Experts jump on claims of toad omen

Experts jump on claims of toad omen

www.thestandard.com.hk

Days before the earthquake, hundreds of thousands of toads swarmed through a town near the epicenter, leading to a storm of speculation on whether there was a connection.
Internet blogs have been buzzing with news of the potential omen, with one website showing footage of a street in Mianyang covered by a countless number of the small brown amphibians.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I can't help but take a step back sometimes, and wonder if maybe these biblical plagues are happening now, we just can't see them for the things they are? I know that sounds weird, but huge earthquakes, powerful storms, all over the world. And now frogs.

www.thestandard.com.hk
(visit the link for the full news article)

How about no..

No biblical crap here. its called animals have a sense to tell when disaster strikes. It has been proven over and over and over and over.

Tell me, how many pets where killed during the tsunami?

reply to post by ThichHeaded


One can believe that the bible is just one source that "predicts" future events. There are many other texts that support the idea of a plague striking. I am not asking about religious interpretation, I am asking about the lens through which we view these type of events. Just because it was written that it was a chariot in the sky, doesn't mean it may not have been a spaceship. I hope you get the comparison.

No what i said was science proof. Animals have a sense to tell them when changes in the earth happen. Earthquake, tsunami, whatever. They aren't just going to sit around and see what happens, they are going to get tf out of the area to somewhere safer. That's what those toads did. It was probably noticeable because that's they way they went. I am sure a lot of other animals bailed also, just wasn't seen cause they didn't go thru the middle of town to leave.

reply to post by ThichHeaded


who said that religion can't be science with mysticism added in for a lack of basic science knowledge? If I were living back then, what would I call a bunch of toads coming out of the ground before an earthquake? Whatever I did say would be ripe with mysticism.

reply to post by jasonjnelson


Point granted. I think you've just nailed a lot of the stuff that is written the bible. What people don't understand they either discard or mystify it.

I don't however, belief that the bible is a source of prediction for anything.

reply to post by jasonjnelson


Of course, simple fact is that in the days of yore christianity did infact provide a safe haven for quite a lot of inventors and mathematicians that would otherwise have been killed or made to serve some feudal lord or other in exchange for food and perhaps a bigger cell.

The assumption that Christianity has infact impeeded technological progress is somewhat unfounded in a way, especially when you look at the old eastern orthodox church before the days of the end of the byzantine empire.

My point is that greed has impeeded technological progress btw - the greed of those whom considered themselves christian seeking to profit from the destruction of a part of christianity that was no longer considered truly Christian.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
No what i said was science proof. Animals have a sense to tell them when changes in the earth happen. Earthquake, tsunami, whatever. They aren't just going to sit around and see what happens, they are going to get tf out of the area to somewhere safer. That's what those toads did. It was probably noticeable because that's they way they went. I am sure a lot of other animals bailed also, just wasn't seen cause they didn't go thru the middle of town to leave.

I don't think that's ever been scientifically proven. As much as I agree with the supposition and the belief that it's true, there is no possible way for us to know the true motivation behind these toads and their migration.

Using deduction, we humans are capable of stringing together two events, whether related or unrelated.

The toads had a mass migration.
There was an earthquake.

Ergo, the toads migrated because there was going to be an earthquake.

Personally I think it goes further than the "earthquake" hypothesis. I think it might be related to stressors within the earth possibly generating low level static charges that act to create discomfort within the amphibian's nervous system. That discomfort triggers the animal's flight response and the animal(s) leave the area. But again that's supposition.

Originally posted by kelbtalfenek

I don't think that's ever been scientifically proven.

No perhaps not; we do know that it happens, we just don't know why.

Whitepaper

The analysis presented here implies that if there are occasional precursors to earthquakes that animals could detect, behavioral patterns could evolve to minimize associated mortality.

Well, i've an idea that might prove reasonable - that being that vibrations pass more noticably through water than it does through rock.

Perhaps our fellow amphibian earthlings were simply better placed to be able to detect seismic activity than we 'sophisticated' earthlings are.

reply to post by Smokersroom


Thanks for posting that white paper link. Very good read.

I think in general we are in agreement with the premise that there is some sort of sense that certain animals may have which serves to warn these animals that a seismic event is going to occur. The paper agrees with my post as well;

Although anecdotal and retrospective reports of animal behavior suggest that although many organisms may be able to detect an impending seismic event, no plausible scenario has been presented yet through which accounts for the evolution of such behaviors.

www.gps.caltech.edu...

I do not and will not deny the possibility of such a link, but as it stands that link is still anecdotal at best and as such, the hypothesis is still unproven.

Well, animals aren't distracted by Reason. They live in a more immediate now. If you were deprived of reason, you'd probably be more sensitive to sensations and fluctuations in the various EM/light fields around you because sensitivity to those things would be essential for survival.
Or something like that....

Toads, reptiles, frogs, amphibians ... if YOU had a soft jelly-like tummy and it was almost always lying on the ground beneathe you ... don't you think you'd have felt the earth's first stirrings and rumblings before the quake?

During Hurricane Alicia, snakes took refuge on porches in my area.

Before a hurricane or tropical storm, you see a LOT of small mammals crossing the road. Happens everytime. Why do they cross? Nobody has told us why.

Goldfish kept in a jar supposedly sense earthquakes in advance. I'm not sure it this was debunked as a marketing ploy or what though.

Before a flashflood or heavy rain, tropical storm or hurricane ... fireants will climb UP ... up fenceposts or any other poles such as tomato stakes. Just watch and mother nature will show you she still has many secrets.

(I live in the US) On the same day of the quake, I was at school. Walking across the field, many of the people in my class started talking and pointing to the sky. I looked up and saw what looked like a large, dark, cloud moving at a quick pace. Soon, I learned that it was not a cloud (Which I obviously knew, from how fast it had been moving), but it was a large swarm of bees traveling across the sky. At first, I thought they were locusts-yes I know, very naive, but that was seriously the first thing that popped into my head. So, this swarm was probably a coincidence(sp?), but I thought I might share it in case someone thought there might be some connection.

One of my best friends lived in California in the early 90's. She went through the big quake they had out there (don't remember the year) and she had a poodle that went nuts about 10 minutes before the quake hit. She said she knew something was wrong because it wasn't the typical "I need to go out and take care of business" plea. She couldn't get her to go out and couldn't get her settled down. Shortly after the dog's fit she noticed her knickknacks vibrating then falling off the shelves. She's a native okie and had never been in a quake and didn't know at first what was happening. I believe all animals can sense a disaster approaching.

animals can indeed sense thigns before they happen. ive always been around cats. When i was younger, my mother used to tell me, cats can sense lightnng thunder and storms, when its still miles and likes away, but approaching. I have cats now, and during the summer, i always know when a lightning storm is coming, form their behavior... ears pointing in all directions, they act frightened, like they jsut saw a demon ghost,a nd hide under furninture... never fails.

my spidey sense is tingling

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


I've noticed things like this also. We had a dog that was horrified by lightening and thunder......he would be cowering on the porch an hour or so before the weather service even mentioned their 'severe thunderstorm warnings'......We learned to trust the little guy, and if Shaggy 'said' a storm was coming we paid heed.

Perhaps the people of Biblical times noticed those swarms of frogs or insects and interpreted or explained them as messages, warnings or punishments from God.......rather than seeing them as an 'instrument' of nature.

One could even go so far as to say 'God gave the animals the sense to know something was wrong', or that 'God even warned the animals or told them to warn the people'.....at least those people that were 'in tune' with the natural world and would pay attention to those cues.....?