Rational man's thoughts for 2012

[jamesson1980]

G'day Fellow Ford Fans,
Just googling my way around the net the other night and got onto some 2012 doomsday stuff. I searched in here for threads related but found only 2012 model releases.. but if there's a duplicate, feel free to delete this and direct me to it thanks moderators.

Ok, it seems there's a sqillion theories out there (give or take), the authors of which are invariably CORRECT, just ask em'. The main theories seem to revolve around 4 main keys:
1. Galactic stuff affecting our planet; by actual scientists (the most credible of all, thankfully these guys seem less inclined to say we're all gonna die)

2. The end of the world and mankind as we know it; mainly by religious fanatics trying to sell prophecy and survival books.

3. The economical and social collapse of major countries; by conspiracy theorists (unsurprisingly America, England, Australia and Canada are apparently the major victims of this event)

4. And that bloody Mayan calender (a glorified odometer)

If you couldn't care less, look away now but if you're curious in any way like I was, this is a very basic blurb on what I'v come to learn;

Firstly the Mayan calender which has great cycles of 144,000 days or something similar. It started August 11, 3114 BC and ends December 21 2012. Many scientific theories of doom have had their fruition dates altered to coincide with this. The Mayans themselves insist their end of days is nothing more that a spiritual change or consciousness shift and afterwards, their calender happily ticks over from 13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13,13 to 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1 and their new cycle begins. (it should be noted that others have put their own spin on this, inserting their own beliefs into the mix and claiming that's what the Mayans believe)

Then there's the religious nutters.. even everyday nutters are afraid of religious nutters. I haven't read any of their stuff in depth because it's mainly about purchasing a book to ready yourself to be accepted into the new world as god himself has apparently written this one off as of 2008 and due to be phased out totally by 2012.

The conspiracy theorists who site 2009 as the year the USA starts to implode financially then politically, coming to a head in 2012, some have tossed World War 3 in there, and many have said Australia and other Western nations are goin down with the ship too.

Then the only ones I'v actually even considered taking seriously are the scientists. All sorts of events have been penned for this day in 2012 (get out your umbrellas, she's gonna get nasty outside). Collisions with asteroids, Major volcanic/siezemic activity, polar reversal etc, but the most talked about and the only reasonable one for my digestion is the solar activity. Apparently there are solar cycles of 11 years and the current one is set to peak early 2012 (although thus far it's been the least volatile cycle in 100 years). Many scientist, astronomers etc have predicted Solar activity having effects on the Earth, ranging from electrical/telecom disruptions all the way to total scorching of the planet.

What do I think is gonna happen?? BUGGER ALL!! At the very worst I can see mass panic and hysteria in places such as America where they are fed much stronger doses of these doomsday stories. If any sort of natural disaster occurs in November/December 2012, no matter how mild, I think panic is very possible.

Anyway take from this what you will, I'd love to read what other rational and unbiassed Australains reckon about it all.

Before I go, here are some of the most interesting theories:
**Apparently some countries such as Russia are nearing completion of entire underground cities to hold tens of thousands of people in case of any doomsday event, and Norway has underground facilities for their entire population!

**Novelty Theory / Timewave Zero: 'According to Terence McKenna, who conceived the idea over several years in the early-mid 1970s while using psilocybin mushrooms and DMT, the universe has a teleological attractor at the end of time that increases interconnectedness, eventually reaching a singularity of infinite complexity in 2012, at which point anything and everything imaginable will occur simultaneously.' Yikes, keep your diary clear for that day then, it's gonna get busy!

**And my favourite of all from a researcher named PATRICK GERYL:
'Got several mails from Australia like this one:

Hi, I’m in Australia , I understand whats going to happen / Can I make a survival place/ community here, advice, I am on your wavelength...
Thanks,
Ron

My answer:
Sorry,
Survival will be higly unlikely in Australia

1. Tidal wave will be 2 km (7,000 feet) high!

Here is the link:
<link to his website where you can buy his book>

His answer:
Hi , thanks for that, we have mountains 2.1-2.2 high,
Would think it was possible? Aboriginals survived!?

My answer:
Mountains can sink. Read my book How to Survive 2012
Also the high mountains are natural parks. You can't build bunkers there or stockpile survival material!
How long do you think you can survive without food, material, etcetera?


