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Mayan Calendar & 21st December 2012

The 2012 stuff is very interesting IMHO from a cultural point of view. The way the story is told seems to involve a sort of lapsed Christian outlook, but from a New Age angle. By this I mean it seems to be the Apocalypse, but for New Agers. So Christians have Revelations, New Agers who want to believe in something (but not that pesky Christianity stuff) have 2012.

Alot of it reminds me of all of the delving into Nostradamus in the '70s and '80s - but when the world failed to end in 1999, that all went quiet. One wonders what will happen when nothing happens in 2012. Perhaps some other New Age apocalyse/'prophecy' will step forward - although it's a bit tricky guessing what that might be.
 
It might all go back to the Christian apocalypse or a variant thereof, after all for some believers that threat (or promise?!) has never gone away, simply embellished ever more ornately.

Bring back the Millennium Bug, I say. For the year 3000 - it's never too early.
 
Visit Mexico – and enjoy the end of the world
Simeon Tegel reports on how the Mayan doomsday calendar is winning back tourists
Wednesday, 5 October 2011

The end of the world might not seem like the most obvious "attraction" to include in a holiday itinerary, but tourism officials in Mexico are now using the climax of the Maya calendar next year to woo US tourists who have been put off by the country's brutal drugs war.

According to some – including the Hollywood producers of the disaster movie 2012, which depicts global devastation when the calendar runs down – Maya time terminates on 21 December 2012. Dire predictions have also proliferated in a string of recent books about the fateful day.

Now, with the drugs conflict threatening Mexico's £45bn-a-year tourism industry, the government has decided to market the date to attract visitors to the stunning Mayan archaeological remains that dot the south of the country. "It is an invitation to mobilise the nation and to drive cultural tourism as one of our great assets," said Gloria Guevara Manzo, the tourism minister. "It will allow us to strengthen our national identity and the attachment to our roots."

The Maya, whose heyday was from 250AD to 900AD, lived in the rainforests of what is today southern Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Belize. Millions of Maya still live in Central America, mainly in southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, speaking more than two dozen different languages. Pictures of their colourful dress and customs fill glossy tourist brochures, yet the Maya often suffer poverty and discrimination, and were victims of genocide during Guatemala's civil war of the 1980s.

The Maya are famous today for being one of Latin America's handful of "monumental cultures", along with the Aztecs and Incas, who each left behind enduring and often breathtaking stone ruins. The reasons behind the downfall of Mayan civilisation in the 10th century are unclear but experts point to the damaging effects of wars between Mayan city states and the ecological depletion caused by growing urban populations.

The Maya were highly accomplished mathematicians and astronomers who measured time using a complex series of cycles that included units of 13, 20 and 260 days as well as calendar years. When these units coincided they gave rise to longer cycles, including one known as the Long Count, lasting approximately 1,877,000 days. It is the current Long Count, which began in 3114BC, that is due to end on 21 December 2012. But will that date be the end of the world or the start of a new epoch?

etc...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 65586.html
 
OMG! No time to visit Mexico now:

The end of the world is nigh - or is it?
Now it's Carl Johan Calleman's turn to claim that the end of the world is nigh.
By Bryony Gordon
8:51PM BST 26 Oct 2011

All things going to plan, tomorrow will be the end of the world. As the “plan” was set out by some looney tune who lives in a Swedish backwater, I wouldn’t count on it. But just in case Carl Johan Calleman has somehow alighted on the truth, I should at least mention his claims so that you can’t say I didn’t warn you (not that you’ll be able to say anything at all, it being the end of the world).

Calleman believes that the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar is October 28, 2011, and not, as was previously thought, December next year. If you are wondering what on earth – or any other planet, for that matter – qualifies Calleman to make such assertions, then let me enlighten you: in the Nineties, he quit his job as a scientist to concentrate full-time on solving the “age-old thought structures” of the Maya people.

“It seemed to me,” says Calleman on his website, “that it would be of greater value to humanity if I could solve the Mayan calendar, than if I could solve the riddle of cancer.”

I feel a tad sorry for the Mesoamerican Maya, an advanced civilisation who have, in recent years, been made to look as if they couldn’t organise a party in a brewery (or perhaps they could – they’d just send out invites for the wrong date).

