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"2012" a Miscalculation; Actual Calendar Ends 2220

boombaard writes "News is spreading quickly here that scientists writing in a popular science periodical (Dutch) have debunked the 2012 date (google translation linked) featuring so prominently in doomsday predictions/speculation across the web. On 2012-12-21, the sun will appear where you would normally be able to see the 'galactic equator' of the Milky Way; an occurrence deemed special because it happens 'only' once every 25.800 years, on the winter solstice. However, even if you ignore the fact that there is no actual galactic equator, just an observed one, and that the visual effect is pretty much the same for an entire decade surrounding that date, there are major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets." I wonder what Amazon's return policy on a box full of 3 doomsday wolves shirts is?

600 comments

  1. Assuming... by tool462 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

    1. Re:Assuming... by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 5, Funny

      Funny.

      According my reading of the calendar - it's right here on the wall, in my office - the whole thing goes tits-up, Dec 31, 2009!

      --
      "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
    2. Re:Assuming... by Hojima · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your post is incredibly relevant considering that the Mayan calendar simply starts over at that time rather than predicting the end. The Apocalyptic prediction from the calendar was simply speculation that arose from not knowing the language. There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature.

    3. Re:Assuming... by Hatta · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I was looking forward to saying "Told you so" on 12/22/2012. But they always find a way to weasel out of their crazy predictions.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:Assuming... by Torodung · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yup. It's the Mayan Y2K bug. Good thing their calendar is based on mechanical circles. People discussing a 2012 apocalypse are discussing where a circle begins and ends.

    5. Re:Assuming... by AresTheImpaler · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature

      This is not entirely correct, as there are still Mayan speaking persons in south mexico. (I bet there's also several in Guatemala). By the way, I had a teacher in HS that has mayan blood in his veins. His brothers (that still live in mexico) published a mayan-spanish dictionary in the 90's.

    6. Re:Assuming... by Ogive17 · · Score: 1

      And luckily, even if we're wrong and the world does end in a little more than 3 years, there won't be anyone left to tell us that we were the ones who were wrong.

      --
      "Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
    7. Re:Assuming... by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      You're going to be dead before "2012" hits DVD?

      Yes, that's right, the DVD release will probably unleash another, smaller wave of it even if it were released mid-2013.

    8. Re:Assuming... by Captain+Spam · · Score: 1

      Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      And assuming I suddenly sprout a magical jetpack on my back through a miracle of evolution, I can fly off to California from right where I sit for a pleasant afternoon of talking with friends and taking in the culture. And frankly, that's a bit more likely to happen than convincing a conspiracy theorist he/she's wrong. :-)

      --
      Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
    9. Re:Assuming... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nor did they disappear. Mayans can still be found on any day on the Yucatan peninsula selling hammocks, fixing cars, running banks, building roads and so on. A little tour outside of Merida will show you people still living in sturdy houses made entirely of native materials. The Mayans, although occupied, are still largely alive and well.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    10. Re:Assuming... by jeffasselin · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are people that speak something that descends from the mayan language, correct. That doesn't help us much in deciphering the written version of the language in hieroglyphics.

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    11. Re:Assuming... by arthurpaliden · · Score: 1, Funny

      The only thing going tits-up around here is my wife as soon as she walks in the door.....

    12. Re:Assuming... by lagfest · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      The mods agree. That's not even remotely plausible, this being slashdot and all.

    13. Re:Assuming... by lena_10326 · · Score: 1

      This is not entirely correct, as there are still Mayan speaking persons in south mexico

      I wonder how much deviation has occurred in the spoken language. I think it'd be reasonable to presume a modern day Mayan would be unable to communicate with an ancient Mayan due to generational changes in dialect and word-set, but I'm not sure how it could be determined if there is no phonetic dictionary.

      --
      Camping on quad since 1996.
    14. Re:Assuming... by DigitalPasture · · Score: 1

      I may be wrong, I haven't looked into this in years... But isn't THIS cycle the cycle that by their calendar the sun (Sol) is set to start dying? Even by their records, this supposedly gives us another 50,000 years before it's over. As mentioned, it's been years since I read up on this... I don't think much of prophecy, especially when it's misinterpreted. For all those who believe this is real... Start running up your credit card debt NOW!

    15. Re:Assuming... by Kozz · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature.

      Oh, I think that if you'd consulted Dr Daniel Jackson, you may have received a more informed opinion.

      --
      I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
    16. Re:Assuming... by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Lucky for me, my calendar has January 2010 in itty bitty print in the last square of December 2009's calendar. I'll have a whole extra month to live it up, yes I will...

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    17. Re:Assuming... by Zarf_is_with_you · · Score: 1


      No it already happened, we just have not realized it yet, Friday September 13 1999 when the nuclear waste dump on the moon blew up and the Moon was torn from orbit, Remember?

      The Gravitational sheer tore the planet apart.

      We were all converted to Pure Energy and we formed a network of consciousness so our minds can live on called slashdot.

    18. Re:Assuming... by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Psst... don't tell anyone, but I think he knew that.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    19. Re:Assuming... by NoobixCube · · Score: 1

      I'm curious, do the Mayan-speaking people of today still read and write Mayan text, or have they been swallowed up by the Roman alphabet too?

      --
      Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
    20. Re:Assuming... by GlassHeart · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature.

      My understanding is that much of the Maya glyphs have been decoded. Check out the rather fascinating PBS program Cracking the Maya Code for details.

    21. Re:Assuming... by xmousex · · Score: 3, Funny

      your right thats exactly what just happened!!!! i wonder who's door she will walk through next!!

    22. Re:Assuming... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Informative

      We can go ahead and blame the Spanish for that. There are only 3 books containing Mayan Text still around today, all the rest were burned because they could contain "Heresay" (No one bothered to translate. Burn first ask questions later).

      All of our calendars, even modern day ones, are just based off of Astrological occurences. We use 365 days for our Calendar because thats how long it takes the Earth to rotate around the sun. What if we decided to use different Stars and not the Sun?

      Well basically the Mayan Calendar does this - They just use alot positions of Constellations to determine where they are in their cycle.

      And as an educative side note: Without knowing yesterdays, todays, or tomorrows date, the current day of the week, Month of the year, or what year it currently is, one could still find out the date by simply measuring the stars position, and knowing the movement of the stars, and knowing what the sky looked like on ONE other night, and knowing the date that other night is occuring on. Time should be pretty precise too, as the stars move. It's fun to calculate what the sky will look like 3 months from now, and then see how accurate you are (with a bit of research)

    23. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      the mayan calendar, is actually a replacement calender, and 2012 is the year we replace our current one. this is due to the realization of galactic time. This is like an expansion pack, to the current reality perception. The calender will predict, galactic plasma integrations and the overall understanding of how the machine of the universe works, will cause a great awakening. This awakening to galactic time will also be accompanied by alien communications, animals telepathing with humans, and telepathic awakining worldwide. the effect of this will be almost total elimination for the need to have wars. Because wars are a result of limited communication, lies, deception, and hidden motives. This will no longer exist in the same way.

    24. Re:Assuming... by LandDolphin · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's fun to calculate what the sky will look like 3 months from now, and then see how accurate you are (with a bit of research)

      We must have different ideas of fun.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    25. Re:Assuming... by adrenaline_junky · · Score: 4, Funny

      Uh-oh, this is going to be a big problem for the United States since our entire fiscal policy is to deficit spend and avoid really solving any problems until the planet explodes in 2012. It is going to be mighty embarrassing when the debt collectors come a knockin' in 2013. "There's nobody home, go away!"

    26. Re:Assuming... by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 1

      Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      That's exactly their point.

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    27. Re:Assuming... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      This is really bad news for me.

      I had planned to quit my job and cash in my 401k on Jan 1, 2011 and spend the last days in Vegas, squandering it all on hookers and blow.

      This means I'm going to have to keep working right up to retirement. Shit.

      Who's responsible for this 2012 stuff anyway? I want to put my boot up his ass.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    28. Re:Assuming... by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      The Mayans aren't the only ones that gave that date.

      TFS said "an occurrence deemed special because it happens 'only' once every 25.800 years". Was that a typo? Should it be 28,000 years?

      There was a song back in the hippie days:
      When the moon is in the 7th house
      And Jupiter aligns with Mars
      The peace will giude the planet...

      This is the dawning of the age of aquarius

      Maybe (and I think it likely) the Mayans weren't predicting doomsday, but that their n thousand year long calander simply rolls over then?

    29. Re:Assuming... by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 1

      Well the you can party like it's 1999 - "Whoops, Party over, outta time..."

      --
      "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
    30. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps "heresy" was the word you're looking for?

    31. Re:Assuming... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Exactly why should we worry about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped corn?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    32. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bax ka wa alik?

    33. Re:Assuming... by Svartalf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because we tend to worship corny things as well?

      --
      I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
    34. Re:Assuming... by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      It's fun to calculate what the sky will look like 3 months from now, and then see how accurate you are (with a bit of research)

      Liar.

    35. Re:Assuming... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know about today, but even during the peak of Mayan civilization, estimates of literacy in their society by archaeologists and anthropologists was less than 5%. (IIRC)

      --
      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    36. Re:Assuming... by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 5, Informative

      When the Spaniards arrived, all codices and other writings containing any Mayan text were destroyed. The only real surviving literary text survives as a Spanish translation of a book called the Popol Vu, "Governing Book", (I speak a Mayan dialect, Q'eqchi'). The Wikipedia article there translates it as "Book of the Mat", which is a correct literal translation, but loses any contextual meaning. The root word 'pop' is indeed 'mat', but 'popal' has reference to the chief governing body of the people.

      At any rate, to answer your question, all Mayan dialects have long since been Romanized, but it has only been in recent years (ten, perhaps) that efforts have been made to standardize the lithography across dialects.

      It is interesting to note that the Christian conversion of the Mayan people brought about some surprising abnormalities (or outright perversions) in the spoken language itself. Even amongst the most pure speakers of Mayan dialects, Spanish has left its indelible mark. Take for example the word for 'people' in Q'eqchi': kristiaan. Any Spanish speaker would recognize the transliteration of that word as 'cristiano'. Therefore, in a very subtle way, you are not a person or a group of people unless you are in fact Christian. Crazy, huh?

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    37. Re:Assuming... by The+Archon+V2.0 · · Score: 1

      Perhaps "heresy" was the word you're looking for?

      Or the conquistadors were all lawyers. Which would explain a lot.

    38. Re:Assuming... by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      What does worshiping corn have to do with it?

    39. Re:Assuming... by kurzweilfreak · · Score: 1

      You can still do that. Spending all your time and money on hookers and blow will put you well on your way to your last days.

      --

      kurzweil_freak

      5th Kyu Genbukan Ninpo/KJJR student

      Be the darkness that allows the light to shine.

    40. Re:Assuming... by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      This is not entirely correct, as there are still Mayan speaking persons in south mexico

      I wonder how much deviation has occurred in the spoken language. I think it'd be reasonable to presume a modern day Mayan would be unable to communicate with an ancient Mayan due to generational changes in dialect and word-set, but I'm not sure how it could be determined if there is no phonetic dictionary.

      Probably not that much. English-speaking people frequently think this, but English is actually fairly unusual in several respects, including its relative youth compared to most other languages, the large amount of external influence upon it, and the relatively dynamic nature of English society compared to many if not most others, particularly historically. A modern Englishman transported back in time 800 years would find it impossible to speak with the locals. But most non-English-speaking people, transported back in time 800 years, would have little trouble conversing with the locals, albeit with a noticeable accent, and assuming they refrain from discussing relatively modern things. There might be difficulties, but they would very likely be able to communicate.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    41. Re:Assuming... by CarpetShark · · Score: 3, Funny

      OK. In exactly which direction should I be pointing my telescope when things go "tits up"?

    42. Re:Assuming... by Firehed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Most modern societies also worship corn - they just process the hell out of it first.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    43. Re:Assuming... by mog007 · · Score: 1

      Do you honestly think after 2012 we'll stop hearing from the apocalypse crowd for two hundred years? I've heard no less than a dozen different dates from people in the media since January 1st, 2000.

    44. Re:Assuming... by mog007 · · Score: 1

      Even if the calander were supposed to have ended, I'm not going to put much stock in the predictive abilities of a society that didn't see its own fall from those damn Aztecs, or Inca, or however wiped them out.

    45. Re:Assuming... by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      OK. In exactly which direction should I be pointing my telescope when things go "tits up"?

      Towards your neighbor's window, of course. :p

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    46. Re:Assuming... by AnotherUsername · · Score: 1

      There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone

      Sure there is, you Luddite!

      --
      I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
    47. Re:Assuming... by ClubStew · · Score: 1

      ... much ...

      But not all, and they have no way QA to validate their claims.

      Besides, how can you trust that anyone knows then end date? Why would Mayan's have such knowledge, and that a culture that is long lost even has an understanding of the heavens? Even with all today's telescopes, probes, and such we still can't explain much / most of it.

      It seems foolish to believe, and a waste to discuss. And if I'm wrong...well, you can point and laugh at me after the apocolypse.

    48. Re:Assuming... by Ihlosi · · Score: 3, Interesting
      We must have different ideas of fun.

      I think I know who has proven to be worthy of their geek card and who has to hand theirs in.

    49. Re:Assuming... by Philip+K+Dickhead · · Score: 1

      I think that I CAN'T remember - having been bored-to-death by Landau and Bain.

      --
      "Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
    50. Re:Assuming... by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      Maybe (and I think it likely) the Mayans weren't predicting doomsday, but that their n thousand year long calander simply rolls over then?

      No maybe about it. The Mayan calendar is cyclical. Looking for a prediction of doomsday on the Mayan calendar is like trying to find the endpoint of a circle. The circle does not come to an end at 359 degrees, 59 minutes and 59.999... seconds.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    51. Re:Assuming... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Look, I don't know about any apocalypse or anything. I just know 2220 is a long time to wait for the LHC to come online!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    52. Re:Assuming... by knuckledraegger · · Score: 1

      December 21, 2012 will definitely be the end of the world, without doubt ... for someone.

    53. Re:Assuming... by harry666t · · Score: 1

      > What if we decided to use different Stars and not the Sun?
      >
      > Well basically the Mayan Calendar does this - They just use alot
      > positions of Constellations to determine where they are in their cycle.

      Holy crap. I've just realised how incredibly old their civilisation had to be. TFS mentions 25.800 year cycles...

    54. Re:Assuming... by Abreu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Go to your local Walmart and count how many products contain "high fructose corn syrup"

      Now who's the corn-worshiping culture?

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    55. Re:Assuming... by Richy_T · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think it'd be reasonable to presume a modern day Mayan would be unable to communicate with an ancient Mayan due to generational changes in dialect and word-set

      Not to mention the whole "being dead" thing.

    56. Re:Assuming... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1

      Exactly why should we worry about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped corn?

      Same reason we might want to know about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped thunder, I suppose: learning about other cultures and civilizations expands our range of possibilities of what it is to be human.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    57. Re:Assuming... by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 1

      Was that a typo? Should it be 28,000 years?

      Non-Americans use a different system for decimal separation.

    58. Re:Assuming... by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Fantastic, I made a lot of money fixing Y2k bugs. Where on Craigs list do I find Gigs for fixing Mayan Calendar Bugs?

    59. Re:Assuming... by V!NCENT · · Score: 1

      Coca Cola executives? xD

      --
      Here be signatures
    60. Re:Assuming... by boristdog · · Score: 1

      I spent some time in Guatemala, thinking my rudimentary Spanish would get me around.

      Little did I know the real "natives" speak almost as little Spanish as I do. But jeez they are some friendly people. And big practical jokers. Hanging around with the natives was always entertaining.

    61. Re:Assuming... by camperdave · · Score: 1

      [Homer]Mmmm... HFCS[/Homer]

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    62. Re:Assuming... by phoenix321 · · Score: 1

      I personally witnessed Chinese laymen reading and understanding the script on the Great Wall. The characters and script there is around a thousand years old and people with a higher level education can still read it. I have trouble reading books in Gothic print, which were common "only" a century ago.

    63. Re:Assuming... by Qu4Z · · Score: 1

      Off-topic, but to answer to your sig: AVG LinkScanner.

    64. Re:Assuming... by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 1

      I think I know who has proven to be worthy of their geek card and who has to hand theirs in.

      And now we know who gets the PHB card.

    65. Re:Assuming... by Clock+Nova · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "If a civilization is so fucking retarded that it worships an invisible man in the sky, then one can't really take their prediction of the end of the world seriously, don't you think?"

      There, fixed that for you, typos and all.

      --
      There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
    66. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To me it's sad.

    67. Re:Assuming... by Steve+Franklin · · Score: 1

      Just to put another spin on this: There is a long-term cometary-meteoric cycle whose current period is somewhere around 105 years, the last two events of which were the fall of 3000 meteorites at L'Aigle in Normandy on April 26, 1803, and the event at Tunguska, Siberia, on June 30, 1908. That would put the next event toward late August, 2013. End of the world? Probably not. Big surprise if a piece of it lands on New York City? Definitely. Did the Mayans have this particular cycle in mind when they drew up their calendar? Your guess is as good as mine. For all the data, see here: http://neros.lordbalto.com/ChapterEight.htm

      --
      Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
    68. Re:Assuming... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

      Their civilization didn't live through the full cycle of their calendar. They indeed had broken it down into sections and they could predict the seasons just as easily as we could - but just like the American Civilization has not been around 2,000 years they still have an arbitrary point in the timeline that they mark as 0.

      Similarily, the Mayans set their calendar further back than they had been around.

      As far as I can recall, they only lived (in the heirarchy that we consider Mayan) from like 250 to 1546 AD. Still impressive all things considered.

    69. Re:Assuming... by Abreu · · Score: 1

      Sure Sheldon, that sounds like a loooot of fun

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    70. Re:Assuming... by lawpoop · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...all the rest were burned because they could contain "Heresay"

      Heresy.

      (No one bothered to translate. Burn first ask questions later).

      I think it was a pretty safe assumption that Mayan texts weren't going to be talking about salvation through Christ and the Holy Roman church. I don't agree with the burnings, but I don't think the Spanish erred in assuming they were going to find heresy in the texts.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    71. Re:Assuming... by daBum · · Score: 1

      As an example of this idea, a friend of a friend in College, went to Greece on vacation. She was a history major, and had taken (ancient) Greek as a language course. So, she was the designated "translator". Her group decided they wanted to rent a sailboat, and go out on the bay. When she inquired about it, she got some strange looks, and the vendor switched to English to ask why she wanted to rent an steamship / oceanliner.

      So, all languages change, it may just take a few hundred (or thousand) years.

      --
      I am dyslexia of borg - your ass will be laminated.
    72. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Al-Kida winz againz.

    73. Re:Assuming... by masmullin · · Score: 1

      I worship corn you insensitive clod!

    74. Re:Assuming... by masmullin · · Score: 1

      Sorry, was that Dr Jack Daniels?

    75. Re:Assuming... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 0

      All of them though? What if they unknowingly were burning crop records, financial information, Poetry, etc etc. Were they going to find some Heresy, for sure, but they didn't bother to weed it out from what could have been potentially valuable. Like a Rosetta Stone that helped translate things amongst Olmec, Incas, Aztecs, and other cultures of Ancient Central America.

    76. Re:Assuming... by lena_10326 · · Score: 1

      One of your responders mentioned the Chinese language. So, what about the Chinese language and dialects? It's very old--comparable to Mayan culture. A modern day cantonese-only speaking person has a lot of difficulty speaking with modern day manderin-only speaking person, but both can read each other's printed text.

      --
      Camping on quad since 1996.
    77. Re:Assuming... by lostboy2 · · Score: 1

      Most modern societies also worship corn - they just process the hell out of it first.

      I, for one, welcome our high fructose overlords.

    78. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because hippies and people stricken with "Western Guilt" want to believe that a culture that had no means to predict or calculate such an event have some mystical power that is "lost" to Western Culture. It's the same way those people reject sane western medicine for scam artist gurus who do some nonsense (which, degrades said non-western culture) to turn a buck and these guys are pretty none the wiser.

    79. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least corn is verifiably real?

    80. Re:Assuming... by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 1

      It is sad, but not unavoidable when cultures bleed together. English is a melting pot of languages, borrowing strongly from German and Latin based languages. Words in other languages have become Anglicized too when a native one will not express the feeling and/or intent that the English one does. It is unfortunate in this instance that Catholicism ran Q'eqchi' in the direction that it did, but it begs the question that it could have been altogether avoided. I would guess no.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    81. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's actually one of the most interesting and informative posts I have read on here in quite a while.

    82. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't worship corn but KoRn

    83. Re:Assuming... by grouchomarxist · · Score: 1

      The ancient Mayan writing system is in part phonetic, so knowledge of the modern languages gives clues about the ancient one.

    84. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's fun to calculate what the sky will look like 3 months from now, and then see how accurate you are (with a bit of research)

      We must have different ideas of fun.

      Yeah. If your definition of fun differs from that substantially enough to leave a comment like yours, then your idea of fun must really be base and lowbrow. Bravo.

