I don't know much about astronomy and a while back searching about 2012 ( Yeah it panicked me beyond belief!) came across the BAUT forums which de_bunked all these predictions and recently coming across amazon's book section saw all these 2012 books and how people are actually selling them...I mean if you really think the world's gonna end why not give them out free...but a few of his ideas were

Lawrence E. Joseph

• We’re a million years over due for a mass extinction.

• The sun at radiation minimum is acting much worse than at solar maximum, and one misdirected spewing of plasma could fry us in an instant.

• The magnetic field—which shields us from harmful radiation—is developing a mysterious crack.

• Our solar system is entering an energetically hostile part of the galaxy.

I'm curious about the "Sun" one and how "misdirected spewing of plasma could fry us in an instant." ?
I've done some research on the other's and about the magnetic field on how it does this, and has a few hundred times in the past, but this guy seems like he knows what he's talking about (Anyone with big words can WOW me into believing them.) if anyone could enlighten me, I'd be much obliged..
Oh and I regularly come to Badastronomy.com, it's got me hooked.

Sorry to hear that. You need to figure out why something that has no basis in fact could have such an effect on you. For the same reason Indian astrologers took their customers' money and property as payment for their forecasts of doom back in February 1962, and why a number of them never saw March 1962.There's no fixed rule for the frequency of mass extinctions. Not sure what you mean by "worse", but if it has to do with the solar wind, CMEs etc., then, no, it isn't.Really? Interesting that a flux field could develop a "crack". What is the evidence for this? If there is any, it must be somewhere beyond the current condition of the Earth's magnetic field, which is doing its usual drift, and is the same as always.Nope. It's not. We're still in the Orion arm and will be here for many more millions of years.
With a magnetosphere and an atmosphere it isn't going to happen.
Beware of big words, big claims, and little objective scientific evidence to support them.Good. If you are hooked, we'll let you go unharmed , as long as you continue to read the real deal re these FUD dealers, who really want to help...to relieve of your money.

BTW, as soon as these FUD folks found out their Y2K Millennium Doom books were no longer selling, they modified them slightly and began reselling them as 2012 Mayan Doom books.


Meanwhile, welcome to the BAUT, Exirus!

Read the FAQs, especially the rules, and have fun.

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Ah, thanks for the response
And I said "Panicked me". It did back before I found this site, now I tend to question some of the things thrown my way.

Well, Masutov pretty much covered it. So I'll just add - when you run into claims like 2000/2012 just sit and wait for the evidence to come. Nine times out of ten you'll have a very long wait.

Crack in a magnetic field? Overdue for a mass extinction? Oh dear it all sounds so scary. I'll have to buy a book and read up on it.

Welcome to the board. Pull up a chair and sit a spell.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

Oh yeah the book's called
Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End (Hardcover)
by Lawrence E. Joseph (Author)
If anyone's interested :P

You're welcome.That questioning is part of something called "critical thinking", which is one of the best, if not the best, tools we humans have for understanding the world we live in.

Some tools are metal, others are mental.

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Yeah, and getting swayed is what those people are looking for(one would think)... Innocents looking for knowledge and coming across one of those sites.. That's why I'm glad all that lead me to here, I just hope more people find this site that were in my same position.

I see where you can buy this litter box liner from Amazon for $23.95 to $79.60.

But if you are willing to wait until next year the paperback edition will be only $11.20 and eligible for free shipping.

I read the reviews, trying to figure out why it got 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars. The reviewers, for the most part (including the Amazon editorial review writer), are about as clueless as the author.

BTW, googling "Lawrence E. Joseph" reveals a number of self-referential sites. His qualifications? The cite at his own site says he was the "chairman of an advanced plasma physics research and development company in Albuquerque, New Mexico" whereas the bio at various booksellers says he is "chairman of the board of New Mexico–based Aerospace Consulting Corporation." Now, in engineering circles, "doing consulting" is usually code for "unemployed". Interesting that when one visits the Aerospace Consulting Corporation site, one finds a marginal webpage that apparently hasn't been updated since October 18, 2005.

Where'd I put that baking soda?

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Maybe I should wait till next year untill purchasing the book then.(sarcasm)

I don't see why you would want to prey on people fears to make money, but that's how it's always been. He's making statements as facts which is just untrue in this case, He should take up a hobby or a job for that matter..

He does have a hobby, making unfounded claims about 2012, and a job, selling books about those claims to gullible people.

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"Any Sufficiently Analyzed Magic is Indistinguishable from SCIENCE!" -Agatha Heterodyne

"Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don't understand it." -Florence Ambrose

I was thinking maybe other than that! Ya know like a normal past time.

Good one!

But in the world of the conspiracy theorist ("theorist" is used very loosely here), hoax believer, and end times prophet, reality is paranormal.

You might want to use the BAUT search function, keying in "2012" to see what's already been written on this subject. Make sure you're not drinking anything while reading certain posts.

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When I got my credit card statement last month, there was an offer of a fixed rate on balances transfers until 2012.

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But you're sure the astronauts are lying; you just don't seem to know what they're lying about: Jayutah


I are Learnding.

I didn't really have much internet access around Y2K.. But was it as big as this 2012 thing?

It's a little early yet to say how far 2012 silliness will go, but Y2K scares were general news items, so yes, I'd say it was a big thing as scares go. There were real computer issues, but they were badly misrepresented by the news media (there were even stories that referred to Y2K programming issues as a "computer virus" ). Then there were the religious groups that latched onto it as a good "end of the world" argument. And finally, there was a bit of a positive feedback loop: Politicians ordered that extreme measures be taken (with programmers on staff and emergency centers staffed on New Year's Eve) so that they could say they were doing everything possible if the least little bug turned up in some program or other . . . and the fact that they did such things were taken as evidence there were serious problems that hadn't been resolved by the news media, which in turn fueled even more extreme special preparation.

