Superstition game: Prophecy & Prediction

On August 27, 2003, at 2.21 am (PDT), Mars will come as close to Earth as it has in nearly 60,000 years. At 34.62 million miles, this will be the closest pass since September 12, 57,617 BCE.

It occurs to me that the God of War will be as close as he's been in recorded history.

So in a superstitous game - Will August 27 bring us some warring disaster?

Ongoing difficulties, such as Iraqi attacks against Coalition troops don't count.

Al Qaeda? A mushroom cloud? Dirty bomb? Biochem attack? Massive riot? Anything? Anything?

Okay, it's morbid speculation, but still ...

Welcome to superstition.

("Superstition ain't the way ....")

 

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How coincidental. After logging off sciforums last night and getting ready for bed I stepped outside to look again at the brightest object in the night sky (the moon had set). Noting that I was watching something that had not occurred for 60,000 years I started wondering where all the Martian doomsayers were and thought about posting a thread asking just that. After all, it seems that someone predicting doom or salvation comes popping out of the woodwork for just about any celestial event (comets, planetary alignments, etc). Where is the cult that is predicting Armageddon or perhaps waiting for the Martians to make the now shorter trip to Earth?

Of course, I find such notions to be quite absurd. Celestial events have no impact upon anything but the superstitious imaginations of mankind, except in the rare instances where they physically affect the Earth. Still I find such examples of group hysteria to be wonderful indicators of the mental health and scientific understanding (or lack thereof) of the various cultures in which they occur.

~Raithere

 

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The Planet Mars is too close!

All I gotta say is that explains why my usually lovable, docile and gentle Retrievers started acting like big bad wolves!

 

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the mutations within my body have become apparent and seem irreversible.
i am suffused with a strange and intense energy that grows stronger as the fateful day approaches. as i sit and await the god of war, i am filled with dark foreboding that my transformation does not bode well for the future of mankind

over and out
spook

 

Re: The Planet Mars is too close!

Are you quite sure? My 4 dogs and 5 cats are all acting quite normally, but perhaps you live at a higher elevation. At what distance did the approach of Mars begin to affect your dogs?

~Raithere

 

hehe

 

oh dearie me! i have transformed into uncle martin!

 

..5 cats are all acting quite normally (raith)

sekhmet the cat goddess that resides on mars will change all that. i urge the utmost caution.

 

Don't worry, I'm bigger than them.

Besides, they're all pussies.

~Raithere

 

I have a relative who works in the emergency room and she can attest to the fact that lunar cycles have some sort of effect of the psychos out there. Every full moon she gets the WEIRD cases. People with coke bottles up their anuses, a guy carving words into his own flesh, and every sort of violence imaginable.

Distant things like mars I doubt have any real effect on the world other than the whole "butterfly flapping its wings" thing though.

 

First, one should note that correlation does not imply causation. There is the famous statistic (from N.Y.C. I believe) that shows that as ice cream sales go up, so does violence. How do ice cream sales causing violence? They don't, both are influenced by high temperatures.

The statistics really do not show any significant correlation between the lunar cycle and human behavior.

http://www.univ.trieste.it/~brain/NeuroBiol/Neuroscienze per tutti/moon.html
http://cosmos.colorado.edu/~gnedin/F02/team14/fullmoon.html

~Raithere

 

That is true, but -

The pineal gland, which is believed to control body's hormonal rhythms (associated with behavior disorders and mood swings), is clearly photosensitive so there may be a connection between its functioning (and therefore one's internal rythms and therefore one's behavior) and the phases of the moon.

I guess, more research is necessary, though.

 

The photosensitivity of the pineal gland does not seem to be a factor in adult mammals, although it does regulate our circadian rhythm. I suppose that moon light could be a factor as well but it would require that we be constantly exposed to its fluctuations. That most of us live indoors at night with artificial light would negate any affect that moonlight might have.

~Raithere

 

There is the famous statistic (from N.Y.C. I believe) that shows that as ice cream sales go up, so does violence. (raith)

an example of skeptics resorting to bogus shit to debunk and ridicule.

 

from "Astrology is total Gibberish, right?"

