2011 Year in Review Song
On to 2012, the year of doomsday conspiracies...
« Showing posts with label Doomsday. Show all posts »
Sunday, January 1, 2012
«So That Was 2011»
Saturday, May 21, 2011
«You Know What This Means»
Apocalypse Not: Harold Camping wrong – again – about 'The Rapture'
You know what this means, don't you? The Rapture DID happen today, and everyone on Earth was left behind. Think about it, everyone breaks something the Bible commands of you. Newborn babies have original sin. You really think someone like that would be "saved"?
So life continues after the Rapture. Pretty much exactly as it did before the Rapture. Almost like it never happened...
Friday, March 11, 2011
«Supermoon»
Now all the "Supermoon" naysayers feel justified. So what if the 9.0 earthquake in Japan was a week early?
I've been hearing about this "Supermoon" that's going to destroy the world on March 19th. The moon's slightly elliptical orbit will bring it closer to Earth than it has been in... wait for it... 18 whole years! It will be a couple thousand miles closer to Earth than normal. That's between 1 and 2 percent closer.
Even though it didn't destroy the Earth 18 years ago (in fact nothing out of the ordinary happened), that was just practice. This time it's for real and the moon is going to unleash hell. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, severe weather... Any natural disaster you can name has been predicted to happen.
And some of it might. Not because of the moon, but just because these things happen. These "Supermoon" folk predicted all hell to break loose on a very specific day: March 19th. However, we'll most likely find out this Earthquake in Japan today is the worst thing to happen anywhere near that time. So they'll end up taking credit for that and say "See? we were right! An earthquake DID happen!" ...Even though the moon is nowhere near its closest point yet.
EDIT: It's been upgraded to a 9.0 earthquake.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
«Watson on Jeopardy!»
The computer overlords are near. Perhaps December 21st, 2012 will be Judgment Day1.
IBM Watson: Final Jeopardy! and the Future of Watson
Just like the other contestants, Watson did not have internet access. Watson even had to physically push the buzzer button like everyone else. It had the entirety of Wikipedia and 12 encyclopedias, as well as a movie database on its hard drives. But that's no different than the people memorizing stuff.
Are we really this close to a true AI? I don't think a computer AI will be hostile like the movies portray it as. Watson is an experiment in the understanding of language. As evidenced by its answer that George Eyser's leg was the oddity, not his missing leg, it does have a bit left to learn.
When computers can take the available information and use it to come up with new ideas, then I'll be impressed.
1: In a classic Terminator movie style.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
«Doomsday is Back on Track»
The Large Hadron Collider's planned downtime for the entire year of 2012 has been postponed. The LHC once again is on track to be the Doomsday machine of 2012. They're so happy with its performance so far, they don't want to shut it down so soon to upgrade it.
This means current plans have it operational on December 21st, 2012. Doomsday. Will the LHC be the cause? Only time will tell...
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
«Tick, Tick»
What's that sound? Oh, it's the sound of the Doomsday Clock as it moves closer to midnight.
Things are heating up in North Korea and Wikileaks publishes over a quarter million classified documents pertaining to world diplomatic relations. As far as I can tell there's been no official change to the Doomsday clock since January of 2010. However, in light of recent events I think we're going to hear the Clock tick once more.
I wounder, will World War III be on time for the 2012 Doomsday? After all, the LHC is no longer in the running for 2012.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
«Doomsday Bet»
Hooray for Doomsday!
I'll be taking the same bet, on the same conditions (sans-cookie, no cookie for you). I will consider the prophecy fulfilled if the Earth is destroyed or unable to support human life on December 21st, 2012. Should the Doomsday come to pass, you will be paid on December 22nd, 2012. Void where prohibited.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
«Everything is Going to Kill Everybody»
So a couple of weeks ago I happened across an article on Cracked.com that was a sample chapter in a book called Everything is Going to Kill Everybody. I don't remember how I came across it, I don't follow Cracked.com.