VERY IMPORTANT NOTE

Papoua New Guinea had a land bridge with Australia after the cataclysm.
Then the ice melted and the land bridge disappeared.

See Underworld from Graham Hancock
So it is possible that the animals and the aboriginals came from there!
Also, he goes on to say that when the water subsides the new south pole will be in Perth and all Australia will be under polar ice except for Cape York Peninsula. (top up the anti-freeze and pop the snow chains on for Ford Forums Cruise January 13, 2013

[Rodp]

The rational answer is, it's bollocks.

To any irrational people, I'd be happy to buy up all your assets (couple of thou each) a few days before D-Day so you can live it up prior to the Earth's demise. Just shoot me an email and we'll set it up.

[jamesson1980]

haha^^ set up a pawnborkering business right now.. you'll be loaded with all the finest stuff come 2012.. then sell it back and regular price

[flappist]

2012 truly will be the end of the world as we know it. Unbelievable things will happen.

1) There will be a 4 cylinder Falcon
2) The Falcon V8 will be quicker than the 6 cylinder

Such mind boggling concepts......whoda thunk..........

[galaxy xr8]

Originally Posted by flappist

2012 truly will be the end of the world as we know it. Unbelievable things will happen.

1) There will be a 4 cylinder Falcon
2) The Falcon V8 will be quicker than the 6 cylinder

Such mind boggling concepts......whoda thunk..........

you pessimist

[Bmobile]

Well I did read a story that the oil supplies will run out by 2013, and it was pretty convincing.

Here is the story : http://www.oildecline.com/

[jpd80]

If the world is to end in December 2012, then awarding Ford Australia
the Global Rear Wheel Drive project next year would be perfect timing....

Short of hell freezing over, that's all I got....

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by B mobile

Well I did read a story that the oil supplies will run out by 2013, and it was pretty convincing.

Here is the story : http://www.oildecline.com/

That's only 'prime crude', which is the easy stuff to mine. i heard that if it ran out today we'd still have enough 'lower quality' crude (such as shale and so forth) to last another 100 years. :togo:

I wonder if the magnetic switch over will have any effect on human civilisation?
(that's where the north-south poles reverse, which happens every 11,000 years or so).

[Ryan]

I personally think it's a load of bollocks.

There was a show on the History channel the other night called "The Nostradamus Effect", and it was about how Issac Newton predicted the end of the world in 2060.

The world will most likely end one day, but I don't think anyone past, or present has the ability to know the exact date. It'll come when we least expect it IMO.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by Ryan

The world will most likely end one day, but I don't think anyone past, or present has the ability to know the exact date. It'll come when we least expect it IMO.

It's guaranteed its demise when the sun runs out of fuel, expands and consumes Mercury and Venus. There's conjecture whether it'll make it to Earth, I've read theories that it'll make it all the way to Jupiter - but regardless, the increase in temperature will scorch the Earth making all life extinct. I am making a distinction between 'The world' being Earth itself and 'The world' being civilization on Earth. This probably won't happen for 5 billion years or so but it will be expected.

'The world' being civilization... plenty of ways that can come to an end - at our own hand, the hand of gravity or the hand of radiation. Or, if I'm completely and utterly wrong, by the hand of God who wants a second do-over, picks another old, retired couple to gather up 2 of everything and floods the place.

[glavas]

theres something happening in 2012 called the galactic alignment look it up. its something to do with all the planets lining up or something like that.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by glavas

theres something happening in 2012 called the galactic alignment look it up. its something to do with all the planets lining up or something like that.

...and?

[fangq]

Originally Posted by Rodp

...and?

re Noah's ark..who was the poor sod who hosted all the STDs , internal parasites etc etc just so they wouldn't be wiped out in the deluge ??

Steve

[jamesson1980]

Nasa says a galactic allignment can't be predicted to within a year, much less to the exact day. Maybe some are getting confused with planetary allignments which occur twice per year, every year. These aren't actual physical allignments, but just a term used for the moment they appear to line up from Earth. There will be two is 2012, and in 2013 for that matter

[tranquilized]

I'm fascinated with all this stuff. Firstly, let me state that I believe we'll all be here come new years day 2013. But I can’t help but wonder if something big is going to happen in 2012. We're already seeing strange things happen with the weather, energy is getting harder to come by, the US economy has taken a hit....

