Chatrooms: "The Sciences of 2012", and "Earthplays Ancient Observatory", both hosted by Paltalk in the "social issues" category. The Observatory room carries the introductory message "Welcome to the Sciences of 2012 chat group". Earthplay is also a frequent visitor to the "Wake Up Project" room.
Update June 2011: Earthplay's room is now named "Ancient Observatory 2012".

Occupation: Worked at a race track. Dismissed for some form of insubordination. Worked as a firefighter. Dismissed for refusing to take a compulsory Flu vaccination. Current occupation unknown.

Earthplay lives in New Mexico, is an atheist, strongly anti-religious, pro-gun, and homophobic. The single term most descriptive of his personality would be "anti-authority".

Earthplay can be contacted at the email addresses given on his website, but please note that these are accompanied by the warning "contact me at your own risk".

Views on 2012

Earthplay subscribes to most of the common 2012 theories regarding earthquakes, volcanoes, pole shifts, solar flares, celestial alignments, etc, all of which have been thoroughly debunked in the links on the left of this page.

He has a particular fondness for the now disproven "Electric Universe" theory¹, and the "galactic superwave" theories of Paul La Violette (a man who believes a complete theory of creation is encoded in Tarot Cards)². He also accepts the myths of Velikovsky.³ He is skeptical however of some Planet X theories and Nibiru.

Earthplay also believes in many of todays popular but scientifically untenable conspiracy theories, such as that HAARP can create and steer storms⁴, that the government is holding back "hidden technologies" such as "electrogravitics", "scalar waves", and "free energy", and that the Apollo Moon Missions were a hoax.⁵ One of his reasons for the latter is his strange insistence that "a human cannot travel beyond the Earth's magnetic field and survive".

His central beliefs about 2012 involve "Precession of the Equinoxes" and "Crossing the Galactic Plane", neither of which he understands, and both of which we have explained on the left side of this page⁶. He believes that we have already started to see an increase in the frequency and magnitude of geological events such as earthquakes and volcanoes, and that these are only a prelude to much worse to come. He also believes that anthropogenic global warming is a lie, and that a new Ice Age is imminent.⁷

Earthplay bases many of these beliefs on what can only be described as a monumentally confused view of Astronomy. Here is a brief summary of his current theories:

In 1998 the solar System started passing from one half of the galaxy to the other, through the galactic plane, where friction with the plane caused the Earth and the other planets to warm up, but now we've gone past that zone and Precession of the Equinoxes is causing Earth's orbit to elongate, which makes us move away from the Sun and closer to the constellation of Ophiucus, which is in the Dark Rift and is a violent region of space full of meteors asteroids and comets, which will come streaming through our solar system.

A debunking of this is available further down the page, but anyone with a basic knowledge of astronomy will already have seen that it is sheer nonsense.

Scaremongering

Here are some scaremongering quotes from Earthplay's websites:

"Violent Tectonic Activity Tearing Africa Apart."

"Alarm and fear in Italy - Seismic swarm in Naples."

"Is the world's largest super-volcano set to erupt for the first time in 600,000 years, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S ?. […] I think they'd die in their homes as their roofs collapsed. Volcanic ash is much heavier than snow."

Betelgeuse - "The subsequent explosion will appear tens of millions of times brighter than the sun"

"The next ice age could begin any day."

"Next week, next month, next year. One day you'll wake up - or you won't wake up, rather - buried beneath nine stories of snow."

In fact, "Tearing Africa Apart" is a reference to a process whereby the East African Rift will create a new sea - in an estimated 10 Million Years. The largest movement in the rift was back in 2005, and since then, only less intense events have been measured by seismometers.⁸

Betelgeuse is expected to nova within the next million years, and when it does it may appear brighter than the Moon, NOT the Sun. And "nine stories of snow" cannot bury anyone during a single night. But Earthplay never lets a physical impossibility get in the way of a good scare.

Earthplay has also stated on several occasions that "We probably won't even make it through 2011".

