If the world doesn’t end tomorrow, do we have to retire “We Are All Mayans Now” or can we give the apocalypse another Friedman unit to materialize?
Also too, open thread
by DougJ| 126 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, We Are All Mayans Now
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BC
Oh, I think we can do the Friedman unit for this. The Mayans would probably approve, especially if we celebrate with hot chilis and chocolate.
MikeJ
I’ve already heard from people in NZ and Australia, and they assure me that the world has not yet ended there.
dantoujours
My NZ friends are posting on Facebook. All is well there.
Should add, that the Mayans thought the world is flat, so perhaps the International Date Line doesn’t figure into their calendar. We may have to wait until 12:01 CST.
redshirt
There’s going to be an incredible comet in the sky next November. Lets root for it!
c u n d gulag
THERE’S STILL HOPE!
Maybe the Mayans used the Julian Calendar!
The new Gregorian Calendar didn’t come in until the 16th Century – long after the Mayans had gone to meet their many makers.
So, maybe the end of the world will happen, according to my math, January 3rd.
danimal
I think you need to ask: What Would Harold Camping Do?
zombie rotten mcdonald
Saturday morning, everyone run out onto your front lawns yelling “He saved us! The Doctor saved us!”
Rasputin's Evil Twin
At 52, I ought to look up how many “apocalypses” I’ve lived through so far. I’d say a dozen, easily. James Randi’s “The Mask of Nostradamus” (which kicks the old fraud when he’s down, BTW) has a great final chapter on the history of the end of the world, but it’s a dozen years old. We’ve had at least three more since then, yes?
Randi’s list went up to Y2K, and the book ends with: “Ho-hum”. That sums my my view.
See you all on Saturday.
Amir Khalid
It’s just past midnight where I am, and so far everything’s fi
Chyron HR
@MikeJ:
Well, duh. The world won’t end until it’s December 21 in Mayastan.
lyrics4losers
It’s not just that people keep finding new ways to interpret ancient calendars to find new end times dates to sell books about or whatever. It’s that afterwards they don’t become laughing stocks and people accept them saying “sorry, guess we got it wrong but now we are certain it’s Dec21 2013”.
redshirt
@Amir Khalid: OH NOES!
Silly non Americans. Everyone knows apocalypses start on Eastern Standard Time – God’s Time Zone.
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
Mayan Apocalypse adherents will have to wait….
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/newly-discovered-mayan-calendar-past-2012/story?id=16322935#.UNM2n47TLFI
Brachiator
Seems only fitting that it should be the end of the world for this catch phrase.
After all, it’s here today, gone to Mayan.
Apocalypse, Next.
IowaOldLady
If the Mayans could predict the future, there would still be Mayans.
Libby
Of course we can still use “we are all Mayans.” As my old GPS used to say: Recalculating! We just need to use new maths.
kindness
And so ends one Mayan long cycle. With it a new one starts.
Maybe the new Mayan Calendar could have BJ kitties & puppies on it.
Emma
A friend suggests that we remember the One who always rescues us. When you step out of your front door on the 22nd, shout loudly: He did it! The Doctor saved us!
maya
I’ve been patiently waiting my time around this dump of a blog for far too long it seems. You’ve all heard of Montezuma’s revenge, well, hold on to sumthing solid because… 100..99…98….
burnspbesq
Really nice appreciation/tribute piece about Joe Strummer on NPR Morning Edition this morning, but the timing has me scratching my head. Why not on Saturday, which is the actual tenth anniversary of his death?
burnspbesq
The obvious choice for Song of the Day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY
NCSteve
It’s not too late to start reading Festinger’s classic work.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Prophecy-Fails-Leon-Festinger/dp/1891396986
Or, there’s always the Wikipedia version for those who don’t do analog books anymore.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails
Amir Khalid
@c u n d gulag:
@IowaOldLady:
Ahem… The Maya peoples (not Mayan) are still living among us, in Central America. This nonsense about the end of the world must be exasperating for them.
tamied
@burnspbesq: Duh. The world’s ending tomorrow, so they had to get it in before the end.
