The Lunar Effect, A crank 'theory' from yours truly...

Basically...


If there was any kind of significant effect by the Moon, psychological or otherwise, it would be easy to chart.

However....


It is possible, even likely, that belief in the Lunar effect would affect some individuals. Therefore, we can expect that a number of individuals would react to the full Moon as predicted by their belief. On the other hand it seems that this is not statistically relevant.... ie there are not enough of those individuals to make a significant change to the crime statistics.

If you want I can also include a number of historical instances where the Moon does play a significant role in events, based on belief.

From Cecil Adams, "More of the Straight Dope"

(not a direct quote; a gist of his answer)

There are many individual police studies of this theory. Most show no correlation. Here's one from Miami Police:

And as been discovered, weather, not the moon, has a strong correlation - nothing better than a comfortable evening for many activities, moon or no, depending on the type of crime.
There has been some demonstrable correlation between the full moon and seizures, but even this was proven due to the fact of more light available; when researchers controlled all areal light, those correlations disappeared.
There are also people subconsciously adhering to the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' ruse, a self-made sham they unwittingly follow. But this sort of idiocy (unlike pie-in-the-sky politics) affects only a tiny fraction of 'us'.

Yes, it would seem the moon could be construed a psychologically intimidating large object. Even if only subliminally.

Physiologically too, in some minor way, as humans are MATTER and thus expected to be affected by ALL gravitational dynamics.

One should be able to correlate differentiating effects, when taking various FLUCTUATING gravitational ALIGNMENTS into full note(Earth/Lunar/Solar/Planetary/Galactic/Galactic Cluster alignments) with a cursory observation of astronomical charts.

This post has been edited by keith* on Nov 4 2009, 06:31 PM

Yes...

However, gravity gets stronger the closer you are to the object. Therefore you will be far more "gravitationally" affected by women with huge breasts than you would be by the Moon. It's basic ..uh... math. I think we should chart those FLUCTUATING gravitational ALIGNMENTS as well don't you?

How about...

Five blonds in a row... is that equal to a Galactic Cluster alignment? Maybe Rpenner can help us with the math in this.

But the only mechanisms appear to be tidal forces, EM radiation and the solar wind, allowing calculation of influence of our lives which are completely trivial compared to the gross solar output.

If astrology is valid in theory, the practice of astrology is indistinguishable from trickery, flattery and deception.

"Studies have repeatedly failed to demonstrate statistically significant relationships between astrological predictions and operationally-defined outcomes." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology#Research

One of the main claims is that the heavens dictate one's outcome in life, but the heavens work as if by clockwork, therefore two individuals born at the same time should have similar outcomes in life. But this is not the case. "For example, when testing for cognitive, behavioral, physical and other variables, one study of 2000 astrological "time twins" born within minutes of each other did not show a celestial influence on human characteristics."

In the total BS vein of MP's OP ..... what if humanity is subject to gene-selective activation according to time of birth?

By this, certain aspects of the overall genetic compliment are 'fired up' cascading into the resultant mental and physical characteristics often associated with astrological beliefs.

i.e Aries types are supposedly afflicted with head problems, but make great soldiers. Aquarians: ditto weak ankles and are predisposed to eccentricity etc.

Other social species like Ants/Bees have chemical mechanisms to produce various differences in the selectivity, perhaps ours is somewhat more sophisticated?

Yours, with lashings of unproven BS, Dr Fred.

light in the tunnel: I apologize for saying you were being a dipshit.

It came across (and was intended at the time) in a accusatory manner, when I had clearly stated in the OP that this thread was about crankery. I simply got caught up in my usual habit of responding to crankery with skepticism, and temporarily forgot that this thread was created as an outlet for humorous mocking of cranks. Feel free to continue speculating wildly.

Yeah, well how do you account for the fact that you're completely and utterly wrong, eh? You just FAIL to offer any realistic alternative to what I've said, no matter how hard you try.

(How's my impersonation of NoPeDaLs? Convincing?)

