AP Biology Cyrus
Adamiyatt
Pappas, Stephanie. "5 Apocalypse Catastrophes — and Why
They Won't Happen." Msnbc.com. Msnbc Digital Network, 18 Dec. 2012. Web.
18 Dec. 2012.
I
read the article, “5 Apocalypse Catastrophes – and Why They Won’t Happen.” By
Stephanie Pappas. With December
21, 2012, the date that for years has been speculated to be the end of the
world because the Mayan calendar ends on that day, approaching, the topic of
the end of the world is everywhere.
This article addresses 5 of the claims as to why the world will end this
Friday, and debunks them simply.
The first prediction, that the sun will kill us all, is easily debunked
as it would be a result of extreme solar storms and NASA has recorded some of
the lowest “solar maximums” in years.
The next, that the Earth’s magnetic poles will flip-flop is completely
unreasonable because although they poles do occasionally flip-flop, it takes
periods of hundreds of thousands of years to occur. Next, the author addresses the myth that a planet will
collide with the earth and destroy it, but that of course cannot happen as
something so large coming at earth would have been seen by scientists years
ago. The author proceeds to
address the myth that the planets will align and it will somehow negatively
impact earth is debunked simply because as NASA has reported, planetary
alignment will not occur within the next couple of decades. Lastly, the author addresses the myth
that the Sun and Earth may align and cause a total earth blackout, however,
NASA rejected these claims with only a few words, “There is no such alignment.”
I
chose this article because with December 21 approaching, these myths have been
prevalent. I was interested in
learning more about this after the science seminar in November, and was glad to
see that more results confirmed the absurdity of the idea that the world will
be destroyed on December 21.
Obviously, considering the magnitude of the devastation of these rumored
myths, the fact that they are shown to be clearly false by NASA is tremendously
uplifting.
I
thought that this article was very well organized and well written; however,
there were still a few flaws. I
appreciated the way that the author put each myth into a separate category and
addressed each one in a concise manner.
I do wish that the author included more scientific information however,
as she often cited simple phrases in which NASA denied the claims, but did not
provide substantial evidence as to why NASA denied the claims.
Cyrus’ review of the Mayan apocalypse involved a relevant article that was interesting, a perceptive critique, and good connections. The article concerned December 21, 2012 – this coming Friday, which is predicted to be the day that the world will end. As that is in two days, it was highly relevant chronologically and interesting to read, as many rumors have been going around as to the Mayan apocalypse. The choice was also creative and something of a break from the more scientific articles that people choose to review. The critique was indeed perceptive, as it mentioned that while Stephanie Pappas, the author of the article, did quote NASA about every major rumor related to the apocalypse, she did not provide truly comprehensive quotes that actually explained why the rumors were not true. This was something I sensed but did not notice, per se, as I read the article, so I am glad that Cyrus highlighted it. Finally, he connected the article to the science seminar last November, which was about the apocalypse. This was creative and it increased the relevancy of the article, so that any final questions that we might have after the seminar were answered.
ReplyDeleteTwo things that could have been done better were that he could have made his summary clearer and made a better connection to the impact on the scientific world. While his summary reiterated what the article said, it did so without actually shortening or clarifying Stephanie Pappas’ points. Also, while he mentioned that it is “tremendously uplifting” to hear NASA’s denials of the apocalypse, it would have been better if he made a more direct and a more specific connection to the impact upon science. Granted, that is not an easy task with an article about the Mayan Apocalypse.
Finally, what most impressed me about this article was that there were so many rumors associated with the Mayan apocalypse. I did not know that there were so many aspects to them and that they involved the poles flip-flopping, the planets aligning, or another planet crashing into Earth.
I thought Cyrus’ review of “5 Apocalypse Catastrophes — and Why They Won't Happen” was very informative. One thing I learned from this is that claims that the world will end this Friday are completely absurd. I also learned several reasons why the world will not end according to NASA. I learned why predictions of the world ending are completely wrong: such as the prediction that the sun will kill us all. This was disproven because of the fact that records have shown the lowest solar maximums in years recently. Another thing I learned was that the Earth’s magnetic poles cannot flip flop because it takes periods of hundreds of thousands of years to occur. Also, it was very interesting to learn that the earth cannot totally blackout. NASA claimed, “There is no such alignment.”
ReplyDeleteI thought the review could have mentioned more about the details behind the myths of the end of the world. Talking a little bit more about what the specifics of each of the predictions is would have clarified the article more. I also think mentioning a little more about the studies and how these predictions have been disproven would have been interesting too.
Overall I was relieved to hear that all of these worst-case scenarios will never happen. I thought this was a great article to choose since the 21st is this Friday, and because the science seminar was on this topic.
