just for the heck of it i went and picked one website at random and came up with this that, yes, i am copying and pasting from that site. here it is.....
Most of the Mayan calendars were short. The Tzolk'in calendar lasted for 260 days and the Haab' approximated the solar year of 365 days. The Mayans then combined both the Tzolk'in and the Haab' to form the "Calendar Round", a cycle lasting 52 Haab's (around 52 years, or the approximate length of a generation). Within the Calendar Round were the trecena (13 day cycle) and the veintena (20 day cycle). Obviously, this system would only be of use when considering the 18,980 unique days over the course of 52 years. In addition to these systems, the Mayans also had the "
Venus Cycle". Being keen and highly accurate astronomers they formed a calendar based on
the location of Venus in the night sky. It's also possible they did the same with the other planets in
the Solar System.
Using the Calendar Round is great if you simply wanted to remember the date of your birthday or significant religious periods, but what about recording history? There was no way to record a date older than 52 years.
The end of the Long Count = the end of the Earth?
The Mayans had a solution. Using an innovative method, they were able to expand on the 52 year Calendar Round. Up to this point, the Mayan Calendar may have sounded a little archaic - after all, it was possibly based on religious belief, the menstrual cycle, mathematical calculations using the numbers 13 and 20 as the base units and a heavy mix of astrological myth. The only principal correlation with the modern calendar is the Haab' that recognised there were 365 days in one solar year (it's not clear whether the Mayans accounted for leap years). The answer to a longer calendar could be found in the "Long Count", a calendar lasting 5126 years.
I'm personally very impressed with this dating system. For starters, it is numerically predictable and it can accurately pinpoint historical dates. However, it depends on a base unit of 20 (where modern calendars use a base unit of 10). So how does this work?
The base year for the Mayan Long Count starts at "0.0.0.0.0". Each zero goes from 0-19 and each represent a tally of Mayan days. So, for example, the first day in the Long Count is denoted as 0.0.0.0.1. On the 19th day we'll have 0.0.0.0.19, on the 20th day it goes up one level and we'll have 0.0.0.1.0. This count continues until 0.0.1.0.0 (about one year), 0.1.0.0.0 (about 20 years) and 1.0.0.0.0 (about 400 years). Therefore, if I pick an arbitrary date of 2.10.12.7.1, this represents the Mayan date of
approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.
This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day
could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.
Doomsday
When something ends (even something as innocent as an ancient calendar), people seem to think up
the most extreme possibilities for the end of civilization as we know it. A brief scan of the internet will pull up the most popular to some very weird ways that we will, with little logical thought, be wiped off the face of the planet. Archaeologists and mythologists on the other hand believe that the Mayans predicted an
age of enlightenment when 13.0.0.0.0 comes around; there isn't actually much evidence to suggest doomsday will strike. If anything, the Mayans predict a religious miracle, not anything sinister.
Myths are abound and seem to be fuelling movie storylines. It looks like the new
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is even based around the Mayan myth that 13 crystal skulls can save humanity from certain doom. This myth says that if the 13 ancient skulls are not brought together at the right time,
the Earth will be knocked off its axis. This might be a great plotline for blockbuster movies, but it also highlights the hype that can be stirred, lighting up religious, scientific and not-so-scientific ideas that the world is doomed.
Some of the most popular space-based threats to the Earth and mankind focus on
Planet X wiping most life off the planet, meteorite impacts, black holes,
killer solar flares, Gamma Ray Bursts from star systems, a rapid ice age and a polar (magnetic) shift. There is so much evidence against these things happening in 2012, it's shocking just how much of a following they have generated. Each of the above "threats" needs their own devoted article as to why there is no hard evidence to support the hype.
But the fact remains, the Mayan Doomsday Prophecy is purely based on a calendar which we believe hasn't been designed to calculate dates beyond 2012. Mayan archaeo-astronomers are even in debate as to whether the Long Count is designed to be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or whether the calendar simply continues to 20.0.0.0.0 (approximately 8000 AD) and then reset. As
Karl Kruszelnicki brilliantly writes:
"
…when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 - or good-ol' 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas." - Excerpt from Dr Karl's "
Great Moments in Science".
