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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?
Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
That's just what they want you to think.
Caffeine is my anti-drug!
Duranin - A NWN2 Roleplaying Persistent World
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
Whew - I'm glad you cleared THAT up!
-- I really need to bleed off some of this
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.
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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
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.
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
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.
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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.
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.
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
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
Go to your local Walmart and count how many products contain "high fructose corn syrup"
Now who's the corn-worshiping culture?
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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.