The following is a classic example of Earthplay's scaremongering in the 2012 chat room:

Early in 2011, meteorologists were forecasting a larger than normal Winter Storm in North America.

Earthplay said, quote:

"The storm of the century is coming, January 15th. You can write that down on your calendars. I have PREDICTED this […] it's gonna come in and settle here for a while. You're just gonna have to write it down on a calendar and trust me, or you can start talking to some meteorologists, who are scared to f*g death, they have never seen anything like this […] I can't tell you how I know it, my word is always good […] gonna be a crippling storm, it's beyond biblical proportion […] massive and historical and biblical in nature, and I think that there's gonna be many, many, many, deaths associated with it […] then when it does begin to move to the east, and the east coast, it's gonna be even worse, and I hate to think about when it hits the UK, because it's only going to intensify, as it crosses the Atlantic and gain more momentum. I'm positive that this is gonna happen. There is no doubt in my mind that this is gonna happen."

So what actually happened?

Well, like most years, we had winter storms. Records were broken in some places, but not others, for example Chicago had 20.2 inches of snow, which was less than in the blizzards of 1967 and 1999.

Earthplay's predictions all failed to materialize:

"It's gonna come in and settle here for a while" … wrong … The storm moved around then fell apart.

"It's BEYOND biblical proportion" … wrong … Biblical proportion refers to major disasters or wars, with thousands of deaths, or cataclysmic events so immense they bring to mind biblical accounts of horrific catastrophes.

"There's gonna be many, many, many, deaths" … wrong … A total of 24 deaths in the whole of the USA and Canada were reported as related to winter storms, these being in shoveling or auto-related incidents of the sort that can happen in any bad winter (for comparison, the 1993 storm caused 300 deaths)

"It's only going to intensify, as it crosses the Atlantic and gains more momentum" … wrong … It faded away towards the Atlantic.

"I hate to think about when it hits the UK, because its only going to intensify" … wrong … It did not intensify and hit the UK.

The only accurate predictions here are attributable to the meteorologists, who pretty much got it right. The scaremongering parts which Earthplay added - biblical scale, many deaths, worsening across the atlantic, hitting the UK - these ALL FAILED.

Deception and Bluff

One of Earthplay's main pieces of "evidence" of an escalation towards 2012 is that "VOLCANOS ARE UP 400%". He claims this on both of his websites, and often in the chat room, for example;

"what we do in here is we watch the awesome and raw forces of nature every day, solar activity, our declination and axis, the earthquakes, the volcanoes, the sinkholes, landslides, which are all up 400 percent in this decade over the last century. Now that is startling"

His support for this is given on his website - "the European Union of geologist report earthquake and volcanic activity is up 400% in this decade over the last century. (feel free to search engine these comments)"

Notice that he does NOT provide any web links to this report, but merely suggests that the reader goes and searches for it themselves!

Many people have searched for this report, and not found it. Many have asked him to provide a web link, but he refuses to - Now remember, Earthplay MUST believe that such a link exists, since he recommends searching for it - so why does he refuse to provide it? And why does he become angry when asked to do so, often accusing people of being too lazy or stupid to use a search engine?

Consider the logic:
1. He thinks the report contains important information.
2. So he brings people's attention to it on his webpages.
3. So he must want as many people as possible to know about it.
4. HE THEN MAKES IT DIFFICULT FOR PEOPLE TO FIND IT.

This is obviously a bluff, which explains why he becomes angry when his bluff is called (and why continuing to ask for the link is one of the fastest ways of being ejected from the chatroom!) The report either does not exist, or does not support a global 400 percent increase in volcanoes.

In fact global volcanism has NOT recently increased. This has been researched by the Global Volcanism Program, which states - "the number of confirmed erupting volcanoes has leveled off between 50 and 70 per year through the past four decades, and a linear regression line through the data indicates that volcanism has been virtually constant."⁹

2012 Chatroom Programmes

Earthplay often plays Audio Streams in the chatroom, selected from a wide variety of pseudoscientists, doomsayers and crackpots (and on rare occasions, a real scientist). The most regular programme, played nearly every week (and sometimes as an "all day marathon") is "James McCanneys Science Hour".