There isn't anything like that for 2012. I don't think the Doom Pushers will get very far in the popular news media with the "galactic alignment" silliness, and Mayan beliefs don't have the following compared to Christian Millenialists. You'll see the occasional news story, and the various internet sites, but that's it.

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Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Oh alrighty then, I guess that gives us time to see if this one gets the all the hype Y2K did, but I'm gonna doubt it seeing as the only possible thing that could spawn from this is the alignment of the galactic equator, but with that there's quite a few posts on BAUT talking about this and that there's really no "center" as it being a bunch of "dust particles".. or is there a more serious threat?

There's nothing for 2012 or for the foreseeable future. There are things in the galaxy (including "dust" clouds) that hypothetically could cause problems on Earth if we went through them or were near them, but we aren't near anything like that. Some folks just don't seem to get the scale of the galaxy: If there was (for example) a dust cloud, it would be light years across and we would have seen it for a long time. It couldn't possibly sneak up on us.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Ah, I guess I didn't seem to get the scale of the galaxy and how far off things can seem and how little it would actually do to be "lined up" with something.

Actually there's not even an "alignment", unless one considers a gap of over 5 degrees (equal to 10+ full Moon diameters) to be an "exact" alignment. Check out my prior post on this subject.

The doomsayers/money makers have been in such a rush to cash in on this thing that they didn't even bother to see (or purposely decided to ignore) whether the basis for their claims had any foundation in fact.

It doesn't.

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On one of the web sites attached to this message board, Phil "BA" Plait computed the gravitational effect of every planet (including Pluto) being in perfect alignment with the Earth.

Here.

It's a good article, but here's the most relevant parts:

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And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Well, you're obviously not the only one. I think issues like these just come down to our (as humans) desire to find meaning in the world around us, even when there is no meaning there. We look for patterns because we want to be in control...or at least, in the know. The problem is, when you're looking for patterns, it's easy to piece things together that are actually completely unrelated.

As an exaggerated example, lets say I want to study traffic accidents. In the course of my studies, I determine that out of 250,000 accidents, 99.8% of the drivers were wearing pants (yes, occasionally you have those "wacky" pantsless incidents).

99.8% out of 250,000 sounds like more than just a coincidence, right? But can I run out and say that wearing pants causes traffic accidents? No, that's obviously absurd. But when the two things you're looking at aren't as obviously unrelated, it's easy to mistake cause/effect/and non-sequitor.

Unfortunately, people pray off of this fact, and make money by pretending to reveal truths (the thing we desire) through irrelevant coincidences. It's nothing new, and until people are willing to do some critical thinking and examination for themselves, it won't stop.

Oh, and to find out how you too can avoid traffic accidents by not wearing pants, visit www.thegreatpantsconspiracy.org and order my 5-dvd 2 novel set, for just 23 easy payments of $79.95! (I really hope that website doesn't work )

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Like when drivers were wearing skirts? Or are we taking "pants" to mean "and/or skirts" the way we do in my household when I say I have to put on pants before I go somewhere?

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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!"

Bah! that site doesn't work I need to know how to avoid accidents!

Anyway, thanks guys for posting here, I now understand a lot more than I did about our tiny planet!

Some people just can't enjoy life and they always have to think the world is about to end. I feel sorry for those people and recomend that they drink some lemonade.

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

This list isn't especially apropos, but I'm just maintaining the snowball tradition that grows and grows. Search engines may lead people to this article, so I'll list some other BAUT Forum year-2012 topics they might want to check out, in chronological order:

2003 no, 2012 si
2012
Pole shift / Planetary alignment 2012?
2012 alignment question
about the Mayan 2012 item
2012 Debunking?
Possible asteroid impact in 2012?
2012 asteroid?
We don't have to worry about 2012!
More on 2012 from India Daily
2012 Completion of conspiracy?
Here's what's REALLY going to happen in 2012...
crop circles, Planet X and 2012
Planet X, crop circles and 2012 cataclysma
According to the Mayans, what will happen on 23rd Dec. 2012?
More 2012 Nonsense
NEO 2012?
Dangerous NEO in 2012?
Christmas 2012
2012 mayan calender end of world
Regarding the supposed polar shift/new ice age in 2012
New 2012 threat?
2012 look at this thing on the sun
Russian Expert Predicts Global Cooling from 2012
Pole shift idea origins
Dec 20 2012
2012 Stuff
Horizon Project-New End of World Scare?
Date: December 21st 2012
Earth passing thru Galactic center in 2012 - didn't that already happen?
2012: What do you think well happen (if anything)
So what will we see in 2012?
Galactic Tsunami?
Plane of the ecliptic of the galaxy?
Earth's Magnetic Field & 2012
2012?
Any truth to this?
How can the sun be aligned with Galactic centre?
the whole 2012 poles flip nonsense
Planet X Official Advertisement
What year are we in
Quick question about the sun
Galactic Alignment
Books of 2012! -

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That's quite a list! I think I've checked out everything in there now.

And now thinking back on it.. It is pretty ridiculous to believe in someone's "word" without proper investigation.

Absolutely, and that includes ours.

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And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

I would think I can trust you guys a little more than the all the "Doom-sayers" out there

But you can't know that you can trust us more. You should always do the extra research. We've all been wrong. True, we're more likely to admit it than the doom-sayers, but we aren't infallible. You should always remember that.

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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!"

Well, sure. Just remember that "trustworthy" and "infallible" aren't synonyms. Trust where you can, but verify.

__________________
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling [faces] lyin' to ye' everywhere ye' go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.