Edited because apparently I think I live in New Zealand.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: :)
Cassidy
I posted this in another thread. I’m looking for tips and advice and good ideas (not a pat on the back), so read, ask tough questions, be critical and help me find the holes.
—-
Cassidy Says:
1) Still waiting for my representatives to respond back. I imagine they’re busy, so I’m being generous, but it has been almost a week.
2) I just wrote the owner/ CEO of my kids daycare/ afterschool place. He published a letter to let the parents know that they do have drills and SOP’s in place to respond to something like this. That made me sad. Anyway, I’m a CPR Instructor and I offerred to teach CPR and a Basic Trauma/ First Responder class to the staff at my kids location for nothing.
3) I’ve talked to some activists friends here in Jacksonville, one who started a charity, and I’m fleshing out the creation of a gun control advocacy group in this area. I’m thinking a couple of attack methods. First, I want to advocate for sensible gun control (licensed, insured, registered, etc.) and more stringent requirements for a concealed carry license as the NRA class is a joke. I’m hoping to shame those “enthusiaists” into compliance. I also want to connect it with a group of combat veterans who advocate gun safety and the tool aspect of guns. Hopefully we can remove the fetish and sexy aspect of owning the gun and rewire some brains. Lastly, I want to provide a service like I offerred to my kid’s daycare as a more formal course in some sort of non-profit aspect. I’m still trying to make my thougts more coherent, so my hope is to get something officially off the ground next week. This week has been research and making contact with people to get tips and advice.
So that’s what I’m doing. It’s Florida, so maybe I’m tilting at windmills, but it’s something.
bemused
Others have mentioned this but what the hell happened to Discovery, TLC, National Geographic and History channels in recent years? They are 90% reality crap shows now. Discovery did cancel Ted Nugent but his show should never have been on in the first place. I noticed Discovery does have a new show, Wives with Knives. Sounds like a winner.
These channels didn’t start out like this. I’m sure they have gone down hill so badly because these shitty shows are probably much cheaper to produce. It’s not just those channels but msnbc late night is all prison pron plus other cable channels joining in. The tv biz has a lot to answer for Honey Boo Boo and crime becoming the face of American culture.
geg6
The truly sad thing is that I have had several people mention to me that they are nervous about this whole Mayan-calendar-end-of-the-world thing. Educated people. It truly is depressing that these people are so easily frightened by a patently ridiculous and mistaken notion. I blame religion, the main driver of magical thinking in our world. Since I’ve given up the myths, I’m never frightened of stupid shit like this or ghosts or vampires or demons or the devil or whatever other mythical creature you care to name. The only thing I’m afraid of is the one creature it is perfectly rational to be afraid of: humans.
redshirt
@Amir Khalid: I’m sure there’s some annoyance, but I’m also sure this has driven some tourist dollars towards them. It’s also non-ironically shared their ancient culture with the wider world. So it’s not all a loss.
PaulW
There will always be future apocalypses because there are always con artists making money off of this sh-t.
If we passed a law requiring full refunds paid out by predictors of an apocalypse that never comes about, we will see a drop-off of doomsday talk by roughly 98 percent. The remaining two percent are true nutters usually standing on a street corner dishing out their paranoia for free.
k488
I keep remembering the Beyond the Fringe routine about the end of the world:
Will this wind be so mighty as to lay low the mountains of the earth?
Now is the end! Perish the world…
Same time tomorrow? See you then!
jibeaux
@Cassidy: Seems like Florida’s a ways off from responsible, licensed, insured, registerd, gun ownership. Start with trying to limit “stand your ground” to cases in which someone has actually stood their ground in the face of the threat of actual lethal harm rather than, say, a line dispute at the Little Caesar’s or chasing down a teenager, maybe.
MattF
@NCSteve: You beat me to it. The point, for those who haven’t read it, is that facts (e.g., the world not actually ending) are a lot less important than you might imagine.
bemused
@geg6:
I have heard some parents who are convinced their teenagers actually believe this. I’m skeptical the teens really do believe and wonder if they are just messing with their parents’s heads, using it as an excuse to be more interested in partying than preparing for their future.
