2012

[Lucas101]

FEstivus? What the hell is that lol.

You dont remember that from Seinfeld? I feel old now ...

[Reasoner]

You dont remember that from Seinfeld? I feel old now ...

"Festivus for the rest of us."

You don't have to be old or young to know the show, me being a example...>>

[Kemal Rondal]

...What Seinfeld? Dammit lol i need to watch more television...

[rasterbee]

To be fair, it was kinda an obscure joke that is rarely mentioned nowadays. We're all quoting the soon to be classic "How I Met Your Mother" now, Reasoner.

Oh wait, that show sucks. I quote Ricky and Julian and Bubbles and J-Roc and Cory and Trevor and Mr. Lahey and Randy.

[SickbyDefinition]

it is a calendar day that we all know and accept, without really understanding what the significance of that day is, or how it came to be a "special day" at this particular time of year.

Interesting theory. We all accept it and we are all unaware of it's true meaning, or specialness, if you will. Except, you may be a bit more understanding of why it is special since you clearly understand that none of us really understand.


In actuality, scientists studying helioseismology and other elements of astronomy predict that 2012 will be a year of dramatically increased solar activity, the most solar activity in recorded history.
If you weren't already aware, sunspots and solar flares cause disruptions within the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere. There was a sunspot a few weeks ago that was about 4x Earth's diameter. I heard many stories about how so and so's debit card was repeatedly declined, that the gas tanks weren't working because their cards wouldn't register, that satellite tv users couldn't watch the Tuesday night line up. This is no coincidence, magnetic energy shot from the Sun's surface was most definitely the cause!

Now, I'm not saying I believe in an end to the world, especially not one predicted by the Mayans, but there is no doubt that next year will be very interesting for a number of reasons.

[Rodri]

SBD, the festival of the mid-winter solstice is almost as old as human-kind. It predates modern history and all religions. It is an ancient European pagan festival that has been converted to a religious festival by various churches but the timing is completely pagan in origin. Festivus is as good a name as any these days I think. In fact, I might have to get an aluminium pole to put up and on the day I will make a point of telling all of you what a great disappointment you have been to me this past year.

2012 will be an interesting year for sure but at this point, Im not digging a bunker (yet).

[Lucas101]

SBD, the festival of the mid-winter solstice is almost as old as human-kind. It predates modern history and all religions. It is an ancient European pagan festival that has been converted to a religious festival by various churches but the timing is completely pagan in origin. Festivus is as good a name as any these days I think. In fact, I might have to get an aluminium pole to put up and on the day I will make a point of telling all of you what a great disappointment you have been to me this past year.

2012 will be an interesting year for sure but at this point, Im not digging a bunker (yet).

lolz someone make a Festivus forum thread ... this has potential

[Alusair]

In actuality, scientists studying helioseismology and other elements of astronomy predict that 2012 will be a year of dramatically increased solar activity, the most solar activity in recorded history.

The sun goes through a period of solar maximum every 12 years. The last one was in 2000, so the next will be in 2012. However, the one in 2012 is speculated to be the weakest one since 1928.

However, that last tidbit of information conflicts with armageddon conspiracists that want to say solar flares will bring about the end of the world in 2012, so they leave that part out and just stick with the "solar maximum" line since it sounds worse than it actually is with a bit of research.

Here's a source for you:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...oaaprediction/

While it has the potential to be bad, so would just about every other solar flare that happens.

Considering that, there's no better odds that the world will end in 2012 than it would have every 12 year interval previous to that date, or after it (perhaps the next doomsday will be scheduled for 2024!).

And considering even the Carrington Event didn't cause the world to explode like a donut loaded with TNT, I'm feeling pretty safe that anything less than that won't do worse.

[Kemal Rondal]

Then theres the story with the huge tsunami all over the world. Lol, its crazy!

[SickbyDefinition]

The sun goes through a period of solar maximum every 12 years. The last one was in 2000, so the next will be in 2012. However, the one in 2012 is speculated to be the weakest one since 1928.

However, that last tidbit of information conflicts with armageddon conspiracists that want to say solar flares will bring about the end of the world in 2012, so they leave that part out and just stick with the "solar maximum" line since it sounds worse than it actually is with a bit of research.

Here's a source for you:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news...oaaprediction/

While it has the potential to be bad, so would just about every other solar flare that happens.

Considering that, there's no better odds that the world will end in 2012 than it would have every 12 year interval previous to that date, or after it (perhaps the next doomsday will be scheduled for 2024!).

And considering even the Carrington Event didn't cause the world to explode like a donut loaded with TNT, I'm feeling pretty safe that anything less than that won't do worse.

Ah, interesting. In my astronomy class we studied the helioseismology shenanighans and learned the solar cycle was 11 years. This was info from your average college textbook, but it can be found from many sources by googling solar cycle, and the solar science portion of nasa's website claims it is 11 years as well.
http://solarscience.msfc.nasa.gov/SunspotCycle.shtml
However, the textbook said nothing about increased solar activity. It informed us about maunder minimum, which as a time period of the least solar activity ever recorded but not about a period like in in 1928.

Nasa's solar website also claims a maximum of solar activity in 2013 instead of 2012. But, as you said, they say it is the least in over 80 years.

The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 89 in May of 2013. We are currently almost three years into Cycle 24. Increased activity in the last few months has raised the predicted maximum above the 64.2 for the Cycle 14 maximum in 1907. The current predicted size still make this the smallest sunspot cycle in over 80 years.

This one claims that a minimum occured in 2008, and predicts an increased intensity in 2013, not 2012, as well.
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SolarCycle/

My teacher was the one that brought up predictions of intense solar activity, but of course her sources aren't infallible.


I wasn't implying the sun would cause the end of the world next year, just pointing out an funny coincidence
I agree that the believers will exploit any and all events that could possibly be warped into evidence for the inpending doom of Earth, whether it be solar activity or the various natural disasters that occured this year.