World History
This is really not a history post. However, I guess it can be considered as such if one considers how many times that people in the past thought the Apocalypse was coming soon and were wrong.
CNN has an article up titled Apocalypse in 2012? Date spawns theories, film. It was written by A. Pawlowski. It centers on what some believe in regards to the Mayan calendar regarding the "end of the world."
The article notes:
Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "Twenty-twelve."
Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.
The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.
Of course, many scholars disagree with this. Some dispute that the end of the Mayan calendar means anything. Other argue that it only means that a time of change is coming which may have nothing to do with doomsday. Even others dispute that the Mayan calendar is ending on December 21st, 2012.
Regardless, expect some people to go nuts. "The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy, I'm sorry to say," David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin. "I just think it's sad, it really just frustrates me. People are really misunderstanding this really cool culture by focusing on this 2012 thing. It means more about us than it does about the Maya."
Here is a good tip. If you want to start a money making end of the world cult, now is a good time. There are a lot of impressionable people who will fork over their life savings for a chance at survival. If you are wrong, you get to keep the money probably by invoking religious freedom. If you are right, the world ended anyway. Why not enjoy the end times in style?
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World History
Apocalypse 2012?
This is really not a history post. However, I guess it can be considered as such if one considers how many times that people in the past thought the Apocalypse was coming soon and were wrong.
CNN has an article up titled Apocalypse in 2012? Date spawns theories, film. It was written by A. Pawlowski. It centers on what some believe in regards to the Mayan calendar regarding the "end of the world."
The article notes:
Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "Twenty-twelve."
Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.
The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.
Of course, many scholars disagree with this. Some dispute that the end of the Mayan calendar means anything. Other argue that it only means that a time of change is coming which may have nothing to do with doomsday. Even others dispute that the Mayan calendar is ending on December 21st, 2012.
Regardless, expect some people to go nuts. "The whole year leading up to it is going to be just crazy, I'm sorry to say," David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin. "I just think it's sad, it really just frustrates me. People are really misunderstanding this really cool culture by focusing on this 2012 thing. It means more about us than it does about the Maya."
Here is a good tip. If you want to start a money making end of the world cult, now is a good time. There are a lot of impressionable people who will fork over their life savings for a chance at survival. If you are wrong, you get to keep the money probably by invoking religious freedom. If you are right, the world ended anyway. Why not enjoy the end times in style?
- Working For Free On Leap Day
Today is February 29th, 2008. It is also Leap Day. While I could get excited about this special day which happens only every four years, I am having trouble being happy about it. There is a good reason for this. It dawned on my as I came to work that...
- Papers Show Isaac Newton's Religious Side, Predict Date Of Apocalypse
Isaac Newton is known for many things. These include contributions in physics, math, optics, and astronomy. However, he was also a Bible scholar and he ventured into the tricky area of trying to predict when the end of the world would occur. An Associated...
- Top Stories For May
Despite the fact that school is out for some (I still have three weeks), we had 45,000 pageviews and from 21,000 unique visitors. Our top posts this month were Vodcasts of the Entire AP World BookThe Travels of Ibn BattutaShort Video Clips of Museum...
- Archaeologists Uncover Mayan Writing
Nothing about the world ending in 2012, but still an interesting find, says the NY Times. They say the writing was done by royal Mayan scribes and deal with Mayan astronomy. Some of the numbers represent multiples of 177 and 178 and scientists...
- Top Hits For April
Despite the fact that most teachers had spring break in April, we still had 47,000 pageviews for the US, World and Government blogs during the month of April. The top hit posts were:Songhai, Ghana and Mali informationUsing Games To LearnAn Example...