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Y2K

By on November 6, 2012 in Dates, Failed

Instead of celebrating the New Year on December 31, 1999, many people across the world were anticipating a global meltdown that would directly affect financial affairs. The Y2K Bug (or Millennium Bug) was an issue found in the coding of computers and computer systems that many feared would wreak havoc on anything operated by computers and result in major social disruption.

Prior to the year 2000, computers read years as two digits (67 for 1967). People thought that once 2000 rolled around, computers would interpret ‘00’ as 1900 instead of 2000, throwing the whole system into disarray. This notion caused people to go into a state of frenzy since almost everything in the modern world runs on computerized systems. There was panic that air traffic control systems would go down, the 911 system and hospital equipment would fail, there would be banking and accounting irregularities, nuclear power and bombs would be affected, and food shortages would occur, among other things.

To prepare for the prospect of financial and social turmoil, many people took action to protect themselves and their families. It wasn’t uncommon for people to withdraw large sums of money from their bank accounts in the months leading up to December 31, 1999. People also made sure to stockpile essential items that might help them survive in the event of widespread chaos.  Backup generators, nonperishable food items, water, and medical supplies were popular purchases during this time of panic. Some people also made sure to secure their residences to protect against unwanted intruders and looters.

Of course, January 1 came and went without a fuss and it was just another New Year’s Day.

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Evidence Stacking Up Against 12-21-12

By on July 2, 2012 in Dates, Mayan

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin

Waiting for the end of the world on Dec. 21?

Doomsdayers may be disappointed.

A University of Texas art history professor has deciphered a reference in Maya hieroglyphs to the so-called doomsday date of Dec. 21, 2012, and has found that there is no prediction about the end of time.

David Stuart, a UT professor of Mesoamerican art and writing, unlocked the meaning of hieroglyphs at an archaeological site in Guatemala. He said the hieroglyphs suggest that the 2012 reference was instead a bit of political spin on the part of a Maya ruler hoping to assuage his followers after he was defeated in battle.

The ruler said that the defeat was just part of a larger cycle of time, one that would end in 2012 after which another cycle would begin.

Stuart, along with scholars from Tulane University and the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, made the announcement  Thursday in Guatemala.

Stuart’s finding is the second reference to the doomsday prediction in the entire corpus of ancient Maya writing. The other reference to the 2012 date was found in an ancient Maya monument in Tortuguero in the Mexican state of Tabasco.

The newly interpreted hieroglyphs were discovered at La Corona site of Maya ruins in northwestern Guatemala, where Stuart has been conducting research for 15 years.

A stone staircase at La Corona turned out to be a hieroglyph-filled record of 200 years of La Corona’s political history, its allies and its enemies.

On one of the staircase blocks, Stuart recognized among its 56 carved glyphs the so-called doomsday date.

“The monument commemorated a royal visit to La Corona in the year 696 by the most powerful Maya ruler of that time, a few months after his defeat by a long-standing rival in AD 695,” Stuart said in a statement.

“Thought by scholars to have been killed in this battle, this ruler was visiting allies and allaying their fears after his defeat. It was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region, and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012.”

The Maya’s “Long Count” calendar — which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C. — reaches the end of a cycle on Dec. 21, 2012.

But scholars have suggested that for the Maya, the end of the Long Count calendar also implies the beginning of a new calendar, not the end of time on Earth as many New Age believers have proposed.
Marcello Canuto, director of Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute who led the recent discovery project, said, “What this … shows us is that in times of crisis, the ancient Maya used their calendar to promote continuity and stability rather than predict apocalypse.”

Source: Austin American Statesman

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The World Will Go On

By on May 14, 2012 in Dates, Mayan

A recent exploration of the ruins of Xultun in the Guatemalan rain forest has unearthed Mayan writings that show calendars dating far beyond December 21, 2012. Archaeologist William Saturno and his team found the calendar, along with several murals, painted on a wall of what is thought to be an old house.

“For the first time we get to see what may have been actual records kept by a scribe, whose job was to be the official record keeper on a Maya community,” Saturno said.

It appears the scribe used the walls as a kind of whiteboard to record dates and make calculations, and the writings contain the same symbols found on the bark-paper pages of the Dresden Codex. On one wall, there is even a reference to 17 baktuns, a cycle of time in the Mayan calendar representing roughly 400 years.

