Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Trip.Tucker

Guest
Mar 13, 2008
946
1
LOL. It's the end of the world. The world will just magically explode in 2012.
Funny thing is there is actually people who believe it.

The world won't magically explode but there will be major changes. Our solar system passes through the galactic plane around 2012.

P.S. It's "there are" not "there is".
 

cube

Suspended
May 10, 2004
17,011
4,972
I don't know about that Mayan thing, but be careful about January 19, 2038 03:14:07 GMT.
 

Iscariot

macrumors 68030
Aug 16, 2007
2,627
3
Toronteazy
Actually, it does. Period. No discussion required.

Actually, discussion required. The difficulty of making these kinds of astronomical calculations with this kind of certainty are staggering. We're not even certain of our own location within our galaxy (+/- dozens of light years), nor it's exact size or shape. An exact date is a massive exaggeration.
 

montanachad

macrumors regular
I wonder when the next 'apocalypse' will be when 2012 is over? 2013, 2020? Who knows.

Nutcase mass hysteria has been predicting the "end of the world" since the beginning of time. It's all mere speculation with no evidence whatsoever. All predictions those claim to be true are whimsical and anecdotal evidences.

I see this thread moving to the "Religion, Politics, and Social Issues" forum soon. So figured I give the extra boost. :D
 

Eric5h5

macrumors 68020
Dec 9, 2004
2,488
590
Nutcase mass hysteria has been predicting the "end of the world" since the beginning of time. It's all mere speculation with no evidence whatsoever. All predictions those claim to be true are whimsical and anecdotal evidences.

Got that right. Anyway, the world doesn't end until I say it can. ;)

--Eric
 

Sly

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2003
454
0
Airstrip One
Awww, Thats my 40th Birthday day, seriously, thats not going to be a great day, turning 40 and the world ending. :(
 

DigiCatRedux

macrumors member
Aug 25, 2008
98
0
Somewhere in New England, USA.
Actually, discussion required. The difficulty of making these kinds of astronomical calculations with this kind of certainty are staggering. We're not even certain of our own location within our galaxy (+/- dozens of light years), nor it's exact size or shape. An exact date is a massive exaggeration.
Agreed - more to point, there has been so much bad science related to our sun crossing some imaginary galactic point in space, spewed forth by lunatics and the media in general, that I doubt few have checked any factual astrological data on the subject.

According to men and women who are far smarter than most people I know, using incredibly advanced & precise instruments for cosmological study, this is what we know so far:
on Dec 21 2012, the sun will NOT be anywhere near the galactic plane, galactic ellipse, galactic-pie-plate... whatever you want to call it. It will NOT be positioned between the galactic center and the galactic plane - in truth, it'll be light-years away in distance and millions of years in time away from any occurrence that places our sun/solar system in that direct line between the Milky Way's center and where (we think) the elliptical edge of the galaxy is at.

So as best we know, Physically any magical doomsday galactic plane-crossing isn't going to happen. At least not for a long, long, long, LONG, Long time... Unless our best minds in astrophysics are all idiots, and they've just been making up the numbers as they go along- then we could all be screwed. Har har.

Once you remove any chance of the galactic center being part of this phenomenal "plane-crossing" equation we're supposed to hit upon in 2012, pretty much all you're left with is something that is a common astrological occurrence that happens twice yearly, every single year -
which is that from the earths vantage-point as it revolves in its orbit, our sun appears to "cross" the galactic plane. Again, it's simply an illusion because of our positioning - and that everything in our solar system is moving and rotating around in relationship to everything around it.

Personally, I'd be more worried about a rather large chunk of stellar material smacking into us - potentially one of thousands out there - and causing global catastrophe, than some oogie-boogie "crossing the plane will cause dramatic gravitational forces that'll cause our planets entire mantle to loosen and rotate and flip the poles and open your bowels" non-sense.
At least the "big-things-hitting-the-planet-on-a-regular-basis" is a known fact.

Second point I'd like to mention is that this Mayan calendar everyone's been hyperventilating about - even the experts are undecided as to exact specifics of when this "long-count" 5126 year calendar is supposed to end.
More to the point, most Archaeologists and scholars who study the Maya & their calendars are saying the Mayans weren't predicting an end-of-the-world scenario at the last date of the long-count calendar, but instead a sort of age of enlightenment.
There is even debate about the finality of the long-count calendar.

As found on Universe Today, this passage for your consideration:

"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."

Thus, when it comes to Dec 21, 2012 being some horrific date-of-doom, I'm less than impressed. The only thing special that's going to happen to me on that date, is I'll be another year older.

Maybe I should get a cake decorated with a Mayan-Theme, complete with calendar and a grim reaper standing watch. That'd be awesome.
:)
 

eawmp1

macrumors 601
Feb 19, 2008
4,158
91
FL
No, but it WILL end for all those that belive that tripe on December 22, 2012!
 

iGuardian

macrumors 6502a
Aug 26, 2008
552
18
"People have been predicting the end of the world for hundreds of years...
...and they will for hundreds of years to come."
 

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
absolutely not. The Mayans are the ones that were stupid enough to not have a calendar that revolves.

But the movie does look cool :cool:
 

arkitect

macrumors 604
Sep 5, 2005
7,047
12,027
Bath, United Kingdom
Well if it is scheduled for 2012 I would have preferred it to be a bit earlier in the year.
At least then we wouldn't have had to go through the London Olympics first. :eek:
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.