I'm guessing all of you know the Mayan significance of the year 2012. What do you think well happen?

This
is an interesting page. Its shows Linda Schele's theory on what well happen. I recommend you read it.

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Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the prospect is staggering!

Nothing, just like every other doomsday date. But somebody will make money on it.

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TIME Man of the Year

I think we will continue to be barraged in the forum by new topics saying the same old things about this date, more and more and more over the next 5 years. I shudder. It's almost spam-like already.

I almost wish the posting software would be tweaked to trash any article that contains 2012 or Mayan.

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0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 ...

Umm...The Mayan calander rolls over?

Can't think of anything else besides.

Eh, new agers and metaphysical types might invest in the event to generate cash, as well...

All-in-all it's just another "Year 2000 Scare," but only twelve years later.

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- JRR

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge." - [Daniel Boorstein]

I know, I never said that it was a "doomsday" or anything. I'm guessing you didn't go to the link I put. It isn't a doomsday necessarily, it shows a position of the sun, so go read it.

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Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the prospect is staggering!

A summary would be nice since some of us can't get there. I'd be surprised if it's anything new though. Last I heard, all the sun positioning claims weren't correct anyway.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

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

Not even close.
At least Y2K issues were real. It was just hyped way out of proportion. (which was probably good, because otherwise nobody would have looked at the problem and corrected the vital applications.)

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

2012 December 21 will come and go with nothing of any significance occurring. A few losers may commit suicide, good riddance to them, just so long as they take no one else with them. Some charlatans will laugh all the way to the bank. A new "doomsday" will be announced and a new round of charlatans and suckers will begin. It has always been thus and probably always will be.

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Microsoft is over if you want it.

The bar has been lowered for the promotion of ATM ideas; the bar for the acceptance of ATM ideas must remain high.

Still - they should've done it right because we're just going to have the same issue when we roll over to the year 10,000.

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Spock Jenkins of the Vulcan Jenkins'.

Ah, I'm sorry. You're right...

There is quite a big diference between the two, and I made a very poor comparison.

I didn't even take into account the "Y2K bug" problem that was inherant in computers at that time. The 2012 issue is something that seems much less substantiated.

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- JRR

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge." - [Daniel Boorstein]

No; we discussed that very issue in our Y2K planning discussions. We decided to take the risk, because by that time we would have had to convert our applications to Star Dates anyway.

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

Just as a side issue here. . .
What calender did the Mayans use.
How do you correlate it with our Gregorian version.
What sort of numeric base did they use.
Not all of humanity recognizes the calender we use as its year base.
Who suggested 2012 as the year this solar system transverses the galactic plain. Do some research and you will find this is not so. . . ?
I look forward to seeing your retraction of this nonsense.

If you persist on predicting the end of humanities reign on planet Earth. It is with regret that one day you will get it right.
The reality is that one day a cosmic event will snuff out this little blue dot and all the life forms on it. Being the optimist that i am I trust this will be billions of years away.

Here is the last few sentences from the website:
gGriffeth, you really should search for other threads on 2012, this has been discussed frequently here. I really like the idea of a sticky 2012 FAQ - maybe the BA could do that on his website.

But anyway, the Wikipedia article on this is actually quite good. They point out that the correlation between the Mayan calander and ours is commonly accepted, but not by all scholars. In other words, even that is not absolutely known.

But there also is the fact, even given that correlation, that there is probably nothing significant to that date, even in Mayan tradition (my bold below).
By the way, 12.0.0.0.0 in the calendar was September 18, 1618, if you believe the correlation. Last I heard, nothing special happened on that date.

Lastly, as others have pointed out, this "crossing the galactic plane on 12/21/2012" is at best oversimplified, if not just wrong

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

I'll turn 37 in May of 2012.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

I'll turn 54 on December 24, 2012 (ohh!!!!, pretty close to 12/21/12), and I'm sure it will be the end of something for me.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Swift,

That's a good point. The "transform" of the Mayan rollover date to our own calendar is not completely agreed upon by all scholars. Wouldn't it be a hoot if 2012 was indeed incorrect and it was really 2005, already happened.

-Richard

It will roll over to 13.0.0.0.0, just like it rolled over to 12.0.0.0.0 in 1618 AD.