Earthplay is a HUGE fan of McCanney, frequently citing his views on comets and the "electric nature" of the Solar System. He always refers to him as "professor", although he has in fact never held this position.

James McCanney works according to a simple and consistent principle, which is this:-

Whatever is already known by science, he says the opposite, while blatantly ignoring the evidence.

Here are some examples;

We know the Solar Wind is electrically neutral overall - so McCanney says it is positively charged.
We know comets are cold - so McCanney says they are hot.
We know comets contain water - so McCanney says they are dry.
We know comets lose mass - so McCanney says they gain it (and turn into planets!)
We know the Sun is powered by H/He fusion - so McCanney says it is powered by electrical currents.
We know the Sun generates it's energy within it - so McCanney says it is generated near the surface.
We know Hurricanes are fed thermally, from the bottom - so Mc Canney says they are fed electrically, from the top.

Very briefly, the evidence against McCanney (and Earthplay) is as follows;

The Solar Wind's neutrality is known from ACTUAL MEASUREMENTS, which show that it contains roughly equal numbers of protons and electrons.¹⁰
Spectroscopy shows us that that comets are cold, and also that large amounts of water and other sublimated ices are ejected from them.¹¹
Loss of mass from comets is shown principally by their spreading tails and the material they leave behind in their orbits, which later create predictable meteor showers. If McCanney was right, we wouldn't see meteor showers, since comets would be attracting matter, not shedding it.¹²
The "Electric Sun" theory fails for many reasons, for example we now have fleets of satellites, including the Ulysses probe which can view both of the Sun's poles - NONE of these have detected the enormous electrical currents required.¹³
MCanney's claim of comets being electrical in nature also flies in the face of actual measurements from probes which have landed on them.

So, McCanney quite blatantly ignores observational evidence¹⁴, and has been thoroughly debunked by astronomers such as Phil Plait, however his anti-establishment attitude appeals to people like Earthplay, and it sells books. The fact that Earthplay cannot see through McCanney's ignorant nonsense speaks volumes for his lack of understanding of science.

Earthplay on Mc Canney - "See, I listen to real scientists"

In the words of astronomer Phil Plait - "McCanneys theories are not just bad, they are truly awful"

Phil devotes an entire section of his website to debunking McCanney at www.badastronomy.org

Astronomical Confusion

Below is a transcript of Earthplay speaking about astronomy in the 2012 chat room, illustrating just some of the scientific errors and misconceptions that he repeats on a regular basis, despite being corrected by knowledgeable people who enter the chat room (two dots indicate breaks for comments, in speech that was contiguous in the original audio).

Earthplay, quote " The phenomena of 2012 has to do with the precession of the equinox, that is the er, angular declination of our axes, the north pole axes, the way that it, the north pole points off into space, and it takes 26 thousand years for it to make one galactic orbit .."

Precession of the Equinoxes is not an "orbit". It is a slow drift in the orientation of Earth's axis with respect to inertial space.¹⁵ It has only a VISUAL effect on our outlook on the galaxy. Precession has nothing whatsoever to do with our orbit around the Galaxy, which takes about 250 million years, not 26,000.¹⁶

Also, Axial Tilt is not "angular declination", it is Obliquity. Declination is an angle on the equatorial coordinate system, paired with Right Ascension. Earthplay constantly confuses technical terms in this way.

".. this is what 2012 is all about, the beginning and the end of the precession of the equinox, which both begin and end in a place called the constellation of Ophiucus, which is in the dark rift, or the equatorial zone of the milky way galaxy .."

Precession of the Equinoxes is a continuing, ongoing process - to say that it has a beginning or end makes no more sense than saying a circle does. ANY year could be chosen as the "beginning" of precession, such as when the Earth's axis was pointing at a particular star (currently it is Polaris, in 3000 BC it was Thuban). The "end" or "completion" of precession, when the axis returns to point at that arbitrarily-chosen star, will be just as arbitrary and meaningless.

