculation and he has no data to back that up, and no reason to pull that out of his butt. I have a speculation that they could be magically put there by the flying spaghetti monster.
> “why are they coming?. Why are potentially-threatening asteroids increasing with greater frequency?”
…uh, because we have better instruments these days to detect them? Doesn’t take a genius to understand that one.
> “Yes, I do believe that TU24 will affect Earth’s magnetosphere enough to be a concern”
Lots of people believe things. Some people believe the world is flat. Some people believe the sun revolves around the earth. But when there’s no scientific data to back up such a claim, that’s all it is: A mindless, blind belief.
> “The bigger issue, however, is the increasing asteroid threat in general.”
Yeah, it’s been raining asteroids lately. Good thing I have my Glad bags to put the rocks in after I catch them in my back yard. Again, this is an outrageous claim (and scare tactic) that has NO basis in reality, with NO data to back it up.
> “If my predictions regarding WD5 and/or TU24 do, indeed, come to pass”
Yeah, I’m feeling a strange electrical current coming through my body. Hey, didn’t some people in LA hop a ride on a comet a couple years ago? I think their method worked pretty well.
> “then I will reveal the method by which I have discovered this information (using a theory that I developed)”
Oooh I’m sure it’s just FILLED with highly technical mathematics that requires a PhD in Physics to understand. And I’m sure it’ll really stump the *real* scientists. Ooooooh.
> “put all of these old notions of what science is supposed to be”
What, you mean like building microprocessors so that I can use this massively powerful laptop computer I’m typing on that only weighs about a pound? Yeah, that old notion of science sure is flawed.
> “Why do people inherently feel that something will happen soon?”
Because there are nutjobs everywhere. People have been claiming the end is coming for centuries. I haven’t noticed anything different lately, other than to discover the latest one at tu204dotorg.
> “Why are pets and other animals acting strange now?”
Let’s see… I have a dog, a cat, and a frog, and all three are just relaxing right now just as they do every day. What’s that? Your dog is acting up? That’s called “being an animal.” It happens sometimes. But let’s just generalize it and act like it’s a widespread occurrence. (Tip: Scientists don’t make such generalizations. Last week my car with 100,000 miles on it finally started sputtering. Does that imply that cars across the planet are starting to have trouble? Should I start a website proclaiming so much?)
> “What’s up with the satellite falling?”
Uh, it broke down, just like my car, and just like the occasional satellites that have broken down about once a year for a few decades?
> “Why was there no news at all of the largest and closest potentially hazardous asteroid before TU24.org made a fuss just over 2 weeks ago?”
Because it obviously WASN’T a concern.
> “How about the strange UFO reports?”
I’d say this statement speaks volumes and pretty much sums up where he’s coming from. ‘Nuff said.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:56 am
I have never been to that site. Don’t want to waste my time.
But Phil (and others)… I single-handedly saved us.
At the time of approach, I was playing “Asteroids” on the computer. Now, since I am connected to the interweb via the tubes, I was able to blast all the asteroids to microscopic bits.
Phil, you can think me by giving me an autographed copy of your new book.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Just to let you know, Phil, while I can read your posts just fine using Google Reader, actually clicking on them to go to your site (usually to read the comments or whatever) generally results in a very long load time. A couple of times it’s timed out and I’ve had to refresh the page. Going straight to your site by typing in the address also does this, so I don’t think it’s just a problem with the RSS reader.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Who was the first to say either “we survived because we prayed” or “God diverted it for us”?… someone had to have…
January 29th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Yeah, well, all I know is that at 5:30am this morning in Kansas City it was 59 degrees. Now, this “asteroid” zips by and all of a sudden it’s 17 degrees and snowing.
Coincidence? I don’t think so my friends. Clearly, the End Times are here.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Nice one!
Bob(Big)
January 29th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Ouh, watch out folks, stop calling TU24dotORG a GUY. She’ll call you a sexist. Yes. That’s right. Just because we go for the male gender as a neutrality, we’re sexists. She threw that up on me. I guess that instead of calling her a “lad” I should’ve called her a “thing”.
She’s been proven wrong days ago. I don’t care about her “Wait, the asteroid is still in the magnetosphere!” bull. She’s delaying her shame. NOTHING. HAPPENED. You were WRONG, missy. You caused alarm in folks that did bad research for NOTHING. You know NOTHING in science, and yet you gave yourself the power of spewing NONSENSE. And yet, I bet you’ll go ahead and find some little happening somewhere on the globe and blame it on the big bad 250 meters SPACE ROCK.
And yet I pity her somehow. You must have such a boring life if you have to come to this for attention.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I think we all know what we have to really thank for our survival. Creationism!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am
SeaMyst, the site is getting hammered from being on Fark and Digg at the same time (for the Wil Wheaton post on Monday). So it’s a bit slow, but recovering.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Wait. TU24dotORG is a She?
Does she have a single, slightly less crazy sister?
I think for the next couple of weeks, I’ll be using this asteroid as an excuse for a lot of things. For example, if I break up with my girlfriend, I’m just going to say, “It’s not you, and more importantly, it’s not me. TU24’s bogarting the magnetosphere, baby!”
January 29th, 2008 at 11:33 am
“A light bulb breaking in Piscataway.”
You DO know that Piscataway, in the native Lenni-Lenape language of central NJ’s original people, means “It’s getting dark outside … ,” don’t you?
Clearly this is not the FIRST time this asteroid’s magnetic influence has impacted our fair planet’s electric fluids …
January 29th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I was using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ for one or more people long before this ‘pc” nonsense started - doing so is generally more elegant than the alternatives people these days. It also copes with people that have either no sexual organ, or ambiguous ones, one having both - as the words ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ do not imply any gender!
