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Thursday, December 20, 2012

What to do when the world ends tomorrow/today

So, for some of us the world has already ended.

New Zealand for example, three hours since December 21st 2012 came.  For other's it's yet to come.  Or perhaps I should say that the world ends today for some of use and tomorrow for others.  Either way, doesn't much matter.

What to do when the world is ending?

It's been more than a year since I wrote, "The World Ends Today," but I think the general advice still holds true:

The point is, end of the world. It's kind of a big deal. It would be shameful to allow it to pass unnoticed and unnoted. 
Anyway, when I talk about the end of the world I tend to think of Exit Mundi which is a bunch of nicely sorted descriptions of how the world might end, and Alma Geddon which is a collection of predictions of when the world will end. For example, did you know that the world also ended on Friday, March 25, 970 CE? Well now you do.
And I still have yet to write a novel.  Not going to do it between today and tomorrow, so... damn.

Of course, half the time the world is ending.  These things happen.

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Also, the Mayan Calendar, I've written about that, haven't I?
About the Mayan Calendar Part 1: Our Calendar and the Long Count
About the Mayan Calendar Part 2: Hypothetical Calendars
About the Mayan Calendar Part 3: Modular Arithmetic and the the Tzolk'in
About the Mayan Calendar Part 4: The Haab' and the Calendar Round
About the Mayan Calendar Part 5: Prophecy and the Short Count

On the accuracy of the Mayan Calendar

If you want a, mundane, sign of the world actually ending consider this: that five part series (originally intended to be a single post but it got out of hand) was interrupted (between 2 and 3.)  By snow.  And hardly the first significant snow of the year.  That was more than a year ago, making it earlier in the year than this.

The first significant snow of this year came on Monday, a fair bit later than the interruption of last year.  The rains since Monday have washed most of the snow away.  That means we're not even very deep into Autumn yet.  Winter is nowhere on the horizon.  Temperature wise, I mean.  From a "relationship of the earth to the sun" perspective winter starts tomorrow, when the world ends.  Or today, if you're in certain time zones and the northern hemisphere.  (Only northern hemisphere winter that starts tomorrow, after all.)

Alone that means nothing.  Sometimes seasons come late or don't come at all from a climate/weather perspective, that's why we mark them with an calendar based on astronomical events in the first place.  It'd be damn annoying to have the official seasons shift yearly on the whims of the weather.

The problem is that it's not alone, all the data points in the same direction.  Things are changing, and while the changes might be better for someone, humanity is not counted amoung such.  If you want to be worried about the end of the world, I direct your attention to climate change, not the Long Count of the Maya people.

Of course, the people who say the Mayan Calendar predicts the end of the world tomorrow, do say that end will come by rising waters, and sea levels are rising, so give it some time and maybe it'll turn out that tomorrow was some inflection point.  It's extremely unlikely, but in an infinite universe anything is possible.

2 comments:

  1. ObFrost: http://www.bartleby.com/155/2.html .

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  2. >>>so give it some time and maybe it'll turn out that tomorrow was some inflection point.

    Still would be only the start of the end, not the end itself. (Actually won't be even that, because the end has started long ago. The start of a next stage of the end, at most.)

    ---Redcrow

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