Harun Yayha Strikes Again

[tempus]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbxyycsp4n0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbxyycsp4n0</a>

According to Atlas of Creation and fly-fishing enthusiast author Harun Yahya, née Adnan Oktar, "Hundreds of thousands of astreoids ready to hit the earth at any moment have surrounded it like a cloud."

Apparently, Yahya stole a video created by Slashdot user Szyzyg to show how asteroid discoveries have been made over the last few decades and re-dubbed it to claim that asteroids have been slowly massing around Earth at God's behest, in order to kill us all. 

This important information determined by the use of the most advanced satellite technology reveals the reality that the end of the Earth is imminent. The Earth could be struck by one of these giant fireballs at any time. Allah has appointed an Hour for the Day of Reckoning that will mean the end of the world, and these asteroids are rapidly heading toward that Hour.

Then when Szyzyg filed a DMCA and had Youtube yank the video, Yahya filed a counterclaim claiming that he did, in fact, have full rights to the work and could use it any way he pleased.  Youtube has since re-instated the video.

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/09/23/1859226/ask-slashdot-how-to-fight-copyright-violations-with-dmca

I didn't see this around here yet.  Apologies if I managed to miss it somewhere.

[Osama bin Bambi]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

[armandtanzarian]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

[Old Viking]

Yahya?  I thought it was Yee-haw.

[Random Gal]

Harun Yahya is also known for posting "The Skulls That Demolish Darwin," a series of allegedly out-of-place fossils like a modern horse skull from the Eocene and big cat skulls from the Cretaceous, that are supposed to disprove evolution and/or radiometric dating. However, they closely resembled fake fossils commonly sold from China and many of them looked nothing like the animals they were supposed to represent when compared to real skulls.

In conclusion, Harun Yahya is an idiot and/or a liar.

[The Right Honourable Mlle Antéchrist]

fly-fishing enthusiast

This snark made my day.

[largeham]

In conclusion, Harun Yahya is an idiot and/or a liar.

I'm leaning towards idiot.

[Star Cluster]

In conclusion, Harun Yahya is an idiot and/or a liar.

I'm leaning towards idiot.

Yeah, me too.  Practically everything in the entire video is nothing but bullshit.  Are there asteroids orbiting Earth?  Yes, but no where near the numbers this moron says there are.  It is speculated that there may be as many as 18000 "mini-moons" that have been captured by Earth's gravity, but they are very small.  There are even some that are captured, orbit the planet for a while, and then are lost to space again or enter our atmosphere and burn up.  Very few of them are large enough to even be noticed if they fall to earth, much less do much, if any damage, if they should reach the ground.  Of the thousands of rocks orbiting Earth now, it is estimated that only 1 or 2 are washing machine sized and only a thousand or so are the size of a softball.  Not much of a threat to mankind, I'd say.  Earth's gravity simply isn't strong enough to capture anything much larger.

Where the real danger lies is in what are called Near Earth Objects (NEOs.)  These are asteroids that actually cross or come near to Earth's orbit and have the potential to strike our planet.  There are currently several thousand NEOs being tracked.  There has recently been a subset of NEOs that have been classified as PHAs (Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.)  There are approximately 4700 of these objects with an estimated diameter of 330 feet or more, large enough to do substantial damage.  We've had a few near misses over the past few years and, in fact, had one large enough to cause considerable damage had it struck Earth that crossed our path about six months ago within the orbit of the moon.

It is true that surveys have found more and more of these asteroids over the course of the past 30 years or so.  But that is not a result of them "massing around Earth."  It is simply a matter of surveillance equipment improving to the point of being able to find them.  It isn't easy to spot a small unlit object floating around in space.  Only more advance observing methods and equipment has enabled astronomers to find them in recent years.

You can read more about it here and here.

[Osama bin Bambi]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

[Witchyjoshy]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

I think it was Dawkins' work that was censored, not Yayha's.

[armandtanzarian]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

Harun Yahya petitioned to have Dawkins' works censored. The Turkish court concurred and granted the ban.

[Osama bin Bambi]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

Harun Yahya petitioned to have Dawkins' works censored. The Turkish court concurred and granted the ban.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

Okay, Dawkins is nowhere near as bad as Yahya, but I still don't like him that much.

/derail

[wyvern999]

Apparently, Yahya stole a video created by Slashdot user Szyzyg to show how asteroid discoveries have been made over the last few decades and re-dubbed it to claim that asteroids have been slowly massing around Earth at God's behest, in order to kill us all. 

Why do people who buy into this always come up with the most complicated methods their god could use to destroy the earth? Why is it that god just doesn't snap his godly fingers and we and the planet just disappear? Or isn't that method scary enough to keep the "faithful" in line.?

[wyvern999]

I've heard of a guy named Yahya... wasn't he blown up by Israel or something?

Not that guy.

Harun Yahya is a (in)famous Islamic creationist, most noted for his feuds with Dawkins. He is a prolific publisher of creationist material, once using a picture of fishhook to illustrate a bug. Dawkins pointed that out, and he's hounded Dawkins since, to be point of successfully petitioning the Turkish government to ban his works from TV, print and the internet.

That's... actually kind of unfortunate. I don't think it's right to censor people like that, even if they do have shit for brains.

Harun Yahya petitioned to have Dawkins' works censored. The Turkish court concurred and granted the ban.

The Turks have been trying for years to get into the EC. While judicial censorship like that happens in their country they have no chance.

[Star Cluster]

Apparently, Yahya stole a video created by Slashdot user Szyzyg to show how asteroid discoveries have been made over the last few decades and re-dubbed it to claim that asteroids have been slowly massing around Earth at God's behest, in order to kill us all. 

Why do people who buy into this always come up with the most complicated methods their god could use to destroy the earth? Why is it that god just doesn't snap his godly fingers and we and the planet just disappear? Or isn't that method scary enough to keep the "faithful" in line.?

Good point.  After all, according to what they believe, he spoke everything into existence instantaneously.  Why shouldn't he be able to speak everything into non-existence in an instance as well? 

If he is planning on using asteroids to destroy the earth, what's the matter, can't he come up with something original?  The meteor thing has been done before.  Besides, even if what he said is true, an asteroid dropping onto Earth from orbit wouldn't cause as much damage as one hurtling toward us from deep space.