And using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ cope with the fact we maybe refering to more than one individual.
-Nivag
January 29th, 2008 at 11:36 am
I was using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ for one or more people long before this ‘pc” nonsense started - doing so is generally more elegant than the alternatives people these days. It also copes with people that have either no sexual organs, or ambiguous ones, or having both type - as the words ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ do not imply any gender!
And using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ cope with the fact we maybe referring to more than one individual.
-Nivag
January 29th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I think the evidence of the asteroid’s passage through our magnetosphere, and its nasty effects, are quite clear to anyone who read this post Phil… Why else would you be “suffering through a massive sinus attack right now”? Eh? What further proof do you need?!
(sorry… I *had* to say that
)
January 29th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I was using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ for one or more people long before this ‘pc” nonsense started - doing so is generally more elegant than the alternatives people often use these days. It also copes with people that have either no sexual organs, or ambiguous ones, or having both type - as the words ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ do not imply any gender!
And using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ cope with the fact we maybe referring to more than one individual.
-Nivag
January 29th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I was using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ for one or more people long before this ‘pc’ nonsense started - doing so is generally more elegant than the alternatives people often use these days. It also copes with people that have either no sexual organs, or ambiguous ones, or having both types - as the words ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ do not imply any gender!
And using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ cope with the fact we maybe referring to more than one individual.
-Nivag
January 29th, 2008 at 11:41 am
oops - sorry for ‘double’ post!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:42 am
BTW if you have a clear dark sky (sorry BA), a telescope of at least 3 inches and a finder chart
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/2007tu24.jpg
you might still be able to see it, but not for long.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Just wait till TU25, the sequel!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am
This asteroid business is nothing, Phil.
I recently heard some people shouting that Barack Obama is the anti-christ.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am
[…] unlike the overhyped TU24 asteroid event which poses absolutely no threat to our beautiful […]
January 29th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I don’t know about nothing happening!
On Sunday, as TU24 was approaching, a cold front blew over Calgary, and it’s been -30 C (with a -45 wind chill) ever since! And as TU24 departs, it’s supposed to warm up again. Co-incidence? I think not!
Obviously, based on that direct correlation, the cure to global warming is Near-Earth Asteroid approaches.
sigh, I can’t even type that with a straight face!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Well, all I know is, after a week of wintry weather, the temperature here in Toronto has skyrocketed to six degrees Celsius! Coincidence?
I see Michael and Xavier are having similar experiences with weird weather. Clearly TU24 has affected weather conditions worldwide!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
..gonna go from 45 to -20 in about 2 hours…
January 29th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Great big white asteroid flakes are coming down like crazy here in Kansas City. What more proof do we need?
January 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Personally, I’m only the science side, not because it’s rational and quite obviously the truth, but because if one day an asteroid does smash in to us and the earth blows up into a million pieces (etc etc), no one is gonna be around to tell me, “Told you so.”
January 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
im Oliver from the Philippines and ive been bombarded with SMS messages about a near miss with an asteroid. a lot of office people panicked for apparently nothing, just because of a youtube video getting a lot of views. i told them that theres nothing to be scared of, cause if there is anything, it should be all over the news, and the worst thing that could happen is bad reception with satellite and cable TV.
these people with false information should be stopped. if it isnt enough that uneducated Filipinos are being fed with wrong ideas or the lack of it, now people who are fortunate enough to have access to the Internet will have to deal with misleading info too? complete with threat meters and deceptive documentary-style videos?
thank you very much BA, keep up the good work!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
To TU 24 (The Asteroid, not the website):
“Don’t taze me, Bro!”
BTW, is anyone else having problems posting? I’m getting a Captcha thing where I have to enter a code everytime I make a post. I’m getting a message saying something about being bad…
It makes me want to cry…
January 29th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
The thing that I find most amusing about tu24.org is the fact that when trying to link to the “debunker”’s website, he doesn’t even have the right URL for this site. What a freakin’ joke.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
what i find more disturbing is that he/she is probably wishing for SOMETHING TO HAPPEN just to justify his/her efforts.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Why didn’t these guys see the glass structures on 2007 TU24?
Did NASA/CIA/FEMA/Illuminati fly their fleet of Area 51 spaceships out to TU24 and recover the alien bodies, wreckage, alien artifacts, etc?
Was HAARP used to beam energy/communicate/deflect said rock?
These are the REAL questions people! How come the mainstream media is not following this? Total media blackout?
Man, I could totally write any of their material….Weekly World News here I come!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Even as you stand vindicated in the correctness of the moment (and we continue to breathe), the voices in the heads of those crackpots are concocting the reasons for their failure to accurately predict the end of the world (again). Here is what one such crackpot might hear from said voices:
“Moments before the impact of TU24 with Earth, you were snatched by the aliens who anally probed you eight years ago. They constructed a simulation of Earth in which science is correct in order to torment you! Do not believe anything you see, it’s all an alien trick!”
January 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Ah Phil,
“they will play up the January 20th encounter of asteroid 2007 WD5″
… 10 day typo …
… or the time travel cover is blown ….
You should be ashamed of yourself, shot, massaged with wet linguine …
January 29th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Jason, that explains why everything suddenly has a slightly green hue…
January 29th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Having some minimal experience with space physics, I can say that the stuff about the magnetosphere is complete bunk.
First of all, if it really were electrically charged, the plasma that’s floating around in space would very quickly neutralize it.