    85. Re:Assuming... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      I was looking forward to saying "Told you so" on 12/22/2012. But they always find a way to weasel out of their crazy predictions.

      I was planning to sell binding reverse mortgages through 2012 to the real believers, these Dutch guys could ruin my plans.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    86. Re:Assuming... by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, that's a point, but I think it's a sort of naive affect that smart people put on to say that the Spanish conquistadors might have found something they would have considered valuable. Of course, we really want to read those documents and understand the Maya better. That doesn't mean that the conquistadors did ( though a few of them may have ). They just wanted gold, slaves, and other imperial resources -- they were interested in sharing or having a Thanksgiving dinner, they wanted to conquer and dominate. Burning the books was a conscious effort on their part to destroy Mayan culture. They didn't have any sociological or anthropological interests.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    87. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "We can go ahead and blame the Spanish for that. There are only 3 books containing Mayan Text still around today, all the rest were burned because they could contain "Heresay" (No one bothered to translate. Burn first ask questions later)."

      "Your honor, the idea that the world ends in 2012 is nothing more than third-hand information -- mere heresay!"

    88. Re:Assuming... by buchner.johannes · · Score: 3, Informative

      And not the first circle, but the 13th: from http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4093

      Mayans had three calendars. They had a solar calendar that was 365 days long, and a ceremonial calendar that was 260 days long. These two calendars would synchronize every 52 years. To measure longer time periods, they developed the "long count" calendar, which expressed dates as a series of five numbers, each less than twenty; something like the way we measure minutes and seconds as a series of two numbers each less than sixty. And, just in case this might seem too simple, for some reason the second to last number was always less than eighteen. The first day in the Mayan long count calendar was expressed as 0.0.0.0.0, and by our calendar, this was August 11, 3114 BC. Every 144,000 days (or about every 395 years, which they called a baktun), the first number would increment, and a new baktun would start. Recall how we all got to enjoy the excitement on the millennium of watching the digital displays roll over from 12/31/1999 to 1/1/2000? Well, that's what's going to happen on December 21, 2012 to the Mayan calendar. It's going to roll over from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0, just as it has done each of the previous twelve baktuns. There's no archaeological or historical evidence that the Mayans themselves expected anything other than a New Year's Eve party to happen on this date: Claims that this rollover represents a Mayan prediction of the end of the world appear to be a modern pop-culture invention. It's true that the Mayan carvings of their calendar only depicted 13 baktuns, but what did you expect them to do? Carve an infinitely long calendar every time they wanted to express a date?

      --
      NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
    89. Re:Assuming... by Kreigaffe · · Score: 1

      Hell, Canadians worship maple trees and that doesn't make them retarded, why would worshipping corn make Mayans retarded? As the Canadians prove, it's entirely possible to be retarded for reasons unrelated to your vegetative deity of choice.

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
    90. Re:Assuming... by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 1

      Look under masonry. Or the Masons. Whichever.

      --
      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
    91. Re:Assuming... by The+Wild+Norseman · · Score: 1

      I, for one, welcome our new corny overlords. /obligatory

      --
      "A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
    92. Re:Assuming... by redcaboodle · · Score: 1

      Bad example.There's a reason ancient and modern greek are taught as separate languages. You wouldn't speak Latin to a modern Italian and expect them to understand.

      --
      -- Put crudely, the world is an extremely large problem instance. (Russel/Norvig Artificial Intelligence)
    93. Re:Assuming... by RicktheBrick · · Score: 1

      According to the Jehovah Witnesses the end time started in 1914. On that year the devils were kicked out of heaven and came to Earth to reside thus explaining all the wars since that date. Between the years 1918 and 1925 they published an article stating that millions of people now living would never die. Jesus is suppose to return and rule over the Earth for a thousand years. No one will die during those thousand years and everyone will be judged at the end of the thousand years. Given it is 2009 the minimum age of someone living during those years is now 84 and using census data there are around 4.5 million people of that age. I guess that would still count as being in the millions but the time is running short when there will less than a million even if one includes everyone of that age on Earth.

    94. Re:Assuming... by lawpoop · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Another thing to consider is how "religious" people outside the western material world-view are. I bet if we had those documents, they would be chock full of references like "And Chak [the rain god] blessed the land and there was a great crop". This wasn't a religious text, but what they would consider a log of weather and harvest. The idea that a god brought rain was just how the world worked.

      And of course, since this is the record of an empire, every thing done and tax paid would have been for the glory of the King -- a divine person, as all royalty were until relatively recently, a direct decedent of primordial celestial beings, a God on Earth. Of course, this would have been heresy, to pay any honor and respect to Mayan Gods or Kings, because they conflicted with the European God[s] and Kings, who were the rightful rulers.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    95. Re:Assuming... by jeffasselin · · Score: 1

      I was going to post the same thing.

      --
      If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
    96. Re:Assuming... by eloki · · Score: 1

      At least with respect to most Western countries, I'm not sure this is actually true. It's definitely not true of Australia, where I don't think HFCS is cheaper than sugar. Wikipedia seems to hint it is most true of the USA & Canada.

    97. Re:Assuming... by lanyslinas · · Score: 1

      Today's Mayan language matches that of the original predictions as much as English matches Old English. Pretty much unintelligible. Also surviving Mayan's are predominantly the uneducated variety, selling imported calendars on the roadside without much understanding of their meaning.

    98. Re:Assuming... by cenc · · Score: 1

      yea, I have worked with a lot of them. Guess what, they can not talk to the village next door, and often would prefer to burn the people in the village next door rather than talk to them.

      If it was not for Spanish, many villages in Guatemala would not be able to talk to each other at all (many still do not speak Spanish). That is assuming they wanted to talk to them. Other than the artificial boarder drawn on the map, it would be hard to say there is anything like a "Mayan" or "Guatemalan" culture beyond a fairly fuzzy generalization. Most of those cultures where simple farmers and owned by the Mayan. They most likly never knew much about the Mayan written language.

    99. Re:Assuming... by Firehed · · Score: 1

      I'm not talking about just HFCS, although that's probably the most well-known example. There's something like four or five dozen different things created from corn. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize#Chemicals_and_medicines is a start, though The Omnivore's Dilemma(Amazon link) goes into MUCH more detail.

      --
      How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
    100. Re:Assuming... by siride · · Score: 3, Informative

      English is as old as any other language. If you are going to talk about when it split off from the other Germanic dialects, it probably did that before the Romance languages became non-trivially distinct from each other.

      For any Western European language that I can think of, sending speakers back 800 or 1000 years would result in unintelligibility. Italian and Spanish probably wouldn't be as bad as French and English, but those languages have changed a lot too, and certainly compared to Latin. Same thing with German and the Slavic Languages.

      The reason Chinese can still be read is because it is an ideographic system and the orthography is conservative. This is also why we can read Shakespeare and Chaucer, even though both sounded considerably different from Modern English. It's not that Chinese hasn't changed -- it's changed a lot -- but that the writing system hasn't.

      Your Greek example is also bad because Greek has undergone a great deal of phonetic change since the Classical Greek days (and there wasn't even one language called "Classical Greek" -- there were a variety of more and less mutually intelligible dialects) and some grammatical changes. It lost the dative case and significantly reduced the morphological distinctiveness of the case endings. The entire set of perfect tenses was built anew with auxiliary verbs. It also simplified the accent system to move away from a pitch-based accent and towards a stress-based accent. I can go on and on. It's definitely changed a great deal.

      But honestly, you can go and read Old English pretty easily if you take a short amount of time to go over how the letters are pronounced, a few of the correspondences in sounds between Old and Modern English and a quick run through of the fact that there are cases and other verb forms. It's not significantly different from Modern English, even though at first glance it looks insane. The biggest difference is probably vocabulary, but if you know German, you'll find that even that isn't too much of a hurdle.

    101. Re:Assuming... by monoqlith · · Score: 2, Funny

      Someone mod this funny.

    102. Re:Assuming... by Rebelgecko · · Score: 1

      Of course not silly, you would speak Latin to a Latin American.

      --
      CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
    103. Re:Assuming... by Caesar+Tjalbo · · Score: 0

      We use 365 days for our Calendar because thats how long it takes the Earth to rotate around the sun.

      Fortunately, that's the same amount of days as it takes for the sun to rotate around the earth, else we had to make a new calendar.

      --
      "I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
    104. Re:Assuming... by HeronBlademaster · · Score: 1

      Isn't that the big problem Bart solved for Lisa?

      China: "Where is our money? You pay now!"
      Bart: "What happened to you, China? You used to be cool."
      China: "We're still cool! Later - you pay later!"

    105. Re:Assuming... by SETIGuy · · Score: 1

      The reason Chinese can still be read is because it is an ideographic system and the orthography is conservative. This is also why we can read Shakespeare and Chaucer, even though both sounded considerably different from Modern English. It's not that Chinese hasn't changed -- it's changed a lot -- but that the writing system hasn't.

      The Chinese writing system has been so well conserved that it is used by several different spoken languages. For example Japanese (who use a similar ideographic written language as one of their written languages) and Koreans (who currently use a phonetic alphabet with occasional ideographs scattered within texts) can often decipher written Chinese languages, but could not understand the same language when spoken.

    106. Re:Assuming... by glitch23 · · Score: 1

      Go to your local Walmart and count how many products contain "high fructose corn syrup" Now who's the corn-worshiping culture?

      Don't forget ethanol.

      --
      this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
    107. Re:Assuming... by siddesu · · Score: 1

      No you didn't. You witnessed people who have studied how to interpret ancient Chinese texts in school for 11 years interpret them. Reading old Chinese books aloud, listening to the Chinese literature teacher explaining each and every bit afterwards, and memorizing what you've read and what it supposedly means is large part of the education in a Chinese school.

      Whether they really understand the scripts, and whether those scripts mean what the teacher says they do remains to be seen -- perhaps we'll know when the Time University folk kidnap Confusius from the olden times, let him fix his teeth and tell us about what those inscriptions really mean.

      I hope he likes the modern Chinese food too.

    108. Re:Assuming... by SETIGuy · · Score: 1

      It's fun to calculate what the sky will look like 3 months from now, and then see how accurate you are (with a bit of research).

      I've always found it more fun just to wait 6 hours for the universe to give me the answer.

    109. Re:Assuming... by SETIGuy · · Score: 1

      I'm willing to bet a substantial sum that there won't be any unusual meteor activity during the last week of August, 2013. How about $100k even money that there are no events with energies larger than 10 megaton during that week?

    110. Re:Assuming... by jc42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yup. It's the Mayan Y2K bug. Good thing their calendar is based on mechanical circles. People discussing a 2012 apocalypse are discussing where a circle begins and ends.

      Pretty much. And it's even stupider than that.

      The 2012 date is when the Mayan base-20 calendar overflows from (as the common translation to decimal notation would say) 12.19.19.18.4 to 13.0.0.0.0. The 5-digit date is actually 3 years plus a 2-digit day withing the year; that's why that funny 18.4 is the end of a year. 18*20+4=364, which is the last day of the year if you start counting at zero as the Mayan calendar does. (They ignore the extra .24 day in the solar year, so their New Year day slowly drifts over the centuries.)

      Overflowing to 13.0.0.0.0 is sorta like our year overflowing to 2000/1/1, of course. But it's obviously not the end of the calendar; that will be at 19.19.19.18.4, some 2400 years later. And even then, the Mayan calendar doesn't really end. There are some old inscriptions implying that the 5-digit date was considered a truncation, and it should have 2 or more likely 3 more high-order digits. So people using the Mayan calendar will just have to stop dropping 3 digits, and use at least one more. So 19.19.19.18.4 will be followed by 1.0.0.0.0.0, which will look sorta cool on the stelae that will no doubt be erected to celebrate the occasion.

      Anyway, even with 5 digits for the year instead of 3, we have a few million years until the calendar runs out, and if 6 digits is the correct length, the Mayan calendar will probably outlive our species.

      Base 20 numbers do use a lot fewer digits than base 10, especially when you get to big numbers.

      --
      Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
    111. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are only 3 books containing Mayan Text still around today, all the rest were burned because they could contain "Heresay" (No one bothered to translate. Burn first ask questions later).

      You discount the possibility that they were so thorough because they translated the books.

    112. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Not as much in Canada, except for the food products manufactured in the US and imported here. Basically it all has to do with the corn-growing subsidies put in place during the Cuban revolution to ensure a source of US sugar despite the embargo on Cuban sugar cane juice. Canada produces sucrose from sugar beet instead and doesn't have the same level of corn subsidies. Since then, large agri-business like Archer Daniels Midland got rich off the subsidies, and started peddling HFCS with subsidized prices to food processors as an additive to encourage consumption. So the obesity epidemic (and, coming soon, diabetes epidemic) in the US is in large part due to policies started in the Cuban revolution and the Cold War, and since perpetuated through lobbying by existing commercial interests (i.e. greed).

    113. Re:Assuming... by Guido+von+Guido · · Score: 1

      Your post is incredibly relevant considering that the Mayan calendar simply starts over at that time rather than predicting the end. The Apocalyptic prediction from the calendar was simply speculation that arose from not knowing the language. There's not exactly a Mayan Rosetta Stone so even all that we know about the language is still premature.

      First, there is a Rosetta stone of sorts. Diego de Landa had some of the Mayans write down some of the glyphs in the Spanish alphabet about the time he had most of the books burned.

      Second, yeah, the apocalypse garbage is exactly that. I don't think we can blame lack of knowledge of the language--it's just stupid speculation. If the classical Mayans were still around, they'd probably have a big festival.

    114. Re:Assuming... by Guido+von+Guido · · Score: 1

      There are people that speak something that descends from the mayan language, correct. That doesn't help us much in deciphering the written version of the language in hieroglyphics.

      Sure it does. Between that and the large number of inscriptions available, we have a reasonably good understanding of classical Mayan language. I'd recommend reading something like Michael Coe's Breaking the Mayan Code and ignoring the 2012 bullshit.

    115. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well that makes sense. you wouldn't want to be worshiping something that had hell in it.

    116. Re:Assuming... by jpkeating · · Score: 1

      Sky & Telescope magazine has a thorough story on this in its November issue. A press release with a link to a PDF of the article is at http://www.skyandtelescope.com/about/pressreleases/64679127.html#

    117. Re:Assuming... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      Nobody actually worships, or even much believes in ethanol. There's just a big Democractic constituency in the corn farmers, who are being paid off by the Ethanol programs.

      If we were serious about ethanol, it would be made from cane sugar. Unfortunately, voting American Farmers don't grow much cane sugar.

    118. Re:Assuming... by VolciMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Instant grits?
      No self respectin' Southerner uses instant grits. I take pride in my grits."

    119. Re:Assuming... by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      Don't you go trying to play the geek card. Unless you can identify the TTL chips soldered onto it, and make a reasonable guess at what the card originally did, plugged into a minicomputer or mainframe.

    120. Re:Assuming... by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      I'm not going to put much stock in the predictive abilities of a society that didn't see its own fall from those damn Aztecs, or Inca, or however wiped them out.

      Love your sig.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    121. Re:Assuming... by TangoMargarine · · Score: 2, Funny

      And added some chic God-hatin'. Now it's infinitely better!

      --
      Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
    122. Re:Assuming... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      Yeah 13 baktuns should be enough for anybody.

    123. Re:Assuming... by MacWiz · · Score: 1

      at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      Just the Mayan variety. The Rapture delusion is like the Energizer bunny -- The appointed time comes and goes, they change the date and are more certain than ever that this time, it's gonna happen.

      http://home.flash.net/~evt/rapture.htm

    124. Re:Assuming... by DeadDecoy · · Score: 1

      Just sacrifice some interns to Quezacotl and I'm sure the repossessor gods will pass over your humble conglomerate.

    125. Re:Assuming... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      Yeah but Chinese written text is a symbolic language on its own. It isn't specific to Mandarin or any other language.

    126. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats ok... the counters will just overflow like the date and we'll owe $-4,294,967,295.00

    127. Re:Assuming... by Rocketship+Underpant · · Score: 1

      "At any rate, to answer your question, all Mayan dialects have long since been Romanized, but it has only been in recent years (ten, perhaps) that efforts have been made to standardize the lithography across dialects."

      I think you meant "orthography", unless the new spelling rules only apply to stone engravings.

      --
      He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
    128. Re:Assuming... by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 1

      You know that's just going to encourage the theft of nuclear warheads.

    129. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Book of Mat... any relation to the Hall of Mat?

    130. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      Assuming all the conspiracy theorists can be convinced it's true, at least this means I'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

      Conspiracy lol I dont think you even know the meaning of the word.Go back to school kid

    131. Re:Assuming... by NikolaiKutuzov · · Score: 1

      towards the tits?

      --
      Invita Invidia
    132. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah right, with universal health care you will live to at least 2300, but only because the government can tax you more that way.

    133. Re:Assuming... by phision · · Score: 1

      Did you invent the lyrics of that song...

      My idea of fun
      Is killing everyone

    134. Re:Assuming... by phoenix321 · · Score: 1

      Then they did a pretty good job of claiming to be laymen :)

    135. Re:Assuming... by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 1

      I'm going to say that the corn-worshipping culture is the one that bowed down, prayed, and made sacrifices to corn.

      Whereas the culture with the really bad agricultural policies is the one eating tons of high-fructose corn syrup because corn subsidies have made it cheaper than cane sugar.

    136. Re:Assuming... by qc_dk · · Score: 1

      It's false advertising. I have been present many times things have gone "tits up" but have never seen the proverbial subject.

      p.s. if you try too hard, in the name of science of course, you are left with an acute sense of embarassment and a stinging sensation in your cheek.

    137. Re:Assuming... by djjockey · · Score: 1

      up.

    138. Re:Assuming... by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      Exactly why should we worry about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped corn?

      As opposed to a civilisation that worships wafers ? Some progress...

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    139. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're a conservative, the world already ended on January 20th, 2009--they just haven't stopped bitching about it.

    140. Re:Assuming... by Fotograf · · Score: 1

      cannot, too long to read

      --
      God's gift to chicks
    141. Re:Assuming... by Fotograf · · Score: 1

      it doesn't? I wouldnt know, i am from europe...

      --
      God's gift to chicks
    142. Re:Assuming... by IrquiM · · Score: 1

      Up!

      --
      This is blinging
    143. Re:Assuming... by shaker-cat · · Score: 1

      I believe that is actually the Duke Nukem Forever release date.

    144. Re:Assuming... by dcw3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "If a civilization is so fucking retarded that it worships an invisible man in the sky, then one can't really take their prediction of the end of the world seriously, don't you think?"

      This is insightful? The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. There are plenty of people who are experts in one field, and complete morons in another (or every other). Just because they had a culture that had a faith that you find ignorant, doesn't make them "fucking retarded".

      Now, all that said, I personally have zero belief in any of this.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    145. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love the way they built this really long calendar system and then got twatted by a bunch of donkey-riding dago's.

    146. Re:Assuming... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Corn? I think it's mostly barley in the stuff I consume.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    147. Re:Assuming... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Nobody actually worships, or even much believes in ethanol.

      I'm Irish, you insensitive poltroon!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    148. Re:Assuming... by Nyder · · Score: 1

      It is interesting to note that the Christian conversion of the Mayan people brought about some surprising abnormalities (or outright perversions) in the spoken language itself. Even amongst the most pure speakers of Mayan dialects, Spanish has left its indelible mark. Take for example the word for 'people' in Q'eqchi': kristiaan. Any Spanish speaker would recognize the transliteration of that word as 'cristiano'. Therefore, in a very subtle way, you are not a person or a group of people unless you are in fact Christian. Crazy, huh?

      um, Catholic, not christian. While some peeps might think they are the same, they aren't.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    149. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      between the legs, of course.

    150. Re:Assuming... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      English is as old as any other language.

      It isn't as old as Welsh or Latin.

      If you are going to talk about when it split off from the other Germanic dialects, it probably did that before the Romance languages became non-trivially distinct from each other.

      The age of the ancestor languages is irrelevant, because they aren't English. Ancestor of X != X.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    151. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China whats wrong with you? You use to be cool... And all the rest of you just go check your mail cause I totaly remember sending out a check.

    152. Re:Assuming... by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      >but what did you expect them to do? Carve an infinitely long calendar every time they wanted to express a date...
      I understand what you are saying, as well, interpretation of a long dead language, seems to me they meant the end of the calendar (meaning a restart) in 2012, not the end of the world...but this restart would affect everything in the world (theirs anyways) as all dates written now would have the 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1 etc... so yes it does change the whole world, but not as prophets want you to believe the end is coming.

      I so hate all the end of the world squabbles, over predictions, instead I focus on the real issues, like blowing up a crater in our moon to see if there is water deeper inside the moon, well I don't think trying to blow a part of the moon with explosives, when it's never been done before, so in space how much stronger is the force going to be...could it split a portion of the moon even split it in half, causing changes in our climate and tides, or even worse, too big an explosion could force it off its axis, and even make it speed downwards towards earth...these are the more pressing issues....who gave the US the right to blow the moon up anyways?

