G
gOn
Guest
Now that the 10th planet was discovered, Astrology is all wrong. Because Astrologists ignored its influence. Wright? Well this sure proofs Astrology is Bullshit...
If you count that as a planet, there are a few more out there too. They are called Kuiper Belt Objects.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050729_new_planet.html
Does it? Until now...virgo and gemini shared mercury. Before that there were two...including Pisces, that shared another...Jupiter, I think.
Maybe this fixes it all.
Maybe this fixes it all.
G
gOn
Guest
It's a planet allright. Much bigger than Pluto. It doesen't matter if it it in the kuiper Belt. This planet has a planar orbit, like the other planets.
That does sound awfully like special pleading from a guy who would like to go down in history as having discovered our Solar System's tenth planet. Note how he even distances himself from "scientists". Sometimes the ego is a powerful persuader.
Well .... it's still going to be there, and it will always be called Pluto. It's not like it's going to vanish (not that the person in the street can actually see it) just because we don't describe it as a "planet" any more!
Someone posted a comment which included this really nice (and rather British) mnemonic for the planets of the solar system: Space Men Vote Earth Most Jolly of the Solar Universe's Nine Planets
sumerians were underachievers....they knew all about a planet filled with reptile men, floating in a wild orbit through the farthest reaches of our solar system....but they didnt know the sun was made of gas? they thought it was some dude floating across the sky!!
what losers!
what losers!
Yeah, I can't say I'm terribly keen on either of those points of view. Those Sumerians may have created a form of knowledge called Astrology which blights our daily newspapers to this day, but they also took the trouble to observe the stars, and thus also created Astronomy. They weren't "losers" because they happened to write down the best that they knew about the Universe.
On the other hand, Avatar is almost implying that the Sumerian "metaphor" was designed to represent their actual scientific knowledge of the reality of the Universe and the Sun, which is hardly tenable either.
(Oh, and yes I know the Sun is not a planet - but to be useful the mnemonic has to incorporate the Sun so that whomever has such a bad memory as not to know the order of the planets, will know that it is Mercury that is closest to the Sun and not Pluto.)
About fifteen years ago, Cainer was misguided enough to appear on a Randi-style mysticism debunking TV programme fronted by comedy duo Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (who I will admit were not quite as famous back then as they are now, but I knew their work quite well). Fry and Laurie presented Cainer with a description of the character of one of them, plus the birthdates, times, places etc of both of them, and asked to tell the TV audience which one of the two of them it was. The description was then read out, and it was Stephen Fry to a tee - in fact, it was so Stephen Fry that I could not believe that you would have needed more than the hour or so's acquaintance of Stephen Fry Cainer would have had just from being in the same studio as him, not to know that it was him. And I was thinking, "that's hardly a conclusive test, anybody could tell that that description is Fry, not Laurie!" But he still picked Hugh Laurie! It was the only time I ever saw a flim-flam artist thoroughly and utterly debunked and made a fool of (he didn't even successfully bluster his way out of it, like a pro - he just looked rather embarrassed and sheepish at his failure!) but really he only had himself to blame.
Of course, what Cainer then discovered in the days, weeks, months and years that followed the débacle, was that being thoroughly publicly discredited made not one jot or iota's difference to his career. He was not sacked for incompetence by his newspaper. He was not prosecuted for fraud by the Trading Standards people. He was not sued by people who had met with no success from following his prophecies. He just went back to penning his nonsense in a national daily and continued to receive a great deal of money for it.
On the other hand, Avatar is almost implying that the Sumerian "metaphor" was designed to represent their actual scientific knowledge of the reality of the Universe and the Sun, which is hardly tenable either.
(Oh, and yes I know the Sun is not a planet - but to be useful the mnemonic has to incorporate the Sun so that whomever has such a bad memory as not to know the order of the planets, will know that it is Mercury that is closest to the Sun and not Pluto.)
Don't you believe it!! About ten years ago, British astrologer Jonathan Cainer made a big splash in the newspaper he worked for at the time, which I think was the Daily Mail or the Mail on Sunday, writing a series on the effect of Pluto on peoples' lives, their futures, their personalities, etc. - Pluto, of course, not being known to the ancients. And as far as I'm aware, not one person wrote to the newspaper with the simple question, "Could Mr. Cainer provide details of the evidence for this effect that Pluto has? What statistical surveys he has conducted or seen the results of? Which double-blind twin experiments he has supervised, or at least read about, which categorically demonstrated the Pluto Effect?"go0n said:
About fifteen years ago, Cainer was misguided enough to appear on a Randi-style mysticism debunking TV programme fronted by comedy duo Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (who I will admit were not quite as famous back then as they are now, but I knew their work quite well). Fry and Laurie presented Cainer with a description of the character of one of them, plus the birthdates, times, places etc of both of them, and asked to tell the TV audience which one of the two of them it was. The description was then read out, and it was Stephen Fry to a tee - in fact, it was so Stephen Fry that I could not believe that you would have needed more than the hour or so's acquaintance of Stephen Fry Cainer would have had just from being in the same studio as him, not to know that it was him. And I was thinking, "that's hardly a conclusive test, anybody could tell that that description is Fry, not Laurie!" But he still picked Hugh Laurie! It was the only time I ever saw a flim-flam artist thoroughly and utterly debunked and made a fool of (he didn't even successfully bluster his way out of it, like a pro - he just looked rather embarrassed and sheepish at his failure!) but really he only had himself to blame.
Of course, what Cainer then discovered in the days, weeks, months and years that followed the débacle, was that being thoroughly publicly discredited made not one jot or iota's difference to his career. He was not sacked for incompetence by his newspaper. He was not prosecuted for fraud by the Trading Standards people. He was not sued by people who had met with no success from following his prophecies. He just went back to penning his nonsense in a national daily and continued to receive a great deal of money for it.
Astrology never made any sense anyway. For example,
WTF DOES THAT MEAN?
WTF DOES THAT MEAN?
my point was: if sumerians were visited by reptile-like aliens, putting aside the idea that they were created by them, why isnt there a single concrete piece of evidence of it? why was all of their knowledge written on clay tablets.
and to be clear...the sumerians did NOT create astronomy. the first time that any living organism looked up at the stars, and used a word for what he saw, THAT was the creation of astronomy.
i would bet quite a bit on the fact that it probably happened EONS before the sumerians came into existence!
and to be clear...the sumerians did NOT create astronomy. the first time that any living organism looked up at the stars, and used a word for what he saw, THAT was the creation of astronomy.
i would bet quite a bit on the fact that it probably happened EONS before the sumerians came into existence!
The oldest known star-map actually comes from Europe, nowaday Germany
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/stardisctrans.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2004/stardisctrans.shtml