December 21, 2012....3 Years and counting

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Is 12/21/2012 the end of the world??


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And if the Road Warrior says it, it must be true..
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Dec. 12, 2012: End of the world, or another Y2K scare?


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<!--close float_l --> <!-- +++++ BODY + STORY +++++ --> By Ed Balint
CantonRep.com staff writer
Posted Dec 20, 2009 @ 11:06 PM
<hr class="m5v"> Judgment day. End of the world. Armageddon. The apocalypse.

Doomsday scenarios abound in popular culture, books and on the Internet. Some are rooted in the writings of Nostradamus. Others mix science with conjecture. And some reference the Bible.

Just think back nine years. Fear of the unknown stoked the run-up to Y2K.

Chaos was forecast by some when computer clocks rolled over from 1999 to 2000. Average folks, not just survivalists, stockpiled food, water and toilet paper. Some even shelled out money for generators. But Y2K was a monumental dud.

Now it’s on to the next epic disaster lurking in the future: Dec. 21, 2012. The day when the world will end as forecast by the ancient Mayan civilization’s calendar. Super volcanoes. Massive earthquakes. Tsunamis as tall as skyscrapers. A polar shift.

Or so the theory goes in some circles. When scientists, geologists and history professors get involved, the prediction turns sketchy at best.
Hollywood hype has pushed the 2012 end-of-days premise into overdrive with “2012,” a science fiction and special effects-laden movie now in theaters.

The film debuted at No. 1 in the United States and, as of Dec. 17, had pulled in nearly $157 million since opening domestically in November. The movie has taken in more than $712 million worldwide, according to boxofficemojo.com.

ON THE WEB

Scores of books have been written about 2012. Theories are abundant on the Internet.

One Web site calls Dec. 21, 2012, “the most important date for all of humanity.”

The same site — www.2012officialcountdown.com — issues an ominous warning: “This is not another ‘sky is falling’ warning like Y2K. ... It’s not some made up event by conspiracy (theorists). And it’s certainly not something dreamt up for a Hollywood movie. ... 2012 is real. ... And mainstream media does not want you to know about it.”

Another Web site — http://survive2012.com by Robert Bast — is not nearly as absolute when assessing 2012. “The consensus of opinion is that there will be great change. ... To some people this means a positive, spiritual change. Others, like myself, consider that a catastrophic event may have been predicted.”

*MAYAN CIVILIZATION

The Mayan civilization is divided into three time periods that cover 3,000 years. The Maya lived in the eastern one-third of Mesoamerica, including on the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America. They were a group of related Native American tribes who had the same linguistic organization.

Maya shared common artistic and religious components, but politically they were independent Mayan states.

Accomplishments included a sophisticated system of writing. Another achievement was development of a complex calendar system. Mayan art included inscriptions and architecture.

The reason for the decline of the Maya is debated. Theories include soil exhaustion, water loss and erosion, invasion, and catastrophes such as earthquakes and disease.

MAYANS AND 2012

The long calendar or the “Long Count” is one of at least three Mayan calendar systems, according to USA Today. The long count began on Aug. 13, 3114 B.C.

The Long Count tracks the duration of what the Maya called “great cycles” of time. “The cycle we’re currently in ends on (Dec. 23, 2012),” the newspaper said. There’s disagreement on whether the calendar ends on Dec. 21 or 23.

At a site in Mexico, a Mayan inscription fragment suggests the date is important, according to USA Today.

But some archaeologists say the Maya also had Long Count calendar inscriptions further into the future. And the Maya constructed calendars extending trillions of years into the past and future.

SCIENTISTS DEBUNK SCARE

Sky & Telescope magazine says not to panic over the “Great 2012 Scare.”

“Earth’s magnetic poles will not flip, California will not break apart and slide into the sea, and a secret monster planet will not smash into Earth out of the invisible nowhere.

“But every week, more and more people are coming to believe such things will happen — thanks to a spectacular blend of bad astronomy, bad Maya ethnography, several popular books and spreading Internet hysteria,” Sky & Telescope said in a news release. “Confusingly, it all sounds like it’s based on science.”

“The world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012,” says prominent astronomer and astro-historian E.C. Krupp, director of Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, an internationally renowned expert on ancient astronomy, including the Maya, and a Sky & Telescope contributing editor.

“The 2012 doomsday idea starts with a misinterpretation of the Maya calendar.”

NASA has gotten into the act too, launching a Web page devoted to 2012 theories. NASA writes that “our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.”

PROFESSORS COMMENT

Jay Case, associate professor of history at Malone University, said “it’s very difficult to tell exactly what the Mayans were thinking because you’re talking about a civilization that arose centuries and centuries ago, and we just don’t have written documents on things.”

