I'll be putting up references to the "chicken littles" of the world. Those idiots who have uneccessarily claimed some sort of cosmic or earthly event, which never came to pass,or else is unlikely to come to pass. Notable among those in the past who have been wrong is an asshole who posts in usenet occasionally under the name of "Spirit of Truth Page". He's been predicting Stock market crashes for years. One day he'll be right.
But the ones I'm principally interested in are the nutcases who are claiming that the world will either come to an end, or else change due to something in any calendar system, be it Gregorian, Chinese, Aztec, or something they once saw scrawled on a pyramid wall.
I'm also interested in those idiots who will have us believe that some comet, asteroid, or astronomical event such as the alignment of the planets will "change the course of human history"
One of the prime examples, and in fact the inaugural winner of the Millennium Chicken Award for June 1999 is "The Millennium Group". They get this award for their outstanding contribution to the hysteria over Comet Lee.
For actual facts about the comet, go here. This is the webpage of the actual discoverer of the comet, Steve Lee. Read what he says about the "Millennium Group"
Alternatively, go here, and learn some REAL astronomy.
www.earthchangesTV.com Mitch tries hard, but he's fallen into the same trap most kooks do. They begin to actually beleive what they say. In Early November, Mitch put out a rather hysterical "press release" entitled:
Asteroid Nearly Hits Earth, NASA Silent...10/31/00
which was about a "near miss" by an asteroid called Toutatis.
Yeah, it was a near miss, it passed us at 0.021 Astronomical Units (1 AU is 93 million miles), or approximately 1,953000 miles. Yep, that's how far away it was. Bear in mind, the Moon is much closer. Ok, the moon is in a stable orbit.
So here's some interesting FACTS about Toutatis: December 5th 1996, Toutatis was 0.029 AU's from Earth In December 1992, it was close, about 0.09 AU's. In September 2004, it's probably going to be at about 0.18 AU's from Earth. After that the regular cycles of celestial mechanics will make it's closest approaches much father way, till the cycle comes around again. You see, the orbit of Toutatis is quite well known.
When I pointed this out to Mitch, he replied: "Follow your truth, not mine.......... "
So shortly after, Earthchanges puts out press releases detailing a list of Near Earth Asteroids. Yep. Unfortunately, the maths shows that they are further than the moon.
Anyway, go to his pages, maybe you have a different view.
As far as I'm concerned, he's just another nut claiming the sky is falling. That's why Mitch gets an award.