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David Morrison: Surviving 2012 and Other Cosmic Disasters

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NASA's David Morrison Answers 2012 Conspiracy Theorists

05 min 28 sec

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NASA scientist David Morrison shares some of the most outrageous questions and comments he has received from 2012 conspiracy theorists.

One of his favorites? "I am getting tired of all the CIA and NSA planes buzzing around my house in circles like I am some freak at a carnival show."
Is 2012 the End of Time? Modern-Day Mayans Say No

01 min 42 sec

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Wondering if 2012 is really the end of time? NASA scientist David Morrison offers a solution: ask the 3 million Mayans who still practice the religion in Guatemala and Mexico.

Morrison compares 2012 with December 31. "If you flip the page, it starts all over the next year," he says.
Planet X and 2012: NASA's Morrison Refutes the 'Evidence'

03 min 23 sec

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NASA's David Morrison debunks the conspiracy theories surrounding the "discovery" of Planet X, or Nibiru.

Morrison says Photoshopped images and a creative imagination lead many to believe the fictional planet will play a role in the doomsday predictions slated for 2012.
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59 min 09 sec

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Previous FORAtv comments:

Page 2 of 4

Periergeia

Posted: 06.12.10, 12:17 AM

memethink: In a discourse it matters little what words mean "in your opinion". If you actually care about being taken seriously, you will have to use words at least close to their usual definition, which, it seems, you do not care to do. As the most simple consequence of your disregard for definitions, it seems that little of what you say makes much sense, since most likely none of us can tell what you actually mean by any of the words that you string together. Having said that, it strikes me that you are actually trying to say something moving and important. May I interpret your reply in such a way that you bemoan the plight of the Chinese people? That seems rather unreasonable to the outside observer. China has a very long continuous history, much of which is violent and much of which would be about as insufferable for any modern person as the European middle ages would be if we had to relive them. In comparison, what is happening in modern China is, on more than just one level elemental progress. As someone who has lived in a communist state in his youth, I happen to have first hand understanding of the limitations that come with the current Chinese political system. As a keen observer of modern China I also happen to have some idea of what the driving forces behind the changes are and, IMHO, much of that has nothing to do with any particular political system at work but is fundamentally governed by Chinese demographics and Chinese historical reality. If there is something one can learn from the study of nature, it is that laws of numbers are uncaring. Much of China's reality is ruled by the incredible number of its people and the resulting needs that have to be satisfied if further suffering is to be avoided. That is not an excuse for the egregious human rights violations that are being reported from China, of course. The explanation for those, if one needed any (but one does not), would simple be history. Societies do not turn on a dime. They change slowly and it takes many generations to make ultimate progress in humanity. We can be disgusted with that, if we want to, but we can't change it. As for the universe... it simply does not care. And if you happen to look for the ultimate implementation of the Myth of Sysyphus, it can be trivially found in musing over the question why there is suffering in the world or why God (or the universe) can possibly allow it to happen. The trivial answer is the correct one (neither care) and if you can't live with it, you have just picked the stone that you will roll up that hill for the rest of your own eternity. Meanwhile China is driving itself from the 19th century into the 21st at breakneck speed. We can either follow or we will be crushed. I, for one, like to follow. It's one of the most amazing spectacles of human history ever witnessed. Luckily, for me, I can watch from the stands and do not have to be part of the race. I doubt I would make a happy figure in it, if I had to.

