Patterico's Pontifications

12/22/2012

Mayans Wrong

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:00 am



Thought that was worth noting about now.

45 Responses to “Mayans Wrong”

  1. Wrong time zone?

    Patterico (1cc817)

  2. stupid mayans

    happyfeet (ae4c7f)

  3. I’m thinking the Mayans accurately predicted the reelection of Barack Obama in the only terms they had available to them.

    Steve57 (b64cdf)

  4. Guess I shouldn’t have cashed that line-of-credit at the Wynn.

    askeptic (2bb434)

  5. I’m thinkin if the Mayans were any good at predicting the future, there would still be some Mayans.

    Ghost (2d8874)

  6. Eh, this was only the rollover of the largest number in the Mayan calendar, anyway — much like January 1st, 2001 (NOT 2000) was the first day of the 3rd millenium in the Gregorian calendar. Neither one was an occasion for apocalypse in the actual beliefs of the people who set up the calendar system. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar#2012_and_the_Long_Count for lots and LOTS of details on this one.

    Robin Munn (f56ca4)

  7. 5.I’m thinkin if the Mayans were any good at predicting the future, there would still be some Mayans.

    Comment by Ghost (2d8874) — 12/22/2012 @ 12:45 am

    I believe there are modern decendants of the Mayans.

    But more to the point, if they were all that good at predicting things they could have predicted electricity, roads, the internal combustion engine.

    Sort of like if I was really good at predicting things, I’d be rich from all those bets I’d be placing on the ponies.

    Instead of grousing about how the gringoes stole all the good crap.

    Steve57 (b64cdf)

  8. But hey, the Mayans can still prove to have been right in general.

    Who’s going to be laughing at the Mayans as they go shuffling off the mortal coil between now and the end of the year smug in the knowledge that Armaggedon didn’t happen exactly on the 21st?

    Steve57 (b64cdf)

  9. Well they did get one thing right, their calendar ended.

    Rob (b91127)

  10. I’m afraid the world did indeed end yesterday. Obama picked Kerry as SecState. We are now in the wind-down to the energy death of the universe.

    Brian Epps (2f898a)

  11. The Mayans were a depraved civilization who left nothing value added to humanity’s existence. No innovative scholars or texts, just sacrificial implements in their nasty ruins.

    Scarred. bones, and Mexicans.

    wiggins (d76606)

  12. I’d bet the Mayan forgot to carry the one.

    A common mistake in EOTW calculations.

    rinardman (f24385)

  13. Isn’t this a funny little ball of mud on which we live?
    The Mayans NEVER predicted “the end of the world,” yet no doubt a majority of people that have heard about this story believe that they did.

    Icy (tehGr8) (a81517)

  14. Since the Spaniards burned most of the Mayan records we will never know what really happened but I suspect it was years of massive deficit spending, plus socialized health insurance followed by government mandated and subsidized religious human sacrifice that finally brought them to the tipping point.

    If you can’t predict the end of your own civilization, you probably will get the end of the world wrong too.

    By golly, this is sounding more and more like Obama’s “Amerika”.

    WarEagle82 (97b777)

  15. One account, is they drilled too far into their aquifer,

    narciso (ee31f1)

  16. The Mayan calender expired yesterday, ours expires 10 days later. That’s it, no big deal, do what they would have done and get yourself a new calender.

    The Mayans no more thought the world would be destroyed when their long solar cycle ended than we expect galactic catastrophe on New Year’s Eve.

    Chicken Little alarmists will make idiot assumptions, it’s what they do (remember Y2K?) but don’t get caught up in their foolishness.

    ropelight (1a0d79)

  17. R.I.P. Lee Dorman, bass player on “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”

    Icy (tehGr8) (a81517)

  18. Greetings: especially “Icy” @ 17

    “In a Gadda Da Vida” was my introduction to what I hoped rock would become. I still have a serviceable LP of it, the 17-minute whole side of the record version. Truly a rock masterpiece but, these days, sadly neglected.

    Now, as for the Mayans, where’s a guy going to have to go for a decent human sacrifice now ??? No more cracked sternums or extracted still-beating hearts ??? No more bodies bouncing down all those steps of all those magnificent pyramids ??? Is Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” the best a guy can hope for ???

    11B40 (84617d)

  19. Speaking of predicting, around 10 years ago I looked at buying Priceline stock and didn’t.

    Priceline Chart

    More accurately NOT predicting. I still can’t figure out why I didn’t buy it.

    Gerald A (f26857)

  20. I think there’s some quibbling about the exact date, according to “Mayan Time” and we actually have to get through the weekend for a Mayan Calender Rollover. So maybe not till Sunday or something.

    SarahW (b0e533)

  21. Uh oh. Spent all my money Thursday.

    Patricia (be0117)

  22. Mayans still exist…as do all the rest of us.

    Pious Agnostic (20c167)

  23. where’s a guy going to have to go for a decent human sacrifice now

    Who knows, perhaps the nuttier elements promoting Aztlan will bring back the rituals that the Spanish found in Tenochtitlan?
    They really don’t seem that divorced from what we witness from the Mex-Cartels – soon to be in a neighborhood near you.

    askeptic (2bb434)

  24. Of course us ‘bitter clingers’ had a bit more insight with Matthew 24;36.

    narciso (ee31f1)

  25. All things will be explained to he who has faith.

    askeptic (2bb434)

  26. Tillman still wrong!

    Amalgamated Cliff Divers, Local 157 (721840)

  27. 21. Uh oh. Spent all my money Thursday.

