Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Here You Are... Wondering... About The Earth Expanding? Really?

Neal Adams - thinks the earth is expanding!

The idea and the animation is compelling enough to have collected over a million views and followers on YouTube! Scientists are appalled, though - and one of them at least went through the extensive and entertaining trouble to debunk this outdated theory to keep it real for our kids.

It is great that "the common man" - people who may not have had the circumstances or desire in their youth to spend decades studying geology or astrophysics (most of us) - are fascinated enough by the earth, space, nature, religions, and philosophies to spend hours researching the Internet for information and putting together videos and blogs to share their discoveries and opinions. It's a good start, and a great alternative to reality TV shows! All we need is a bit of civility in the conversation now to move this along to the point where all of us get a bit more educated about everything.

It is equally as wonderful that someone more knowledgeable will take the time to respond to faulty thinking, albeit with quite a bit of mocking - but, I love the British accent - it can't be beat! "The common man, woman and child" - generally have no idea as to the true rigors of science. The endless measuring, observing, building theory after theory only to have it destroyed by someone smarter. The ridicule, disdain and teasing one has to endure from other scientists - even if proven right a hundred years later and never getting to reap the glory - can be quite excruciating. It's a tough business to be in - and endlessly fascinating and humbling. Great scientists can be some of the humblest people, and I am lucky to know a few of them. "Religious believers", on the other hand - be it believers in actual religions, or scientific theories - are always going to be a problem for the advancement of human understanding.

A scientist starts wondering about things, comes up with an idea or theory - and then does painstaking research to prove or disprove it to himself and others. It reminds me of the time I was scolded by my geography teacher in 6th grade (1969) for "blabbering nonsense" when I proclaimed that "Africa fits into America perfectly and must have been stuck together at some point in the past". There are things plain to see, that nonetheless completely elude some of the experts. Or take poor Dr. Ignaz Semmelweiss, who tried to get doctors to wash their hands before delivering babies and was ignored for another 100 years at great cost to women and children. The ignorance and arrogance of the experts often enough equals the ignorance and arrogance of the lay people looking into things. This alone keeps things moving forward and will keep "YouTubers" going, even if debunked with ridicule. If they want to be "researchers and scientists" they are going to have to suffer like them.

In sixth grade, I took the easy way out. "I knew I was right" - but didn't move on to study geology to prove this to myself and others. Now I just watch people fight it out on line or in books - also very efficient for me, if still far less disciplined than a true scientist or researcher.

Don't despair Neal Adams - you, Aristotle, and 19th century thinkers - at least can be said to be thinking alike, so you're in good company. Keep wondering - and try to catch up. My gratitude goes to both Neal Adams for sticking his neck out, AND "Potholer", the debunker, as I found out more about the earth sciences, as well as the history of earth science this way. It's all about the conversation! One thing one needs to develop when "getting into research" and science is a great sense of humor in order to handle the frequent humiliations.

But, hey, "Potholer" - "this flies into the face of everything we know" - is not a logical argument! Anything new would do exactly that. Where are we now with the speed of light - has that been settled yet? I have "known" for years that there couldn't possibly be a limit to the speed of light other than "from our perspective" and in our bubble of experience, just as "the flat earth" once was.   A flat earth that you could fall off of, made no sense - neither does a vast universe were you can't go everywhere and meet everybody. Just waiting for the scientific evidence. Hippie science... lazy science - and on the cutting edge :-)


Humility and wisdom come from being painfully wrong thousands of times - so there is no problem with being painfully wrong, either! All of you lay people and hippies out there - keep going! And all of you scientists out there - thank you for your time when obvious mistakes in thinking have been made, need correcting, and you respond with great data that has passed rigorous scientific thought - it's important and very much appreciated.

It's a win/win for everybody :-) Certainly for me today -


  


Here You Are... Wondering... About The Moon Going Crazy, Feb 6, 2012

Tonight I was "wondering" about the moon. So I got my binoculars and stepped out into the crystal clear, bright night.

And the moon looked a little strange to me. I couldn't tell why, though. So onto the Internet I went to visit all those nice people who post videos on YouTube and enlighten us on Wikipedia. Thanks, everyone!!!!

Maybe I only "discovered" something that is normal, and everyone is going to have a good chuckle. At least I found out, though, that I wasn't imagining things.

First we need to clarify "the man in the moon". Or the "rabbit", or "the pretty lady"... but especially, what I will call "the little dog". See the small crater behind the "man in the moon carrying sticks" - that's "his little dog" following him.


Well - who let the dog out?

In "official" pictures of the moon, "the little dog crater"- which I am sure has a proper Greek or Latin name, hangs around at the position of about 2 o'clock.

Well - not tonight!!! Or last night!!! The moon is dancing, and fast!!!


Last night that "little dog" crater hung out at the position way down by 5 o'clock! And tonight it is way up at about 3 minutes past midnight. That's a lot of rolling around in 24 hours!

Here is yesterday's moon, filmed by Chucky - Thanks, Chucky!!! A full view of the moon is at the (1:51) spot in the video, and at the end.

Feb 5, 2012 Video:   http://youtu.be/RiaaTvcnxFs



This is the moon a day later - tonight (2/06/2012) - and tonight's video posted by Mike - Thanks Mike!!! Nice to know I haven't lost my mind, imaging the moon taking a half spin since yesterday.

Feb 6, 2012 Video:       http://youtu.be/ybHQ4G2LTVM


Something to consider - the moon has what's called Libration. Yet - the video below is a one month time lapse - not an overnight, full moon event! 


Over one lunar month more than half of the Moon's surface can be seen from the surface of the Earth.

This may not be normal - but it may be the "new normal" as this happened last November 19-23/2011 , as well as in December 2011 - and not just during the full moon. It supposedly "prompted a response" -  certainly an article on the phenomenon, from Cornell University.

Here is the video of the November 2011 rotations, and the Cornell document (in the video, also):


I love the Cornell response which basically says: "This, and this, and this, does not explain the moon's behavior, and the only thing that could possibly explain it is a huge object in our solar system, but that would be too crazy an idea." Bet they know the real name of the "little dog" crater, though! 

Well - we do, too, now - "Mare Crisium", or "Sea of Crisis"!

Lunar nearside with major maria and craters labelled.

The poster "Medusa Media" seems to have a plausible explanation:

"Every millenium the sun has to adjust to accomodate mass burn off.
The sun shrinks in size
It's gravitational pull on the moon relaxes
Earths gravity during this phase exerts a little more pull
The moon wobbles. Given a year or so everything goes back to normal.
Strange effects such as new planets spotted or objects in front of the sun are optical illusions caused by this same gravitational effect on light within the solar system. No end of the world or alien invasion just plain old optics."

That seems simple enough. The sun has been extremely active lately. "Every millennium"? At least that would qualify as an unusual event. Who knew the sun could shrink and let the earth make the moon go crazy - sideways? Somebody write a letter to Cornell! (But spell millennium with two n-s and accommodate with two m-s).

As I am writing this - it is now 2am here in Utah - "Mare Crisium" is at almost the 3 o'clock position. And now, an hour later, it is in at the 4 o'clock position. Dancing fast! This must at least be unusual enough, that it could have been explained on the news so more people and kids could watch and understand it. If it were indeed understood and explainable.

Moon hasn't  rolled any further in the last 20 minutes - so I am going to bed.

Good Night, YouTube! Good Night, Wikipedia! Good Night, MacBookPro!
Good Night, MOON!!!