Talk:World Jump Day

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July 20, 2006 Featured article candidate Not promoted
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[edit] The apocalipse is this

Hah, germany crazy mans, they want destroy our wolrd, the wolrd jump day can make a 2nd ice age,burn age, destroy cities with earthquake, collide our planet with moon , collide our planet with another planet orbit, they all are fools

-.-

¬¬ --Manny 00:23, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A joke

From http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/world_jump_day/ "I don't think the creators of World Jump Day intend for anyone to take their idea that seriously. The site is registered to a German artist, Torsten Lauschmann. According to his web bio Lauschmann: celebrates glitches, and out-takes, bits in between and images that might be easy to ignore. Lauschmann is currently on a Trans European busking tour under the guise of Slender Whiteman where he will launch his solar powered dub system. He lives and works in Glasgow. Lauschmann also appears to be a member of a German art group called Vene Hammerschlag, which has also hosted World Jump Day on its site. In other words, World Jump Day appears to be some kind of art project hoax." Sir Isaac Lime 03:46, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How many people

How many people know about this?

At the moment (July 20, 2005), they claim that 213 million people have signed up already. Given that the only way to register is by e-mail, and that (according to www.isc.org) there are only about 300-400 million internet hosts, it means that ... well, that their claim is not really plausible.
Then again, their countdown is one hour off (they show 52 weeks 12 hours 15 minutes at the moment, which means the countdown ends at 10:37 UTC, not 11:37), so they are not treating themselves seriously either. -- Austrian 22:22, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
The number of Internet hosts and the number of email addresses is totally unrelated. Most companies only show up as a handful of hosts as firewalls on the Internet - but have hundreds or thousands of employees using eMail. Also nobody who is using dialup shows up as a host - the whole of AOL, Hotmail, etc only show up as a mere handful of hosts. That's not a fair measure. However, I agree that it's VERY unlikely that even one million people signed up. SteveBaker 04:56, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A hoax?

 I'd say this is a hoax; de.wikipedia has a longer article,
 which after a quick Google translation seems to say it's a hoax too.
 Google also has a couple of links with white text alluding to the same.
 -- valjean
This is pure BS. It's impossible to permanently change the Earth's orbit using the planet's own mass (which includes us), unless of course that mass is removed from the Earth at great velocity. See Newton's third law of motion. Even then, the difference would be negligible: the combined mass of the world's population is comparatively tiny, and since Earth's orbit is elliptic, there are already great variations in its distance from the Sun (about five million kilometres) without anyone noticing. --Goblin ›talk 21:18, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC)
Not to mention, if they intend everyone to jump at the same instant in time, that makes matters worse, since people on one side of the earth jumping will cancel out the people on the other side, who would be jumping in the opposite direction. Although the site only lists timezones on roughly one half of the world. Bigpeteb 17:10, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
Actually it's only the Western Hemisphere, RTFA, alfrin 00:54, August 16, 2005 (UTC)
It's even worse than that. At the instant that every one jumps - they do indeed push down on the earth a teeny-tiny bit - but the force of attraction between their bodies and the earth accellerates the earth upwards towards them by precisely the same amount - so the net accelleration over the duration of jump and subsequent landing is precisely zero. To achieve any lasting effect, they'd have to jump fast enough to reach escape velocity such that they would never return to earth. But you already knew it was silly - right! SteveBaker 04:21, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Origin

This sounds similar to an April 1993 Weekly World News article, which alleged that Communist China intended to destroy the world by having their citizens jump up and down to knock the Earth out orbit. American readers were urged to jump as well, cancelling the Chinese plot. I referenced this article in my Pete's Planet comic strip.

Here's a source: [1]

Does anyone else have any other information about the possible origins of this meme? Archola 04:31, 30 September 2005 (UTC)

The Straight Dope had a column about all the people in China jumping at once in 1984: [2] Шизомби 05:28, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Has anyone actually talked to the "organizers?" I went to the web site. I think I might order the t-shirt, for s$&#s and giggles. Reverend Distopia

I remember that a similar plan was discussed on the radio in New York City in the late 1960s by Jean Shepherd. Shepherd was a humorist and storyteller. I don't believe that he invented the concept; he may have cited a published source and then expanded on it, in his typical style. Lpgeffen 16:45, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

The first time I read the world jump day website I recall once I read an article in a book "Flying Circus of Physics". In that article, it suggests that if China wants to destroy other countries, she can order all Chinese to jump from about a foot from ground to build up a shockwave. I believe this is more likely to be case rather than shifting the orbit of Earth. Chung Yu Wan 18:40, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hee hee...