The review of "5 Apocalypse Catastrophes — and Why They Won't Happen,” was well-written and informative. One thing the reviewer mentioned well was the different types of predictions of the end of the world and how they were all disproved. It was also good to mention the fact that this was a relevant article because we are fast-approaching a day thought by many to be, “the end of the world. I also liked that the reviewer mentioned how absurd these predictions and superstitions of the end of the world can be because quite frankly, if the world were ending, there would be evidence to support that.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that could have been mentioned in the review was how some of these rumors actually came about. It was mentioned how each of the predictions were disproved, but it didn’t mention how they become popularized in the first place. Although the end of the world on December 21st was mentioned in the review, it wasn’t mentioned how Westerners developed this idea in the first place. This could have added some extra detail to the review.
I was surprised to learn of some new predictions or superstitions of how the world is ending. I hadn’t known some of these top 5 catastrophes and found it both interesting and coming to read about them. Overall, both the review and article were interesting.
I think that the reviewer’s choice of an article about the upcoming apocalypse (the one that won’t happen, as the article explains) was very appropriate and current as we are quickly approaching “Doomsday.” It is interesting to look at the science behind why the apocalypse won’t occur along with the more simplistic explanations (such as the fact that the Mayan calendar is cyclical). I like how the reviewer organized his review similar to how the article was presented. This made both the article and the review easy to follow. By explaining both the speculation and the reasoning behind calling it false in a single sentence, the review was concise and easy to follow. I felt that one of the quotes he chose (“There is no such alignment”) was used effectively to show exactly how absurd some of the claims about apocalypses are by demonstrating that NASA can refute them in only a few words.
ReplyDeleteIncluding a link directly to the article would have been helpful. Additionally, I would have appreciated more scientific explanations (although this was not the reviewer’s fault; the article itself lacked many details). Finally, I think that mentioning the fact that some of the things people are predicting for the apocalypses have already happened would have been a good idea as to me that was the most obvious evidence that the world is not going to end.
Reading this article, I became more aware of the specifics of theories about the apocalypse. Before reading this article, I had not paid much attention to the claims and had imagined that most people were predicting a big explosion of some sort that would lead to the end of the world. I now know that there are in fact several different interpretations of what would happen if an apocalyptic event occurred.
I enjoyed reading Cyrus’s review on the article “5 Apocalypse Catastrophes – and Why They Won’t Happen.” I appreciated how he started off by relating this article to December 21, 2012, and the myth of this date being the end of the world based off the Mayan calendar, because even though it is clear to someone who already has heard of this idea, this part needs to be included to help explain why this article was written in the first place. I also liked how Cyrus split up the five apocalyptic catastrophes individually by introducing the idea of one, stating how it will not happen anytime soon or is completely not true, and move on to the next one. This prevents confusion and lets the reader view all the information on one catastrophe at one time. Lastly, I enjoyed how he included the criticism of the article on how the author sometimes only quoted NASA rather than gave scientific background, considering it shows that this wanted information is not withheld because Cyrus did not include it himself, but that the author of the article did not put it in.
ReplyDeleteI believe Cyrus could have made a couple of modifications. I would have wished to hear more about the very current events with people believing in the end of the world on December 21, 2012, or how it may be affecting the globe, if it is at all. Also, I wish Cyrus talked a little more about the science seminar he went to in November, considering only mentioning it does not give much to the reader.
It is great to know that not only is the world not coming to an end, but also that people have actually disproved these apocalyptic theories. Although I personally never believed it too much, to officially hear from NASA that the world cannot end in these five specific yet well-known ways is reassuring that nothing apocalyptic will happen on December 21, 2012.
AP Biology Petey DeJoy
ReplyDeleteComment Review 12/20/12
I think that Cyrus did a great job with his review of “5 Apocalypse Catastrophes – and Why They Won’t Happen.” A few aspects of his review were particularly well-presented. Primarily, I think he did a great job with the organization of the review. He presented each myth as to why the world is going to end in a coherent way, listing them one after another. He then proceeded to debunk each myth in an organized fashion. Next, I think that he did a good job choosing this article. It is very relevant, as the date December 21, 2012 is tomorrow and there is much talk about what is going to happen. finally, I think he did a good job using scientific evidence, such as that from NASA, to debunk each myth in a very coherent way. There were, however, a few things I would have done differently with the review. More evidence as to why each myth is false, rather than just statements, is something that I want to know. Scientific inquiry seems to lack; there is no proof mentioned that debunks every myth. I would also have written a little more about the history of the day, and why it is such a big deal, as many people might not know very much about it. From this review, I learned that there are 5 different ideas that point to the end of the world. Before I read this, I had no idea that there were more than one theory that pointed to our demise. However, I thought it was very interesting to learn about. Cyrus did a great job with his review.