ArchaeoBlog

Apocalypse in 2012? Date spawns theories, film

Just as “Y2K” and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes “Twenty-twelve.”

Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.

The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.

It already started in 2007.

Someone needs to make a countdown widget that I can put in the sidebar to count down the days. Kind of like the orobouros welcome screen in the old TV show Millennium where members would log on and the screen would say “Welcome, Frank. . .There are 75 Days remaining” (until 2000).

I should get in on this and write some poofy doom-saying book on how everything will go to hell in a handbasket unless you Buy My Book and other assorted survival paraphernalia. Of course, I’d have to use a pseudonym to protect my identity.

“Donald P. Ryan” maybe.