Well, even the Mayans didn't believe the world is ending in December.

[Treasure Chest]

http://www.kltv.com/story/18309044/apocalypse-never-newly-discovered-mayan-calendar-disproves-2012-doomsday-myth

The world is not going to end on December 21. No, not even according to the Mayan calendar. And especially not according to the awesome newly uncovered Mayan calendar -- the oldest known Mayan calendar in existence -- which was recently discovered by Boston University archeologist William Saturno.

First glimpsed by an undergraduate student of Saturno's in 2010, this new Mayan calendar was found buried at a well known Mayan archeology site in Guatemala. After first dismissing the value of the bit of paint spotted by his student, Saturno later went back to record the discovery, regardless of whether it had value.

What Saturno found turned out to be a well-persevered mural that includes the oldest known Mayan calendar to date. And just like the Maya Long Count calendar, which serves as the basis for the apocalypse myth, this calendar extends indefinitely into the future.

"The Mayan calendar is going to keep going for billions, trillions, octillions of years into the future," University of Texas archeologist, author, and Maya expert David Stuart told LiveScience. "Numbers we can't even wrap our heads around."

In case you're stumbling upon the Mayan doomsday nonsense for the first time, here's the gist of it: The Mayan calendar is broken down into "baktuns" (or "b'ak'tun"), each of which equals 400 years, or about 146,000 days. According to Mayan legend, the current world -- the one in which we are all currently living -- was created over 12 baktuns ago. At the end of the 13th baktun, the world as we know it will cease to exist. December 21, 2012 -- the winter solstice -- is that day.

Of course, many scientists with real understanding of ancient Mayan culture and language have for decades tried to explain that, no, the end of the 13th baktun does not literally mean the end of the world. In fact, they say, not even the Mayans themselves believed such silliness. The end-of-world myth was actually concocted by Christian missionaries. And some experts say that the end of the 13th baktun is actually December 23, not December 21.

The newly discovered Mayan calendar has cycles of time recording 17 baktuns, rather than the standard 13. This and other details, which Saturno describe in this week's issue of the journal Science, should be all anyone needs to stop their urge to stock up on canned food and ammo.

To check out photos of the newly discovered calendar, click here.

[Kenny_Stang]

So John Cusack and his family are safe?!?!?

[Treasure Chest]

and everyone else still needs to pay their credit card bills.

[jdgregory84]

But since it's the oldest wouldn't it mean it's less relevant than the newer most likely revised ones? THE END IS NIGH!!!!!! Jk of course.

[Wicked98Snake]

I don't believe it will end that day so this is not too much of a surprise to me. I do think though that on that day I might be on the look out for any little thing out of the ordinary, juuuust in case I'm wrong.

[SouthernSVT]

I never believed the world would end in December, but that's no reason to not stock up on ammo.

[lowthreeohz]

they fucked up when converting it to the gregorian or whatever calendar by as much as 50 years. shit was reported on months if not years ago. 12/21/12 is a hoax at best.

edit: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/may...7#.T7Q411JDRm8

Oct 2010

Doomsday believers, you might be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

The much-hyped "prediction" that, according to the ancient Mayan calendar, the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, may be based on a miscalculation.

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, says the data supporting the widely-adopted conversion factor may be invalid.

In a chapter in the book "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World," Aldana casts doubt on the accuracy of the Mayan calendar correlation, saying that the 2012 prophecy as well as other historical dates may be off.

"One of the principal complications is that there are really so few scholars who know the astronomy, the epigraphy and the archeology," Aldana said in a UCSB press release. "Because there are so few people who are working on that, you get people who don't see the full scope of the problem. And because they don't see the full scope, they buy things they otherwise wouldn't. It's a fun problem."

The GMT constant, named for early Mayan scholars Joseph Goodman, Juan Martinez-Hernandez and J. Eric S. Thompson, is partly based on astronomical events. Those early Mayanists relied heavily on dates found in colonial documents written in Mayan languages and recorded in the Latin alphabet, the release said.

A later scholar, American linguist and anthropologist Floyd Lounsbury, further supported the GMT constant.

But, through his research reconstructing Mayan astronomical practices and reviewing data in the archeological record, the release said Aldana found weaknesses in Lounsbury's work that cause the argument behind the GMT constant to fall "like a stack of cards."

"This may not seem to be much, but what it does is destabilize the entire argument," he said.

"A few scholars have stood up and said, 'No, the GMT is wrong,'" Aldana said. "But in my opinion, what they've done is try to provide alternatives without looking at why the GMT is wrong in the first place."

Apocalypse Now? Websites, Movies Promote End-of-Days Interest

Despite research undercutting the 2012 apocalypse hype, films, websites and books will likely continue to drive "end of days" mania to a fever pitch.

A crop of iPhone applications count down to (or capitalize on) the 2012 apocalypse, several websites boast countdown clocks and 2012 news, and, of course, there's been the march of movies cashing in on the interest in eschatology, or the study of the end of times.

Robert Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, said the interest has been escalating since the advent of the 21st century.

"When we got to the millennium, people tended to get exorcised to mark the end of time," he told ABCNews.com.

For some, the Y2K scare and then 9/11 provided proof that the end is near. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as well as the 2008 near-collapse of the world financial institutions only added more fuel to the fire.

But the Mayan predictions have held the most sway with believers.

At the height of that Mesoamerican civilization from 300 to 900 A.D., 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.

[91CoupeMike]

World is still going to end lol

[krazy kris]

Y2k nigga

[Damnittsteve]

[stevo]

You guys need to shut the hell up, I have a running bet that world ends in December!

Stevo

[Nash B.]

Shit, so we only have another 1200 years.

[Sean88gt]

Not cool, I made some financial decisions betting that this entire motherfucker was going to crater in 7 months.

[71chevellejohn]

Not cool, I made some financial decisions betting that this entire motherfucker was going to crater in 7 months.

There is still hope.. The planet will probably be OK, but the world won't.