After reading that, I determined it was worth getting. I have a morbid interest in doomsday, so the book fell in line with my sense of humor. For the entire 2 years and 105 days I've been doing my blog, I've only read 21 books. Yeah, I'm that bad... I do my reading online.
A few of the disasters covered in the book are a bit unrealistic, like the hypercane or verneshot. The part about robots pointed out a bunch of new technologies that are more-or-less harmless by themselves, but when combined you get an overemotional flesh-eating monstrosity. Why would such technologies be combined? Well why would accelerometers, cameras, and clocks be combined? They are such different technologies, yet they are useful when combined. Just look at the iPhone.
So it will be with other technologies like the EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot). It can eat bio-matter (like plants or meat) to power itself. How cool would it be to have a lawnmower that feeds itself on the very grass it cuts? Of course, meat is the most efficient fuel for the EATR, so it might rather eat you than your lawn...
The book also covered other more mundane doomsdays, like the asteroid Apophis that will buzz past Earth closer than our geosynchronous satellites in 2029. Depending upon the small gravitational effect those satellites have on it, it has a very good chance of colliding with Earth on its next pass in 2036. It'd be like the dinosaurs all over again. But perhaps by then the supervolcano we call Yellowstone National Park would have already killed us.
It really was a hilarious book, in a frightening non-fiction sort of way.
I finally delved into the Amazon Associates program, so the link to the book here is a referral link. Amazon.com handles all the transactions, so it's not like you have to trust me with your credit card number. I figured since I have to declare my blog as a business on my taxes, I may as well act like it is one!
1: The two books I read are Everything is Going to Kill Everybody (duh), and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
«Physics of the LHC»
The first 7 TeV collisions are now taking place in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), breaking yet another record. They had achieved the 7 TeV energies earlier, but only now are they allowing the particle beams to cross and collide.
7 TeV is only half what the LHC was designed for. However, the LHC is basically its own prototype. It has been decided that the copper fail-safes between the superconducting magnets need to be redesigned before the LHC can reach the full 14 TeV power. The LHC will need to be shut down to perform these upgrades. For now they will run at half power until late 2011, at which time they will shut it down and upgrade it. It won't be scheduled to resume operation until 2013... So much for it being the 2012 doomsday device.
The LHC is 27km in circumference, and those hadrons (protons) in the beams are going around the ring 11,245.5 times a second. That's 99.999997828 percent the speed of light. There are 2 beams traveling in opposite directions.
Yet for all the power and speed of the LHC, nature bombards our atmosphere with far more energetic cosmic rays. Take the Oh-My-God particle for example. It slammed into the atmosphere over Utah with an energy of 3x10^20 electronvolts (equivalent to 300,000,000 TeV). That's why I'm not worried about black holes or anything else from the LHC eating Earth; if it were possible, nature would have already done it.Special Relativity1
Some strange Special Relativity takes place between the beams. Despite moving at near light speeds in opposite directions, they're still not moving faster than the speed of light relative to each other.
The entire 27km circumference of the collider is only a little over a meter in length relative to a beam; this is known as length contraction. Yet from one beam's perspective, the other beam has to travel 202,500km to get around that same circumference once. (Funfact: a 703.5 TeV cosmic ray "sees" the entire Earth as 17 meters thick.)
There's also a strange time dilation that would cause a beam to "see" a clock at rest as running 7,500 times slower. Yet if an observer at rest were to see a clock traveling with the beam, it too, would appear to be running 7,500 times too slow. So from both perspectives, it would appear as though the other clock is the slow one. This effect is increased to 112,000,000 (that's millions) times if the two beams were to look at each other's clocks. (Funfact: a 703.5 TeV cosmic ray would have "seen" only 6,000 years2 pass in the 4.5 billion years the Earth has been here.)