Cris (without an H)
@redshirt: Awesome! I did not know that, thanks for the alert. Hyakutake in 1996 was so spectacular, I honestly sometimes wonder if my memory of it was actually a dream.
rikyrah
OT—but where’s the post about Patraeus being knee deep with the neo-cons?
Cris (without an H)
Huh. Moderation. I wonder if there’s some forbidden word hidden in the common Japanese name of comet C/1996 B2?
? Martin
Sooooo… that thing I heard in my backyard Tuesday night that I thought was a raccoon was actually a bobcat. I ran out there probably 4 times because of the commotion in my trees. Originally I figured it was our usual possum coming by to take the last of my apple I couldn’t reach or maybe a large predator bird, then when I got out there the first time and heard the movement realized it was a lot bigger than a possum and probably a raccoon. The 2nd time I ran out there it snarled at me – but I’ve heard raccoons make sounds like that (not quite so deep and cat like) but what the fuck do I know – it had been 20 years since I last heard that. I called the neighbors with kids and small dogs and told them to keep everyone inside – I’ve hear of raccoons fighting with small dogs when they’re threatened.
I went out 2 more times over the next few hours due to noise and heard the snarl/growling again each time. My wife ran into one of the neighbors this morning that I called and said it definitely was a medium sized bobcat – she saw it last night on her rear fence making a dash to another tree.
We always thought that Kevin Drum’s cat was killed by a coyote (he lives about 3 blocks from me) but it might have actually been a bobcat. Kind of tough for a coyote to get to Drums house because of the walls/fences, but a bobcat would have no problem. I’ve never heard of a bobcat in the neighborhood here. There’s been sightings on the bike trails, but never a backyard. My yard is only 25′ deep at the back of my house. It’s not like we live on a ranch or anything. It’s a 7,000 sq ft lot – pretty small even by suburban standards. The tree I first heard it in is 6′ from my back door. Brave bastard.
ruviana
@Amir Khalid: Thanks Amir, I scrolled down before responding to see if someone would mention this.
some guy
any progress yet on Boner accepting Obama’s offer to cut Social Security benefits and raise taxes on working people?
joeyess
Change it to “We’re All Doomsday Preppers Now”
some guy
@Cassidy:
good on you.
dmsilev
@? Martin: If you happen to see the bobcat, just remember not to give it a ride to downtown.
? Martin
@bemused:
Yeah. My son (14) and I have spent the last 6 months riffing of the notion that the mayan calendar thing is fait accompli. He has a final exam tomorrow morning and is planning on asking aloud if the test will be graded by the end of the day because he doesn’t want the world to end without knowing how good he is a geometry.
I get the sense the teenagers are having a grand time with this whole thing. I also get the sense that they collectively believe their parent’s generation and older are a bunch of fucking retards for believing in 6,000 year earths, and arming teachers is a good idea, and, well, just about every goddamn thing the GOP believes. Reddit is their Bible.
kindness
@? Martin: Years ago I knew a couple with an Exotic Animal permit who had a tame bobcat. That thing was the sweetest big ole ball of energy I had ever run across wrt ‘wild’ critters. It was completely tame but big enough that their Dobie was afraid of it.
Still, critters will live where they can. If racoons, skunks, possums and coyotes find it’s better to live around humans than out in the hills, the cats will too. I’m not worried so much about bobcats taking my dogs, my cat…well…let’s just say I’m more concerned about coyotes & mountain lions.
The Dangerman
One Two Two One, out of time, we’re going to party like it’s
199912/21/Prince
ShadeTail
@burnspbesq: Too predictable. The Jimi Hendrix reference in the article title is much better.
Cassidy
@jibeaux: I honestly don’t know a lot about changing laws, but I’m hoping that through education and outrach to convince people that they don’t “need” the gun and that a responsible owner would want the licensure, insurance, etc. In this part of the world, it’s de-machoing the idea of gun ownership and returning to th eidea of guns as tools. That’s my take on it anyway. Fuck, if I can find a wealthy donor, I’ll just start buying the damn things up. I don’t care how it happens.
