Doom Doom Doom

A friend posted a video on Facebook that is, to say the least, humbling:



But I wanted to know more about where it was from and how much credibility to lend it. It's from Miracle Planet, which has been shown on Discovery and The Science Channel. The original animation with narration:



You can actually watch the whole show in 5 parts on YouTube.


Of course, this led to watching various doom 'n gloom YouTube videos, and I watched part of a longer, documentary-style video (posted by someone who links to an absolutely terrible web site) about Mayan/Aztec predictions. It seemed informative but not only pronounced certain names hideously (kwet-zuhl-cote-uhl?!) but seemed overconfident in asserting its interpretations as fact, something that surprised me a touch, since the video is supposedly narrated by a PhD (Rhawn Joseph) discussing a topic that is, according to most sources I've read, up for debate. I normally think of people with PhDs as recognizing, more than anyone, the need for academic humility and awareness of one's own bias and lack of knowledge...oh, I'm laughing now as I recognize the naivety of that statement. Humble PhDs, that's funny.


Now full of foreboding, researched a little more. This 2012 Apocalypse thing seems to have a lot of clout in popular culture, as discussed in this amusing Fox News clip:



Some YouTube videos had mentioned Apophis, an asteroid "predicted" to hit the earth in 2036. Imagine my sigh of relief when Wikipedia informed me that prediction was actually a very low probability of 1 in 45,000, a "Level 0" threat.


Other sources seem certain we'll have a run-in with planet Nibiru, which Wikipedia explains as an astrological body not supported by scientific evidence, right along with Kolob. *shrug*


Wikipedia also has an article on the 2012 Theory that is educational, if not a little comforting. *wink* Critics apparently claim "the Mayan calendar" is just one of their calendars or calculations, and the actual end of their calculations would put the "end" 41,341,049,999,999,999,999,999,994,879 years from the end of the previous world in 3114 B.C.(what world ended then? Apparently, we're not sure), if I understood the article correctly. Of course, who knows what is accurate or whether any sources have their facts straight, including the authors of the Wikipedia article.

My assessment: be very humbled by our astronomical insignificance and the fragility of our mortality, but don't spend all your money and quit your job in 2011 to live it up and see all the places on earth you've wanted to see your whole life in 2012 on the basis that nothing will matter anyway after 21 December 2012. Although I do wonder if now is the right time to get into the travel industry...hm...