writetomhatcher wrote:
Maybe I think the possibility “nothing will happen” is silly!
Let's take a step back here. The entire significance assigned to 1/23 seems to be because it was the date of last routine contact with the Pioneer 10.
Even if the banner change is a clue as to the next release (which I think there is a good chance of), there are other dates of significance to the Pioneer. For example, the Pioneer Plaque was aboard both the Pioneer 10 AND 11, and there are multiple dates relating to each:
-Last routine contact with Pioneer 10 was 1/23/2003 (still 3 days off)
-Last telemetry from Pioneer 10 was 4/27 the year before in 2002.
-Last routine contact with Pioneer 11 was 9/30/95
-Last telemetry was received 11/25/95.
So even assuming the Pioneer Plaque is a coded message about the release date, there are at least 4 dates of potential significance.
Everyone seemed to zero in on January because of a repeated rumor that BoC had "promised a shorter wait between albums," which didn't actually happen - it was an offhand comment from a very unreliable source taken out of context and repeated ad infinitum.
Something could happen in the next few days, but betting $100 on it, over someone expressing skepticism, is almost taking it to the level of religious belief.
![:]](./images/smilies/icon_grin.gif "Happy"){kind=icon}