Does Fox News posting a story about debunking the Mayan Prophecy make anyone feel better about it not happening? I am really not sure which way to turn on this one. I mean I in no way give credence to the Mayan Apocalypse, but then What can you believe from Fox News? I guess the adage is true, “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”
At least once today Fox News.com/Science had this to say:
MEXICO CITY – As the clock winds down to Dec. 21, experts on the Mayan calendar have been racing to convince people that the Mayas didn’t predict an apocalypse for the end of this year.
Some experts are now saying the Mayas may indeed have made prophecies, just not about the end of the world.
Archaeologists, anthropologists and other experts met Friday in the southern Mexico city of Merida to discuss the implications of the Mayan Long Count calendar, which is made up of 394-year periods called baktuns.
Experts estimate the system starts counting at 3114 B.C., and will have run through 13 baktuns, or 5,125 years, around Dec. 21. Experts say 13 was a significant number for the Mayans, and the end of that cycle would be a milestone — but not an end.
I hope their next calendar is the Girls of the Maya one. Especially if it is 5125 years long.
(warning, contains some cartoon nudity)
“The Mayas did make prophecies, but not in a fatalistic sense, but rather about events that, in their cyclical conception of history, could be repeated in the future,” said Barrera, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History.
Experts stressed that the ancient Mayas, whose “classic” culture of writing, astronomy and temple complexes flourished from A.D. 300 to 900, were extremely interested in future events, far beyond Dec. 21.
“There are many ancient Maya monuments that discuss events far into the future from now,” wrote Geoffrey Braswell, an anthropologist at the University of California, San Diego. “The ancient Maya clearly believed things would happen far into the future from now.”
Only a couple of references to the 2012 date equivalency have been found carved in stone at Mayan sites, and neither refers to an apocalypse, experts say.
Such apocalyptic visions have been common for more than 1,000 years in Western, Christian thinking, and are not native to Mayan thought.
“This is thinking that, in truth, has nothing to do with Mayan culture,” said Alexander Voss, an anthropologist at the University Of Quintana Roo, a state on Mexico’s Caribbean coast. “This thing about looking for end-times is not something that comes from Mayan culture.”
Really, wouldn’t we be seeing some signs by now? Birds flying the wrong way for the winter, fish walking on land, seas boiling, Social Security taking a proactive approach by eliminating old people… oh, wait…
According to News Of The Weird:
— Cue the Black Helicopters: A website that tracks sometimes-obscure federal government purchases disclosed in August that the Social Security Administration had recently requested a price for 174,000 hollow-point bullets and that the National Weather Service had requested a price for 46,000 rounds of ammo for semi-automatic pistols. (The latter was subsequently corrected; it was actually the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Office that needed bullets.) Both agencies told reporters that they have armed officers investigating potential crimes. [CNSNews.com, 8-16-2012; Washington Post, 8-14-2012]
Who knew calling in a fake weather report had such a harsh penalty. Don’t mis-report the weather kids, that is for professional weather men to do. I wonder what they do if if you get the calendar wrong?
Braswell compared the Mayan calendar, with its system of cycles within cycles, to the series of synchronized wheels contained in old, analogue car odometers.
“The Maya long count system is like a car odometer,” Braswell wrote. “[The odometer on] my first car only had six wheels so it went up to 99,999.9 miles. That didn’t mean the car would explode after reaching 100,000 miles.”
You know, maybe they were on to something after all. Who hasn’t noticed that as soon as your car’s service warranty is up, things start to go wrong? Did llama drawn carts have the same problem?
Auto makers certainly have more than their fair share
Watch this space for the next article in this series, “Mayans: Big Fans of Ayn Rand, Predict Downfall Of Auto Industry.”
Until next time kiddies,
Yours Truly
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