Second of all, if it approaches within 40 earth radii, that’s not close enough to enter the magnetosphere (which is about 20-25 radii accross) unless it’s in the tail region. I don’t see them making any effort to see if it’s in the tail region, which suggests to me that they don’t even understand the basic shape of the magnetosphere.
Third of all, I think it takes about ten minutes for plasma waves to travel all the way across the magnetosphere.
Fourth of all, even if there were some activity because of this, it’s not a big deal! Storms are completely natural, rather frequent, and they usually have no noticeable effect. Same goes for magnetic reconnection, which also happens all the time. There was a storm on November 20–did you notice it? Magnetic storms can have real effects (they have caused blackouts and destroyed satellites), but they’re far from doomsday material. Mostly, they just make pretty light shows for the people up north.
Geez, imagine if these guys ever saw spaceweather.com. They’d have to create a website declaring doom every time a sunspot appears.
January 29th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Ah, badastronomy.com is suffering the good ol’ Slashdot effect. That, or TU24.org is DDoSing us to THE PITS OF HELL.
Anyways, about 20000 people followed evacuation protocol after the overflow of a river in Salta, at the north of Argentina. OF COURSE, I’M GOING TO SLAP THIS DOWN ON TU24.
Also, 7 buses collided in January 29th. COINCIDENCE? YOU DECIDE!
Oh, let’s not forget THAT IT’S RAINING IN ALL ARGENTINA, YET CHILE, IT’S “NEIGHBOUR” HAS A PERFECT SUNNY DAY! The Andes making clouds? I DON’T THINK SO, IT’S THE ASTEROID, MY GOOD MAN!
January 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I must stand corrected. I had said 40 earth radii (based on the BA’s video) but he actually said 40 earth *diameters*. So it’s about 80 earth radii.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I prefer using ‘they’ instead of ’s/he’.
For instance, instead of ‘S/he doesn’t bother trying to make any sense.’ it is, ‘They don’t bother trying to make any sense.’
Of course, considering if you are ignorant of the parties gender, you probably also do not know how many parties are involved.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I’ll say it again: Thundarr the Barbarian is to blame.
“THE YEAR: 1994. FROM OUT OF SPACE COMES A RUNAWAY PLANET, HURTLING BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE MOON - UNLEASHING COSMIC DESTRUCTION!”
Oh noooes teh moon will split half!
Feh.
Just, feh.
January 29th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Nothing happened? Goldstone got some good data on this object. Pictures of a naked heavenly body. Really good size estimates. Extremely good orbit characteristics. That’s not nothing. I find it rather exciting!
January 29th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
To quote from the TU24.org: “TU24 is significant because it heralds in a new age in humanity. One in which threats from space become more significant (and threats from each-other become less so because of it, I hope).”
Horse dung. The threats from space are no more or less significant than 100,000 years ago, aside from those relatively petty little satellites and space junk.
“TU24 is possibly just a fragment of a much larger object (which is why I postulated that both WD5 and TU24 had the same negative charge). But, perhaps more dangerously so, these asteroids could be coming from the same place.”
One vote for mentally unbalanced. (I’m in Florida, after all, and today is the non-primary)
January 29th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Regarding the singular, gender neutral pronoun: English used to have one. My recollection is that this was served by ‘thou’. It’s evolved out and we’re left with only the plural neuter pronoun.
Regarding ‘the Mayan calendar’: This is an ongoing source of frustration for myself. The statement implies that there was a single calendar used by the mayans. This is completely false. They had many calendars, and more than one that extended beyond 2012. In some respects they were obsessed with calendar-making.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Conjugation of “to be” in the present active indicative in King James English:
I am
thou art
he/she/it is
we are
they are
you are.
Thou is second person singular, he, she or it is third person singular.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I think the PC gender-neutral crapola began with the feminist (r)evolution in the mid fifties-early sixties of the last century (Wow! That’s the first time I’ve gotten to work that into a sentence). Wo(men) had a point: most of the language (English, i.e.) is male-oriented. I’m not convinced that the attempts to de-sex the language were effective , though, because clarity was lost and communication has suffered. Ms. seems to have entered the lexicon relatively untroubled. But tortured construction like, “Your friend has just done their part…” as I encountered on a plea on the Prog. Patriot’s site to entice my friends to donate to the cause, and which was defended as O.K. because the writer wanted not to offend IS offensive to those of us who still use “old speak.” It is my opinion that a rewrite would solve most of these gender issues. “Friends have just done,” etc. However, there are words which simply will require fixing to overcome the gender bias. And replacing a male pronoun with a female pronoun simply won’t due: (her)story is as bad as (his)tory, for the most part.
As to the doomsayer: what can one say about yahoo’s who believe
that they’ve got a line on some truth or other and will not be deterred from it? That kind of thinking ultimately leads to strapping dynamite to your waist, filling your pockets with nails, boarding a crowded bus and sending yourself to your version of heaven and the rest of the folks to hell.
Will M.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I was trying to make REASONABLE posts but they never allowed them, they had to verify posts, none of mine promoting positivity did. Those guys were so ignorant they just couldnt accept the fact that nothing was going to happen.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Heh, reminds me of most of the doomsaying Christian cults- prediction of worldwide apocalypse which passes uneventfully, followed by a re-writing of previous history of predictions and possibly by an adjustment of the date of said apocalypse, then finished off by the doomsayers skulking back off into the shadows again.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
LOLL The owner for tu24dotOrg is actually mad it seems, hes getting annoyed on his site saying THERES STILL A CHANCE.. god this guy is such a bafoon, i wanna find the “Experts” that thought it would happen and just strangle them
January 29th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Mark Martin said:
> I tend to just use the word “it”, rather than she, he, s(he), she-he, or any other such variant. It’s already in my lexicon, it’s convenient, and it’s accurate.