If 600 million ppl jumped off a bridge, would you?168.103.178.92 22:44, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

Of Course Neo139 5/29/06

600 million people wouldn't fit on a bridge. --Sam 06:22, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, if 600 million people stood on Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (the longest bridge in the world) then they'd have an area about 2.5cm x 2.5cm each...OK - I'll grant you that's a little crowded. SteveBaker 20:42, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course... why not? --Manny 00:21, 20 July 2006 (UTC)


They'd stand on top of each other... duh! --Abla

[edit] WorldJumpDay is a Hoax!

This website is a complete hoax. After getting tons of emails (23,000 so far), they sell it to marketing companies to make a profit. Sneaky, but clever. Check out this letter I found from one of the creators to another:


___

Hi David , danke für die tolle Programmierung. Sensationell! Der Shop ist fertig und unter: http://www.worldjumpday.org/for_david/gear.htm zu ereichen. Wäre genial wenn Du einen Link vom HTML Frame zu SHOP/DONATIONS machen könntest. Ich wollte außerdem den registrierten Jumpers die Link zu Shop zusenden. Vielleich könntest Du mir eine Liste zusenden (23000 email adressen!!! Shit) Zum Schluß noch: Die Leute von ALt-W wollen die Webseite auf einer CD für Ihr Archiv haben. Was ist der beste (einfachste) Weg? Vielen Dank. T-shirts für Dich und Sascha sind in der Post. Large für Dich? Gruß Torsten

Vielen Dank Torsten hello@lauschmann.com

___

I translated this on freetranslation.com and discovered that they're planning to sell all the emails they get from this scam. I hope this taught everyone a lession. And for all the people who already entered their email to worldjumpday.org, prepare to get spammed!

archunan _at_ gmail _dot_ com

I'm not so sure. I don't speak German - but I tossed it into freetranslation.com (as you say you did) and got back this:
 "Hi david, would thank for the crazy programming.  Sensational!  The Shop is
 finished and under:  Http://www.worldjumpday.org/for_david/gear.htm to ereichen.
 Was brilliantly if you could make one left of the HTML frame to SHOP/DONATIONS.
 I wanted to send moreover the registered Jumpers that left to Shop.  You could
 send me Vielleich a list (23000 enamels addresses!!!  Shit) to the end yet:  The
 people of OLD-W want to have the web page on a CD for your archive.  What is the
 best (simplest) way?  Thank you very much.  T-shirts for you and Sascha are in
 the postal service.  Large for you?  Greeting Torsten
 Thank you very much Torsten hello@lauschmann.com"
...that doesn't seem to indicate that the email addresses were being sold?! Anyway - I agree that there is absolutely no reason to sign up for this. If you feel like jumping at the appropriate time - feel free to do so - but I don't see how sending in you email address is supposed to help...I guess if you don't have a calendar?! SteveBaker 18:43, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rejecting the thesis

In the last couple of days the list of reasons was expanded or better explained, Newton should rest in peace now. Although I had to delete the one that claimed:

The event is not specified to happen at any specific location on the earth's surface, only at a specific time. Even if there were some measurable effect, it would be nullified by the effects of people jumping simultaneously on opposite sides of the planet which would cancel out. A better approach (were it not for all of the other problems) would be to have each person jump at precisely 12 noon causing each person's jump to add up in more or less the same direction.