Periergeia

Posted: 06.06.10, 10:31 PM

memethink: "How could the basics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, literature and history answer the basic existential predicament of human sufferings?" They don't. Humanism does that by attempting to prevent human suffering. What a grounding in science, literature and history does for you is to make the distinction between the highs of human intellectual and emotional achievement and utter nonsense like any sort of fundamentalism (political, religious, spiritualist, puritan, economic etc. etc.) as transparent as the vacuum of deep space (and in there you can really see forever!). That includes dismantling of the particular myth that teaches that "human suffering" is some elevated form of being which needs to be philosophized about ad nauseam. It doesn't. It needs to be minimized as much as possible, and where it can't be removed from our life fundamentally, e.g. in case of the loss of a loved one, it has to be integrated into the "normal" state of human existence, so that it does not create additional fear, shame and guilt beyond the unavoidable emotional trauma. From such a grounded physical, emotional and intellectual platform you can then go on to actually muse about important problems (that have an actual impact in the real world) and leave those early childhood traumas behind that have most people stuck in endless search for "meaning". The world is simply what you make of it. And, of course, you can't make any sense of the world, if you are not willing to observe it. Which brings us back to the need to study math and science to understand the world and literature and history to understand ourselves, since literature is how we express ourselves and history is the list of avoidable mistakes that we made in the past. "How could capitalism and bureaucracy be responsible to men's mental and spiritual freedom?" How does the Library of Alexandria fit into a pea? It doesn't, but that question is about as meaningful as yours. Neither capitalism, which is merely one of many possible forms of ownership and production, nor bureaucracy, which is a (mostly primitive) form of organization, have any "responsibility" for men's mental and spiritual freedom. Mental freedom is a function of the shaping of people's psychological inhibitions by their social environment. It starts with the conditioning by mom and dad and the diverse social groups people are part of, which includes the pressures that local, regional and global politics puts on them. That shaping can be free or restrictive and tends to be relatively free in what you like to call "capitalism", although what I believe you really mean are probably democratic and somewhat meritocratic political systems of the late 20th and early 21st century. Please correct me if I am wrong, but that's what I find most people, especially in the US, mean, when they are talking about "capitalism". Now, if you also happen to have smart parents, live in a tolerant neighborhood and end up in a good school with motivated teachers which is free of violence, you got the necessary conditions for a good start. Take one of the last requirements away and chances are that you will have to either stay within the box they put you in or that you will have to break with family and friends at some point in your life to emancipate yourself. About that "spiritual freedom"... I find that the people who talk about spirituality the most are usually the ones who seem to have the least of it. If you need instructions from self-help books, an organized form of religion or some self-proclaimed teacher, you are definitely missing it yourself. I tend to look at spirituality as something that one simply has, a deeply felt resonance with the universe. It makes you sing like a harp when being struck by beauty. I always had that, I never felt the artificial need to search for it. Which, incidentally, leaves me more time to look at the universe and simply enjoy. And, what do you know, the last time "I sang" was only a couple of days ago when reading a paper on gravity as a thermodynamic theory. What a beautiful insight that is... Einstein kept looking for it all his life. The deep reverence he held for both, gravity and thermodynamics finds a natural explanation in a theoretically stunningly beautiful formal resemblance of the largest scale phenomenon and the most general known laws of the universe. And there you have it. :-)

Donegal

Posted: 06.05.10, 08:02 PM

Wonderful video! It's nice to see someone taking the pseudoscience peddlers and fearmongers to task. I've posted this on my Facebook in hopes that some of my friends that take this crap seriously will watch, too.

Periergeia

Posted: 06.02.10, 03:54 PM

memethink: "...how can we teach discernment when confronting with an new age of deception?" Judging by my own experience in high school, that's actually fairly easy. Pretty much every high school teacher in Europe and most parts of the world outside of the US is quite qualified to teach his or her students the basic techniques of judging the quality of information. Independent thinking based on facts and questioning the source are, of course, only possible to people who actually have the basics of mathematics, physics, chemistry, literature and history down. Failing that, the human mind is set adrift in an ocean of meaningless noise.

doorcodad

Posted: 05.26.10, 06:04 AM

This is a very good video. It is too bad that the sound is so uneven. I am a retired high school physics teacher, and have had students question me about all kinds of crazy crackpot ideas over the years. We have to just keep educating students and promoting critical thinking.

StGermain

Posted: 05.25.10, 04:32 AM

This fellow doesnt have much awareness of the people he pillories, he puts words in their mouth and plays to the gullibility of his audience, and is the very person he warns everyone else about..

107

Posted: 05.20.10, 07:26 PM

Whether investigating the reality we live in or believing in delusions, we're all equally pathetic humans. Does it matter how we await our expiration date? No. SMH @ the arrogant.

Circunsiso

Posted: 05.20.10, 03:23 PM

I just don't know how to speak on this people should really try to understand this subject but as us being that ignorant we get lured into believing such contraptions that are far more unimaginable for us to comprehend nowadays.

tonywittebolle

Posted: 05.20.10, 02:30 PM

Why is it that some people believe in the most outrageous and exotic things, and when presented with hard evidence, real science that you actually can check for yourself, they say it is all prepared to look convincing? I really do not get that... There are even people out there claiming that the planet isn't a spheroid, and oh yes they have hard proof and ofcourse there is also a conspiracy to cover that up... No wonder no government on the planet is capable to keep a tight budgetplan on course, lol I hope this video will help though...

SenorPescado

Posted: 05.19.10, 07:34 PM

Sir, I agree with all you say, have been inside Uxmal, invited in 88, been to most ruins, and caves, at night even Palenque, Tikal, San Andres, Monte Alban all at night, this guy is an idiot in the vid I also worked with Mayans in 80's Guatemala and live El Salvador since 1994 the math is correct I am where the safest place to be, yes even by the ocean, we rise up whatever meditation will tie all you ignorant 'sheeples' to the same universal energy so all you idiots, I will ask have you tried macrocosmic orbit meditation? I am engineer whatever I am blessed to be so enlightened and a note, Mr. Xavier S., is also close to correct have a nice day

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