(1) Planets effect the solar cycle in specific ways.
(2) The solar cycle effects the geomagnetic field.
(3) The geomagnetic field affects life on Earth in certain observed ways.
(4) Specifically, many species, including man, can be influenced by particular states of the geomagnetic field.
(5) The particular influences appear to correlate with the planetary positions.
(6) I propose that the behavior of the fetus at the time of birth is linked to the cycles within the geomagnetic field, which in turn are influenced by the solar cycle and positions of the planets. Resonance is the phenomenon by which the fetus is phase locked to specific cycles. (Percy Seymour)

There is a growing body of evidence that changes in geomagnetic field affect biological systems. In particular, homing pigeons and other migratory creatures who use the earth magnetic field as their guidance. Other studies indicate that physically stressed human biological systems may respond to the minute but measurable fluctuations of the geomagnetic field.

Geomagnetic disturbances

It might be possible for artificial magnetic fields to directly influence neural transmissions. Even a static 65 millitesla field has been shown to reduce frog skin Na+ transport by 10-30%.500 Each neuronal discharge develops an electrical energy of ~20 picojoule (~1010 kT), far smaller than the magnetic energy stored in a B = 1.4 tesla field of a permanent micromagnet traversing an L3 = (20 micron)3 volume which from Eqn. 6.9 is B2 L3 / 2 m0 ~ 6000 pJ. If properly manipulated, such a field may be sufficient to enhance, modulate, or extinguish a passing neural signal. micromagnets

Solar Magnetism Integrates Astronomy And Astrology

So, How does it relate to Astrology

Frequency-specific blocking in the human brain caused by electromagnetic fields

The Solar System Interplanetary Electromagnetic Field Matrix and the Biological Clock

POSSIBLE SPACE WEATHER INFLUENCE ON FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN

HEART RATE VARIABILITY PARAMETERS VARIATIONS AT GEOMAGNETIC DISTURBANCES IN ARCTIC AND ANTARCTIC

journal

critique away!

 

Re: Re: The Planet Mars is too close!

Thanks for your comment. I am only 45 feet above sea level on the Gulf Coast. I believe it was Tuesday or Wednesday night, I don't remember now, when the dogs started acting strangely about 4:00 AM. They usually sleep indoors since it's so hot outside and with mosquitos and all, but they started barking, which is something they don't usually do because they are so tame (lame?). When they woke me up, they were dancing in circles. My first thought was that Jenyar had some kind of choreographic influence on them. But they ran to the door, and when I opened the door, they darted out like raving maniacs. The moon was especially bright that night, and huge! Then they started making unusual grunting sounds even when they came back in the house the next morning. They kept me awake all night with their barking, and that is so unusual. I thought they must have smelled a critter in the backyard. They are really good guard dogs when it comes to protecting the house from cats, but when strangers come in, they are friendly and want to be petted. But that night and the next day they acted so peculiar. They seem to be back to normal now, back to their quiet and gentle behavior, but this episode was most strange.

When I was in the USAF and on call in Labor & Delivery, every full moon we'd have an abundance of women in labor! Sometimes during a full moon, I'd have to help out in the ER suturing up all kinds of lacerations. Later, when I was on call in the operating room, we'd get the strange cases like lightbulbs up the wazoo and even cement up the wazoo. That was a sad case. They guy put quick dry cement up his rectum and when it hardened he had an intestinal obstruction. The only way to get it out was to remove the lower part of his intestines. Then he had a colostomy bag. He was only 27 years old. So, I know the influence the moon has, even on me. During a full moon, I get sluggish and drowsy. During a new moon, I get energetic and chipper. It has something to do with the water content of our bodies like the pull of the tides. Women commit more heinous crimes when they are on their menses during a full moon. I read these statistics somewhere. I think it was in NY. This is enough scientific facts for me!

 

dont women sync their cycles when in close proximity for extended periods? (pun in...)

 

Syncing cycles

Yes, this is true! It doesn't really have to be that close in proximity, for example, I've known office workers to get 'insync.' Family members, too! I do believe over time they get 'insync.' I don't know exactly what causes this phenomena, but I would guess that it has something to do with being fertile at the same time, so when the males come around, they can share and share alike to keep the species going. That's just a guess. It could also have something to do with pheromones synchronizing their menses. The problem exists when they all have PMS at the same time. (See my earlier post about the high incidence of heinous crimes committed by women is during their cycle. However, I'd be more inclined to say just before their cycle starts, i.e. PMS). Another interesting statistic is that their victims during this time were men. Watch out!

 

My first thought was that Jenyar

huh? relationship?

 

unlikely. but it is an ad hominem against Jenyar for quite sometime.