I love a good yarn as much as anybody. I grew up on "In Search of..."and Sun films. The love of mysteries is one reason why I love "Star Trek", "X-Files," etc. But as I got older, after college, I realized there wasn't anything real going on in any of the things I'd read about that couldn't be explained by human misperception or dishonesty. This was about the time I read the third Communion book by Whitley Strieber. When I was done reading it, I realized there was going to be no real answers, just page after page of dreams, speculation and hot air.

I came upon a radio show in late '96. It was overnight, and the guy was talking about some comet called, I believed at the time, Hell's Bop. He was taking calls from his listeners trying to get them to 'name the companion.' Then talk turned to predictions of cover-up and whether or not this Hell thing was gonna hit the earth. I hadn't realized yet I was listening to Art Bell and that the show was basically "In Search of..." on the radio. At the time I was a bit alarmed, I'm afraid to admit. So while out Christmas shopping at a book store, I looked for Astronomy magazine. There was an article on the best time to view comet Hale Bopp. It told how these two amateur astronomers discovered the comet and how it was gonna be the real thing in terms of unaided viewing (and it was!). I was relieved and didn't think twice about any of the 'companion' nonsense until the suicide cult hit the news during Hale Bopp's appearance the following year.

Astronomy magazine was there when I needed answers. I never thanked them, not that their articles were "debunking" anything. But they told the truth about the phenomena in question: it wasn't gonna hit anything and there was no 'companion.' It wasn't named after a fiery netherworld, but rather a man who co-discovered it.

This site and this board serve a much needed service in regards to setting the record straight re: Planet X. I wasn't pulled in by Ms. Leider and her ilk, but I could've been. Thanks for the dose of common sense and real science (Most being quite funny!).

Thanks! 8)

That's terrific! Welcome to the BABB. I love to read stories like this, it gives me hope.

I think you'll find that the more you learn about the universe the more you will see that the idle speculations of the uninformed will pale in comparison to reality. There's too much to learn and only one lifetime to learn it. There's no sense wasting precious time on doomsayers and gloryhounds like Nancy Leider.

One day the Earth may truly be in peril from something we haven't detected yet. We know impacts have happened in the past and probably will again sometime in the future. However, it won't be the tinfoil hat crowd that tells us. The information will come from the professional and amateur astronomers who do the hard work of observing and thinking.

I hope you find this board to be the positive experience that I have.