Anyway, Calleman – who says that nobody can “sweep the end date question under the rug… with their intellectual integrity intact” – would perhaps like to hook up with Harold Camping, the American evangelist who preached to the world this year that Judgment Day was on May 21, with the Rapture promised for last Friday.

It was Camping’s third (failed) prediction. As a result, he is said to have retired. But he – we – should not be so downhearted. The Rapture Index is a website which describes itself as a “Dow Jones Industrial Average of end-time activity” that “could act as a precursor to the Rapture”. It currently stands at 181, just three points below the record high recorded in August.

So concerned are some that the end is nigh, they are paying Eternal Earth-Bound Pets to look after the animals they leave behind when they’re taken up. Things possibly being a little tricky on Earth after the Rapture, I wonder how the new owners will find the time to walk the dog or feed the cat.

The trouble I have believing anyone who predicts the end of the world is that they are always a) wrong and b) deluded megalomaniacs. They think their presence at the apocalypse will make them somehow special, when in all likelihood it will just make them dead. Disappointingly, I predict that the only things we will see the end of in the next year or so are The X Factor and Silvio Berlusconi’s career. Otherwise, we’ll just keep plodding along. Sadly, the end is most probably not nigh.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... is-it.html
 
http://haecceities.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/2012-calleman’s-”2011-correlation”/

Calleman's calculations undermined. At least we don't have to wait long to find out.
I recently saw a short film made in the 70s saying the Mayan calendar ends on 24.12 this year. Then again others claim it's not for another 20 years or so.
All this blather about the Mayan calendar has overshadowed the fact that 21.12.12 is also the end of the cycle of precession of the equinoxes, which happens once every 26 000 years. This is according to ancient Egyptian astronomy, although there is no accompanying prediction of anything at all happening.
 
Bigfoot73 said:
All this blather about the Mayan calendar has overshadowed the fact that 21.12.12 is also the end of the cycle of precession of the equinoxes, which happens once every 26 000 years. This is according to ancient Egyptian astronomy, although there is no accompanying prediction of anything at all happening.
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Precession is a continuous process, which, like Fort's circle, can be measured starting anywhere.

So who was around 26,000 years ago to officially 'start' this cycle? And what calendar did they use? ;)
Historically,[2] Hipparchus is credited with discovering precession of the equinoxes. The exact dates of his life are not known, but astronomical observations attributed to him by Ptolemy date from 147 BC to 127 BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession ... _equinoxes
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from what i remmember the egyptians view is to do with orions belt,
its possition in the sky

its not a date plucked out of nowhere but an astronomical alignment

iirc they called the event "ted zepi" and marked said event with a calendar based on the sky

sounds very christian dont it lol
 
It's when the Sphinx points towards Regulus, known in Arab culture as The Lion's Heart. As to why, or whether it was built all that time aqo or some time mid-cycle, nobody knows.
 
In case anyone is still unsure:

Mayans 'did not predict world to end in 2012'

The calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilisation does not predict the end of the world in December 2012 as some believe, according to experts.
A new reading of a Mayan tablet mentioning the 2012 date suggests that it refers to the end of an era in the calendar, and not an apocalypse.
The date was "a reflection of the day of creation", Mayan codes researcher Sven Gronemeyer told AP.

The day also marked the return of a Mayan god, Mr Gronemeyer added.
Bolon Yokte, the god of creation and war, was expected to return, according to Mr Gronemeyer's reading of a Mayan text carved into stone 1,300 years ago.
The date marks the end of one of the periods of roughly 400 years into which the Mayan calendar is divided.

Mexico's National Institute for Anthropological History has also tried to counter speculation that the Mayans predicted a catastrophic event for 2012.
Only two out of 15,000 registered Mayan texts mention the date 2012, according to the Institute, and no Mayan text predicts the end of the world.
"There is no prophecy for 2012. It is a marketing fallacy," Erik Velasquez, etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Reuters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16000331
 
linesmachine said:
At risk of sounding ridiculous can I ask a stupid question? Does anyone here think there is any truth in the Mayan prophecy?
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The world ends for certain people and for various reasons every day. The chances of it ending for all of us for the same reason at the same time are utterly negligible.
 