Incorrect. While “it” is already in the lexicon (yours and the rest of the English speaking world, too), and it is convenient, it is not accurate. “It” applies to non-gendered items and conveys a lack of personhood.
Gavin Flower said:
> I was using ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ for one or more people long before this ‘pc” nonsense started - doing so is generally more elegant than the alternatives people these days. It also copes with people that have either no sexual organ, or ambiguous ones, one having both - as the words ‘they’, ‘their’, and ‘them’ do not imply any gender!
Those words do not convey gender because they are plural. Using them in the singular case is grammatically incorrect, even if it is commonly done.
For instance, “everyone should tie their shoes” is grammatically incorrect because everyone is singular. That is why the alternatives you find so inelegant were needed in the first place. However, most people avoid the “his or her” cumbersomeness by skipping to the plural word.
Even though plural substitution is common in cases of “everyone” and “everybody”, it is still awkward in other cases where an individual is referenced without knowing his/her sex.
It remains to be seen if “it” can lose the connotation of conveying non-humanness, or if the plural will become the all-purpose replacement. I think either of those have a higher chance than any of the proposed alternatives becoming commonplace.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
[…] once again the indefatigable Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy has the definitive skinny on this momentous […]
January 29th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
He, she, they, s/he, (s)he, xe, zee, te………. The other day I read about some bunch in the crazy Hew Hess of Hay who have started using “yo.”
But that still leaves the bigger problem: Who’s going to haul away the 10,000-ton smoking hot rock in my front yard?
January 29th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Some of the gender translations worked well. Man holes becoming maintenance holes was a good example. Clearer and no big captial outlay to make the change.
On the other hand, there are still many words that fail in gender translation. Consider the sentences:
(1) He was a bag man for the mob.
(2) She was a bag lady for the mob.
It just doesn’t have the same feeling.
January 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Did you say “Does the asteroid have a gun, and it’s waiting in the bushes?” Well, that’s just freakin’ great. Bushes in space!!! Like we don’t already have enough problems with the one in the White House….
January 29th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Better get ready for the next minion trying to make a quick buck: The Planet X (yes, the same Planet X that killed 90% of all species on Earth, don’t you remember??? Oh, that’s right: it never happened…) is “coming back” in 2012. See it for yourself: http://yowusa.com/store/pxf/1.shtml.
When is it going to end? (NOTE: Obviously not in 2012…)
January 29th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Meh. Just zapped into the german N-TV channel and saw this (roughly translated): “A GIANT rock from space BARELY missed earth today”.
Any sense for the proportions, dear journalists? Dear journalists from a channel which broadcasts lots and lots of documentations all year long?
I’m sort of glad i don’t read the infamous BILD, who knows what this crappy piece of a newspaper will write (or had already) about the “incident”.
As i said, meh.
January 29th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Brilliant post Phil. Hope Randi uses it for Swift to raise yr. profile (further).
Imagine these scumbags using people’s ignorance to scare the masses! Like … ‘em … religions use death, eh?
T’wer ever thus and ever shall be …
January 29th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Actually Lugosi, aren’t there a lot of people that hope that Bush disappears in space?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
>> “then I will reveal the method by which I have discovered this
>>information (using a theory that I developed)”
>Oooh I’m sure it’s just FILLED with highly technical mathematics that
>requires a PhD in Physics to understand. And I’m sure it’ll really
>stump the *real* scientists. Ooooooh.
It’s as if some folks think that there’s not much more to learn about math and physics after you learn to do a few integrals and differential equations , and apply Newton’s Laws. So all you fancy scientists and mathematicians really don’t learn anything new after the first couple years of college–they’re not sure what you do, but it can’t be *that* hard, right? (My father has this sort of attitude, so I have some personal experience with it).
And yet…I have a radical new theory that I came up with in my spare time! Something that nobody has ever thought of before! It’s correct, and all the other countless thousands of smart people that have spent their entire lives trying to understand the universe got it all wrong! To me, that sort of attitude speaks to a huge ego, or to a vast ignorance of the scope of modern science (or both).
I’m not saying that people can’t come along with new ideas, or that self-educated people can’t contribute to science; it’s happened quite a lot in the past few hundred years if I understand correctly. It’s just that it usually requires a lot of work and learning to come up with something new , and I’d be willing to bet that there’s not much of that behind the tu24.org author’s theory. Of course, if they want to call me on that, they can make their theory public and see how it stands up. I’ll apologize if I’m wrong.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Wait…what?
Why would a big rock passing close to the earth do anything to us? It’s a big rock. The only problem is if it lands on you. Otherwise, it’s just a big rock. What the hell were these people so scared of?
January 29th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Oh it isn’t thin air that they’re pulling this stuff from, Dr. BA. It’s someplace much darker, where the sun doesn’t shine.
January 29th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
God I freaking love TU24.org, Its hilarious. Why are asteroids passing by Earth? Why are there more of them? When are we gonna die from TU24?
It F-ing great!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Wow… I wasn’t being sexist when I assumed it was a guy running the site. Rather, I was stereotyping. I was assuming that a nutjob paranoid conspiracy theorist was most likely some nerdy guy. Oops! My apologies to the female nutjob paranoid conspiracy theorists out there!