A name mentioned in the opening post towards the bottom was Graham Hancock. I've just finished reading his book "Fingerprints of the Gods" He visited a lot of the world’s ancient sites in Central and South America, and Egypt, and raised some amazing points. If you thought the great pyramids were pretty unbelievable, read up on them some more. They were built to higher standards than what we can achieve with today’s technology, but no one knows how or why.

The main hypothesis of the book is that human beings haven’t evolved in one linear fashion, from cave men to our current level of technology. Rather, that there existed civilisations in the distant past (think 20,000 years ago) who were as advanced, if not more so, than our current civilisation, who were all but wiped out by some cataclysmic occurance. This is how he explains the construction of the pyramids and many other amazing ancient sites.

Most here probably know about the bibles Noah and his ark, how he saved two of each animals from the great floods blah blah blah... well there are several hundred ancient myths from apparently unrelated races which all talk about great floods, and one guy who was somehow fortunate enough to save himself and a whole bunch of animals or whatever... Seems like a big coincidence.

Hancock puts all this evidence together and comes up with a crazy sounding yet somehow believable theory as to what happened to these ancient civilisations and the evidence of their existence. Long story short: Earth crust displacement, (google it) which saw the surface of the earth move over the core of the earth like an orange peel. According to this theory Antarctica used to be closer to the equator, and was the location of this ancient civilisation. It quickly moved to the polar region and froze over. Other continents (like the Americas) which were covered in ice moved out of the polar regions and all the ice melted, causing the great floods and coinciding with the ice age history we're all somewhat familiar with.

I did a bit more reading online and found some credible seeming evidence which completely discredits this theory. It’s like that with most science: for every smart guy with a theory, there’s another one with an opposing theory. Everyone has to develop their own beliefs based on the evidence at hand. The thing is, no one knows what happened in the past, and no one knows what’s going to happen in 2013 and beyond. That’s why these doomsdayers are so irrational: they think they know for certain, without a shadow of a doubt, that the world is going to end on a particular date. Obviously they can’t and don’t know that. But by the same token, no one knows that it’s not going to end (end as in change dramatically and quickly) either. It’s pretty ignorant for anyone to think our civilization will continue on forever. It can’t; not on this planet anyway. Who’s to say the end isn’t in 2 or 3 years time?

Apologies for the novel masquerading as a post...

[Ducati888]

Originally Posted by tranquilized

A name mentioned in the opening post towards the bottom was Graham Hancock. I've just finished reading his book "Fingerprints of the Gods" He visited a lot of the world’s ancient sites in Central and South America, and Egypt, and raised some amazing points. If you thought the great pyramids were pretty unbelievable, read up on them some more. They were built to higher standards than what we can achieve with today’s technology, but no one knows how or why.

The main hypothesis of the book is that human beings haven’t evolved in one linear fashion, from cave men to our current level of technology. Rather, that there existed civilisations in the distant past (think 20,000 years ago) who were as advanced, if not more so, than our current civilisation, who were all but wiped out by some cataclysmic occurance. This is how he explains the construction of the pyramids and many other amazing ancient sites.

Yeah, right. There's no way any previous civilisation was as advanced as our current civilisation. 20,000 years? Pfft. It's nothing.

I havent seen any evidence in the excavations of internal combustion engines, nuclear power stations or computer chips. Just because they built pyramids & ziggurats doesn't mean they were as advanced as we are now - it just means they were the most advanced and ambitious races of their time.

Modern man could easily build a pyramid, in under a year, to better tolerances, with options like windows and elevators, and a revolving restaurant at the top . It took 30 - 40 years for the Egyptians to build each of theirs, and they are not that complex in the inside, contrary to what many books and movies would have us believe.

There's not going to be an end to the world in 2012. Just because the Mayan calendar expires doesn't mean the world expires. What did the Mayans even know of the rest of the world when they did their rotational calendar anyway?

[flappist]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

I havent seen any evidence in the excavations of internal combustion engines, nuclear power stations or computer chips. Just because they built pyramids & ziggurats doesn't mean they were as advanced as we are now - it just means they were the most advanced and ambitious races of their time.

Hang on, wasn't there a design for an engine on a wall inside a pyramid. LS something or other......

