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DigiCatRedux

macrumors member
Aug 25, 2008
98
0
Somewhere in New England, USA.
My Birthday is Dec 21st, so if that's true - somebody better throw me one Hell of a party!
So many ways to come to an ending:
http://www.exitmundi.nl/

Just for the record, I don't think it'll be "the end of the world" - there seems to be a huge confusion about when the Sun actually crosses the galactic plane and lines-up dead-center with the galactic core, vs the illusion of a plane crossing... which happens a lot more often then you might think.
Try twice a year.
Every year, around the time of the Winter solstice, the Sun positions itself so that from our vantage point it appears to cross the galactic core. Six months later, it does the same thing.

When I say illusion of a plane crossing, it's because when this happens twice yearly, the Sun is not actually sitting in direct alignment between the galactic core and the circular plane of the galaxy - it just appears that way from our vantage point. The Sun does not travel around the galactic plane in a straight even orbit - it oscillates, or wobbles up and down during its journey with the Milky Way... and thus, dips above and below the true galactic plane several times along this trip.

So when does a true plane-crossing happen? At a distance of about 25,000 light years from the galactic core, it takes the Sun somewhere close to 240,000,000 of our years to travel one complete rotation of the Milky Way. It is believed that during this trip, the Suns oscillation will have it crossing the galactic plane at best, maybe 5 to 6 times as it rises and falls below the line of the galactic plane - meaning we actually physically cross the plane somewhere in the neighborhood of once every 40,000,000 years or so.
That's quite a time span -
and the last time we crossed the plane? depending on whom you ask, the figure can vary from about 8,000,000 years ago, to 18,000,000. Either way,
it means we're actually moving away from any direct Sun-galactic center-galactic plane crossing.

Considering the Earth is generally accepted as being 4.5 billion years old, this means our planet has seen about 113 or so of these actual crossings.
Still here. Life still crawling around.

So why all the hype? Because it's easier the sell books and tv shows and disaster theories to the public, when you add bad science to an ancient calendar - who's actual start/stop dates are still being debated.
Dec 21, 2012? Probably didn't mean squat to the Maya.

I wouldn't worry about it - personally I'm a little more worked up about what's happening with the U.S. economy at the moment - that certainly is something that could impact myself & a lot of others directly, and disastrously.
 

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
Re: "the Maya are long since dead"

The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline nor with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas. Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideologies (and structured by the almost total adoption of Roman Catholicism). Many different Mayan languages continue to be spoken as primary languages today; the Rabinal Achí, a play written in the Achi' language, was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.

(From the Wikipedia article: Maya civilization)

I stand corrected - thanks for the link and the history. I guess what I meant was they're no longer a separate state, they don't practice their beliefs the way they used to (are they the ones with the human sacrifices or was that the Aztecs?) and stuff like that. I could have worded it better. :)
 

0098386

Suspended
Jan 18, 2005
21,574
2,908
I wonder when the next 'apocalypse' will be when 2012 is over? 2013, 2020? Who knows.
Oh no it'll go on and on until the real armageddon that likely didn't stem from a defunct civilisation thousands of years before.

This whole thing is ridiculous. A bunch of chaps from around Mexico way wrote a calendar and (some) thing that the world is going to end because their calendar runs out?
Well my calendar doesn't run out, it just loops over. Or should I change my armageddon date to Dec 31st of every year?
 

calculus

Guest
Dec 12, 2005
4,504
5
Oh course the world will end then, that's exactly how these things work.

The only thing that bothers me about it is the issue of time zones. Will the world end sooner in some countries than others? Could we postpone it by continually putting the clocks back an hour?

Personally I'm still waiting to get my eleven days back...
 

question fear

macrumors 68020
Apr 10, 2003
2,277
84
The "Garden" state
Oh course the world will end then, that's exactly how these things work.

The only thing that bothers me about it is the issue of time zones. Will the world end sooner in some countries than others? Could we postpone it by continually putting the clocks back an hour?

Personally I'm still waiting to get my eleven days back...

