Right Wing Talking Dunce Says Nobody Knows Why Ocean Tides Rise And fall

[Harry Hope]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/bill-oreilly-claims-explain-oceanic-tides/

Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

Humans are clueless on cause of oceanic tides, Bill O’Reilly claims

By Stephen C. Webster


What causes oceanic tides to crest and fall? According to conservative opinion host Bill O'Reilly, it's a mystery.

It's not actually a mystery, but to the Republican Fox News Channel's favorite grouch, tidal movements are apparently proof positive that an invisible man is pulling the strings of reality.

He made the revealing statement during a recent segment of The O'Reilly Factor while challenging Dave Silverman, president of a group called "American Atheists." That same organization was responsible for a billboard in Huntsville, Alabama that calls out to atheists who may still be attending religious ceremonies.

"You KNOW they're all SCAMS," the sign reads, promoting a regional meeting of non-believers. "American Atheists: Telling the Truth since 1963."

O'Reilly, who claims to be a Christian and a "culture warrior" on a crusade against ideas and trends that displease him, took notice of the group's outreach and invited Silverman on the show.

Their discussion was nothing short of heated.

"I'll tell you why not a scam," he said. "In my opinion -- alright? Tide goes in, tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. You can't explain that. You can't explain why the tide goes in."

Silverman looked befuddled. "Tide goes in, tide goes ... out?" he asked.

"See, the water, the tide-- it comes in and it goes out, Mr. Silverman," O'Reilly repeated. "It always goes in, then it goes out."

"Maybe it's Thor up on Mount Olympus who's making the tides go in and out," Silverman retorted.

"No-no-no!" the host objected. "You can't explain that. You can't explain it."

"A myth and religion are the same thing," Silverman said. "It doesn't matter that I can't explain it. It doesn't mean that an invisible magic man in the sky is doing it."

Of course, he can explain tidal movements, as can many 5th-8th grade students in US public schools.

In short, oceanic tides are caused by the moon's rotation around the earth, with inertia and gravity causing a sea swell as it passes. Scientists have measured the phenomenon in great detail, documenting two distinct tidal bulges that circle the earth as the moon sweeps around it.

But don't try telling that to O'Reilly.

A recent study by the University of Maryland found that extended exposure to the Republican Fox News Channel often resulted in voters believing patently false claims on key social and political issues.

This video is from the Republican Fox News Channel, broadcast Jan. 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BCipg71LbI&feature=player_embedded

_________________________________________________

Whew!...judge for yourselves, folks...fair and balanced.

Harry

[old mark]

1. K&R...Uhm, Bill? The moon?....nt

[krispos42]

2. I bet O'Reilly thinks the Sun burns coal n/t

[Arkana]

18. Nuh uh!

The moon's made of green cheese, STUPID!

[ladjf]

3. Amazingly ignorant. nt

[Jokerman]

4. The level of ignorance is astounding. n/t

[ensho]

5. was Bill home schooled?

nt

[izzybeans]

6. Using O'Reilly logic: "So what you are telling me is that the man in the moon

is responsible for all of this. If so, then it must be thus...that the man in the moon is god. And if he is god than I am right, per usual.

The man in the moon is our magic sky god. All hail the moon. oh wait...damn it. I'm so confused."

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. "When I see a solar eclipse, like the one I went to

last year in Hawaii, I think 'Oh no! Is the moon eating the sun?' I don't know. I'm a caveman; that's the way I think.",




"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm just a caveman. I fell on some ice and was later thawed by some of your scientists. Your world frightens and confuses me!
When I see my image on the security camera at the country club, I wonder, are they stealing my soul? I get so upset, I hop out of my Range Rover, and run across the fairway to the clubhouse, where I get Carlos to make me one of those martinis he's so famous for, to soothe my primitive caveman brain.

But whatever world you're from, I do know one thing: in the 20 years from March 22, 1972, when he first ordered that extra nicotine be put into his product, until February 25, 1992, when he issued an interoffice memorandum stopping the addition of that nicotine, my client was legally insane."


Primative Caveman Lawyer. SNL

[ellie]

17. I love Primitive Caveman Lawyer!

[Lasher]

8. Ha ha, I just sent this off to an O'Reilly fan.

Bet he doesn't know either because watching Faux Noise makes you dumb.

[jdlh8894]

9. I'm asking this in hopes for a reasonable answer-

Was always taught that the moon controls the tides due to gravitation.
But the Space Program has shown,that once outside the earth's atmosphere,there is no gravitational pull.So how does the moon effect the tides?