    153. Re:Assuming... by Aklyon · · Score: 1

      Go to your local Walmart and count how many products contain "high fructose corn syrup"

      Now who's the corn syrup-worshiping culture?

      Fix'd that for you.

      --
      I reserve the right to have a physical object so I can sell it later, and recover my money.
    154. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As another educational note, when you morons say 'off of' you actually mean 'on'.

    155. Re:Assuming... by siride · · Score: 1

      Well, that's not really how it works. There was no point at which Saxon ceased to be Saxon and one day became English, a new and separate entity. The language was a continuous development since the dawn of language. The names may change due to political reasons, but from the point of view of the language itself, nothing has changed. The terminology "ancestor of English" is a linguistic convenience for people who are talking about language development. It is not a fact about the development itself. Ancestors do not "give birth" to new languages and then die. It is, as I said, a continuous development. Now, if you want to talk about particular periods of a language being older or younger, then that is valid. You can speak of Latin, as the language spoken between 600 BC and 200 AD as having taken place before Modern English as spoken from 1650 AD to the present.

    156. Re:Assuming... by intheshelter · · Score: 1

      Don't be fooled! The world is still ending in 2012. They just want to fool you so you passively face the end of the world like comforted sheep. We should be rioting in the streets right now because THE END IS NEAR!!!!!

      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

    157. Re:Assuming... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 1

      Well all we're saying is that the Spanish are to blame for there not being any more Mayan texts around today. No one was saying it wasn't in their best interests at the time.

      Just for those who are hardcore interested in history, its upsetting to know that what could be a priceless manuscript was burned for an empire which now has nothing to show for it.

    158. Re:Assuming... by jd76 · · Score: 1

      I think it'd be reasonable to presume a modern day Mayan would be unable to communicate with an ancient Mayan due to generational changes in dialect and word-set

      Not to mention the whole "being dead" thing.

      I have trouble effectively communicating with my kids. How much more difficult would it be with 20+ generations of separation? (What is a "BFF" anyway?)

    159. Re:Assuming... by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      I think it'd be reasonable to presume a modern day Mayan would be unable to communicate with an ancient Mayan due to generational changes in dialect and word-set

      Not to mention the whole "being dead" thing.


      The modern day Mayan would have no trouble communicating with the ancient Mayan, it would just be a pretty one-sided conversation...

    160. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "It'll cost *HOW* much to put an extra cycle ring on the calendar???? Ah, screw it; I'll be retired or laid-off by the time it becomes a problem anyway. Besides, I need the money to buy more jade bracelets for my mistresses."

    161. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was under the assumption that hookers and blow were obviously involved.

    162. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not obligatory. Just typical of a 1.4 million ID "me too" type crapping up the thread.

      This place is going downhill, fast.

    163. Re:Assuming... by lazorz · · Score: 1

      I am not sure about a dozen, but I've definitely heard 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010 and (obviously) 2012 from one person or another since Y2K.

    164. Re:Assuming... by xappax · · Score: 1

      I'm going to say that you're a robot which interprets everything it reads in the most literal way possible.

    165. Re:Assuming... by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Was it 28 years or 28000 years?

    166. Re:Assuming... by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 1

      Pity, too. They burned the three-volume series, Where We Buried Our Fabulous Treasures: A Step-By-Step Guide to Getting There and Back Alive.

    167. Re:Assuming... by alleycat0 · · Score: 1

      There are people that speak something that descends from the mayan language, correct. That doesn't help us much in deciphering the written version of the language in hieroglyphics.

      The "people that speak something that descends from the mayan language" are in fact Maya, being the direct descendants of the ancient Maya - and knowledge of modern Mayan languages has indeed proven quite helpful in deciphering the ancient Mayan script.

      --
      I am not a number - I am a free man!
    168. Re:Assuming... by paulmac84 · · Score: 1

      well I don't think trying to blow a part of the moon with explosives, when it's never been done before, so in space how much stronger is the force going to be...could it split a portion of the moon even split it in half, causing changes in our climate and tides, or even worse, too big an explosion could force it off its axis, and even make it speed downwards towards earth...these are the more pressing issues....who gave the US the right to blow the moon up anyways?

      Can I have some of what you're taking? It's seems to be so much more potent than what the rest of the loony, crackpots are passing around these days.

      --
      One of the universal rules of happiness is always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual
    169. Re:Assuming... by tool462 · · Score: 1

      Awesome. A fellow language nerd :)

      It's amazing how much of the Germanic language family is intelligible with only a bit of extra training. I speak English, quite a bit of German, and have picked up a little Norwegian, and between these can understand quite a lot of Old English, Old High German, Old Icelandic, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Saxon, as well as modern Dutch, Swedish, and Danish. The harder part with reading the old poetry isn't so much understanding the words as it is interpreting their meaning. The kennings can be pretty hard to decode without enough background knowledge--especially when you're unsure about the translation of some words.

      It is fascinating to see how the languages change through time and between the different branches, how historical events affected the language's development, etc.

    170. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Mayan language and culture has survived in enclaves in the Yucatan. Though the language has changed over time, ancient Mayan is not unrecognizable. A lot of information was lost instead due to a series of cultural devastations (Aztecs and Spanish). The ignorance of the language is not as much of a problem as the phenomenon of catastrophic apocalypticism. It devours mythology and spews panicked conjecture - like a dirty rumor. If anything the catastrophic apocalypticism we feel is most likely a direct result of the full broadcast of even the world's smallest tragedies being blasted at us by every media source recognizable. Our sympathetic panic enables this type of cultural phenomenon, I just hope we don't see any of the Heaven's Gate type suicide cults come out of this.

    171. Re:Assuming... by niktemadur · · Score: 1

      Just sacrifice some interns to Quezacotl and I'm sure the repossessor gods will pass over your humble conglomerate.

      For the record, the accepted spelling is Quetzalcoatl. However, keeping in mind it's a Nahuatl word, this is the Aztec manifestation of the ever-popular Feathered Serpent, originally a Toltec concept so awesomely cool that it spread throughout most of Mesoamerica. This being a 2012 thread, better to go with the Mayan equivalent Kukulkan.
      But if you really want to get your sacrifices right, skip the middleman and get right to the top, Itzamna is the head honcho in the Mayan pantheon.

      Can't resist quoting Colbert here:
      "Hey Quetzalcoatl! Nice feathers, man!
      Is there a men's department at the store where you bought those?"

      --
      Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
    172. Re:Assuming... by PastaLover · · Score: 1

      Yup. It's the Mayan Y2K bug.

      Maybe the designers of the Mayan calendar were all like "Yeah, as if our empire will still be standing in a 1000 years". It's only a bug if you're wrong. ;-)

    173. Re:Assuming... by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      Read up on your stories, it was posted a few weeks ago here on slashdot...
      wise *ss

    174. Re:Assuming... by scarboni888 · · Score: 1

      "As the Canadians prove, it's entirely possible to be retarded for reasons unrelated to your vegetative deity of choice."

      Yeah it's called having your brain predictably frozen year after year from living too far away from the equator.

      The first people who thought it might be a good idea to live in areas that have temperatures that can be fatal were obviously retarded so it stands to reason their offspring will be as well.

    175. Re:Assuming... by Avalain · · Score: 1

      And assuming all the conspiracy theorists are right, it also means you'll be dead before this idiocy crops up again.

    176. Re:Assuming... by osmosium · · Score: 0

      Holy Cow! My calendar ends in December 2009 too! I better tell my wife I love her...

    177. Re:Assuming... by paulmac84 · · Score: 1

      I know the story that you're referring to, but that doesn't make your comments any less crazy.

      --
      One of the universal rules of happiness is always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual
    178. Re:Assuming... by mldi · · Score: 1

      Fantastic, I made a lot of money fixing Y2k bugs. Where on Craigs list do I find Gigs for fixing Mayan Calendar Bugs?

      That's funny, but I don't think you fully realize yet just how many scam artists will be collecting big time around that date.
      Maybe it's time to get in on the action?

      --
      If you aren't suspicious of your government's actions, you aren't doing your job as a responsible citizen.
    179. Re:Assuming... by rubi · · Score: 1

      Speaking something derived from original Mayan laguage is not the same as reading the ancient figures. Much like there weren't any hyeroglyphic-reading people in Egypt up until a relatively short time ago.

    180. Re:Assuming... by rubi · · Score: 1

      Exactly why should we worry about a calendar developed by a civilization that worshiped corn?

      Maybe because they had a calendar that was several times more precise than the one used by their "discoveres" (conquerors/killers) even by some od today's day to day use calendars.

      About the corn thing, what would be the difference between a man-like figure, a cob of corn or an elephant in regards to being used a a representation of a superior being that explains what we can't?

    181. Re:Assuming... by rubi · · Score: 1

      When the Spaniards arrived, all codices and other writings containing any Mayan text were destroyed. - - deleted - -

      Pure ignorance! In today's world the "conquistadores" and "descubridores" would be tried by genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity (or a combination of these).

    182. Re:Assuming... by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 1

      Most certainly, but being angry at them will not change history. There are still a lot of oral histories and legends that survive. They are slowly fading with each succeeding generation. It would be better to divert that energy into recording these histories and stories that they do not further erode and disappear from the fabric of humanity.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    183. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should we worry about a calendar developed by a group of people who think a bit of bread is the body of their god? Because ad hominem is usually a fallacy.

    184. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Almost no "conspiracy theorists" believe 2012 crap. That's for sci-fi geeks and religious/superstitious nuts.

      On that note from what you might call a "conspiracy theorist: Why would there be any need for "conspiracies" if the world was going to cease to exist anyway?

      Logic is a wonderful thing.

    185. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's when we see.... "Boldly, where no greedy bankers have gone before. . . ."

      Hey, there are "accounts to be serviced" in other solar systems too! Why leave them out of our "wonderful" FIAT banking system, and all of the glorious benefits it provides domestically and in the third world?

      2013: The start of "Operation Gugulaxian Freedom".

    186. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not a Jehovah's Witness, as I find most of religion as a whole not to my liking. But, you could look at that differently and it might not seem as weird. Just a wild guess (mental masturbation):

      The Federal Reserve was founded in 1913 (If that means anything to you, you'll know what I'm talking about). The Jehovah's Witnesses were officially sent to Concentration Camps in Nazi Germany (in wich figures around the Federal Reserve bank had questionable relationships, and some say that Hitler never would have gotten off the ground without these folks).

      Hmmm.

      Perhaps it's not really an "end times" myth but just good old fashioned symbolism, like most of the "good book" itself?

      I think the original revelation was meant to be symbolic socio-political criticism against a typical political ideological system that most tyrannical empires have taken to in history, disguised as a religious work to escape political persecution, which is why you can find endless times in history where the book of revelation was appearing to "unfold" only to lead to nothing once the tyrants were taken out of power.

      I believe pretty much all prophecy, if not an utter fabrication, at least in antiquity, is vieled political commentary.

      End of the world cults are nothing new, anyway. The world has ended nearly every year for the last several thousand years, so I'm looking forward to the next time the world will "end", aren't you? Well, as long as we keep thumbing our collective noses at tyrants, anyway.

    187. Re:Assuming... by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

      Really, how is me saying that trying to blow up the moon is not a good idea, especially because we really have never done something like it, and don't know how it will REALLY turn out, we are just guesstimating....a crazy thing??? I think what is crazy is that people
      a ) think the US has the right to do this, what if every other nation decided the same, because the moon belongs to all the countries and not just the US....that sure would mean a smaller moon now would it not?
      b ) think that blowing up or sending stuff from orbit crashing into the moon is a great way to see what happens...I could say I want to see how your face might stop the impact of a flying shoe, just to see what happens, and yet I am sure your argument would be, we don't need to find out, we can imagine ...
      c ) the tides and climate are directly affected by the moon (the rise and flow of the tides ...read it up) and to do stuff to the moon that might make things even more CRAZY ( your favorite word)
      as it's not already crazy enough with all the global warming....no let's pile on even more, by chancing a slight accident because the calculations MAY have been wrong, and it's only once we have done this, that we go..."oh, look at that, i forgot 1 decimal place....ooops".

      So no, I do not think my idea is crazy, in fact i think I am the sane one here trying to bring light to the issues such as these. I wait at a red traffic light that stay on without changing sides for 5 minutes at night without any real traffic, and i think to myself, they should have had sensor plates under the pavement to know when cars are waiting, and have some sort of semi AI intelligence built into the damn lights....but that is a CRAZY idea too right, because I thunk it???
      My impatience at the lights spawned this idea, and I have CRAZY ideas, so I guess I must be CRAZY, CRAZY,CRAZY.......

    188. Re:Assuming... by GargamelSpaceman · · Score: 1

      There will always be more idiocy. What's up next doomwise after 2012?

      --
      ...
    189. Re:Assuming... by Kreigaffe · · Score: 1

      True, but idiots somehow surviving their bad choices are an important part of our story. Today it might be "Billy shot heself in the leg scratchin his nuts with his gun", but change a few details around and tomorrow it could be "Billy ran into the collapsing orphanage as it burned and saved everybody". Improbable survival in the face of extreme idiocy and bad choices is key to our survival as a species.

      --
      ... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about. :|
    190. Re:Assuming... by Ceres54 · · Score: 1

      Just a couple of exceptions to this. First, the only part of our calendar that is based on 'astrological' occurrences would be the Zodiacal Signs, and it is arguable that these are not part of a 'modern' calendar. The others are based on *Astronomical* events. Your post implies that there is a certain arbitrariness in the choice of using the revolution of the Earth around the sun as the basis for a year. Of course, you could use some other planet's year, but then you would have a terrible time working out the seasons. Most other temporal measures longer than an hour and shorter than the century, are also, with greater or lesser accuracy, based on actual things that happen in the Sun-Earth-Moon system. Season - bounded by the extreme and median positions of the Sun's apparent motion north and south in the Earth's sky Month - 1 revolution of the Moon around the Earth Week - Easily quantifiable phases of that Moon's illumination as seen from Earth Solar Day - 1 rotation from noon to noon of the Earth Sidereal Day - 1 rotation from 'fixed star' to fixed star of the Earth (about 4 minutes shorter than the solar day).

    191. Re:Assuming... by eloki · · Score: 1

      Hmm are you in the US? Since corn is a much smaller crop here in Australia, I'd be surprised if there was anywhere near the equal numbers of supermarket products here that would find it economical to use, even as a processed form.

      In Australia I understand our main source of biomass is sugar cane waste, that being our main source of sugar. Corn farming & prices never make the news here, but cane farming and sugar prices do.

    192. Re:Assuming... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, I presume," 'popal' has reference to the chief governing body of the people." could have been 'papal' as in Pope, then on to 'people'?

    193. Re:Assuming... by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 1

      It was a typo on my part. It is 'popol'. The etymology of the word comes from 'mat' (pop) upon which the cheif or government official sat and would decide matters of law and government. There is no connection to Catholicism at all.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    194. Re:Assuming... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Canadians worship maple trees and that doesn't make them retarded

      Many would disagree..

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    195. Re:Assuming... by brilanon · · Score: 1

      WTF. Leave the moon alone. Why are you so worried about the moon?

  2. No boom today... by denzacar · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.

    --
    Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
    1. Re:No boom today... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's similar to what Popeye said when disguising himself with a wig on Goon Island:
      "Hair today, goon tomorrow."

    2. Re:No boom today... by sajuuk · · Score: 5, Informative

      No boom today. And Ivanova is God. Trust Ivanova, trust yourself. Everyone else, shoot em.

    3. Re:No boom today... by crispin_bollocks · · Score: 1

      Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom.

    4. Re:No boom today... by Viadd · · Score: 2, Funny

      On a totally unrelated note, NASA will try launching its new ARES X-1 rocket tomorrow.

    5. Re:No boom today... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      If I live through this thread without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of Biblical proportions.

    6. Re:No boom today... by sconeu · · Score: 1

      The Illudium Q-39 Explosive Space Modulator! That creature has stolen the Space Modulator!!!

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    7. Re:No boom today... by sajuuk · · Score: 1

      You should just go put a bucket on your head and pretend to be the ancient Vorlon god Booji.

    8. Re:No boom today... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So boom tomorrow then

    9. Re:No boom today... by powerlord · · Score: 1

      Is this post the one?

      No, not the one. Not the one.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    10. Re:No boom today... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      C'mon, you missed the obvious response.

    11. Re:No boom today... by sajuuk · · Score: 1

      Well, there goes my faith in the allmighty. Couldn't think of it at the time. Its been a while since I've seen A Day in the Strife. Good episode though.

    12. Re:No boom today... by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      Corwin is my favorite character in the whole show. He's the quiet, socially awkward geek that comes from nowhere and throws out hilarious one-liners.

    13. Re:No boom today... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow. You're a fucking tool.

      Next!

    14. Re:No boom today... by scaryjohn · · Score: 1

      ZOG!

      --
      One might ask the same about birds. What ARE birds? We just don't know.
    15. Re:No boom today... by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      I'd mod you up if I had the points ;)

    16. Re:No boom today... by IrquiM · · Score: 1

      Today however... Ares 1x launch could go very boom

      --
      This is blinging
  3. Actually... by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's just what they want you to think.

    --
    Caffeine is my anti-drug!

    Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
    1. Re:Actually... by Akido37 · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's just what they want you to think.

      +5 Informative. I agree. It's good to know what they want me to think. Wait what?

    2. Re:Actually... by hrimhari · · Score: 1

      Must be an adverse reaction to the "use 'em or loose 'em" policy.

      First mod: OMG OMG OMG! I must mod! What should I mod? Oh here, "That's just what they want you to think." That oughta be +1 Insightful!

      Second mod: OMG OMG OMG! I must mod! What should I mod? Oh here, "That's just what they want you to think" and it's already 3: Insightful. That oughta be +1 Informative!

      Third mod: OMG OMG OMG! I must mod! What should I mod? Oh here, "That's just what they want you to think" and it's already 4: Informative. It certainly deserves another +1.

      --
      http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
    3. Re:Actually... by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Funny

      No... it's a meta-mod joke. Moderators will often mod clearly funny paranoia "insightful" or "informative" to add to the comic value.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    4. Re:Actually... by scorp1us · · Score: 1

      Exactly, by moving the date 8 years out, when it does come on 2012, we won't be expecting t and the mass hysteria will only last a few minutes at most. Meanwhile the team will be on vacation, spelunking for Christmas...

      --
      Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
    5. Re:Actually... by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      What amuses me is how seriously some people take /. moderation. /eyeroll

      You know you've gone off the deep-end when you make your signature a comment about moderation...

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    6. Re:Actually... by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 5, Funny

      No... it's a meta-mod joke. Moderators will often mod clearly funny paranoia "insightful" or "informative" to add to the comic value.

      I've also heard of the mods giving Informative or Insightful posts a Funny mod - just to make you stop and wonder what the hell the joke was supposed to be.

      --
      Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
    7. Re:Actually... by keatonguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Long story short, mods are pricks.

      --
      If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
    8. Re:Actually... by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      Exactly, by moving the date 8 years out, when it does come on 2012, we won't be expecting t and the mass hysteria will only last a few minutes at most.

      That's for a very large value of 8 of course...

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    9. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm guilty of this... :D

    10. Re:Actually... by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I noticed that too. Those mods... funny guys, huh.

      Of course with my post I really should have expected it.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    11. Re:Actually... by sskinnider · · Score: 1

      Long story short, mods are pricks.

      Long story short, gods are pricks. There, fixed that for you!

  4. Greeeeeat..... by Gorm+the+DBA · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now we're going to have to deal with a rehash of all of that "You shouldn't call it the Millennium Bug, the new Millennium doesn't start until 1/1/2001, morons" BS...

    1. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I can't stand people who say accurate things. They just think they're sooooooooooo smart...

    2. Re:Greeeeeat..... by paiute · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ah, the false millenium meme. Here is a play relative to that but set in 1900:

      http://www.scribd.com/doc/13330493/Double-Naught-A-Play-in-One-Act

      --
      If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
    3. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Besides it was the year 2753

    4. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      Except that it was not BS. You were just... how do you say in your time... "'tarded"... :P

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    5. Re:Greeeeeat..... by sorak · · Score: 1

      When a Mayan historian catches his error, it means 8 more years of bad predictions.

    6. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry scrote. He's a pilot now. Livin' a really kick-ass life!

    7. Re:Greeeeeat..... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Now we're going to have to deal with a rehash of all of that "You shouldn't call it the Millennium Bug, the new Millennium doesn't start until 1/1/2001, morons" BS...

      We've definitely turned into a bunch of whiners. We didn't have it near as bad as they did two thousand years ago when they had to convert from BC to AD. I heard that on year zero there was a group of people who didn't want either BC or AD to be used because adding zero to before or after was redundant. Then there was the noisy bunch of dudes that didn't believe in the existence of zero. Carumba.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    8. Re:Greeeeeat..... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I can't stand people who say accurate things. They just think they're sooooooooooo smart...

