Apocalypse now? The dire predictions for the end of the world
Nov 6 2009 Brian McIver
According to the latest Hollywood blockbuster the end is nigh again. But at least we have three years' notice this time.
The new movie 2012, from disaster-friendly director Roland Emmerich of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow fame, focuses on prophecy and calendar writings from South American natives who believed the world will end on December 23, 2012.
In the hit film the predictions come true and the planet is stricken by devastating storms and earthquakes. But in reality more and more people are talking about this particular doomsday date. It was arrived at by historians studying the texts of ancient tribe, the Mayans, whose calendar is said to come to a fixed end on December 23, 2012, with many interpreting that to mean an end of the world.
Some internet religious fundamentalists have also joined in by claiming that Judgment Day, mentioned in the Bible's Book of Revelations, will come in December 2012.
But before you head for the hills, start building an ark or loot the tinned foods section of the local supermarket, it's worth remembering this is just the latest in a long line of apocalyptic predictions that have previously come and gone with nothing more than the ticking of a clock to mark them.
From the hysteria of the Millennium Bug to predictions by cult leaders, religious fanatics, astronomers and internet fear-mongers, people have been predicting - thankfully incorrectly - the exact date of the apocalypse for thousands of years, and show no sign of slowing.
Here are some of the dates the world has been due to end - and some that are still due to hit us.
2012
The basis for the Mayan-related theory is that the ancient and highly advanced tribe had a calendar which is due to end on a specific date. This has been ascertained by modern historians as December 23, 2012.
The calendar part of the theory is widely recognised as being correct, but there have been many interpretations which have stated the ancient Mayans meant a rebirth from the end of the calendar, not an apocalypse.
And the Mayans' modern descendants are reportedly not worried about the date - believing that just because the calendar expires doesn't mean they will too.
Some theorists have also claimed the End of Days (last rumoured to be the turn of the millennium) will happen in December 2012 and lead to a biblical apocalypse.
Possible methods include solar flares that will toast the Earth, a depolarisation of the magnetic poles that will change the direction the world turns or, in an extremely unlikely case, a collision with a monster planet called Nibiru.
THE MILLENNIUM
The significance of a millennium date has always prompted all kinds of apocalypse predictions.
In the year 999 a plague of first millennial apocalypse hysteria is believed to have swept Europe, with many interpreting the Bible to read that the year 1000 would be the Second Coming and Judgment Day for mankind.
When that came and went, the next big date was 1033 - supposed to be 1000 years since the death of Christ, aged 33.
In 1999 a dubious Nostradamus prediction that July 1 would see the coming of a "king of terror" also passed.
The millennial rapture predictions resurfaced for 2000, but were added to by the Millennium Bug fear.
It was thought the Y2K computer glitch, with reset computer clocks hitting 00, would mean that all computer chips in the world would short circuit and plunge the world into darkness. They didn't.
1844 - MILLERITES
In the early 19th century New York landowner William Miller became obsessed with religious prophecies and symbolisms related to the calendar. He was convinced the world would end with the Second Coming of Christ in 1844.
Over the years he drew many followers, Millerism became a worldwide movement and he set the date as March 21, 1844.
When that passed without incident, it became April 18. When that also elapsed, the number of followers shrank until August when a new and apparently conclusive date was devised - October 22.
Most of the Millerites gave away all of their money and possessions apart from white robes, and many climbed mountains or trees to get to heaven faster, but that day also failed to deliver and became known as The Great Disappointment.
Many followers drifted into other religions.
MARCH 1997 - HEAVEN'S GATE
Marshall Applewhite, of San Diego, California, founded the Heaven's Gate cult in the 1970s and had attracted dozens of followers by the Nineties.
He believed the Earth was due to be cleansed and washed away by the coming of a heavenly comet, which would speed his believers off to heaven and destroy the world. They were convinced a spacecraft was travelling in the wake of the Hale-Bopp Comet which passed Earth in March 1997, and the only way to get on board was to leave behind their earthly bodies.
Applewhite was one of 38 members who killed themselves by poisoning on March 19, 1997.
2035 - THE RAELIANS
Raelism is the world's biggest UFO-based religion and its members believe that in the year 2035 a race of extra terrestrials, who look like humans, will return to Earth to start a new age.
They believe all humans were created by alien fathers and all religion or magical beliefs stem from them. The aliens will only arrive if the Raelians build an embassy to welcome them in time.
SCIENTIFIC ENDS OF THE WORLD
There have been two science-based predictions for the apocalypse and we dodged the first one last year on September 10, 2008.
