Tsunami Spawns Conspiricy Theories (NOT DU)

[Zynx]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050106/wl_asia_afp/asiaquakeconspiracy

>>HONG KONG (AFP) - Just 11 days after Asia's tsunami catastrophe, conspiracy theorists are out in force, accusing governments of a cover-up, blaming the military for testing top-secret eco-weapons or aliens trying to correct the Earth's "wobbly" rotation.

In bars and Internet chatrooms around the world questions are being asked, with knowing nods and winks, about who caused the submarine earthquake off Sumatra on December 26, and why governments were so slow to act in the minutes and hours before tsunamis slammed into their shores, killing almost 150,000.

"There's a lot more to this. Why is the US sending a warship? Why is a senior commander who was in Iraq (news - web sites) going there?" whispered designer Mark Tyler, drinking a pint of beer at a bar in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district.

"This happened exactly a year after Bam," said Tyler, referring to the earthquake in Iran which killed 30,000 on December 26 last year. "Is that a coincidence? And there was no previous seismic activity recorded in Sumatra before the quake, which is very strange," he said, nodding somberly. <<

[lovuian]

1. It is puzzling and the scientists have tended to be very quiet

of late!!!

[Kagemusha]

2. What's not DU about response #1 here?

What?

[Carni]

5. Oh God lol...don't even go there!

Get your protective gear ready!

[DBoon]

3. I think it was caused by a large quickly falling object

the value of the dollar on exchange markets.

[goforit]

17. LOL!!!.........tooo funny!!!

[Ian David]

4. Scientists give such theories short shrift.

It's good to see that we don't have a monoppoly on the tinfoil hats.

From that same article:

Scientists give such theories short shrift.

"This was a natural disaster," said Dr Bart Bautisda, chief science research specialist at Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, debunking the idea that an "eco-weapon" could be used to cause an earthquake or such large-scale tsunamis.

"You would need a very huge amount of energy. It's impossible. A billion tonnes could not do it," Bautisda said.

He said wave activity might be able to be triggered very close to the scene of a giant explosion, but the effect would be a tiny fraction of the tsunamis which travelled thousands of kilometres (miles) at the speed of a jet after tectonic plates shifted off Sumatra.

"It's possible to cause vibration, but not sufficient to cause disruption," he said.

"We can tell the difference between an artificial explosion and an earthquake," Bautisda said. "The mechanisms are different."

Scientific evidence, however, cuts little ice with many conspiracy theorists.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050106/wl_asia_afp/asiaquakeconspiracy
Avg Rating: 2.47, 217 votes - Your Rating: 5

[Ian David]

6. correlation does not imply causality

""This happened exactly a year after Bam," said Tyler, referring to the earthquake in Iran which killed 30,000 on December 26 last year. "Is that a coincidence?"
----

On this day in history-- December 26th --


1620 - The Pilgrim Fathers landed at New Plymouth, MA, to found Plymouth Colony, with John Carver as Governor.

1776 - The British suffered a major defeat in the Battle of Trenton during the American Revolutionary War.

1865 - The coffee percolator was patented by James H. Mason.

1871 - The "Gods Grown Old" was performed for the first time. It ran for 64 shows.

1898 - Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title.

1917 - During World War I, the U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads.

1921 - The Catholic Irish Free State became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain.

1927 - The East-West Shrine football game featured numbers on both the front and back of players’ jerseys.

1941 - Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

1943 - The German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk in the North Sea, during the Battle of North Cape.

1944 - Tennessee Williams' play "The Glass Menagerie" was first performed publicly, at the Civic Theatre in Chicago, IL.

1947 - Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast United States, burying New York City under 25.8 inches of snow in 16 hours. The severe weather was blamed for about 80 deaths.

1953 - "Big Sister" was heard for the last time on CBS Radio. The show ran for 17 years.

1954 - "The Shadow" aired on radio for the last time.

1956 - Fidel Castro attempted a secret landing in Cuba to overthrow the Batista regime. All but 11 of his supporters were killed.

1959 - The first charity walk took place, along Icknield Way, in aid of the World Refugee Fund.