In the end, I think I’m going to be setting up a non-profit, so I have a lot of education to catch up on.
patrick II
Unlike ancient tribes, who when the end of the world did not happen, could only adjust their mythology, modern tribes can actually cause their dreams to come true. If you believe the end of the world can come only by god’s will and man cannot have any effect on the environment — congratulations you are a modern day pro-active mayan. If you believe that the Jews reclamation of the holy land will cause the end of the world and you work towards that end — congratulations again, nothing could cause a world ending conflict quicker than a mideast war.
Like the old vulture joke goes, don’t just wait for something to die — go ahead and kill it.
dedc79
A nonpocalyse music mix
Cassidy
@kindness: Apex predators follow the prey.
Brachiator
@geg6:
Uh, no. Religion, among other things, was how people who tended toward magical thinking deal with the world. Psychics, fortune telling, alien invasion conspiracies, all similar variations, and not always with a religious component.
@The Dangerman:
What’s that in binary?
Amir Khalid
@geg6:
Don’t forget, it was Western civilisation that got all worked up over Y2K. So you guys (well, the easily spooked among you guys, anyway) have something of a track record on this.
Speaking of the end of the world, is any broadcaster going to be showing that Michael Bay movie, you know which one, on the 21st?
NCSteve
@? Martin: I’m from Kentucky originally. So trust me when I tell you that bobcats aren’t “brave.” They’re @$#!ing psychotic. They aren’t at the honeybadger or wolverine level of crazy, but they are definitely animals that don’t give a @$#!.
? Martin
@Cassidy: Yeah. We never had squirrels until about a year or two ago. The possums are a bit more numerous now too. Maybe the bobcats have decided the pantry is full.
JPL
@rikyrah: It was in the Washington post yesterday. link
redshirt
@bemused: I’ve been kvetching about the so called “educational” channels for years, for naught. The best example is what was once called “The Learning Channel” and had all kinds of excellent programming is now called “TLC” and features Honey-BooBoo.
All niche cable channels are under this pressure, which I’ll dub “LCD” – Lowest Common Denominator. Goes like this:
TV channels need ratings; educational programs don’t get ratings like baser fare, so we’ll give the people what they want, baser fare. Also, the low brow stuff is cheaper too, so, profit.
And then continue that downward spiral for years as each channel sees what the other is doing, and mimics.
Soon, all channels will show wrestling, red neck reality shows, and crime programs.
Our America! Land of the LCD.
MikeJ
Waiting for the asteroid to hit? Here’s a simulator that lets you specify mass, velocity, angle of impact, etc.
Try for surgical strikes on the old confederacy! Fun for the whole family!
Violet
Any bread experts out there? I am making a Christmas bread with dried fruit. Normally I use the breadmaker and did again today. Except I got an error code. Checked with the manufacturer and it means the heating element has gone out. The bread rose but won’t cook.
So I pulled it out to put in regular pans. It seems like it’s way larger than one regular loaf pan, so I separated it. Had to knead it down a bit, so now I’m waiting to see if it rises again.
1. Can I do this? Will it rise again? It seems to be rising some–started this process about 20 minutes ago.
2. Is two loafs the right way to go? The loaf size for the recipe is for the largest version–maybe 2 lb loaf?
3. If it’s going to work, how long should I let it rise?
4. How long should I bake it and at what temp?
Any help appreciated!
bemused
@? Martin:
Your son sounds like he’s having fun with this which sounds healthy and makes me laugh. I’m not so sure what is going on with the teens I’m talking about. One has had years of practice tying up the parents in knots so I think this may be just tactic to bug/control mom and dad. I don’t know about the teen’s friends. I’m just glad mine are grown, happy, self-supporting and pretty normal.
Corner Stone
WTF is Megan McBargle doing on MSNBC right now?!
MikeJ
@Violet: After you punch the bread down it will usually rise again. It should also rise some more when it hits the heat of the oven.
The time to rise is generally 45-90 minutes. Cooking time varies from 30-60 minutes. Best way to tell when bread is done is a thermometer. Pull it 200F (90-95c).
Yutsano
@MikeJ: Ahh those goofy Boilermakers. I guess this is the end result of your mascot being a drink.
