Russia sect holes up in cave to await end of world

[Jimmy Cricket]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials and media said on Thursday...

... A police patrol was guarding the area to prevent anyone provoking them.

More here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071115/ts_nm/russia_cult_dc_1

 

[Alan]

Lotta ex-scio's holed up in caves - waiting for the end of Scio.....

Lotta Scio's holed up in compounds - waiting for the end of DM......

 

[OHTEEATE]

2012

The latest crazy group think doomsday is 2012, Dec. 23rd, when the Mayan long count calendar ends, and by incredibly oblique calculations Nostradamus is supposed to have predicted some comet strike. I'll bet we all awake on Dec. 24th to a normal Christmas eve, celebrating the re-election of President Ron Paul.

 

[Alan]

The latest crazy group think doomsday is 2012, Dec. 23rd, when the Mayan long count calendar ends, and by incredibly oblique calculations Nostradamus is supposed to have predicted some comet strike.

I'll bet we all awake on Dec. 24th to a normal Christmas eve, celebrating the re-election of President Ron Paul.

 

[Jimmy Cricket]

An update: Psychologists help negotiate with members of Russian doomsday cult barricaded in cave

MOSCOW (AP) - Psychologists were helping negotiate Friday with members of a Russian doomsday religious cult who have sealed themselves in a cave in a Volga River region threatening to blow themselves up if authorities intervene...

... Kuznetsov, who blessed his followers before sending them into the cave but did not join them himself, was undergoing psychiatric examination Friday, Guseynov said. Kuznetsov was charged Thursday with setting up a religious organization associated with violence...

... Kuznetsov, a trained engineer, did not let his followers watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, reports said.

Update story here:

http://tinyurl.com/362r3g

 

[Dulloldfart]

The latest crazy group think doomsday is 2012, Dec. 23rd, when the Mayan long count calendar ends...

21 December. And it doesn't end--it just rolls over to 13.0.0.0.0 like an odometer and starts again at 1 on the right.

But it is a very interesting date, as that date is EXACTLY when occurs a conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator and the ecliptic, which the ancient Maya predicted over 2,500 years ago. The astronomical event occurs once in about every 25,765 years.

How did they predict this, boys and girls?

Paul

 

[programmer_guy]

...did not let his followers watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, reports said.

Gee, I wonder why.

 

[Div6]

21 December. And it doesn't end--it just rolls over to 13.0.0.0.0 like an odometer and starts again at 1 on the right.

But it is a very interesting date, as that date is EXACTLY when occurs a conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the crossing point of the Galactic Equator and the ecliptic, which the ancient Maya predicted over 2,500 years ago. The astronomical event occurs once in about every 25,765 years.

How did they predict this, boys and girls?

Paul

Oooh, Ooooh, I know, I know.


Aliens.

 

[Dulloldfart]

Oooh, Ooooh, I know, I know.


Aliens.

That's the easy answer.

I imagine many people here rejected it out of hand as preposterous.

Any other answers or is

going to win?

Paul

 

[Div6]

In the alternative, I could suggest "the transmigration of souls" theory.
IN this theory, some "being" from an advanced race went "slumming" here on earth and occupied an earth body. Becoming bored with the earth scene, he sought to amuse himself by re-plotting the star charts from what he learned at the space academy...

 

[Dulloldfart]

In the alternative, I could suggest "the transmigration of souls" theory.
IN this theory, some "being" from an advanced race went "slumming" here on earth and occupied an earth body. Becoming bored with the earth scene, he sought to amuse himself by re-plotting the star charts from what he learned at the space academy...

I go along with the "Aliens" answer. I don't see that any further detail is needed at present.

But I was curious about the thoughts of anyone here who rejects that view.

Paul

 

[Tanstaafl]

In the alternative, I could suggest "the transmigration of souls" theory.
IN this theory, some "being" from an advanced race went "slumming" here on earth and occupied an earth body. Becoming bored with the earth scene, he sought to amuse himself by re-plotting the star charts from what he learned at the space academy...

Then you have your "in the future someone invents a time machine and travels back into the 'past' with the data" theory.

 

[Zinjifar]

Then you have your "in the future someone invents a time machine and travels back into the 'past' with the data" theory.

That comes right before the part with:

'and then the little boy woke up and realized it was all a dream...'

Zinj

 

[Dulloldfart]

That comes right before the part with:

'and then the little boy woke up and realized it was all a dream...'

Zinj

So what is your answer to the question of how the Maya predicted this event, Zinji?

Paul

 

[Tanstaafl]

That comes right before the part with:

'and then the little boy woke up and realized it was all a dream...'

Zinj

Dude, you're spoiling the magic.............

 

[Zinjifar]

So what is your answer to the question of how the Maya predicted this event, Zinji?

Paul

Mathematics and scientific observation. I'm not saying their cosmology was scientific or that what they believed was 'science', but, their astronomical observation and mathematical correlation in their calendar was at least one example of scientific practice.

Zinj

 

[Dulloldfart]

Hey--how about morphogenetic fields?

The astronomer doods, you know, the priests like, were sitting around stoned on sacred wine or whatever and needed to come up with a system for their calendar, right? So they like held a seance or something and pulled a date out of their nether regions, but because they were so spiritually wasted at the time they coincidentally hooked into one of those cosmic trooths like, so there you go, right?

Paul

 

[Zinjifar]

Hey--how about morphogenetic fields?

The astronomer doods, you know, the priests like, were sitting around stoned on sacred wine or whatever and needed to come up with a system for their calendar, right? So they like held a seance or something and pulled a date out of their nether regions, but because they were so spiritually wasted at the time they coincidentally hooked into one of those cosmic trooths like, so there you go, right?

Paul

Well, no matter how they came up with their original 'observation', even if it took some cosmic mushrooms, they tested it and predicted with it and obviiously tossed any Hubbardian style 'theories' or 'axioms' when experimentation and observation didn't support them.

And, that's pretty damn scientific

Of course, their version of 'peer review' involved ripping out the hearts of any shaman who couldn't predict a lowly eclipse...

Zinj

 

[Dulloldfart]

So how could they have tested it, Zinj?

Just roughly--no need to be too precise.

Paul

 

[Zinjifar]

So how could they have tested it, Zinj?

Just roughly--no need to be too precise.

Paul

One of the simplest scientific astronomical experiments is the 'Annie Test':

The sun'll come up
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun

Actually, the original says 'out', which is more terrestrial 'weatherman' type stuff, but, you get the point.

The sun *will* come up tomorrow, even if you don't have a valid theory to explain it. In fact, it's practically a tautology, because we *define* tomorrow (or days) by the sun coming up.

Same goes for 'years', and the movement of the stars and phases of the moon etc.

Make decent observations and record them accurately and eventually you have a database that allows you to predict 'tomorrow' (or, tomorrow's tomorrow and on and on.)

It helps in the predictions if you have a workable mathematical model, but, that's also something you can refine based on observation and prediction with the *essential* step of tossing out anything that doesn't work.

That's the step Ron kept forgetting...

Zinj