1974 - Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

1982 - The Man of the Year in "TIME" magazine was a computer. It was the first time a non-human received the honors.

1986 - Doug Jarvis, age 31, set a National Hockey League (NHL) record as he skated in his 916th consecutive game. Jarvis eventually set the individual record for most consecutive games played with 964.

1986 - "Search for Tomorrow" was seen for the last time on CBS-TV. The show had been on the air for 35-years.

1990 - Garry Kasparov beat Anatoly Karpov to retain the chess championship.

1991 - The Soviet Union's parliament formally voted the country out of existence.

1995 - Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority.

1996 - Six-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, CO.

1998 - Iraq announced that it would fire on U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the skies over northern and southern Iraq.

1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, won Guatemala's first peacetime presidential elections in 40 years.

2000 - Michael McDermott, age 42, opened fire at his place of employment killing seven people. McDermott had no criminal history.

http://www.on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/dec26.htm

----

Maybe one of THOSE things caused the earthquake?

Maybe it has something to do with JonBenet Ramsey?

[eleonora]

13. It's the butterfly effect!

:tinfoilhat::crazy::tinfoilhat:

[democracyindanger]

14. I flushed my toilet on 10/26

Sorry. My bad.

[Solly Mack]

25. Best.Answer.Yet.

lol

[melnjones]

26. hee hee hee. nt

[RadicalMom]

22. The Kobe. Japan, quake came on the first anniversary of our Northridge,

California quake. Yes, Virginia, there ARE strange coincidences in the Universe.

[bpilgrim]

36. i'll never forget that

i was living in kobe at the time :scared:

peace

[lazarus]

27. AHA!

"1908 - Texan boxer "Galveston Jack" Johnson knocked out Tommy Burns in Sydney, Australia, to become the first black boxer to win the world heavyweight title."

And the reverberations of that knock out blow are still being felt!

:silly:

[Wabbajack]

7. Our rotation is wobbly?

[Ian David]

8. Our rotation has always been wobbly

In fact, we even tilt sideways 23.5 degrees (each way) twice a year.

We call that effect "seasons."

Source:
University Of Nevada, Reno
Date: 2004-05-20
From ScienceDaily.com
Geophysicist Discovers Why Earth 'Wobbles'

The earth wobbles in space. This has been known for over a century by astronomers, and thanks to global positioning system (GPS) technologies, this wobble has been tracked with a precision of a few millimeters over the last decade.

Until now, there were good theories as to why this happens, but no one could really prove it.

Now, however, Geoff Blewitt, University of Nevada research geophysicist, has an explanation for this mysterious geo-wobble.

“The theory, which my colleagues and I have proven using GPS observations of the Earth, is that it’s likely to be caused by the surface matter being redistributed,” Blewitt said.

<snip>

To make the Earth wobble, large amounts of mass need to be moved from one place to another so that the Earth is “off balance,” according to NASA-funded researcher Blewitt, who said the North Pole then adjusts to a new position to compensate. Large amounts of water are displaced seasonally when glaciers and ice sheets melt in spring, for example. The mass shifts back when they refreeze in winter.

“We measured the earth’s shape directly,” he said. “It agrees with the wobble. What our measurements are showing is that everything is consistent — the earth is wobbling while it’s changing its shape,” he said.

“The Earth isn’t a perfect sphere,” Blewitt noted. “It bulges at the equator because it’s spinning. If the position and height of that bulge changes slightly — even a few millimeters — we can pick it up.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/05/040520065656.htm

Of course, the freepers would have the world think that we believe the wobble is caused by The Crab People at the center of the Earth.

[Art_from_Ark]

18. Um, we're ALWAYS tilted 23.5 degrees, regardless of the season

It's called the tilt (or angle of inclination) of the earth's axis

[RadicalMom]

23. The Crab People? Well, of course they do. n/t

[Cooley Hurd]

29. Of course... after all, they walk like crabs, talk like people...

...crab people, crab people.

