This is the end...hold your breath and count to ten

So, the last day of the world is nigh. The end of the world is upon us and as of yet I have as a subject of one of the most developed countries of the world not been issued with any advice at all.

I find this remarkable seeing that I received information regarding the great digital switchover at least two years before it happened, moreover I was even informed more about the recent elections of the police commissioners and that didn't even matter one bit to anyone's life.

As the government has been lax on its duties I have had to turn to more reliable sources such as the Daily Mail and the blogosphere for my information. According to one source I read on the internet 1 in 10 of us are concerned that the world will actually end tomorrow. In Russia the government issued a decree that the world would not end to prevent people from panic buying supplies. If the world ends why buy supplies? The Chinese authorities arrested 500 end of the world theorists. In America NASA felt it had to issue a public statement debunking the theories that abound as to exactly how the world will end.

 

Picture (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/google-end-of-world.jpg)

As you may be aware the End of the World prediction stems from the ancient Mayan calendar that has some kind of long cycle attached to it. Based on this cycle the Mayan calendar ends tomorrow, 21/12/2012 at 11.15. My big issue with this is actually the degree of accuracy. We have difficulty predicting when the next bus will arrive let alone the end of the world. And 11.15 where, is this GMT, or EST?

As I understand it in the Mayan civilisation at this time a rebirth of the world occurs and a 'new age' commences. This has promoted the idea that the world as we know it will cease to exist.

So how will it happen? Will it be quick or will it take 1 hour 51 minutes like a Hollywood disaster movie?

The main ideas include:

  • Planetary alignment;
  • Collision with a rogue planet called Nibiru;
  • Polar shift theory;
  • Meteor impact;
  • Giant solar storms.
NASA has addressed each if these on its website, see here

So should we be worried about the end of the world. Well maybe not tomorrow but one day perhaps. My research has discovered some plausible events that could lead to the end of the world as we know it, but not tomorrow.

If you are still worried maybe you should head for the French village of Burgarach where some people believe that a mountain there contains an Alien spacecraft that is ready to blast off taking some humans with it just before the end arrives.

Otherwise, just in case, hold the hand of your loved ones tight tomorrow download some suitable songs to your iPod (see the Independent's suggestion)...And I will see you on the other side.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sparkly bathroom prevented by natural chemical equilibria

Image
I have had the pleasure of cleaning the bathroom today. I have used a number of different products over the years to find a chemical that will remove the annoying marks from the tiles, taps and shower screen. The hard water means that no matter how clean and sparkly I get the taps, they are only two showers away from being once again covered in the annoying white powder.   Crystals of limescale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kesselstein_k.jpg) There is a lot of interesting chemistry involved in limescale. It is essentially deposits of insoluble calcium carbonate left behind from the hot water. But how does it get into the water in the first place and why doesn't it stay in it? Limescale initially starts as limestone, chalk and other similar sedimentary rocks that formed from the bodies of tiny calcium containing sea creatures that lived in warm shallow tropical seas millions of years ago. See the BBC clip at this learning zone site. Since their formation these rocks have been
Read more

Polka dot, 7 inches, 15 minutes, luke warm

Image
January 2010 and a new craze hit Facebook. Across the social network women started to post colours as their status. Some posted beige, some ivory, some hot pink, some polka dot. For a while people across the world were confused, intrigued, indeed fascinated by what these colours could mean. In fact the colours referred to the colour of the bra the woman was wearing that particular day. This 'craze' was in aid of a breast cancer awareness campaign a fantastic cause and in my opinion a clever and innovative use of Facebook. Over the last couple of days some of the ladies have begun to post a length measured in inches followed by a time in minutes. This has resulted in a status that might read '6 inches 25 minutes'. Oh how amusing...I like a bit of smut but I found these updates strangely annoying. Obviously it doesn't mean what it says and is code for something fairly inane and boring. So slightly intrigued and determined to crack the code I did what I always
Read more

What's Your Station?

Image
One of my most vivid memories is completing my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition in the New Forest one October half term. It must have been 1987 as Mike Smith was the Radio 1 breakfast host and I remember cooking bacon on the Trangia stove, in a field behind a scout hut in Fordingbridge, whilst listening to T'Pau's new single China in Your Hand, it was a gorgeous Autumn morning.  http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2007/08/Radio_dynamo.jpg I had a red plastic battery operated radio that we listened to as we walked. That radio once got us into trouble on a snowy February in Dartmoor as the magnet in the speaker affected our compass, a rookie error that put us out a couple of miles searching for a postbox on Rough Tor.   Radio 1 was the station to listen to, the new music was heard first on this station, and alongside Mike Smith the line-up included Simon Bates, Mike Read, Simon Mayo and of course Steve Wright. Whilst at Uni I still enjoyed listening to Simon Mayo's breakfast
Read more