Some good stuff in this thread, keep 'em comin'. (except for Bryan) I read the NASA article: first of all, the main theme of the article seems to be possibility of a meteor hitting the planet. That's not the only thing that can happen, it's just one of the possibilities.
Points are made about solar flares and pole shifts too, they reassure us that it's 'unlikely' to happen. There is not enough scientific data to make accurate predictions into the future. We know very little about the activities and the behaviour of the Sun. We can't even predict when and where earthquakes will happen, let alone solar flares.
And gotta love those pictures too: 2012 won't happen, because Hollywood already made a movie about it, right? Besides, NASA answers to the US government alone, not the general public. They say what they are being told to say. If a meteor or something would hit the Earth tomorrow, they wouldn't inform the press about it.
"This just in: you are gonna die tomorrow" lol, not gonna happen. The end of the world won't be in the news, you won't be reading about it on the interwebz while it unfolds.
Anyways, back to 2012: nothing coherent, just stuff to think about:
- the Mayan calendar is not the only place where this is 'predicted', there is also a Chinese text called the I'Ching (the Book of Change). It predicts the same thing. Even Einstein said something about this specific date (do the research, I'm too lazy atm). Plus, some ancient Hindu texts deal with the same topic.
- maybe 2012 is dealing with the Singularity: the notion that the rate of change will grow exponentially until the rate of change itself will become infinite. This is an idea popularized by Raymond Kurzweil, interesting stuff for sure. If it happens, it would be kind of 'end-of-the-world' in itself. I don't think this will happen, 2012 is too early for this.
- just because false predictions were made in the past doesn't mean all predictions are wrong. Just because the last 10 years were 'good' doesnt mean the next 10 years will be the same or better. There is the story of the turkey which was fed every day. Every day was good day for the turkey until it got eaten. Of course the turkey didn't know that its 'premature' death (dinner for the family) was marked. To the turkey, its last day started out just like any other day. If the moral of the story is not clear I can find the source, this is just from memory.
I'll continue next time, gotta go now.
Added (2011-04-01, 1:13 PM)
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yo Brainless, you need a brain to read, let alone understand all these things. Ask stooge to return your brain, then report back to me.