Michael Jackson suffered a heart attack today and has now been pronounced dead. He was 50 years old. RIP MJ.

I just read an article by the academic B V Shiva Shankar which talked about the extremely rare astronomical event which will begin on July 7th. The triple eclipse will start with a Lunar eclipse on July 7th, followed by a solar eclipse on July 22nd, and topped off with a lunar eclipse on August 7th. Shankar contacted some of the most brilliant astrologers in the world to get their opinion on the issue. The outcome does not look good. One of the astrologers surmised that "The eclipse influences the sea level and the water content in the human body too. This will cause some variations in the body, which would lead to various problems." I can't even imagine what kind of havok this ailment wreak on the human body. Here are just some of the things the astrologers talk about which occurred during triple eclipses in the past:

World War I
World War II
The Holocaust
The Nuclear Bombings in Japan (I would have lumped this with WWII)
Kurukshetra War
The destruction of Dwaraka City

I think it's pretty safe to say that we're in for a rough ride. Are we due for another nuclear attack? Will another city be destroyed? Time to get prepared everyone. Our time is coming.

I was reading an article from LiveScience about Sony's new marketing ploy for their movie 2012. The author thinks that they've gone too far. Sony has set up a viral site, http://www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/, that basically sets the premise for the movie. Apparently, some guy from CalTech (how the hell did he get in there?) had a hard time figuring out it was a hoax. I love the fact that there are people out there who can are dumb enough to actually think the site is real. A quote from the LiveScience article: "..a site that is so cleverly designed, an unsuspecting person who doesn't recognize the actors on the page might think the IHC is real, that the end is near, and that buying a ticket (to somewhere, on something, who knows?) is the only hope of survival." Right on the the front page you see this on the bottom:



Created by Sony and a bunch of ads for the 2012 movie.. so inconspicuous! If you actually navigate around the site at all, it is so blatantly obvious you would have to be incredibly gullible or incredibly drunk to even remotely think the IHC is real. Take look at the staff.. do you think a real company would use this as a staff picture?


Let's get serious here people.

BluFrog energy drinks has a contest going on. You have a chance to win 1 of 5 pretty awesome vacations just for leaving a comment here and saying which vacation you would like win. You actually have a pretty damn good chance of winning a free trip (if I had to guess there will be less than 1,000 entrants per trip). If you are a Tweeter you can use that method as well to enter. I went with the trip to NY for New Years.. so you pick something else! If you end up winning leave a comment here and let me know so I can be pissed off for a few days. Oh and by the way, if you haven't tried BluFrog yet you should really give it a chance. It's one of my favorites for sure. If we're lucky the world won't end before the trip.

Mmmmmmmmm... can't wait :)

I was talking with a buddy of mine who is working on the new MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV game and telling him/her (confidential) that I wanted to give it a whirl before the world ended. I was able to get a little info out of him (oops!) and he told me their set date was 12/18/2010. This happens to be the day Final Fantasy the original was released, but back in 1987. I made a little graph of the past games below to view a trend and with a winter 2009 release of Final Fantasy XIII, the information would be spot on. Mark your calendars, worldwide release on 12/18/2010.

Looks like the movie is coming in November. Everyone already knows the world is coming to an end so it will be nice to finally see it on the big screen. John Cusack + explosions + a few one-liners = the end of the world. Should be a good viewing.



When is the world going to end?

Pretty easy to see this coming. Today the supreme leader threw out the possibility of fraud in Iran's election and called for the stoppage of protests. Seems like a pretty gutsy move on his part since chants about killing him have already been uttered by the huge crowds, but we know he isn't very smart. He also blamed the protests on Western nations citing that they are "responsible for the voter fraud allegations to begin with". Is this guy even serious? The Western nations and their fast-fingered tweets spread this rumor throughout Iran only minutes after the results were publicized? Damn, we're good! Oh well, this will all come crashing down on Ayatollah. I do feel very sorry for the people and extended violence this will bring their country. This will definitely bring change to Iran, hopefully all for the better. It's the end of the world for Iran's supreme leader. Keep up those protests Iranians!

Bush dodges a shoe and Obabma kills a fly. Tough choice here. I think I'm gonna have to go with Bush. Who throws a shoe?

