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So I'm watching these guys talk about the 'galactic alignment', where the Sun, Earth, and center of the galaxy will be 'perfectly aligned'. I know it's all BS, but I wanted to see just how much BS it is. So I fired up one of my star programs and set the date to 21Dec2012. Here's a screenshot:

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1442/2012.jpg

The big white ball at the top is the Sun, and the red line through it is the ecliptic, the path the Sun will follow through the sky. The crosshair cursor near the bottom is the approximate location of Sagittarius A* (supermassive black hole, the 'center of the galaxy'.

Now, if the Earth, Sun, and the center of the galaxy are supposedly aligned, the Sun should block out Sag A* so that it's not visible. Obviously, it's not even close. Angular separation at closest approach is 6.5 degrees.

And the whole 'galactic alignment' biz goes up in smoke right there. It's just a bunch of charlatans speaking nonsense.

If you're curious, the closest approach of the Sun to the center in the year 2012 is 5 days earlier, on 16Dec. There's still 5.5 degrees of separation between them though, so nothing even close to what could be called an alignment. Plus, it's the exact same distance that the Sun approaches to alignment *every* year, meaning there's nothing special about 2012 at all.

For the closest approach (still 5.5 degrees) to occur on 21Dec, you have to go to the year 2200 or so.

Anyways, more ammo next time a galactic alignment discussion comes up.

The initiative for national science education standards, which would bar creationists from sneaking their tripe in through local school boards, needs 110 more votes before new years to make it to the next round.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/create_nationally...

Please vote and send this to others you think would support it

How do you think people will deal with it?

Chalk it up as a win for science?

Claim god must have decided not to smite us so he prevented it?

Ad-hoc denial? (Oh, the LHC is REALLY supposed to kill us on blah-blah date!)

Just forget it like nothing ever happened and move on to the next doomsday, learning nothing from their mistakes?

Unfortunately, I think I have those ranked from least likely to most likely.

Right now. It's good.

At least the folks at History haven't gone COMPLETELY over to pop-culture and pseudoscience (Monster Hunters, various UFO and 2012 shows...)

http://mythbustersresults.com/mythbusters-tackle-m...

That is all.

Oh wait, this is supposed to be a question.

Uhh, who's gonna watch?

I seem to notice a lot of parallels between religious people and 'we are being visited by aliens' people.

1. Both think they are speaking of absolute fact and people who don't believe are blind, yet neither can produce evidence that holds up under scrutiny

2. Alien abductions. The come in the night and do sexual experiments like probing and specifically stealing semen or eggs or impregnate women. Middle ages stories of demons who would visit in the night to have sex and take semen or impregnate women.

3. Saviours. God/Jesus is supposed to save us from doomsday. Aliens are going to help us through 2012/whatever other doomsday.

4. Ascension to a higher plane. Religious people go to some equivalent of heaven. Alien folks go to higher dimensions.

5. Higher beings. Angels/higher dimensional aliens.

6. Claims of persecution. Both claim to be ignored by a scientific community that is too set on it's own ideology.