      My favorite are those people who are sooOOOo smart that they cannot understand anything unless it's utterly precise. "I cannot work out what you meant when you used the term 'urs'!" Yep, there goes a problem solving machine right there.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    9. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Now we're going to have to deal with a rehash of all of that "You shouldn't call it the Millennium Bug, the new Millennium doesn't start until 1/1/2001, morons" BS...

      Point to day zero, month zero on year zero of the calendar represented in roman numerals and get back to me.

    10. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, there was no year 0. 1 BC was followed immediately by 1 AD.

      I think your source isn't remembering the situation correctly. The main issue people were having was a fear over running out of usable dates. That started around 10 BC when people started wondering what the hell they'd do when they reached zero. They knew that an event pertaining to 'Christ' would happen around that time since they'd been labeling their years (B)efore (C)hrist for quite some time, but they had no idea what that event would be.

      Eventually, a week before the deadline, they found a baby that was due to be born around the end of the year and decided to pretend that his birth was special. So they decided to shower the mother with gifts (gold, frankincense, myrrh) in exchange for her giving her child the surname Christ. She wasn't Mary Christ nor was the father Joseph Christ, so that's how he got his surname. It was a remarkably workable solution, though it did kinda screw up the kid. IIRC, he grew up with a bit of a God complex, understandable when you're told that you're the D in AD, and eventually started a cult.

    11. Re:Greeeeeat..... by Gorm+the+DBA · · Score: 1

      Point to the fact that the boundary between BC and AD wasn't set until at least 532 AD, and it was arbitrary and guessed at then, then get back to me with your concern about the year "0"

  5. 2220? by oldspewey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean we have to endure another round of shitty movies in 2217?

    --
    If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    1. Re:2220? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nope. The Sex and The City sequel comes out next spring.

    2. Re:2220? by Sebilrazen · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why not? We deal with a round of shitty movies every year anyway.

      --
      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
    3. Re:2220? by mooingyak · · Score: 1

      Yes, but not because of this.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    4. Re:2220? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Does this mean we have to endure another round of shitty movies in 2217?

      Yes, of course you will. Why would you think 2217 would be different than any other year?

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    5. Re:2220? by Tanks*Guns · · Score: 1

      I can already see this one shaping up ... Mel Gibson's Apocalypto II starring Nicholas Cage and Lou Diamond Phillips

    6. Re:2220? by Interoperable · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but they'll be shitty super-3D-interactive-space-movies! We can go to them in our internal-combustion-engine-space-cars and watch them with our super-future-space-eyes!

      --
      So if this is the future...where's my jet pack?
    7. Re:2220? by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      I'd like to think that the human race will learn to be a bit more rational over the next 200 years. There might still be a couple nuts pushing this stuff if we haven't managed to cure mental illness, but Hopefully we won't have to put up with it being pimped via Hollywood movies and completely credulous news segments.

    8. Re:2220? by Kirin+Fenrir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      District 9 was good this year!

      So was...um...

      ...and...uh...

      Well, District 9 was good this year.

      --
      Caffeine is my anti-drug!

      Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
    9. Re:2220? by Like2Byte · · Score: 1

      Does this mean we have to endure another round of shitty movies in 2217?

      Of course!

      However, on 2012 12 18 - when the scientists discover that 2012 *is* the real date - Micheal Moore will hastily put together another annoying movie trumpeting our reluctance to take our Mayan overlords seriously. It'll feature Al Gore.

      Spoiler Alert!
      .
      .

      .
      .
      .

      .
      We all die.

    10. Re:2220? by daveime · · Score: 1

      I'd like to think that the human race will learn to be a bit more rational over the next 200 years

      Only if you abolish religion. Nothing like a good "doomsday prediction" to keep those pews filled with brainless sheep.

    11. Re:2220? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will Glen Beck finally be right about the collapse of the American economy? Your bias is showing.

    12. Re:2220? by NoobixCube · · Score: 1

      Astro Boy wasn't too bad, either... Not 100% accurate to the cartoon (seriously, WHY did they change how Toby died?! He should have been hit by a car!), but still a fairly good movie.

      --
      Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
    13. Re:2220? by stainless-steel-vash · · Score: 1

      But of course...they're already remaking everything imaginable.
      It will be the remake of 2012.

      "2012 II, this time it's for real!"

      --
      I'm so awesome I don't need a sig file -Me
    14. Re:2220? by radtea · · Score: 1

      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.

      What Nietzsche actually said was, "There are no interpretations, only facts." That's my interpretation, anyway.

      [Self consistency! Not just for scientists any more!]

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    15. Re:2220? by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Does this mean we have to endure another round of shitty movies in 2217?

      And if I am still alive in 2217, I promise to go to every single one of them. Even the one directed by the disembodied head of Michael Bay.

    16. Re:2220? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Wasn't Inglorious Basterds good, or didn't you see it?

      I didn't see it, so I can't comment. I was planning on it, though. A few of my friends posted rave reviews on facebook.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    17. Re:2220? by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      I didn't see it, so I can't comment. I was planning on it, though. A few of my friends posted rave reviews on facebook.

      It had a few good moments, but for the most part it wasn't good.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    18. Re:2220? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Why would you think 2217 would be different than any other year?

      Well I was hoping the world would have ended by then. But now I know it's not. Thanks a lot, science!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    19. Re:2220? by oldspewey · · Score: 1

      didn't you see it?

      I figured I'd just wait for the facebook reviews to come out.

      --
      If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
    20. Re:2220? by ArsonSmith · · Score: 1

      +1 exactly right.

      This was how I explained the movie. Although some people I guess felt the few good moments were enough to carry it due to all the rave reviews I have heard. From some of which I wondered if we had seen the same movie.

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    21. Re:2220? by malus314 · · Score: 1

      Why would you think 2217 would be different than any other year?

      Well, I for one was hoping that the MPAA and the money-grubbing, "milk it for all it's worth", "pander to the lowest common denominator" mentality for making movies that it supports would be gone by then.

      *sigh*

      We wishful thinkers can be even more naive than the conspiracy theorists sometimes....

    22. Re:2220? by ArsonSmith · · Score: 1

      seems that religion and democrats seem to be using the same tactic these days.

      --
      Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
    23. Re:2220? by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      :)

      If you tend to take statements literally, Nietzsche is not for you. Also, Nietzsche is one of those people who can be said to have said just about anything, if you pull comments out of the middle of a discussion and try to analyze them out of context.

      What most people call facts are interpretations. When anyone says "the evidence supports X", they're anthropomorphizing. Evidence just sits there in the lab or at the site or in the sky. It never supports or refutes anything, it's just an inanimate object or the like, incapable of engaging in rational discussions. The only thing that supports or refutes a theory is an interpretation of the evidence. This is not a bad thing, certainly not an indictment of science, but anyone who loses sight of this fact is prone to go astray.

      Anyhow, the "facts" most people use to support whatever they believe are in fact interpretations. Observe any debate and you'll find, in that context, Nietzsche's statement is absolutely right. No facts will come up during the debate, just conflicting interpretations.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    24. Re:2220? by penguinchris · · Score: 1

      Now we're getting ridiculously off-topic, but anyway...

      Inglorious Basterds was *really* good (certainly not perfect, obviously), but it doesn't play as well to a non-movie-geek audience as Tarantino's earlier films do.

      That said, a lot of non-movie-geeks did really like it... but it was probably for the violence (which while not extreme compared to previous "exploitation" kinds of films, is incredibly extreme compared to even the goriest mainstream films) and the occasional humor. Not for the excellent script, pacing, directing, cinematography, set design, acting (purposefully over-the-top in places, certainly), etc., for which it deserves critical accolade.

      All of Tarantino's films are like this - the action, violence, and humor appeal to a general audience, and the excellent film making appeals to film geeks. The difference with Inglorious Basterds is that the ratio of general appeal to artistic excellence was shifted, which is the trend Tarantino has been following starting with Kill Bill 2 and Death Proof. You may argue about the quality of those films (I didn't enjoy Kill Bill 2 that much) but he's definitely on the mark with Inglorious Basterds. I suspect within his next few films he'll release something that forgoes the general appeal entirely and is so self-indulgent that it's lost on the critical audience as well, and then he'll have a big come-back with something that everyone likes again.

    25. Re:2220? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it doesn't play as well to a non-movie-geek audience

      Yes, it had an overabundance of subtitles but It had scalping and the entire leadership of the Third Reich getting massacred, what isn't to love?

    26. Re:2220? by ildon · · Score: 1

      And that stops them from making another sequel how?

    27. Re:2220? by Jared555 · · Score: 1

      It may.... we may a) blow ourselves up or b)manage to blow up the sun (see a.)

    28. Re:2220? by Pecisk · · Score: 1

      Watchmen was kinda non-standard - for me in good sense, for some others maybe worse. At least I treat it as complete.

      For other movies...well...there are lot of good movies this year...but very good or exceptional....thought luck.

      --
      user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
    29. Re:2220? by qc_dk · · Score: 1

      I'll just say that I thought the story was a bit thin in places, but it's a really good movie. The casting and acting is simply amazing. And, there are plenty of scenes that take advantage of what Tarantino does best, which is creating an atmosphere so vivid you can practically taste it.

    30. Re:2220? by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

      Because 2217 is the year of Indie Movies on the Desktop!

      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    31. Re:2220? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Star Trek? It kicked ass.

    32. Re:2220? by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Thanks. I'll hold that nugget of hope close to my heart.

      P.S. I vote blow up the sun.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  6. great by ionix5891 · · Score: 2, Funny

    now we are gonna get another terrible movie, and its gonna be called... "2020"

    1. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      now we are gonna get another terrible movie, and its gonna be called... "2020"

      I can see the catchphrase now:

      "Hindsight is 2020"

    2. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is it going to be anything like the TV series?

      http://abcnews.go.com/2020/

    3. Re:great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In retrospect, that's pretty obvious.

    4. Re:great by MaineCoon · · Score: 1

      Did you mean "2220"? Might want to doublecheck the headline!

      To be fair though, on first glance I thought it said 2020 as well.

      --
      Hunt your preferred prey at Aliens vs Predator MUD. Join the war at avpmud.com port 4000
    5. Re:great by need4mospd · · Score: 1

      looking back, we should have seen it coming.

    6. Re:great by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      If only your vision was 2020.

  7. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good News everyone, the bad news i was going to give just got delayed by 200 odd years - Prof. Fansworth

  8. From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by NoYob · · Score: 5, Funny
    Just to pass this on (I'm married so I'm already doomed):

    On 2012-12-21, many geeks were about to have sex from the new agey women who believed that it was the last day of the Earth.

    --
    It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
    1. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Cornflake917 · · Score: 1

      "I'll bet you TEN MILLION dollars that the world doesn't end. If you're so sure it's gonna happen, than that's enough money to last you the rest of your life!"

    2. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by sexybomber · · Score: 1

      It's a damn shame, too, some of those New Agey women are real freaky. Some of them even shave!

    3. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by crispin_bollocks · · Score: 1

      Here's a good reason to do it three years early - http://www.globalorgasm.org/

    4. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That only works if you were the last man on Earth, sorry. And even then, not even.

    5. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So it is in the best interest of the geeks to have 2012 thingy going on to get sex.

    6. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible instantaneous surge of human biological, mental and spiritual energy.

      Has the word "pathetifunny" been coined yet?

      - T

    7. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Krneki · · Score: 1

      Your bet doesn't make any sense. If I believe the world is going to end, what benefit do I get by winning?

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    8. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 1

      Maybe he'll pay you now, if you take the bet, and then you pay him back double when the world doesn't end?

    9. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by houghi · · Score: 4, Funny

      I can imagine the geek that found out that the date was wrong: "Mmm. Either I can have sex for the first time, or I can tell the whole world they are wrong."

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    10. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by brkello · · Score: 1

      whoosh!

      --
      Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
    11. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Damn I wish I had mod points. I'm glad I had just put my drink down.

    12. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your head a-splode

    13. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You reminded me.

      http://xkcd.com/386/

    14. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by Krneki · · Score: 1

      Maybe he'll pay you now, if you take the bet, and then you pay him back double when the world doesn't end?

      So, you'd give money to someone who believes the world is going to end. What do you think he will do with the money? Invest it? Nah, he would party until the world blows up. And then what? Do you think you'd get anything back?

      --
      Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
    15. Re:From the virgin geeks - Thanks a lot! by __aasqbs9791 · · Score: 1

      Did I forget my sarcasm tag? I hoped it would be obvious enough, since the person I replied to pointed out how silly the OP bet would be for anyone to take.

  9. Its ok, m$ will still be supporting XP then too by phonewebcam · · Score: 0, Funny

    Those pesky end of life deadlines keep getting pushed back, even though we'll all be on Windows 666, the "fastest most secure OS we've ever launched"

  10. selling selling... giving away! by Fri13 · · Score: 1

    SELL YOUR STOCK SHARES!!! END IS HERE!

    No, sorry. Earth is just 6000 thousand year old so there is no prophesy what means no problem... but they still wants your money so give it away and sell your house, car and all property!

  11. Rapture 2012 by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1, Troll

    Many Christians waiting to be raptured on 2012... Now they have to wait again!

    1. Re:Rapture 2012 by PRMan · · Score: 1

      I thought this was Mayan...

      --
      Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
    2. Re:Rapture 2012 by interploy · · Score: 1

      Please tell me you're joking...

    3. Re:Rapture 2012 by smooth+wombat · · Score: 1

      I thought this was Mayan...

      This is about the Mayan calendar but there were/are various religious/wacko groups who believe that the Mayan calendar portends the end of the world in 2012.

      Obviously now they'll have to wait another 200+ years to find out.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    4. Re:Rapture 2012 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Catholicism - All your base are belong to us!

      Seriously, many Christian holidays were created to replace pagan rituals, so why wouldnt they klept the Mayan "endgame" as well?

      Easy enough to find out that viewpoint in google, but here is a website to start you off (from the churches point of view...)

      http://www.comereason.org/soc_culture/soc030.asp

      In other words, the church was not endorsing a pagan ceremony but establishing a rival celebration.

      "Your god of **** is actually our Saint ******."

    5. Re:Rapture 2012 by zapakh · · Score: 1

      I thought this was Mayan...

      In related news, the Christmas tree is also pagan.

    6. Re:Rapture 2012 by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

      Seriously, many Christian holidays were created to replace pagan rituals, so why wouldnt they klept the Mayan "endgame" as well?

      Probably because nobody started talking about 2012 being the end of the world until the 1980s? honestly this has nothing to do with Christians putting religious holidays around known pagan holidays. Besides, Hallmark has invented more holidays to sell greeting cards than the Catholic church has invented in centuries...

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    7. Re:Rapture 2012 by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      Besides, Hallmark has invented more holidays to sell greeting cards than the Catholic church has invented in centuries...

      Another shining example of the benefits of free markets over central planning... ;)

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    8. Re:Rapture 2012 by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

      Yeah, And don't even get me started on the DeBeers campaigns - "Is 6 months salary too much to pay for an engagement ring?" well, in a word - yes. Especially for a falsely inflated value item like a diamond that has an artifical price due to careful control of the supply. If DeBeers released all the diamonds they have stored in their warehouses, diamonds would be as cheap as the rest of the semi-precious stones are.

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    9. Re:Rapture 2012 by niktemadur · · Score: 1

      Rapture 2012 (Score:2, Troll) ... on Monday October 26, @12:04PM ...

      Many Christians waiting to be raptured on 2012... Now they have to wait again!

      The above post seems to have miraculous modding.
      It's a sign, brothers and sisters!
      Repent, for the end is nigh!

      --
      Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
    10. Re:Rapture 2012 by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked it is Score:1 w/ troll. You must have a Troll +1 Bonus turned on.

    11. Re:Rapture 2012 by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

      Diamond is just a special form of carbon, in case you don't know. It can be artificially made, unlike Gold and Platinum.

    12. Re:Rapture 2012 by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

      You are preaching to the choir here. I think diamonds are about as awesome as glass (well, probably less because nobody has workers that are basically slaves mining for glass). My whole point was that DeBeers has a campaign to make people think diamonds are a rare and valuable commodity. You and I know they are not. The funny thing is that when presented with the fact that flawless diamonds can be made in labs, suddenly it was the small flaws and "uniqueness" that makes mined diamonds more valuable. Nice try again DeBeers.

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
  12. Google Translate by auntieNeo · · Score: 0

    Does anyone know Dutch and have the time to submit better translations? At least for maybe the first few sentences. I want to see if this Google Translate thing actually works.

    1. Re:Google Translate by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      Does anyone know Dutch and have the time to submit better translations?

      better? >:( teh xlashun iz jus fien kthxbai

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  13. Revised JoCo lyrics? by Itninja · · Score: 2, Funny

    So now this song will go like this?:

    Now I'm [still] waiting for the big boom
    And it know where I'm [was] gonna be
    The big boom
    I'm always getting closer to
    The big boom
    And it will catch up to me
    The big boom

    --
    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  14. Terence McKenna knew... by Terminus32 · · Score: 1, Interesting
    --
    http://nathanlindsell.blogspot.com/
  15. Slashdotted link by Kemanorel · · Score: 1

    The original site that the Google translate link is directing to seems to be borked. Does anyone have any other links to throw out?

    --
    Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
    1. Re:Slashdotted link by traycerb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not another link to the original site, but in the NYT recently Errol Morris was researching an unrelated Civil War story, and one of the sources was David H. Kelly, who did major work deciphering the Mayan script. In passing Errol asked about the 2012 thing: http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/whose-father-was-he-part-four/

      --
      Relax. Have a muffin. Enjoy the show. --Slick, Sept 13th, 2007.
    2. Re:Slashdotted link by geekoid · · Score: 1

      I like how Kelley has in idea, but in all cases they can't be verified. All his work he has an idea, and then cherry picks what supports it and what can't support it.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  16. Surprise by sheepofblue · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The Sheeple running around yelling the sky is falling is incorrect.... wow that is the first time that has occurred.

  17. Date divider by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Every 25.8 years? That doesn't seem so spectacular. All we have to do is add 25.8 to the last doomsday and we'll know for certain. Did the last doomsday happen in 1994 or 1986? I don't remember either being particularly bad, except maybe for the music.

    1. Re:Date divider by richdun · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably an error in your European to American numerical translator - that should have been 25,800 years.

    2. Re:Date divider by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      25.800 mean 25800. Your locale is wrong.

    3. Re:Date divider by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, how does a European write 25 ones and 800 thousandths? (note precision)

    4. Re:Date divider by DocHoncho · · Score: 1

      with a comma: 25,800

      --
      Celebrity worship is a poor substitute for Deity worship and costs more to boot.
    5. Re:Date divider by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Of course. The music of 2012 will be so wretched that it will force the the populance of the earth into commiting planetcide. The release of Linkin Park's cover of "It's the End of the World as We Know It" will be the straw that breaks the collective conscience's back.

  18. Didn't RTFA by EkriirkE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Have the past, current and this calculation all taken into account all the calendar changes made throughout history?

    --
    from 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    to 45 2F 6E 40 3C DF 10 71 4E 41 DF AA 25 7D 31 3F
  19. Re:2220? Yes. STAR TREK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you look on the star trek timeline

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Star_Trek

    2220 is *MISSING*

    Now they have a NEW plot they can integrate into rebooting the series!

    Maybe they will get George Lucas to direct it and the internet will implode.

  20. Amateurs by whisper_jeff · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Mayans were amateurs when it comes to doomsday calendars. We have a doomsday once every 365 days (except on leap years) when our calendar hits December 31.

    Oh. Wait. It's not doomsday? It's just the end of the calendar cycle? Oh. Maybe the Mayan calendar's ending is the same thing and not the end of the world...

    Yeah.

    1. Re:Amateurs by Snowgen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      We have a doomsday once every 365 days (except on leap years) when our calendar hits December 31.

      I'm just being pedantic, I know, but our calendar (the Gregorian calendar) actually has a cycle of 400 years. The most recent cycle transition was in year 2000 (which was a leap year when it otherwise wouldn't have been).

      Of course the rest of your comment is spot-on!

    2. Re:Amateurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh. Wait. It's not doomsday?

      No, no, you got it all wrong! It's not the end of the world, it's the coming of Quetzalcoatl

    3. Re:Amateurs by Minwee · · Score: 1

      The Mayans were amateurs when it comes to doomsday calendars. We have a doomsday once every 365 days (except on leap years) when our calendar hits December 31.

      If the Mayans had Windows, they would know that Doomsday happens every seven days, right after Monday.

    4. Re:Amateurs by carp3_noct3m · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I, being the information junkie I am, have read fairly extensively into this whole thing and have found some interesting information. The key thing is that all the really crazies seem to latch on to things like this and give it a bad name. The Mayans did not predict the end of the world, only the end of an age. In their thinking, there are basically cosmic seasons in the form of every 25k years. Also in their viewpoint, all previous transitions of ages were relatively catastrophic, but by no means end of the world. On top of all this, there happen to be a lot of coincidences scientifically with the date. The primary ones I have seen are the alignment of the planets on the galactic plane, and the best theory I read was that the potential for magnetic changes on the sun could make it a flurry of activity or the opposite. Im no scientist, but I gleaned past the hype and saw some good facts that at the least are interesting. Regardless, its not the end of the world, but it is also not the completely ridiculous y2k idea either (y2k = no scientific basis).