The opening of the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which measures particle collision in an attempt to understand the big bang theory, was suggested to be a possible end of the world because a side-effect of the experiments could be the creation of a monstrous black hole, which could have sucked the Earth in.
It didn't - and the £3.6billion device broke down a few days later.
But the one date that almost every scientist will agree on is the moment when the sun goes supernova, turns into a red giant star and swallows most of the solar system, including Earth.
The date is 4,500,000,000 AD - so no need to worry just yet.
END OF THE WORLD MOVIES
The apocalypse is a common theme in movies and, as special effects have improved, the end of the world has become more spectacular. Here are some of the best. War of the Worlds (2005) Aliens in giant tripod spaceships arrive on Earth and start killing millions of people.
The Terminator films (1984-2009) Artificial intelligence computers develop self-awareness and create killer robots to enslave or eliminate the population.
Independence Day (1996) Aggressive aliens attack Earth in attempt to take over the world. I Am Legend (2007) A killer virus turns people into light-fearing zombies that feed on the remaining human population, leaving just Will Smith behind.
Dr Strangelove (1964) A rogue US general orders an Atomic bomb attack on the Soviet Union, starting the process of a nuclear holocaust. Deep Impact (1998) A monster asteroid hits Earth, sending killer waves to flatten coastal cities.
2012 doomsday prophecies predictably miss their mark
'2012' doesn't hold up to scientific analysis and niether did Y2K 10 years ago either
Y2K LIKE GLITCH IMPACTED NORAD'S MILITARY DEFENCE
Since 9/11, the military's air defense network over the U.S. has had the ability to monitor commercial airline traffic via Federal Aviation Administration radars. So today's F.A.A. computer glitch that caused widespread flight delays across the country, also affected the military's ability to see some of the information from the F.A.A.
FAA: Unmanned and commercial aircraft don't mix -- yet
But, but military officials tell ABC News, the interruption did not affect its ability to take emergency action, like scrambling fighter jets to intercept aircraft acting in a suspicious manner, what the military calls "tracks of interest."
"At no given time was our ability to execute our air sovereignty mission affected nor our ability to respond to a track of interest within the United States," says Lt. Col. Susan Romano, a spokesperson for CONR. the Continental U.S. division of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
PASSENGER CHECK-INS THROWN INTO CHAOS AFTER Y2K LIKE COMPUTER SYSTEM FAILURE
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH CAUSES TRAFFIC LIGHTS TO MALFUNCTION
OOPS....Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH CANCELS MILLION-DOLLAR JACKPOT
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH SENT THOUSANDS CHECKS TO UNEMPLOYED BY MISTAKE
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH WIPES OUT 30 MILLION DOLLARS AT INSURANCE COMPANY
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH AT CHIGAGO POLICE DEPT. HEADQUARTERS
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH HALTS TRADE OF 300 STOCKS
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH CAUSES JOB REPORT ERROR
OLYMPIC TICKET SALES BACK ON AFTER Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH
Y2K LIKE COMPUTER GLITCH PUTS DMV AT A STANDSTILL
Computer glitch puts DMV at a standstill
Computer glitch causes headaches for Greeley court, residents
In its latest computer glitch, the Obama administration's much-ballyhooed accounting system for the $1.2 trillion stimulus law
Wrong numbers blamed on computer glitch
Weapons of Mass Disruption: commuters get a glimpse of the gutureSNL GM Apologizes for Water Billing 'Fiasco'
Bay State may forgive jobless, but feds won't
Computer glitch hits tests
Causeway chaos after IT glitch
Computer glitch causes Chicago Police Headquarters outages
Price Mistake Causes Chaos At Local Gas Station
Barclaycard to fix minimum payment blunder
Library staff overpaid by £357000
Safety Officials: Runaway Toyota Matter 'Is Not Closed'
Bank error siphons $189M from retired NYC teachers
Paul Kangas' Stocks in the News
Try telling a computer it's wrong
Computer error hits C-charge
Gesa Covers Bank's Payroll Glitch
Greeley courts computer glitch affects residents' licenses
Passenger check-ins thrown into chaos after computer system failure
Thousands of unemployed affected by computer glitch
Stimulus web computer glitch fuels skepticsNearly $10 Million Owed to LAUSD by Teachers Who Were Mistakenly Overpaid
Thousands of unemployed affected by computer glitchBarclaycard has reduced some borrowers' minimum credit card payments to a fraction of their debt this month following a computer glitch.
Michael Joseph Lalonde, 53, allegedly Attacked an ATM Machine after Y2K like computer glitch that left him penniless at the Wells Fargo branch at 621 Hickory St. in Texarkana, Ark.