Or, perhaps Lemmywinks burrowed a bit too "deeply.":D

[Ian David]

12. More about Earth's wobble

The Earth's Wobbles

The next most important cycle is the shape of the earth's orbit. Over a period of 100,000 years, it becomes more elliptical, and then more circular again. An elliptical orbit makes one hemisphere have more intense seasons, and the other hemisphere have more moderate seasons.

The third cycle is a wobble of the earth's spin axis. Every 23,000 years, our axis really does point at Polaris, the North Star. Sometimes this cycle intensifies the effects of the others, and sometimes this cycle weakens the effects of the others.

Notice that none of the effects ever changes abruptly. From one century to another, everything is pretty well the same.

If you are interested in learning more, Dr. Hyde recommended "Quaternary Paleoclimatology" by R. S. Bradley.

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/milankovitch.html

And from slate.com

As you'll recall from science class, the rotating Earth resembles a spinning top: The planet's axis does not always point in exactly the same direction but wobbles very slightly, describing small but measurable circles at the poles.

A very large earthquake—one of a magnitude of 9.0 or greater—can shift enough mass relative to that of the entire Earth to alter, very minutely, the course of that wobble. But the planet's speed of rotation (which, of course, determines the lengths of our days) remains unchanged, so we don't need to worry about adjusting our watches.

<snip>

Wobble was a hot topic back then because a series of powerful megathrust quakes—the 9.0 Kamchatka quake in 1952, the 9.1 Andreanof Islands quake in 1957, the 9.5 Chile quake in 1960, and the 9.2 Prince William Sound quake in 1964—provided a lot of data to work with.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2111443/

-- Yes, this has happened before, and the Earth is still turning --

[dweller]

9. o my gawd

what have we wrought?

:eyes:


dp

[bpilgrim]

10. the neoCONs have no one to blame but themselves for this kind of rumor

their belligerent, aggressive MURDEROUS behavior is fueling ALL the CT out there.

no one TRUST us, even when it is most likely a badly handled natural disastor... but WHO KNOWS for sure?

no ONE.

peace

[goforit]

19. And when they commit crime after crime and then cry wolf well.......

They're guilty!!!!

:nopity:

[HeeBGBz]

11. The fact that these thoughts are emerging all over

Certainly shows a global unease and distrust of the powers-that-be. Common acknowledgement of the possibility that our technology has exceeded our intelligent means to control it.

Global kookism at it's worst. Struggling to understand the truth in a world of secrets and lies.

Yeah, and what about that wobble?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

15. Well, about two minutes says BullShit to this particular quoted

imbicle... just a fast scan of this page http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/sig_2004.html reveals at least a dozen pretty good quakes in the same spot in 2004, and does not count the quakes on the same plate which extends up into Iran, Pakisan and across to Vietnam.

What a maroon.

[daleo]

16. I don't believe anyone set off earthquakes

The amount of energy involved would be massive, and it would have to be set off far under the earth's crust. Anyone with that kind of weaponry could just use it directly.

But, I do think there are plenty of questions about who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did with the knowledge. I can't believe that it is reasonable that a tsunami in 2004 should be as devastating in terms of loss of life as the Krakatoa tsunami of the 1880's. Plenty of people were probably negligent. I still want to know what the navy knew of this event - they monitor the ocean closely all the time.

[uncle ray]

28. deja vu all over again

"But, I do think there are plenty of questions about who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did with the knowledge."

boy does that sound familiar!

the thing is, with any of these conspiracies, it would be real simple to put them to rest if the people/agencies/governments involved would simply disclose as much info as possible to the public to make their case for the "official story". it's their refusal to answer questions, release data etc. that fuels the conspiracy theorists, and that generally suits their agenda just fine, which is what is REALLY scary about the whole thing. why do we allow them to keep covering their asses, when the action of covering their asses leaves the door open to these conspiracies? that is, of course, if all they are doing is CYA.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

20. people get suspicious about things when our country is responsible for

so much destruction lately in the world.
No one puts anything past us.
I can understand why.
They do assume that if we had capabilities to secretly cause disasters and if it were in our interest we would...hmmmm...
Wonder why they don't look at us as honest and noble bringers of "freedom"?