      --
      "It's ok, I'm completely secure as long as my iron is off"
    5. Re:Amateurs by ozbird · · Score: 2, Informative

      The most recent cycle transition was in year 2000 (which was a leap year when it otherwise wouldn't have been).

      Just to be extra pedantic, the year 2000 was always going to be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar.

    6. Re:Amateurs by Eil · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Penn and Teller did an entire Bullshit episode on this. Basically, the conclusion was: The Mayans themselves never predicted any doomsday. At all. They couldn't even predict the annihilation of their own civilization, let alone the human race. Their descendants don't know anything about a supposed doomsday. The whole was something invented by some crackpot authors to sell books to and get attention from gullible people. Just like every other doomsday prophesy in history.

    7. Re:Amateurs by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      Just to be extra pedantic, the year 2000 was always going to be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar
      <p>I think his point was that turn-of-the-century years aren't usually leap years. A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, unless it's divisible by 100, unless it's divisible by 400. So 1700 wasn't a leap year, nor was 1800, or 1900... but 2000 was, as was 1600 before it.</p>

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
    8. Re:Amateurs by geekoid · · Score: 1

      this is thy BS fluctuates between brilliant and frustrating for me.

      "They couldn't even predict the annihilation of their own civilization, "
      we dont' know that they didn't predict the end of their civilization, and using that to claim the didn't predict the end of the world is logically flawed.

      Of course, even if the did predict it, it doesn't make them right.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    9. Re:Amateurs by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Maybe you should become a critical thinking information junkie and not just swallow what every you read?

      "In their thinking, there are basically cosmic seasons in the form of every 25k years. "

      No, they where quite unaware of this fact, or to be more precise there isn't any evidence of this.

      "Also in their viewpoint, all previous transitions of ages were relatively catastrophic, but by no means end of the world."
      It actually seem like the did consider it an 'end of the world', however the defined end of the world as a completly new event. Not 'there won't be an earth left.'

      Baring a major catastrophe event that happens to move some planets around i a very precise way, there will never be a complete planetary line up with anything, ever.
      In 2010 the planets will be close to an alignment, like they do every few years.

      As far as the galactic plane is concerned, from the Suns POV we cross it twice a year.

      Yes, the world ending on 2012 is as ridiculous as thinking it was going to end in 2000.

      Both rely heavily on cherry picking and ignorance to back claims....most claim aren't created by believer, but by people selling something. The believers come latter.

      I'm sorry if this post is harsh, but I can no longer stand any type of this flawed thinking.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    10. Re:Amateurs by Eil · · Score: 1

      we dont' know that they didn't predict the end of their civilization,

      Perhaps not conclusively, but we know that the Mayans were generally pretty good at documenting things. This they did not document or hint at. (To my knowledge. I am not an expert.)

  21. Wrong diagnosis by ShiningSomething · · Score: 5, Insightful

    major problems with the way the Maya Calendar is being read by doomsday prophets

    When someone reads the Mayan Calendar and predicts the end of times... I don't think the date is the most important detail they got wrong.

    1. Re:Wrong diagnosis by rainmaestro · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Precisely. Hell, the *Mayans* didn't envision any doomsday scenarios. We don't even know for certain if the long count calendar cycles at 13 or 20 k'atuns (Mayan counting was base-20, though many scholars believe the calendar cycles after 13). Assuming 13, in Mayan culture the end of a cycle would be a major event, a time of celebration. Nothing in the archaeological record suggests they thought this world would end precisely 1 cycle after it began.

      All this nonsense is just another way to scam the gullible. These doomsday criers are worse than the Y2K nuts. At least Y2K had a grain of truth to it (the rollover *could* have caused problems if it hadn't been patched in time).

    2. Re:Wrong diagnosis by hrimhari · · Score: 2, Funny

      Wow! Base 20! So they also counted their toes?

      --
      http://dilbert.com/2010-12-13
    3. Re:Wrong diagnosis by jgtg32a · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yup, it was much warmer there so they could wear open toe sandals

    4. Re:Wrong diagnosis by selven · · Score: 1

      And 2012 has a grain of truth to it - with all the crazy nuts stockpiling weapons and living like there's no tomorrow there's bound to be some disruption.

    5. Re:Wrong diagnosis by Matrix14 · · Score: 1

      Yeah, just like all those wild revolutions in Y2k.

      Oh, wait...

    6. Re:Wrong diagnosis by konohitowa · · Score: 1

      In reality, it ends January 31, 2010. At least that's the last date on my wall calendar, so applying the same "logic"...

  22. How do you debunk a myth? by captaindomon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wait a minute, how do you "debunk" a myth or religious belief? The only way to "debunk" it is to wait until Dec 13th and then say, "See, the world didn't end afterall." Even that approach can run into problems with myths and religious beliefs "No, it DID happen, but it was a SPIRITUAL end to the world" etc. etc. This approach is the same as a religious leader "Proving" a scientific theorem based on revelation. These are different structures for argument, folks, and they can't be interchanged that way.

    --
    Just because I can hook a shark from a boat, I do no offer to wrestle it in the water.
    1. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by snkboarder · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In the interest of being unhelpful: What? You're justifying the fact that this end of the world date keeps jumping ahead a few years every few years so that we're in the shadow of a perpetual end of the world? Eventually the sun will burn out and it will be true...and technically they'll be correct, but not because they actually predicted anything, just because if you stand somewhere and say something long enough, in theory it will happen. I can stand outside all summer saying 'It's going to rain today" and then "just kidding, I meant tomorrow." Eventually fall will come and one day it will rain and then...I am a prophet by your logic since you can't mix religious nutbags with scientific fact, as that would disprove them. Instead we should coddle the weak-minded fools because one day, logically, they won't be completely wrong.

    2. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by brian0918 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wait a minute, how do you "debunk" a myth or religious belief? The only way to "debunk" it is to wait until Dec 13th and then say, "See, the world didn't end afterall."

      Actually, even if the world does end on the predicted date, the prophesies are still not true. There's no basis for their claims, so they're arbitrary.

    3. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by jbezorg · · Score: 5, Funny

      In short, you can't reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into.

      ... that approach can run into problems with myths and religious beliefs "No, it DID happen, but it was a SPIRITUAL end to the world" ...

      That's when you make the sign of the Devil and tell them: "Glad to see you're still here. I'd like to be the first to officially welcome you to the team. I always enjoyed your work."

      --
      I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
    4. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easy! MYTHBUSTERS.

    5. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      and then say, "See, the world didn't end afterall."

      You have no idea how that really works, do you? ^^
      I know how it works, because I was there. In the 80s. On a end-of-the world camp. With my mother.
      We sat in a tent, had a bonfire with kumbaja-singing, bongo drumming, ate out of a tajine... and when it was time, and nothing happened... ...people simply decided that they must have been wrong in their calculations, decided for a new future date, and continued what they always did.

      Schizophrenia (even the mild one, called superstition or religion) can't be healed by blatant in-you-face facts. Because schizophrenia is by definition a disease where you are detached from reality, and deduce everything from a inner reality.
      The reason is, that the outside world became too horrible to bear, without falling into a state close to brain death. It's a emergency state (that became constant).

      And the only help, is to again make reality more inviting and tempting than their inner world, and offer them a way out that lets them keep their self-respect. (E.g. by allowing them to say that they always did the right thing, and weren't crazy. But that now they do something even better than before.)

      As this is usually really hard, modern society has given up, or thinks that that human is not worth the effort, and just throws pills into them, so they get "out", but at the same time lose a important part of their personality, because of the brain-wide all-eradicating air fuel bombs that these pills are. (Lobotomy light, one could call them.)
      It's easy to fall into the circular reasoning, that a person is not worth that huge effort, because he is such a "worthless, crazy" person (, ...because he is ill, because nobody helps him out of it!!)!

      In terms of psychology, we're still in very dark ages. We see the light in the distance. But it's still a long way to go.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    6. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by steveo777 · · Score: 1

      The Bible says to test a prophecy by seeing if it comes true. It makes sense seeing as most prophecies seem to be making absurd claims. But, then again, some of them come true in one fashion or another.

      However, if I've learned anything from Star Trek and other sci fi, you cannot escape a timeline. No matter what... Except, perhaps, in Minority Report.

      --
      This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
    7. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by brian0918 · · Score: 1

      The Bible says to test a prophecy by seeing if it comes true.

      If you accept the mystical, then there can be no "test" of anything - God or some other supernatural being or "force" could always happen to interfere in your test without you knowing about it. Knowledge is impossible.

    8. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Actually, even having the date come and go is not 100% guaranteed to debunk the myth. In the 1840's a Christian sect in the US believed that the second coming would actually happen on October 22, 1844. When the world did not end on that date, many lost faith, but others simply came up with reasons why it was the Second Coming, but they didn't have the things happen that they expected to happen. Some examples include that being the date that no one else could be saved beyond, or that there was this big, big event that happened, but it was all happening in heaven, so we couldn't see it.

      This was called the Great Disappointment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Disappointment) and is an example of what happens when people start playing games with numbers and Biblical dates. It's also an example that no matter how much proof you give some people, it's never enough for them to overcome a belief that they really, really like. It doesn't even have to be religious, although that is most common.

    9. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by PaganRitual · · Score: 1

      So it's kinda like end-of-the-world confirmation bias? Actually, can it even be confirmation bias if they're only ever right once?

    10. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by Valdrax · · Score: 1

      Actually, even if the world does end on the predicted date, the prophesies are still not true. There's no basis for their claims, so they're arbitrary.

      That's not true. If the world ends exactly as they predicted, then there's a strong sign that their prophesies have a basis. Occam's Razor only points to a naturalistic world as long as nothing overtly miraculous occurs, and a sufficiently bizarre end of the world would point to someone's crazy voice in the head actually being something real as the simplest explanation.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    11. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the equivalent of debunking that the new testament fortells that in the year 3000 everyone will spontaneously sprout wings and become angels. The whole 2012 as the end of the world thing was never actually believed by the mayans in the first place, and the calender may not even be set to end on 2012 at all. Its not debunking a religious belief, its debunking a modern belief that a certain religious belief existed in the first place.

    12. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by ps2os2 · · Score: 0

      Wait you are bringing truth to the discussion stop the presses ??

    13. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by kaoshin · · Score: 1

      Maybe it will happen, but create a ripple back in time to stop it before it happened?

    14. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by MrMr · · Score: 1

      we should coddle the weak-minded fools
      Yes, although it's more generally called 'respect peoples deepest religious beliefs'.

    15. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Ah, but God won't ever intervene to cause true prophecy to not be validated... once he gives a revelation, he keeps his word. Thus, you have the ability to distinguish between true revelation and false impersonators.

      And that's the whole point, anyway... God intervenes to make prophecy come true.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    16. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by brian0918 · · Score: 1

      Ah, but God won't ever intervene to cause true prophecy to not be validated...

      Zeus would. Disprove Zeus.

    17. Re:How do you debunk a myth? by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Not so, many myths and religious beliefs can be debunked. Of course the change the myth in some way, usually falling into the moving goal post fallacy.

      Any argument that has anything to do with the real world can be tested for falsifiability. Of course, anything like that get's hidden from the 'non believers' or believed that haven't paid enough into the system.

      People seem to ignore the fact that at least 3 museums have the head of John the Baptist.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  23. So much for the Sixth World by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess I should cancel my coming out party for Ryumyo. :(

  24. Woops! by dingen · · Score: 1

    I bet the guys behind this aren't too happy to hear this.

    --
    Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
  25. My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 4, Informative
    The Mayans actually had dates carved into stylae which took place long, long after 2012. For example:

    For example, on the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, a section of the text projects into the future to the 80th Calendar Round (CR) 'anniversary' of the famous Palenque ruler K'inich Janaab' Pakal's accession to the throne (Pakal's accession occurred on a Calendar Round date 5 Lamat 1 Mol, at Long Count 9.9.2.4.8 equivalent to 27 July 615 CE).[12] It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate 9.8.9.13.0 8 Ajaw 13 Pop (24 March 603 CE) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8.[13] This calculation arrives at the 80th Calendar Round since his accession, a day that also has a CR date of 5 Lamat 1 Mol, but which lies over 4,000 years in the future from Pakal's time--the day 21 October in the year 4772. The inscription notes that this day would fall eight days after the completion of the 1st piktun [since the creation or zero date of the Long Count system], where the piktun is the next-highest order above the b'ak'tun in the Long Count. If the completion date of that piktun--13 October 4772--were to be written out in Long Count notation, it could be represented as 1.0.0.0.0.0. The 80th CR anniversary date, eight days later, would be 1.0.0.0.0.8 5 Lamat 1 Mol.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar#2012_and_the_Long_Count

    1. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by VoxMagis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Whew - I'm glad you cleared THAT up!

      --
      -- I really need to bleed off some of this /. karma.
    2. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 4, Informative

      Okay, here's the short version: The Mayans didn't believe the end of the world would happen in 2012 or 2220 because they had a date carved into stone which would happen over 2000 years from now. It's THEIR calendar and even THEY didn't believe the end of the world nonsense.

    3. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by oodaloop · · Score: 5, Funny

      Then, during the Third Reconciliation of the Last of the Meketrex Supplicants, they chose a new form for him, that of a giant Sloar! Many Shubs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of a Sloar that day, I can tell you!

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    4. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Eudial · · Score: 1

      This song suggests that man may still be alive in year 2525, year 3535, year 4545, year 5555, year 6565, year 7510, year 8510, but probably not year 9595. Clearly, we knew more in the '70s than the mayans ever did (and the people in the '70s had lots of inventions we have now, like electricity and television -- they were so much like our civilization!), so doomsday is probably between year 8510 and 9595.

      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    5. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Zarf · · Score: 1

      Okay, here's the short version: The Mayans didn't believe the end of the world would happen in 2012 or 2220 because they had a date carved into stone which would happen over 2000 years from now. It's THEIR calendar and even THEY didn't believe the end of the world nonsense.

      THOSE FOOLS! Good thing we're here to straighten stuff out! Now quickly! Everyone head over to ebay and buy my 2012 survival necklaces guaranteed to help you survive the 2012 end of the world. You will need to buy another one for the end of the world in 2220 however.

      --
      [signature]
    6. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So instead, the *real* end-of-time, comes in October 4772 ?

    7. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by jollyreaper · · Score: 1

      The Mayans actually had dates carved into stylae which took place long, long after 2012. For example:
      For example, on the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, a section of the text projects into the future to the 80th Calendar Round (CR) 'anniversary' of the famous Palenque ruler K'inich Janaab' Pakal's accession to the throne (Pakal's accession occurred on a Calendar Round date 5 Lamat 1 Mol, at Long Count 9.9.2.4.8 equivalent to 27 July 615 CE).[12] It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate 9.8.9.13.0 8 Ajaw 13 Pop (24 March 603 CE) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8.[13] This calculation arrives at the 80th Calendar Round since his accession, a day that also has a CR date of 5 Lamat 1 Mol, but which lies over 4,000 years in the future from Pakal's time--the day 21 October in the year 4772. The inscription notes that this day would fall eight days after the completion of the 1st piktun [since the creation or zero date of the Long Count system], where the piktun is the next-highest order above the b'ak'tun in the Long Count. If the completion date of that piktun--13 October 4772--were to be written out in Long Count notation, it could be represented as 1.0.0.0.0.0. The 80th CR anniversary date, eight days later, would be 1.0.0.0.0.8 5 Lamat 1 Mol.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar#2012_and_the_Long_Count [wikipedia.org]

      I read all that hearing Sheldon's voice in my head.

      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    8. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'm sure that "future" date was carved by some ancient conspiracy nut who would not accept that 2012 was the end of all things....

       

    9. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...in other news, all the mayans thought alike (at least the stone carvers).

    10. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 1

      As far as I know, they all used the same calendar system. Sort of like we do with the Gregorian Calendar. So in that sense, yes, they did all think alike.

    11. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by knuckledraegger · · Score: 1

      The end of the world has apparently already happened for the Mayans.

    12. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by powerlord · · Score: 1

      It's a sign! (yeah ... "going out of business")

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    13. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by rmm311 · · Score: 1

      Mmmm....Shubs, make mine extra Mayan Extreme Crispy Blend!

    14. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by rnelsonee · · Score: 2, Interesting

      True - and it's almost the opposite of the end of the world scenario.

      The long count flip is only significant (other than being the largest rollover possible for the calendar) because that's how long the previous world existed. Mayans believed that gods didn't like their first three worlds (presumably because there were no Mayans to worship them) and took a good 13 baktun (or 5,000 years or so) to scrap them and start over each time.

      This date simply marks the time where this world lasts longer than the other world - it is not Doomsday, it's a celebration to revel in the fact the world is going to last so long.

    15. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by DdJ · · Score: 1

      Huh. My favorite thing about the 2012ers is simply that I enjoy being exposed to people who are just utterly batshit fucking crazy.

    16. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by demonrob · · Score: 1

      a date after 2012 can still happen without an earth in existence, so no, that's not enough evidence to plan ahead to 2013. Enjoy the last few years here, and hope like hell you can hitch-hike out in time.

    17. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by phision · · Score: 1

      The Mayans actually had dates carved into stylae which took place long, long after 2012.

      Maybe we should stop call it 2012 already. I wouldn't stick with 2208 either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar#Presumed_2012_doomsday

    18. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Mayans actually had dates carved into stylae which took place long, long after 2012. For example:

      If the completion date of that piktun--13 October 4772--were to be written out in Long Count notation, it could be represented as 1.0.0.0.0.0. The 80th CR anniversary date, eight days later, would be 1.0.0.0.0.8 5 Lamat 1 Mol.

      Would that be kinda like IPv8 addressing?

    19. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      while yes, it's just the end of the calendar, we don't really know what they believed. They may have very well believed the world was going to end.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    20. Re:My favorite thing about the 2012ers... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      The Irony being, for them it didn't last that long.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  26. Oh thats good news by Zarf_is_with_you · · Score: 4, Funny


    My credit card will be paid off by then making Minimum payments.

    1. Re:Oh thats good news by Zarf · · Score: 1

      I'm not with you. Come again?

      --
      [signature]
    2. Re:Oh thats good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my mortgage will not

    3. Re:Oh thats good news by Zarf_is_with_you · · Score: 1

      Sure you are your right here.

    4. Re:Oh thats good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interest rates are killer aren't they? Probably would have just been cheaper to pay cash for that donut instead of getting the Krispy Kreme Kard just for 10% off.

    5. Re:Oh thats good news by EvanED · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wait, why's that good news? Why bother to pay it off if the world's just going to end?

  27. Bad news good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bad news is we'll have to wait until 2020. The good news is my stockpile of Twinkies will still be fresh.

  28. the Discovery channel by Presto+Vivace · · Score: 4, Interesting

    has run a lot of dubious programming. This was one of the things they were actually pushing.

    1. Re:the Discovery channel by c6gunner · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yep, they do have the occasional lunacy. I was rather disgusted when I saw them pimping the "crystal skulls" fraud. Still, they're nowhere near as bad as the History channel.

    2. Re:the Discovery channel by megamerican · · Score: 1

      Yep, they do have the occasional lunacy. I was rather disgusted when I saw them pimping the "crystal skulls" fraud. Still, they're nowhere near as bad as the History channel.

      What do you expect from a cable channel owned by the Hearst Corporation, GE and Disney? (I'm referring to the History channel)

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Television_Networks

      --
      If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
    3. Re:the Discovery channel by eln · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pretty much all of the so-called "educational" channels have degenerated into non-stop conspiracy factories, showing garbage like "Decoding the Da Vinci Code", Nostradamus prophecies, and nonsense about ghosts around the clock. The History Channel, which had already degenerated into the Hitler Channel, is now more like the "Conspiracies about Hitler and the Occult" channel. Discovery's entire family of networks is bad too...there's something seriously wrong when the most educational show a so-called educational channel has is Mythbusters.

    4. Re:the Discovery channel by Skidge · · Score: 1

      Not sure if you get it where you live, but I've found the National Geographic channel has been pretty good lately.

    5. Re:the Discovery channel by Dahamma · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow, your post is of the few times Godwin's Law has been invoked for a valid point rather than a blatant troll...

    6. Re:the Discovery channel by mcsqueak · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Pretty much all of the so-called "educational" channels have degenerated into non-stop conspiracy factories

      Yeah, tell me about it. I don't give a rip about ghosts, demons, Jesus, or any of that other stuff. Give me science and engineering shows! Things like "Monster Machines", "Biggest Suspension Bridges Ever Constructed", "World's Largest Skyscrapers" etc. are at least mildly entertaining and teach me about something real and tangible that I didn't know much about before.

    7. Re:the Discovery channel by NewbieProgrammerMan · · Score: 1

      Don't forget the Testosterone^WHistory Channel's "Ice Road Truckers," "Axe Men" and the like.