...because the event is said to be for the western emisphere (check out the time zones). The creators thought of the canceling-out phenomenon, but they didn't even thought of reading basic physics papers. --Yago Stecher 05:29, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Ah - good point - I hadn't noticed that on their web page. Many thanks for fixing this one. At least now this is only utterly impossible rather than completely and utterly impossible as I previously thought! SteveBaker 18:36, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, too bad they didn't miss that. That would have been an easy way to explain people this is a hoax (and so, not going through the laws of motion). I'm working on an anti-WJD site with the same design as the original site, and a nice flash demo aswell. It will be [[3]] but i'm being held back to register the domain =/ The design is done (both in english and spanish), hopefully to be online by July 10th --Yago Stecher 08:11, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
An anti-WJD site? Dang, it's a tongue-in-cheek fun thing to do, like talk like a pirate day. nobody seriously intends to move the earth's orbit. Grow a sense of humor. 134.53.26.23 19:08, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, sense of humour and whatnot, the thing is that not many people realize this, and we can seriously doubt the destination of all those mails addresses they are collecting. You may say spam is everywhere? Ok, whatever. --Yago Stecher 03:22, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 600 million smoke pipes

If we eject 600 million most prolific CO2 makers into space (the population of U.S., Japan and Western Europe), it would surely stop the greenhouse effect. -- Toytoy 07:42, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

Sadly that won't work either. CO2 produced by burning agricultural plants that are renewed after they are harvested is not a contributor to the greenhouse effect. The CO2 they produce is exactly countered by the CO2 absorbed by the new tobacco plants as they grow so there is no long term average change in atmospheric CO2 due to pipe smokers. It's only burning FOSSIL fuel that does bad things to CO2 levels. However, it's an evil habit - so let's eject 'em anyway! SteveBaker 20:46, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
What? Are you sure new tobacco plants absorbe the co2 at the same rate than old ones are burned? CO2 coming from everyywhere causes damage, not only that of fossil fuels.--Yago Stecher 02:10, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
Yep - I'm absolutely 100% certain. The CO2 that appears when you burn the plant comes from carbon in the plant reacting with oxygen in the air. However, think about where the plant gets the carbon from in the first place? It can't absorb it through its root system - the plant absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and uses energy from sunlight via photosynthesis to 'crack' the CO2 into carbon and oxygen. The oxygen goes back into the atmosphere and the plant locks up the carbon in its leaves and branches. So when you burn a plant, you are merely putting back the CO2 it absorbed during its life. So long as you always plant a new plant for every one you burn, you are not adding any CO2 into the air in the long term. Where we get into trouble is when you clear-cut and burn a rain forest without replanting it - or when plants convert CO2 to carbon over millions of years and were then buried underground and turned into coal and oil. When you dig up millions of years of locked-up carbon and burn it - you release millions of years worth of CO2 into the atmosphere all in one go - that's "A Bad Thing". Read Carbon cycle for more details. SteveBaker 03:22, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Featured Article Candidate?!?

OK - who nominated this article for featured status? That's just embarassing. From WP:FAC. a featured article has the following attributes.

It exemplifies our very best work 
You really think this is one of the best articles on Wikipedia?!? Get real.
It is well written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable 
Well, it's not especially well written - and with the event actually happening TOMORROW it can't possibly be stable or comprehensive until some time after the event.
It complies with the standards set out in the style manual 
No - it does not have a concise lead section or a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents (see Wikipedia:Section).
It has images where appropriate 
No, it doesn't.
It is of appropriate length 
No - it's barely more than a stub.

Additionally, we have ZERO proper references, it is probably non-notable, there has been not been through either WP:PR or WP:GAC (both are strongly recommended before shooting for FA status. The article will be lucky to survive a WP:AFD vote which is likely to ensue from the strongly (and justifiably) negative reaction to such a ridiculous FAC request. Stupid, stupid, stupid. SteveBaker 19:18, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

  • When I saw the "current featured article candidate" template on this page I thought maybe that was a joke as well :-) --Nebular110 02:32, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
My god... --Yago Stecher 03:36, 20 July 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Cleanup

So, although I posted in February that it was an art installation and a hoax, it seems this article has become bloated with people wanting to rant about how it would never work. Which is, of course, beside the point. It's not whether or not it works, it's whether or not people believe in the hoax. I deleted much of what is, I believe, extraneous information, including:

  • Several physical reasons given for why it would fail (isn't one sufficient?). This includes the reason which was, if I remember, "Time Zones! Time zones!"
  • The fact that something vaguely similar was mentioned on Car Talk. (If that knowledge is that important for an encylcopedia, it seems better suited simply for the Car Talk page.)

