My 3p-3a schedule in the ER allows me to listen to Coast to Coast AM on the drive home

[Heddi]

and it's a riot. It can be rather soothing on the lonely 20 minute drive from work to home....usually i'm the only person on the road the entire way!

Usually it's George Noory who is kind of bleh, but the other night I got the privelege of hearing Art Bell himself have callers call in with their predictions for 2010, and he was also going through the predictions of 2009 made by callers, and of course nearly all of them had not happened and he was pretty honest about which "predictions" happened and which were just plonks (all of the ones i heard on the way home were plonks!)

Does anyone else listen? One of the predcitions I heard the other night was that 2010 would be the year that we finally re-discovered a hole into the hollow center of the Earth (the crust of the earth is only 400 or so miles deep), and the hollow innards of the earth is inhabited by a mysterous peaceful species of humans. This was predicted by a gentleman who flew airplanes in the Air Force over antarctica and he came across one of these holes, and could see inside, and inside he saw flying dragons. It was then that Art Bell tactfully cut him off and assured listeners that while he (art) was interested in holes, he did not think that the center of the earth was hollow ha ha

[mr blur]

1. Superman and the Mole-Men!

1951. Not a very good movie but I always knew it was based on fact!

We're rather starved of loony phone-ins over here. Mind you, it would help if I listened to the radio, but that's how they get to you!

[Heddi]

5. Well, I thought that the car would make radio listening safe

because I am moving it's hard for them to pinpoint my exact location. I also change lanes alot, and my speed variates between 55mp and 82mph in the span of just a few feet. Slow down, speed up. I particularly like to slow down when in the far left hand lane. Oh those truckers, blowing their horns and pushing me down the interstate!!!

[TZ]

2. My BIL LOVES this show. Loves Art Bell

He's an otherwise rational, sane and down-to-earth person. Go figure....Maybe he finds it amusing...:shrug:

[Orrex]

3. I didn't even know that Bell was still alive

Why did I think that he'd died a few years ago?

:shrug:

[Heddi]

4. I thought he died too. According to Wikipedia, he's alive and well

living between the Phillipines and Parumph, Nevada...and I heard him with my own 2 earballs on New Year's Eve Eve!!!

[salvorhardin]

6. I love Coast to Coast AM

I'm rarely up that late, but it's great fun. If I am up that late and remember to tune in I will. I've always appreciated that Coast to Coast has real scientists and skeptics on, actually allows them to speak at length and treats them as respectfully as it does the crazies. I know there are some who don't think skeptics should indulge in such "trash" but come on, it's just plain fun to listen to people talk earnestly about their paranormal and pseudoscience beliefs. Besides, part of being a skeptic is learning about what and how people are thinking. Where better to do that than Coast to Coast? It's like a clearinghouse for all the latest woo.

[Orsino]

7. Yep. The show isn't just woo-only...

...and skeptics/debunkers are often given more than equal time. The last time I happened to tune in, it Michael Shermer himself was the entire show, and both he and the host handled call-ins rather well.

[Odin2005]

8. I first learned about Art Bell through his "Superstorm" BS that inspired the Day After Tomorrow.

:banghead:

[FiveGoodMen]

9. "the crust of the earth is only 400 or so miles deep"

Less than that:

"The oceanic crust of the Earth is different from its continental crust. The oceanic crust is 5 km (3 mi) to 10 km (6 mi) thick<1> and is composed primarily of basalt, diabase, and gabbro. The continental crust is typically from 30 km (20 mi) to 50 km (30 mi) thick..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_crust

[Heddi]

10. I think the caller was inferring that the earth is like a hollow chocolate easter bunny

that the crust, or whatever, is all there is. Art asked the caller about the deep drilling and digging we've done, and the caller said that the Crust (wrong word used here) was only about 400 or 500 miles deep, and after that it was hollow and filled with flying lizards and peaceful hole people or some shit.

[FiveGoodMen]

11. The fact that the crust is so much thinner is significant, though

I'm pretty damned sure that a hollow Earth with a 40-mile-thick crust would fracture and collapse.

We've only got a planet to walk around on because there's something filling it and preventing it from imploding.

[Heddi]

12. well I would be sure that anyone who thinks the inside of the earth is hollow

isn't really interested in the physical implications of the reality of a 40-mile thick crust, and the inability of that crust to, yanno, hold up mountains and such. I mean, how much does, say, Mt Rainier weigh? I'm sure i could find out but frankly, I just got done watching Seven Pounds and it was bone-crushingly sad, so my eyes hurt too much to do math. At any rate, I'm sure even if the "crust" of the earth was 500 miles thick (as per the Coast to Coast caller), it wouldn't be enough to hold up the weight of Mt Rainier. Much less bigger mountains like Mt, um, whatever. Oh Mt Sinai or Mt. Everest. Those are the only 3 mountains I can think of right now, and I would think they're pretty heavy.

Point being, anyone who thinks the innards of the earth is filled with flying lizards (not dragons...they specifically made the point that they were flying lizards, NOT dragons with wings) and peaceful, earth-hole people probably doesn't have the most firm grasp on such tough-to-tackle subjects like math, and rocks, and reality.

[Orrex]

13. Clearly you don't know what you're talking about

Thinking of Mother Earth as a giant chocolate bunny is a mistake, and that would obviously be ridiculous. Instead, you need to realize that it's like a huge eggshell or a three-dimensional arch. Every part of the crust, however thin, is supported by its neighboring sections. The mass of Mt. Rainier or Kilimanjaro or the Rock of Gibraltar is easily supported by this distribution of weight.

And how do you think flying lizards could evolve if they were constantly being crushed by collapsing mountain ranges?


Duh!

[Heddi]

14. but I can't help BUT to think of the great marble as a hollow chocolate easter bunny

such cheap chocolate, but such a gluttonous treat at the same time....mmmm...and the little candy eyeballs.....

[salvorhardin]

15. The Earth is more like a Tootsie Roll lollipop

If the tootsie pop was moistened, rolled around in dirt and filled with a fiery hot molten rock.

Oh, and yeah, those little rock hard sugar eyes are the second best part of the hollow chocolate easter bunnies. The best part is biting the head off (after having removed the eyes first of course).