Scientists/Actress Say They Were 'Tricked' Into Geocentric Universe Movie 642
EwanPalmer (2536690) writes "Three scientists and Star Trek actress Kate Mulgrew say they were duped into appearing in a controversial documentary which claims the Earth is the center of the Universe. The Principle, a film which describes itself as 'destined to become one of the most controversial films of our time', argues the long-debunked theory of geocentrism – where the earth is the center of the Universe and the Sun resolves around it – is true and Nasa has tried to cover it up. The film features the narration of actress Mulgrew, who played the part of captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek Voyager, as well as three prominent scientists."
Re:Mulgrew is an airhead (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair though, it IS usually technobabble, of the worst kind, too. Not that I think duping people is cool, but pretending that *any* Star Trek actors have some kind of authority to convey when it comes to science just cracks me up.
Re:where is the controversy? (Score:5, Informative)
"He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." - Psalm 104:5
"The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises." - Ecclesiastes 1:5
Re:where is the controversy? (Score:4, Informative)
Oh good grief you're going to a part of scripture that is literally poem, and looking at a psalm where the context is about the scale of God's power. Its not making a cosmological argument about the status of the earth.
And if you really want to be pedantic about it, the earth IS stationary relative to the people writing about it. Movement is relative to context, and as the context is the earth, the author is technically right even though thats completely not what he was talking about.
And Ecclesiastes? The whole book is about the repetitive nature of the world and how nothing seems to ever change. It too is using poetic language; as if you've never heard of the sun rising and setting.
Re:Actually... (Score:5, Informative)
Same way you define the center of anything: the thing around which other things rotate.
Occam's Razor rules out the sheer complexity of any model showing our solar system orbiting any body other than the Sun.
If you want to be precise about it, the Earth does not rotate around the Sun.
Rather, the Sun and the Earth rotate around their mutual center of gravity, or barycenter. Same goes for the other planets. The barycenter of the Sun and the Earth is within the Sun, but is not at the center of the Sun. The barycenter of the Sun and Jupiter, on the other hand, is not contained within the Sun at all.
Re:where is the controversy? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Ready the Lawyers (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, yeah, funny how money is usually behind being duped in cases like these. Mulgrew: I hadnt worked in ages, bill were piling up, thankfully I was duped and made the mortgage payment. I can aways SAY I was duped later. Scientists: Well, we needed some money and they said they had Kate Mulgrew. Who has to think about that? She was on Star Trek! Dupe me up, Scotty!
Which would hold unless Mulgrew had parts/work. Oh wait, she does! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O... [wikipedia.org]
Re:Mirror image (Score:5, Informative)
"She is but 14 years old"
"And younger than her are happy mothers made"
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliette.
That's Renaissance England - and it remained common until the early 20th century. The REAL reason it changed was World War 1- with most of the young men gone to war for several years, women had to take over the work-force and do so without many potential suitors around.
Re:Mirror image (Score:5, Informative)
"She is but 14 years old"
"And younger than her are happy mothers made"
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliette.
That's Renaissance England
By the way, even a cursory glance at Wikipedia would demonstrate your error regarding Shakespeare's time [wikipedia.org]:
Still, in most of Northwestern Europe, marriage at very early ages was rare. One thousand marriage certificates from 1619 to 1660 in the Archdiocese of Canterbury show that only one bride was 13 years of age, four were 15, twelve were 16, and seventeen were 17 years of age while the other 966 brides were at least 19 years of age at marriage. And the Church dictated that both the bride and groom must be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their families; in the certificates, the most common age for the brides is 22 years. For the grooms 24 years is the most common age, with average ages of 24 years for the brides and 27 for the grooms. While European noblewomen married early, they were a small minority and the marriage certificates from Canterbury show that even among nobility it was very rare to marry women off at very early ages.
Keep in mind that Romeo and Juliet, while written by an Englishman, was set in Italy. The lines you quoted were probably meant to be either a joke or intended to shock the audience, as a jab at young aristocratic marriage ages (which were particularly associated with Catholic countries like Italy).
and it remained common until the early 20th century. The REAL reason it changed was World War 1- with most of the young men gone to war for several years, women had to take over the work-force and do so without many potential suitors around.
Also, after poking around a bit, I discovered my previous post was slightly in error at least for the U.S. -- the lowest median age for first marriage according to census data [about.com], apparently occurred in 1956, with women marrying then on average at age 20.1 years.
So the theory about WWI -- not true either.
Re:Not the first time this has happened (Score:4, Informative)
Thanks for informing me of this. I used to enjoy his Ben Stein's Money show on occasion some years back, but I have now lost all respect for the man whatsoever.
Oh it goes much deeper. People tended to forget that before his acting career Stein was a speech writer for Nixon and is as right wing religious and political fundamentalist as they come. He has "moderated" atheist/religious debates that clearly showed his bias as he tries to rig the debates.