The Mayan Calender (Not offensive, just looking for info)

[Boxmeister]

I'm not here to call the Mayans idiots. Looking at the architecture and astronomy findings, I can hardly say they were. What I AM here for is more information on 2012. As it stands I don't believe the world is going to end at 11:11 AM on December 21st, but I'll probably try to be having sex at that moment just in case (you know, go doing what you love and such). All I can really gather is this is the end of a fourth cycle announced by the Mayans oh so long ago. It's also the end of the 23rd Solar Cycle.
Back in 2001 we found a sunspot that surfaced, but it was going backwards, indicating a new Solar Cycle was to start in 11 years. Now, what I'm wondering is, what's so different about this one that it's not just going to be another storm on the sun?
All I can really seem to find is that the Mayans said the end is pretty much on the winter solstice in 2012. I haven't been able to find how except for the information on the sunspot and the Solar Cycle. Does anyone have any more info? Or somewhere credible I could learn more?

These are my sources of info so far (hopefully, all credible):

http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_calender#Venus_Cycle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspots

 

[HardRockSamurai]

OK, so you did some research on 2012...what's the point of this thread?

 

[Skuffyshootster]

Good for you?

Are you researching it for school, and you want some more info on the subject, or are you just curious? If you're the latter (or the former), then you're probably better off googling "2012" then asking some strangers on a gaming forum.

 

[Timotei]

SUPER FACEPALM OF IMPLIED ULTIMATE HEADACHE!!!!

*glowing hand facepalms*

This type of thread has been done a thousand times before and we are all growing weary of it.

 

[PurpleRain]

Need anyone at all say more?

 

[Aardvark]

So basically the theory goes that the Mayans perfected the art of cybernetics and made an army of vicious robot pumas, who are programmed to destroy the shit out of every human on earth. They also perfected dark-energy absorption techniques, ensuring that their creations would run forever, slaughtering all they find with their advanced tracking equipment and sensors. They then sealed them up in a hole underground with a countdown timer. The timer was set to reset the moment it came into contact with human blood from their many sacrifices.

When Cortez came through, pillaging and a rapin' as he went, one of the unintended consequences was to stop these blood sacrifices. Which meant the timer started again and the robots started to activate. We're getting to the end of the count-down timer, now. Soon, the pumas will break free and the final revenge of the Mayan civilisation will be complete.

 

[Boxmeister]

what's the point of this thread?

Well, if people would like, I think it would be fun to maybe have a discussion about the Mayan calender, you know, see if anyone has like, I don't know, a point of view on the matter..

Good for you?

Are you researching it for school, and you want some more info on the subject, or are you just curious? If you're the latter (or the former), then you're probably better off googling "2012" then asking some strangers on a gaming forum.

If they believe it, then I'd like to know why, if they don't, I'd also like to know why. Also, why is a thread called "What's your zombie plan?" appropriate for the Off Topic Discussion than this one?

And finally,

This type of thread has been done a thousand times before and we are all growing weary of it.

...and I'm growing weary of seeing that response instead of an actual post.

 

[Skuffyshootster]

what's the point of this thread?

Well, if people would like, I think it would be fun to maybe have a discussion about the Mayan calender, you know, see if anyone has like, I don't know, a point of view on the matter..

Good for you?

Are you researching it for school, and you want some more info on the subject, or are you just curious? If you're the latter (or the former), then you're probably better off googling "2012" then asking some strangers on a gaming forum.

If they believe it, then I'd like to know why, if they don't, I'd also like to know why. Also, why is a thread called "What's your zombie plan?" appropriate for the Off Topic Discussion than this one?

And finally,

This type of thread has been done a thousand times before and we are all growing weary of it.

...and I'm growing weary of seeing that response instead of an actual post.

Look, if you're going to get defensive, at least don't do it like that. Do it politely.

First of all, all you did was state what you researched, and then asked us if we had anything to add to your "research". You did not specify what you wanted us to post besides that. And it's appropriate for the off-topic discussion forum because it's off-topic from games. No one ever said it wasn't. Don't put words in peoples' mouths.

 

[Timotei]

This type of thread has been done a thousand times before and we are all growing weary of it.