Corner Stone
Arrgghh!! My eyes! My ears!!
Citizen_X
@Emma: Feh. The Doctors: taking credit for the Slayers’ work since the dawn of time.
After all, who asked, “What’s the plural of Apocalypse?” I rest my case.
mattH
Needing a little help here. I remember a link to someone’s blog about a guy who it the go-to “small business person” every time they need someone who is delaying investing in his business because of taxes. I think he showed up last week in the AP small business column by Joyce Rosenberg about the “fiscal cliff”. His name is Arthur Cooper and he runs a search engine optimization business out of NJ. What I remember is his background is also as a paid member of the US Chamber of Commerce or some such, but I can’t find the expose. I’d like to harass both the AP and my local paper for printing his tripe, but I’d like to find the paper trail that blog post detailed. Anyone remember this post?
Comrade Dread
No, we’ve got Yellowstone, giant meteor, climate change, pandemic, various religious apocalypses, and Vogons to worry about.
Granted the first four have a higher probability of occurring, but you never know, right?
Violet
@Cassidy: Can you name your organization “Owning a Gun Means Your P3nis is Small”? I’m only somewhat joking. Part of making guns not sexy is to making owning them irresponsibly, or owning certain types or a certain amount or whatever the equivalent of shouting to the world that you are a coward with extra small genitalia. Get that changed and people may decide that owning guns or too many or whatever is not how they want to advertise themselves to the world.
Citizen_X
@Corner Stone:
Charging a gunman, I hope.
bemused
@redshirt:
The movie Idiocracy comes to mind.
Corner Stone
@? Martin: Bobcats are nasty sons of bitches, at least the TX variety. If it was close enough to think snarling at you was called for then you were extremely lucky.
japa21
@redshirt: Yeah. So many formerly respectable channels have gone over the deep end. The problem, of course, is when you only focus on the Lowest Common Denominator, the pool of people that falls into that category increases substantially.
Sometimes I think modern day cable is the equivalent of the Roman bread and circuses.
redshirt
@Citizen_X: Damn right. The Slayer will save us.
Violet
@MikeJ: Thanks for the info! I put the oven on and the bread on top of the stove (which is on top of the oven-all one unit), so there’s a bit of warmth to hep the rising.
It all happened so fast, I’m not quite sure how long it’s been rising. Is there a point I should just look at it and say, “that’s good enough–time to go in the oven”?
Alas, I don’t think I have a thermometer. I had a meat thermometer until this past weekend when it broke. I have candy thermometers, but they wouldn’t go into it–they’re for measuring liquid sugary temps.
Feudalism Now!
12/21/12 is the equivalent of the reminder page to order next years calendar. One age turns into another. Maya believed that change is always marked with pain, blood and joy, like birth. We have had some pain and blood in the last few weeks, I am awaiting the joy to be delivered this weekend. The 13th age is dead, long live the 14th age!
Keep the tag it is more apropos after tomorrow. The reich wing’s worldview seems rational if we in the middle a zombie apocalypse. Otherwise, not so much.
Corner Stone
@Violet:
I have completely failed to understand this line of thinking. It’s childish, selfish and counterproductive.
MikeJ
@Violet: More info for you. Here’s what Michale Ruhlman says about doneness of bread:
Ruhlman calls for baking the first 10 minutes at 450 then finish at 375, 45-50 minutes for a boule, bâtard, or baguette, 30 min for ciabatta.
Another thing you may or may not do: if you’re going for a crusty bread put a pan of boiling water on the rack under the bread for the first 10 minutes of baking.
Scamp Dog
@burnspbesq: At the end of that segment, they were playing “Death or Glory”. I was really excited when they got to the line “but I believe in this and it’s been tested by research…”, but they faded it out before it got to “he who fucks nuns will later join the church”. Damn, I was really hoping they’d make a mistake there.
mattH
@Amir Khalid: There was an article in my local paper, finally, where they interviewed some modern day Mayan farmers. As a former anthro student, it’s a surprisingly good article where the Maya are concerned.