It is similarly meaningless to claim that precession "begins" when the Equinoxes or Solstices (in either hemisphere) occur at a given point in Earth's orbit relative to inertial space, since our seasons involve LOCAL relationships between the Earth and Sun, not with the Galactic Plane, Ophiucus, Dark Rift, etc.

".. that's what were talking about in 2012, when we talk about that, we're talking about emissions coming off of the milky way galaxy, our own milky, the milky way galaxy that we're SUPPOSED to be part of."

This refers to a fake story in a woowoo web magazine called "Viewzone", which claimed that the Sun is from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy rather than the Milky Way. The original researchers were so appalled at this misrepresentation of their work that they published a disclaimer stating that the Viewzone article was nonsense¹⁷, and that the Sun is NOT from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. Astronomer Phil Plait has also debunked this.¹⁸
Earthplay currently has an illustration of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy on his webpage, and continues to prefer the trashy magazine story associated with it to the real astronomical research. (update; he has now removed this image from his page).

" The constellation of Ophiucus lies very close to the dark rift .. "

A constellation such as Ophiucus only APPEARS as a group of stars as seen from Earth. The stars are actually scattered over huge distances, so it makes no sense whatsoever to say that Ophiucus is "close" to the dark rift, the constellation is only a visual line-of-sight grouping as seen from Earth.¹⁹

".. and it's a very unstable constellation, er, there's a lot of meteors comets asteroids slinging around crashing into things .."

The constellation cannot be "unstable" since it's component stars do not constitute a physical group, as explained above, and it is impossible to see meteors, comets or asteroids at interstellar distances, and even if we could, they are much too far away to be of any relevance to us.

".. hopefully they stay within their elliptical sphere of influence .."

Meaningless pseudo-jargon.

".. most of them do probably, but it doesn't help that we skirt through the edge of that, er, constellation in our 26000 year orbit, every 13000 and every 26000 years, this is what has to do with the precession of the equinox."

We do not go anywhere near, or through, any part of Ophiucus. It's component stars lie at distances between 4 and 563 light years from us. Our Solar System is actually moving in the general direction of the star Vega, at a relatively slow 16 km/s approx. This movement is known to astronomers as the Solar Apex.²⁰

" Because we're ending the precession of the equinox, which means that we go into just a little bit wider elliptical orbit .."

The change in ellipticity of Earth's orbit is known as Orbital Eccentricity²¹, it is not Precession of the Equinoxes. There is also a cyclical change in the orientation of the whole orbit, along the line joining the apsides, know as Apsidal Precession.

The ellipticity of Earth's orbit is thought to vary across several periods, one being 413,000 years, and this change is caused by interactions with the gravitational fields of Jupiter and Saturn, whereas Precession of the Equinoxes takes 26,000 years, and is caused by the Sun and Moon pulling on the slight bulge in the Earths equator.²² Changes in ellipticity ARE thought to affect Earth's climate, as part of the theory of Milankovich Cycles, but the change in ellipticity is NOT Precession of the Equinoxes.

".. and astrophysicists and astronomers are now starting to figure out why we start, you know, they said that they didn't know why, you know, there's wobbles, inside of wobbles, inside of wobbles, but every 26000 years, inexplicably the Earth goes into elongated elliptical orbit. Well I can tell you why, because it's being pulled towards the milky way galaxy, in the constellation of Ophiucus, when we go get close to that every 26000 years, it has enough of a pull on the entire solar system, that it elongates our orbit .."

Wrong in every way.

Orbital Eccentricity does not have a 26,000 year period.
It is not "inexplicable" to astronomers.
Changes in Eccentricity are caused by local interactions with the gravitational fields of Jupiter and Saturn, NOT by distant stars or constellations.
We are already IN the Milky Way galaxy, not being pulled towards it.
We are not being pulled closer to Ophiucus, we are moving in the general direction of the star Vega.

Note the arrogance of Earthplay's "Well I can tell you why", when in fact he has it all completetely wrong.

".. it's not because, you know, every 26000 years the wobble changes, well yeah the wobble does change because we're being pulled, that's a magnetic connection, electromagnetic connection, it kind of distorts our solar system."

