Author Topic: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype  (Read 789 times)

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Offline crustaceous

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Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« on: October 13, 2009, 03:45:49 PM »
Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
Apocalypse Next? Experts trace fears to modern, not ancient sources

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33261483/ns/technology_and_science-science/

MEXICO CITY - Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."
It can only get worse for him. Next month, Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan, ideas.

A significant time period for the Maya does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.

But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya Indians say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials — such as one on the History Channel that mixes predictions from Nostradamus and the Maya and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?"

Grains of truth
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or "Planet X." But this one has some grains of archaeological truth.

One of them is Monument Six.

Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over, and parts of the tablet were looted.

It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.

However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.

Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky."

Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Maya sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.

And anyway, the Maya in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.

"If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. "That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain."

Talent for astronomy
The Maya civilization, which reached its height from the year 300 to 900, had a talent for astronomy.

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Maya, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.


Offline Swampman

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2009, 03:55:34 PM »
Is it hype?
"Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agreed, as you can all read the Book?" Sogoyewapha, "Red Jacket" - Senaca

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Offline gypsyman

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2009, 04:10:20 PM »
Read the same article a couple days ago. Got me to laughing, thinking that all it amounted to was their stone calander was cracked. And all these experts kept saying the world would end on Dec.21,2012. When all it really meant was they would start all over again. Like Dec.31 turning into Jan. 1.  Just when I thought I could get out of my last 3 years of house payment. gypsyman
We keep trying peace, it usually doesn't work!!Remember(12/7/41)(9/11/01) gypsyman

Offline LONGTOM

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2009, 04:16:53 PM »
Not trying to be smart but who cares?
If it is the end there ain't nothing anyone can do about it.
Not even THE LIAR IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
People get so hung up over things that make no sence, things they can't do anything about, or things that can't be proven true or false.
I guess we will just have to wait and see.


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Offline Graybeard

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2009, 10:06:51 PM »
BS. There are no "modern Mayan's" as the civilization died out mysteriously and left no trace of what happened to the people. Just cuz someone lives in the same general area today doesn't make them Mayan or give them any special knowledge of the culture.

Just more of crusty's BS he spews continuously here. I'm really beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be a favor to the world to just dump him.


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Offline billy_56081

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2009, 01:36:14 AM »
I was thinking along he same lines GB, I don't think there are any Mayans in the world anymore.

As for dumpping Crusty GB, I kind of think wee need to keep some liberal scum around just to keep an eye on their perverted type of thinking. Liberal scum is the enemy of America and its freedoms, its best to keep an eye on it.
99% of all Lawyers give the other 1% a bad name. What I find hilarious about this is they are such an arrogant bunch, that they all think they are in the 1%.

Offline crustaceous

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2009, 05:51:28 AM »
Billy,
You nappy headed festering pudgy little doughboy, I'm about sick of your imbecilic comments!
Next week, I'm getting a lobotomy and we'll have a battle of wits, OK.

Offline Questor

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2009, 05:56:27 AM »
Didn't Jimmy Durante have a song about past civilizations of that part of the world? Inca Dinka Doo!

And then there was Tony Bennett with I Left Maya Heart In San Francisco.
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Offline Graybeard

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2009, 12:55:09 PM »
Ya'll say bye bye to crusty he is no longer with us.


Bill aka the Graybeard
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Offline Casull

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2009, 02:33:16 PM »
Awwwww, he will be missed.   :D
Aim small, miss small!!!

Offline Graybeard

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #10 on: October 15, 2009, 12:15:39 AM »
Awwwww, he will be missed.   :D

Yeah about as much as ya miss a toothache once it's gone.  ::)


Bill aka the Graybeard
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I am not a lawyer and do not give legal advice.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life anyone who believes in Him will have everlasting life!

Offline Mikey

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #11 on: October 15, 2009, 01:14:29 AM »
Questor:  I believe the song by Tony Bennet had a angelic lilt to it and was titled :I left My harp at Sam's Clam Disco................................

You're right about Durante......

Offline billy_56081

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #12 on: October 15, 2009, 01:27:00 AM »
I dunno GB, the festering part is not true, but I am a bit pudgy and my hair is pretty curly. Too bad we coiuldn't banish liberals like him from America.
99% of all Lawyers give the other 1% a bad name. What I find hilarious about this is they are such an arrogant bunch, that they all think they are in the 1%.

Offline torpedoman

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #13 on: October 15, 2009, 03:15:38 PM »
The theory I'm working under is that at the time they laid out the last calendar it was 3000B.C  and the calendar was good to go until 2012ad so maybe they decided to take a few centuries off before working on another calender. All you guys know how hard it is to get back to things.  This make a lot of sense to me but then I'm just a dumb ole country boy.
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Offline crustylicious

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2009, 03:11:22 PM »
Before I "really" checkout I wanted to say thanks for the great site and thanks for some great discussions. Thanks to those of you who sent messages of support. And a special thanks to Fred for helping me to get my Ruger No.1 to shoot.
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Offline Casull

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #15 on: December 10, 2009, 07:51:51 PM »
Quote
Thanks to those of you who sent messages of support.

Wow, both tm7 and ms wrote.  Nice.
Aim small, miss small!!!

Offline Squib

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #16 on: December 10, 2009, 08:01:22 PM »
what did crusty do?  I assume there is a back story......

billy, tell everyone you are a buff guy with flaxen hair... put up body-builder pics or something.  you don't have to own flaws.  check my new picture, RIPPED!

Offline Bigeasy

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #17 on: December 10, 2009, 11:25:55 PM »
With all the build up and hype, I am going to be pretty upset if it don't happen....... :o
Personal opinion is a good thing, and everyone is entitled to one.  The hard part is separating informed opinion from someone who is just blowing hot air....

Offline Squib

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Re: Even the Maya are getting sick of 2012 hype
« Reply #18 on: December 11, 2009, 02:42:47 AM »
I think they just got tired of chipping calendars out of stone... or smallpox and the whiteman took them out when they were only four hundred years ahead of schedule on the calendar making... imagine that