2012 Doomsday ?
Apparently, the world is going to end on December 21st, 2012. Yes, you read correctly, in some way, shape or form, the [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (or at least a large portion of humans on the [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]) will cease to exist. Stop planning your careers, don't bother buying a house, and be sure to spend the last years of your life doing something you always wanted to do but never had the time. Now you have the time, four years of time, to enjoy yourselves before… the end.
So what is all this crazy talk? We've all heard these doomsday predictions before, we're still here, and the planet is still here, why is 2012 so important? Well, the Mayan calendar stops at the end of the year 2012, churning up all sorts of religious, scientific, astrological and historic reasons why this calendar foretells the end of life as we know it. The Mayan Prophecy is gaining strength and appears to be worrying people in all areas of society. Forget Nostradamus, forget the Y2K bug, forget the credit crunch, this event is predicted to be huge and many wholeheartedly believe this is going to happen for real. [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] could even be making a comeback. Related 2012 articles:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ][Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
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[Only registered and activated users can see links. ][Only registered and activated users can see links. ] Is Not Nibiru (posted June 19th 2008)
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For all those 2012 Mayan Prophecy believers out there, I have bad news. There is going to be no doomsday event in 2012, and here's why…
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] The Mayan Calendar
So what is the Mayan Calendar? The calendar was constructed by an advanced civilization called the Mayans around 250-900 AD. Evidence for the Maya empire stretches around most parts of the southern states of Mexico and reaches down to the current geological locations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and some of Honduras. The people living in Mayan society exhibited very advanced written skills and had an amazing ability when constructing cities and urban planning. The Mayans are probably most famous for their pyramids and other intricate and grand buildings. The people of Maya had a huge impact on Central American culture, not just within their civilization, but with other indigenous populations in the region. Significant numbers of Mayans still live today, continuing their age-old traditions.
The Mayans used many different calendars and viewed time as a meshing of spiritual cycles. While the calendars had practical uses, such as social, agricultural, commercial and administrative tasks, there was a very heavy religious element. Each day had a patron spirit, signifying that each day had specific use. This contrasts greatly with our modern Gregorian calendar which primarily sets the administrative, social and economic dates.
Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk'in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab' approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk'in and the Haab' to form the "Calendar Round", a cycle lasting 52 Haab's (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle). Obviously, this system would only be of use when considering the 18,980 unique days over the course of 52 years. In addition to these systems, the Mayans also had the "[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] Cycle". Being keen and highly accurate astronomers they formed a calendar based on the location [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] in the night sky. It's also possible they did the same with the other [Only registered and activated users can see links. ].
Using the Calendar Round is great if you simply wanted to remember the date of your birthday or significant religious periods, but what about recording history? There was no way to record a date older than 52 years. The end of the Long Count = the end of the Earth?
The Mayans had a solution. Using an innovative method, they were able to expand on the 52 year Calendar Round. Up to this point, the Mayan Calendar may have sounded a little archaic – after all, it was possibly based on religious belief, the menstrual cycle, mathematical calculations using the numbers 13 and 20 as the base units and a heavy mix of astrological myth. The only principal correlation with the modern calendar is the Haab' that recognised there were 365 days in one solar year (it's not clear whether the Mayans accounted for leap years). The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the "Long Count", a calendar lasting 5126 years.
I'm personally very impressed with this dating system. For starters, it is numerically predictable and it can accurately pinpoint historical dates. However, it depends on a base unit of 20 (where modern calendars use a base unit of 10). So how does this work?
The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at "0.0.0.0.0". Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we'll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we'll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.
This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012. Doomsday
When something ends (even something as innocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] for the end of civilization as we know it. A brief scan of the internet will pull up the most popular to some very weird ways that we will, with little logical thought, be wiped off the face of the planet. Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn't actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister.
Myths are abound and seem to be fuelling movie storylines. It looks like the new Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is even based around the Mayan myth that 13 crystal skulls can save humanity from certain doom. This myth says that if the 13 ancient skulls are not brought together at the right time, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]. This might be a great plotline for blockbuster movies, but it also highlights the hype that can be stirred, lighting up religious, scientific and not-so-scientific ideas that the world is doomed.
Some of the most popular [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]-based threats to the Earth and mankind focus on [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], meteorite impacts, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], [Only registered and activated users can see links. ], [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] Bursts from [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] systems, a rapid ice age and a polar (magnetic) shift. There is so much evidence against these things happening in 2012, it's shocking just how much of a following they have generated. Each of the above "threats" needs their own devoted article as to why there is no hard evidence to support the hype.
But the fact remains, the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy is purely based on a calendar which we believe hasn't been designed to calculate dates beyond 2012. Mayan archaeo-astronomers are even in debate as to whether the Long Count is designed to be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or whether the calendar simply continues to 20.0.0.0.0 (approximately 8000 AD) and then reset. As [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] brilliantly writes:
"…when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 – or good-ol' 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas." – Excerpt from Dr Karl's "[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]".
Or will it be a sunstorm (flare) ?
We could be in for a huge firework display in 2012. The Sun will be approaching the peak of its 11-year cycle, called "solar maximum", so we can expect a lot of solar activity. Some predictions put the solar maximum of Solar Cycle 24 even more energetic than the last solar maximum in 2002-2003. According to one of the many Doomsday scenarios we have been presented with in the run-up to the Mayan Prophecy-fuelled "end of the world" in the year 2012, this scenario is actually based on some science. What's more, there may be some correlation between the 11-year solar cycle and the time cycles seen in the Mayan calendar, perhaps this ancient civilization understood how the Sun's magnetism undergoes polarity changes every decade or so? Plus, religious texts (such as the Bible) say that we are due for a day of judgment, involving a lot of fire and brimstone. So it looks like we are going to get roasted alive by our closest star on December 21st, 2012!
The Sun has a natural cycle with a period of approximately 11 years.
Leave a reply, and try write more than just
"iz fail"
What do you think will happend ?
Any ideas ?
Will everyone die ?
Is this the end of our beautiful lives ?
Last edited by Fatcow; 11-03-2009 at 03:45 PM.
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Leecher - 04-07-09Contributor - 09-21-2009 Moderator - 01-03-2010 Super Moderator - 02-09-2010
To think that so many people across the world think that on some random day the world is going to be destroyed and everyone with it based on some book or piece of stone made thousands of years ago.
To think that so many people across the world think that on some random day the world is going to be destroyed and everyone with it based on some book or piece of stone made thousands of years ago.
Actually an NASA employee said that a sun storm will come at that date when all planets are in one line... I don't know what to think :X
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Leecher - 04-07-09Contributor - 09-21-2009 Moderator - 01-03-2010 Super Moderator - 02-09-2010
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
Frankly its all speculation and a matter of chance, we could be hit at any moment with a huge solar flare or a giant piece of space rock but the chances are so low we just don't worry about it until we have these crazy storys and ancient prophecys to hype it all up.
When 2012 comes ill be one of the few to pull up a lawn chair grab a coke and watch all the crazys run around screaming, rapeing and pillaging only to be shot or arrested the next day.
I personally don't think this will happen but I kinda do at the same time from all this facts and research. We're suppose to have a giant asteroid hit us soon and there was this thing online saying the Government was trying to create a giant ass machine that goes back in time.... And they said if it goes wrong it could cause a giant sinkhole.. Look it up on google you'll see what I'm talking about...
And ya... Remember 2000, Y2K? Never happened... The same as a bunch of other crap. So we'll see when the day comes.
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Originally Posted by Boxxy
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