Seriously... Science is stranger than fiction. Yet Special Relativity is tame compared to Quantum Mechanics. When the beams collide, the resulting debris particles are where the Quantum Mechanics aspect of the LHC begin... Then you've got stuff that exists in opposite states simultaneously (quantum states), can jump across an impenetrable barrier (quantum tunneling), and fundamental particles yet unknown to physics (the elusive Higgs boson).
1: These calculations were made for the full 14 TeV output of the LHC (7 TeV in each direction). However, because the energy required to accelerate something near the speed of light increases exponentially, the figures are not far off from the current half-power speeds.
2: If the young-earth proponents were riding a cosmic ray, they might have been right!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
«Another Earthquake»
What's with all the large earthquakes lately? Haiti... Japan... Chile... There's been some serious movement of the tectonic plates lately, hasn't there1? At least Japan and Chile are more prepared for earthquakes, so even though the one in Chile was vastly more powerful, it didn't do as much damage. Makes me wounder when the next big one will hit the US2...
*ominous voice* And this is only the beginning... 2012.
1: Actually, if you look at a list of sizable earthquakes by year, this year is progressing no differently than years past.
2: Probably will happen in Alaska, out somewhere away from a population center so it won't even make the news.
Monday, December 21, 2009
«Motivational Monday: Our World Ends»
Doomsday is exactly 3 years from now. Enjoy the time you have left.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
«What Are the Russians Testing?»
I was just going to let this pass without saying anything about it, but a second light has been seen over Russia now.
The impressive spiral seen over Norway.
UFO or missile trace? Mystery spiral lights over Norway
This one was just seen over Russia.
НЛО или запуск ракеты?
We all know the Russians have rockets and missiles that work... So why are these ones failing and spinning out of control? What sort of experimental project are they working on? Perhaps a new form of propulsion that still has a few kinks to work out?
Or are they aliens planning an invasion for December 21st, 2012?
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
«The Village Idiot»
Frank Schaeffer on Rachel Maddow
I literally yelled out "Yes!" in a triumphant manner when he said "We have a village idiot in this country, it's called fundamentalist Christianity."
How about a certain Californian Christian fundamentalist I know1? Do you think Obama is the Anti-Christ? I know you have a low opinion of Obama...
1: I know, I've been picking on Looney a lot lately. Despite this, I really do respect him.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
«Y2K12 Countdown: Dust in Sydney»
A warning sign that Armageddon is still on track for December 21st, 2012. On September 23rd, 2009 a massive blood-red dust storm hit Sydney, Australia.
Dust Storm in Sydney, September 23, 2009
No, I don't buy into the whole 2012 end of the world thing, but there's already people trying to link this to it. I expect someone to dig up some old doomsday prophecy that says the sky will turn red with blood before the end.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
«Winter Solstice 2008»
The official start of Winter, and shortest daylight of the year. I live in Alaska, but not far enough North to have perpetual night during the winter. Here in Ketchikan, our official times for today are 8:25 AM for sunrise, and 3:31 PM for sunset. That's still 7 hours 6 minutes of daylight. Fairly dim daylight, but daylight all the same.
Oh, and if you believe such things, it is exactly 4 years until Armageddon. The Apocalypse. Judgment Day. The End Of Days. Doomsday. Whatever you want to call the end of the world. Some people believe it will be the Second Coming of Christ and shall mark the biblical end of all things. Whatever...
Why do people believe this? Because the Mayan calendar (one of the most accurate in the world) comes to a sudden end on the winter solstice of 2012. There are ancient Greek prophecies that vaguely refer to the end or the world around that time. There's even some Chinese book that says the winter solstice of 2012 will be the end. Hell, even the internet (Web Bot Project) says it will be the end. And let's not forget our friend the Large Hadron Collider, perhaps that's the day it finally destroys the Earth.
Here's a multi-part YouTube video telling all about it:
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 1 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 2 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 3 of 6).
December 21 2012 the END? (Part 4 of 6).
Dec 21, 2012 - End of the World? - Part 5 of 6, Part 6 - N.A
The person that posted this says Part 6 will come in 2012, as the news reports the end of the world... *cue dramatic, ominous music* Dun dun, dun...