Mexico Maya begin 2012 'end of era' countdown
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16295720

Mayan priests in El Salvador have also held ceremonies to mark the occasion

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Indigenous Maya communities in southern Mexico have begun a year-long countdown to 21 December 2012, which will mark the end of a five-millenia cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar.

Some people have interpreted the prophecy as predicting the apocalypse.

But experts say it signifies the end of an era, not the end of the world.

Maya priests have been holding special religious ceremonies, and Mexican tourism officials are preparing for a surge in visitors to the region.

Mexico's tourism agency says it hopes to draw around 52 million visitors in 2012, with many heading to the Maya heartland in the southern states of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo and Tabasco.

Powerful god
The Mayan civilisation, which reached its peak between 250 and 900AD, was fascinated by astronomy, mathematics and the cycles of time.

Its Long Count calendar began in 3114BC and moves forward in 394-year periods known as Baktuns.

The winter solstice in 2012 marks the end of the 13th Baktun, a date of special significance that reflects celestial alignments recognised by modern astronomers.

The idea that it could mean the end of the world - based on a Mayan text carved into a stone 1,300 years ago - has been spread on thousands of websites.

But archaeologists and Maya experts say the prophecy predicts the return to Earth of a powerful god and the start of a new era, not a global catastrophe.

They point out that other Maya prophecies refer to events far in the future.

This has not stopped the spread of millennial fears around the world.

Tourism officials are hoping that some of those who believe the end of the world is nigh will take the opportunity to visit the Maya region before it is too late.
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There's a good account of the arguments for and against this on visually thats doing the rounds atm.

Link here

[/code]
 
Mayan art and calendar at Xultun stun archaeologists

Archaeologists working at the Xultun ruins of the Mayan civilisation have reported striking finds, including the oldest-known Mayan astronomical tables.
The site, in Guatemala, includes the first known instance of Mayan art painted on the walls of a dwelling.
A report in Science says it dates from the early 9th Century, pre-dating other Mayan calendars by centuries.
Such calendars rose to prominence recently amid claims they predicted the end of the world in 2012.

The Mayan civilisation occupied Central America from about 2000BC until its decline and assimilation following the colonisation by the Spanish from the 15th Century onwards. It still holds fascination, with many early Mayan sites still hidden or uncatalogued.

The ruins at Xultun were first discovered in 1912 and mapping efforts in the 1920s and 1970s laid out much of the site's structure.
Archaeologists have catalogued the site's features, including a 35m-tall pyramid, but thousands of structures on the 30 sq km site remain unexplored.

In 2005, William Saturno, then at the University of New Hampshire, discovered the oldest-known Mayan murals at a site just a few kilometres away called San Bartolo.

in 2010, one of Dr Saturno's students was following the tracks of more recent looters at Xultun when he discovered the vegetation-covered structure that has now been excavated.

When Mayans renovated an old structure, they typically collapsed its roof and built on top of the rubble. But for some reason, the new Xultun find had been filled in through its doorway, with the roof left intact.

Dr Saturno, who is now based at Boston University, explained that despite it being under just a metre of soil today, that served to preserve the site after more than a millennium of rainy seasons, insect traffic and encroaching plant and tree roots.

"We found that three of the room's four walls were well preserved and that the ceilings were also in good shape in terms of the paintings on them, so we got an awful lot more than we bargained for," he said.

The excavation was carried out using grants from the National Geographic Society, which has prepared a high-resolution photographic tour of the room.
It measures about 2m on each side with a 3m, vaulted ceiling, and is dominated by a stone bench, suggesting the room was a meeting place.

The east wall features a number of seated figures, nearly life-sized, dressed in black and wearing elaborate headdresses similar to a bishop's mitre.

They all look toward the north wall, on which a more elaborately dressed figure in orange holds a stylus in a hand outstretched toward a figure that Dr Saturno believes represented the king of Xultun.
"The seated figures that we see around them are involved in some narrative in which the king is being portrayed impersonating a Mayan deity and these guys are in attendance at that impersonation," Dr Saturno explained.

The relevance of the figure with the stylus seems clear: "We think this room was used as a writing room, that it's part of a complex associated with the work being done by Maya scribes."