Also formatted the references, and merged the Reference and External Links sections. I still think the parenthetical statement in the opening line about 600 million being 50% of the internet should be in its own paragraph. Other useful information would include how this number has changed with time (if it is possible to find out, does archive.org have this info?) and the final count when the timer reached zero. It would also be interesting to have a brief overview, or even just a tally, of how many blogs ranted about how this will never work. I would do more work on it, but I have to rest up my jumping legs; I want to make sure I do more than my part when the timer reaches zero.Sir Isaac Lime 04:17, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Quickly made a brief paragraph on the counter with some interesting info I found in the history that was edited out. Sir Isaac Lime 04:25, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I suggest the article is locked from editing for a few days. In that time we will learn more about the aftermath of the event and will be able to make educated edits. CannibalSmith 11:06, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I agree with you. --Emx 10:58, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
I disagree that we only need one reason why it would fail. Our mission here is to educate - and there is value in explaining multiple reasons why it wouldn't work. I agree with the other changes however. SteveBaker 11:51, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
You're probably right. I was saying one mostly as a reaction to there being too many, several of them identical. As for being locked from editing, it sounds like a good idea to me.Sir Isaac Lime 19:03, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Oh, and now looking over a couple things from the article: Reasons 1 & 4 under the "Science" are the same. Exactly the same. I hardly think it is necessary for there to be a rephrasing of the same information given earlier. One or the other should be erased, I will leave to other editors to make the decision. Perhaps both have useable information.
Also, I removed the following line from the first paragraph: Still, it was probably the largest (and first?) worldwide flash mob project ever, although by including only the western hemisphere it can not claim to be truly worldwide. First off, I doubt enough people contributed to consider it a flash mob. It was already stated in the opening sentance that it is an attempt at a flash mob. Finally, there is no proof that it is the largest, smallest, or even was a flash mob event at all. Sir Isaac Lime 19:11, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
To quote from Flash mob: "In modern usage, flash mob describes a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse." - since there was no 'assembling' and 'dispersing' involved (even theoretically), you couldn't describe this as a flash mob at all. This really isn't a whole lot different in concept from International Talk Like A Pirate Day. SteveBaker 23:07, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Lot of hatred here

What do you people have against jumping? --Gafaddict 20:31, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I don't see what everyone has against world jump day. Sure, it turned out to be entirely false, but it also tried to get thousands of people to do something together, and in the end, isn't that all that matters? MentosC 22:11, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I have nothing against jumping - I do have a problem with pushing screwed up pseudo-science onto the gullible masses and then blatantly lying about the number of participants. SteveBaker 23:02, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I have nothing against jumping either. It just bothers me to see such horribly inaccurate science portrayed to the public in this kind of way. I think it's just sad that things like this attract so much more public attention then actual groundbreaking scientific discoveries ever do. Even so, the whole thing has given me several good laughs over the past few days and I doubt that very many people actually took it seriously. --Nebular110 23:15, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

Right - I doubt many people took it seriously - but the reason they didn't take it seriously is that they probably assumed that the size of the effect would be negligable. However, the problem with the idea goes deeper than that. There isn't actually an effect at all - and that's worthy of some scientific explanation. As you say though - it was good for a laugh. SteveBaker 00:53, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
I was more referring to the #600 million smoke pipes and #The apocalipse is this sections of the talk page here more than anything else. Of course it was a hoax and it should be disproven in the article, I have nothing against that. --Gafaddict 13:31, 21 July 2006 (UTC)
Oh - well if it's just the Talk page you are concerned about - then don't worry. It's what ends up in the article that counts. SteveBaker 13:56, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why is this article still here?

This event is just like eon8. The 600,000,000 registered jumpers being compared as 50% of all internet users has to be false. A person could just enter a false e-mail address and still add to the registered jumpers population. Who knows, people could have spammed that e-mail registration box to hell and back. Douglasr007 02:01, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

The article appears to be truthful - we believe at least a few tens of thousands of people subscribed to the event - and presumably jumped. It may be of interest to someone sometime in the future - the question is not "Why should we keep this article?" so much as "Why should it be removed?" SteveBaker 11:10, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
Even if people didn't follow through (although the action is so easy it would almost be harder not to, while still thinking about it), it could still be considered a significant meme/fake holiday. --Lenoxus 01:52, 10 January 2007 (UTC)