Today we find out if Harold Camping, 2011 IgNobel Laureate in Mathematics, is right: he has predicted the Rapture will happen today. As a scientist, I applaud him for making testable predictions: that’s part of what science is about, after all. The entire world tests his hypotheses, and falsified his first numerical prediction, which stated the Rapture would occur May 21.
Of course, one difference between Camping and someone practicing good science is that he likely won’t ever admit his methodology is flawed. He might even be offended that I’m comparing him to scientists; I don’t really intend to call him up and ask him, which I suppose makes me a bad journalist. I accept that charge, and (in my role as DJ Hat Man Du) offer as a mitigation my Second Rapture Playlist:
- “Time of the Preacher”, Willie Nelson
- “John the Revelator”, Ollabelle
- “People Get Ready”, Curtis Mayfield
- “Jonas and Ezekiel”, Indigo Girls
- “High Water (for Charley Patton)”, Bob Dylan
- “The End of the Tour”, They Might Be Giants
- “My Ride’s Here”, Warren Zevon
- “All We Have Is Now”, The Flaming Lips
- “It’s All Been Done Before”, Barenaked Ladies
- “This Too Shall Pass (Marching Band Version)”, OK Go
Galileo's Pendulum 
2 responses to “Second Verse, Same As the First, A Little Bit Louder and a Little Bit Worse”
What about “It’s the End of the World as We Know It…and I Feel Fine?”
I used that one in my previous Rapture Mix: https://galileospendulum.org/2011/05/21/what-if-they-held-an-apocalypse-but-nobody-came/