End of the World Cancelled - New Mayan Calendar Found

[zoobyshoe]

Apparently this newly discovered mural records larger chunks of time than previously known Mayan Calendars:

The Maya recorded time in a series of cycles, including 400-year chunks called baktuns. It's these baktuns that have led to rumors of an end-of-the-world catastrophe on Dec. 21, 2012 — on that date, a cycle of 13 baktuns will be complete. But the idea that this means the end of the world is a misconception, Stuart said. In fact, Maya experts have known for a long time that the calendar doesn't end after the 13th baktun. It simply begins a new cycle. And the calendar encompasses much larger units than the baktun.

"There were 24 units of time they actually could have incorporated into their calendar," Stuart said. "Here, we're only seeing five units and they're still really big."

In one column, the ancient scribe even worked out a cycle of time recording 17 baktuns, the researchers found. In another spot, someone etched a "ring number" into the wall. These notations were used to record time in a previous cycle, thousands of years into the past. The calendar also appears to note the cycles of Mars and Venus, the researchers said. Symbols of gods head the top of each lunar cycle, suggesting that each cycle had its own patron deity.

http://news.yahoo.com/nevermind-apocalypse-earliest-mayan-calendar-found-180438279.html

He says, "Here, we're only seeing five units and they're still really big." That's kinda ambiguous, and I wonder if they've worked out exactly how far forward they go.

 

[Infinitum]

Interesting...but, it also means I have to start thinking about a good future career, than depend on doomsdays!

 

[AlephZero]

This http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343 says it runs "7000 years into the future".

But if this find was older than the others, it doesn't disprove the woo-woo theories, because the Mayans might have corrected their original mistake and then produced shorter calendars

 

[zoobyshoe]

This http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343 says it runs "7000 years into the future".

But if this find was older than the others, it doesn't disprove the woo-woo theories, because the Mayans might have corrected their original mistake and then produced shorter calendars

It doesn't seem that would be the case. The difference between this and others we have is:

The Xultun find is the first place that all of the cycles have been found tied mathematically together in one place, representing a calendar that stretches more than 7,000 years into the future.

If this meta-calendar were wrong, it would suggest the shorter calendars were wrong, because this one ties the cycles of the previously known ones together. It seems to me, anyway.

Also, this meta-calendar might have been well known to later Mayan scholars, there may have been many documents explaining it, but we can't determine that because the Spaniards destroyed as much of their literature as they could find. This one was buried when they got there, and so escaped.

At any rate, it proves the Mayans weren't looking for when the world would end, they were trying to tie smaller cycles to larger and larger cycles.

 

[ThomasT]

This will be bad news for my girlfriend who believes in the Mayan doomsday stuff (it's one of the reasons I like her). When the (previously) appointed day comes and we're all still here, and she's looking around quizzically, then I'll simply shrug my shoulders and announce, "Waitress ... another bowl of chili for the lady, if you please," knowing full well that she will have ample time to savor the dish.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

My wife believes. She says it must be so since Nostradamus and the Bible predict the exact same thing and anyway the planets are going to align perfectly on that day. It's not easy for me, but I keep my mouth shut. I won't gloat on Dec. 22 either. But to the rest of the world I always say don't bet that the world will end. You'll never collect.

 

[zoobyshoe]

This will be bad news for my girlfriend who believes in the Mayan doomsday stuff (it's one of the reasons I like her). When the (previously) appointed day comes and we're all still here, and she's looking around quizzically, then I'll simply shrug my shoulders and announce, "Waitress ... another bowl of chili for the lady, if you please," knowing full well that she will have ample time to savor the dish.

As most know by now, the Mayan calendar never did predict the end of the world:

Mexico's National Institute for Anthropological History has also tried to counter speculation that the Maya predicted a catastrophic event for 2012.

Only two out of 15,000 registered Mayan texts mention the date 2012, according to the Institute, and no Mayan text predicts the end of the world.

"There is no prophecy for 2012. It is a marketing fallacy," Erik Velasquez, etchings specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Reuters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16000331

But I know what you mean about liking your girlfriend because she believes it. In some cases this can be humorously charming. Take the character of Phoebe from Friends. If she became rigorously logical, she'd lose all her appeal.

 

[phinds]

End of the World Cancelled - New Mayan Calendar Found

This will have no effect on the fruitcakes at all, they'll just find a way to reinterpret the new data as meaning the world WILL end on <fill in whatever date you like> for sure.

 

[ThomasT]

My wife believes. She says it must be so since Nostradamus and the Bible predict the exact same thing and anyway the planets are going to align perfectly on that day. It's not easy for me, but I keep my mouth shut. I won't gloat on Dec. 22 either. But to the rest of the world I always say don't bet that the world will end. You'll never collect.

Ah yes, the alignment. My girlfried thinks that there will be some sort of accumulation of gravitational forces ... thus possibly precipitating the destruction of humanity, if not Earth. It's at these moments that the suggestion of pizza, or even just a Big Mac, is most effective in diverting her attention. Apparently there's something about the consideration of imminent doom that piques her appetite.

 

[ThomasT]

As most know by now, the Mayan calendar never did predict the end of the world:

I didn't know that, but, anyway, wasn't worried about it.

But I know what you mean about liking your girlfriend because she believes it. In some cases this can be humorously charming. Take the character of Phoebe from Friends. If she became rigorously logical, she'd lose all her appeal.

Yeah, it's part of her charm.

 

[zoobyshoe]

My wife believes. She says it must be so since Nostradamus and the Bible predict the exact same thing and anyway the planets are going to align perfectly on that day. It's not easy for me, but I keep my mouth shut. I won't gloat on Dec. 22 either. But to the rest of the world I always say don't bet that the world will end. You'll never collect.

The world won't end tonight, and Anthony Burgess doesn't think it will. His is not the scorching apocalypse of Lawrence or Yeats but a love song to what would be lost if the world went away: all its colors and tastes and smells and finally forgivable mistakes. It is an old song but a good one, made attractive not by its newness but by its steady virtue and the liveliness of Mr. Burgess's arrangement of it. ''This is the end of the world,'' a character in the book says. ''I presume anybody can join in.'' Sure. And we can also, in the words of Sam Goldwyn, include ourselves out.

-Review of The End of the World News by Anthony Burgess
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/11/30/home/burgess-worldnews.html