    Comment by Patricia (be0117) — 12/22/2012 @ 12:55 pm

    No joke; every time that nutcase in Oakland CA, Harold Camping, predicts a rapture some of his followers really do quit their jobs, sell their homes, and spend everything their kids’ college fund.

    Not that Camping does; he holds onto his stuff.

    Then when his predictions fall through the kids are screwed. Not Camping’s kids; just his flock’s.

    Steve57 (b64cdf)

  28. Just for fun, to you, what announcement of impending disaster would spell global doom by what suitably authoritative body? Me, I think I’d be genuinely freaked out if ads started appearing everywhere looking for bees.

    ignatius (e706b3)

  29. Oops, sorry, I meant to add, posted by ConAgra. Not that they’d ever admit it to the public directly.

    ignatius (e706b3)

  30. “I’ll believe it’s a crisis, when the people who are telling me it’s a crisis, start acting like it’s a crisis.”

    askeptic (2bb434)

  31. About 25-30 years ago I took an interest in the Mayans and Aztecs, and read everything I could about them, including their calendar. And I noted that we were coming to the end of a Great Cycle, and that was an interesting trivium for calendar fans, but not more than that. I certainly never read anything back then that suggested the world would end when the cycle did! What happens when your calendar runs out? You throw it out and buy a new one!

    On the other hand, if you were looking at the Mayan calendar for a clue to when the world would end, it’s very easy to spot: not the end of the Great Cycle, but the end of every year! They believed that at the end of the year the old sun died, and a new sun had to be born to serve in the next year, and that the only way this could happen was if human hearts were offered up to it. So the world should have ended the first New Year after the Spaniards put a forced end to human sacrifice. Since it didn’t, the theory is disproven. But that happened in the 16th century, not yesterday.

    Milhouse (15b6fd)

  32. #30

    “I’ll believe it’s a crisis, when the people who are telling me it’s a crisis, start acting like it’s a crisis.”

    Comment by askeptic (2bb434) — 12/22/2012 @ 5:01 pm

    Mostly, me too, but sometimes they don’t act like it’s a crisis until it’s too late for everyone but them.

    #31 Comment by Milhouse (15b6fd) — 12/22/2012 @ 5:09 pm

    Those wacky Mayans. Of course, one day, in the not too distant future, our progeny will look back on our customs and beliefs and think how quaint, too. If we’re lucky, that is.

    ignatius (e706b3)

  33. Since I am in Guatemala at the moment, (and something more than just a casual observer) it is worth pointing out that almost nobody here(including the Maya) really thought the world, per se, would end. It was generally considered the beginning of a new period of time, and a moment for celebration–though there were the requisite number of semi-“New Age” nutcases from abroad running around with chants and incense. The local take on the matter was that, in fact, a flash of light yesterday morning would occur and the local Maya population (sizable in number) would simply disappear; only to reappear several moments later at all of the local fried chicken franchises named “Pollo Campero”, which the indigenous population seems to relish if not outright worship.

    Expat (02723e)

  34. Just for fun, to you, what announcement of impending disaster would spell global doom by what suitably authoritative body?

    The Electoral College of the United States made just such an announcement early last month.

    Pious Agnostic (20c167)

  35. Maybe its just a ebb tide marker.

    Dog re-elected, Madonna on Tour, Coldest Muscovite winter in 70 years, Arab Spring, Global Depression, Armageddon, …, a confluence of general DOOM.

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  36. I am really inspired with your writing abilities as smartly as with the structure on your blog. Is this a paid subject matter or did you customize it your self? Anyway keep up the nice quality writing, it’s uncommon to see a nice blog like this one today..

    Mark dog tips (7be2b1)

  37. (7be2b1) FOAD!

    askeptic (2bb434)

  38. No Rapture

    No Mayan End of Civilization

    Who’s Up for the Zombie Apocalypse?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  39. Nature, in due course, is purging itself, washing the effluent out to sea:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9763813/A-sodden-Christmas-for-thousands-as-homes-roads-and-railways-lie-under-water.html

    gary gulrud (dd7d4e)

  40. Confucius, as I remember it, spoke of “Losing the Mandate of Heaven”, and how that presented itself to the people by natural disasters.
    Perhaps England (United Kingdom) needs to rethink its retreat from the pews into secularism, and try to regain God’s favor?

    askeptic (2bb434)

  41. The MOST! BORING! Apocalypse! EVER!!!

    A. C. (c77050)

  42. Just for fun, to you, what announcement of impending disaster would spell global doom by what suitably authoritative body?

    “The Electoral College of the United States made just such an announcement early last month.

    “Comment by Pious Agnostic (20c167) — 12/23/2012 @ 3:58 am”

    *chuckle*

    Ok, besides that one.

    ignatius (e706b3)

  43. They weren’t wrong about Newsweek.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  44. December 21, 2012 was not the end of TIME. It was merely the end of Newsweek. (give or take a day or two)

    Sammy Finkelman (7b1b59)

  45. Jack Klugman died. Doesn’t that count as the end of an era?

    CrustyB (69f730)


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