Having read Nostradarmus’ prediction that the “earth will be pulled off it’s pedestal on 5/5/2000 when the planets align”, I ask if it is possible? I wonder how he knew way back in 1400 odd that the planets would align?
I’m curious where you’re quoting from. Did Nostradamus in 1400 use “5/5/2000”? Is this an exact quotation?
Thanks for doing your bit to advance the cause of human knowledge.
– Cecil Adams
I’m just curious to know if the planets are supposed to be aligned on 5/5/2000. I haven’t heard anything recently in the news that said anything about the planets aligning. Usually something like that is somewhat newsworthy.
-Dragwyr
“If God had meant for man to eat waffles,
he would have given him lips like snowshoes”
-Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
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Do you have a cite for that Nostradamus quote, there? Preferably in the original French, so we can have one of our resident Francophones or Quebeçois give us an accurate translation.
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Nostradamus lived from 1503-1566, so he didn’t predict anything in 1400. And while celestial mechanics may still have been in its infancy in the 16th century, it wasn’t hard to see that objects in the sky sometimes line up.
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Nothing is going to happen. Planetary alignments of one kind or another are fairly common, and in any event, have little real effect, gravitational or otherwise, on anything here on Earth. You experience a greater gravitational attraction at this moment from the chair you’re sitting in than you do from Jupiter. The force of gravity decreases with an inverse-square relationship, and is NOT additive.
For more information see:
http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planets.html
http://www.skypub.com/news/pr_000331planets.html
http://www.skypub.com/news/special/may5_2000.html
http://www.skypub.com/news/special/whypanic.html
yes, it’s coming up, and I’ve seen a few refernces to it in the news, but we won’t be able to see it, since the alignment is on the other side of the Sun.
there’s also a book or two out there, predicting that the ice-caps will flip over because of the gravitational pull - has been pretty much debunked by the physicists.
I remember that the planets aligned in the 80s. The now defunct radio station KMET made much of “the end of the world”. Since the world was going to end, they decided to tell an aweful joke on their “5 O’clock Funnies”:
What’s the best way to cure constipation?
Sit on a piece of cheese and swallow a rat.
The planets have aligned many times, but the world is still here.
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Are you a turtle?
Cecil had a few words to say about 5/5/2000 in Are the Earth’s poles going to shift soon?
Yes, the world will soon come to an end. But it’s not too late to save your soul. Join the First Church of David B and give me all of your earthly possessions to insure your place beside me in Heaven on May 6!
Yeah, I remember when the planets last aligned and people were saying we’d all be sucked off the earth like so many watermelon seeds by the gravity or something.
Not a damn thing happened except a buncha hippies ran around chanting.
Well, I’ve been a faithful reader of the Old Farmer’s Almanac for nigh on to 25 years. I don’t have my hard copy at hand, being at work, but let’s see what their home page has to offer…
So it’s not exactly a line-up, but it’s probably as close as they’re gonna get. I just wish we were on the same side of the Sun as they’re gonna be… that would be a helluva sight, for sure!
All I wanna do is to thank you, even though I don’t know who you are…
The planet alignment of 5/5/00 will be more catastrophic to humankind than the Y2K computer glitch. 
You must unlearn what you have learned. – Yoda
David! Don’t forget I bought the Ohio franchise of your church! 
Say, whatever happened to those “Harmonica Virgins”?
(“Harmonic convergence”)
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Are you a turtle?
Not that this has anything to do with the planetary alignment, but I was under the impression that gravity was additive. Isn’t the reason we have LaGrange points between celestial bodies because the vectors add up to zero.
Am I supposed to believe that all this rain was suspended in mid-air until moments ago?
<speaking in high school girl accent> Ya, but, you guys, what about that like the calendar in the pyramids like ends on May 4th? I heard it on the Discovery Channel so I know it’s true.</high school girl accent>
Tee-hee. I’m still planning all of our social events for the rest May.
Great, now we have to reschedule the Phoenix Doper convergence the following Friday.
The planets must be alligned that day… It’s the day my divorce is finally official!
And I plan on cepebrating like a Mexican on Cinco de Mayo too… Well, I won’t be alone at least! Uless the world ends, of course…
Yer pal,
Satan
http://www.raleighmusic.com/board/Images/devil.gif
I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Two weeks, five days, 15 hours, 7 minutes and 44 seconds.
785 cigarettes not smoked, saving $98.15.
Life saved: 2 days, 17 hours, 25 minutes.
CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal has this to say about the impending planetary alignment.
Oh, dear God, not a planetary alignment! Civilization has barely begun to rebuild from its total Y2K collapse!
You’re probably correct there, Lance. I should have been more specific, to the extent that the pull of, for example, Jupiter on the Earth does not increase when the Moon interposes itself between the two.