...and I'm growing weary of seeing that response instead of an actual post.

Then why did you make a thread that was destined to see many responses like my own.

One cannot throw a smoke bomb into a crowd and not expect to get whopped a few times for it.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I've heard that at that time our solar system will cross the horizontal plane of the Milky Way Galaxy which is theorized to cause fluctuations in the planet's magnetic field (known to exist by the alternating magnetic alignment of strips of iron-rich sea floor rocks running parallel to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge) and is theorized as a cause for the regular cycle of mass extinction.

Though a more believable response is that the terminations of cycles of the Mayan Long Count correspond to shifting in human Ages. I believe that these would roughly mark Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, Industrial, and Space Age (the upcoming one) transitions. It seems odd that the special calender of an American people would correspond so well with tumultuous shifts in Old World civilizations but it does.

 

[R Man]

Do you know what the Mayan's were planning to do at the end of their calender? Have a party. Next day it was back to work as usual. The 2012 was just the way they divided up their calender. Much like the way we have our calender in millenniums.

Of course, everyone was up in arms about y2k so... perhaps the misunderstanding was always going to happen.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

ok the best way i can describe what will happen is this. on dec 21 2012 the mayan calendar will go from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0

it is much like our calendar going from 2000 to 2001, as 2001 is the starting of a new millennium and NOT 2000, if you think it's 2000 you have no idea how to count in the decimal system

it is the mayan calendar going over to a new epoch and that's all, basically it's becoming a new millennium in the mayan calendar

 

[UncleAsriel]

What happens in 2012? The RahXephon [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RahXephon] will awaken within Ayato Kamina and the world will be ReTuned, of course! [/sarcasm]

The Mayan calendar will finally be obsolete. A few anthropologists and archeologists will shed tears knowing that from every day hence the predicted sunrises will gradually becomes slightly more off of what the Long Calendar predicts. A few doomsday cultists get edgy and drink magical KoolAid. End of story.

Now excuse me, I have to try and find a certain Ms Quon Kisuragi, so I may ask her out on a date at the Opera before the Mulians begin invading.

 

[Boxmeister]

I think the only thing cyclical about extinction is the transitions, you guys have definitely put the hype in perspective when it's just a variation of time frame. Thanks guys! The Mayans planned events after 2012 too...

 

[Worgen]

the myans had no end of the world myth associated with thier calander, that was dreamed up by stupid white ppl since we are always looking forward to the end of the word since we are so damn stupid

 

[semiotic]

lol, cutting through the holier-than-thou bullshit at the START of this thread, I feel this is actually WORTH discussion.

I have NOT done any research regarding the Mayan Calendar though a friend of mine, upon seeing a poster for the Movie in Odeon, told me a small bit about it. He said that with this "calendar" the Mayan's predicted a lot of things in History that apparently "actually happened" (ones I would have to google to elaborate on, which I refuse to do given it is currently 4 in the morning). Apparently they too predicted that the world would end on the year 2012, which conspiracy nut-jobs and fanatics now fear will actually happen.

Given I know nothing about this, I am as sceptical as most people, however my superstitious side would like to know more. If anyone can elaborate on this matter, that would be pretty sweet. I understand the need to trivialise it by making up stories about Zombies and Robots, but some actual information would be nice.

 

[Flying-Emu]

what's the point of this thread?

Well, if people would like, I think it would be fun to maybe have a discussion about the Mayan calender, you know, see if anyone has like, I don't know, a point of view on the matter..

Very well.

The end of the calendar is not the end of the world. It's the end of what the Mayans called a "cycle." Now this could mean many things. But this mistranslation that it means the end of the world is, frankly, bollocks.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Regular cycle? If there is anything cyclical about mass extinction events that you have discovered, please share.

Mass extinctions occur roughly ever 62 plus or minus 3 million years. Which means were due for one as the Cretateous-Tertiary Extinction happened about 65 million years ago.

Have a read. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_extinction#Postulated_extinction_cycles]

 

[KingOfTwilight]

End of the cycle.A cycle has ended several times before.

It's all theory about it honestly, seeing as how we still don't know how they managed to plot out their all their astronomy without the aid of even a basic telescope.