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Poison clouds causing bird deaths (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter borealowl47
- Start date
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MJB
Well-known member
Cracking crackpots - see the posts at the end of that website!
I think this must be the chap I heard declaiming his unique insight on physics and other disciplines in a pub recently. Must be a front-runner for a Nobel Prize in something or other, unless all the academic journals and research organisations manage to conspire to prevent him getting published in reputable journals. That would leave him no option but to complain endlessly to Web forums about how his theory doesn't get any hearings from fat-cat scientists who have lost their burning curiosity for an easy life of government hand-outs. Maybe that's worth dramatising?
Maybe you should forward it to Ben Goldacre at www.badscience.net!
MJB
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colonelboris
Right way up again
I once made a site like this as a spoof and even after telling everyone it was a spoof, a surprising number of people believed it.
MJB
Well-known member
CB,
Your experience is far from unique! A little Googling effort brings up a long history of examples. Unfortunately, not many would suit a birding thread, even in BirdForum's 'funnies' section....unless they went under the title of 'gullibility'?
It's when spoofs turn into cons that the real trouble starts.
MJB
Elk River Rancher
Casual Birder
Last week, a report from the Russia's Ministry for Extraordinary Situations (MCHS) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minist...) warned that the weakening Earth magnetosphere was allowing "poisonous space clouds" to enter deep into Earth's atmosphere where it is coming into contact with birds.
ROTF,LMHO - Bet Monty Python wish they'd thought of that .....
ROTF,LMHO - Bet Monty Python wish they'd thought of that .....
MJB
Well-known member
I would guess that the Russians don't actually have a Ministry of that name, but for those for whom there is no discernible boundary between gossip and evidence, it's a hugely popular subject! Just Google "poisonous space clouds" and then check out the URLs of the first 100 entries: my quick survey found only one URL that seemed to offer anything to counter the other 99 that all appeared to be fruitloopery of the finest disorder!
It will come as no surprise that "poisonous space clouds" is not a term recognised by astronomy or physics websites...
We may express contempt of the claims of such clouds affecting birds, but it's my guess that many of those who visit the 99+ sites regularly will come to believe them. They vastly outnumber BirdForum's readership, but I'm told they mostly are old enough to vote...
MJB
Elk River Rancher
Casual Birder
Hmmm ..... yes, MJB, you may be right; they may mostly be old enough to vote ... there is some hope, however, that those minions foolish enough to believe everything they read are too foolish to find their way to the poll - or have sufficient initiative to get up from the pc, and get to the poll, in the first place. ;~} Just another reason we really need more squirrels ... :t:
The marauding mob of blackbirds have been MIA from my property, for the past two weeks - but some have been returning, in individual species groups ... Here's a photo of some of the wintering red wings, resting in one of the sweet gum trees to the north east of my deck:
Attachments
MJB
Well-known member
ERL,
These blackbirds, having not fallen out of the sky, are of no interest to those whose attention span will register only on an atomic clock, and are a most welcome sight!
Re squirrels, how many (dozen, milliard, million etc) should be allocated to palin monitoring? Conversely, 1 squirrel could be a femto-palin...)
MJB
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