Sound familiar? (Y2K anyone?)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
«Fire Up the Doomsday Device, it's Show-Time!»
Today they will start to circulate the first particles through the Large Hadron Collider. However, the first collisions aren't scheduled until October 21st.
You might be wondering, what is a hadron anyway? A hadron is either a proton or a neutron; you know, the stuff atoms are made of. Its name could be taken the wrong way. It's not colliding over-sized hadrons, it's the collider itself that is large. It's the largest particle accelerator built to date, at 17 miles in circumference. It will accelerate those hadrons to near light speeds, traveling around that 17 mile circumference about 11,000 times a second. Then smash them into each other and see what the resulting debris is.
Why do this? Because the high energy levels involved might give some insight into what the first milliseconds of the universe were like. Hopefully, it will give some clues as to how and why properties like mass and gravity came to be. After-all, hadrons have a mass 100 times greater than the quarks that they are comprised of for reasons yet unknown. Truly, greater than the sum of their parts.
As I've said before, there's no chance of creating a black hole that will devour Earth. We've been bombarded with natural cosmic rays that have higher energy levels (moving at speeds even faster than those possible in the LHC). However, the natural occurrences are sparse and unpredictable, so they can't be properly observed with the right equipment. That's why we need the Large Hadron Collider.
EDIT: Oh, I just had to add this when I saw it. Take a look at Google's logo for today, it's the Large Hadron Collider:
Sunday, March 30, 2008
«Large Hadron Collider»
Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More
Like I said, the next thing on the list to kill us all is the Large Hadron Collider. Now there's a lawsuit against it in Hawaii, no less (the Large Hadron Collider is in Switzerland). They claim it could destroy Earth, and possibly the universe (?).
I've already explained in a previous blog post why the collider isn't a threat... Nature throws far more energized particles into our atmosphere and we haven't been consumed by a micro-black hole yet. And the universe? There are massive black holes in the center of galaxies, why would some micro-black hole threaten the universe?
Heh, I have a motivational poster about the Large Hadron Collider, but it's NSFW... The Large Hardon Collider.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
«OMFG, We didn't all die!»
So it looks like we didn't all die from 2007 TU24, so I guess the Large Hadron Collider is once again, the next on the list. Notice, however, that the media didn't really cover the asteroid until after it passed?
I don't believe the Large Hadron Collider is a threat either. The deal with it is, there's a chance of creating micro black holes. Of course, that freaks a lot of people out. As the most supported theory goes, Hawking Radiation will cause a micro black hole to evaporate before it can interact with anything, thus avoiding the disaster of the mini black hole consuming Earth. One reason I'm inclined to believe it poses no threat is because we've been bombarded by far more energetic particles from nature, that had a greater chance of creating a micro black hole on Earth. In other words, nature's already did it and we survived just fine.
I remember seeing a list of 20 ways the world could end suddenly, and particle accelerator mishap was on the list. So was asteroid impact and rouge black hole. Ah, here's the list:
Twenty Ways the World Could End Suddenly
Monday, January 21, 2008
«OMFG, We're all going to die!»
Oh wait, that's just a conspiracy about 2007 TU24. That's an asteroid due to make a near miss of Earth on January 29th, 2008, at a distance of 1.4 times the distance of the Moon.
What's that picture about? The Legion of Anonymous has declared war on the "Church" of Scientology. In my opinion, they deserve it. They're nothing but a cult.
The first time I actually heard of them was from South Park. The episode named "Trapped in the Closet." Soon after it aired one of their own quit (Isaac Hayes, the voice of Chef). He was fine with South Park making fun of other religions, but not his own.
There's a video of Tom Cruise floating around the internet babbling about how good Scientology is for 8 minutes, none of what he says makes sense. Really makes you see how badly he's brainwashed. I'd link to it, but the "Church" of Scientology keeps getting the video removed, so the video's location is always changing.
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