I guess you're right that the difference between the mosquito and the crumb is psychological, but either one still pushes on a few skin cells, which absorb some of the energy and pass it through to other cells, etc. until the effect is insulated from the rest of your cells.

The gravitational effect of the moon would be the effect of the mosquito if it could be evenly distributed to all the cells of your body equally, wouldn't it? Whether this would have any effect on the functioning of any of those cells is another question.

I hadn't thought about the psychology of the moon itself. Maybe the full moon resembles more the sun, which causes a conflation of polar opposite concepts like sun/moon, day/night, etc. This could result in an upset in the larger psychologically stability rooted in clear dichotomous distinctions. The psychological effect of a full-moon could then be compared to the effect of a man in drag, bearded lady, or other identity-mixtures. By being a "black president" the perception of Obama as a contradiction in terms of habitual racial-expectations that the president of the US is normally white could be causing the same effect as a full moon.

Thanks. I do love to crank and crank away. I regard with skepticism the tentative turds that pop out of the machine as I keep cranking. I actually appreciate the skepticism and debunking by others in the forums, but I try to defend my work as far as possible in critical skepticism of the critique. I figure that somehow through this process my brain inches closer to valid positive knowledge. Thanks for the apology, though. It's nice to get a little love along with all the less than loving comments I receive

Yes, I think there have been reports of greater positive ions at full moon...
this report links it to positive ions triggering serotonin levels in the brain.

http://www.policeops.com/full-moon-ion-effect.htm

I guess its possible....
Even implies the Israeli army may be developing positive ion weapons to disorient the eneemy...

"The Israeli Army considers the Sharav wind (high in positive ion concentrations) a natural enemy of an efficient fighting force. They even have a term for this reaction called "Bedouinism" which means the soldiers cease to be alert, or effective fighters during the wind. "

Take that you Hamas Terrorists...just try to come at us with berka bombs and we will blast you with positive ions...

Of course, I've already got the perfect anti-positive ion weapon....The negative ion Gun, which we will sell to all islamic terrorists this month for the low low price of only $250,000 each (in American dollars), Visa and Mastercard accepted with proof of identity,
...and if you call within the next 15 minutes we'll throw in 2 anti-lunar positive ion annihilators absolutely FREE..(guaranteed delivery by the next full moon).

Lunar (no I don't go crazy at full moon)

This post has been edited by Lunarlanding on Nov 5 2009, 01:16 AM

I have a theory...

This theory, which is mine.. is mine.


This is my theory.. ahem.. did I mention that it's my theory? Yes.. here we go...



All Brontosaurus's were smaller at one end, much larger in the middle and smaller again at the other end.




That is my theory... it's mine... therefore it's my theory.




PS ... I stole the theory.

bonus cookies to the first person to figure out where I stole it from.

A well-advised course of action considering my absolute and ongoing mastery of everyone foolish enough to counter the (always insightful, never arguable) truths I so graciously share in this venue.

Nah ... an historical propensity for getting busted induces the desire to behave. The dumbfucks I've known all lamented their rap sheets and professed a future along the straight and narrow yet in nearly every instance they repeated their history and ended up in front of "the man" again and again. As an aside to all that ... their experiences served as excellent examples for my own completely clean record .... (<------he said proudly as if never getting busted was somehow a great accomplishment).

Only the smallest percentage was able must the necessary character to avoid their self-defined fuckups. Naturally, I'm generalizing based on a relatively small sample. But my own past inability to completely avoid any association with these morons tends to in and of itself confirm my original counter-hypothesis.

They both have a certain beauty to them. I'm afraid I'm at a loss to define my preference given the choices. Both styles are always entertaining to read.

This post has been edited by uaafanblog on Nov 5 2009, 05:06 PM

Fred Flintstone?

I like Nabisco Ginger Snaps ... they're delightfully hard and crunchy.

It was not from Fred Flintstone.

He didn't need a theory on dinosaurs...


It's from here... Theory about the Brontosaurus