Computer glitch is keeping some Maplewood residents out of the loop when it comes to H1N1 flu clinic reminders,
A massive computer glitch saw thousands of order confirmations get sent out to the wrong people. One Play.com customer received 80 emails for orders he hadn’t placed.
“Glitch"
Comelec Chairman Jose Melo downplayed the supposed irregularity as a simple computer “glitch," saying the similar birth dates was probably due to the failure of some registrants to put their birthdays on the registration form when they registered.
“Glitch lang yun (That’s just a glitch), I’m not very sure, pero pinatitingnan na namin yan (but we are looking into it)," he said, adding that Rosales was not the first one to come to them about this concern.
Rosales however was unconvinced, saying the involved names should not have been included in the list even if there was a glitch in the computer.
ASTEROID CLOUD:
The electric-blue "mystery cloud" seen twisting over Colorado and Utah at daybreak on Nov. 18th is no longer a mystery. It was asteroid debris. Consider the following images:
On Oct. 7, 2008, asteroid 2008 TC3 hit the atmosphere and exploded over Sudan, creating the cloud pictured left. On Nov. 18, 2009, a similar-sized asteroid hit the atmosphere and exploded over Colorado and Utah in a flash of light that startled onlookers across at least eight states. Hours later, daybreak revealed the "mystery cloud" pictured right. It looks just like the debris from 2008 TC3.
Both clouds resemble icy noctilucent clouds that form naturally around Earth's poles during summer or in the aftermath of rocket launches. Researchers have long suspected that space dust can prompt the formation of noctilucent clouds by acting as nucleation points for high-altitude ice crystals. Dusty debris from exploded asteroids may serve this purpose quite nicely.
The explosion of 2008 TC3 in Oct. 2008 produced meteorites that were later recovered. The asteroid-blast of Nov. 2009 probably produced meteorites, too, although researchers aren't yet sure where they fell. Stay tuned for updates.
more images: from Lisa Cain of New Castle, Colorado; from Don Brown of Park City, Utah; from Daniel Owen of Monarch, Utah; from John Omohundro of Grand Junction, Colorado; from Jeff Kendrick of Salt Lake City, Utah; from Allan Jeffers of Denver, Colorado; from Scott Stringham of Salt Lake City, Utah; from Sean O'Leary of West Jordan, Utah;
'Cosmic rays' may have caused Qantas jet's plunge
Cosmic rays are being considered by air safety investigators as a possible cause of a Qantas plane plunging twice in quick succession on its way from Singapore to Perth in October last year.
Air safety investigators this morning brought down their second interim report [PDF] into the flight QF72 incident, which left one flight attendant and 11 passengers with serious injuries, finding that an equipment glitch with one of three data collectors was a likely cause.
But the reason for the problems with the air data inertial reference unit, which gathers data from outside the plane and feeds it into the cockpit, remains unclear.
One explanation being considered for the October 7 incident is that cosmic or solar rays interfered with the system, noting that a single particle can cause problems with integrated circuits such as the one used in the data equipment.
"There is a constrant stream of high-energy galactic and solar radiation interacting with the Earth’s upper atmosphere," the report noted. "This interaction creates a cascade of secondary particles. Some of the secondary particles, in particular neutrons, can affect aircraft avionics systems."
The Airbus A330-303 was flying at 37,000 feet with 303 people on board when it plunged 650 feet before recovering to its original height and then plunging 400 feet.
The pilot declared a "mayday" an sought an emergency landing at Learmonth, Western Australia.
The data device experienced significant spikes in nine different categories of information, leading to the dramatic movements in the aircraft, which was using its autopilot system.
In releasing the report this morning, Australian Transport Safety Bureau safety investigator Ian Sangston said while the spikes could not yet be explained, changes to equipment had been taken to filter out extreme data.
"We don’t know the methodology of those spikes, however we understand the result of those spikes and how the upset occurred and there’s good safety action in place to ensure any spikes in future will not have that effect," he told reporters in Canberra.
Airbus is changing the software that runs avionics on its A330 and A340 passenger jets following the incident and two others in recent years involving the data units.
Qantas has progressively installed the software patches on its Airbus fleet, and more software updates are due through next year, which once certified, will be installed on Airbuses worldwide.
Safety investigators have also found problems with aircraft seatbelts that can become unclasped unintentionally during a plummet, increasing injury risk.
Six passengers reported that despite having their seatbelts done up, three said tightly, that the buckle unfastened when the plane dived.