Violet
@mattH: Are you thinking of Joe Olivo?
Frankensteinbeck
The end of the world has always been just around the corner, at least for Western Civilization (I don’t have the knowledge base for others). The Greeks thought they were living in the end days. Revelations was written about the fall of Rome, which had been the popular topic for centuries. Every generation of Christianity preached that Revelations meant they personally would see the end of the world. The pre-Christian Scandanavians thought Ragnarok was no distant myth, it was coming any minute now. I remember at least two freakouts about Nostradamus’s predictions, although during the Cold War the end of the world was way too plausible. Hell, anybody remember in the 80s how commonly it was believed that the ozone layer would be gone and the world would be stripped of trees by now? Humans are predisposed to believe The End Is Near. I don’t know why.
ShadeTail
@dmsilev:
http://www.xkcd.com/325/
Corner Stone
Arrgghh! Alex is asking McBargle about gun control. NOOOOO!!
ranchandsyrup
@mattH: Are you talking about Joe Olivo with NPR? He’s their go to small business man. http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2012/07/13/156752087/when-a-small-business-owner-is-more-than-the-title-suggests
MikeJ
@Violet:
There are two rises pre baking usually. Pre shaping and post shaping.
First rise:
When that rise is done, I knead it, let it rest about 15 minutes, then shape it (make a boule, braid challah, etc). then I do the second rise for about an hour.
catclub
@mattH: Yes. Tricky.
All the google searches I try are too vague.
I thought it was NFIB, not US chamber.
Ranchandsyrup got it. Joe Olivo.
ranchandsyrup
@catclub: Violet beat me to it. :)
Cassidy
@Violet: By “not sexy” I mean to go after the notion that owning the same rifle that that the Navy SEALS use puts you in some equivalent status.
The Ancient Randonneur
So, DougJ, lately things just don’t seem the same?
handsmile
dr.mrs. handsmile is a director at one of the largest adult outpatient mental health clinics in Manhattan. Her specialty is dual diagnosis (mental illness and substance abuse).
I asked her a few days ago how much she was hearing about the Mayan apocalypse from clinic patients. She ruefully laughed, and said that for many of them the imminent “end-of-the-world” is part of their everyday belief system. A number of clients have expressed an amused sense of validation that others are finally paying heed.
The Guardian has been running lots of articles on the December 21 day of doom, particularly the panic sweeping Russia, but this “Information is Beautiful” link is both fun and informative:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/dec/19/mayan-apocalypse-info-beautiful-skeptics-believers?intcmp=239
Violet
@Corner Stone: So is owning guns and doing things like getting drunk and shooting at things just to watch them blow up (propane tanks, etc.), having an arsenal of assault rifles so you can be “prepared for when the government thugs try to take away your freedoms”, and carrying a loaded gun everywhere you go that you show off to people in a threatening manner when they annoy you.
Maybe I live in a gun-happy place but I’ve been around or in places where I’ve witnessed all those things. It’s scary. The people doing are generally male and are boastful of their gun collections, what they can shoot with them, how they’re going to threaten anyone who challenges them, etc. They were (and are) idiots. Idiots with guns.
Right now in our culture owning a gun is cool. Changing the cultural climate so that owning a gun for legitimate hunting or protection reasons is understood to be acceptable, but otherwise it’s a sign of cowardice and, yes, a substitute for other assets, is a way change the conversation so that guns are not the thing these kinds of idiots go for when they need to prove their manliness. Instead they go for, oh, I don’t know, the biggest lawnmower or something.
There are lots of things that can and need to be addressed to reduce the gun violence in our culture. This is only one of many suggestions.
tamied
@Violet: My mom used to say when it had doubled it’s original size.
Randy P
@IowaOldLady: Actually there are, in Guatemala. The “Mayan prophecy” didn’t come from them. There’s a quote I occasionally link to from a Mayan elder who basically calls people idiots for believing this.
Violet
@tamied: @MikeJ: Thanks for the info. I am starting to run into a timing problem. I need to get it in the oven so I can leave the house at a certain time and it will be done. I am guessing it’ll take 45 minutes or so to cook? If so, I’ve only got about ten minutes of rising time left.
