The End...

Well, not really THE END. But at least it's the end of hearing about that inane babel about today being the end of the world. We all know the story. The Mayan calendar ends on December 21st, 2012 and that somehow counts as foresight of apocalypse. There's a huge problem with the claims that the Mayans predicted the end of the world though. The insignificant little fast that well... they didn't! You read that correctly. All these people worrying about something that Mayans predicted, when they never even predicted what they are worried about. They simply had Dec. 21st, 2012 as the end of that calendar, and called for the dawning of a 'new age'. The calendar ends, so what? Our calendars end on December 31st every year. If these people are freaking out about December 21st this year, they should be freaking out December 31st every year, because the same thing is happening... The end of a calendar. The only difference is that the Mayan calendar was a longer duration of 'ages', whereas we mark our calendars in years.

Oh but the real fun starts when they start to claim how the world is due to end. Odd that these end of the world believers would put so much stock in the predictions of people that didn't even foresee the fall of their own civilization, but there we have it. But back to the crazy claims!

Planetary collision/asteroid:
There is a claim that a rouge planet or asteroid will hit the Earth and end all life on our fine globe. There's a problem of course. That is the fact that 'Planet X' does not exist. Scientists are tracking many objects traveling through space, but none (of note) are on a collision course with Earth. Sure, small objects falling to Earth aren't that uncommon. But There's definitely nothing cataclysmic in our neighborhood.

Planetary ejection:
'Planet X' is back for seconds. Others claim that 'Planet X' will not hit the Earth, but rather come close to us, disrupt gravity and throw Earth out of orbit around the Sun. A planet would have to be very big and very close to override the Suns gravity. I mean, Jupiter big! Something that big wouldn't go unnoticed. Nothing like that is on NASA's radar, and then there's the second reason this claim fails. Did I mention that 'planet x' doesn't exist?

Galactic Alignment
This is a fun one because it looks like a close alignment could happen, but it doesn't matter anyway. The claim goes like this. The Sun, Earth, and galactic center will all come into perfect alignment as the Earth passes the galactic equator. This will create excess gravity that will either fling Earth our of the solar system or trigger world ending earthquakes. I'm guessing these guys missed the class in grade school that explained that plate tectonics cause earthquakes, but I digress. First off, it looks like at best, only a close alignment will happen (even though the 21st may actually be a couple days late and things will actually several degrees off). Second, they make it sound like the galactic plane isn't a thin tipping point like they make it sound like. It's actually much wider than that. In fact, it takes sever hundred years for the sun to finish it's journey across the plain. But lets assume that everything aligned perfectly. If you know anything about gravity at all, you will realize that bodies coming into alignment at such great distances will have not effect on the Earth. The distances are just too great, and gravitational changes are minimal. Expecting the alignment to fracture the Earth would be like setting up bowling pins and a bowling alley,  but you showing up at an alley two states away hoping that rolling the ball there will get you a strike at the first alley. It just isn't going to happen! Oh, and there's one other way we know that there's no reason to worry about galactic alignments. That's the fact that they happen every 26,000 years. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the Earth wasn't destroyed 26,000 years ago.

So no worries, the Earth will continue spinning on as is has. But my worry is for the news that is yet to come. I'm fearful that while the world didn't end, that individual worlds may have been ended. There are a lot of crazies out there, and I have a feeling that there will be stories of people who killed their families and then themselves in order to make sure they didn't suffer the '2012 apocalypse'. Either that or straight out suicides. I really hope that I am wrong, but I feel like people may have died over this ridiculous claim that the world was ending today. On the grand scale, nothing happened as I've said all along. We simply reached the Winter Solstice. This means that brighter and longer days are now coming our way. I just hope that no one was robbed of seeing those brighter days by this irrational hysteria.

-BH