Space weather...

[imdying]

At the end of the day science is only knowledge that we (as a collective) have discovered thus far, it doesn't mean that it is all or that it is correct it is only based on the obtainable eviedence with the tools and equipment at hand and if you haven't got all the eviedence then ithe theory could be wrong (could also be 100% correct too) and a lot is only theory.

Granted... but if the alternative is to listen to a loon who has never managed to ever predict any specific earthquakes of any magnitude, then I'll be sticking with the flawed science ta.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Granted... but if the alternative is to listen to a loon who has never managed to ever predict any specific earthquakes of any magnitude, then I'll be sticking with the flawed science ta.

ditto...

[mashman]

Granted... but if the alternative is to listen to a loon who has never managed to ever predict any specific earthquakes of any magnitude, then I'll be sticking with the flawed science ta.

double ditto

[oldrider]

Granted... but if the alternative is to listen to a loon who has never managed to ever predict any specific earthquakes of any magnitude, then I'll be sticking with the flawed science ta.

Ken Ring is not "the" voice of reason for this line of thinking, he is but one of many around the world!

There may well be unexplained forces acting upon the earth that may or may not influence world events etc and this line of thought is shared by many.

Just because Ken Ring is our most vocal proponent and his claims are lacking any apparent accuracy or substance, I think it would be unwise to disregard the theory completely.

Something is going on out there and it does seem to have cyclical influences on our planet, it is best to keep an open mind until there is a clearer explanation!

Even with all the resources at their disposal our "official" world academic experts have yet to come up with the answers, so until someone does, all bets are still on!

Opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one!

[Winston001]

Science... it is only correct until prooven wrong... out with old and in with he new theory...

Yeah, but I'm getting a little tired of this. You are repeating one of those New Age mantras which is glib but seldom examined. The common wisdom is "science cannot be relied upon because next year there will be a new theory". Ergo science is a crock and non-scientific ideas must be equally valid.

Utter nonsense. Contemptible tripe (not you Dale ).

This shallow thinking shared by many people fails to understand what science is about. It is concerned with building ideas, developing knowledge about everything, from the quanta of the photon to the origin of the universe (or multi-verse). That knowledge is like a library which grows larger every year. Now and then a new finding requires a few - only a few, books to be put aside.

For example, Sir Isaac Newton is still regarded as the Father of modern physics and his Principia the foundation. His classical model still works for 99% of everything you and I need to know. Indeed an even earlier chap, Galileo Galilei's astronomical findings are still true today.

Albert Einstein however, along with Niels Bohr and Max Planck showed us the quantum world and the relationship between time, space, and gravity. It was a fundamental advance in physics and if you are involved with computing or transmitting to satellites has real world effects.

Newton wasn't pushed out the back door. Instead Einstein advanced our knowledge to a deeper level.

My point, laboured as it has become, is that science does not routinely trash previous research. Instead its a continual fine-tuning of what we know - and what we don't know.

By all means give examples if you disagree.

Finally if I'm a bit gruff tonight its because I'm shocked by the earthquake in Japan. My wife is again on Civil Defence alert all night having already spent 2 weeks away helping CD in Christchurch.

and yet the experts can't, or won't predict quakes... classic... what did Einstein do for a living? ...

You have completely lost me here. Einstein was a patent office clerk and a theoretical physicist.

[mashman]

Yeah, but I'm getting a little tired of this. You are repeating one of those New Age mantras which is glib but seldom examined. The common wisdom is "science cannot be relied upon because next year there will be a new theory". Ergo science is a crock and non-scientific ideas must be equally valid.

Utter nonsense. Contemptible tripe (not you Dale ).

This shallow thinking shared by many people fails to understand what science is about. It is concerned with building ideas, developing knowledge about everything, from the quanta of the photon to the origin of the universe (or multi-verse). That knowledge is like a library which grows larger every year. Now and then a new finding requires a few - only a few, books to be put aside.

For example, Sir Isaac Newton is still regarded as the Father of modern physics and his Principia the foundation. His classical model still works for 99% of everything you and I need to know. Indeed an even earlier chap, Galileo Galilei's astronomical findings are still true today.

Albert Einstein however, along with Niels Bohr and Max Planck showed us the quantum world and the relationship between time, space, and gravity. It was a fundamental advance in physics and if you are involved with computing or transmitting to satellites has real world effects.

Newton wasn't pushed out the back door. Instead Einstein advanced our knowledge to a deeper level.

My point, laboured as it has become, is that science does not routinely trash previous research. Instead its a continual fine-tuning of what we know - and what we don't know.

I don't think anyone's truly trashing science and scientific knowledge here. I'm sure it looks that way to some, but acknowledging that our scientific history isn't perfect, and then shitting on a theory that looks like it has some form of logic to it, smacks of a double standard. So we'll bring out the AGW analogies, or the constant tweakings/"failures" of science from years gone by in an attempt to highlight that science isn't perfect. That may well look like science is taking a kickin, but i'd say it was quite the opposite.