I just got done reading a few 2009 hurricane predictions and the oh-so-never-wrong weather people have predicted a below average season. I've actually never seen them with a correct projection, so we can go ahead and throw out whatever they say. The truth of the matter is that this will be the one of the strongest hurricane seasons on record. With the apocalypse looming, we will begin to see more and more natural disasters. With that, I give you the top 5 most costly inflation-adjusted U.S. hurricanes to date (I'm sure we will see at least 2 enter the top 5 this year). Drum roll please...

Number 5

Hurricane Charley, August 2004
Estimated inflation-adjusted cost: $18,400,280,000*
Category 4
Highest winds: 150 mph
Storm Path
Satellite View


Number 4

Hurricane Wilma, October 2005
Estimated inflation-adjusted cost: $31,773,090,000*
Category 5
Highest winds: 185 mph
Storm Path
Satellite View


Number 3

Hurricane Ike, September 2008
Estimated inflation-adjusted cost: $31,790,300,000*
Category 4
Highest winds: 145 mph
Storm Path
Satellite View


Number 2

Hurricane Andrew, August 1992
Estimated inflation-adjusted cost: $40,276,980,000*
Category 5
Highest winds: 175 mph
Storm Path
Satellite View


Numero Uno

Hurricane Katrina, August 2005
Estimated inflation-adjusted cost: $88,658,920,000*
Category 5
Highest winds: 175 mph
Storm Path
Satellite View



* 2009 Inflation rate used taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

There is an interesting article in the Scientific American about the world's overpopulation. The main topic the article focuses on is limiting the number of birthed children in the world- similar to how China handles the issue. But I can save you some time. Can the world handle the projected population growth? No. We will take the appropriate measure to combat the problem? No. Oh well, who needs personal space anyways?

I usually don't dabble much in sports on this blog, and probably never will again. But all I can say is that the Magic have handed this series to the Lakers on a golden platter. The Magic should be winning this series 3-1, hands down. The only game the Lakers should have won in is game 1, where the Magic couldn't even manage to shoot 30% from the floor.

To win game 2, the only thing the Magic had to do was hit 1 of 2 layups in the final 8 seconds. While the layup pass to Courtney Lee in the final second of the game would have been a good shot (although Lee said he makes it 90% of the time in practice), the wide open layup 7 seconds before was a gimme.



Game 4 is even harder to swallow. The Lakers needed the Magic to 15 miss free throws and give the ball over 19 times in order to make it an overtime game. If Dwight makes 1 of 2 free throws in the final seconds, the Magic win the game.

Funny thing is, the Magic could actually come back and win the series. My guess is now they'll just give up early instead of in the 4th quarter and get it over with. When that happens, I won't even give the Lakers credit. The Magic will lose this on their own and the Lakers will have nothing to do with it. Let's all hope the world ends before game 5.

Here is a simulation of a 500km asteroid hitting Earth. I thought this seemed pretty fitting after my previous post. Enjoy it.

The last semi-major meteor or comet fragment to hit Earth occurred 101 years ago this June in Tunguska, Russia (seen here on the left). The strike rocked an area of about 830 square miles. Trees were flattened and a shock wave was sent out for hundreds of miles that knocked people off their feet. If this were to happen over a large city, hundreds of thousands would be killed. Scientists have estimated that impacts such as these occur once every 100 years or so. Going by averages, we are a bit overdue.

Digging even deeper, scientists have also surmised that mass extinctions occur roughly every 65 million years (precisely how long ago the dinosaurs disappeared). Although it is not known for certain, it is hypothesized that the majority of these extinctions have come from impact events. Our detection of the near Earth asteroids is very primitive. There have been several asteroids in just the past few years where we detected them only a few days before they whizzed by Earth. We have been extraordinarily lucky in the recent past, but something is definitely on our horizon. Our time is up.

The past few weeks have been pretty scary for the Brits. There have been numerous sightings of UFOs caught on camera. Their movement has been explained by moving in unison with each other or darting back and forth in perfect formation. The skeptical group is saying that the lights were either Chinese lanterns or that they were lights dropped by jets to simulate the path of a missile. In an interview over at dailymail.co.uk, a witness said each light was the size of a building (those are some big lanterns). I think it's pretty safe to say that the invasion is only months, if not days away. Here are some pictures of the sightings:






Another crazy thing about this story is one of the most intriguing crop circles ever seen in Britain appeared just a few days ago. These things can't be a coincidence. Good luck and Godspeed to all of you in the UK who have to face them first.