Perhaps most intriguing among the finds were several finds related to astronomical tables, including four long numbers on the east wall that represent a cycle lasting up to 2.5 million days.
The east wall is mostly covered by tabulations of black symbols or "glyphs" that map out various astronomical cycles: that of Mars and Venus and the lunar eclipses.

The wall also features red marks that appear to be notes and corrections to the calculations; Dr Saturno said that the scribes "seem to be using it like a blackboard".

The Xultun find is the first place that all of the cycles have been found tied mathematically together in one place, representing a calendar that stretches more than 7,000 years into the future.

The Mayan numbering system for dates is a complex one in base-18 and base-20 numbers that, in modern-day terms, would "turn over" at the end of 2012.
But Dr Saturno points out that the new finds serve to further undermine the fallacy that this is tantamount to a prediction of the end of the world.
"The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7,000 years from now, things would be exactly like this," he said.

"We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343
 
rynner2 said:
The Mayan numbering system for dates is a complex one in base-18 and base-20 numbers that, in modern-day terms, would "turn over" at the end of 2012.
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I can understand where base-20 comes from; but, base-18? Why, oh why?
 
SHAYBARSABE said:
rynner2 said:
The Mayan numbering system for dates is a complex one in base-18 and base-20 numbers that, in modern-day terms, would "turn over" at the end of 2012.
Click to expand...

I can understand where base-20 comes from; but, base-18? Why, oh why?
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If anything, the article I quoted over-simplifies things! Mayan Calendars (plural) used many other counting cycles. For maximum befuddlement, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_calendar 8)
The Haab' was the Maya solar calendar made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus a period of five days ("nameless days") at the end of the year known as Wayeb' (or Uayeb in 16th C. orthography). The five days of Wayeb', were thought to be a dangerous time.
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Maya archaeologists unearth new 2012 monument
June 28th, 2012 in Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

(Phys.org) -- Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300 year-old year-old Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called “end date” for the Maya calendar on December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic find in decades, was announced today at the National Palace in Guatemala.

“This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy,” says Marcello A. Canuto, Director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at the Maya ruins of La Corona. “This new evidence suggests that the 13 Bak’tun date was an important calendrical event that would have been celebrated by the ancient Maya; however, they make no apocalyptic prophecies whatsoever regarding the date," says Canuto.

La Corona for many decades has been known as the enigmatic “Site Q,” the source of many looted sculptures whose whereabouts had remained a mystery until its rediscovery only fifteen years ago. For the past five years, Marcello A. Canuto and Tomás Barrientos Q. (Director of the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Antropológicas at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala) have directed the La Corona Regional Archaeological Project (PRALC) which has been investigating this intriguing Classic Maya city and its jungle environs.

In 2012, Canuto and Barrientos decided to excavate in front of a building that had been heavily damaged nearly 40 years ago by looters looking for carved stones and tombs. “Last year, we realized that looters of a particular building had discarded some carved stones because they were too eroded to sell on the antiquities black market,” said co-director Barrientos, “so we knew they found something important, but we also thought they might have missed something.” In fact, in 2012, excavations not only recovered 10 more discarded hieroglyphic stones but also something that the looters missed entirely—an untouched step with a set of 12 exquisitely carved stones still in their original location (in total, 22 carved stones were recovered). Combined with the known looted blocks, the original staircase had a total of no less than 264 hieroglyphs, making it one of the longest ancient Maya texts known, and the longest in Guatemala.

While the archaeological team investigated when and how this particular staircase was built, Dr. David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center of the University of Texas at Austin undertook the decipherment of the many new hieroglyphic texts. Stuart was part of the first archaeological expedition to La Corona in 1997, and has been reading and reconstructing the site’s history ever since. The stairway inscription relates 200-years’ worth of political history of La Corona, its allies, and its enemies. Consistent with these themes, some of these stones portray rulers in various poses accepting tribute, dancing, and preparing to play the Maya ballgame.
Another entirely unexpected discovery was made on another stairway block bearing 56 delicately carved hieroglyphs. Stuart recognized that it commemorated a royal visit to La Corona in AD 696 by the most powerful Maya ruler of that time, Yuknoom Yich’aak K’ahk’ of Calakmul (located in modern Campeche, Mexico), also known as Fire Claw or Jaguar Paw. Calakmul had been an immensely powerful kingdom for centuries until its king was defeated in battle by his longstanding rival Tikal (located in modern Peten, Guatemala) on August 3, 695. “Scholars had assumed that the Calakmul king died or was captured in this engagement” says Stuart, “but this new extraordinary text from La Corona text tells us otherwise.”