The Maya “did make some pretty advanced sort of developments in the area of mathematics and astronomy,” Case said. “So the calendar that developed in (Mesoamerica) over the centuries was pretty precise in determining the movement of planets and stars and in the basic style of the bodies and heavens and so forth.”

Maya approached the calendar from a viewpoint that “life grew and died and things went into the ground and came back out again and life was cyclical,” he said.

One 2012 theory involves the alignment of the Earth, sun and the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which NASA says is an annual event of no consequence.

Don Palmer, a geology professor at Kent State University for 35 years, said there’s “no basis for that kind of geometrical lineup being any big effect.”

Palmer said it’s far-fetched to believe that the Maya could predict a “geogenerated disaster” thousands of years into the future. “There’s no reason on Earth to think that might be anything the Mayans might know about or they would have any basis for prediction,” he said.

Doomsday movies such as “2012” are “very fanciful,” Palmer said.

“I hope it makes a lot of money,” he added. “I think people should view this as a werewolf movie or something else. These disaster movies are the equivalent of zombie movies.”

‘IT FALLS UNDER THEORY’

Y2K. Tim Warstler, director of the Stark County Emergency Management Agency, remembers it well.

“I spent 1999 New Year’s Eve at Doctors Hospital in Stark County because I was director of safety and security,” Warstler said.

Medical equipment and the fire alarm system were tested after midnight. But there were “no significant issues,” he said.

Warstler is making no special plans for 2012. “Unless I see some specific problem identified that’s going to be caused by this, as of right now, it falls under theory.”

“There was a legitimate aspect to that,” he said of Y2K. “Some of the computer clocks did not roll over to 2000, so there was a legitimate problem identified that this could create some malfunctions — to what degree nobody knew, so that’s why it was taken seriously.”

“The main thing you hear is about the end of the Mayan calendar,” Warstler said. “There is nothing I can do to change that. Maybe if the Mayans were so good at predicting the future, maybe they would have predicted what happened to them — we’re not even sure what happened to the Mayans.”

*Source: Minnesota State University, Mankato
 

Breaking Bad Snob
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If I find anyone who actually believes this, my head might just explode.
 

Oh boy!
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The Mayan calendar ends at this date for the same reason our calendar ends on December 31st. It starts a new cycle the next day. It's not the end of days.
 

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I want to vote for "No" and the "Party" option. And the "Laugh at the people hiding in their bunks while doing so" option.
 

RX resident ChicAustrian
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The Mayan calendar ends at this date for the same reason our calendar ends on December 31st. It starts a new cycle the next day. It's not the end of days.
Yeah, and their chisel broke so they couldn't make the next one.

If our world ends that day, it will be the biggest coincidence ever!
 

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yeah world blows up to kingdom come... everyone better get a withdrawal in before then
 

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It could be global warming...or what is it they are calling it now? Oh yeah, "climate change"!!! What a fucking joke!

--
 
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i voted 'who cares' , but i'm not going to party like it's 1999, i'm just sick of hearing about doomsday and end-of-world scenarios.
 

Breaking Bad Snob
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In some cases euthanizing perfectly healthy people isn't such a bad idea.
 

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For whoever believes in this nonsense I can provide mailing addresses in both the US and Costa Rica

Also depending on the items "I will pick up your stuff (Car, cash, gold etc)

Don't these guys (the ones that make $$$$ selling these stupid books) look like geniuses !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHH
 

And if the Road Warrior says it, it must be true..
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On January 12th, a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti.
Then February 26, a tremor of the same magnitude rattled Japan.
Then the next day, an 8.8 quake devastated Chile.
Then on Wednesday, Taiwan got hit with a 6.4 earthquake.....


Has to make one wonder.....
 

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Nevermind 2012! 20 ways the world can end (reprinted from Discovery magazine)

b7039bb5c58d42e5bd55005e3565dcb4.gif
 

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No reason to vote yes... even if you are right, you won't be able to brag about it
 

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On January 12th, a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti.
Then February 26, a tremor of the same magnitude rattled Japan.
Then the next day, an 8.8 quake devastated Chile.
Then on Wednesday, Taiwan got hit with a 6.4 earthquake.....


Has to make one wonder.....

Because the world has never seen a few earthquakes within 2-3 months... :ohno:

:think2::think2::think2:
 

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With the upcoming disaster film "2012" and the current hype about Mayan calendars and doomsday predictions, it seems like a good time to put such notions in context.



Most prophets of doom come from a religious perspective, though the secular crowd has caused its share of scares as well. One thing the doomsday scenarios tend to share in common: They don't come to pass.