[tavalon]

12. There isn't no gravitational pull, there is less and it is based on mass

The moon has more mass than a space shuttle. I'm pretty sure no scientist would stand by such a zero. Even if the number is 0.0000000001 (and I haven't researched it), the gravitational pull is not zero for either the earth or the moon. If it were so, the moon wouldn't hang around. There are far more interesting things in the universe than bald monkeys. If there was a water table on the moon (I almost said water on the moon, but they've just recently found some, albeit very little and quite buried in the rocks) it would make our tides look like little, tiny motions.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. Here is an eight grade science class explanation

Its very informational, educational and at a good reading level for you.


Link:
http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moontides/

You might want to watch the movie Apollo 13 again on how they used the moon gravitation to come home.

GEEZ......

[tavalon]

14. Hey, he showed his belly

Don't swipe at it. He's not the enemy. He got his facts wrong. We've all done it at one time or another.

[tavalon]

15. Actually, I just perused that site and yeah, it's written simply

and yet, it has fascinating information about tides. Some of that stuff, I didn't know either.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. I thought it was a good link on tides and the moon.

The next thing to look at is Mass
and gravity.

We had to show the class the classic Apollo movie where they took a feather
and a boulder and dropped them on the moon to prove Galileo.

90 percent of the class said the boulder would reach the ground first.

It wasn't an easy class, we had few A's.

[tavalon]

20. It is a good link,

it was the snark that was unnecessary.

[athena]

21. The atmosphere is irrelevant.

It's not like the atmosphere is needed to communicate the gravitational force. Remember that it is the gravitational force between the sun and the earth that keeps the earth in orbit around the sun, and the gravitational force between the moon and the earth that keeps the moon in orbit around the earth.

What you're thinking of is the apparent weightlessness of astronauts in orbit around the earth. When you're in orbit around the earth, you (and all the objects in your space station) are constantly falling toward the earth. You are still under the influence of the gravitational force of the earth (which is what keeps you in orbit), but you don't "feel" any gravity. It's like being in an elevator. If you weigh yourself while in an elevator, you will find that your weight is smaller while the elevator descends. It's all explained here:
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/circles/u6l4d.cfm

[krispos42]

22. There is always gravity. It follows the inverse-square law, same as light

In other words, if you're a million miles from a planet and feel a certain amount of gravity, if you go two million miles away from the planet, you'll only feel ¼ of the certain amount of gravity.


The reason people in space are weightless is because both the spaceship and everything in it is falling, like an elevator with a broken cable. We feel weight because we're being prevented from falling by the ground (or floor, or chair, or whatever you're perched on at this moment).

If I was to push you into a deep well, you would feel weightless for a couple of seconds. The amount that gravity is tugging on you would be the same as if you were sleeping in bed, but because you were freely in motion due to gravity yanking you towards the bottom of the well, you would have nothing holding you up to give you a sense of weight.

Then of course, you would hit bottom and come to a very abrupt halt. Assuming you survived, you would feel weight again as the ground (or water) pushed back against the gravity.


The Moon's gravity has the effect of slightly reducing Earth's gravity wherever on Earth the Moon is currently over. This means that the water there weighs a fraction less than it does on other spots of the globe, and the water pressure from the rest of the ocean forces the water under the Moon upwards a couple of yards.

There's a similar effect from the Sun as well, but it's a lot smaller.

[tavalon]

10. Bill O'Reilly doesn't know

What an idiot.

[tavalon]

11. Poor Mr. Silverman

That kind of ignorance in the moment is astounding. I'm not surprised he didn't point and laugh (oh, how I wish he had!), but I think he was so befuddled that he was stunned.

[mudplanet]

19. Next: Gravity is a myth - the earth sucks

[phantom power]

23. This kind of thing really worries me.

Have we become completely unmoored from the last 500 years of enlightenment?

[tavalon]

24. I think a few never tied up their mental ships

Fundamentalists of any ilk are a tight minded, black and white thinking(?)kind of monster.

[tkmorris]

25. Well, Bill O'Reilly has.

I'm still firmly tethered though.

[Poboy]

26. I am sure Obama will agree with this retarded statement. Why not? He follows Fox talking points too.

[uncle ray]

27. fucking MAGNETS. how do they work?

hey Billdo, better quit listening to ICP.

[Sheepshank]

28. Them Fox viewers hate all that "Book lernin"

Apparently it's so much easier to be spoon fed info with or without a factual basis.

I'd bet $100 bucks that the talking line "tides...no one knows" will be repeated in RW circles.