It turns out that the defeated Calakmul king was neither killed nor captured; in fact, in the wake of his inglorious defeat, he was visiting La Corona and perhaps other trusted allies to allay their fears after his defeat. Why the reference to the year 2012? Does it provide a prophecy of what is to come? No, the reference to this important date has much more to do with events in the 7th rather than 21st century.

The key to understanding the reference to 2012 is a unique title that this Calakmul king gives himself. In the text, he calls himself the “13 K’atun lord”—that is, the king who presided over and celebrated an important calendar ending, the 13th K’atun cycle (9.13.0.0.0). This event had occurred just a few years before in AD 692. In order to vaunt himself even further and place his reign and accomplishments into an eternal setting, he connects himself forward in time to when the next higher period of the Maya calendar would reach the same 13 number—that is, December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0).

Rather than prophesy, the 2012 reference served to place this king’s troubled reign and accomplishments into a larger cosmological framework. “This was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012,” says Stuart. This evidence is consistent with the only other reference to the 2012 date in ancient Maya inscriptions—Monument 6 from Tortuguero, Mexico. “What this text shows us is that in times of crisis, the ancient Maya used their calendar to promote continuity and stability rather than predict apocalypse,” says Canuto.

The project continues to study and record these newly carved stones, others of which record other important episodes of ancient Maya history.

Furthermore, the project plans to continue to fieldwork at La Corona, directed by Tulane University and the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, supported by the Ministry of Culture of Guatemala

More information: Images (c) Tulane University.

Provided by Tulane University

"Maya archaeologists unearth new 2012 monument." June 28th, 2012.

http://phys.org/news/2012-06-maya-archa ... ument.html
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Maya demand an end to doomsday myth

Guatemala's Mayan people accused the government and tour groups on Wednesday of perpetuating the myth that their calendar foresees the imminent end of the world for monetary gain.

"We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit. They are not telling the truth about time cycles," charged Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlaljuj Ajpop. Several films and documentaries have promoted the idea that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts that doomsday is less than two months away, on December 21, 2012. The Culture Ministry is hosting a massive event in Guatemala City—which as many as 90,000 people are expected to attend—just in case the world actually does end, while tour groups are promoting doomsday-themed getaways.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-10-maya-deman ... h.html#jCp
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Thats very helpful of them.

(of course, they will get the blame if they are wrong.)
 
2012 Mayan Apocalypse Rumors Have Dark Side, NASA Warns

2012 Mayan Apocalypse Rumors Have Dark Side, NASA Warns
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 28 November 2012 Time: 06:46 PM ET
inShare
Planet Nibiru, or Planet X
Artist's conception of the rogue planet Nibiru, or Planet X.
CREDIT: gilderm | sxc.hu
View full size image

NASA scientists took time on Wednesday (Nov. 28) to soothe 2012 doomsday fears, warning against the dark side of Mayan apocalypse rumors — frightened children and suicidal teens who truly fear the world may come to an end Dec. 21.

These fears are based on misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar. On the 21st, the date of the winter solstice, a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun comes to an end. Although Maya scholars agree that the ancient Maya would not have seen this day as apocalyptic, rumors have spread that a cosmic event may end life on Earth on that day.

Thus NASA's involvement. The space agency maintains a 2012 information page debunking popular Mayan apocalypse rumors, such as the idea that a rogue planet will hit Earth on Dec. 21, killing everyone. (In fact, astronomers are quite good at detecting near-Earth objects, and any wandering planet scheduled to collide with Earth in three weeks would be the brightest object in the sky behind the sun and moon by now.)

