Feeling--irritated
Reading-- Devil's Food Cake by Josi S. Kilpack
Listening to-- nothing

I found this article yesterday through my homepage of My Yahoo!, but I was already posting about Shooter, the elk at the Pocatello Zoo, and with Internet access being sketchy at best with this other computer I'm using, I didn't want to push my luck in trying to post twice. (Long story short--> the motherboard on my computer finally went out and Amanda, a friend and sorority sister, has given me her old desktop--she has a laptop now...lucky girl--and for some unknown reason, the Internet connection is faulty. But it will get me through till I have saved up enough to buy my own laptop. For I have seen the wisdom and convenience of the laptop revolution! Ha ha ha!)

Ok, ok, ok. My personal madness aside, here's the article from yesterday's Winter Solstice...

2012 End-of-the-World Countdown Based on Mayan Calendar Starts Today

By Suzan Clarke | ABC News Blogs

The countdown to the apocalypse is on.

We're one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity.

But will it?

There have been many end of times predictions over the years. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year--on May 21, and then on Oct. 21--failed to materialize.

But in the flurry of doomsday predictions--there have been similar dire warnings about the world coming to an end from various cultures, including Native Americans, the Chinese, Egyptians and even the Irish--the supposed Mayan prophecy seems to have held the most sway with believers.

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy. Advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy flourished, creating what many have called the most accurate calendar in the world.

The Mayans predicted a final event that included a solar shift, a Venus transit and violent earthquakes.

Their Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."

Gronemeyer, of La Trobe University in Australia, compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 24 a second reference to Dec. 21, 2012, on a brick found at other ruins.

"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," Gronemeyer said.

Believers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internet with hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs. Yet others are capitalizing on the heightened interest. Films depicting the end of the world--including the 2009 movie, 2012--are contributing to the mounting hype as well as to misinformation, experts say.

In southern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, a yearlong celebration is planned.

Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year.

It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year, as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."

For those who are thinking about how to spend what could be their last year on earth, here's another message of hope: According to recent research, the mythological date of the "end of days" may be off by 50 to 100 years.

To convert the ancient Mayan calendar to the Gregorian (or modern) calendar, scholars use a numerical value (called the GMT). But Gerardo Aldana, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has said the data supporting the widely-adopted conversion factor may be invalid.

Aldana isn't the only detractor.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration--yes, that's NASA--has also weighed in on the issue.

The agency's scientists posted answers to the most popular questions about the end-of-times theory associated with the prophecy.

"Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know," the 2009 webpage post says.

The answers addressed questions about whether there were any known threats to the Earth and the truth about the calendar.

One of answers posted was to the question of the possible approach of Nibiru (or Planet X or Eris), a supposed wayward planet that is said could pose a threat to Earth. The answer was a definitive rejection of the idea.

"Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax," scientists wrote. "There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles."

**********Though I often think scientists are so intellectual they revert back to stupidity, I tend to agree with them on this issue. I do not believe December 21, 2012 is the end of the world or humanity. I think it'll just be the end of an era. I don't know what will happen at that time, and because I don't know, I can't get too upset about it. What will be, will be.

I remember the Y2K hype, and yes, I admit I was a lil concerned about being computerless, yet I was more curious than anything to see if what people feared about Y2K would really come true. While I was a lil afraid myself, a part of me didn't believe all the computers would fail. And they didn't! That's how I feel about this "End of Days" Mayan prediction.

The solar shift, Venus transit and violent earthquakes, I will admit, have me a lil concerned because I don't know what their effects will be on Earth, and on us, but again I don't believe it'll be the end of humanity. Why? Because of my beliefs, of course.

I can't--and don't--believe we were put on this Earth as play things for, or disposable beings to, an omnipotent Being who was bored and wanted to while away a bit of eternity. We were put on this Earth for a purpose: to become like Him. In order to do that, we needed an environment where we could learn and grow, to have our free agency to choose. We needed to know sorrow and pain, joy and comfort, hatred and love, compassion and selfishness. Besides, we are His spirit children and He loves us unconditionally; He will never put an end to us! Then there is the fact that nobody knows when the "end," or the Second Coming of Christ, will be.

Matt. 24:36 says:
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

As you can see, I put my faith and trust in the Scriptures.

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Yesterday
02-09-2012 Thursday 13: Netflix
02-10-2012 Rainbow Crow
02-11-2012 My Crow Project
02-12-2012 Crow: Keeper of All Sacred Law
02-21-2012 My Book List for 2012

moon phase