2012 maya calendar

[gtvc]

Well this is it, the last year.....of the Maya calendar. By the way today we had an earthquake in Colombia but everybody is OK, the weather is very warm in my city which most of the time its cold and we saw 2 circular  halos around the sun with rainbows at the beginning of this month which its a phenomena that never happened before in Bogota and I see Latin countries around the world are watching this phenomena in different dates since 2009, so maybe the Mayas are right about changes or maybe the weather is a mess around the world, what do you think?

[LunarOrbit]

I don't believe anyone can predict the exact date of the end of the world, so I don't think I'm going to waste any time worrying about the end of this year.

[gillianren]

And, for the umpteenth time, the Maya didn't predict the end or the world, or any more changes than normally happen.  This is pretty much exactly the same as all those people who jumped on the 2000 bandwagon--the calendar rolled over from 1999 to 2000 mostly without incident, albeit thanks to the help of a lot of computer tech types who made sure that what could go wrong with computers didn't.  And heck, 2012 doesn't even have that problem!

[DataCable]

2038 might, though. 

[LunarOrbit]

2038 might, though. 

Ok, those kind of predictions are a bit scary, I'll give you that.

[gillianren]

A little bit, yes.

[DataCable]

A little bit, yes.

I see what you did there.

[ETA:

Ok, those kind of predictions are a bit scary, I'll give you that.

What you both did.]

[Kiwi]

...we saw 2 circular  halos around the sun with rainbows at the beginning of this month...

These are common in my area, 40 degrees south, whenever the upper air is particularly cold, such as when there are ice crystals and cirrus clouds, or passenger jets are making contrails.  The rainbow colours often occur at 22 degrees from the sun (the same as the halo) and sometimes there's another halo at 46 degrees.  The rainbow colours can also occur less than five degrees from the sun in small, whispy, lower clouds -- I'm not sure which, but possibly stratocumulus.

You can also see the halo effect around the moon at night.  These effects are nothing to worry about -- just two of many perfectly ordinary meteorological effects.

[Not Myself]

the calendar rolled over from 1999 to 2000 mostly without incident, albeit thanks to the help of a lot of computer tech types who made sure that what could go wrong with computers didn't.

A lot of people did Y2K compliance work, and the rollover was with only minor incidents.  It is frequently claimed that the first was the cause of the second.

[gillianren]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. 

[Not Myself]

Ah good, I understood the claim correctly then.

[twik]

To be fair, the Maya, like many mesoamerican cultures, did consider that major "roll-overs" in the calendar were likely to be times of chaotic change. However, the world did not end on the 12th or 13th baktun, so I'm not sure why it would end on the 14th.

[Tedward]

Well this is it, the last year.....of the Maya calendar. By the way today we had an earthquake in Colombia but everybody is OK, the weather is very warm in my city which most of the time its cold and we saw 2 circular  halos around the sun with rainbows at the beginning of this month which its a phenomena that never happened before in Bogota and I see Latin countries around the world are watching this phenomena in different dates since 2009, so maybe the Mayas are right about changes or maybe the weather is a mess around the world, what do you think?

I have to ask, how do you know this has not been seen before?

[ChrLz]

I give you..
A solar halo at Bogota (surely that is close enough..)
or
A sundog at nearby Caldas..

Sure, sundogs are not all that common (I've only seen 4 and I'm a bit of a skygazer), but I too think, Gtvc, you need to back up that comment about them never being seen in Bogota..  And then try to somehow link them to an impending doomsday fantasy..?

[twik]

Well this is it, the last year.....of the Maya calendar. By the way today we had an earthquake in Colombia but everybody is OK, the weather is very warm in my city which most of the time its cold and we saw 2 circular  halos around the sun with rainbows at the beginning of this month which its a phenomena that never happened before in Bogota and I see Latin countries around the world are watching this phenomena in different dates since 2009, so maybe the Mayas are right about changes or maybe the weather is a mess around the world, what do you think?

gtvc, why do you think the Maya are privy to some sort of information that no other culture was? What about the European Christians who believe that the world would end in 1000 and 1500, and westerners of various beliefs who fastened on 2000 as an "end time"? They were clearly wrong and off-base, do you not agree? Why would the Maya be any more reliable?

Yes, the weather is "messed up", a bit this year - but then, find me a year when the weather has *not* been messed up. I think an awful lot of people  assume that prior to their own existence, life ticked by for people with nothing exciting ever happening. Except for minor stuff that wouldn't count to the Maya - you know, like Krakatoa exploding, the New Madrid quake, the San Francisco quake and fire, and the "little ice age" of medieval times. A well-known weather phenomenon appearing one day in Bogata makes those things look like small potatoes, I suppose.

Remember, for your theory to make sense, you would have to presume that the Mayas were able to accurately predict that something would happen in our year 2012, and backdated their whole calendrical system to match that date. Either that, or you have to believe unabashedly in numerology - "Oooh, it's a round number! That must be significant!"