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Health & Fitness

NASA Releases Video Debunking 2012 Theories, or This Is What Happens When You Defund NASA

This week, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory released a video debunking 2012 doomsday theories. No word yet on whether NASA violated labor laws by overworking your tax dollars.

This week, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory released this video, putting to rest some of the more popular theories concerning "Mayan Apocalypse 2012." No word yet on whether NASA violated labor laws by overworking your tax dollars.

Hey, does anybody else feel bad for these guys? President Obama's funding cuts basically reduced NASA to an intergalactic flea market with Kepler and a Mars rover. Now brilliant people like Don Yeomans are relegated to making powerpoint presentations on YouTube explaining the improbability of planetary suicide by year's end. Poor Don; I'm sure he never thought it would come to this.

What I want to know is, who told him to do this? What project was Don Yeomans yanked from in order to "set the record straight" on some doomsday rumors that have been floating around? Did they think knuckling the Mayans would wheeze some juice off the viral slip-n-slide ala Kony 2012? To that end, they may yet succeed. After all, a blogger for the Port Jeff Patch is now sharing it. (wink wink)

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Regardless, there is no justice in the world when a 15-time national achievement award winning scientist like Don Yeomans has to do NASA's grunt-work while lunatics like this get to show up on History Channel proclaiming that Atlantis lifted off into the sky and that the Ark of the Covenant was an ancient refrigerator.

For the record, I love that show.

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Don't get me wrong, I am the furthest thing from a NASA critic. I believe American space exploration needs to be a priority, funded at five times its current level. But let's be real. As far as tax dollars go, NASA has one mandate and one mandate only: FIND THE ALIENS. Don Yeomans is better than this video.

Out of respect, here's a rundown of the major points:

Mayan Calendar: End of a cycle, not the end of the planet.

Nibiru Cataclysm: We would have observed a giant planet heading toward us by now. (Note: they spelled it "Niburu". Come on, all those Rhodes scholars can't get our fake planets right?)

Solar Storms: Next one won't happen until 2013, and will have negligible effects on Earth.

Planetary Alignments: No planetary alignments set to happen in 2012, but that wouldn't matter. Only the sun and the moon can effect Earth's tides, and both are close.

Magnetic Poles: Rotation of our axis is going to be stable for at least another half-million years, i.e. not enough poles to change this light bulb.

Will Ferraro is a social media and policy analyst, and the Editor of The Influence. You can follow him on Twitter @FerraroW

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