Strikes me as pure unadulterated idiocy.
Old Ben is certainly no scientist, but it just doesn't seem possible that the position of Venus would make any difference to our weather.
OTOH, aren't the Commies looking for an event to use as an excuse to hit Taiwan? Is the muttering about the Three Rivers Gorge a prelude to a planned failure of the dam?
Ok, ok, I promise I will go out and buy some tinfoil so that Venusian radiation cannot fog my thinking.
I'd like to see them try that in CA.
There are people who study planet configuration and movements to predict commodity prices - and they are dead serious.
I don't make fun of them - what if there is something to it?
However ridiculous it sounds to me...
Venus was the basis of many religions, and it still is. Timing is certainly odd for this news release.
Such language! There are children reading these pages and....Huh? ..Oh! Silt stirring....never mind.
Not to worry. The same Chinese astrologists can turn dirt into gold, thereby saving the economy...
Since the sun is 104 times larger than Venus, I seriously doubt that its output of radiation can be significantly influenced by Venus. I think this guy should go back to the drawing boards.
It seems that Venus was nowhere near the transit point during these events.
There would have been far more of a chance that a flood control engineer along the Yellow River neglected to engage a valve while watching the transit, had any such flood occurred...
I have read that most (or all) planetary orbits are harmonically related to the orbital motion of Jupiter, the only other solar system object to exercise such direct control over distant objects. Of course, a common orbital harmonic relationship to a single object means that all of the other planets bear a relationship to each other, as well. They are not immune to other influences, but the major source of their orbital synchronicity is likely to be Jupiter. However, Pluto was discovered due to its small perturbation of the orbit of Neptune, and of course each planet with moons controls the orbit of its own satellites.
He should be kicked out the front door and forced to wear a dunce cap in public for the next ten years. It's one thing for brain-dead media-droids and New-Age doofusses to promulgate this idiocy, quite something else for an associate of a respected scientific insitution to do it. Sheesh.
The damming of the Yellow River is a disaster waiting to happen. This is the governments attempt to cast blame on forces outside its control.
Pure codswallop IMHO!
I doubt it.