To a certain extent it would seem that if you're not an expert, then you know next to feck all about feck all and you should just go back to your worm farm or patent office. The guy is giving earthquake prediction a crack, and although not perfect, he's getting some "results", something I've not seen from the expert community...

You have completely lost me here. Einstein was a patent office clerk and a theoretical physicist.

It was in response to the Entomologist crack that was made. I took it as, because he's no expert, how the hell can he be taken seriously... Einstein wasn't an expert until others figured out what he was talking about.

[Winston001]

There may well be unexplained forces acting upon the earth that may or may not influence world events etc and this line of thought is shared by many.

Just because Ken Ring is our most vocal proponent and his claims are lacking any apparent accuracy or substance, I think it would be unwise to disregard the theory completely.

Something is going on out there and it does seem to have cyclical influences on our planet, it is best to keep an open mind until there is a clearer explanation!

Even with all the resources at their disposal our "official" world academic experts have yet to come up with the answers, so until someone does, all bets are still on!

Now John, not picking on you but can't let this pass.

Unexplained forces and influences - (sigh) we've been studying gravity ever since Newton - 300 years. We are so clever today that we an measure minute differences in gravity on the planets surface and gravimtry sensing is used for oil exploration.

We can measure the moons gravitational pull, and the sun, and Jupiter etc etc. None of these objects (Earth included) travel in circles - instead they trace ellipses meaning the gravitational attraction ebbs and wanes in small increments. But there is nothing unexplained or unknown.

What else...? Magma movements under the Earth's crust. Funnily enough, being 40km deep, this stuff isn't easy to watch and even when its close to the surface as with New Zealand and Japan, we aren't yet clever enough to read it and predict. The crust itself along the plate edges crumbles and heaves but very sloowwly.

Enough. I don't believe there are mysterious forces at work. The universe is vast, we don't know everything, but vague unseen influences need vigorous definition before they can ever be considered seriously.

[Shadows]

So where the fuck was Ken Ring and his mates on the one that hit Japan last night? Only the 7th biggest quake ever recorded.
One of these fuckwits http://www.nextearthquake.com/earthq..._forecasts.htm "predicted" a 4.1 - 6.1 magnitude there just outside their 3 day window... they'll take that as a win and 75% accurate on magnitude when in actual fact it was 10,000 times stronger than the mid range number they "predicted".
Japan gets quakes within that "predicted" magnitude range all the time, see here - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquak...quakes_big.php - but 8.9 is the strongest they have ever recorded.
I'll take that as scientific evidence that all these guys' theories and so called records of accuracy aren't worth wiping my arse on the paper they're written on.

[imdying]

There may well be unexplained forces acting upon the earth that may or may not influence world events etc and this line of thought is shared by many.

Indeed, that will definitely be the case, and we'll figure out more of them as we go along. However, that only reinforces my belief that Ken Ring couldn't predict even his next bowel movement. The moon may indeed have an influence on the movment of tectonic plates, but there is no way of translating that into predicting earthquakes, and thus he is just scaring the public without just cause. Given that, I would happily plunge a 12" serrated blade into his chest and leave it at that. As far as I'm concerned his is a public enemy.

[mashman]

Some rather cool space events... related? I do wonder

Tuesday 29th - massive blast from the backside of the sun...

Wednesday 30th - the magnetosphere goes potty. (this may well be a common phenomena, but I haven't been able to find any other occurences)

Anyone know where ELENIN is approaching from? I'm looking forwards to this, as well as not so, who knows what's gonna happen

[Winston001]

The comet Elenin will pass Earth at .23 AU which is about 34 million kilometres off target. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2010_X1

[mashman]

The comet Elenin will pass Earth at .23 AU which is about 34 million kilometres off target. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2010_X1

That should be something quite spectacular to see. I'm surprised NASA doesn't have more information on the Comet, they're usually chomping at the bit, and indeed on at least 1 page on the NASA site sent me to your wiki link... I suppose they only found it a few months ago.

[Winston001]

That should be something quite spectacular to see. I'm surprised NASA doesn't have more information on the Comet, they're usually chomping at the bit, and indeed on at least 1 page on the NASA site sent me to your wiki link... I suppose they only found it a few months ago.

Well Yes. Leonid Elenin discovered the comet on 11 December 2011 at a New Mexico observatory - which is only 3 months ago.

There are 3648 known comets which is only a fraction of the total number. Comets are balls of ice, rock, and dust leftover from the early solar system. They live in the Oort Cloud which is held by the Sun's gravity and some fall in a parabolic trajectory around the Sun from time to time.

Of much greater risk to Earth are the NEOs - asteroids - which are dark and cannot be seen. They are much too close for the major telescopes to see so they are discovered and tracked by amateur astronomers.

There are at least 15 mapping organisations such as NASA and Harvard - here, you'll like this - Killer Asteroid search - http://www.killerasteroidproject.org/

[mashman]

Short read... and this guy "proves" that Elenin has been having an affect on earthquake activity since 1965, and that planetary alignments are the cause of large earthquakes... I gotta say, he theory makes sense... as far as I can follow it that is and given the variables he has.