January 29th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
“Incorrect. While “it” is already in the lexicon (yours and the rest of the English speaking world, too), and it is convenient, it is not accurate. “It” applies to non-gendered items and conveys a lack of personhood.”
And when I use “it” to refer to a human being, I am indeed not referring to their gender. That’s the whole point. It certainly doesn’t mean that I’m denying anyone their personhood; no amount of writing on my part can accomplish such a feat.
It’s also nonsense to dictate to me how to use my own language. I’ll do with it as I see fit.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Its funny, rather than giving out facts and reason all TU24 is doing is competing with you, trying to say fearmongers beat reality and skeptics. What a load of BS!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
> It’s as if some folks think that there’s not much more to
> learn about math and physics after you learn to do a few
> integrals and differential equations , and apply Newton’s Laws.
Good post, Alan. Doesn’t that drive you batty? I’ve done graduate work in both mathematics and physics, and it seems people have no clue just what happens beyond Calc 1, and don’t realize there’s a level where calculus becomes a tool like arithmetic. And we’re not being arrogant; we’re just acknowledging how advanced one’s studies become by the time they finish graduate work in a scientific field, and you can’t just debunk these things with a couple quick ideas.
January 29th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
“It’s also nonsense to dictate to me how to use my own language. I’ll do with it as I see fit.”
Plus, there’s just something kind of fun about calling a nutjob paranoid conspiracy theorist an “it”.
(An idea I think some people missed in your earlier post…)
January 29th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I don’t know WHERE these nutters get their ideas from … I mean really … clearly TU24 isn’t an asteroid at all … but rather a Protoss Scout ship sent to destroy our UFO tracking satellites.
You think they’d actually spend some time researching this stuff.
Sheese!
:p
January 29th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
DO not mean to bust your bubble, but here on Guam I’d visually observed a large number of near and distant , big and small? luminious fireballs occur before and during TU24’s passage, to include one fireball which broke into sections plus a distant = minor? space explosion. And, as based on TU24’s datums and NASA-JPL 3D animation on the Net, IMO visual-wise it came much closer than 1.4 AU. Not all the fireballs had long aft tails. GOOD THING FOR EARTH THE MOON WAS ELSEWHERE LAST NITE - IMO IFF THESE FIREBALLS HAD COME CLOSER, THEY COULD’VE EASILY HAD STRUCK EARTH, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME IN RECORDED HISTORY MANKIND WOULD HAD WITNESSED/SUFFERED MULTIPLE TUNGUSKA-SIZED OR WORSE IMPACTS IN ONE GROSS EVENT.
These were observed despite Guam last nite being under a dark, cold haze cloud mass from Asia, but which began clearing as TU24 approached.
TU24 + WD5 are supposed to be the only objects out there, correct, while NASA nor anyone else didn’t say or report anything about prejecta coming in before TU24’s passage. And IMO these fireballs probably were related to TU24 as they ceased after the latter reached and passed its closest point wid Earth.
IMO the WORLD WAS VERY LUCKY LAST NITE - NASA, etc should NOT presume to already know everything about a space rock that was only discovered in late 2007. IT WAS WRONG LAST NITE, AND IS LIKELY WRONG AGAIN ABOUT EARTH BEING SAFE UNTIL YEAR 2027 [Apohis?], OR 2000 YEARS FROM NOW AS SOME EXPERTS CLAIM.
Call me weird but Year 2027 - 2036/39 [Apohis], or 2048 [other] , etc. is NOT 1000 years from now nor 2000 years from now. NASA and various INternet SCIENCE-ASTRON BLOGS haven’t even reliably reported on space events from awhile back or even just last year.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Just a note on the gender thing…
I’m a woman and I certainly don’t feel offended when people go “ils” in french. When you have multiple folks, and one of them is a male, you go “ils”. Which is a plural “he”. Now you folks would go “they” but we don’t. We have masculines and feminines for he and she.
It’s just a matter of generality and simplification. It’s NOT sexist. Now, when you have an unknown in french, we don’t go “it”. We go “He”. Unknown is masculine. Yet again, a simplification.
So when I called her a lad, it’s just a matter of me being simple. And quite frankly, I believe that if you get offended because of things like that there is a matter of insecurity somewhere in your feminism.
Also, take note I make sure you guys know I’m a woman. I don’t shove my URL as a name. Then you wouldn’t know if I’m a girl or a boy. My name’s “Michelle”. I’m a girl. It’s evident. But if I was calling myself “Pot roast” (I’m hungry…), and you called me a guy, well I’d say that’s my darn fault.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
“Call me weird but…”
Ok; if you insist.
January 29th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Joseph, first off, you’re full of crap.
That aside, no, really, you’re full of crap.
I .. really can’t respond to your comments. You’re just making stuff up. I’ve seen other comments regarding this thing, and you must be the only one on Guam to report this. So.. just for fun..you said you saw fireballs after a dark haze leaving asia.
I hate to break it to you, but it didn’t make its closest approach to you in the middle of the night.
See, it came by you at 6:33PM Guam time, and given what I’m reading here about your sunrise and sunset, that would be JUST after Sunset. I find it slightly interesting that you, in your description, talked about a dark haze that came off from Asia, but didn’t even mention that the asteroid was flying by right as the twilight was hitting. You said that it cleared up. Really? Should we look up the sattelite of Guam from 21 hours ago?
Not the least of which, is the fact that people took photos of this, tracked it using radiometry, and it was exactly where scientists said it was.
So, stop making stuff up.
