Wow, it's apparently Debunking 2012 Day here on BoingBoing. I honestly had no idea that David had his Mark Dery post in the works. But it does segue nicely into what I had planned. The Information is Beautiful blog put together an infographic that explains--in a short and quick format---what the 2012 believers are claiming, and why those claims are (lets just say it) stupid.
Great example of how the believers get this stuff wrong: The "facts" on the believer side of the graph are pulled directly from believer Web sites. When David from IIB sent me the original version of the graphic, I noticed that the believers had managed to misspell the name of Yale archaeologist Michael D. Coe, calling him "Michael D. Cole". They were also claiming that he was one of them. I don't have Coe's email, but I do have John Hoopes'. He's an archaeologist who has spent his life studying the ancient Maya and other ancient Central and South American civilizations...and my former professor when I was an anthropology undergrad at the University of Kansas. I contacted Hoopes to see what he knew about that claim and, according to him, it's way off. Coe, Hoopes says, does believe that 2012 would have been an important date to the ancient Maya*, and probably one they would have celebrated. But "important" like, say, Christmas is important to us. Or New Years Eve 1999/2000. Not "important" as in "the world is going to end."
2012: The End of the World? from Information Is Beautiful
*Specifying "ancient Maya" here, because we're not talking about the beliefs and culture of the very-much-alive Maya people. Just like modern Egyptian belief and culture is different from (but connected to and influenced by) that of the ancient Egyptians, so go the Maya. Coe is not speaking on behalf of the Maya here, he's just talking about what he thinks their ancestors might have believed.
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they spend all their time showing that the prophecy is a mis-reading of Mayan prophecy. They should add one line: even if the Mayans really said it, it's still 99.9999999999999999% likely to be bullshit!!
Hadn't realized that the precession of the equinoxes was getting mixed in here. FYI, precession of the equinoxes is the reason that the actual position of the sun with respect to the stars is about a month different from the position predicted by astrological calculations.
Uh...what if Sarah Palin gets elected?
OH GOD! THE MAYANS WERE RIGHT! TO THE SPACE ARKS!
There are some things we just don't joke about.
I am a skeptic, but I would like to clarify that very large coronal mass ejections (solar surface explosions) actually can disrupt power grids, and has in the past. If a big coronal mass ejection hit us now, or sometime in the near future, we would be in pretty bad shape. An extensive review of possible problems was published by the National Research Council entitled "Severe Space Weather Events--Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts: A Workshop Report".
"Coe, Hoopes says, does believe that 2012 would have been an important date to the ancient Maya..."
As far as I understand it, the length of the mayan calendar has to do with their creation myth, and the "end" if the calendar signifying when their god was supposed to return or something. Take that with a giant truck load of salt, because I cannot recall where I heard it and may very well have been part of the whole crack-pot-end-of-the-world theory that the "experts" are throwing around.
Apparently the people who made this chart had a hard time even finding any "2012 Believers"- there are only five sources for that side of the chart and one of them is the fake website for the 2012 film.
Who are they going to debate next, the "Time Cube" guy?
I don't think the calendar has a "length" any more than our calendar has a length. We have years the way they have years, but we could in theory count those years up to infinity (until we switch to stardates, anyway). So can the Maya.
I don't recall anything about the gods returning from my studies. The best I can think of is this: The Aztecs (not the Maya) may have had a myth about Quetzalcoatl returning. After they fell to Cortez, they needed a good excuse and pulled this out: "We thought it was our god returning because of his beard!" It's a post-hoc story at best.
lol, "It is also considered a misrepresentation of Mayan history by Mayanist scholars."
I quite liked the dinosaur comics take the Mayan calendar
http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1528
"According to the calendar in my computer, the world began on January 1st, 1970 at the stroke of midnight! It is impossible to make it go back earlier, and every moment is measured by the number of seconds since that one incredibly significant date! History is a lie! Unix software developers tried to warn us!!"
Well dammit, now I want a space ark. :o(
There was another conspiracy-theory justification for 2012 that the Yezidi Black Book prophesized a comet coming which has been similarly interpreted to mean the end of Earth. It's about as plausible as the pseudo-Mayan theory, and about as culturally sensitive to the Yezidis as the Mayan calendric hoax is to Mayan peoples...
When making a prediction always remember that the date of said event should be well after the event -released to video or T.V premier.
I predict that the end of the world will be 1 day after my death, so you better not mess with me.
By the way I'm related by 3.5 degrees to Rasputin so you know I'm right.
Boy are you guys gonna feel dumb when the world really ends in 2012.
Using my circular decorative time-keeping device, I've determined the DAY WILL END when the two clockwork devices within are aligned precisely with 12. But only at night. The sunlight keeps the day from ending in some sort of mystical fashion yet to be determined.
So all their computers are going to crash? I have an excellent deal going on Y2.012K Compliance Testing software. Call me, we'll talk!
No, no, no. This will happen.
Dec 21, 2012 is the day that the last pure-blooded Mayan dies. It will be insignificant and will go unnoticed.
Anybody remember the Harmonic Convergence? After nothing happened, a friend of mine said "well, maybe Quetzalcoatl WAS reborn into the world that day, but we won't know until he grows up."
He turned 22 this year. Kid better get his act together if he's gonna devour the world or whatever.
The relatively unpolished grammar ("Also, different Mayan cities had different long counts") detracts from the elegant motif.
IPv4 address space will run out in 2012! Oh, noes!
If you look at the Map Of The Internet by sailing along the Hilbert Curve, eventually you reach the edge, and then it's "Here Be Flying Serpents" time for you...
More seriously, some of the various Mayan calendars and prophecies referred to events centuries after 2012; 2012 is just a big round number and if you want to keep your big stone calendar rolling after that, you're going to need to upgrade to the Stone 2.0 version, or install some patches with concrete and cure it in the pyramids for a while.
"There was another conspiracy-theory justification for 2012 that the Yezidi Black Book prophesized a comet coming which has been similarly interpreted to mean the end of Earth.. . ."
Given the several asteroids zipping by every year, that one probably has better odds, anyway.
Everyone is saying the Mayans said the world is ending when it was our 21st jump that the world was ending because their calendar ends.
Most people who are a bit enlightened on the issue (it's not just about the Mayans) think 2012 is about a shift in consciousness, not big, blow-up the world movie hype. I deal with some misconceptions here: http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2009/11/11/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-2012-smugly-debunked/
There's an article on True/Slant about his too:
http://trueslant.com/colinhorgan/2009/11/02/2012-mayan-apocalypse-roland-emmerich-nibiru/
Two things - we're all searching for the truth. We all seek enlightenment. Every major religion has some form of "know the truth and the truth shall make you free." It's always amazing to me, however, where some of us look to find the truth. There may be wisdom everywhere, like Calvin and Hobbes' treasure, but the truth is not wisdom; you are lead to it by wisdom. The truth will NOT lead you to a revelation that the world will end on a specific day or that you need to eat only fish brains to be healthy. The truth will lead you to an understanding of yourself and an acceptance of a Higher Power.
And the second thing, will all of you folks that truly believe that the world is going to come to an end on December 21, 2012, please liquidate all of your worldly possessions on December 20, 2012 and box up all of your money, bonds, CDs (the money kind not the music kind), general warranty deeds, and other things of value and send them to me by overnight mail? Come on, people; if you truly believe let's see a little faith here!
"PARTY LIKE IT'S DECEMBER 20, 2012!"
I bet any believers a million dollars that the world does not end in 2012.
No, we will probably feel dead, and before that, feel all the emotions that are possible to feel, and maybe a few more.