Given that this is a forum where we reserve the right to explore (almost ) all, could those proponents of this 2012 coming 'disaster' tell me how the year is predicted so precisely? It seems one can pick the supposed orbital period of this supposed planet virtually at random from many numbers. 3643 years seems a favourite, but 3640 years ago the earth did not stop spinning, nor the poles flip - in fact, not a lot appears to have happened.
With apologies to BOAC who is obviously sceptical about this Planet X baloney!
I use the imperfect but sometimes adequate Wikipeda as a source...
Quote:
The Nibiru collision is a disastrous encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object (either a collision or a near miss) which certain subcultural groups believe will take place in the near future. Believers in this doomsday event variously refer to this object either as Nibiru, Planet X or Wormwood. The idea was first proposed in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the website ZetaTalk.[1] Lieder describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extra-terrestrials called Zetas (from the Zeta Reticuli star system; see Betty and Barney Hill) through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the Solar System in May 2003 (later revised to around 2010), causing a pole shift that would destroy most of humanity. This idea has subsequently spread beyond Lieder's website and has been embraced by numerous internet doomsday groups, most of which tie the collision to the 2012 doomsday prediction. The idea that a planet-sized object could possibly collide with Earth in the near future is not supported by any scientific evidence and has been roundly rejected as pseudoscience by astronomers and planetary scientists.
If this is going to happen in 2012, why then are those in power spending lots of money on the Olympics, why the outcry over global warming (climate change), bu66er I've only 3 more years to party, or is it just another load of bull sh*t. the later I presume.
Thread change: How come the same people that tell us the ice caps will melt in 20 years, can't tell us what the weather will be like next week?
Personally I find 'exploring' all the various 'theories' quite fascinating as is probing the believers. Here we have another 'Nostrodamus' moment which appears to run as folk-lore through many ancient civilisations - remind me again when JB started...................?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthur
How come the same people that tell us the ice caps will melt in 20 years, can't tell us what the weather will be like next week?
- have you noticed how they are bringing out more and more pretty 'met ladies' on TV as a distraction while the forecasts get less and less accurate?
2012 is apparently when the Mayan calendar runs out. Many commentators have speculated that this signifies the end of the world, because the Mayans were very clever (so clever in fact that they don't exist anymore) and must have known of such things, because they were able to do geometry, and make calendars, and other clever stuff. Personally I will reserve judgement on the Mayans until 2012, I mean it's only three years away, after all.
2012 is also when certain Russian astronomers predict that the next mini Ice Age will begin, due to a lack of sunspot activity. Personally I believe the Russians, they're very clever people, they got into space before anyone else, and they don't have any axe to grind vis a vis the whole Gooble Wraming boll1x. Also, their predictions tally with my own observations on what is happening with the "weather".
I think commentary on 'climate change' should be reserved for those of us who actually get outdoors a bit, work on the land or with it, do stuff outside, and have to put up with getting wet/cold/hot/dry/windblown/snowed on/etc during the course of our daily lives, and verboten for people/academics/journalists/politicians/other ignorant but self important wankers who mistakenly think they know better than the rest of us, but who never leave the home or office, and who base their assumptions about the climate on the crap (generated by other people just like them) which they have read whilst ensconsed in their various controlled environments /etc.
The end of the world has been predicted and postponed at least a dozen times during my short 42 years on it. Same goes for Peak Oil. Neither has happened yet, but I do admit hearing the faint cry of "Wolf" on a regular basis.
Maybe Betty and Barney Hill did get abducted by aliens. I think that only a complete fool would cling to the bizarre and ridiculous notion that we are alone in the Universe, and if aliens are anything like us, then that's exactly the sort of thing they would do, because it's precisely what we would do, and in all honesty, what we will do, in the fullness of time and technology.
I am personally acquainted with a couple who claim to have been investigated in just such a way - twice. Actually only she claims that; she's a New Age spiritualist weirdo type, and he's a very doer carpenter who clams up when the subject is raised. Maybe they're just on drugs, but my assessment of them is that even if she's a nutcase, he almost certainly isn't, and there are some scary similarities in their stories. He also doesn't strike me as being a druggie.
Only three years and we'll know! Meantime, normal life continues.
If this is going to happen in 2012, why then are those in power spending lots of money on the Olympics, why the outcry over global warming (climate change),
- well, some would say if they didn't, you would want to know why, and then they would have to 'admit it'.................................................. and add on why not spend the dosh as it there would be nothing to spend it on in 2013. Where's the party?
Wikipedia: The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar forms the basis for a New Age belief, first forecast by José Argüelles, that a cataclysm will take place on or about December 21, 2012, a forecast that mainstream Mayanist scholars consider a misinterpretation, yet is commonly referenced in pop-culture media as the 2012 problem.
For example, Sandra Noble, executive director of the Mesoamerican research organization FAMSI, notes that "[f]or the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle". However, she considers the portrayal of December 2012 as a doomsday or cosmic-shift event to be "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in."
It's PARTY TIME (again)
I mean we have all the luck. We get the only chance in a 1000 years to celebrate the end of a millenium, and just 12 years later we get the chance to celebrate the end of cycle, and start of a new one over 5000 years long.
2012 is apparently when the Mayan calendar runs out
Only for New Age loonies who have no understanding of the Mayan calendars (plural): the two short counts repeat in synch every 52 years approx., and were used to document seasonal events and human-scale events. The long count was used to record historical and other events.
Grasping for comparisons here, if one considers our calendar consists of 3 nested cycles, of which two are closed (day, month which reset) and years (which increments forever), the Long Count consists of 9 cycles, the first 8 of which are closed and the 9th is open. At the 5th cycle, you're counting in units of 144,000 days, which is quite a lot. So Mayans tended to only date things using the first 5 cycles because all the others are currently zero. It's the 5th cycle which goes back to zero in 1012. However, the 6th cycle will increment by 1, and the 7-9th cycles will remain unchanged.
It's like someone who looks at a Western calendar which doesn't print the year, only the days and months, so comes to the conclusion that the world will end on December 31st.
Still, I expect it's all good for a few crackpots, their books and TV programs.
