Well.. that should get your attention. It’s exciting times according to some Doom Sayers.. the world is coming to an end. Again. This time, it’s the Mayan calendar that is causing the wringing of hands. December 21, 2012 is the date – so you may want to hold back on ordering that extra large turkey in the Christmas after next. So the Mayans had a long Count calendar which recorded 5 x 125 year long cycles. This calendar finishes December 21, 2012. Now the Mayan’s didn’t predict the end of the world, or attach any other even happening in 2012 – except perhaps to remember to renew their calendar. (Already? Seems only 144000 days since we ordered the last one...). But that hasn’t stopped some noodle heads of our time to read into it, and draw the only conclusion possible – THE END OF TIME. (sorry.. cap’s lock got stuck).
I’m still getting over the fears and anxieties of the Millennium - the last time the world was meant to end. Remember the Y2K bug? I still think this was a covert revolution to improve the ‘value’ of geeks. Nobody is giving wedgies to people who are stopping the planes from falling out of the sky. And don’t forget those all important stickers on your desktop PC – “This PC is y2k compatible”. Thank god. Wonder what happened to the millions of pc’s around the world that didn’t have a sticker. Oh.. that’s right. Nothing. Nostradamus may have predicted 1999, but he didn’t predict all the stickers, or coffee cups showing a Y2k bug.
As for baby Jesus making a comeback – he was due to return within the lifespan of those living at his time according to the New Testament. So’s he’s running roughly 1960 years late. Probably didn’t count on all the traffic. The study of last days is called Christian eschatology. You may not have heard of that – people who study this are not generally invited to parties or social gatherings as frankly they are a bit of a downer...
Some fundamentalist’s have had the courage to predict a date. For example, Paul Sides (13/9/2007), Mark Blitz (30/09/2008), the famous Jerry Falwell (2009) and many more. Wrong.. wrong and.... wait for it.. wrong! Harold Camping has had various shots at the title… but he keeps moving the date back and back.. which really is cheating. One day, the planet will be knocked out of orbit by a drunk driving alien, and Harry will claim he was right. (Picture him floating out to space as we lose gravity .. "I told you soooooooo". Except.. zero gravity = zero noise. Meh... still funny.)
My prediction is that one cannot predict such 'show stopper' events, but when they come, they certainly won’t have anything to do with a bearded man in sandals wondering who stole Christmas. Like the dinosaurs, something will happen out of the blue, and unexpected, and we will all be turned back into carbon atoms for the next version of life on Earth. Which reminds me..
A well known astrophysicist gives a lecture about the Sun, and talks about the fact that eventually, it will implode and become a super nova. After the lecture a very nervous man comes up and says “Excuse me.. did you say 1 billion years or 1 million”.. The lecture responds “No.. 1 billion”. “Oh “ replies the man “what a relief!”.
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