AIBU to be irritated with the amount of scare-mongering crap being spouted about the terrible occurrances in Japan etc.

[ArfurBrain]

all the people full of shit about the earthquake being down to the so-called mega-moon this weekend (er, a big full moon CANNOT affect tectonic plates shifting, you ignorami),apocalyptic 2012 predictions (hmm yes, the Mayans who couldn't foresee the end of their own civilisation coming...), global warming causing all the recent natural disasters (again, not recycling or turning off the lights isn't going to cause earthquakes.)etc etc etc.

Actually I don't care if you think I am BU, I just need to get this off my chest before I upset some gentle wooooooo-wafting soul, to be honest.

On the plus side, booking DD's 2nd Birthday Party next year (17th December) should be a breeze because all the Airy Fairy Woo's will be hiding under their beds and not booking up every available space for their Christmas parties

Professor Brian Cox says the moon cannot have caused any of these more recent natural disasters. I think he is probably more qualified to comment than the likes of reporters in the daily mail and tha ilk, or some FBers.

lol robotlolly - x posts.

I heard this from a loon today: 'Why did god do this to Japan?'

ritabix - I was going to say that the grapevine was talking bollocks, but actually they have a fair chance of being right - there is a small earthquake in New Zealand most weeks.

But if the someone on the grapevine thinks that is is possible to predict a major earthquake days or weeks in advance, then sadly I am afraid they genuinely are talking bollocks. Seismologists have been trying to find a way of predicting earthquakes for decades, and no-one has managed it yet.

I thought the Japanese were mostly Shinto or Buddist, not atheist.

If only we could predict big earthquakes in advance - would help prevent a lot of lost lives.

Most Japanese practise elements of Shinto and Buddhism - they go to shinto shrines at new year, or to bless new babies, or mark various stages in a child's life. Most people are Buddhist when they die, as Shinto doesn't really do funerals. And when they get married they are usually either Shinto or Christian - Christian wedding ceremonies are very popular in Japan, even if neither partner is actually Christian.

And I think if you asked most Japanese people if they believed in God, they might say they believed in 'gods', but not a single deity like the Judaeo-Christian-Muslim idea of god. Which probably makes them atheist in the thinking of the kind of people who believe their version of god would cause an earthquake to punish a whole country for something...

Rofling @ "teutonic plates"

[wipes tears from eyes]

fgs kerry. Rumours eh? From who, David Icke?

kerry - so some mad scientist in the pay of an evil government somewhere has been able to cause a magnitude 9 earthquake and design an accompanying tsunami to wipe out a precisely targetted population of fishermen, elderly people and children?

No one could seriously believe that, could they? Or is the world population really madder and more stupid than I want to believe?

someone got the target wrong then since Japan ranks as the second lowest birth rate in the world. Bit of an odd place to start.

Yes, they the Japanese population is shrinking already - no need for any extra help.

some people really can't cope with the idea of randomness, can they?

I suppose it comes down to wanting someone to blame.

The what? Sounds like some kind of Dan Brown masonic catholic templar bollocks conspiracy theory to me. Do you really need sane people on MN to tell you to ignore that kind of crap?

illuminati probably?

Aha - these ones? I knew Dan Brown had to be in there somewhere.

Another example of people's inability to distinguish between fact and popular fiction, TV and films, by the sound of it.

Likewise, 2012 is a disaster movie with reasonably good special effects. It has very little connection to any kind of fact or science, however.

Time for a few hours off MN/facebook/news etc - watch a comedy instead?

"...I am well aware of of what an earth quake is thank you, I just dont think we can dismiss the powerful effects of the moon or sun or other plants on our own..."

Ooerrrrr, Miss....

Bugger, repeat after me, not double --, * instead. Oh well...