“There was a lot more to the Maya calendar than just 13 baktuns,” Professor David Stuart said.

The calendars discovered previously ended after the 13th baktun, which fueled the belief that the world would end on December 21. With this new discovery, it is clear that the Mayans did not predict the end of the world, but that a new cycle begins.

“The ancient Maya predicted the world would continue, that 7000 years from now, things would be exactly like this,” Saturno said. “We keep looking for endings. The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It’s an entirely different mindset.”

 

Sources: USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsroom America

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Is the Math Wrong?

By on April 4, 2012 in Dates, Humor, Mayan

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Snooki Breeds

By on March 22, 2012 in Dates, Humor, Mayan

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Apophis

By on March 16, 2012 in Asteroid, Dates

Apophis is the Greek name for an ancient Egyptian mythical demon. It is also the name given to asteroid 2004MN4 that’s on a potential collision course with Earth.

Apophis was discovered by Roy A Tucker, David J. Tholen, Fabrizio Bernardi and the Kitt Peak National Observatory in 2004 and the astronomical community has since taken quite an interest in it. By calculating the trajectory, scientists know that this asteroid will come within 18,300 miles from Earth on Friday April 13, 2029. This is close enough to dip below our communication satellites and have its orbit affected by Earth’s gravity. Just how close Apophis comes to our planet determines how much it is changed. There is a possibility its orbit will be altered enough to pass through a half-mile wide “keyhole” in space that would send it on a direct track to crash into us seven years later on April 13, 2036, Easter Sunday.

The possibility of this happening has been reported at a range from 1 in a few thousand by Senior Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute Dr. Clark Chapman to 1 in a million by “Bad Astronomer” Phil Plait. Most sources, including information from NASA, have settled on a 1 in 250,000 chance. If it is determined that it is on course to hit us, NASA will take evasive action to deter the asteroid.

Even if it does hit our planet, it is not large enough to bring about Armageddon. Its size has been estimated at anywhere between 200-350 meters in diameter. Wherever it hit would be destroyed and the surrounding area would suffer, but the entire planet would not be demolished. If it lands in the ocean, huge tidal waves would likely flood a large portion of North America and either Europe or Asia depending on which ocean it hit, and if it strikes ground, massive earthquakes and dust clouds would affect much of the world.

In the meantime, scientists are keeping their eye on Apophis and either way, April 14, 2029 should be a very interesting day. Assuming the world doesn’t end before that, of course.

Sources: NASA, Wikipedia, Deep Astronomy

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Why December 21st Anyway?

By on February 24, 2012 in Dates, Mayan, Prophecies

It seems prophecies about the end of the world have been around almost since the beginning of mankind. Most have come and gone such as Halley’s Comet, Y2K and many of Harold Camping’s predictions, but a few have been carried down through the ages and still hold believers today. One such prophecy that has been around for centuries is that of the Mayan. A select few have set December 23, 2012 as the last day on Earth, but most of the research points to the 21st, so this is the date Calendars.com has agreed on…even though we are positive We Will Be Here long after.

The Mayan Long Count Calendar, the longest running calendar of the Mayans three part time keeping system, resets to zero in 2012, something that only occurs every 5,125 years. Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson, an archeologist and epigrapher, determined the start date of the current Long Count Calendar to be August 11, 3114 B.C. Counting forward, the end date falls on the winter solstice of this year, December 21, 2012. This date also marks only the fifth time in roughly 25,800 years that our sun aligns with the galactic center on a solstice or equinox. The last time this happened was the autumnal equinox around 6,450 years ago, close to the time the Old World civilizations began.

According to the Mayan, December 21 will mark the end of the fourth Long Count cycle. The Mayan holy book, the Popol Vuh, tells the story of the Gods’ creation and recreation of the world with each new cycle. The world did not end with the starting over of the Long Count Calendar; it was simply enhanced and transformed. Because of this, most Mayan scholars agree there will be a change in the world as we know it, an awakening and a rebirth, but NOT an apocalyptic end.

 

Sources: december212012.com, levity.com, planetpapp.com, bibliotecapleyades.net




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