Community Corner

End of the World? Looks Like We Made It

Some people believed the world was ending on Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, based on the Mayan calendar. Where did they get this idea? Here's a history of the Mayan calendar apocalypse theory.

Looks like we survived.

Those who believe strictly in the Mayan calendar said the world was going to end at 11:11 a.m. Friday, universal time. That was 3:11 a.m. here in California.

Guess that means you can go about your daily business and, more importantly, the events calendar on our site is still relevant.

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The doomsday predictions surrounding the Mayan calendar and the supposed end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012 do bring up a couple questions.

The first... if it really were the final day of the Earth's existence, what would you do in your final 24 hours? Share your end-of-the-world plans in the comments.

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The second... where did people get this idea in the first place? 

It starts with the Mayan calendar, which apparently the Mayans didn't even invent. They took some previous cultures' calendars and sort of upgraded them. Maybe it was Calendar 2.0 back then.

The Mayans' calendar is a bit complicated. It involves three wheels, one of them called the "long count." That one ends on the winter solstice in 2012.

Scientists say that doesn't mean the world is going to end. It just means we reached the end of that particular calendar cycle. They say that particular Mayan wheel just starts over again, like we do with our Gregorian calendar every Jan. 1.

There is also the contention that leap years have completely thrown off this whole thing.

The Mayan long calendar is thought to have begun on what is Aug. 11, 3114 B.C. on our calendar. That's 1,872,000 days ago.

However, leap years were instituted by Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. There have been 514 leap years since then. Without those, the date on our calendars would have been July 28, 2013.

Others point out the leap years don't matter. It's 1,872,000 days since the long count calendar began, so today is the last day of that cycle, no matter what our calendar says.

In either case, Day Zero on the Mayan calendar will be Saturday, Dec. 22, 2012... unless, of course, the doomsday predictions are true.  

Some people say they do have scientific reasons to believe the world is going to end Friday. There are a number of theories circulating.

One of them involves a galactic alignment that will create chaos on Earth because of the gravitional effect on the sun and a black hole. Scientists say no such alignment is happening and, even if it did, it would have little if any effect on Earth.

Another is a "polar shift" where the North Pole and South Pole basically switch places. Scientists say the Earth is overdue for such a change.

Now, that would be catastrophic... if it actually took place in one day. However, geologists say this "pole reversal" takes 5,000 years to complete.

There are those who are taking the doomsday predictions seriously and they are frightened. There are reports of an increase in sales of candles and other essentials in China and Russia. One group in France is converging on a mountain top under the belief that aliens will rescue them.

A Pleasanton mother told us her daughter came home from school worried because of all the talk about the end of the world. She wanted to make sure they'll have Christmas this year. The mom assured the young girl Dec. 25 will come around on Tuesday of next week.

There are also those planning to celebrate what they consider a special day Friday. Some New Agers in New Mexico are holding a festival this weekend to mark not the end of the world but the beginning of a new era.

Scientists are reassuring. They say this December 21 will be nothing more than a normal December solstice. That's the day, of course, when the North Pole is tilted at 23.5 degrees away from the sun.

Friday is also the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. So, go out and enjoy what daylight there is.


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