Apocalypse Not

It's time to put to rest a topic I began mocking in May 2011 and really zinged in January, the fake Mayan Doomsday.  I present all the stories, memes, and videos on the topic from Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Apocalypse Not edition) on Daily Kos, which I just posted about an hour ago.

I begin with a meme I stole from JekyllnHyde.


More over the jump.

First up, two stories about the credulous.

Irish Times: Newgrange solstice crowds disappointed
JASON KENNEDY

Scores of people gathered outside the Newgrange passage tomb in Co Meath this morning for the annual winter solstice.

Newgrange, located in the Boyne Valley, is a 5,000-year-old tomb famous for the winter solstice illumination which lights up the passage and chamber if weather allows and can be viewed by a select group of people inside.

Access to the chamber is limited and is decided by lottery each year.

BBC: Stonehenge crowds gather to mark winter solstice

More than 5,000 people have gathered to mark the winter solstice at Stonehenge.

The attendance was equivalent to five times the number that turned out at Salisbury Plain for last year's event.

More people had been predicted to congregate, as the date coincides with the end of the 5,125-year "long count" cycle of the Mayan calendar.

Druids and pagans are among those who head to Stonehenge each December to watch the sunrise on the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Next, what NASA has to say about the non-event.

NASA Television on YouTube: NASA Seeks to Debunk Doomsday Prophecy

As 2012 draws to a close, many websites, books and cable television shows are erroneously predicting the end of the world. These claims range from fears that a rogue planet is heading toward Earth, to solar flares torching our planet. David Morrison, a senior scientist and astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center is working to inform the public that each of the claims are false and there is no reason that December 21, 2012 will be different from any other day on Earth.

It turns out we may not be through with it, after all.

L.A. Times: Maya 'doomsday' may actually be Sunday, archaeologist says
By Daniel Hernandez
December 21, 2012, 12:36 p.m.

TULUM, Mexico – Hold on to your doomsday fever, folks, the Maya calendar date celebrated Friday as the “end of the world” might actually be off by two days – or a full year.

The end of the 13th baktun cycle of the so-called Long Count of the ancient Maya’s intricate, interlocking calendar system might correspond to Sunday, not Friday, said Carmen Rojas, an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

As “end of the world” hype swept the globe Friday, scholars pointed out that the Maya calendar hasn't been decoded enough to make exact correlations with the Gregorian calendar that we use.
...
One such inconsistency leads some Maya scholars to believe the 13th baktun cycle ends on Sunday, while others say it might be off by a full year or more.

I'm with Grumpy Cat on this one.

Now, for a real doomday, there's always Apophis Day.  Here's to April 13th, especially in 2029 and 2036!