f13.net

I don't think this has been brought up yet, so here goes...

NASA researches predict catastrophic solar storms affecting earths power grids in 2012... yeah, the same year the Mayan astronomers predicted the catastrophic start of a new age. I was aware of how solar storms could lead to some power outages, but 1 to 2 trillion dollar worth of damages for the US alone? ouch!

link here (Wired article) http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/2012storms.html


Or is this another crackpot pet theory by some vested intrests?


Edit: ok, either the spell checker does'nt do titles, or I need to find out what prohecies means.

Hrmmm...  I need to invent a new doomsday scenario so when nothing happens in 2012 we've all got something to be scared about again. 

(http://www.clisham.com-a.googlepages.com/sarah_palin_01a.jpg)

Why bother? People come up with the goddamn things at least twice a year.

... and all because a Mayan went, "Fuck it, I'm going home now. Going to 2012 was just overkill anyway".

They actually run out of room on the standard long count calendar in 4772 AD. That's their Y2K-like time, where they would have had to change the format to add another digit. The Mayans used a date record that primarily used base 20 numbers. There is no reason to think (no record to indicate) that the largest field position was base 14, and every reason not to. The Mayans had a larger unit called the piktun which was described as twenty bak'tun - and the bak'tun is the most significant dgit in the long count. The event in 2012 is the change of the bak'tun digit which mesoamericans celebrated much as we do a millennium. They didn't predict the end of the world or another catastrophic event on any of these dates. They left that up to the drug addled cosmic kids from California in the 1950s and 1960s.

Solar activity is cyclic and solar flares have caused blackouts and communications interruptions before.

Ohhh, they're saying that a few hours without cell phones and the world will collapse?  Uh, yeah, ok.

Wired, about 10 years ago, was a semi-decent magazine, it's too bad they've dropped to the level of the Enquirer.

edit: I went and read some of that NASA article, the wired reporter is an idiot.

I got my wife an Ipod touch for xmas and it came along with a year sub to Wired.  It's a terrible magazine.  We're two issues in and I think from here on out I'm going to throw them right into the recycle bin. 

The Wired online magazine laid off most of its staff and is basically being run by a skeleton staff for now, apparently they just realized that their business model was not sustainable  :awesome_for_real:

No mention yet of the earth + sun + galactic center being in direct alignment on 12/21/2012? seems to be a core topic on the history channel doomsday documentary (http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=366932).  Or the newly found addition (http://www.nypost.com/seven/10262007/tv/unpredictable.htm) to Nostradamus's body of work. 

Apparently the history channel is now the prophecy channel.

Oh, the History Channel found new Nostradamus prophecies about the WTC and the end of the world.

In 2009.

Seems odd.. but the History Channel and the NYPost say it's true.

Well, I'm certainly quite frightened. Packing my bags for Mars asap.

No use, that's where the lizard people live.

According to who.

I wish I was making this shit up.
http://www.socyberty.com/Paranormal/Digested-2012-Conspiracy-3-The-Lizard-People-Conspiracy.116589 (http://www.socyberty.com/Paranormal/Digested-2012-Conspiracy-3-The-Lizard-People-Conspiracy.116589)

Yes, but can you quote the History Channel on this matter?

I'm much rather like in a Universe where John Carter's Mars was the real Mars.

Oh, by the way.


http://www.socyberty.com/Paranormal/Digested-2012-Conspiracy-3-The-Lizard-People-Conspiracy.116589


Fantastic.

David Icke is awesome (http://www.davidicke.com/index.php/).

Why the hate on Wired? I think that their articles are pretty fun to read.

I watched this documentary about a cult a few months and it was so amazing how stupid people can be. It was about this christian cult whose leader predicted the end of the world on a date that passed. The documentary was so sad and disturbing. They go back to the compound a few weeks after the day of doom was over and the amount of cognitive dissonance is almost physically visible.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/feeds/cv-seo/Full-Episodes/Inside/Inside-a-Cult-1.html (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/videos/feeds/cv-seo/Full-Episodes/Inside/Inside-a-Cult-1.html)

Didn't he realize that you always order your cult to mass suicide on the day of the apocalypse?  What a newb!

History Channel has been peddling pseudo-science superstition a long time now, from Nostradamus to conspiricy theories to Eastern mysticism to ghosts to "strange creature" shows.

Last week, they had a two hour docu-whatsis on the Ancient Astronaut/Chariots of the Gods folks,  that tried to present both sides relatively evenly.  Usually I can watch that stuff for a laugh, but I was honestly pissed after about an hour or so since the Ancient Astonaut theories have been thoroughly debunked root and branch.

The trick is to pick a date far enough in the future, so you don't look stupid.

I'm something of a conspiracy theory fetishist. I don't subscribe to any but I do find them endlessly entertaining (http://rawilson.com/links.shtml) to look into. The best part about the Ancient Astronaut stuff was when Erich von Daniken wrote a book describing in some detail how he'd been to a cave in South America and seen concrete proof of the AA theory. Unfortunately the guide who apparently took him there denied categorically that von Daniken had ever been near the place. Rather than insist that he had and that the guide was lying, Erich relied on the rather novel defence that although he hadn't actually been there and, had in fact made the whole episode up, it in no way invalidated the rest of his work.

I remember when the History channel had all sorts of interesting shows to watch. Now it is complete bullshit. 4 fucking hours of "who would win" between a spartan warrior and an Indian. Which wouldn't be that bad except they don't use anything resembling critical thinking in the comparisons. Ghost Hunters especially makes me want to stab somebody.

Huh?  Neither of those shows are on History.

I hate apocalypses (real and imagined).