Investigators found buckles can flip open when they contact the seats’ armrests, a scenario that’s more likely if the seatbelt is being worn loosely
"We identified that if seatbelts aren’t secured low down on the hip as recommended by the operators, there is an instance where if the latch of the seatbelt is loose and can catch on the seat it can actually undo it, so we’re working with other authorities and manufacturers and so on to understand that," Mr Sangston said.
A final report is expected by the middle of next year.
"We've implemented all actions required by regulators and and aircraft manufacturers to date," the spokesman said.
"Following the incident we quickly introduced a number of new measures including enhanced flight crew procedures developed by Airbus to manually isolate potential...(avionics)...issues.
"We've also installed improved flight control software across the A330 fleet and these, in combination, have added additional layers of protection to prevent another similar incident."
The investigators found the seatbelt sign was not illuminated while the plane was cruising and there was no policy or procedure requiring cabin crew to check or enforce seatbelt use, beyond take-offs and landings.
The Qantas spokesman defended the airline's advice to passengers about seatbelts.
"We provide various information to passengers about the importance of wearing seatbelts. They're designed to be worn firmly fitted and this is the instruction we give to passengers, along with the instruction that they should be worn at all times while the passenger is in their seat," he said.
The seat belts fitted to Qantas Airbus jets were a standard seatbelt used by all operators, the spokesman said.
"Should the regulators introduce any requirements to change those seatbelts then we will certainly implement any changes that might be required."
But changing seatbelts would be a massive undertaking for Qantas — and all airlines.
With about 220 planes in the Qantas fleet, carrying up to 300 people per plane, the airline would need to replace more than 60,000 buckles.
Galactic Glare Reveals Birthplace of Cosmic Rays
Cosmic rays—charged particles that hurtle through space at nearly the speed of light—have long baffled scientists. How do they acquire such tremendous velocities? Two new astronomical results—one in this week's issue of Science (p. 1080) and the other published online this month in Nature—suggest that the physicist Enrico Fermi nailed the answer 60 years ago: They get their oomph from exploding stars.
Exploding stars shoot out cosmic rays
Pastor James David Manning, one of President obama’s most vocal and outspoken critics, has just released a video in which he claims that on the afternoon of November 16th, 2009, while at his ATLAH World Missionary Church, he was visited by two CIA agents. Manning says the agents claimed that they were from Homeland Security and were accompanied by two NYPD Detectives.
Though he did not go into detail about the specifics of the alleged encounter (and probably with good reason), Manning did say that the agents asked him about certain statements that he made about President obama in a video message distributed by ATLAH Ministries entitled “Tea Party Members: Go Viral On The Birth Certificate”.
Manning can explain this alot better than I can, so further details regarding the comments in question can be heard in the video by Pastor Manning at the end of this post.
Pastor Manning also said he expects to be arrested within the next few days and charged with “the threat against the life of a U.S. President”, and that he believes that this arrest is “imminent”.
However, Manning says he welcomes the arrest and will not attempt to resist. He believes it is possible that God will use his arrest to finally bring about the truth regarding obama’s citizenship.
I have to admit, this is tough for me to write. Though I don’t agree with everything Pastor Manning has said in his video messages, I have always maintained the utmost respect for him for standing up and acting on his convictions. He has been called every name in the book by certain members of the black community for taking a stand against obama. But through it all, he has stood strong in his convictions and never hesitates to speak out when others choose to remain silent.
Manning is a patriot.
My prayers are with you, Pastor.
Micro-Chipping Of US Citizens To Be Mandatory?
Here is why you should have no doubt that ‘666′ is around the corner. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, one of the agenda of the current swine flu scare is to use it to drive the implantable microchip device as a medical device. The Satanic cabal intends to hood wink the sheeple into accepting an RFID tag implanted into them so as to identify whether someone is vaccinated or not. The snakes are exceedingly subtle and hide the new law in the coming health care legislation. Thanks to Jack Williams for scanning through the 1990 pages of health care bill. Here it is:
Sorry to have to expose you to a portion of that very poorly written, 1990 page health care bill (Subtitle C-11 Sec. 2521 National Medical Device Registry), but maybe you can tell me what it means.
“… the Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this Subsection referred to as the Registry) to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each device that – (A) is that has been used in or on a patient; and (B) is a Class III device; or (ii) A Class II device that is Implantable…”
Well, enough of that, a person can take only so much nonsense at one sitting. But, ask yourself a simple question: Are we to be multi-chipped, complete with updates, like a computer program, with our yearly rounds of multi-inoculations?
The Sun 1989 : Swine Flu And The Microchipped Vaccine
The following article appears on page 444 of William Cooper's Behold a Pale Horse.
