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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2010 : 04:40:38
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The 2012 apocalypse as sort of predicted by the Mayan Long Count Calender might not be arriving as scheduled. This will come as a great disappointment to those members of the woo community who were counting on the end of the world & everything to give them some credibility.
It's a good news/bad news situation for believers in the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. The good news is that the Mayan "Long Count" calendar may not end on Dec. 21, 2012 (and, by extension, the world may not end along with it). The bad news for prophecy believers? If the calendar doesn't end in December 2012, no one knows when it actually will — or if it has already.
A new critique, published as a chapter in the new textbook "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World" (Oxbow Books, 2010), argues that the accepted conversions of dates from Mayan to the modern calendar may be off by as much as 50 or 100 years. That would throw the supposed and overhyped 2012 apocalypse off by decades and cast into doubt the dates of historical Mayan events. (The doomsday worries are based on the fact that the Mayan calendar ends in 2012, much as our year ends on Dec. 31.)
The Mayan calendar was converted to today's Gregorian calendar using a calculation called the GMT constant, named for the last initials of three early Mayanist researchers. Much of the work emphasized dates recovered from colonial documents that were written in the Mayan language in the Latin alphabet, according to the chapter's author, Gerardo Aldana, University of California, Santa Barbara professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies. |
So, where does that leave the woo-folks? Nowhere, really, because the calender predicts no such thing -- it's just another calender, albeit prettier and more interesting than the average.
"Trust in the prophecies if you must, but not so much as to lend the prophets your credit card." ~~ The Skeptical Curmudgeon
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2010 : 05:15:01 [Permalink]
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Ha Filthy, I almost posted this same thing this morning.
My mom is going to be so disappointed. She has an evacuation plan all ready. |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2010 : 05:47:34 [Permalink]
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| I just got my 2013 Mayan Far Side calender in the mail! |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2010 : 07:14:12 [Permalink]
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| It was a fraud from the get-go. The Mayans believed that when their calendar ends it just starts again. I don't know who is more stupid and annoying, religious fundamentalists or new age dickheads. |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2010 : 08:03:40 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by The Rat
It was a fraud from the get-go. The Mayans believed that when their calendar ends it just starts again. I don't know who is more stupid and annoying, religious fundamentalists or new age dickheads.
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Flip a coin and it might land on it's edge. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Ebone4rock
SFN Regular
USA
894 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2010 : 09:19:50 [Permalink]
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| According to my calender the world is going to end Dec 31st 2010. I hear that you can stop Armageddon by buying a new 2011 calender. |
Haole with heart, thats all I'll ever be. I'm not a part of the North Shore society. Stuck on the shoulder, that's where you'll find me. Digging for scraps with the kooks in line. -Offspring |
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Robb
SFN Regular
USA
1223 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2010 : 06:03:53 [Permalink]
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| Oh no! I just blew through my savings thinking the world was going to end! |
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. - George Washington |
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softlove365
New Member
Somalia Northern Region
2 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2010 : 08:25:00 [Permalink]
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| What is going on here |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 11/03/2010 : 19:53:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by The Rat
It was a fraud from the get-go. The Mayans believed that when their calendar ends it just starts again. I don't know who is more stupid and annoying, religious fundamentalists or new age dickheads.
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We should make that difficult question into a Poll. |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2010 : 19:55:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by softlove365
What is going on here
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Welcome to SFN, softlove365! Skeptical discussion is happening here. Whazzup in northern Somalia? |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Posponed until further notice.