Sources:
Dr Karl's Great Moments in Science,
IHT,
2012 Wiki
the url of the source is
No Doomsday in 2012 - Universe Today.
a reference point from wikipedia for those interested....
December 21 - 11:11
UTC.
Winter Solstice in the
Northern Hemisphere,
Summer Solstice in the
Southern Hemisphere.
[3]
December 21 - The
Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, notably used by the
Maya civilization among others of
pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, completes its thirteenth
b'ak'tun cycle since the calendar's mythical starting point (equivalent to
August 11,
3114 BC in the
proleptic Gregorian calendar, according to the "GMT-correlation"
JDN= 584283).
[4] The Long Count
b'ak'tun date of this starting point (13.0.0.0.0) is repeated, for the first time in a span of approximately 5,125
solar years. The significance of this period-ending to the pre-Columbian Maya themselves is unclear, and there is an incomplete
inscription (
Tortuguero Monument 6) that records this date. It is also to be found carved on the walls of the Temple of Inscriptions in
Palenque, where it functions as a base date from which other dates are computed.
[5] This date figures prominently in the religious
syncretism of
New Age Mayanism.
December 23 - The alternative date for the completion of the thirteenth
b'ak'tun cycle in the Maya calendar, using a version of the GMT-correlation based on a JDN of 584285 (a.k.a. the "astronomical" or "
Lounsbury correlation"), which is supported by a smaller number of Mayanist researchers.
[6]
The sun will reverse its own magnetic poles as a result of reaching the end of the current 11-year
sunspot cycle.
[9]The sun will reverse its own magnetic poles as a result of reaching the end of the current 11-year
sunspot cycle.[9]
2012 geophysical and cosmological speculations
John Major Jenkins and others
[11] claim that an
alignment will occur when the
sun rises above the
horizon on
December 21 2012, at which point the sun will rise in the middle of the
Milky Way Galaxy, thus causing an alignment between the
earth, sun, and the galactic center.
[12] It is claimed that this event will cause numerous changes on Earth. However, the event is only a visual phenomenon from the earth's perspective, which is caused by the
precession of the equinoxes or the 26,000 year wobble of the earth, and thus only changes our perspective, not the actual
position of the earth in relation to the galaxy. In short, there is no
gravitational force or
radiation to be expected from this event because other than the tilt of the earth, nothing will be any different from what occurs in any other
solstice.
[13][14][15]
There are also claims such as those of
Michael Tsarion [16] that an actual
physical alignment of our entire
solar system will occur with the
horizontal plane of the
Milky Way Galaxy on that day. The solar system is moving around the center of the galaxy every 225
million years or so, and while doing so is moving up and down in a cycle
crossing the plane every 33 million years. According to the Journal
Nature, however, there is evidence of the solar system crossing the galactic
plane 3 million years ago. This would mean that we are moving away from the galactic
plane, not toward it, and we will not be due to cross it for another 30 million years.
[17]
There are also theories that a currently unknown
planet, sometimes referred to as
planet x or
Nibiru, which supposedly has an odd
orbit that only enters the local
solar system every 3600 years will return in 2012 causing many problems.
[18] The idea is traced back to
Zecharia Sitchin's translations of
Sumerian texts, and specifically to his interpretation of the VA 243 cylinder seal, which he says shows that the Sumerians knew of 12 planets (sun, moon, and ten others). This idea has been challenged by his peers, most notably
Michael Heiser.
[19] [20]
Among other possible scenarios is that a shift of the Earth's magnetic poles may occur, and that this will leave the earth vulnerable to harmful radiation from the sun.
[21] According to NASA magnetic pole reversal does not occur on a particular day or year, but over the course of thousands of years. Furthermore, the magnetic field does not vanish during this natural cycle, but becomes more complex as it makes the transition.
