NASA Confirms Solar Storm Near 2012 344
An anonymous reader writes "`This week researchers announced that a storm is coming — the most intense solar maximum in fifty years. The prediction comes from a team led by Mausumi Dikpati of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). "The next sunspot cycle will be 30% to 50% stronger than the previous one," she says. If correct, the years ahead could produce a burst of solar activity second only to the historic Solar Max of 1958.`
`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`
Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?"
`Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012. Hathaway believes it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.`
Anyone familiar with the Mayan Calendar? December 21, 2012 (13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan Calendar) Coincidence?"
Apocalypse? (Score:3, Insightful)
End of the world? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, you've found a coincidence. Yippee. (Score:1, Insightful)
No. Yes.
Coincidence? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Coincidence (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me break it down for you: the Mayans had a very advanced & complex calendar that took into account a lot of different cycles and even some of the most extraordinary hiccups that come with man's attempt at keeping track of time. For the Gregorian calendar, we have leap years except we skip one every four hundred years and even with that in place I think we lose a day every 8,000 years. And you will find that every model has some special issues.
So, back to the Mayans, their measurements of days came in sets of 13, contrary to our sets of 7 days in a week. So the world is no more likely to end on 13.0.0.0.0 than it was on the new years even in year seven. Just because 13 was always the last number in their cycles just means that we start a new cycle. No cataclysmic event needed to mark it. The cycle simply repeats and they most likely go to 1.0.0.0.0 there's no such thing as overflow in their calendar.
Fun hokey astrological implications? Yes. Cold hard scientific data pointing to the end of the world? No.
Great more doom (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Umm, old news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Local news was terrifying to say the least.
Re:Apocalypse? (Score:3, Insightful)
You clearly don't know what the word 'secular' means. Grab a dictionary. You'll find that this sort of Pythagorean mysticism is not at all secular. Indeed, the word you're looking for is "mystical".
The supposed difference between fundamentalist dogma and mystical superstition is not compelling to me, but you can observe it if you wish.
Re:Oh nooo!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
The mayans do not know of Jesus, therefore no paradox.
Possibility Matrix.
0-Both are right - Mayans without knowledge of Jesus predict the end of the world. Christians predict the end of the world, which includes Jesus v2.0.
1-Christians right, Mayans wrong - Lots of "I told you so"s bantered about.
2-Christians wrong, Mayans right - Fewer "I told you so"s bantered about.
3-Both wrong - Life goes on as normal and some people begin to realize that prophecy is inherently unreliable.
Another possibility is that people cause the end of the world themselves and spin that as their prophecy coming true.
Re:Oh nooo!!! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Oh nooo!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Everything is driven by money. Always follow the money trail. Why do you think there are people who whine about embryonic stem cell research even though only adult stem cells have yielded viable results? Because the guys getting results have private investors, and the guys not getting results run to the public to make everyone else pay them with federal funds--aka, your taxes.
Re:Oh nooo!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
> approx. 20, than any human caused CO2 combined
You don't consider the cultivation of livestock a human activity? Seriously?