Doom in 2012?

[pyan]

I would have thought it was more believable if it had prophesied the end of the world in 1697, along with the end of the Mayan nation...

[Nik]

Um, like Mr SpoonBender learning about Jacko's untimely death via phone-call...

I'm reminded of wondrous Poul Anderson Classic SciFi novelette 'No Truce With Kings' where, in a post-apocalyptic world, human-taming Vulcan-alikes pass themselves off as a religious sect with 'mental powers'. Scheme comes apart at bayonet-point when one senior sect member is heard to order, 'Inform the Adepts'...

[PTeppic]

Originally Posted by Granfalloon

University of Florida anthropologist Susan Gillespie says the 2012 phenomenon comes "from media and from other people making use of the Maya past to fulfill agendas that are really their own."

Roland Emmerich's own agenda is the movie business, i.e. his next effects-laden catastrophe-fest, the aptly and pointedly titled "2012"

[Xelebes]

I'm just wondering if there will be excess of radiation in 2012 and we will become T-Ray-fied.

[Granfalloon]

This is roughly the kind of reaction I was expecting - or should I say - hoping for. I just threw it out there as kind of a quip, a jest, a buffoonery, a monkeyshine... you know, a gag. Obviously the Mayans figured if they lasted that long, they could simply extend the calendar.

As far as the alignment with the center of the galaxy thing, I wasn't aware of that before either. I know for example that HIJKLMNO - rays will not reach us because of the dense water clouds out in space. (He stated with tongue gouged firmly into one cheek).

[Granfalloon]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

I'm just wondering if there will be excess of radiation in 2012 and we will become T-Ray-fied.

Or perhaps the seas will turn to boiling vegetable oil, bubble over the land and we'll be French-Ray-Fried. Okay, I admit - that was pretty bad.

[skeptical]

Remarkably, a lot of people take this 2012 thing really seriously. They fully expect it to be the end of the world. Little do they know that the doom is upon us already, and we aint gonna make it past the end of the week!!!

PS : note that I did not specify which week.

[Granfalloon]

Originally Posted by Nik
... 'S-Rays' that cause so much of human population to cling to unverifiable fantasies ??

Originally Posted by Interference

Any reference for this, Nik?

I think he meant 'BS-rays'.

[Drachir]

Alright, I give up. What is so unusual about a meteorite on Mars? Surely there must have been thousands if not millions of hits.

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by Drachir

Alright, I give up. What is so unusual about a meteorite on Mars? Surely there must have been thousands if not millions of hits.

If you're talking about the one discovered by the Mars rover, it's not that it is unusual for there to be one, but because it's an iron meteorite it helps NASA investigate water presence on Mars.

[mosaix]

More on the meteorite on Mars...

Apparently it's too big to have survived the trip to the surface with the current Martian atmosphere.

If they can discover the age of the meteorite it will give an indication of the makeup of the atmosphere at the time that it landed.

[Harpo]

Any chance of an update on this topic?

[Perpetual Man]

A nice time to bump the thread Harpo as I saw this a couple of days ago...

The End of the World? Probably not.

[Alex, The G and T]

... And i about bust a gut at the local newscast this evening...

Longtime Chief of the Arcata City Fire Department announced his intention to retire.

He's a familiar face, over the years, explaining the catastrophe of the day on the evening news. A 60-something, Jar-head looking guy with shaven head, a goatee and a twinkle in his eye, and he dead-panned this beautifully:

"I have given the City of Arcata official notice that I shall retire effective December 11, 2012. I don't really believe in this Mayan Calendar nonsense; but have decided that I would rather watch the end of the world as a retired person."

[INed]

He-he

we can be more sure in the End if nuclear buttons will be pushed. Oh, Lord Somebody predicted that in 2012....