[22]
Some proponents of the pole shift scenario claim that this shift would be a physical movement of the poles of the earth, and not simply a
magnetic shift. This event is called a true
polar wander. Earth has experienced a few degree
shift in the past, but nowhere near a reversal, and there is no reason to suggest this is likely or even possible. According to William Sager, a
Texas A&M Oceanographer, a slight shift in the physical pole occurs at a rate between 5 and 10
degrees per million years, which means that this event could not happen on a particular day or year but only over a long period of time.
[23]
2012 metaphysical speculations
2012 is claimed by some with
New age beliefs to be a
great year of spiritual transformation (or alternatively an
apocalypse). There is disagreement among believers whether 2012 will see an end of civilization, or
humanity will be elevated to a higher level.
[24]
Many esoteric sources[
who?] interpret the completion of the thirteenth
B'ak'tun cycle in the
Long Count of the
Maya calendar (which occurs on
December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.
Several authors have published works which claim that a major, world-changing event will take place in 2012:
- The 1997 book The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin claims that, according to certain algorithms of the Bible code, an asteroid or comet will collide with the Earth. Drosnin also states in his book that the Bible code only predicts possibilities.
- The 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl by Daniel Pinchbeck discusses theories of a possible global awakening to psychic connection by the year 2012, creating a noosphere.
- Riley Martin claims that Biaviian aliens will allow passage aboard their 'Great Mother Ship' when the Earth is 'transformed' in 2012.
- Terence McKenna's numerological novelty theory suggests a point of singularity in which humankind will go through a great shift in consciousness.
- Dannion Brinkley, in his 2007 book, Secrets of the Light, a follow-up to his 1995 bestseller Saved by the Light, claims "that by the year 2012 humanity will experience unprecedented mental and spiritual transformations, coinciding precisely with the Earth's passage through great physical upheaval" (Brinkley 96).[25]
2012 in fiction
Literature
- Methuselah's Children (1941/1958) and Time Enough for Love (1973) by Robert A. Heinlein: A crucial meeting of the Howard Families takes place, following the election of Nehemiah Scudder for president of the USA. In both novels, viewpoint character Lazarus Long is asked what happened at this meeting as he is the last living eyewitness; in both novels he declines to answer. Nehemiah Scudder establishes a religious dictatorship in the USA.
- Decipher (2001) by Stel Pavlou depicts the discovery of Atlantis and a polar shift being caused by solar flare activity.
- Domain (2002) and Resurrection (2000) by author Steve Alten: A fictional series that tells the events of the Gabriel twins after discovering the mystery behind 2012.
- 2012: The War for Souls by author Whitley Strieber (2007) is a fictional novel about three parallel earths and the occurrences leading up to December 21, 2012 in each as the walls between them begin to thin and allow passage through gateways to the others. A film adaptation is proposed, produced by Michael Bay. [26]
Comics
- The Invisibles ("The Invisible Kingdom," 1999–2000): The Invisibles' "fictional" universe expands into the meta-context of the "higher universe," possibly our own.
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki: In the 6th part of this manga, the protagonists Jolyne Kujo, Hermes, Emporio, Anasui and Weather Report have to stop the villain Enrico Pucci from erasing the universe. Pucci obtains the stand Stairway to Heaven, which has the power of rewriting the universe, and tries to use the stand to create the perfect world for his master Dio. All these events occur in 2012, with the current universe ending near the completion of the thirteenth cycle of the Mayan calendar.
Music
- "A Certain Shade of Green," a song from the Incubus album S.C.I.E.N.C.E., references 2012 in the following lines: Are you gonna stand around till 2012 A.D.? / What are you waiting for, a certain shade of green?. December 21, 2012 also appears to be the date when the video for the song "Warning" is supposed to take place.
- Genesis's song Get'em Out By Friday from their 1972 album Foxtrot, sets "18/9/2012" (on the printed operistic-dialog lyrics) as the date when "Genetic Control" would set a height restriction on human beings so that twice as many people could fit on real estate properties.
- The Hed PE song "I.F.O." (to be found on their self-titled album), which is about UFO sightings and governmental conspiracies to cover them up, references the year 2012: "Prepare to meet your maker in the skies over the pyramids / Check Stonehenge / Go ask the Mayans / 2012 soon come / I will be waitin' sayin' I told you so / When the skies are ripped open / And the mothership lands on your cynical ***".
