Emails and text messages about a supposed earthquake that’s about to happen in the Philippines have been spreading online and from cellphone to cellphone. The earthquake “predictions” were supposedly made by a 47-year-old Brazilian teacher, Jucelino Nobrega da Luz (sometimes misspelled Juseleeno Nobulega Daroose). He has allegedly claimed that a massive quake, magnitude 8.1, will hit the Philippines on July 18, 2008. The anonymous email containing this prediction also details supposed past warnings issued by da Luz. This isn’t the first time that rumors of impending doom have circulated. In May, it was a 6.8 earthquake that was to hit the Philippines. Those rumors came on the heels of the 8.0 earthquake in Sichuan, China. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) has debunked that earlier rumor and this current one too. Philvolcs is assuring the entire Philippines that “there is no basic science” behind these reports. In other words, it’s not true! Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum Jr. advises everyone who receives these text messages or emails to delete them and not to pass them on. Earthquakes are impossible to predict with any accuracy. Yes, they will occur, and yes, they will occur in the Philippines, as they always have. But to say that one of a specific magnitude will occur in any country on a specific date is an absolute delusion. Still think there might be a grain of truth to it? Kat Carneo, of Kat’s World, has researched this rumor, and found that da Luz did not even make such a prediction. Kat posits that somebody else thought it would be funny to make up the earthquake rumor and spread it around, using the name of an already-controversial modern-day Nostradamus.