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by flappist

Hang on, wasn't there a design for an engine on a wall inside a pyramid. LS something or other......

I heard Zorg the caveman came up with the GM LS engine design two days after he invented the wheel, approx 3 mths after fire was discovered :

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by flappist

Hang on, wasn't there a design for an engine on a wall inside a pyramid. LS something or other......

SIGNATURE!

[ford man xf]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Yeah, right. There's no way any previous civilisation was as advanced as our current civilisation. 20,000 years? Pfft. It's nothing.


Modern man could easily build a pyramid, in under a year, to better tolerances, with options like windows and elevators, and a revolving restaurant at the top . It took 30 - 40 years for the Egyptians to build each of theirs, and they are not that complex in the inside, contrary to what many books and movies would have us believe.

Your almost taking away what an amazing engineering feat the pyramids were with that post, engineers today marvel at how it is constructed and the techniques they used to build it. It truly is one of the great wonders of the world.

[Barry_v]

Originally Posted by ford man xf

Your almost taking away what an amazing engineering feat the pyramids were with that post, engineers today marvel at how it is constructed and the techniques they used to build it. It truly is one of the great wonders of the world.

reminds me of red dwarf..

Rimmer: “…like the pyramids. How did they move such massive pieces of stone without the aid of modern technology?”

Lister: “They had massive whips, Rimmer. Massive, massive whips.”

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by Barry_v

reminds me of red dwarf..

nodnoL

871 seliM

[Iggypoppin']

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Modern man could easily build a pyramid, in under a year, to better tolerances, with options like windows and elevators, and a revolving restaurant at the top . It took 30 - 40 years for the Egyptians to build each of theirs, and they are not that complex in the inside, contrary to what many books and movies would have us believe.

modern man's pyramid would get bombed or collapse long before an egyptian pyramid ever would...

[Fled74]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned my favourite bit of dialogue from "Ghostbusters":

Dr Ray Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!
Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes...
Winston Zeddemore: The dead rising from the grave!
Dr. Peter Venkman: Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!

[onfire]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

There's not going to be an end to the world in 2012. Just because the Mayan calendar expires doesn't mean the world expires. What did the Mayans even know of the rest of the world when they did their rotational calendar anyway?

Realistically the Mayans didn't think that far ahead. Chances are the conversation went like this :

" Wow, we've really gone crazy with this calender, should we stop? "
" What are we up to?
" 2012 "
" pfft, it's not like you and me are living that long. "
" 2012 it is. The End. "

[Paxton]

Originally Posted by onfire

Realistically the Mayans didn't think that far ahead. Chances are the conversation went like this :

" Wow, we've really gone crazy with this calender, should we stop? "
" What are we up to?
" 2012 "
" pfft, it's not like you and me are living that long. "
" 2012 it is. The End. "

A 21st century approach...

[tranquilized]

Originally Posted by Ducati888

Modern man could easily build a pyramid, in under a year, to better tolerances, with options like windows and elevators, and a revolving restaurant at the top . It took 30 - 40 years for the Egyptians to build each of theirs, and they are not that complex in the inside, contrary to what many books and movies would have us believe.

Can you give me some titles/authors of the books you've read which talk about the pyramids lack of complexity? Everything you've said here goes completely against everything I've read, I'd be interested in reading some of the other side of the story.

[ford man xf]

Originally Posted by tranquilized

The main hypothesis of the book is that human beings haven’t evolved in one linear fashion, from cave men to our current level of technology. Rather, that there existed civilisations in the distant past (think 20,000 years ago) who were as advanced, if not more so, than our current civilisation, who were all but wiped out by some cataclysmic occurance. This is how he explains the construction of the pyramids and many other amazing ancient sites.

Mankind has always been smart, that's pretty obvious. The Romans as most of us know had running water, toilets, paved steets, highways, heated bath houses etc. that's the most recent example and there are many before there time.

[gocruzin]

Originally Posted by glavas
theres something happening in 2012 called the galactic alignment look it up. its something to do with all the planets lining up or something like that.



...and?


Pink doughnuts will fall from the sky and cats will start living with dogs. My insurance premiums will go up due to icing damage from said falling doughnuts.
All resulting in a climax of milkshake cravings and higher pet food bills.

[vztrt]

The world isn't gonna end, Marty McFly went to 2015 so were all safe!!