You only do yourself a disservice.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
> “Why are pets and other animals acting strange now?” <
I read that and my koi just yawned. Damn that dratted magnetic field disruption! (Shakes fist heavenward) Actually I am shaking my fist–it’s too darned wet and overcast here to haul out the ’scope.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
It’s also nonsense to dictate to me how to use my own language. I’ll do with it as I see fit.
That is nonsense.
The purpose of language is to facilitate communication. If person A uses language in some strange way that obfuscates, or otherwise impedes communication with B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, then it makes good sense to dictate to A how to use the language.
If they don’t do that, A uses language in his own little world, not understood clearly by anyone else.
So although it is certainly your right to do with it as you see fit, it is to your benefit to use it as others see fit.
January 29th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
@ Michael Lonergan
“Don’t taze me, Bro!”
Egads! Another ‘User Friendly’ fan!!!
January 29th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Good God, you really are a complete and total NASA shill aren’t you.
The world was DEVASTATED yesterday! Why, Los Angeles is nothing more a puddle, the eastern seaboard has turned into a barren wasteland and the Rockies are underwater and you claim that 2007 TU24 did nothing?!
Why are you using the so-called, “independent media,” to hide the truth of what your Reptilian masters have wrought upon us? You keep suppressing the truth of our quantum synchronistic telepathy and healing so you can keep mankind in a bind of consumerism and war!
…
…
:p
January 29th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
How come no one mentioned 2004 XP14 during this hulabaloo about 2007 TU24? XP14 came closer and was bigger than TU24. From Wikipedia:
“2004 XP14’s closest pass by Earth was above the west coast of North America at 04:25 UTC on July 3, 2006.
The asteroid’s distance from Earth’s center of mass at that moment was 432,308 km (268,624 miles), 0.00289 AU, or just 1.1 times the Moon’s average distance from Earth.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_XP14
January 29th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
“So although it is certainly your right to do with it as you see fit, it is to your benefit to use it as others see fit.”
You seem to think that what I’ve chosen is to invent a wholly private language, understandable only to me, myself & I. That’s total crap. Here I am, speaking with you, and I’ll wager that you have no great difficulty understanding my words.
You see, my point also is communication. But communication doesn’t always amount to never doing something differently. Progress is made by doing things differently. How in the world do you expect anyone to coin a new, fresh turn of phrase if no such thing is permitted by the mob? Do you seriously expect me to believe that you hang out on the internet but haven’t borne witness to the incessant evolution of language? Gi’me a break.
The fact is that I can substitute “he/she” with “it” any old day with no loss of context. I do it all the time, and it never so much as prompts a comment. I refuse to be conscripted to the use of gender pronouns in circumstances where no identifiable individual is even specified.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:01 am
@Joseph
Um, one anectdode != data.
As for meteorites and upper atmosphere explosions, they happen a lot more frequently than many people realize. Often enough that we had to be careful in screening for them when we used satellites to watch for nuclear explosions in violation of test ban treaties.
And, actually, these satellites proved useful in estimating impactor event frequencies:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021126205225.htm
While you might have seen some meteorites, these are generally castoff of comets which are special in that they fling off debris like so many rusty Ford pickups circling a parking lot. Meteors like TU24 are more solid and don’t have companion debris in their orbit. The association is coincidental.
I, for instance, had a moon pie around 2 am that morning. Caused event, or coincidence?
January 30th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Sorry, *asteroids* like TU24. Meteors enter the atmosphere, meteorites are the rocks that reach the ground.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Cognitive dissonance kicks in and it’s time to rationalize, explain away, and justify the failures.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:41 am
Hey, Phil, we had an earthquake here in Bulgaria :-)))
A mighty one - 3.3 on the Richter scale. I guess TU24 was to blame :-))
January 30th, 2008 at 1:03 am
I just say “he.” Being an American white male, I’m stupid, racist, and sexist by default.
January 30th, 2008 at 1:42 am
I was afraid of this, a moderate quake hit Indonesia, triggering a Tsunami warning. This is all the TU24 nutters need.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:35 am
Unfortunately, Michael, the nutters never need much fuel to keep the fires of their conspiracy or apocalypse hypothesis going.
What about the other times when 2007TU24 [i]wasn’t[/i] there and there were earthquakes and tsunamis? They conveniently ignore [i]that[/i] data!
January 30th, 2008 at 4:45 am
sry !
here in austria/wurope we had a 3 days storm from 26-28.01.2008 with winds about 160miles/h
down to the valley about 100 miles causing lots of damage
like roofs flying around front side glasses breaking down destroy houses
about 1000s square miles destroyed wood
even closed roads and tunnels.
damage more tha 100 s millions euros
there was nothing about this so called ‘orkan’storm in the news even one hour before. we do not have this here since i am here even wheaterguys say that happens all 20 years .
January 30th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Oh michael, she didn’t need that. See her website’s excuses.
“The Midwest Regional News story reports that the advancing cold front today is sending temperatures across the Midwest plummeting by as much as 30 degrees in just a few hours. Meanwhile, a storm along the leading edge of the cold air mass led to an outbreak of blizzard conditions across eastern Iowa.
The dangerous cold air and wind will produce potentially deadly RealFeel® temperatures. The severe cold can lead to hypothermia and frostbite after a brief period of exposure. Anyone spending extended periods outdoors and motorists traveling in isolated areas across the Plains and Midwest should be prepared for the extreme cold and snow.
The temperature variation on either side of the front is extreme. This afternoon, the temperature in St. Louis, Mo., climbed to 70 degrees. At the same time, less than 400 miles to the northwest, the temperature in Des Moines, Iowa, sat at 5 degrees, with a RealFeel® temperature of 22 degrees below zero.