It’s all a big mess anyway, so if it hasn’t risen enough or whatever, it’s just gong to have to do. I’m going to borrow another breadmaker to see if that will work. I only use the breadmaker at Christmas because I have to make about eight loaves of this stuff to give away and it just takes too much time and I can’t get the Christmas cookies done if I do it in the oven. The breadmaker takes that off my hands and makes it easy.
mattH
@ranchandsyrup: Damn, I was sure it was Arthur Cooper. Thanks for proving me wrong, better than making a fool of myself.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@Amir Khalid:
Pet peeve: I do wish that folks would stop conflating Y2K with the Mayan thing. Y2K was real.
Many professionals (myself among them) spent many man-years back in the 90s testing/patching/replacing stuff as needed. So nothing bad really happened. (That said, I don’t think planes would have fallen from the sky, etc– but that was the media’s exaggeration, don’t blame the industry for that).
BTW, the 2000 US recession had many causes, but IMO the abrupt drop in what had been essentially a bout of ‘stimulus spending’ in the software industry from 1997-1999 had to be part of it.
Corner Stone
@Violet:
You’re going to reach absolutely zero people with this approach that don’t already 100% agree with you. If the purpose is to make yourself feel good because you have a counter to the fear you have felt in the past, then please proceed. If the goal is to reach reachable people who aren’t entrenched and may just have been waiting to really think about why they believe the way they do, then this is counterproductive. Not one male, and I daresay many women, will hear past the opening of your tactic. No matter what their true feelings on guns or gun ownership is. They may actually have a normal sized pen!s and don’t give a damn about your attempt at scorn. Or anything else following it.
That’s IMO.
ranchandsyrup
@mattH: I routinely heckle NPR on FB and and via phone about Joe Olivo. Fuck that guy.
MathInPA
@IowaOldLady:
There are Mayans around today. They are an extant (and rather oppressed) indigenous ethnic and cultural group.
Origuy
Y2K was nothing big because a lot of people put a lot of work into preparing for it. I don’t mean buying generators and having people on standby on December 30 (like me). I mean in the late 80s and the 90s recoding software and convincing their management to allocate resources that didn’t add to the bottom line. I think most of the people in the computer industry thought that the things they were responsible for would be ok, but they couldn’t count on everyone else. If the apocalyptic scenarios hadn’t gotten so much attention, some people might not have bothered with it.
Villago Delenda Est
The “We’re all Mayans Now” is more in reference to the collapse of Mayan civilizations, not to the calendar thing, I’d think.
That is, everyone having all the clues that a collapse was imminent, but doing nothing about it.
Sort of like right now. What with global climate change being studiously ignored by many of our elites.
chopper
@Violet:
if it looks pretty much fully risen, poke it gently with yer finger. if the indentation fills in slowly or not really at all it’s pretty much ready to go.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@kindness:
Sounds nice, but I fear the shipping and freight on all that stone would be prohibitive.
? Martin
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, I’m thinking exactly that. I was standing under the trees pointing my flashlight up there looking for it. If he/she decided to take a run at me, all it had to do was drop straight down and it’d be on my head. I’d be fucked. Seriously, it couldn’t have been more than 10′ above me.
Knowing we have, er, more interesting critters in our yard, I think I’ll resist my impulse to be curious next time.
Dave S.
How about changing it to “We Are All Mayans Now More Than Ever”?
Chinn Romney
If we’re still here I’m sure we’ll find a bug in MS Excel that explains how we missed the call.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Humans are predisposed to believe The End Is Near. I don’t know why.
Because in earth terms a human lifetime is very short. Somewhat like we see pets. Their lives are much shorter than ours. And each of us is just a speck of time as far as the earth is concerned. And we can see it coming. However I still don’t understand why people believe the earth rotates around the stick in their butt. The end really is near.
The END is not.
Soonergrunt
@redshirt: thence went the SciFi…erm, SyFy Channel.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
My philosophical guess: because for each individual one of us, The End Is Near at all times. Earthquake, tornado, hit by a bus, aneurism, heart attack, whatever. I’m guessing that some people find it comforting if they feel they can pinpoint that date on a calendar rather than waiting around for the inevitable like the rest of us.