      --
      [b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
    8. Re:the Discovery channel by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's sad, Discovery Channel used to be almost all about science. Now it seems to be all about pseudoscience. Still, the History Channel delves into that tripe as well, but they do actually have some history, too -- and science. There's a show called The Universe that's good, Wild West Tech was good (probably cancelled since Carridine died), there's Heavy metal, etc. There was a history of hillbillies yesterday, and there was an excellent show a few months ago about the history of beer.

      They were doing JFK today about noonish. Some tripe, but far more meat than Discovery.

    9. Re:the Discovery channel by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      The History Channel, which had already degenerated into the Hitler Channel, is now more like the "Conspiracies about Hitler and the Occult" channel.

      I will not let you talk that way about the channel that brought us "The History of the Machine Gun" (the history of which can be described in one word: awesome).

      But seriously, I see a lot better documentaries on PBS. Including on the topic of war and Hitler.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    10. Re:the Discovery channel by publiclurker · · Score: 1

      I agree. You think geeks dislike how they are portrayed, ask a lumberman about Axe Men. I have family and in-laws who both cut lumber for a living, and mentioning that show is sure to get an interesting reaction.

    11. Re:the Discovery channel by eln · · Score: 1

      Don't get me wrong, I love a good Hitler documentary as much as the next guy...that whole era is fascinating to me. However, the History Channel seems to have decided to show documentaries about Hitler about 18 hours a day, and half of those are about Hitler and the Occult and things of that nature. They still do have some good programming, but it's being run less frequently and being replaced with a lot of tripe that's light on fact and heavy on spooky ambient music.

    12. Re:the Discovery channel by demonbug · · Score: 1

      Once upon a time the History Channel actually have good, interesting historical programming. I used to love the History Channel. Now every time I flip over to it, it is either Aliens/UFOs, ghosts, or some other from of BS non-educational, non-interesting, non-historical crapfest. Utterly pathetic.

    13. Re:the Discovery channel by NewbieProgrammerMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Wow, I never even thought about that (I was just going for the "what a stupid concept for a show" angle), but I don't doubt they hate it.

      Actually, maybe these shows provide some value to society: if you find yourself in a conversation with a member of $GROUP_X, all you have to do is bring up the $POPCULTURE_DEPICTION_OF_X show, and just agree with the almost guaranteed strong negative reaction. Nothing breaks the ice like a topic you can both get angry about. ;)

      --
      [b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
    14. Re:the Discovery channel by sjames · · Score: 1

      At one time I thought they were using the Science channel for hard science and Discovery channel was science-ish, then the Science channel did a show on alternative energy sources for cars. The concluding section was on compressed air as storage (so far so good), then just before the credits they suggested running the air compressor on compressed air! I had to watch the re-run just to be sure they really said that!

      I'm hoping that was an editorial oversight!

    15. Re:the Discovery channel by slimjim8094 · · Score: 1

      That's why I have a DVR - Discovery is now crap. There's still some quality stuff on there - Mythbusters of course (they seem to be getting more intelligent! who'da thought...), Dirty Jobs is generally interesting and surprisingly informative (though more than a little silly), and Time Warp is interesting despite their best efforts (perhaps not for long). The Raging Planet things they did a while back were really good, too (lightning, floods, hurricanes, etc)

      In short, it used to be amazing and educational/informative, but they seem to be actively fighting that. The erstwhile top-notch shows have gotten more and more stupid - I'm know the Mythbusters aren't stupid, but they're acting like it, undoubtedly due to pressure from the top.

      And then there's utter bullshit like Ghost Lab and A Haunting. It's a discredit to the good shows to be on the same network as that excrement.

      Oh well. It's a shame - they have a core base of the scientific intelligentsia, and they seem to be working their very best to kill it off.

      --
      I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
    16. Re:the Discovery channel by sdguero · · Score: 1

      So true. The history channel was absolute garbage by 2000 and Discovery quickly followed suit, now even the special discovery channels are garbage. While we are on the subject, have you tried to watch MTV or VH1 in the last 10 years? I can't remember the last time I saw an actual music video on either. Even A&E has started to slip badly.

      I often wonder how the companies running these channels allow them to degrade so far so fast. It stinks of corporate hob nobbing and ratings grabs. Instead they should be trying to build a legitimate viewer base with factual content that interests people for more than 20 seconds. With the increasing number of channel options, it seems like that would be a better long term strategy...

    17. Re:the Discovery channel by masmullin · · Score: 1

      The DOG WHISPERER WooooooT

    18. Re:the Discovery channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But i like mythbuster....

    19. Re:the Discovery channel by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's excellent... when they're not showing programs about dog training or rescuing, which is about 5% of the time.

    20. Re:the Discovery channel by X3J11 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wow, your post is of the few times Godwin's Law has been invoked for a valid point rather than a blatant troll...

      Godwin's Law (also known as Godwin's Rule of Nazi Analogies) is a humorous observation made by Mike Godwin in 1990 which has become an Internet adage. It states: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1." The term Godwin's law can also refer to the tradition that whoever makes such a comparison is said to "lose" the debate.

      One does not "invoke" Godwin's law, and no comparison to Nazis was made.

      Yes, I have too much spare time.

    21. Re:the Discovery channel by Valdrax · · Score: 1

      Godwin's Law is simply that any discussion that goes on long enough will invoke the Nazis. While this is frequently a sign that the discussion has long since past its useful life, it is not a statement that any mention of the Nazis is an automatic loss in a debate as some people take it. Godwin himself noted that sometimes Nazis are on-topic; he was just making a joke about how often they came up.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    22. Re:the Discovery channel by Dahamma · · Score: 3, Funny

      Jeez, what a Godwin's Law Nazi...

    23. Re:the Discovery channel by arthurpaliden · · Score: 1

      When it first started it was like a breath of fresh air. Unfortunatly the Discovery Channel, like their forerunners the science & tech magazines over time aquired new masters who only wanted to increase viewers/readership which of course ment they had to be 'dumbed' down.

    24. Re:the Discovery channel by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      Godwin's law pertains to USENET, where threads can and do go on and on for weeks and months.

      Here on Slashdot, every thread dies in a few hours. Or a few days at most, after everybody gets tired of fighting back and forth on the branches at the edge of a topic.

      Godwin's law is totally irrelevant and doesn't apply to anything at all here.

    25. Re:the Discovery channel by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

      It was such a relief when broadcast Television went digital. (Wireless! We can get modern digital television programming over Wireless now for free!) Because I was able at that time to convince my wife that we should disconnect the Dish and not get all that made-to-fill-channels crap streaming in our house anymore.

      Broadcast video is splintered and all the flim-flam cameramen have taken over. Not that the 'golden age' was much better, just different.

    26. Re:the Discovery channel by VShael · · Score: 1

      Welcome to America, where the motto is "Can you dumb it down some more?"

    27. Re:the Discovery channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I too am outraged that the cable entertainment channels fails to deliver professional unbiased knowledge and education. I figured I be just as knowledgeable about a topic after watching a TV program as someone who actually studied that subject, but I was wrong! Does that mean I should read books?

    28. Re:the Discovery channel by CapnStank · · Score: 1

      There's a very small market for the kind of shows that we were choking on during our high-school years. The drone and monotone voice doesn't exactly draw in the viewer.

      Mythbusters are a means to entertaining the average idiot. Many people would simply skip over a program that might contain interesting content but presented poorly. I like Mythbusters because of their interesting and upbeat presentation of somewhat simple knowledge. Hell, if they can't make it work they strap some dynamite to it and blow it up!

    29. Re:the Discovery channel by lazorz · · Score: 1

      Don't forget "How It's Made" - that show is actually informative to the ignorant ones like myself

    30. Re:the Discovery channel by BoneFlower · · Score: 1

      Mostly I agree, though Discovery has gotten better as History gets worse.

      I did like an Ancient Astronaut one History ran a few months ago.

      For most of the hour, they let the nutters run wild with all sorts of ridiculous crap.

      And proceeded to demolish all of the nutters arguments in the last five minutes. It was a beautiful piece of debunking the way they did it. I wish I rememberd the exact title or what exactly was said, I really only remember my impressions of it.

    31. Re:the Discovery channel by Valdrax · · Score: 1

      Fair point.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
    32. Re:the Discovery channel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And even then Mythbusters is centered around blowing things up. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's observational science at its best...

  29. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sigh. As if they've never read or understood the verses in Mark 13:31, 32?

    Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

    There are plenty of other passages to the same effect. They've read them, of course. They just conveniently ignore them.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  30. So hard to plan... by kanosereg · · Score: 1

    Damn, I blew off contributing to my 401(k) and kids 529 plans with the whole Mayan calendar apocalypse in mind. Guess I'll have to rethink my (lack of) retirement plans...

    1. Re:So hard to plan... by MiniMike · · Score: 1

      If someone were to blow off their kids 529 plans due to the Mayan calendar, I'm guessing lack of funds won't be the kids biggest obstacle to getting into college...

  31. Strange by Gravitron+5000 · · Score: 1

    When I run out of days on my calendar, I usually just buy a new one. It would certainly make new years parties more interesting if every new year was a potential end of days scenario though.

  32. Boom in Japan. by Rei · · Score: 1

    There at least was one when I was in Japan in 2005...

    (Honest to YHVH, that's not a photoshop. I have no idea what it was for, but I was glad when my train started moving again!)

    --
    It's a Cyrillic alphabet. It's like all those keys you never push on a calculator.
  33. My Cuteoverload.com calendar ends next year! by Kenja · · Score: 1

    Clearly, the end is near. And death shall arrive with beepable noses!

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  34. Well thats a relief by hicks107 · · Score: 0

    Well thats a relief

  35. Just wait.. by Tibia1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    until they realized they have miscalculated it again, and they find the date to be less than the year 2000. Now that's going to be embarrassing.

  36. Nothing is simple anymore by gmuslera · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Not only you have to "predict" the end on the world (based on trusty facts like ancient calendars, weird math tricks, how mush grows, holy books, tea leaves and hand lines), but have to pick something flexible enough to show after the predicted time how you made a small mistake and will happen somewhat shortly after anyway (so, i.e. you dont have to return what has been "donated" to your church or something similar because all was ending). Is not the 1st time that the end of the world has been delayed. In Y2K some tough that was after Dec 31/99, but some of the scare survived till Dec 31/00. Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted that all will end in 1874, then 1878, 1881, 1910, 1914, 1918, 1925, 1975, and 1984.

    There are several lists of those Doomsday predictions, i.e. here

    1. Re:Nothing is simple anymore by Xtifr · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My favorite example of a prediction retroactively corrected (albeit more tongue-in-cheek than most) is the Subgenii, who, when the world didn't end in 1998, decided that they'd gotten the date upside down! The correct date, they now proclaim, is 8661. :)

      (Actually, they apparently now have end-of-world celebrations every year, just in case, but I remember when the 8661 date was on the front page of the Subgenius website, and that date is still commemorated in the ddate man page as above, and is mentioned in lots of related material.)

      Ironically, the page you linked to includes the original Subgenius date with no commentary on either the nature of Slack, er, Bob, er the CoSG, nor any mention of the updated 8661 date.

  37. What I found amazing... by Rei · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...was that I got halfway through the article before I realized I was viewing it through Google Translate. Yeah, I wasn't paying much attention. And yeah, I had noticed some errors -- but my mind just dismissed them as poor proofreading before publishing. I'm still impressed by how far online translation services have come from the early days of AltaVista Babelfish.

    --
    It's a Cyrillic alphabet. It's like all those keys you never push on a calculator.
    1. Re:What I found amazing... by Rei · · Score: 4, Funny

      As an example, here's what *today's* Babelfish thinks of the article:

      To be fed up: ' 2012' is just over two centuries
      By: At Keulemans

      In the film 2012 that this month in premiere, fall the cities and continents go at small woods, if the world fares. Toch moan that research has shown exactly that it ' end of the tijden' of 21 December 2012 there probably clears two centuries beside zit.

      --
      It's a Cyrillic alphabet. It's like all those keys you never push on a calculator.
    2. Re:What I found amazing... by chromas · · Score: 1

      poor proofreading before publishing

      Tha'ts SOP for, teh intarnet'z now anywa.y

    3. Re:What I found amazing... by aussie_a · · Score: 1

      I'm impressed that people's tolerance for poor editing has increased to such a high degree that Google Translate can almost go by unnoticed.

      And by impressed, I mean depressed.

    4. Re:What I found amazing... by ildon · · Score: 1

      In the 2012 film that will premiere this month, killed the cities and continents in droves, as the world decays. Yet just a pity that research has shown that the "end times" of December 21, 2012 probably more than two centuries two.

      Is English not your native language? Because this translation is still pretty bad.

  38. Re:2220? Yes. STAR TREK by Cornelius+the+Great · · Score: 1

    Maybe they will get George Lucas to direct it and the franchise will implode.

    Fixed that for you.

    --
    Sigs are for losers
  39. end of world v. upheaval by Onymous+Coward · · Score: 1

    So by now we all (?) know that the Mayans didn't claim anything about the world ending, but did they believe that the rollover of a major calendrical cycle would be a time of great change? Google that for me?

  40. obvious answer to why people made a big deal by Dan667 · · Score: 1

    Now they can throw "we are not blowing up anymore" parties.

  41. Prophesies can never be "true" by brian0918 · · Score: 1

    If every person on Earth predicts a single (different) date as being the end of the world, and one of them ends up being correct - does that mean their prophesy was true? Certainly not. There was no basis for their claim - it should rightly be rejected as arbitrary, even if it happened to coincide with reality.

    Although at that point - the end of the world - epistemology is probably not going to be your biggest concern. I'll refer you to the rules of Zombieland for further guidance.

    1. Re:Prophesies can never be "true" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the test of a prophet was whether *every* prediction came true or not. Getting one right doesn't mean you get to call yourself a "prophet" only people who get it right every single time get to be called a prophet. The other guys are supposed to get stoned to death for claiming they were prophets. That's why it was such a big deal to Jonah that the city of Ninevah didn't burn. He said it would, it didn't ... so he was a false prophet... it was a death sentence.

    2. Re:Prophesies can never be "true" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I ran 16 million simulations of the lottery last week, and one of the simulations actually predicted the correct numbers.

      I'm going to sell the output of that simulator for next week's lottery for $1,000,000. Any takers? It's a great deal. You'll get $4,000,000 when you win!

    3. Re:Prophesies can never be "true" by brian0918 · · Score: 1

      I thought the test of a prophet was whether *every* prediction came true or not.

      Well, if you accept the mystical, then there can be no "test" of anything - God or some other supernatural being or "force" could always be interfering in your test without your knowing it. Knowledge is impossible.

      Prophesies cannot be tested so long as they provide no basis for their claim - but then, that would turn a prophet into a mere weatherman, and there's no money in that.

  42. Roman Calendar equivalent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's not exactly right to say it's like the end of a year calendar. But the Western/Roman date system does have a similar date: January 1, 0 AD. The Mayan calendar was about predicting the end of an age, of an era, not the world. If memory serves, the Mayans believed that there were 5 or 6 periods of ~25,000 from "the beginning" to "the end" and I think 2012 (or whatever) is meant to be the beginning of the 4th or 5th.

    Even if you wanted to go out on the crazy limb and assign some sort of mystical significance to 12-21-2012, it prolly would be something equivalent to the birth of Christ or founding of Islam or the 10 Commandments or whatever that other calendars have that really weren't a big deal to most people in the world at the time.

    Or maybe the Rapture'll happen. That'd be kinda funny.

    1. Re:Roman Calendar equivalent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was no year Zero!

  43. Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by Xoc-S · · Score: 5, Informative
    The most commonly used correlation of the Gregorian Calendar and the Maya Calendar is the GMT correlation, after Goodwin, Martinez, Thompson, the main proponents. In this correlation, December 21, 2012 will be the end of the 13th Baktun. The only other correlation used by any but fringe scholars places the end of the 13th Baktun two days later on December 23rd. These guys are proposing a new correlation because of some reading of the Venus pages in the Dresden Codex. However. as has been known since at least the 1950s the Venus pages work exactly right with the GMT correlation, so these guys are just wrong about their correlation.

    The reason for all the hoopla about 2012, is that in the Maya Calendar, the last creation ended on a 13th Baktun. The lunatics suppose that since the last creation ended on a 13th Baktun, the Maya supposed that this creation would also end after 13 Baktuns, but there is no evidence that the Maya had any such beliefs. There is a date on the West Panel of the Temple of Inscriptions from Palenque that refers to an anniversary of the crowning of the king, Pacal, that makes it quite obvious that the Maya believed that there was a 14th through 20th Baktun.

    So, in summary, these guys are wrong about the new correlation, and all the 2012 nutjobs are wrong about even the Maya believing that 2012 was the end of this creation. For more information, see the presentation on the FAMSI (Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies) web site by Mark Van Stone that fully details what is known and what is true about Maya beliefs about 2012. http://www.famsi.org/research/vanstone/2012/index.html

    1. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by Curunir_wolf · · Score: 1

      The most commonly used correlation of the Gregorian Calendar and the Maya Calendar is the GMT correlation, after Goodwin, Martinez, Thompson, the main proponents. In this correlation, December 21, 2012 will be the end of the 13th Baktun. The only other correlation used by any but fringe scholars places the end of the 13th Baktun two days later on December 23rd.

      Crap! That's my 50th birthday. Starting to look like the Mayans really did predict the end.

      --
      "Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
      --- Jerry Garcia
    2. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by vlm · · Score: 1

      ... the Maya supposed ... but there is no evidence that the Maya had any such beliefs.

      I would be nervous if the Maya had any beliefs at all, that have been proven correct. Are there? As far as I know, no.

      Would I be correct in saying, if the world ends in 2012, that would be the first time the Mayans got something right?

      I'm just trying to figure out the fascination.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
    3. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by jscalbny · · Score: 1

      Whether the 13th Baktun is on the 21st or 23rd is pretty much irrelevant anyway as far as the "doomsday" nuts are concerned, though.

      You are correct, however, that while the 13th baktun holds some minor significance it was not in any way associated with an "end of the world" scenario... and it's only referenced in one incomplete text that I can think of.

      Best & simplest explanation of the "end" of the cycle that I've heard is simply to compare it to a numerical placeholder... i.e. why we don't write the current date as 26th October 02009 - does just saying 2009 mean we believe that the world will end in the year 9999?

    4. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by lennier · · Score: 1

      "The most commonly used correlation of the Gregorian Calendar and the Maya Calendar is the GMT correlation, after Goodwin, Martinez, Thompson"

      So all this time, when I've set my computer to GMT... it's actually been setting it to Mayan Long Count time?

      That explains all the Daylight Saving hassles I've been having.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    5. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by lennier · · Score: 1

      "I'm just trying to figure out the fascination."

      2012 is the Millennium for kids who were too young to celebrate Y2K.

      Shall we do it again in 2024? Seems like we need a good Doomsday every decade.

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    6. Re:Article wrong, GMT correlation not wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >The only other correlation used by any but fringe scholars places

      > There is a date on the West Panel of the Temple of Inscriptions from Palenque [...] that makes it quite obvious that the Maya believed that there was a 14th through 20th Baktun.

      So the Maya had no fringe scholars?

      I think it is a crazy hypothesis yes. But there is also no good evidence against the fact that they believed the 13th would be the last.

  44. Its never going to stop.. by greywire · · Score: 1, Funny

    There's always going to be some date in the future that some group of people think is going to be the end of time. When that date passes, they will find some way to reconcile it and come up with a new date. Or they will just be vague about it and claim "well we are in the end times now, thats why all these bad things are happening in the world".

    I just wish the end would come now, suddenly, on a date of no importance or significance to anyone, and in a way completely unlike any prophesied before; I wish it would happen so completely unambiguously unlike anything ever imagined that it would put to end every stupid belief surrounding every one of those doomsday scenarios.

    Thats the only true end of times: the one that proves everybody wrong.

    It should happen right about.. now... *

    --
    -- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
    1. Re:Its never going to stop.. by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      in a way completely unlike any prophesied before

      Lo! And it shall come to pass that Nancy Pelosi's face will at last show an expression other than her glib but rictorous death smile. And even on the same day shall it come to pass that it will be the Year Of Linux On The Desktop. Yes, I say unto thee, you shall see these and other impossible things, and you shall know the truth of great mysteries, like the final episode of Lost and where your other sock is.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    2. Re:Its never going to stop.. by greywire · · Score: 2

      I think I'll setup a website where people can register their belief of when they think the end will come and what the signs will be, and then people can vote on which ones they agree with (or just find.. interesting). And maybe the top one will be shown on the home page with a countdown...

      --
      -- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
    3. Re:Its never going to stop.. by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Oh dear.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    4. Re:Its never going to stop.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Segmentation Fault

    5. Re:Its never going to stop.. by Changa_MC · · Score: 1

      Sir, I am interested in your project and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

      --
      Changa hates change.
    6. Re:Its never going to stop.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It should happen right about.. now... *

      Did you mean it should happen right abo

    7. Re:Its never going to stop.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haha, that's funny. Looks like you were wrong about your time. Fool, the world isn't going to end for another billion years. Well it's too bad ev

    8. Re:Its never going to stop.. by Xyrus · · Score: 1

      Scared me there for a second. I accidentally spilled some spaghetti on my lap and I thought His Noodliness was bringing about the end of times. May his meaty balls bless us with his sauce, Ramen.