Chicago, Ill., this morning recorded a temperature of 46 degrees. The overnight low tonight in the Windy City will plunge to 2 degrees, while the wind will create a RealFeel® temperature of 25 degrees below. [article]
Coincidence?”
hum… Yes? Absolutely a coincidence, in fact, I’m sure it happens all the damn time WITHOUT asteroids.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:02 am
It lookss as if the TU24dotORG website has become a weather site? I guess since they were so WRONG on the asteroid they might as well turn to something that is also pretty much unpredictable as well.
January 30th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Will M. writes:
[[As to the doomsayer: what can one say about yahoo’s who believe
that they’ve got a line on some truth or other and will not be deterred from it? That kind of thinking ultimately leads to strapping dynamite to your waist, filling your pockets with nails, boarding a crowded bus and sending yourself to your version of heaven and the rest of the folks to hell.]]
So the majority of mankind are suicide bombers? I never noticed.
2 + 2 = 4 in the algebra of all integers. That’s the truth. People who disagree are wrong.
I’d better get my dynamite together…
January 30th, 2008 at 6:10 am
David posts:
[[Imagine these scumbags using people’s ignorance to scare the masses! Like … ‘em … religions use death, eh?]]
Yeah, David, if it weren’t for religions, no one would be afraid of death.
You don’t get out much, do you?
January 30th, 2008 at 6:40 am
Michelle quoted: “This afternoon, the temperature in St. Louis, Mo., climbed to 70 degrees. At the same time, less than 400 miles to the northwest, the temperature in Des Moines, Iowa, sat at 5 degrees, with a RealFeel® temperature of 22 degrees below zero. Chicago, Ill., this morning recorded a temperature of 46 degrees. The overnight low tonight in the Windy City will plunge to 2 degrees, while the wind will create a RealFeel® temperature of 25 degrees below.”
Sheesh, when will you Americans do temperatures in Celsius (and convert to metric)?
Or would some people think that would be worse than an asteroid strike?
January 30th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Having watched Inconveient Truth,. during an incredible windstorm here in TN might I add.. I don’t think something OUTSIDE our weather system has as much to do with this as something right inside it.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:41 am
I recall the same “doomsday” scenario was centered around the SL9 impact on Jupiter about 10 years ago. Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of “magnetic bridge” or something from Jupiter to Earth? I just remember my mother being worried enough because of the baloney that she read in the paper to call me up and ask me about it.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Wow, that site actually links back to badastronomy!
Too bad the link is broken… :p
January 30th, 2008 at 8:00 am
I was going to shred his argument here:
“This is the last time I will answer this very simple question.
It is not about the closest approach date and time.
It is about TU24 being in our magnetosphere. (As per the video)
For now and the next several days this is a very real possibility.”
But of course he locked it. Well I’ll say what I was going to say there here.
He says its NOT about the closest date and time HOWEVER his site motto seems to be something along the lines of “Two Asteroids, Two Planets, Two Days, What will happen?”
Did you all get that? TWO DAYS! He said TWO DAYS! Yet here NOW says several? It doesn’t take someone with half a brain to even notice the controdiction there ALONE.
January 30th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Besides it’s gonna start going back to normal tomarrow…
January 30th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Hey a video of it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfGjbpAEnZo
January 30th, 2008 at 9:21 am
@ Peter B
>”Sheesh, when will you Americans do temperatures in Celsius (and convert to metric)?
“”Or would some people think that would be worse than an asteroid strike? 
“<
Yes.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Foobles–That should have been:
>”Sheesh, when will you Americans do temperatures in Celsius (and convert to metric)?
“<
Maybe we just like our particular set of arbitrary measurments better than a different set of arbitrary measurments. ;P (that would be a winking/sticking tongue out)
January 30th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I prefer Kelvin myself. Much better suited for science. And easy to remember — absolute zero is 0, water freezes at 273, a comfortable temperature is 293, human body temperature is 310, water boils at 373. What could be simpler?
January 30th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Last night I was sitting around watching TV with a friend, and the conversation went like this:
Me: “Oh, BTW, we didn’t get hit by an asteroid around 3:30 this morning.”
Him: “Oh yeah? I didn’t see anything about that on the news. I’ve never even heard anything about it.”
Me: “Yeah, and another one’s about to not take out Mars.”
Him [shrugging]: “Oh. OK.”
January 30th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Barton: Celsius, for example. Boiling water is at 100, freezing water is at 0. THAT’S what I call simple.
January 30th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
BPL:
Well, yes, it does mean that, since the bulk of the suicide bombers (and the abortion doctor assassins and the government haters and the “My way is the only way” folk, etc.) are people who believe in a religion of one sort or another. There aren’t many fanatics who come from the ranks of atheists, since they have no fairy tale they have to uphold. It seems it is much easier for a person who believes that what he believes is the only way to believe to condemn the unbelievers to a “hell” or, if things become really upsetting or threatening or whatever in his mind, to act in the name of his belief to rid the planet of the unbelievers.
And as for “truth,” it seems that is a concept which is largely dependent on what the “true believers” choose it to be. Throughout history many folk who held assumptions contrary to the dominant theocracy or ideology in the society (but which assumptions later proved accurate) were put to death - in the most extreme of circumstances - by those whose “true belief” was challenged. One might cite as refutation some dictators, but even Josef Stalin was raised in the Orthodox church and attended a seminary in his youth.
From a historical perspective at least, it seems that is far easier to commit horrendous mayhem if you can justify it by “faith.”