Wired should be hated just for the word Technorati. Fuck them.

[edit] History Channel peddles that shit because they know that Americans are stupid. Fuck Americans too.

Geez, feelin the hate today.

Yes, especially the real apocalypses.  Which are, of course, a bitch.

Ghost hunters is not. The who would win battle deal is show most certainly is. Its not even the sole show of that type on the history channel.

Edit: I am wrong I seem to be clumping together channels near the History Channel. How embarrassing  :why_so_serious:

um apache vs gladiator was on spike TV, you are thinking of the show "Warriors" on the History channel which isn't the same thing.  Your point should have been focused around "UFO Hunters" and "Monsterquest".

History Channel must have run out its supply of free Nazi footage. They've been running entirely too much shit on "Sins the Bible Says Are REALLY REALLY BAD, mmmKKK?" and "Shit that Would Call You If It Was Real!"

What does that shit even have to do with history in the first place?

Exactly

his point was:

They could start airing Star Trek and Indiana Jones movies etc if they've run out of footage of people shooting Nazis.

Actually, you can't ever run out of footage of people shooting Nazis. That's not possible.

In the break room at work one day I was able to catch a show on the history channel that was actually pretty interesting, focused around the history of beer.  So, I guess it isn't always chariots of the gods and prophecies about how we are totally fucked.

Modern Marvels, History versus Hollywood, and Mail Call are some decent history channel shows.  Do they still show any of them?

Modern Marvels is what they play whenever they want to fill a timeslot.  It IS the History Channel.  It is its alpha and omega. 

But History is just like every other cable channel.  Whatever theme it was based on must be slowly eroded to get more people to watch.  Except it rarely fucking works and just makes people butthurt.

(In full disclosure I have a lifetime subscription to the History Channel magazine which is fairly decent and interesting.  And barely even equates to the stuff they show on the channel itself anymore.  It only occasionally mentions what is on outside of the more serious history related stuffs.  No monsters or PROPHECIES or anything.  Though I do like the monster bits, prophecies are butt.)

I wonder when they'll change the channel's name to something like Hystry Stories.

I guess I'm stuck with NOVA then.

More like the "Hysteria Channel"

When it first came out it was the "Hitler channel' because every damn show was WWII newsreel footage.

Dont forget the 3-4 hour block of awesome military shows. Weapons at war,Firepower and i forget the name of the aircraft orientated one, wings of war maybe.

Those are shown on the military channel now.  I miss "The greatest blunders" show.  It was on back around 1998/9 and would recount battles and exactly how the losing side fucked up.

Best how on the History Channel:  Dogfights

Not sure how they get data on what they claim is exact recreations of WWI era biplane dogfights, but it's entertaining none the less.

I remember that one. I always found it interesting how thin the line from "complete victory" to "devastating defeat" was in something as complex as battles. I miss so much good TV i don't have a cable box in my computer room (which is where i am 90% of my do nothing time) so am stuck with crappy channels.

None of the WW2 stuff was interesting to me, to be honest. So I can't really complain what's become of History Channel. It was barely cool to begin with. But I gladly welcomed History International, cuz they got away from all of that. Haven't seen it in awhile though, not sure if it's dropped in quality now as well.

Generally there won't be a battle unless there's rough parity of strength (if one side is obviously stronger, the other will refuse battle/withdraw), and the decisive factor is usually a mistake by one side that is exploited by the other.  More than a few military theorists have boiled being a great general down to either making as few mistakes as possible, or maximizing the opportunities for the other side to make mistakes.  Sun Tzu's Art of War was basically a long list of mistakes to avoid making.

--Dave

Having a leader that is decisive and confident who throws his forces into the fray seemed to be a huge factor. Im sure the US having a surplus of material wealth does not hurt. Of course when the same types of choices lead to an ass kicking that gets brushed under the rug. I once read a book that compared US military doctrine to the Art of War and it would really be difficult to find two dissimilar perspectives.

US military strategies change over and over again. They've done everything from guerilla warfare to "we make better toys than you, own the sky, and now you and your grandma are going to die".

Not the strategies exactly so much as the overall perspective on the use of force. You are correct the strategies change with technology and social climate. I wish i could recall the name of the book is was pretty interesting.

I remember when I used to watch the learning channel all the time around 98, 99... Junkyard wars and shows like that were great, now it's just "HAY WE HAS 12 KIDS!".

6 have dwarfism and 6 are too fat to leave the house!

There are really very few battles in history that involve straight-up parity between two forces where it all comes down to the good or bad decisions on one side or the other. Most military engagements in human history are effectively over before they start because of major intelligence failures that get the weaker force involved in a battle they'd otherwise have avoided or because a weaker force gets cornered or has no choice but to engage for reasons of dwindling resources.

I loved Beakman's world. I was constantly trying to make my own bedroom into a laboratory like Beakman's.

Fuck yeah. I used to watch the hell out of that show as a kid, Lester was my favourite.

I was once given a chemistry kit by my grand father. It contained maybe 30 containers of various chemicals a alcohol fueled candle to heat them up and some test tubes. I mixed random chemicals with the alcohol and ignited it. It exploded in a ball of green flame singing all my hair off :ye_gods:

I also made another batch of magic juice and left it outside. It hardened into a Styrofoam like consistency and attaracted about 50 grasshoppers who promptly died. Man being a kid was fun

I was known in AP chem as the guy who liked to spill alcohol burners and light the room on fire or mix concoctions that would ignite or foam all over. I loved AP chem, really should've stuck with chemistry. Damn rock and roll!

I loved that show.  Totally had a crush on Liza, too.