This stuff is indeed going to increase and reach a fever pitch before H-hour, 11:11AM (big, uh, "mystic" data point here), D-Day, Dec. 21st, 2012. And then after that goes by without incident, maybe the doomsday theories will die down until the year 3000 comes around.

So, it would probably be good to get some kind of FAQ or other "official info" about this up to have something to point all those who will have questions as the fever pitch revs up.

There is a lot of confusion about "galactic center" and "plane crossing". Obviously, the solar system is not going to physically do any of that. We aren't due to cross the plane for close to 30 million years, I don't think. Anyway, that would be one thing the FAQ needs to authoritatively address.

The "plane crossing" stuff is thus about an alignment, the winter solstice on D-day happenning at some "special location" on the celestial sphere. I don't know beans about observational astronomy and all tha paths the various bodies take across the sky. It would be nice to get an authoritative statement on this. Is there any such alignment, and has it really already happened, etc, etc?

And then the FAQ should go on to note that such alignments are just the stuff of astrology, and there is no rational reason to believe there will be any physical effects of such alignments.

Finally, the only thing interesting about this stuff might be if the Mayans really did know about precession and have it built in their rather convoluted calendar scheme.

-Richard