So, just be happy there’s no one out there who considers that 2+2=4 is an affront to his belief system and is prepared to exact the ultimate revenge on those who do…
January 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Will M posts:
[[Well, yes, it does mean that, since the bulk of the suicide bombers (and the abortion doctor assassins and the government haters and the “My way is the only way” folk, etc.) are people who believe in a religion of one sort or another.]]
So are the people who don’t do any of those things.
[[There aren’t many fanatics who come from the ranks of atheists, since they have no fairy tale they have to uphold. ]]
Madelyn Murray O’Hare wasn’t a fanatic? Richard Dawkins isn’t a fanatic? Stalin? Mao? Pol Pot? Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il? You’re kidding, right?
January 30th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
What the f**k Barton?
“Madelyn Murray O’Hare wasn’t a fanatic? Richard Dawkins isn’t a fanatic? Stalin? Mao? Pol Pot? Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il? You’re kidding, right?”
No, are you kidding? Dawkins a fanatic? Most people consider a fanatic someone who takes things to the extreme, which clearly Dawkins hasn’t gone of killing sprees.
Stalin, Mao etc etc were power hungry motivated just like the religious tyrants of history, and I’m not sure I heard them killing THEIR own in the name of atheism, it was always for the motherland, great leader, communism etc. Plus your post implies that athiests are communists, which is BS.
But of course the whole debate of religion v atheism is pointless because you’re NEVER going to convince either.
And by the way, I’m not an atheist, I don’t believe in God. The difference is I live my life and do NOTHING towards people of other beliefs whereas people who call themselves atheists have to act like a dick to people who don’t think like you… BIG DIFFERENCE.
And finally this is waaaaay of topic… our real enemy B is TU24.org lol!
January 30th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
LostAngeles said,
I can vouch for that, I saw it today with my own eyes, a long, nearly barren stretch of wasteland, nary a soul in sight.
We usually refer to it as “the beach”, and it was perfectly lovely today. The water was a bit chilly, though. Skinny dipping was out of the question.
mostly.
January 30th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
COASTTOCOASTAM Radio Show > guest DAVID SEREDA - David claimed his source at Lockheed indicated that the Govt was ready to send a spacecraft to TU24 in order to divert it iff it came too close to Earth or had changed in favor of a direct impact. Sereda - RECENT FIREBALLS/ FIREBALL EVENTS observed may be FRAGMENTS associated wid TU24.
See similar on C2CAM website> MASS EXTINCTION EVENT AVERTED.
TU24 was NOT alone or the sole object out there during its passage - NASA-JPL were wrong or else were deficient in data analyses or conclusions.
As posted before, the world is lucky the MOON was elsewhere when TU24 passed - the moon come APOPHIS? NASA itself has said it should detect and have complete info on any and all NEOS by Year 2020.
First off, the UNIVERSE is too big for current and projected new Earth /Human technologies. at least for those generations alive today. Second, YEAR 2020 > by NASA’s own scope, its database or info on NEOS WILL BE INHERENTLY UNRELIABLE UNTIL 2020 OR AFTER.
IOW, we are NOT safe today, were NOT SAFE yesterday, days before, nor will be safe tomorrow, nor for days, decades, and generations, etc. to come.
NASA has yet to report on anumber of close flybys which occurred in the 1990’s and post-2000 - the only reason we are aware now is becuz the RUSSIANS, INDIANS, etc. PUBLICLY REPORTED IT, NOT OUR OWN GOVT OR NASA.
WIth OWG = GLOBALISM/GLOBAL EMPIRE comes GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITIES and GLOBAL CHALLENGES, i.e. EXTRA/BEYOND GLOBAL. The SECULAR PREMISE OF “MAN IS GOD/GOD IS FAKE” FAILED AGAIN UTTERLY, AND CERTAINLY FAILED WID TU24, BY ANY MEASURE.
HILL STREET BLUES - “Lets be careful out there”!
January 30th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Joseph… up your meds.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:08 am
As mildly amused as I was making my post, I forgot that there are some seriously loony people out there. Thanks for reminding me Joseph.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:18 am
Damn if i didn’t include the new credo, finally a title that all atheist and philosophical nihilists can relate to…….. there is no theism in Afeaodontism!
Afaeodontism:
1) Having an understanding of the natural world.
2) Having the understanding that the simplest organic compounds are the basis of all forms of life in this half of the universe.
3) Knowing that traceable science experiments prove the world is about 4.5 billion years old.
4) Knowing that the big bang did occur but the mechanics can’t be explained until a better version of string theory comes along.
5) Knowing that plants and animals have a fair bit in common by their cellular and genetic nature.
6) Knowing that a shrimp is an animal and a lentil is a plant.
7) A chicken baster is a kitchen tool.
January 31st, 2008 at 6:08 am
Dear Joseph,
IF YOU USE MORE CAPS, I’LL BELIEVE.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 am
I find it incredulous that none of the doomsayers from tu24.org have posted any form of rebuttals on this website. Yet they continue to make unsubstantiated claims of affects on the website.
February 6th, 2008 at 10:54 am
You are all wrong. Five submarine cables cut in under a week!
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/02/fourth_undersea.html
Clearly it is TU24 and its little spawn the 10m rock that zipped by much deeper in the magnetosphere ….
(sorry I couldn’t resist)
February 12th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
“Oh, please. The asteroid has been approaching us for weeks. Now, it’s past the point where it was closest to us. NOW you say there will be effects?”
Heh. That was me
Man, what a loon nua is. Constantly demanding evidence against “her” theory and cleverly ignoring the evidence against “her”.
Sounds like a Scientologist to me.