Isaac Asimov had a short story about that. The apocalypse comes, everyone wanders around in this endless flat boring landscape, while an angel argues against the final trumpet having been sounded. Apparently the angels were supposed to sound the end of the world in 1955, but it's not counted the same way in every culture, therefore the world hasn't ended. The story ends with the main human character waking up and thinking something was supposed to happen but didn't (the apocalypse) and sitting down to draft a plan for a universal calendar system, starting with 1954 or something like that...

It's a cool story. I wish I could remember what it was called.
 

Desamell

Guest
Aug 24, 2008
104
0
Can Kevin Rose tell us if the rumors are true?

maybe someone up in the clouds will leak it to them

I stand corrected - thanks for the link and the history. I guess what I meant was they're no longer a separate state, they don't practice their beliefs the way they used to (are they the ones with the human sacrifices or was that the Aztecs?) and stuff like that. I could have worded it better. :)
My little bro studied the Mayas and Aztecs last year. Both sacrificed virgin women. The Mayan Empire didnt die it went away meaning they broke up and separted you could say.

My Birthday is Dec 21st, so if that's true - somebody better throw me one Hell of a party!
So many ways to come to an ending:
http://www.exitmundi.nl/

Just for the record, I don't think it'll be "the end of the world" - there seems to be a huge confusion about when the Sun actually crosses the galactic plane and lines-up dead-center with the galactic core, vs the illusion of a plane crossing... which happens a lot more often then you might think.
Try twice a year.
Every year, around the time of the Winter solstice, the Sun positions itself so that from our vantage point it appears to cross the galactic core. Six months later, it does the same thing.

When I say illusion of a plane crossing, it's because when this happens twice yearly, the Sun is not actually sitting in direct alignment between the galactic core and the circular plane of the galaxy - it just appears that way from our vantage point. The Sun does not travel around the galactic plane in a straight even orbit - it oscillates, or wobbles up and down during its journey with the Milky Way... and thus, dips above and below the true galactic plane several times along this trip.

So when does a true plane-crossing happen? At a distance of about 25,000 light years from the galactic core, it takes the Sun somewhere close to 240,000,000 of our years to travel one complete rotation of the Milky Way. It is believed that during this trip, the Suns oscillation will have it crossing the galactic plane at best, maybe 5 to 6 times as it rises and falls below the line of the galactic plane - meaning we actually physically cross the plane somewhere in the neighborhood of once every 40,000,000 years or so.
That's quite a time span -
and the last time we crossed the plane? depending on whom you ask, the figure can vary from about 8,000,000 years ago, to 18,000,000. Either way,
it means we're actually moving away from any direct Sun-galactic center-galactic plane crossing.

Considering the Earth is generally accepted as being 4.5 billion years old, this means our planet has seen about 113 or so of these actual crossings.
Still here. Life still crawling around.

So why all the hype? Because it's easier the sell books and tv shows and disaster theories to the public, when you add bad science to an ancient calendar - who's actual start/stop dates are still being debated.
Dec 21, 2012? Probably didn't mean squat to the Maya.

I wouldn't worry about it - personally I'm a little more worked up about what's happening with the U.S. economy at the moment - that certainly is something that could impact myself & a lot of others directly, and disastrously.

Not to mention December 21st will be the winter solstice....
 

MrSmith

macrumors 68040
Nov 27, 2003
3,046
14
Re: "the Maya are long since dead"
... Today, the Maya and their descendants form sizable populations throughout the Maya area and maintain a distinctive set of traditions and beliefs that are the result of the merger of pre-Columbian and post-Conquest ideologies (and structured by the almost total adoption of Roman Catholicism)...
So presumably aliens will be involved.
 

Victor ch

macrumors 6502a
Jun 19, 2007
718
1
San José, Costa Rica
Well, it would be better than the world ending the day of my B-Day :( Damm that LHC hahaha. <--Im aware thats its extremely-super-mega-duper-ultra unlikely for the LHC to produce the "failures" required to "end the world".

Victor
 

jojo13

macrumors 6502
Aug 2, 2008
472
0
yeah i heard that the world woould end in2012 but still, isn't that kinda odd?
At my schoool, everybody is freakin out about that:D


I think its b*****:apple:
maybe, in 2012, Apple wil stop doing computers :p
 
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