Not exactly conspiracy, but I believe this is relatively new as there isn't much on the net-YET-but no doubt this will take hold and generate more fear (al-a Planet Ex) and no doubt bucketfuls of bucks for the producers of the DVD:
http://www.thehorizonproject.com/
The new spin is that civilizations have come and gone before us leaving nary a trace because every (what is it- 26 million years?) the solar system passes through the galactic plane. I have looked into this notion before and can't seem to find a straight answer as to what effects on the solar system this will really have (perhaps bother a few asteroids and send them closer?), nor can I pin down when this "galactic crossing" will occur, but some claim it's already happened or or still yet to happen. Point is, this Horizon Project has a team of "scientists" and (not surprisingly as this is woo-woo land) "remote viewers" (somehow I feel Ed Dames might be behind this), are claiming that in the magical year of 2012 we will be smack dab in the middle of the clutches of the "gravitational waves" put forth by the galaxy's black hole which will cause the obligatory and long-predicted-by-just-about-everybody-crazy poleshift (magnetic or geographic they're not sure) which will ruin the planet, increase solar flares and influence our weather (they claim those last two things are evidence we are nearing the galactic center right now and things will get worse, of course). So, (sigh), I'm afraid that their website is about to generate momemtum and hysteria over the next few years and that is MY prediction! I don't know how credible their scientific backgrounds are but just reading the list of "resources" http://www.thehorizonproject.com/thp_resources.cfm they cite Albert Einstein, Heisenberg right next to Nostradamus and Mother Shipton! Alrighty then..... Let's have fun with this one! --SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE-POSTING---MY BAD!---

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"One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways." -Karl A. Menninger

ToSeeked...
Im looking for the thread now...

The idiocy about "crossing the galactic plane in 2012 so all kinds of bad juju is gonna happen" has come up before. I don't think The Horizon Project has been mentioned by name, though.

Needless to say, (a) the solar system is not going to cross the plane of the galaxy in 2012 -- that's some tens of tousands of years off, I think, and (b) when it does cross the plane, nothing unusual is going to happen.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

I also suspect that it is not like there is a sharp division marking the "galactic plane". I suspect it is like the Earth's equator. Yes, there is a point where you are "on the equator", but the conditions 10 meters north or south of that line are not all that different - neither would ten million miles above or below the galactic plane. It is silly to say things like we are crossing the plane on 21 December 2012 at 17:03:47.592 UTC.

As far as gravity waves from the black hole at the center of the galaxy: I think they would propogate in many directions, not just in the plane of the galaxy, and so any influence they might have would have been felt on Earth for all of Earth's existence.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

So, everybody on earth at the time will have to strip to their skivvies and get splashed with cold salt water by folks dressed like Neptune and his entourage?

Oh, the indignity, the indignity!

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

It took me a moment to get that, but yes, I think that's a great idea! Except instead of Neptune, maybe it should be Zeus, since it is the whole galaxy, not just the ocean.

For those not getting it, think Navy tradition and equator.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

I was wondering how credible the "scientist" in charge of the HP, a Dr. Brooks Agnew is. Well, I guess even if you have have PhD after your name doesn't make you any less crazy. After some digging I found out he believes in-are you ready for this-the hollow earth theory http://www.consciouslifeexpo.com/lec...day/agnew.html and you can join the expedition to the North Pole this year http://www.ourhollowearth.com/VoyagetoHollowEarth.htm Agnew is listed as the "expedition organizer".
The audio interview with his Horizon Project buddy Brent Miller states the Horizon Project has planned this to go up there to take "critical measurements" of the points where the magnetic fields meet or some such nonsense but the trip looks like it had already been in the works anyway to look for the "hole" at thh top of the Earth!

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"One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways." -Karl A. Menninger

Here is a bioraphy on him from the Coast-to-Coast website. I make no claims on how accurate it is.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Thanks for that. Being on C2C-Well that tells you something right there!

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"One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways." -Karl A. Menninger

Of itself, it only tells me he's in some good company.

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Bah! My money was that his PhD was in "Sports Nutritionalism" or something But his "bio" says physics. As pointed out though, you can be good at math (which is what physics is) and still be crazy as a loon.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

There is a sign there saying welcome to the beta quadrant kiss your civilization goodbye.

plus it takes about 240 million years for the sun to orbit around the galaxy so 26 million yr for each quadrant is a little off, about 34 million yrs.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Ed Dames is a painfully bad con artist, he's been making doomsday predictions on coast to coast for years -- always wrong. For anyone interested in a really ugly and depressing read:

http://ufowatchdog.com/rvdames.html

This is exactly what prompted my question over in the "Alternative Theories" forum, though, I'm curious what evidence there is about the earth being "in alignment" with the galactic center/plane -- I was under the impression we already did that between 99-03. If anyone could point me towards some white papers it'd be most appreciated, thanks

A person pushing one of these thories is a con artist what will they think up next?

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Yeah, I have read it's already happened, yet I hear it's off in the far off future as well? Anyone know for sure?

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"One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways." -Karl A. Menninger

I'm not sure if this explains the different dates, but there is a difference between being "aligned with" the galactic plane and "crossing" that plane. One need not be aligned with a plane when crossing it, nor do you have to be crossing it to be aligned with it.

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

If my understanding's correct, they'd both be true most of the time--I believe it's a cycle.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

As with everything else, the "galactic plane" (GP) isn't a line formed by viewing the edge of a surface. It's a zone which has a width due to something called uncertainty. Even if we knew precisely where all the matter in the Milky Way was and each particle's velocity, the GP would still be a zone due to influences from the Magellanic clouds, M31, et al, and other factors.

So it's constantly shifting as we peer farther into the galaxy using more and more of the electromagnetic spectrum. Using the term GP is sort of like saying that you're at the exact center of a fog bank.

Thus a term like "equatorial zone" would more accurately define what we know based on observation.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I still carry my shellback card in my wallet. Lets see, 12 June, 1980. I crossed at LAT 00.00'00" LONG 70. 05' 00". A much younger man than I am now.

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"The beauty of that discussion of averages is that you don't have to be an expert in Apollo or in photography in order to see where this time study "analysis" breaks down. You just have to be, well...not an idiot." -JayUtah