November 13th, 2013

Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : November 13th, 2013
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Profile Julie
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Message 1425251 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 15:18:30 UTC
Last modified: 7 Oct 2013, 15:28:08 UTC

NASA will make an anouncement on Nov 13th that will shock the world, so it seems. Does anyone know more about it. Read quite a few articles already but they all remain rather mysterious...

Hmmm... it seems they'd announce it yesterday. Haven't noticed anything...
Maybe just another hoax...

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread974723/pg1

http://www.rememberthe13th.com/

When I try to visit the Nasa site, I get this:

Due to the lapse in federal government funding, this website is not available.
We sincerely regret this inconvenience.


Peculiar...
I'm sure it's a hoax though...
rOZZ
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Message 1425255 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 15:29:06 UTC

But what I wonder is how they can just use Nasa's name like this and the Nasa website is unavailable atm...
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Message 1425256 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 15:42:11 UTC - in response to Message 1425255.  

NASA is a public name and as such anyone can reference it. It would be the same as "The President of the United States is going to make a very important announcement on December 15th. Keep your eyes open for the big announcement!". I can claim the President is going to announce something all I want, even if in fact he is not going to make an announcement, or I have misinterpreted a statement he's made alluding to an announcement of some sort. The only thing it ruins is my reputation if I'm wrong.

I'd argue that it's easier to spread bogus news if NASA is down; more likely they misinterpreted something NASA alluded to on their website and they believe every announcement is going to be "The Announcement" because they are so convinced that one of these days the government/NASA is going to reveal what they believe they already knew.

If I a penny for the number of times UFO websites have claimed that the government and/or NASA was going to announce the revelation of UFOs or alien beings and the sites were wrong, I'd be a millionaire.
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Message 1425265 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 16:02:53 UTC

I find it rather disgraceful people use the name of trustworthy authorities for rubbish like that. Also happened to the Seti Institute before as I recall...

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/giant-spacehips-seti-hoax.shtml
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Message 1425282 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 16:26:28 UTC - in response to Message 1425265.  

I agree that it's disgraceful of them to do so, as so many people are willing to believe it because they are latching onto a trusted source, which makes a lot of people trust the news implicitly.

This is why using critical thinking and researching any claims to verify their veracity is so important. The thing is, I can't tell if these hoax sites love pushing false news because they think it is funny, or if they believe it themselves so much that they post it as "news", then when the news fails to deliver, they claim another government cover-up, or any other excuse as to why you should continue to trust them.

That is one of the reasons why I fight so hard against UFO conspiracy theories - because there's so many people out there that don't use critical thinking for themselves, or they believe themselves to be an "open-minded" person simply by giving any claim the benefit of the doubt, which itself precludes any critical thought into the claim.

Unfortunately, my interest in busting bogus news claims and bogus UFO sightings has garnered me the reputation as an FBI/CIA/NSA "disinformation agent". :-/
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Message 1425289 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 16:44:17 UTC

An adage my mother used to use comes to mind: "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." Seems to me that advice applies to most things on the internet.

The thing about the internet is that there are no control over content. Anyone can say anything that they want on any subject no matter how asinine. Those who want to believe will, while the rest of us are best advised to take it all with a very large grain of salt.
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Message 1425304 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:06:33 UTC

The internet is just horrible sometimes! Just the other day, my daughter came to me and said with a big smile she was the big winner of some contest. I took me over a half an hour to convince her it wasn't true!
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Message 1425314 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:16:13 UTC

Someone has set up a spoof :)

Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

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Message 1425325 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:40:26 UTC - in response to Message 1425304.  
Last modified: 7 Oct 2013, 17:44:32 UTC

The internet is just horrible sometimes! Just the other day, my daughter came to me and said with a big smile she was the big winner of some contest. I took me over a half an hour to convince her it wasn't true!


Unfortunately the world is full of people who will try to take advantage of others. This has been true even before the internet became so popular. Regular mail used to be the common communication medium for scammers to reach out to potential "marks" (a "mark" is a term used by con artists and scammers to idenfity someone who appears gullible enough to get something out of; they are usually easily identifiable to the best con artists out there). The internet simply made their job easier on a massive scale to reach as many marks as they can. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick.

The only positive spin I can put on this is that it is a very important lesson to teach your child about gullibility and critical thinking skills.
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Message 1425328 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:44:12 UTC

The only positive spin I can put on this is that it is a very important lesson to teach your child about gullibility and critical thinking skills.


True, the world isn't what it used to be 20 years ago...
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Message 1425330 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:47:05 UTC - in response to Message 1425328.  

I'd argue that it's always been that way; we were just more naive when we were younger so we tend to think that it was better years ago. A combination of a romanticized ideation of our perception of our past and our shedding of our own innocence as we learn the truths of the world.
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Message 1425335 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 17:55:02 UTC - in response to Message 1425330.  

I'd argue that it's always been that way; we were just more naive when we were younger so we tend to think that it was better years ago. A combination of a romanticized ideation of our perception of our past and our shedding of our own innocence as we learn the truths of the world.



Yes but 20 years ago, there was hardly any 'mulimedia' to make people crazy and give them an 'information overload' as we're having these days...
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Message 1425355 - Posted: 7 Oct 2013, 18:28:17 UTC - in response to Message 1425335.  

I can't disagree with you there. I predict the information overload is going to continue, requiring people to need to learn to adjust to it and parse the information in smaller bits so they don't feel so overloaded. The scams will only continue en masse and will emphasize the importance of skepticism.
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Message 1425682 - Posted: 8 Oct 2013, 10:59:19 UTC - in response to Message 1425673.  

Never mind Nov 13th, I haven't had my weekly email from a Nigerian official wanting to give me 3 million in unclaimed funds .....



Poor Chris, you've missed the chance of a lifetime!! ;)))
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Message 1426917 - Posted: 11 Oct 2013, 1:57:20 UTC

Shortly after the rise of the blogosphere Abraham Lincoln hosted a dinner party at his Cabin Estate and birthplace in Hodgenville, Kentucky.

After this dinner Abraham Lincoln read from his unpublished memoir: A Humble Man's Advice For Life in the Information Age. By the fireside he read many portions, but the section that most impressed his guests was this one, simple sentence:

"The thing about quotes on the internet is that you cannot confirm their validity."

For the sake of brevity many simply use the acronym 1) ALIW when referring to this tidbit of wisdom.

1 Abraham Lincoln's Internet Wisdom
Must not conflict resolve by suggesting that someone should go sit on an ice pick...
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Message 1439006 - Posted: 6 Nov 2013, 20:49:27 UTC

8.8 billion planets were actually discovered, with technology that is but can we be sure of those 33 billion? On the other hand, mathematics is the language of the Universe...
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Message 1439009 - Posted: 6 Nov 2013, 20:55:29 UTC

Estimating 8.8 billion planets and discovering that many are two very different things. Either way there are a lot more planets out there than what Drake originally estimated. I seem to remember they were estimating that only qone in a thousand stars would have a planetary system orbiting them.
Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.
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Message 1439013 - Posted: 6 Nov 2013, 21:03:23 UTC

There must be numerous planets out there, too much you lose count. You need mathematics to be able to apprehend the operation of the Universe...
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Message 1439716 - Posted: 7 Nov 2013, 16:41:13 UTC
Last modified: 7 Nov 2013, 16:41:55 UTC

A kick ass telescope:))
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Message boards : Science (non-SETI) : November 13th, 2013


 
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