      ~X~

      --
      ~X~
    9. Re:Its never going to stop.. by inflame · · Score: 1

      you forgot to add "NO CARRIER"

    10. Re:Its never going to stop.. by greywire · · Score: 1

      I bow my head in shame at having missed that obvious meme opportunity. I shoul#@>.!.
      NO CARRIER

      --
      -- Senior Software Engineer, Attorney appearance services, locallawyerapp.com.
    11. Re:Its never going to stop.. by GleeBot · · Score: 1

      Thats the only true end of times: the one that proves everybody wrong.

      Funny you should say that, because it's exactly what Christian orthodoxy is: that nobody can predict the time or the place of the end times. Just goes to show there's nothing new under the sun.

  45. no need for fright if your spirit's in the light by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    unprecedented evile is fixing to have its butt displaced.

  46. Well that's just great. by gimmebeer · · Score: 1

    So much for applying for tons of credit cards and not having to pay them off. I was planning to live out my last couple years like a King!

  47. SHHH! Keep quiet! by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    The sooner the loonies panic, the sooner they will commit ceremonial suicide! This was our unique chance to finally get rid of them! We were so close! And you had to extend it to 2220?? :(

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  48. Sorry, it's already over by SnarfQuest · · Score: 1

    There have been a lot of different groups that have determined the end of the world, in the past tense.
    Think of those idiots who drink poisened cool-aid, expect to fly off on a comet, or sell off all their possessions expecting to spend all their money enjoying themselves before things go boom. Many religious groups still exist that were based on the end of the world predictions that have passed.
    I still don't understand why a dead religion (I haven't heard of any practicing aztecs, actively ripping out the hearts of thousands at a time) should be given such a promanent place in the current belief systems. If you believe in this disaster prediction, then you obviously place more belief in the aztec gods than any of the current crop, and you should start ripping out hearts.

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    1. Re:Sorry, it's already over by SirWhoopass · · Score: 1

      Aztec != Maya

      The Maya did practice human sacrifice, as did most Mesoamerican civilizations, but on a significantly smaller scale.

  49. Lets ask Christopher Hitchens. by leftie · · Score: 1

    "Hitchens: Christianity is a fraud if it’s not literally true

    If the story of Jesus Christ isn't literally true, then Christianity is a fraud that promotes "a positively wicked doctrine," conservative writer Christopher Hitchens told Fox & Friends Monday morning.

    Hitchens, an avowed atheist whose 2007 book God is Not Great attempts to divorce conservatism from religious teachings, discussed the role of religion in American society in the wake of a recent study (PDF) that shows the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has roughly doubled in the past two decades, from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.

    more at...

    http://rawstory.com/2009/10/hitchens-christianity-fraud/

    1. Re:Lets ask Christopher Hitchens. by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      If the story of Jesus Christ isn't literally true, then Christianity is a fraud that promotes "a positively wicked doctrine," conservative writer Christopher Hitchens told Fox & Friends Monday morning.

      If the story of Jesus Christ isn't literally true, then what's wrong with fraud, and how could it be "positively wicked"?

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    2. Re:Lets ask Christopher Hitchens. by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      Oh, if he's an atheist, he doesn't think it is wicked or a fraud. All he cares about is writing books that piss people off so that other people can buy them and make him some money and give him some attention.

      If I was an atheist, I don't think I'd have anything at all against religion. Hell, I might even attend a church if they had good social events. And when people came to my door trying to convert me, I'd find out who they were, tell them I was whatever they were or something close, and then proceed to tell them to bother Hitchens over in Apartment 13-A because he is definitely one of those dirty atheists. Hallelujah!

      Some atheists tell you all about the truth, but what objective value does the truth have which is not situational? They say the Truth shall set you free, but I think that's a Bible quote, so that's probably full of crap.

      I might thank an atheist for freeing me from my conscience and having to go to church and all that crap, but I don't know what I get out of telling everyone else about it, except maybe someone to hang out with on Sunday morning while everyone else is in church.

  50. BOOM! by sitarlo · · Score: 1

    My world comes to an end on April 15th every year!

  51. Re:Damn by tsm_sf · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They've read them, of course. They just conveniently ignore them.

    Well, why should that part of the bible be any different?

    --
    Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  52. Wrong story by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

    The "death of Geocities" discussion is three stories over.

    --
    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  53. Another conspiracy by Patrick+Manderson · · Score: 1

    This is all we need, a conspiracy about a conspiracy.

  54. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You say that as if they conveniently ignore the entire Bible. They don't, quite... they usually have a few passages that they conveniently claim to mean something that they don't really, then they repeat those parts over and over to drown out anyone who contradicts them.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  55. Shadowrun is ruined! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do we know when do expect dragons if we can not depend on the Mayans to predict the dawn of the 6th age?

  56. Once every 25k years,this means humans have seen 4 by plasmacutter · · Score: 1

    If you go by current fossil records, Modern man has seen 4 such cycles, and still managed to advance technology in a roughly exponential trend throughout history.

    nothing to see here, move along!

    --
    VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
  57. Screw 2012, My calendar ends on 12/31 THIS YEAR! by Quarters · · Score: 1

    WTF are we all going to do???!!!!!

  58. Reminds me.. by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 1

    ..of the gigantic clock someone is building, that should work for 10,000 years. Maybe we should engrave a manual in that thing, that when it is done, the world does not end, but you have to rewind it.

    1. Re:Reminds me.. by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Just to be dicks, lets carve the manual into stone using the Klingon language.

      Bury near it a 'Rosetta' stone the translate English -> elvish -> Klingon. I just like knowing I'm screwing with future historians heads.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  59. According to my calculations... by jbezorg · · Score: 1

    ... the robots won't go berserk for at least another 24 hours.

    --
    I've lost all my marbles except one & It's fun to test angular & centripetal acceleration in my skull
  60. WELCOME TO THE JEW WORLD ORDER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Welcome to our talmud-believing kike overlords!

  61. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You expect christians to actually read the book they claim as 100% correct? Kind of unreasonable.

  62. What? Shit! by Greyfox · · Score: 1

    I was so looking forward to not being pulled out of retirement to fix the UNIX Y2038 problem due to the world having been destroyed 26 years earlier. Oh well guess I'd better start printing those business cards, since I'm pretty sure Congress was also banking on the world ending in 2012 to solve their Social Security problem...

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:What? Shit! by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Social Security 'problem' is a myth.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    2. Re:What? Shit! by Zordak · · Score: 1

      Social Security 'problem' is a myth.

      No joke. It's the biggest, most successful Ponzi scheme in the history of the world. How can you call that a problem?

      --

      Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
  63. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    Hmm, you say that as if you think none of them do. :(

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  64. Re:Damn by radtea · · Score: 4, Insightful

    they usually have a few passages that they conveniently claim to mean something that they don't really, then they repeat those parts over and over to drown out anyone who contradicts them.

    Almost everyone who calls themselves a "Christian" today does exactly this. They ignore all the contradictions, God-driven violence and slavery in the Old Testament, they ignore that Jesus said not one jot of the law would pass away, they ignore the prohibiition on divorce and remarriage, they ignore the contradictory accounts of the resurrection, they ignore Jesus' claim to have come to put the world to the sword...

    The bits they don't ignore entirely they interpret bizarrely, typically dropping the Jewish context and inserting thier own fantasies.

    It is unfortunately extremely difficult for people like this to even see the words on the page in front of them and interpret them as they would an ordinary text, which is all it is. The act of reading gets replaced by the act of interpretation, so that it is almost impossible for the person so aflicted to so much as consider the possibility that the words might have other meanings than the interpretation they are comfortable with.

    --
    Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
  65. Re:Damn by Minwee · · Score: 1

    they usually have a few passages that they conveniently claim to mean something that they don't really, then they repeat those parts over and over to drown out anyone who contradicts them.

    Would that include the first page, which says "To my darling Candy. All characters portrayed within this book are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental"?

  66. POC by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's going to really ruin the movie they just finished making!

    1. Re:POC by 2gravey · · Score: 1

      If we're lucky, they'll re-edit and wait another couple hundred years to release it.

  67. Next Stop... The Y2K38 Bug by tunapez · · Score: 2, Funny

    This means I'll have to wait until 2038 when Linux time ends? Gonna be a bit harder to convince the chix with the crystals on that one. Would everyone please help curtail the x64 transition until then?

    K'thx!

    --
    Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
  68. The science of bullshit by spaceyhackerlady · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The only science here is bullshit.

    They can't even get basic facts right. The so-called "alignment" is 6 degrees off, and happens twice a year.

    The last rollover of a b'akt'un cycle was in 1618. Did anybody notice?

    ...laura

    1. Re:The science of bullshit by geekoid · · Score: 1

      You know, if you let the fact that the end of worlders (the apocilypsos?, Armageddonists?, morons?) never have the facts right get to you your just going to be frustrated all the time.

      1618 was a big year for Keplar and his third law of planetary motion!

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  69. Mayan engineers by justleavealonemmmkay · · Score: 1

    I guess the gov't and banks from Mexico will have to pay retired mayan sunstone engineers trillions of cocoa seeds to fix the B13 bug.

  70. When they tell you to stay calm... by Flowstone · · Score: 1

    Thats when you really panic! aaaaarghhh!! 2012 has to be real now! If only they just kept saying it was 2012! They've doomed us all!!

  71. Which of his books is that line from? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, I've never read any Twain. Fiction's never really been my thing.

    1. Re:Which of his books is that line from? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Oh hee hee ha ha gasp you're so funny. Really, let me catch my breath...

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
    2. Re:Which of his books is that line from? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh hee hee ha ha gasp you're so funny. Really, let me catch my breath...

      Ah - you must be one of those guys who assumes that _everybody_ has read your religion's bible.

    3. Re:Which of his books is that line from? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh hee hee ha ha gasp you're so funny. Really, let me catch my breath...

      Oh hee hee ha ha gasp you're so full of shit. Spare me your responses.

    4. Re:Which of his books is that line from? by clone53421 · · Score: 1

      Eh? What part of "I already posted the reference" do I need to spell out for you?

      Actually, I am one of those guys who assumes that everybody (probably at least 99.9% of them) have at least heard of the Bible.

      And if they haven't, http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Mark+13:31,+32.

      --
      Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  72. Poor Spricket24 by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

    This means Spricket24 is going to have to give back her Emmy.

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  73. Oh Noez by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH NOEZ! But I already ordered the 2012 doomsday t-shirts and started production on multiple big budget hollywood films :-(

  74. TEOTEOTWAWKI ?! by D4C5CE · · Score: 1

    So this is the end of the end of the world as we know it?

  75. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Almost everyone who calls themselves a "Christian" today does exactly this. (snip)

    Most of the things you listed have pretty solid explanations, really. The exception, I'd say, is the divorce/remarrying thing, which is definitely prohibited. Yeah, anybody who tries to explain that one out is just twisting the words around to mean what they want them to.

    Probably one of the neatest groups of people, though, are Messianic Jews (i.e. Jews who have converted to Christianity, without losing their Jewish identity). Since they already had the Jewish heritage, the whole issue of context (which you mentioned) is tied in neatly with Christianity. I've met such people and they're quite fascinating. There's nothing quite like going to a Passover seder and re-enacting the "last supper" with communion (which is EXACTLY what Jesus said to do: he completely hijacked the typical scripted Passover dinner, which I'm sure you can look up if you're interested, then told his followers to continue to do this in remberance of him – as often as they eat it. I.e. when they ate the Passover; having communion/breaking of bread on a monthly/weekly/even daily basis is perhaps admissable to commemorate it, but it is certainly not what Jesus commanded – more above and beyond what he said, really).

  76. Why Did They Release This? by SwashbucklingCowboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Now we're going to have to listen to this nonsense for another 12 years.

  77. I know when I will happen... by stacybro · · Score: 1

    It will happen the day after I win the 100 million dollar jackpot in the lottery. That is why I don't play the lotto. I am saving the world and you should all appreciate me for it.
    If there is anyone out there that is interested in ending the world, feel free to send me the ticket that is guaranteed to win and there you go.

  78. Whatever... by hackus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    As I see it, whenever a calendar marks the changing of an age and in particular the Mayan calendar which, make no mistake these stone agers knew their mathematics, I take pause.

    Secondly, I find it odd, all of a sudden now, after what 200 years of studying this calendar someone with "never before seen insight into Mayan calendar mathematics and observational astronomy" says "Woops, everyone goofed its actually XXXX."

    That is sort of like myself declaring, well...all of you guys thought Octover 27th was tomorrow, but I am smarter than you all, and everyone in the last 200 years that looked at the problem, and I say its 200 years from now.

    The mathematics has been beaten like a dead horse, and indeed the age ends on December 21st on the solstice marker.

    Now, I am not so sure anything dire is going to happen, but I do believe at the end of any age, its closing represents a judgement on the future path time will proceed.

    Be it good or bad, I hope humanity gets exactly what it deserves.

    -Hack

    --
    Got Geometrodynamics? Awe, too hard to figure out? Too bad.
  79. Mayan's were optimistic by 2gravey · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wait why are we listening to Mayans again? The world already did end for them, a long long time ago. It seems that their prediction (if it even was one) was way optimistic.

    1. Re:Mayan's were optimistic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't believe them anymore either. They lost *huge* credibility when they claimed an eclipse was "The Sparrow God" pooping on the Sun.

  80. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, I'd like to explain a bit more in depth on that. It's an interesting story.

    The Passover matzah is unleavened. It represents the bread which the Israelites took with them when they fled Egypt; in their haste they had no time to wait for bread to rise. Thus, unleavened bread.

    The wine is an icon of the blood which was sprinkled on the doorposts of Israelite homes so that the angel of death would pass over their homes and spare their first-born sons when the sons of the Egyptians were killed. It was sprinkled in three places, on either side and above the doorframe.

    The custom was for the youngest at the meal to sit next to the teacher or elder (who would be at the head of the table, wherever that was). The youngest would ask what each symbol meant, and the elder would explain it. This was to commemorate the Jews' escape from Egypt.

    Instead of following the standard script, Jesus said the bread was his body and the wine his blood. Then he completely changed the focus by saying they were to do it in remembrance of him – not the escape from Egypt! No doubt this caused a good deal of puzzlement in everyone present...

    Then Jesus was eventually crucified, and the blood on the cross matched up with blood on either side and above the doorway in the original plague in Egypt – tying the whole thing together and showing that it was a prophetic sign of Christ from the beginning.

    Even if you don't believe it, and I have no doubt you don't (and I'm not trying to convince anyone), it's a fascinating marriage between Judaism and Christianity. All the original Christians were Jews, remember.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  81. 25.8 Years? Not so special... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    If it happens every 25.800 years then it seems like no big deal to me, and obviously is not the end of the world. Why is everybody making such a big deal if it happens about every quarter century?

    (If you mod this down there must be a post in reply that explains how they would differentiate 25.800 (as 25800) from 25.800 (as 25.800 [25 and 800 thousandths - precision is significant] )

    Please stop fucking with the number system. I know this event happens every 25800 years not every 25.800 years. The decimal can only be used between the ones and the tenths place in a decimal number system, unless scientific or engineering notation is used (but those generally are only used by those who comprehend significant figures).

    There is no way to justify writing 25800 as 25.800. None.

    1. Re:25.8 Years? Not so special... by myowntrueself · · Score: 1

      There is no way to justify writing 25800 as 25.800. None.

      Unless you are European.

      In many European nations '.' and ',' in decimal notation are used in the reverse to the English speaking world.

      Ie '25.800,123' to, say, a Frenchman, would mean the same as '25,800.123' to an American.

      You get used to it.

      --
      In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
    2. Re:25.8 Years? Not so special... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what if there is no comma (as in this case)? You'll have to say something like 25.800EU so the rest of the world knows it is not 25.800.

      I can't see any internationally recognised journal accepting any submission with numbers written so.

    3. Re:25.8 Years? Not so special... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      25.800EU

      Assuming the EU is supposed to be the currency (the correct symbol is EUR) that doesn't make sense. The Euro is divided into cents, not mils.

      Businesses seem to cope OK. You occasionally get problems developing interfaces between systems that use different conventions, but that's about it.

      I don't see what journals have to do with anything. The scientific standard is to use spaces as the thousands separator. That's unambiguous since it leaves any other character as the decimal point.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  82. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are plenty of other passages to the same effect. They've read them, of course. They just conveniently ignore them.

    no, they haven't, or they won't be following their religion.

  83. Yes they ignored them by aepervius · · Score: 2

    Because those passage are about as bunk as the mayan end-of-the-word-in-2012, or about as bunk as Thor's legend, or whatever sumerian stuff or the impregnation as a shower of coin by Zeus (or whatever it was). Your bible is about as much a myth as the rest. the only difference is a lot more people believe in the myth. That does not make it more right.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  84. Everyone else is wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ah, finally someone looks at the same thing everyone else has looked at for quite a while and proclaims their analysis to be wrong.

    Maybe we should get this group to look at Cancer too? You think?

  85. End is near by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look Folks you can't keep moving the date up. First it was supposed to be in Y2k then like 2005 then 2012. I'm starting to think you guys can't hold up your end of the deal.

  86. One word: by MSesow · · Score: 1

    Up

  87. Y2012 problem: Mayan calendar runs out by David+Gerard · · Score: 1

    The New Age spiritually aware around the world are running up against the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar. Mayan date 12.19.19.17.19 will occur on December 20, 2012, followed by the start of the fourteenth cycle, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21st.

    The event was first flagged by megalith scientist Terence McKenna. The end of the thirteenth cycle would break many megalith calculations — which conventionally use only the last four numbers to save on standing stones — with fears of spiritual collapse, disruption of ley lines, Ben Goldacre driving the chiropractors back into the sea and the return of the great god Quetzalcoatl and the consequent destruction of all life on earth.

    Megalith programmers from 4000 years ago are being dredged up from peat bogs and pressed into service to get the henges updated to handle the turnover in the date. “It could be worse,” said one. “I could still be programming COBOL.”

    Sceptics may choose the Winter Solstice on December 22nd (13.0.0.0.1) to attack, to take advantage of weakened qi. In case vital services are temporarily cut off, spiritually aware persons should stock up on crystals, copies of Sun Signs, a duly blessed tarot deck and other essentials. “They should get as well a suitable selection of blessed Hopi ear candles,” said Y2012 consultant Ravenwoo Granola, DD, 31, Ph.D (Univ. P.T. Barnum Mail-Order), “unicorn posters, holistic medicines, Silver RavenWolf books, purple clothing, protective pentacles — earrings for the ladies, pendants for the gents — make sure the house is absolutely robust in feng shui, your energetic vibrations are aligned and your Eostre rituals are up to date and keep only homeopathic quantities of money around. I’ll be happy to take on the danger of handling the rest. Here’s a price list. Everyfink for the spiritual survivalist.”

    Others dismiss the problem. Sandra Noble of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies considers the Y2012 problem “a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.” However, Y2012 consultants deride “2012-deniers” for having their heads in the sand as to the vast and overwhelming spiritual importance to humanity of keeping their consultancies rolling.

    Illustration: Blue screen of Stonehenge.

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
    1. Re:Y2012 problem: Mayan calendar runs out by lbalbalba · · Score: 1

      and the return of the great god Quetzalcoatl and the consequent destruction of all life on earth.

      Actually, Quetzalcoatl is the Aztec version of the 'feathered serpent deity'. In the Maya area he was known as Kukulcan or Ququmatz.

  88. Re:Actually we can read Mayan by Phrogman · · Score: 2, Informative

    According to Wikipedia at least:
    "Progress in decipherment continues at a rapid pace today, and it is generally agreed by scholars that over 90 percent of the Maya texts can now be read with reasonable accuracy."

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_script

    Its not as evolved as our understanding of Egyptian perhaps but its well on its way. As far as I recall the Mayan languages spoken by present day Maya have not changed a lot either and thus would be of substantial help in deciphering the scripts.

    --
    "The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
  89. Demotivational Apocolypse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just wait until 31DEC2009 - My Dispair Inc calander predicts the end of the world THEN.

  90. Just a little in joke by sjames · · Score: 1

    The actual date is December 21st 2013. The 2012 thing is just a little funny.

    Those crazy Mayans!

  91. NSA funded propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I tell you! THEY know the End is near. THEY don't want us to panic like the Mayans did and destroy ourselves!

  92. 2020 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where in the article does it say 2020? It mentions it in the title...

  93. The last cycle. by Melibeus · · Score: 1

    The Mayans have no idea of scale, pah! cycles of only 3000 odd years!
    The Abrahamic religions with their piddling 6-8000 year timescales are also damn narrow thinkers.

    Now, according to the Hindu teachers we're in Kali Yuga. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_Yuga
    This is the last of 4 cycles, the one of dissolution and degeneration. (They've got the mood of the time right.)
    Hurry and get your things in order! There's only some 427000 years or so left!