- Stones Throw Records artist Dudley Perkins released his LP, entitled 'Expressions (2012 A.U.)', in 2006
- The instrumental song "December 21, 2012" by Frodus, which appears as a B-side to their best-selling 7" vinyl single of their Devo cover "Explosions" (Released 1997).
- The Anaal Nathrakh song "Timewave Zero" is about the apparent end of the world on December 21, 2012. The lyrics are translated as "The 21st Of December, 2012, The time will come"
- The A Day To Remember song "Fast Forward to 2012" refers to the world ending in 2012 as a warning for friends to do something to prepare.
- British nu-rave outfit Klaxons sing about apocalyptic horsemen in their song "Four Horsemen Of 2012" from the 2007 album Myths of the Near Future.
- The song "2012 — Demise of the 5th Sun" by the melodic death metal band Scar Symmetry is a reference to the year 2012. "For the lines on the fractal wave / Fit the course of history / They're created to work as one till the end / When the winter solstice comes / Actualizing the prophecy / The demise in 2012 realized"
- The Testament song "3 Days in Darkness", off of The Gathering album is a song about 2012, and speaks of the earth being swallowed in molten fire.
- VNV Nation's album Praise The Fallen" has the subtitle "PTF 2012", which is also the name of a track in the album, which seems to be predominantly about an upcoming war. The song, "Honour" starts with the line, "Passive fields, January 2012..."
- Heavy metal band Burnt By The Sun's two albums both deal with prophecies concerning the year 2012.
- "2012" is the name of the 2005 album by the experimental rock band Old Time Relijun, and several songs make references to ancient Mayan culture, such as "Burial Mound" and "The King of Lost Light."
- On the band Hella's album There's No 666 in Outer Space there is a track called "2012 and Countless" in which the only words are "There's no 666 in Outer Space" repeated.
- Metal band Ewigkeit's album Radio Ixtlan has a track entitled "Live at Palenque 2012" referencing both the Mayan calendar date and the site at which the Temple of Inscriptions where it is carved.
- Canibus mentions the year 2012 and December 21, 2012 on his Poet Laureate Infinity vocals and on his 2007 album For Whom the Beat Tolls.
- Industrial metal band Hanzel und Gretyl's fifth album is called 2012: Zwanzig Zwölf referencing the belief that the world will end in this year, as foretold in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
- On DJ Muggs & Sick Jacken's album Legend of the Mask and the Assassin, they "prophetize" armageddon and other catastrophic events occurring in "2012 (feat. Cynic)."
Film
Television
Games
Radio
See also
Notes
- <LI id=cite_note-0>^ Near Earth Object Fact Sheet <LI id=cite_note-1>^ Homepage - London 2012 <LI id=cite_note-USNO-2>^ United States Naval Observatory (2007-01-28). "Earth's Seasons: Equinoxes, Solstices, Perihelion, and Aphelion, 2000-2020". http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/EarthSeasons.php. <LI id=cite_note-3>^ See Finley (2002), Houston (1989, pp.49–51), Miller and Taube (1993, pp.50–52), Voss (2006, p.138), Wagner (2006, pp.281–283). Note that Houston 1989 mistakenly writes "3113 BC" (when "-3113" is meant), and Miller and Taube 1993's mention of "2 August" is a (presumed) erratum. <LI id=cite_note-4>^ Wagner (2006, p.281; also ill.443). <LI id=cite_note-5>^ After a modified proposal championed by Floyd Lounsbury; sources that have used this correlation include Houston (1989, p.51), and in particular Schele and Freidel (1990, pp.430 et seq.). See also commentary by Finley (2002), who although making an assessment that the "[584285 correlation yielding end-date of December 23] is now more popular with Mayanists", expresses a personal preference for the 584283 correlation. <LI id=cite_note-6>^ NASA, Intel, SGI Plan to 'Soup Up' Supercomputer <LI id=cite_note-7>^ IBM Tapped For 20-Petaflop Government Supercomputer <LI id=cite_note-8>^ The Sun Does a Flip <LI id=cite_note-9>^ When is the Digital TV Switchover? The different regions and dates <LI id=cite_note-10>^ Jenkins, John M. (1998). Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. <LI id=cite_note-11>^ "Why 2012?". http://www.artideas.com/Why2012/Why2012.html. <LI id=cite_note-12>^ "Activity: Precession of the Equinoxes". Activity for Precession of the Equinoxes. <LI id=cite_note-13>^ "Precession of the Equinoxes". Stability of Lagrange Points. <LI id=cite_note-14>^ "Precession of the Earth's Rotation Axis". http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/time/precession.html. <LI id=cite_note-15>^ (2006). The Future of Mankind [video presentation]. Los Angeles: Grenada forum. <LI id=cite_note-16>^ Bahcall, John N.. "The Sun's motion perpendicular to the galactic plane". http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v316/n6030/abs/316706a0.html. <LI id=cite_note-17>^ "Planet X Nibiru". http://churchofcriticalthinking.org/planetx.html. <LI id=cite_note-18>^ "Sitchin is Wrong website". http://sitchiniswrong.com. <LI id=cite_note-19>^ Heiser, Dr. Michael. "The Myth of a 12th Planet: A Brief Analysis of Cylinder Seal VA 243". http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/VA243seal.pdf. <LI id=cite_note-20>^ (2009). Nostradamus 2012 [video presentation]. The History Channel. <LI id=cite_note-21>^ "Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field". NASA - Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field. <LI id=cite_note-22>^ ScienceDaily. "Texas A&M Oceanographer Challenges Plate Tectonics As Reason For Poles' Shift". Texas A&M Oceanographer Challenges Plate Tectonics As Reason For Poles' Shift. <LI id=cite_note-Religioustolerance-23>^ Predictions that the world's end or a major transition will come on or about 2012-DEC-21, Religioustolerance.org <LI id=cite_note-24>^ Brinkley, Dannion. (2007) Secrets of the Light. New York: Harper One.
- ^ "Michael Bay Confirmed for ''2012''". 2007-09-24. http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=5922. Retrieved on 11 July 2008.
References
Argüelles, José (1987).
The Mayan Factor: Path Beyond Technology.
Bear & Company.
Drosnin, Michael (1997).
The Bible Code. New York, NY: Touchstone Press. Finley, Michael (2002).
"The Correlation Question".
The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy.
Shaw Communications. Retrieved on 2007-06-04.
Houston, Stephen D. (1989).
Reading the Past: Maya Glyphs. London:
British Museum Publications.
ISBN 0-7141-8069-6.
OCLC 18814390.
Miller, Mary; and
Karl Taube (1993).
The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London:
Thames & Hudson.
ISBN 0-500-05068-6.
OCLC 27667317. Morrison, Grant, and various artists (1995–2000)
The Invisibles, vol. 1 issues 1–25, vol. 2 issues 1–22, vol. 3 issues 12–1 (the third volume is numbered in descending order). New York, NY: Vertigo Comics.
Pinchbeck, Daniel (2006).
2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl. New York:
Penguin Books.
Schele, Linda; and David Freidel (1990).
A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York:
William Morrow.
ISBN 0-688-07456-1.
OCLC 21295769. Voss, Alexander (2006). "Astronomy and Mathematics". in
Nikolai Grube (ed.).
Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne:
Könemann. pp. 130–143.
ISBN 3-8331-1957-8.
OCLC 71165439. Wagner, Elizabeth (2006). "Maya Creation Myths and Cosmography". in
Nikolai Grube (ed.).
Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (Assistant eds.). Cologne:
Könemann. pp. 280–293.
ISBN 3-8331-1957-8.
OCLC 71165439.
Retrieved from "
2012 - Wikipedia"
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there is alot here. i just want to make sure i am not dumb.
here is the videos from history channel. at least one of them. you can go to youtube and see the rest.
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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYZtMwIPb4c