The Great Planet X Debate,11p-12a PST,coast to coast

coasttocoastam.com ^ | may-13-2003 | Phil Plait ,Nancy Lieder .

[plusone]

I like your taste in flix!

[green team 1999]

I want to know what steps the Planet X people(?) are taking to protect themselves. As the solar system's loose cannon, they gotta be used to pole shifts by now.

they are like the democrats they don`t care about the rest.

[plusone]

Yes, it is fascinating stuff. There is some evidence to support it. Astronomers speculate that there is a tenth planet, one with an eccentric orbit. Some think that every 65 million years it swings close enough to the Oort cloud to dislodge the asteroids and comets that circle way out beyond Pluto, dislodging some and sending them Earthwards. This might explain why there are major extinctions here.

[ZOOKER]

This calls for a last-ditch megaproject to save the cream of humanity.

I got dibs on the window seat...

[AntiGuv]

Thx! I've got a backlog list around here I need to get cracking on. Especially some of the classics like Metropolis & Colossus. There aren't near enough fantasy flix either! (LoTR, Willow, Labyrinth, NeverEnding Story, Legend, etc). Oh, and I forgot Time Bandits and Dark City and Pi and eXistenZ - on the weirder side of things..

So many flix..so little time! :)

[plusone]

When Worlds Collide...an awesome movie!!

[Sgt_Schultze]

Thanks for the photo indicating of the dire consequences of a carrier landing involving Jerrold Nadler.

[plusone]

How about some of the older sci-fi? Time Machine, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, (all directed by George Pal). I end to be partial to the B grade scifi, if for no other reason the lack of hype. Thirteenth Floor is really good, like Matrix, it deals with our non-reality. Instead of Jurrasic PArk 2, try Carnosaur 2. Low budget as hell, but a blast. The Hidden is a classic. And several of John Carpenter's movies... They Live, Prince of Darkness, The Thing.

[green team 1999]

great movie

[Swordmaker]

If the Lunar Eclipse occurs on Thursday night at the appointed time and place in the sky, we'll know.

[AntiGuv]

When Worlds Collide is on my waiting list too - I think I'll move that up to next. Also, a few more missed faves..

Minority Report, Demolition Man, Mad Max, Running Man, Armageddon, X-Files and ... Flash Gordon!!

I've seen Time Machine & War of the Worlds - those were great. Also Thirteenth Floor, another top movie in my library. Haven't seen the others but will mark them down.

What I really want to get is a video collection of that old animated Robotech series. I'd have to quit my job & lock myself in for weeks!!

[plusone]

Not everything Hollywood does is trash! God bless Sci-Fi!

[longshadow]

RA; you have to pipe this broadcast into the Control room if you're at work tonight: the place will be in stitches laughing at this stuff. You all have to make aluminium foil beanies and hats and wear them while listening to this broadcast. I defy you and your coworkers to listen to this any not break out in hysterics....

The only thing funnier would be an astronomer debating the Tedster on his Velikovskian lunacy.....

[plusone]

Arnie made some really good scifi over the years. (Interestingly enough, so did Chuch Heston). I recently saw End of Days. It did poorly at the theaters and the critics panned it, but I like the movie.

[Aracelis]

I was just going to ping you about this...should be fun! :^)

[plusone]

And what is wrong with Velikovsky?

[Aracelis]

And what is wrong with Velikovsky?

Hoo-boy! Watch the fun!

[plusone]

I'm ready, bring it on!! :)

[Aracelis]

You'll have to wait for the rest of the gang...I stay as far away from Velikovsky as I can, you know...being a scientist and all. But of what I've read, I enjoyed this bit the best:

"Venus was expelled as a comet and then changed to a planet after contact with a number of members of our solar system" (Velikovsky 1972,182).

Yup...lots o' science in that statement!

[plusone]

Okay while I wait for the others, let's debate. Considering that we don't really know how the planets formed, there is nothing unscientific about his hypothesis. He made many predicitons about Venus (once he got his book published, and that in itself is a sad testament to the openmindedness of science) which turned out to be true. He said that Venus, being a young planet, was at the boiling point of lead. Science at the time thought it was only slightly warmer than Earth. Vel. was right. He said Jupiter emmited radio signals. Science laughed. Vel was right. He has offered a testable theory, since he made predictions that have turned out to be correct (not all, but many). And he was given the 'Gallileo' cold shoulder. Many scientists villified him without bothering to read his book. Carl Sagan wrote the difinitive attack on his theories, which, years later, were point by point discredited by another researcher, who accused Sagan of bad science. (Can't recall the name off hand).