"There is no true issue here," David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said during a NASA Google+ Hangout event today (Nov. 28). "This is just a manufactured fantasy." [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]

Real-world consequences

Unfortunately, Morrison said, the fantasy has real-life consequences. As one of NASA's prominent speakers on 2012 doomsday myths, Morrison said, he receives many emails and letters from worried citizens, particularly young people. Some say they can't eat, or are too worried to sleep, Morrison said. Others say they're suicidal.

"While this is a joke to some people and a mystery to others, there is a core of people who are truly concerned," he said.

Not every 2012 apocalypse believer thinks the world will end on Dec. 21. Some, inspired by New Age philosophies, expect a day of universal peace and spiritual transformation. But it's impressionable kids who have NASA officials worried.

"I think it's evil for people to propagate rumors on the Internet to frighten children," Morrison said.

Myths and misconceptions

NASA scientists took questions via social media in the hour-long video chat, debunking doomsday myths from the rogue planet Nibiru to the danger of killer solar flares.

In fact, said NASA heliophysicist Lika Guhathakurta, it's true that the sun is currently in an active phase of its cycle, meaning electromagnetic energy has picked up. Large solar flares can impact electronics and navigation systems on Earth, but satellites monitoring the sun give plenty of warning and allow officials to compensate for the extra electromagnetic activity when it hits our atmosphere. What's more, Guhathakurta said, this particular solar maximum is the "wimpiest" in some time — scientists have no reason to expect solar storms beyond what our planet has weathered in the past.

Nor are any near-Earth objects, planetary or otherwise, threatening to slam into our planet on Dec. 21, said Don Yeomans, a planetary scientist who tracks near-Earth objects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The only close asteroid approach on the horizon is forecast to occur on Feb. 13, 2013, when an asteroid will pass within 4.5 Earth radii to our planet (for perspective, Earth's radius is 3,963 miles, or 6,378 kilometers). The asteroid is not going to hit Earth, Yeomans said.

Other rumors — that the Earth's magnetic field will suddenly reverse or that the planet will travel almost 30,000 light-years and fall into the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy — were also dismissed. (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles, or 10 trillion km.)

One popular rumor that the planet will undergo a complete blackout from Dec. 23 to 25 earned a "What?" and blank looks from the panel of scientists.

Ultimately, concerns about Earth's fate would be better focused on slow-acting problems such as climate change rather than some sort of cosmic catastrophe, said Andrew Fraknoi, an astronomer at Foothill College in California.

Mitzi Adams, a heliophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, agreed.

"The greatest threat to Earth in 2012, at the end of this year and in the future, is just from the human race itself," Adams said.

http://www.space.com/18678-2012-mayan-a ... -nasa.html
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'The world is going to end so I'm going to kill myself' doesn't really make a lot of sense to me!
 
Tell that to members of the, Heaven's Gate cult.
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Yeah, fair play. However, in that case, their belief system, such as it was, was that their suicides were essentially a pre-emptive stike against mortality and that by killing themselves, they'd beat the Reaper to the punch and transcend....or something.

For most of these other nail-biting neurotics though - simply killing yourself rather than being killed on 21/12 doesn't really stack up for me.Personally, I'd much prefer to get squashed by a giant asteroid on 21st Dec. Trés cool!

Hence why I'm doing my Xmas shopping this year on 22nd.
 
Am I allowed to open doors 22-25 on my advent calendar now, just in case. Or do you think I will look foolish on the morning of the 22nd with no choccy to eat?

Anyway, I'm not too worried about the end of the world. I've got tins in.
 
Ringo_ said:
Am I allowed to open doors 22-25 on my advent calendar now, just in case. Or do you think I will look foolish on the morning of the 22nd with no choccy to eat?

Anyway, I'm not too worried about the end of the world. I've got tins in.
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You can survive.
 
There's nothing I can do if it is going to happen and we'd be wiped out quickly if it was world wide so I'm going to go on as usual and not worry about it.
 
Survival kits and trips to hell, doomsday hysteria grips Russia
http://rt.com/news/mayan-doomsday-hyste ... /Published: 01 December, 2012, 00:42

RIA Novosti / Sergey Yolkin

Doomsday hysteria has gripped Russia and some of its neighbors. Travel agencies are selling tours to either heaven or hell and people are stocking up on food and fuel. Officials are publicly denying the apocalypse, hoping to calm the hype.

