25 May 2011

No end of the world in sight.

We all had a good laugh or twelve over the latest doomsday preacher last week. A fine May day failed to conjure much disaster beyond the usual volcano blast in Iceland.

And yet Hollywood recently birthed a movie about the other end of the world prediction, 2012, and all that. Why is that nonsense prognostication any different? Because it's based on the fact that the Maya counted. They counted obsessively. Therefore, based on the fact that they had a complicated calendar system, the world will therefore end when a cycle based on numbers ends?

Let's get this right. The Mayans were advanced, but no experts in plate tectonics. I suppose it's strangely comforting to have some final chapter for the messiness of human affairs. Of course, the earth will face fate in some billions of years, when the sun fails spectacularly, but don't expect me to stay up all night some winter eve in 2012. Fool me twice...

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