I got this little bit of spam last night from a 'concerned citizen'. And indeed they should be concerned - concerned about the proliferation of pseudoscience, concerned about the lack of critical thinking or even basic common sense they display in this email, or perhaps even concerned about the real agenda of whoever duped them into sending this silliness out.
Anyway, here's the text of the email without the headers:
Research data obtained from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program shows an exponential acceleration in the frequency of large / noteworthy earthquakes during the period ( 2002 - 2004 ), a period in which heavy bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq took place. Most of the increase occurred in the Asian region. The number of large earthquakes during the period examined are as follows:
2004 ( 42 ) ; 2003 ( 48 ) ; 2002 ( 12 ) ; 2001 ( 7 ) ; 200 ( 6 ).
In 2004 earthquakes equal to or greater than 7 M which hit Indonesia are as follows:
Feb 7 ( 7.3 ) ; July 24 ( 7.3 ) ; Nov 11 ( 7.5 ) ; Nov 26 ( 7.1 ) ; Dec 26 ( 9.0 ).
Why was the public not informed of this trend which began in Feb 2004?
The increase in frequency of worldwide atmospheric disruptions resulting in large / noteworthy events such as severe floods, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, etc. plus the significant increase in frequency of earthquakes during this period warrants public debate.
Further, significant environmental disruptions in one region of the world cannot be self-contained, and thus can trigger atmospheric and seismatic disruptions in other parts of the world. Therefore, the cumulative total should be cause for concern by all people worldwide.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
even if this isn't true, John Kerry won Ohio
2 - Aaman
And the Moon landings happened in Utah
3 - DJRadiohead
And this is precisely why political campaigns don't waste their time or money on science or facts. Neither science nor facts can force a closed mind open and they can only get in the way of propaganda and vile character assasination.
4 - andy marsh
Utah? I thought it was someplace like China Lake or death valley!
5 - DrPat
All us Westerners know the Moon landings was filmed at China Lake, and recut in Area 51 - so's they could use the alien they got there as a consultant to make it more realistic.
6 - Eric Olsen
I thought it was China Grove ("they'll just keep on lookin' to the east")
7 - Adam Bloom
I'm a Bush-hating fundamentalist Christian-hating moderate/liberal who thinks the war was pointless and wrong. And I STILL think this guy is fucking crazy.
8 - Eric Berlin
Adam - I hear what you're saying (regarding the hating) but you might want to describe your beliefs in a different way i.e. "I hate Bush's policies" and "I hate the fact that fundamentalist beliefs cause etc etc etc."
Just a suggestion from a fellow moderate/liberal.
~ Eric B.
9 - Marc
And the Earth is flat.
Michael Moore dines at the Weight Watchers Club.
Teddy Kennedy's favorite drink is diet Coke.
Kerry was in Cambodia
The Pentagon was struck by a US missle on 9/11
Did I miss any?
10 - Eric Olsen
you didn't mention the Elders of Zion
11 - andy marsh
Diet coke mixed with what?
12 - RJ
LOL Andy... ;)
13 - RJ
Of course, I did read somewhere (in a reputable online publication, IIRC) that Hoover Dam has caused some mild tremors. So, human being apparently ARE capable of causing changes in seismology.
But the claims in the e-mail that was posted are obviously bogus.
14 - Nick Jones
There is a cause and effect behind the seaquake - it's called the Pacific Ring of Fire. If I remember correctly, there was some volcanic activity in Mexico within the last two years, grumblings from Mount St. Helens and earthquakes in Japan in 2004, and culminating in the tsunami-creating quake of December 26. Every so often the Ring wakes up just to let us know it's still there. No sinister human agency needed.
15 - Dave Nalle
If there's a sinister human agency it's the Inonesian government which has been warned for years to prepare some sort of emergency warning system and evacuation plan and never took it seriously and which was given at least 3 or 4 days clear warning that a major quake was likely and did absolutely nothing to prepare.
Dave
16 - Mike Kole
Sinister? What's the word I'm looking for here...? Useless! That's it! Or, perhaps: inefficient.
&c.
17 - DrPat
There are recognized human actions that can trigger small "propping" or "subsidence" tremors: under the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, for example, in the late 70s in response to the pumping of fluids underground, or in Long Beach, CA, in the late 40s and early 50s as oil was pumped out of the stratigraphic trap under Signal Hill.
But the idea that exploding HE shots in the Middle East would trigger a Richter 7+ sea-floor quake in the Pacific is simply ludicrous - if not, where and when was the tsunami following Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
18 - Z.Z.Bachman
"A small infusion of common sense is badly needed in some quarters".
When you have a hidden agenda common sense is often checked at the door. No degree of common sense will help these people. Mt. St.Helen's can erupt again and the blame will be on the bunker busters dropped in Iraq. There were some reports (I did not check them out fully yet) from NASA that the Sumatran earthquake may have been strong enough to effect the natural occillation of the earth's axis by some 5-7 inches. If that's the case, Bush is responsible for moving the earth's rotation let alone mountains and a contental plate as a result of his bombing !! How's that for a stretch !! :)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
ZZ Bachman / ZardozZ News & Satire Portal
Have a Blog? Ring Surf it @ ZZ OpenRing
19 - Dave Nalle
Wow, that makes Bush more than just the leader of the free world, he's like a GOD or something!
Another theory I heard recently was that Australian sonic exploration for oil in the Indian Ocean had triggered the earthquake - along with mass whale beachings.
Why is it so hard to just accept that it's the random workings of nature?
Dave
20 - Steve S
Why is it so hard to just accept that it's the random workings of nature?
Isn't that the question of the day.
This email you got might just be an attempt to blame something on Bush, but truly Dave, it might be founded in ignorance. Some people might sincerely believe it.
Some people believe that the tsunami is God's wrath for Muslims over there, who weren't as 'ardent' in their faith as the hardliners in the Iraq area. Some people believe AIDS is God's wrath. Some people believe we were sculpted from dirt in literally 24 hours. Millions are capable of believing totally wild things.
21 - Shark
We came from dirt?!
Man, and I thought monkeys was bad.
22 - Steve S
When there's a lot of mudslinging going on here, think of it as a family reunion.
I tend to believe that the tsunami was caused by a heavenly slip of the Photoshop smudge tool on the Canvas of Life. But then again, I went to community college.
23 - Dave Nalle
>>Some people believe that the tsunami is God's wrath for Muslims over there, who weren't as 'ardent' in their faith as the hardliners in the Iraq area. Some people believe AIDS is God's wrath. <<
To balance that last out some people also think it's a conspiracy by the CIA to destroy the african american population for not buying enough drugs to finance their off-the-books covert ops.
>>Some people believe we were sculpted from dirt in literally 24 hours. <<
And here I thought human beings spontaneously generated if you left dirty rags piled in a corner.
Dave
24 - Eric Olsen
and then there is the matter of cow farts
25 - jadester
all this conspiracy talk and still no mention of the lizard race secretly taking over the world (they're shapeshifters, don'tcha know). Then again, that predicted pole-shift didn't happen and the world didn't become enslaved (it was meant to happen a few years ago) so maybe most people realised it really was a heap o' crap...