    I admire a belief system that has a long view of history...still nowhere near geological timescales though.

  94. That gives us room for 200+ years of suck cubs bas by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 1

    That gives us room for 200+ years of suck cubs baseball.

  95. Are their theories on human sacrifice still OK? by RexDevious · · Score: 1

    I don't want all you slashdotters debunking the one thing I know about how to end a drought if you happen to have a virgin and a volcano handy.

  96. Re:Damn by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

    They've read them, of course. They just conveniently ignore them.

    So, err, which Mayan document d'ya figure contains that passage?

    (...and how does a gross generalization become "informative", anyway?)

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  97. Oh thank God... by hallux.sinister · · Score: 1

    And here I thought we would have to come up with a completely new, and totally different way to insist the world would end after it completely fails to do so by January 1st, 2013. I guess this means we will be able to keep right on pretending the Mayans knew something about the future, despite the shear silliness of such a notion. If they knew so much, how come they couldn't manage to prevent their own destruction? More importantly, even if this is true, has it occurred to anyone that the reason their calendar only runs until... whenever... is that they never thought the code would still be around so far on down the line? (Like our Y2K thing) Just some food for thought. ~Hal

  98. Flamebait? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are members of the christian cult to be given a pass when it comes to hysterical attention-seeking?

  99. obligatory by TRRosen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Tonight were gonna party like its 2219?

  100. Too bad by Luke+Wilson · · Score: 1

    The reason that everyone got so excited about the Mayan end-date is that it is a major culture's doomsday prediction that is testable in our lifetime. In the Jewish tradition, the messiah is supposed to come in the year 6000 AM and rule for another thousand years until the year 7000. Thus the world lives for a cosmic week ending with a sort of cosmic sabbath of messianic reign. Now that would be a nice prediction to test, unfortunately the year 6000 in the Jewish calendar is about 2240 AD. So just like all the people before us, we won't be able to see whether anything happens or not. Here we had a prediction that was to mature in a couple of years, and these spoil sports had to ruin our fun. Of course doomsday predictions are only fun when they don't come true, so seeing when the ice caps finally melt or dollar collapses doesn't have much of a pay off when you're eventually right.

    1. Re:Too bad by fractoid · · Score: 1

      Exactly. I was going to post something along the lines of "Thank god! The Mayan doomsday thing was just about to become falsifiable, too!"

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  101. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    We don't ignore them, we address them. If you would sit down and listen long enough for a knowledgeable Christian to explain these "contradictions" then you would see they're not actually contradictions at all.

  102. Just so that no one will be disappointed by sixtuslab · · Score: 1

    when the universe ends, Tipler's Omega Point proves that we will feel just like nothing happened =)

  103. More appropriate ... by Chris+Daniel · · Score: 1

    Most modern societies also worship corn - they just process the hell out of it first.

    Sounds like modern society is still ahead -- it is more appropriate to worship something that has no more hell in it, right?

    --
    Don't blame me -- I voted for Roslin.
  104. Knowing Grammar and Vocab helps a lot by billstewart · · Score: 1

    Yeah, sure, the current Mayans probably don't use the old hieroglyphics. But even so, having a grammar and vocabulary for the language so you know how things fit together helps immensely, compared to having to infer them from the hieroglyphs. Still, that Spanish guy shouldn't have burned the books.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  105. Darn by KingTank · · Score: 1

    Darn, I guess I have to come out of my early retirement, at age 35.

  106. unix epoch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Come on! Everybody knows that the world will end at January 18, 2038

    Why they didn't choose 64 bits to start with? This would have postponed the end of the world by some amount!

  107. Damn it! by consumer_whore · · Score: 2, Funny

    They'll still being going on about this non-sense for years. I was looking forward to nothing happening, so in 2013 they could finally shut up.

  108. Cycles by Codex_of_Wisdom · · Score: 1

    Not ends, CYCLES. Get the headline right, please.

  109. 2012 supposedly debunked..Not really by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All of you seem to be lacking in one key piece of evidence that you should all research. Every culture...older than Christianity(yes..people existed Before the Bible) talk about an end date. There is no way to tie exact dates but there is an overwhelming agreement that the times we're in..not Gregorian/Alexander time..but an overall state of humanity..that says when there is this alignment of planets and constellations that this "time" will end and usher in a new one. The bible says the same thing. So open your minds and do some reading. Don't be so quick to discount what you don't overstand. Don't let your arrogance and ego keep you dumb and blind all your life. If you can't truly discount something as true..then you can't also discount it as not being true. We only know truth through experience..and no one here has experienced what Mayan or any other culture was truly like. Also....time is in the mind..science now finally backs what the ancients knew already. It is measurement of movement...which is why it's relative. And not just physical movement either. Again..research..read..get off the computer...expand on your mind..not the newest useless kernel.

  110. Colima Me Red... by Marnok · · Score: 0

    Could they have been counting in dog years? What do u think Xoloitzcuintle? "woof"

  111. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The funny part is both the parent and the grandparent post are correct.

  112. Late to the party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "...ignore the fact that there is no actual galactic equator"

    I thought it was the the ecliptic plane

  113. That's not debunking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The concordance of the Mayan and Julian calendars is pretty well founded. Shifting it by 208 years doesn't work.

    No, here's the real debunking, from one of the guys who involuntarily helped with the bunking:

    I present a mea culpa and a rectification. In 1996, [David] Stuart and I [Stephen Houston] discussed part of the text on Tortuguero Monument 6, suggesting that, on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 3 K’ank’in, Julian Dec. 10, AD 2012, a god will “descend,” ye-ma or yemal, in what was held to be a nearly unique example of Classic-era prophecy. Why unique? because when the Classic texts refer to the future, they typically encompass “impersonal temporal events that are safely predictable” (Houston and Stuart 1996:301, fn. 7).

    He then goes on to show that the only prediction in that text is that "at date so-and-so, the 13th b'ak'tun will end", and that the part about the blackness and descending god(s)

    pertains to the dedication of the building associated with the sculpture. It has nothing to do with prophecy or the supposed, dread events that await us in AD 2012.

    The newest posting on the same blog is Q & A about 2012 by Mayanologist wunderkind David Stuart.

    The 13th baktun seems not to be associated with the end (baktuns run till 20, and then the next piktun begins) as with the beginning of the world, the creation myth. 13 was often used instead of zero in dates in the mythic past. So numerology might make the Mayan date for 2012-12-21 special by association, but nothing suggests that they saw it as a cataclysmic date. To me that reference on the stele sounds more like "May this monument last a thousand years". 2500 years, actually. Even if the site was destroyed, it sort of did.

  114. Re:Once every 25k years,this means humans have see by dido · · Score: 1

    Not that I believe any of this nonsense, but going by their reckoning the end of the last cycle would have been at around 23,800 BC or thereabouts. Back then, what were our ancestors doing? The invention of agriculture would still be about 15,000 years in the future. All humans at the time were living in hunter-gatherer tribes. History itself would not formally begin for another 20,000 years, when the Sumerians invented cuneiform. The time when humans have "managed to advance technology in a roughly exponential trend throughout history" only seems to have begun at around that same time, 6000 years ago, less than a quarter of the supposed length of a cycle. The remaining three quarters of the present cycle, humanity's most advanced technology consisted of stone tools. Humans of the cycles before that were pretty much the same. There are many reasons to disbelieve this nonsense about doomsday, but humanity's supposed progress is not one of them.

    --
    Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
  115. It's Official by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

    The smugly self-satisfied refutations that sound just different enough to prove they're not just copying each other but should have been paying enough attention to each other so that their sheer numbers didn't make it look so much like they cared or at least coveted the loonies' public spotlight, now outnumber the loonies paying enough attention to smugly copying each other in the public spotlight so their stories differ just enough so that there is no single satisfactory refutation from which to sheer some coveted attention.

    As for the Maya people, I'll bet most of the 7 million of them fully expect to still be here in 2013. I suspect of the few that even notice the scuedopsientific jircle cerk going on around them, at least a few secretly hope "their" predictions come true for much of the rest of us. Even though there are none. Predictions, that is, not Maya. There's a passle of them. Maya, not predictions.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  116. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  117. Blaphsemy! by DynaSoar · · Score: 1

    In the beginning was Void. And a hand moved upon the face of the system monitor, writing

    * 3D0G

    and the command thus passed from monitor to Basic, and lo, the prompt was

    ]

    And St. Woz saw this, and was pleased. The Fallen One, the Other Steve, was not so pleased, and what's new? But he hacketh not, so we careth not.

    We are now (2009) exactly halfway between the Creation Event (1979) and the end of the Apple Calendar (2039) as has always been displayed upon my sacred terminal of IIgs and II's before it. As it is written, so let it be refreshed.

    Scoff not, young ones, for what sort of entity might require you summon him with the command 3D0G, which is very nearly G0DS backwards? And why backwards if not for him to be able to read it from The Other Side?

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
    1. Re:Blaphsemy! by davmoo · · Score: 1

      You left out The Evil One, known as Darth Gates.

      --
      I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  118. Sooooo.... by DougF · · Score: 1

    maybe this whole Mayan Calendar thing is one long, wicked practical joke on the rest of the world? Cool!

    --
    Impetuous! Homeric!
  119. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All the original Christians were Jews, remember.

    Not ALL the original Christians were Jews... however, Jesus did come to save the Jews, and when they rejected Him, the invitation was opened up to all mankind (as had been prophesied that salvation would come to Jew and Gentile alike).

  120. Wait... by DavMz · · Score: 1

    That means I do have to care about my retirement plans after all?!? oh sh..!

  121. The Mayans already had their doomsday! by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

    The Mayan civilization ended around 1000 years ago. They already had their doomsday. So why are we worrying about their calendar?

  122. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone with a Catholic background should know about all that. Assuming their church was dutiful in its Catechism classes, and that they actually paid attention.

    Hrm, yeah that does seem unlikely.

  123. Relax ... shop for a new one! by freaker_TuC · · Score: 1

    Go buy a new one ...

    While you are at it, buy one for next year too; saves stress ...

    --
    --- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
  124. Armageddon is lame by stms · · Score: 0

    As many conspiracy theorys that I like to be a part of I can never get into the end of the world ones maybe it's because if their right nobody knows but if their wrong everyone knows and what's the point in being right if you can't shove it in anyones face.

  125. Re:Damn by Sinicide · · Score: 1

    Now, I haven't seen a good crucifixion lately, but I imagine the blood on a cross is a little more than a "sprinkle" of blood on a doorframe.

  126. ancestor spirit winds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no, just gas

  127. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone else reminded of the scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian where the followers cannot agree on the significance of the shoe Brian leaves behind in his rush to escape them?

    FOLLOWERS: Oh! Oh! Ohh! Oh! Ah! Oh!
    ARTHUR: He has given us a sign!
    FOLLOWER: Oh!
    SHOE FOLLOWER: He has given us... His shoe!
    ARTHUR: The shoe is the sign. Let us follow His example.
    SPIKE: What?
    ARTHUR: Let us, like Him, hold up one shoe and let the other be upon our foot, for this is His sign, that all who follow Him shall do likewise.
    EDDIE: Yes.
    SHOE FOLLOWER: No, no, no. The shoe is ...a sign that we must gather shoes together in abundance.
    GIRL: Cast off...
    SPIKE: Aye. What?
    GIRL: ...the shoes! Follow the Gourd!
    SHOE FOLLOWER: No! Let us gather shoes together!
    FRANK: Yes.
    SHOE FOLLOWER: Let me!
    ELSIE: Oh, get off!
    YOUTH: No, no! It is a sign that, like Him, we must think not of the things of the body, but of the face and head!
    SHOE FOLLOWER: Give me your shoe!
    YOUTH: Get off!
    HARRY: Hold up the sandal, as He has commanded us!
    ARTHUR: It is a shoe! It is a shoe!
    HARRY: It's a sandal!
    ARTHUR: No, it isn't!
    GIRL: Cast it away!
    ARTHUR: Put it on!
    YOUTH: And clear off!
    SHOE FOLLOWER: Take the shoes and follow Him!

  128. Mayan Well Face The Facts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You Doomsday Deniers make me want to puke. Man up and face the music. 12/12/12 is the end of the line, the final countdown and last call all rolled into one. If you can't trust a Hollywood movie, New Age Prophets and the numerous paperback testimonials to a popular reinterpretation of a vanished ancient civilization's calendar what can you trust?
      You people are going to be so embarrassed when you wake up on 12/13/12 and find out just how wrong you were. Except you won't be. Waking up that is. Because you'll be dead! Just like everyone else! So get over it already.

    And have a nice day.

  129. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FYI: The wine is not representative of the blood, but rather God's deliverance via the plagues and miracles. The lamb sacrifice was representative of the Lamb/blood incident.

    It's also important to note that a passover in Jesus' time (i.e. the last supper) would have had to have involved a lamb sacrifice, which is missing until Jesus is labeled the lamb sacrifice afterward, as well as Jesus being depicted (even in the original greek) as eating regular bread as opposed to unleavened bread in the gospels.

    Christianity does alot of refocusing of traditions that are seen as favorable, but drops those which are seen as irrelevant. Eating Bread and drinking wine was seen as beneficial, but Jesus was to be the last sacrifice.

  130. What a bunch of rubbish by spxZA · · Score: 1

    Everyone here knows that the world will end on 19 January 2038.

  131. Actually it ends sooner, with a few years. by unity100 · · Score: 1

    numerous more researches were done and it was found out that it ended a few years earlier than 2012.

  132. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    Well, all the original Christians were – Peter was eventually given the revelation that Gentiles were to be included, and Paul later specifically devoted his ministry to the Gentiles, but before that they were all Jews.

    It's fair to include the early Gentile converts in the phrase "original" Christians, but I was referring to even before that.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  133. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    Yes, well, it wasn't exactly a sprinkle if you're thinking of the little finger-flick they do when baptizing babies... it was more of a drenched hyssop branch being swatted against the sides and lintel of the doorway.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  134. Re:Damn by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wine is never a symbol of blood in Judaism. It is always a symbol of joy and happiness. We spill drops of wine while reading the names of the ten plagues, not because blood was spilled during them, but because our happiness is diminished knowing that people had to die for us to get our freedom. The "blood sprinkled on the doorposts" is partially represented by the shank bone on the Sedar plate (lamb sacrifice which we no longer do) and partially by the mezuzahs on our doorposts.

    The idea that wine = blood in Judaism comes from Christian groups (to whom wine did represent the blood of Christ) and from the blood libels where Jews were accused of kidnapping kids, slaughtering them, and turning their blood into their (the Jews') wine. Of course, this is an outright lie. The truth of the matter is that Judaism forbids consuming blood. That is why kosher meat is salted and soaked (to remove any blood in it).

    --
    My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  135. Just goes to show by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 1

    Just goes to show, no matter how big you make your counter, no matter how completely out of spec it would have to be for that counter to roll over, somebody will, eventually, manage to roll it over.

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  136. Wait... by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 1

    ... so I have to wait 111 years before getting laid?

    Better stock up on the Viagra.

    --
    You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
  137. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Thanks for the correction. So basically Jesus totally re-appropriated the symbolism of wine and said it represented his blood.

    Reading the wiki on "Passover" further, there were 4 cups of wine, one of which represented the Exodus, which is the closest I can come to claiming my statement was anywhere close to being correct. The other three were various blessings and prayers.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  138. Anyone who sells anything by geekoid · · Score: 1

    regarding 2012 ending the world doesn't really believe the world is going to end.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  139. I got more bad news for you by geekoid · · Score: 1

    They NEVER shut up. 2 seconds after midnight on 1/1/13, they will start going on about the next end of the world.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  140. not really by geekoid · · Score: 1

    For one cycle to begin, another ends.
    For example, every 12/31 the year ends.
    SO yes, this is an end. Just like 12/31 marks the end of every year.

    I would also argue that it ends because this means it will never be brought up again.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  141. more confusion than anything by marleyboy · · Score: 1

    The arguments posed in this thread are amusing at best, confused at worst. Perhaps the thing we need to learn collectively might be that our culture's perceptions on ourselves, the world and the universe are flawed. Only in the culture that has emerged in the past one hundred years do we consider 'civilized' society one where it's acceptable to manufacture consent, to use the science of psychology against each other in marketing and media, that war and violence are acceptable ways of conflict resolution. Only in this culture do we think that 'it's someone else's problem, they can deal with it' is acceptable. This separation of selves may have been necessary, but it's up to each one of us to do the internal defragmentation and recoding of our own 'programs'.

    2220? Seriously, anyone who has watched the fast pace of evolution in computer technology should be able to step back and see the parallel ratcheting up in pace in other fields, like pharmaceuticals, finance, space exploration and environmental studies. Everything is on a schedule. Anyone who can't see this is likely in denial. There's certainly a lot of fear spread about the Long Count date.

    I don't know, but it seems to me that the selfishness, greed and lack of regard for the environment we inhabit is something that cannot be sustained by the planet, and even society in general. The manipulation and disenfranchisement of the Other has reached epic proportions that have never been seen before in all of history. We are literally tearing each other apart. And people have come to believe that Nature is flawed, forgetting that humans are an intrinsic part of nature. Ridiculous ideas like putting mirrors in space to reflect light from the sun away from earth only serve to illuminate the collective darkness some seem to want to sustain. The tipping point we stand at today is one of responsibility. What will we chose to not stand for? Fate is something we each hold in our own hands.

    The Mayans weren't counting days. They were counting something different. That idea is going to be foreign to anyone who thinks days are nothing but a linear sequence. I think anyone will agree that today's Gregorian calendar is more of a financial calendar. I see the Mayan's tzol'kin as more of a space-weather prediction system. Just because we're only now discovering the evidential existence of space weather doesn't mean that ancient civilizations didn't have their own unique ways and frames of understanding these concepts.

    One of the best introductions I've found to the Mayan Calendars is Ian Xel Lungold's presentation called The Mayan Calendar Comes North.
    http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-8689261981090121097

    The most important thing any seeker can remember, whether they be a mystic or informational, is that too many journalists screw up the story. The only way to cut through the chaff is to feel one's way forwards.

    --
    Neutiquam erro
  142. Re:Damn by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Also ignored is the context. Jesus was talking within the lifetimes of the original disciples.

    In order to prevent the world from ever ending, I have started a monastery whose monks so purpose is to say they world will end withing the next second.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  143. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    No, that's fairly ambiguous; it's not clear whether he was referring to his disciples, his followers in general (which would include present-day Christians), the Jewish race, or the nation Israel.

    Obviously the first option would be out since they're all dead... unless you say that Paul's revelation (from which we get the book of Revelation) in which he saw the end times was the fulfillment of that prophecy, which is an entirely plausible explanation.

    But I did figure someone would bring that up eventually... glad to see you at least knew the context.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  144. Re:Damn by clone53421 · · Score: 1

    In order to prevent the world from ever ending, I have started a monastery whose monks so purpose is to say they world will end withing the next second.

    Cute... but that won't prevent anything. Making a prediction doesn't mean you know; that's only borne out by the prediction coming about. The Bible merely says you don't know. Of course if you make enough predictions you might eventually be correct, but you obviously didn't know, because in prophecy, you don't even get three strikes... one bad swing and you're out.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
  145. tell that to the leader of guatemalan high priests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    i cant believe all the ignorant fucktards are here
    the mayan calendar is accurate and its proven by its synchronicity of several astronomical cycles

    the winter solstice of 2012 is the correct one PERIOD

    buddha, jesus, kalki/vishnu,daijal,quetzalcoatl,kukulcan,hermes,thoth,ningishizzda,fu xi,pahana,viracocha,etc... THE RETURN

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw0HXgt6dcM&feature=related

  146. The new, revised date is, of course ... by Lord+Flipper · · Score: 1

    ... when the Leafs win the Cup.

  147. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just for your information, the "This is my body this is my blood" speech was a mithric prayer for hundreds of years B.C. It wan not a marriage between Judaism and Christianity. It was a marriage between Judaism and Mithrism.

  148. Is 2038 the end?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if in the year 2037, everyone will think the unix programmers of the 70's "knew" that the world end in 2038, so they only chose to represent time as a 32-bit integer.

  149. TTL? baahumbug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I doubt anyone actually remembered what anything larger than a 7499 actually does without looking at a book (except maybe the 74244/74245 and 74373/74374 registers/bus-trancievers)...

    By the time you had a minicomputers, there was lots of LSI parts and the silk screen on the card would be the real giveaway.

    Anyhow, if something was made with a fist full of 7400 quad nand or 7404 hex inverters you'd probably have as much luck figuring it out as looking at a board full of 2N39xx series discrete transistors with pullup resistors ;^)

  150. isn't 2048 the end? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or in other words, the Y2Ki ;^)

  151. My wife and I... by PortHaven · · Score: 1

    Are so disappointed. We were so looking forward to the end of the world!

  152. Retirement by fyoder · · Score: 1

    Shit, you mean I do need a retirement plan after all?

    --
    Loose lips lose spit.