Here are 10 that didn't pan out, so far:
The Prophet Hen of Leeds, 1806
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' if (google_ads[0].bidtype == "CPC") ** google_adnum = google_adnum + google_ads.length; } } } document.write(s); return; } --></script> <script type="text/javascript"> <!-- google_ad_client = 'pub-1894578950532504'; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '3'; google_ad_type = 'text_html'; google_feedback = 'on'; google_skip = google_adnum; --></script> <script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script><script src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/test_domain.js"></script><script>google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);</script><script language="JavaScript1.1" src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-1894578950532504&output=js&lmt=1267744993&num_ads=3&skip=0&ad_type=text_html&ea=0&feedback_link=on&flash=10.0.22&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livescience.com%2Fstrangenews%2F091104-doomsday-predictions.html&dt=1267744994477&correlator=1267744994482&frm=0&ga_vid=808157773.1267744995&ga_sid=1267744995&ga_hid=690537272&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-420&u_his=4&u_java=1&u_h=768&u_w=1024&u_ah=734&u_aw=1024&u_cd=32&u_nplug=28&u_nmime=109&biw=1007&bih=581&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dfailed%2Bdoomsday%2Blist%26ie%3Dutf-8%26oe%3Dutf-8%26aq%3Dt%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial%26client%3Dfirefox-a&fu=0&ifi=1&dtd=57"></script> History has countless examples of people who have proclaimed that the return of Jesus Christ is imminent, but perhaps there has never been a stranger messenger than a hen in the English town of Leeds in 1806. It seems that a hen began laying eggs on which the phrase "Christ is coming" was written. As news of this miracle spread, many people became convinced that doomsday was at hand — until a curious local actually watched the hen laying one of the prophetic eggs and discovered someone had hatched a hoax.
The Millerites, April 23, 1843
A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture. As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn't) the group eventually disbanded—some of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.
Mormon Armageddon, 1891 or earlier
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, called a meeting of his church leaders in February 1835 to tell them that he had spoken to God recently, and during their conversation he learned that Jesus would return within the next 56 years, after which the End Times would begin promptly.
Halley's Comet, 1910
In 1881, an astronomer discovered through spectral analysis that comet tails include a deadly gas called cyanogen (related, as the name imples, to cyanide). This was of only passing interest until someone realized that Earth would pass through the tail of Halley's comet in 1910. Would everyone on the planet be bathed in deadly toxic gas? That was the speculation reprinted on the front pages of "The New York Times" and other newspapers, resulting in a widespread panic across the United States and abroad. Finally even-headed scientists explained that there was nothing to fear.
Pat Robertson, 1982
In May 1980, televangelist and Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson startled and alarmed many when — contrary to Matthew 24:36 ("No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven...") he informed his "700 Club" TV show audience around the world that he knew when the world would end. "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world," Robertson said.
Heaven's Gate, 1997
When comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997, rumors surfaced that an alien spacecraft was following the comet — covered up, of course, by NASA and the astronomical community. Though the claim was refuted by astronomers (and could be refuted by anyone with a good telescope), the rumors were publicized on Art Bell's paranormal radio talk show "Coast to Coast AM." These claims inspired a San Diego UFO cult named Heaven's Gate to conclude that the world would end soon. The world did indeed end for 39 of the cult members, who committed suicide on March 26, 1997.
Nostradamus, August 1999
The heavily obfuscated and metaphorical writings of Michel de Nostrdame have intrigued people for over 400 years. His writings, the accuracy of which relies heavily upon very flexible interpretations, have been translated and re-translated in dozens of different versions. One of the most famous quatrains read, "The year 1999, seventh month / From the sky will come great king of terror." Many Nostradamus
devotees grew concerned that this was the famed prognosticator's vision of Armageddon.
Y2K, Jan. 1, 2000
As the last century drew to a close, many people grew concerned that computers might bring about doomsday. The problem, first noted in the early 1970s, was that many computers would not be able to tell the difference between 2000 and 1900 dates. No one was really sure what that would do, but many suggested catastrophic problems ranging from vast blackouts to nuclear holocaust. Gun sales jumped and survivalists prepared to live in bunkers, but the new millennium began with only a few glitches.

May 5, 2000
In case the Y2K bug didn't do us in, global catastrophe was assured by Richard Noone, author of the 1997 book "5/5/2000 Ice: the Ultimate Disaster." According to Noone, the Antarctic ice mass would be three miles thick by May 5, 2000 — a date in which the planets would be aligned in the heavens, somehow resulting in a global icy death (or at least a lot of book sales). Perhaps global warming kept the ice age at bay.

God's Church Ministry, Fall 2008
According to God's Church minister Ronald Weinland, the end times are upon us-- again. His 2006 book "2008: God's Final Witness" states that hundreds of millions of people will die, and by the end of 2006, "there will be a maximum time of two years remaining before the world will be plunged into the worst time of all human history. By the fall of 2008, the United States will have collapsed as a world power, and no longer exist as an independent nation." As the book notes, "Ronald Weinland places his reputation on the line as the end-time prophet of God."
 

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