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Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.

By | October 20, 2010, 7:30am PDT

Summary: There’s something vaguely disconcerting about using FOX News as a source of scientific information, but this one’s just too good to pass up.

There’s something vaguely disconcerting about using FOX News as a source of scientific information, but this one’s just too good to pass up. Apparently, the whole 2012 end-of-the-world thing might be, well, wrong.

I know. Most of us with a relatively formal analytical background don’t believe the 2012 thing, anyway. We have a pretty good feeling that, other the inevitable disappointment about whoever’s elected in the next Presidential election cycle, 2012 won’t be the end of the world.

Even if your party doesn’t get elected in 2012, or — through some bizarre combination of luck and stage presence, Sarah Palin does — it’s still not going to be the end of the world.

But there are people out there who believe the Mayan calendar foretells the end of the world and that end will occur in the year 2012.

Oh, if only.

I’m going to have to spend that summer watching the Democratic and Republican conventions. If there’s anything that’s not fun, it’s watching the monopoly party (that’s the Dems, at least for another few weeks) try to justify how they lost the war. Or the Party-of-No (that’s the Republicans) claim that their plan to give yet more tax cuts to billionaires will solve all of America’s woes.

So, if the End. Of. The. World is going to hit, please (oh, please) make it before the conventions.

But I digress. And, okay, fine, I actually can’t wait to watch the parties strut their stuff in an epic bipartisan display of utter and complete ineffectiveness. What can I say? I’m twisted that way.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Or, not.

Speaking of twisted, let’s get back to this FOX News story.

Here’s the thing: the end of the world might not exactly happen when we expect it to. The problem, according to UC Santa Barbara professor Geraldo Aldana, is that the 2012 date might not have been calculated properly in the first place. Apparently, the whole thing hinges on a GMT constant (and this isn’t Greenwich Mean Time, this is the Goodman, Martinez, Thompson correlation, a numerical constant named after three scientists).

In any case, Aldana says everything about the 2012 date hinges on this Goodman, Martinez, Thompson correlation. The gotcha? Apparently the GMT constant may not be as rock solid as previously thought.

If that’s true, the end of the world might not happen in 2012. Aldana doesn’t know when it will happen — or if it already did — but he’s pretty sure 2012 is the wrong date.

Personally, I think the end of the world ended on December 20, 2002. That’s the day that Fox canceled Firefly.

See? Fox giveth and Fox taketh away. I guess that’s fair and balanced. But, I’m sorry, end of the world or not, you can’t take the sky from me.

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Republican, Taxes, Free Trade, Personal Finance, Financial Planning, Finance, David Gewirtz

David Gewirtz, Distinguished Lecturer at CBS Interactive, is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets.

Disclosure

David Gewirtz

At various times during his adult life, David has voted for both Democrats and Republicans, and has been disappointed by both. He is deeply disturbed by how partisanship has come before patriotism in America, which gives him the freedom to pick on both sides.

David is a frequent guest on TV and radio stations across America and can usually be heard or seen on-the-air at least once a week. He writes weekly commentary and analysis for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 and has been interviewed by Fox News, CNN, various ABC and NBC affiliates, and Canada’s Global TV. He has been a featured guest on National Public Radio and has also been featured on Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty where his commentaries on technology, industry, and emerging nations have been broadcast into 46 countries (all in their own unique translations).

David is the executive director of U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute, a nonprofit research and policy organization. He is the Cyberterrorism Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security and a special contributor to Frontline Security Magazine. He is a member of the FBI’s InfraGard program, the security partnership between the FBI and industry. David is also a member of the U.S. Naval Institute and the National Defense Industrial Association, the leading defense industry association promoting national security.

David is an advisory board member for the Technical Communications and Management Certificate program at the University of California, Berkeley extension. He is also a member of the instructional faculty at the University of California, Berkeley extension.

David’s “day job” is as publisher and editor-in-chief of ZATZ publishing, an online publisher of technical magazines. Other than than his ownership stake in Component Enterprises, Inc. (the parent company of ZATZ), David has no additional industry investments.

ZATZ has many advertisers who do, in part, provide for David’s lush income and extravagant lifestyle. Most of them are IBM and Lotus aftermarket suppliers, some of them make goodies for Microsoft Outlook, and a few make all sorts of strange mobile devices and add-on products. David has been a regular judge of the IBM Awards, but has no formal financial interest in or with IBM.