Sometimes it’s a problem being the only species that seems to have a sense of its own mortality and the ability to ponder how death might come for us.
ericblair
@Soonergrunt:
The effect is called network decay. Extremely predictable lifecycle, so in a couple of years we’ll have ten Fox News Lites, twenty redneck reality networks, eleventy zillion shopping channels, and seventy stale movie networks. Yay.
Guess we need a Gun Hoarders show on A&E, where you get all the gun pr0n of the prepper shows plus the what-kind-of-sicko-is-this attitude from the hoarder shows.
kindness
Speaking of the SyFy Channel….how come they suck so bad now? Why is all of their programming more horror/gore and not, you know, science fiction?
I remember the good days of BSG. Now, not so much. 500 channels and I’m bored.
Bill Arnold
@Cris (without an H):
Was that the one with the really long tail, maybe 30-40 degrees, that looked kind of close and at one point was nearly straight overhead? There was another bright comet around that time too.
The Other Chuck
@Mnemosyne: My take on eschatological thinking is simply that many people hate the world they’re in and want it over and done with.
Chris T.
@bemused: I remember when Discovery Channel was new, watching some sort of Animals In Nature show immediately followed by some sort of Warplane With Super Destructive Missile show, and a friend commented that Discovery was the channel where you could vicariously go out into the natural world and kill it.
So, it’s always been a little split-personality like that. :-)
catclub
@dmsilev: The book:
“A Short History of a Small Place” (TR Pearson, I believe.) has some hilarious passages involving wild animals in cars. And a good read overall.
Bob In Portland
Der der der. Der der der.
“Help me!”
I can remember as a pale youth listening to that over and over in my room through a Bogner tube amp.
Der der der. Der der der.
Life goes on.
Brachiator
Comedian Andy Borowitz on the coming end of the world:
End of World Means Most Amazing Home Page Ever, Says Google
“People are freaking out about the world coming to an end—I totally get that,” said the Google C.E.O. Larry Page in a conference call with reporters. “But at Google we view the Apocalypse as a unique opportunity. This company was founded with the goal to ‘organize the world’s information’ and we see the next three days as our chance to get that done.”
As for the marching orders that Page gave to Google’s team of designers: “The world is going to be destroyed and mankind will cease to exist. Make Google the last page they see, and give us one last chance to serve them tracking cookies.”
Jebediah
@bemused:
You are right; they are much cheaper to produce. No big $$ for name actors, and post, at least, on many of these shows is non-union, which is also way cheaper. So a reality show can get pretty low ratings and still be turning a profit.
ranchandsyrup
For you baseball fans out there, especially Red Sawks and Yankees fans, this anatomical diagram of Kevin Youklis has been making me laugh all morning. http://blogs.thescore.com/mlb/2012/12/19/flip-flop-fly-ball-kevin-youkilis-an-anatomical-diagram/
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@kindness:
Guys in suits saw how expensive decent SciFi is to make.
And so… Pro Wrestling!
DaveInOz
Well, it’s the 21st here in Australia and apart from the fire raining down from the skies it all seems pretty normal.
The roads are quiet as everybody is huddled indoors waiting for the end or the world. Either that, or the schools are out and people are starting their Christmas holidays.
mattH
@ericblair: You bastard. Linking TVTropes when I should be doing other things.
Handy
Good times, TGIF!
WereBear
@Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God: It need NOT be expensive. The cheapest part is probably the writer, and that is also the most important!
rea
I’m not at all worried–the Cubs did not win the World Series.
e.a.f.
For some of us the world already ended, the NHL still isn’t playing. how will we have a Stanley Cup with no hockey.
Of course two guys I know say the world isn’t ending this month. Their brother, nicknamed Satan, well his wife isn;t having Satan;s baby until march so the world isn’t going to end until after the baby is born. Then Satan’s world as he knew it will end.
Any of us could die any time. If people want to think the world is going to end, fine. Seems to me a lot of people have made a lot of money out of this “the world is going to end business”.