Those awaiting Doomsday have three weeks to finish their preparations before the date of the much publicized apocalypse allegedly predicted by Mayan calendar, that is going to happen on December 21, 2012.

Thousands of people across Russia keep stocking up their back rooms and balconies with food, fuel and other supplies they might need when disaster strikes. Some are even moving outside of cities because of the widely spread rumors that cities would be impossible to survive in after an apocalypse on Earth.

According to one of the most popular scenarios, on December 21 the sun is going to line up with the center of our Milky Way galaxy which will cause an entire blackout on Earth and a wave of different natural disasters.

Doomsday merchandize offered in Russia and Ukraine include survival kits. In the Siberian city of Tomsk such items for “meeting the end of the world” include ID cards, notepads, canned fish, a bottle of vodka, rope, a piece of soap, among other items. The packages are said to be popular among customers, more than 1,000 kits have been already sold, the company says.

Ukrainian entrepreneurs also offer a version of a doomsday kit. Just like Tomsk package, the Ukrainian one also includes alcohol: champagne for ladies and vodka for gentlemen. The rest of the kit consist of jack-knife, two-minute noodles, shampoo, soap, rope, matches and condoms.

Marina Mendelson wedding agency sells Last Day sets in Tomsk. (RIA Novosti / Yakov Andreev)

Not all doom and gloom
An apocalypse kit is not the only way for the entrepreneurial minded to cash in on the end of the world hype.

One Ukrainian enterprise is selling tours to heaven and hell for December 21 promising full return of money in case of “not getting to heaven or hell.” A trip to heaven would cost about $15, while trip to the underworld is more expensive at around $18. The agency explains difference in price by saying that Hell should be more fun.

While Ukrainian trips are even said by the firm behind to be just for fun, some individuals in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod offered far more expensive doomsday fair – one being a salvation trip in an arc. An internet ad offered seats in the arc for just 80,000-150,000 rubles, which is approximately $2,600-5,000.

Bars and nightclubs are getting ready for apocalypse day in their own way announcing theme parties and inventing special cocktails like “Total Recall” – an extremely alcoholic drink that makes you “recall your entire life.”

But doomsday hysteria isn’t isolated to just the former soviet Republic. In France authorities had to ban access to a mountain that doomsday theorists believe will be the only safe spot during the apocalypse on December 21.
At the birthplace of Mayan calendar, Mexico and Guatemala agencies offer tours “The end of the world with Maya” and “The world of Maya 2012.”

Pictures advertizing tickets to heaven sold for $15. Images taken from pokupon.ua

Russian officials cancel apocalypse
Meanwhile, in Russia rapidly growing doomsday hype has sparked a negative reaction from authorities.

Russia`s Emergency Ministry is not expecting any global cataclysms in the near future, the head of EMERCOM Vladimir Puchkov said on Friday, adding that those worried are free to call the Ministry hotline to talk about their concerns.

Another senior official took a more emotional stance about doomsday speculations. Russia`s Chief Medical Officer of Health Gennady Onishenko lashed out at those publicizing the apocalypse warning that they would end up in court.

“This directly influences people`s health. When they depress you and say that in less than one month everything is going to end, there are many people, who believe this,” he said.

Russian State Duma deputies wrote an open letter urging media to stop speculating about the doomsday. The deputy head of the Duma committee on Science and Technology publicly promised that no apocalypse is happening on December 21.

“In our committee there are academics and scientists, and with all responsibility we state that there will be no doomsday. Who made that up and circulates this around?” he asked.

Mayan legacy
The speculations about December 21, 2012, doomsday are prompted by the Mayan calendar ending on this very day.
The Mayan civilization reached its height f
rom 300 AD to 900 AD was based in modern day Mexico and Central America. Mayans were good astronomers and created very precise calendars.

Their Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 BC, measuring time in 394-year periods known as Baktuns. The thirteenth Baktun ends around Dec 21, 2012, which first produced rumors about the end of the world.

Despite numerous scientists and Mayan descendants denying the connection between the end of the calendar and the end of the world the rumors quickly got out of control causing public hysteria.

It is not known why this particular end of the world theory became so popular. Over two dozen doomsday predictions have failed to materialize since the beginning of the 20th century.
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