Utter nonsense.

" but it's in these elongated orbits directly precession of the equinoxes where we swing out just a little bit further away from our sun, and it brings us closer to this constellation of Ophiucus "

The distances involved in variations of Earth's orbital ellipticity are utterly insignificant compared to the distances to any star or constellation. Changes in Earth's orbital ellipticity do not take us closer to Ophiucus, or any other constellation.

" specifically within the constellation of ophiucus, which we do pass through for 31 days, 2 years ago we passed right through it, it's called the dark rift "

The Dark Rift orbits the Galaxy much closer to the Galactic Centre than the Solar System.²³ The two orbits are more or less CONCENTRIC, they do not cross, so we do not physically enter, approach, or pass through the Dark Rift. The Sun appearing to "pass across" the rift is only a visual event concerning an extremely distant object.

" but as we get closer and closer to the end of our precession of the equinox were actually closer to the miky way galaxy than at any time in 26000 years, this is as close as we come to the milky way, this is where we both begin and end precession "

We cannot get closer to the Milky Way, because we are already IN IT (see also the previous reference to the bogus idea that we are from the Sagittarius Galaxy). And again, there is no "beginning" or "end" to continuous Precessional motion.

" if you look up any web site on the precession of the equinox youll find out that every 26000 years we go into a slightly elliptical elongated orbit around our sun "

Wrong, that's Orbital Eccentricity, not Precession, and it's principal period is 413,000 years, not 26,000.

" align all pyramids to the belt of Orion, why is Orion so significant to these people, we did look at the belt, we found out its one of the most violent regions of space that we travel through "

We do not "travel through" constellations. The Sun only appears to move across them as a distant background, due to Earth's orbit around the Sun, NOT due to the Sun's orbit around the Galaxy or Precession.²⁴

" we go through the constellation of Orion we're gonna encounter all kinds of turbulence, they're even watching it right now for a supernova to occur "

Once more, we do not "travel through" constellations

An analogy might help

This confusion between apparent movement and physical movement is explained here: Line of Sight versus actual movement. If Earthplay could only grasp the analogy given on that page, frivolous though it may seem, he might lose some of his misconceptions concerning celestial movements. It is unlikely that he will.

Earthplay's reaction to this page

This is from Earthplay's 2012 chatroom on April 5th 2011. I have deleted most of the general chat, which was all about pole shifts and other nonsense. My user name was "Wokenup":

BoJongleur: earthplay - have you googled this lately? "earthplay 2012" - take the top link
bro-chris: as long as Washington goes under water
LotusSprout: X rays and radiation are usually gamm rays arent they?
Wokenup: nope. 3 different things there lotus

The Google search that was suggested by BoJongleur led Earthplay to this page. So he bounced him -

Earthplay: BoJongleur was bounced from the room by: Earthplay.
mmarlio: I heard the other day, WE are Atlantis
riolama_8: is this a tape playing?
crazyeyespanthro: Eqyptians had light bulbs
riolama_8: Does anyone know anything anbout a "NIrIBU"…if it does indeed exist, supposedly it has been removed from google earth…there is a black spot..
riolama_8: Does anyone here believe in a plan to create a New world order ?

There was a gap of a few minutes here, while Earthplay was reading the 2012hoax page, then:

Earthplay (spoken): "I got raked over the coals pretty good here on Google. Have to admit, pretty damn good smear job, taking things out of context, er, running things together, that's fine, I guess everybody gets to have their own fan club every now and again."
Wokenup: earthplay you there?
Earthplay: yes
Wokenup: earthplay — on 2012hoax — nothing has been taken out of context or "run together". every quote on that page is a word-for-word accurate transcription, with correct usage of […]. tell me if there are inaccuracies and I will change them

I was immediately bounced -

Earthplay: Wokenup was bounced from the room by: Earthplay.

All of Earthplay's quotes on this page have been transcribed word for word. For verification purposes the audio has been made available to the site owner and members.

Footnotes