Because the ZATZ online magazines often review products, David and ZATZ are sent an overwhelming stream of unsolicited, silly, and often useless products to review. Because they’re such a pain to track and ship back, these products often wind up in a dumpster or fill up the corner of a large closet. Although David has no plans to review products in connection to his ZDNet blog, if he does do a product review, he will disclose any relationship completely in that posting.

Both through ZATZ and independently, David derives a small income through various advertising and sales relationships with Amazon.com and Google. These are minor relationships and they will not impede his willingness or ability to chastise either company should they deserve it.

David has many other business relationships, but none of them relate to anything he covers in his ZDNet blog. David does have a bit of the sales-guy bug and if he’s not doing a sales deal with someone at least once a month, he goes through withdrawal. He has a number of consulting clients, but none of them relate to anything he covers for ZDNet (and if they ever do, he will either disclose that fact, or decline to write about them).

Back in the 1980s, David held the unusual title of “Godfather” at Apple. He has written and published 40 incredibly simplistic applications for Apple’s iPhone.

Although David is forbidden to disclose the terms of his iPhone developer agreement, he isn’t drinking the Apple Kool Aid, will never be confused with a metrosexual, and feels free to mock Apple, and Apple users, any time the occasion permits, on alternate Tuesdays, or if he’s bored.

Biography

David Gewirtz

In addition to hosting the ZDNet Government and ZDNet DIY-IT blogs, CBS Interactive's Distinguished Lecturer David Gewirtz is an author, U.S. policy advisor, and computer scientist. He is featured in The History Channel special The President's Book of Secrets, is one of America's foremost cyber-security experts, and is a top expert on saving and creating jobs. He is also director of the U.S. Strategic Perspective Institute as well as the founder of ZATZ Publishing.

David is a member of FBI InfraGard, the Cyberwarfare Advisor for the International Association for Counterterrorism & Security Professionals, a columnist for The Journal of Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, and has been a regular CNN contributor, and a guest commentator for the Nieman Watchdog of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. He is the author of Where Have All the Emails Gone?, the definitive study of email in the White House, as well as How To Save Jobs and The Flexible Enterprise, the classic book that served as a foundation for today's agile business movement.

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24 Things Not To Hoard
secone 31st Dec
The date is approaching, these things can be found at restroom-wall dot com.
View in thread
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Johoshua 20th Oct 2010
Well said sir, well said
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Off the threadmill 20th Oct 2010
@Johoshua
The World has already come to an end!
The Mayans civilisation collasped ages ago so the calculations are very wrong.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
userr123456789 21st Oct 2010
What the author fails to mention is that the Mayans based their calendar on the stars above and that there are a total of only 7 cycles where the planets in our solar system come into perfect alignment. This is what is suppose to happen on Dec 21, 2012 that will cause the end of the world. It will be the last of the cycles (#7) to occur. If the dates are wrong, then the for sure way to ask NASA when the next total alignment of the planets will occur. Hint, they have already done this and it is Dec 21, 2010.

Who knows though, maybe it meant the end of the world to them, super powers for the human race to develop (suggested possibility), and so on. Either way, never say never.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Pearl Nabi 10th Dec 2010
@userr123456789
How very interesting! Thanks for this post.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
joeschmo1of3 20th Oct 2010
This would have been funnier if this story were actually reported by foxnews.com instead of just a Livescience.com report reproduced at foxnews' website. They put AP, Reuters, and AFP stories there too, you know.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
galach 20th Oct 2010
Personnaly, I think someone was short on ideas and reaching a deadline with his editor... =P
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Contributr
RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
David Gewirtz 20th Oct 2010
@galach happy
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Alex_St 20th Oct 2010
The funny part is when you say "actually reported by foxnews.com "
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Loverock Davidson 20th Oct 2010
The funny part is that it was reported that the 2012 date was wrong probably a good 6 months ago. Now its making its way through the news again.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
914four 6th Feb 2011
@Loverock Davidson
It scares me that you knew that Loverock
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Bill4 20th Oct 2010
Coast to Coast AM. That's the only reliable fringe news source. happy
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Wow, David. You actually watch Fox News?
itpro_z 20th Oct 2010
Maybe there is a glimmer of hope for you yet.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
EdKett 20th Oct 2010
My pet theory on 2012 was the programmer (calendar carver) asked the user (high priest) how far into the future to make the calendar, and he pulled a number out of the steamy jungle air and said "500 years ought to be enough. That will give them plenty of time to do an update". Not foreseen by the high priest during his review of the entrails was the arrival of the Spanish, and the update never got done. A long time later another user picks up the programmer's work, doesn't read the specs and assumptions, and draws an erroneous conclusion.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
paul.hinz@... 20th Oct 2010
@EdKett Awesome!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
grassdogstudio 20th Oct 2010
@EdKett At least they knew better than to tie the functioning of the calendar to a battery on the mainboard that has a limited lifespan and warranty, unlike on my Powerbook.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
hoaxoner 20th Oct 2010
@EdKett
I like that one. I also like the idea of maybe the guy's arm just got tired.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
cjs42 6th Jan 2011
Everyone is missing the most important part of the entire article:

"Personally, I think the end of the world ended on December 20, 2002. That?s the day that Fox canceled Firefly."
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
rcol4jc@... 20th Oct 2010
@EdKett ROFL Awesome Dude!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
rgathercoal@... Updated - 21st Oct 2010
umm.

Mostly.
The Maya were pretty much just a memory when the insane ones arrived from Spain. My limited understanding is that the Maya, who enjoyed an immense and sophisticated civilization, self-disintegrated before the Aztecs arrived. (or had collapsed into chaos to the point that the Aztecs were opposed only by disorganized tribal groups.

The Maya self-destructed by over-farming the land with Pacific-to-Atlantic endless fields of corn. There was little or no forest left in Central America by the time the Mayan cities destroyed one another over continually shrinking supplies of farmable land. Simply put, lacking information about crop rotation and fertilization, they starved themselves to destruction because there were too many mouths to feed and too little land capable of growing sufficient crops remained. A story similar to that (probably) of Easter Island.

Then the Aztecs came wandering in from North-Central Mexico to mop up what little resistance remained. By then, most of the big cities had been abandoned as survivors left to try and grow a little food on whatever farmable scrap of land was left.


The Aztecs took ugly swampland and built it into fertile cropland, so this problem wasn't as serious for them. They took with them knowledge of fertilizing crops as they expanded.

It was the Aztecs who were wiped out by disease, by a huge coalition of their many local enemies, and by a religious prediction of their own end-of-the-world scenario, which happened to describe the Spaniards sort of, and fit the dates of the Spanish arrival. So the Aztecs never did whole-heartedly fight the Spanish. Most just gave up.

The whole Mayan calendar thing was amazing, and it extended throughout their entire culture. Many large stone temples were built in exact alignment with sun, moon and the larger planets. At least one of their temples had 365 steps. Another temple was built so that at the summer equinox, the shadow of a huge serpent appeared to be crawling up the stone steps to the heavens.



Many of these cities were abandoned by the time of the Aztecs.

So the 2012 date probably did not come about with a conversation between two men, but the way these things happen, it is entirely plausible that the 2012 ending date had nothing to do with predictions of the end of the world.

The 2012 date just might be as arbitrary as the range of dates on American Chinese restaurant paper place mats showing which years are of the horse, dog, or pig.

After all, you gotta begin it and end it someplace. . .
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
unclefixer@... 22nd Oct 2010
@EdKett Awesome! I think you should make a History channel show about your theory- happy
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
jedikitty@... 24th Oct 2010
@EdKett Oh man, this is got to be the absolute best explanation of the whole thing. You made my weekend - thank you from the bottom of my IT heart!
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So, if CNN and MSNBC reported this...
itpro_z 20th Oct 2010
...would it have been all Bush's fault?
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
sboverie 20th Oct 2010
@itpro_z
Only if he took it seriously enough to build huge ships in China for the world's elite as seen in the movie "2012".
0 Votes
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That was one goofy movie
itpro_z 20th Oct 2010
@sboverie@...

OK, let's build huge ships to save as many people as possible, but let's build them in the Himalayas as far from the ocean as possible. And, of course, only the Chinese could possible build big ships, right?
0 Votes
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Reindeer911 20th Oct 2010
@itpro_z What are you talking about? LOL!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
rparker2757 20th Oct 2010
@itpro_z

...nah, 'W' was only responsible for below:

The Bush administration, which during 2,920 days presided over foreign policy blundering (Korea, Iran), domestic policy blundering (Katrina), a trillion in war related debt (Iraq, Afghanistan), political pronouncements followed by inaction (We're addicted to oil), crony/ incompetent political appointments (Brownie, you're doing a helluva job), a fear premised national security policy (we'll keep you safe), a global economic melt down, the near abrogation of the Bill of Rights (secret legal memos, wire taps), the return of torture (water boarding) and disregard for the Geneva Conventions (Abu Ghraib), world wide loss of American prestige and humiliation (shoe throwing incident), Karl Rove's 'permanent majority' (DOJ firing's), Dick Cheney (Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby falls on his sword, Enron collapse, no bid Halliburton contracts, JSOC team reporting directly to office of the VP), its mind blowing really. Its also true that almost every administration is remembered for one or more political blunders-- Eisenhower (U2), Kennedy (Bay of Pigs, Marilyn Monroe), Johnson (Vietnam), Nixon (Watergate), Carter (Panama Canal, Hostages), Regan (Oliver North), Bush1 (lengthy recession), Clinton (Lewinsky)-- but George W. Bush leads everyone.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Chip Moody 20th Oct 2010
Maybe if the world doesn't end in 2012, they'll bring Firefly back?!?!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
fromthehip 20th Oct 2010
@Chip Moody,
Yeah, except they would have to recast it. Nathan Fillion has Castle, now, and Adam Baldwin has Chuck.

FTH
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
milesandmiles 20th Oct 2010
@Chip Moody,
At least there's a sense of closure with "Serenity." Can't say the same about "Space: Above and Beyond," which also got cancelled in its first season, way before it's time. Or "Theshold," or "Surface."
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Dr. John 20th Oct 2010
@Chip Moody

Too many of the mains are gone, particularly Joss, the creative force. Dammit!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
madrucke@... 20th Oct 2010
Hey... I watch FoxNews and can *still* program OK...
happy

Disconcerting... My eye!
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
NGENeer 20th Oct 2010
Whatever else happens - I agree that cancellation of Firefly was the worst . . . what a bunch of Yahoos. Oh, wait, that's a different company.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
Solution1 20th Oct 2010
LOL. As always, papers first incite and then retract. What BS.If you took the date seriously at all, you are not intelligent enough to read this post.
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End of the world will come sooner!
boomchuck1 20th Oct 2010
I just checked and my wall calendar ends on December 31, 2010! OMG! And the day after, what would have been January 1, 2011 was left blank!
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I suppose the fear did not pay off
TxM2xTx 20th Oct 2010
for this one ... and now they have to debunk this 2012 end of times scenario.
0 Votes
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This guy can regurgitate liberal talking points that would make
frgough 20th Oct 2010
Pavlov proud.
0 Votes
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
HoppinFences 20th Oct 2010
I miss firefly a lot, too sad.
Curse them for canceling it.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
DR533 20th Oct 2010
Now, I have to change the party plans and the invites. Would you happen to know the revised date? happy
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This was the best you could do?
jschwed@... 20th Oct 2010
A 467 word story on the Mayan calendar and 2012 but 56% of the story is your political views and bumper sticker talking points? ZD needs to review you contract.
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2012 was optimistic
kidtree 20th Oct 2010
The Mayans were dreaming. The end of the World came with the arrival of Los Conquistadores.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
john_gillespie@... 20th Oct 2010
@kidtree Actually the Mayans were gone before the Conquistadores and Catholic church arrived. The Astecs had supplanted them long before.
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Darn...
cornpie 20th Oct 2010
And I already had tinfoil hats made for me and all my friends (both the dog and the cat).
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
unclefixer@... 22nd Oct 2010
@cornpie Don't get rid of those tinfoil hats just yet! (You never know when you're going to need them- and they just look so cool!)
www.dfwsupergeek.com
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
john_gillespie@... 20th Oct 2010
Steve Ballamer officially announced that the first bug free, user friendly and secure version of Windows will be released on Dec 23, 2012 ... or the day after Ragnarok ... which ever comes latter.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
ITOdeed 20th Oct 2010
Don't know when the end will come, but the beginning of the end happened when Fox news hired propagandists Glenn Beck and Bill O'Riley.
In a normal world, these two guys aren't even qualified to clean latrines.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
elmarioc 20th Oct 2010
@EatingHay,
You should be eating something else.
"In a normal world' as you ignorantly put it, we will not have a communist Muslin desecrating the White House, and destroying the United States, with the help of his comrades in Congress.
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
unclefixer@... 22nd Oct 2010
@elmarioc the pesky NWO isn't going to fool you, are they?
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RE: Cancel your 2012 end-of-the-world party plans. The date could be all wrong.
unclefixer@... Updated - 22nd Oct 2010
@elmarioc PS- you misspelled "Muslim." Unless you MEANT to say there's a communist bedsheet in the whitehouse.
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It isn't the communist . . .
JLHenry 23rd Oct 2010
unclefixer@...

Bedsheets I'm worried about. It's the Socialist Drapes and the Fascist Table linen . . . . wink
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24 Things Not To Hoard
secone 31st Dec
The date is approaching, these things can be found at restroom-wall dot com.

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