It was originally in the August 1, 1989 edition of The Sun.
BIG BROTHER'S COMING!
Revealed: Secret plan to tag every man, woman and child
by JOE FRICK
CODED MICROCHIPS implanted in every person in the country would tie all of us into a master computer that could track anyone down at any moment, and plans for such a system are already under way whether you like it or not!
The secret scheme is being touted as a service for the protection of the people by high government officials, but some insiders who object to the move say it's just another way for Big Brother to control its subjects.
Transmitters
"Top-level national security agents are trying to convince sources in the bush Administration to begin the project in which every man, woman and child will be implanted with a tiny transmitter," claims Davis Milerand, a critic of government intervention who says he has received leaked information from inside sources.
"They're trying to say this will be a good way for authorities to quickly track down missing persons and children, as well as criminals and spies.
Injections
"But with the astounding technology of today, everything about you could be contained in one tiny microchip, which would be connected to a government computer.
"Any government agency will know what any person has done and is doing at any time."
Other sources say the tiny transmitters can be injected painlessly from a tiny gun in humans without them even knowing it through a nationwide vaccination program.
"All the government would have to do is make up something like the swine flu vaccine," Milerand says.
"Imagine if they said there was a vaccine for AIDS. People would rush in droves to get shots.
"The doctors themselves may not even know what they're injecting. They could be told the microchips are genetic implants that reprogram the body into fighting disease."
He adds: "The program would require all federal, state and local government workers to undergo the injections.
"It would only be a matter of time before everyone is implanted with a microchip, a slave to the government."
CERN's cosmic cloudmaker cranks up
May solve climate mystery, Thermageddon scare
Posted in Environment, 16th November 2009 14:13 GMT
Free whitepaper – Dell PowerEdge servers 2009 - Memory
While CERN's vast Large Hadron Collider accelerator gathers all the headlines - allowing humble hacks to become Hollywood blockbuster scriptwriters - an ancient piece of atom hardware is beginning experiments that may prove to be of significance.
CERN's much-anticipated CLOUD experiment has begun, the atom lab says. Using the 50-year-old Proton Synchrotron, the experiment simulates cosmic rays passing through the earth's atmosphere, and hopes to reveal the extent to which the constant background drizzle of charged particles plays a role in cloud formation. Earlier experiments have suggested that ionisation causes clouds to "seed" - and that ionisation is influenced by the type and quantity of cosmic rays that reach the earth.
Both the sun and the earth's magnetic fields act as umbrellas, protecting the surface from the high energy particles, although two particles still reach the surface per second. But small changes in the cosmic ray flux produce significant changes in cloud cover. When fewer cosmic rays reach earth, the planet's climate is warmer, when more reach earth, the climate cools.
"So marked is the response to relatively small variations in the total ionization, we suspect that a large fraction of Earth's clouds could be controlled by ionisation," noted Danish scientist Henrik Svesmark this summer. Svensmark has pioneered the research using smaller experiments, but has waited over a decade to see it tested on such a scale.
Much of the recent interest comes from climate watchers. Clouds are one of the biggest factors in determining global surface temperature, but the UN's IPCC admits the level of scientific understanding of them is poor.
The cosmic ray effect - a factor of the background CBR bombardment itself, and the relative strength of the earth and the Sun's magnetic shields - shows a strong correlation between temperature, CBR and is extraordinary. Here's the relationship over the short term - around 2,000 years.
And here's the correlation into deep time, with CO2 as a comparison.
In addition, "deep freezes" in the Earth's temperatures have coincided with short-lived but intense bursts of cosmic ray activity. Modulation is thought to reflect the Sun's passage through spiral arms of the Milky Way, and also the Sun's oscillation in relation to the plane of the galaxy. The Sun bobs up and down 2.7 times per orbit.
CERN became involved when a visiting lecture by former New Scientist editor Nigel Calder was attended by Jason Kirkby - CLOUD's project leader. It's taken 12 years to fire up the particles for this major test. CERN has an interview with Kirby here. ®
CERN Restarts Big Bang Collider for Biggest Test Yet
NORTHERN LIGHTS:
A solar wind stream is buffeting Earth's magnetic field and causing bright auroras around the Arctic Circle. Last night in Tromsø, Norway, sky watcher Thomas Hagen looked up and saw this:
"It was stunning!" he says. "I photographed the display using a Canon 40D set at ISO 800 for 4 seconds."
Arctic people should take note of those settings. The solar wind is still blowing and the auroras could return tonight. NOAA forecasters estimate a 20%-30% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity.
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