[Acryliccalico]

38. Great post here!!!

:) :kick:

[jmc777]

21. Don't laugh too hard at the "conspiracy theories".....

Remember the words of William Cohen back in '97.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/cohen-ecoweapons.htm

[Ian David]

33. That interview does't say such things exist or are even possible

The article says that terrorists are trying to create them.

Don't forget, our own government supposedly was once trying to study the use of psychic powers to spy on Russia, and that is a completely, impossible, stupid idea.

Just because someone is TRYING to do something does not mean it has been done, will be done, or CAN be done.

[jmc777]

37. If ooga-booga "terrorists" are trying to make them.....

.....you can bet you ass most developed governments are too, and with their funds they have a better chance of creating something that works. While I agree with your point about governments trying out "stupid" ideas (I'm sure some people would argue about whether psychic powers exist) I personally find the idea of triggering earthquakes much more feasible than psychic spying/remote viewing.

Just because William Cohen said that people are TRYING to do something does not mean it hasn't been done, won't be done, or CAN'T be done.

I wouldn't rule anything out in this day and age.:tinfoilhat:

[NYC]

24. People don't trust governments.

That is what all this speculation shows.

[oblivious]

30. Oh Lord, the reporter goes to a Wanchai bar for a quote.

Prostitution is legal here. Westerners go to Wanchai to get drunk and to get laid. And this reporter got paid to file a story about a conversation with another drunk at a Wanchai bar. That's the way to make a living, I tell ya!

Work's almost over here in Hong Kong. Think I'll waltz on down to Wanchai for a beer. I'll be sure to put on my tin-foil hat so I fit right in.

[Old Mouse]

31. this is more serious than many of you realize

The reputation of the United States cannot take much more negative publicity.

With the first Bush presidency the world thought he stole the election against the will of the people. With the popular vote we do not have that luxury of forgiveness today.

Bush is rapidly becoming the most hated man in history, possibly more hated than the big "H", and we are thought of as his willing followers. If the rumor that we killed a hundred and fifty thousand Muslims and Buddhists for no reason other than it pleased us to do so becomes popular...

[Ian David]

34. Talk to the Muslims yourselves

I emailed a bunch of Muslims, too.

Tell them:

1) It is impossible.

2) Even though it is impossible, we have people here who do not understand that it is impossible, and those people are outraged.

3) If it was possible, we would all be outraged. We are already outraged at all the things Bush actually HAS done.

4) You might want to point them to www.SorryEverbody.com

[Old Mouse]

39. I might not agree with your proposed tactic

of mailing people based on religion, but you are actually DOING something to try to undo our growing bad reputation. I am more than impressed...

Thank you for your efforts!

[Ediacara]

32. WTF are people thinking?

"And there was no previous seismic activity recorded in Sumatra before the quake,"

This guy has clearly had one too many...

[Ian David]

35. There were no previous meteroite strikes in Tunguska

Yet, At 7:17 AM on the morning of June 30, 1908, a meteoride DID blow-up in Tunguska, without any help from America.




Because the meteorite did not strike the ground or make a crater, early researchers thought the object might be a weak, icy fragment of a comet, which vaporized explosively in the air, and left no residue on the ground. However, modern planetary scientists have much better tools for understanding meteorite explosion in the atmosphere. As a meteorite slams into the atmosphere at speeds around 12 to 20 km/sec or more, it experiences a strong mechanical shock, like a diver bellyflopping into water. This can break apart stones of a certain size range, which explode instead of hitting the ground. Some of them drop brick-sized fragments on the ground, but others, such as the one that hit Siberia, may produce primarily a fireball and cloud of fine dust and tiny fragments. In 1993 researchers Chris Chyba, Paul Thomas, and Kevin Zahnle studied the Siberian explosion and concluded it was of this type -- a stone meteorite that exploded in the atmosphere. This conclusion was supported when Russian researchers found tiny stoney particles embedded in the trees at the collision site, matching the composition of common stone meteorites. The original asteroid fragment may have been roughly 50-60 meters (50-60 yards) in diameter.

http://www.psi.edu/projects/siberia/siberia.html