In my last post I pointed out that Tennessee recently passed a bill that allowed guns to be carried in bars. I went ahead and looked into all the states laws and provided a list below of those states that do and those states that do not have a no-carry law for their bars. If you find any discrepancies let me know. Here you go:

Do not allow guns in their bars (states that will live the longest):

1. Arizona
2. Georgia
3. Illinois
4. Louisiana
5. Michigan
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. New Mexico
9. North Carolina
10. North Dakota
11. Ohio
12. South Dakota
13. Virginia
14. Wisconsin

Allow guns in their bars - with DC and Puerto Rico (states that will die first):

1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Arkansas
4. California
5. Colorado
6. Connecticut
7. Delaware
8. District of Columbia
9. Florida
10. Hawaii
11. Idaho
12. Indiana
13. Iowa
14. Kansas
15. Kentucky
16. Maine
17. Maryland
18. Massachusetts
19. Minnesota
20. Missouri
21. Nebraska
22. Nevada
23. New Hampshire
24. New Jersey
25. New York
26. Oklahoma
27. Oregon
28. Pennsylvania
29. Puerto Rico
30. Rhode Island
31. South Carolina
32. Tennessee
33. Texas
34. Utah
35. Vermont
36. Washington
37. West Virginia
38. Wyoming

Well, if you thought the hicks of Tennessee couldn't possibly be more retarded, you were wrong. After Gov. Phil Bredesen vetoed the bill, the mentally challenged State Senate overrode his efforts with a close vote of 21-9 in favor of allowing handguns in Tennessee restaurants. I mean, I guess I understand where they are coming from. What could possibly go better with alcohol than guns, right? Seriously though, when the world goes down I hope the people who enact laws like this go first. Tennessee Senate - you suck.

The Vision of Humanity website has released the Global Peace Index for 2009.



As you can see, there are few places in the world you probably shouldn't be visiting. Nothing too out of the ordinary here. The US is ranked 83 out of the 144 countries listed. If you are feeling a little bit daring, I suggest hitting up Afghanistan or Iraq, which rank 143 and 144 respectively. The full list of rankings can be found here.

I've gone ahead and tweaked the map for the upcoming 2012 GPI. A couple tough choices but the end result looks accurate. If there is anything you would change, I would love to hear it. But since I'm right, I won't make any changes.

Last night ABC aired "Earth 2100: Is this the Final Century of our Civilization?" and I have to say I am quite disappointed. My initial response was, "Definitely!!" **SPOILER ALERT** To save you the wasted time, Earth ends up surviving :( My hope that ABC actually has half a brain is sidelined.

The narrator of the piece is supposed to be born on June 2, 2009. She lived through droughts, famine, plague, etc. - the whole nine yards. By the end of the show, she is the oldest living human on Earth. At that time, civilization has reverted back to the good old days of hunting/gathering for food. Sounds pretty boring, right? Well.. it is. However, throughout the show you do get a few sweet comments from unknown scientists saying stuff like "the Earth will be so beaten up, it will take hundreds of thousands of years to get back to normal," or "Earth will be a living Hell." While those comments make me feel all warm and fuzzy, the world ends up surviving. What a joke. We all know this is just plain wrong. I do see a trend in recent science - 2100 seems like the year everyone is concentrating on. The facts are right in front of us people, no way we're making it after 2012. So get off the 2100 bandwagon and learn some real science!

What better predicts the end of the world than clouds? That's a good question. You know some of these formations can't just occur naturally. The more of these we see the closer the end is coming. We are getting signs of the world's demise. Be on the lookout my friends. Enjoy the photos and then prepare!

Looks like we may have another plane disaster on our hands. Although this won't make the list of the deadliest plane crashes of all time, it is possible the 228 people aboard this flight are in the Atlantic. The plane reportedly disappeared 186 miles North East of the Natal, Brazil. It seems as though a lightening strike may have caused a short circuit within the plane. I'll keep you updated with any new reports that may come about.



Update:

Link to video news conference.

Nationalities:

French - 61
Brazilian - 58
German - 26
Chinese - 9
Italian - 9
Swiss - 6
British - 5
Lebanese - 5
Hungarian - 4
Irish - 3
Norwegian - 3
Slovak - 3
American - 2
Moroccan - 2
And one from Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Demark, the Netherlands, Estonia, the Philippines, The Gambia, Iceland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey. The details on the crew members has not yet been released.