Mayan Apocalypse Transition: Book a Galactic Cruise; or Take the Cosmic Bike Tour

"Cashing in on the 'end of the world' tourism"
Blane Bachelor, FoxNews.com (January 30, 2012)

"For doomsday theorists, Dec. 21, 2012 could mean the end of civilization, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar. But for some tour operators and property owners, the end of the world also means a chance to cash in on the apocalypse hype.

"In the most prominent countries of the Mundo Maya - Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador - the tourism industry is gearing up for a record year, with dozens of Maya-themed offerings designed to lure visitors.

"The Guatemalan city of Tapachula will feature an 8-foot digital count-down clock in its main park, Mexico's Riviera Maya are planning reenactments of a popular Mayan ball game and the Sacred Mayan Journey, in which hundreds of paddlers travel in canoes to the island of Cozumel to pay homage to the goddess Ixchel. In all countries, there will be special solstice and equinox ceremonies, Mayan-themed workshops and music festivals...."

Let's look at some of the ways folks can spend money this year:

• Get married
  • "Mayan Marriage of Many"
    • Join 35 other couples on an "actual Mayan ruin in Belize"
    • Ceremony held December 12, 2012
      • Plenty of time to spend more money
  • All this for only $14,030 to $24,030
• Bike tour
  • Ancient Mayan villages in Guatemala's Lake Atitlan
  • Experience climbs of up to 1,200 vertical feet
  • Single-track, rocky, narrow trails transport you "to your own cosmic realm"
  • Starts December 17, 2012
  • Only $1,790
• Get groovy
  • "Mayan Galactic Alignment" cruise
    • "Celebrate the ascension of humanity into a higher vibration"
    • Spend five days aboard the Carnival Triumph
    • Visit sacred sites along the Yucatan Peninsula
    • Witness the end of the Mayan calendar
      • "The epic metaphysical event of our lifetime"
    • Enter "the 'World of the Fifth Sun' together"
  • Spend $999
    • Or more
• Visit Belize
  • See each of the country's main archaeological sites, including
    • Altun Ha
    • Barton Creek Cave and Caracol
    • Spend $25 for a Maya 2012 Passport
      • Available through Dec. 21, 2012
    • Plus expenses
  • Camp overnight at the Maya site of Caracol
    • Never before available
    • Witness sunrise at
      • Solstices
      • Equinoxes
    • Limit 100 guests per event
    • Cost?
      • Good question
      • 'How much do you have?'

Honestly, Now

"...(Of honorable note: one hotel operator in the U.S. we talked to is also hoping to cash in on the Mayan events. The 'Live While You're Alive' package at the swanky Hotel Teatro, in downtown Denver, Colo. includes a night in a luxe suite stocked with Dom Perignon and caviar, private butler, a six-course tasting menu with wine for two, limousine service, a helicopter ride, and a $25,000 shopping spree - all for a whopping $35,000. The price also includes an 'if you make it' extra for 2013: a one-night stay in a deluxe room, along with a bottle of Dom.)"
(FoxNews.com)

The folks at Hotel Teatro aren't the only ones who are keeping one foot planted in reality. Maybe it's basic honesty, maybe it's sensible caution - and a desire for repeat business from folks who survive 2012. Or maybe it's something else. Whatever the reason, the Lemming's glad to hear about folks who aren't being entirely wacky.

Can't Make it in 2012? Try Again in Just 5109 Years!

"...Dec. 21, 2012 is significant for the Maya because it coincides with the end of a 5,125-year period in the Long Count calendar. The date marks the end of 13 b'aktun cycles of 393 years each - not the end of the world, many Maya scholars say...."

One reason that so many folks get excited about the end of the Mayan calendar getting to the end of a cycle, or lizard men controlling the world, or End Times prophecies, may be that such things are exciting. Or maybe the lizard men put something in the water that makes humans suggestible.

The Mayan calendar getting to the end of a 13th b'aktun cycle is particularly nifty, the Lemming suspects, because 13 x 393 is a really big number: 5,174. That's a whole lot of years. Particularly for Americans, whose culture seems to encourage thinking of 'long ago' as anything more than a few years back.

The last time that the Mayan calendar passed this particular point, give or take a century:

• Narmer was running Egypt's First Dynasty
• Construction had started at Stonehenge
• Cuneiform was a cutting-edge information storage technology

This time:

• Europeans are working the bugs out of a replacement for the Imperium Francorum
• Construction has started on the Three Gorges Dam
• Nonvolatile Molecular Memory is an emerging data storage technology

Five millennia from now - no, that hasn't happened yet. Never mind.

Looking further in the other direction, folks have been using kitchens for hundreds of thousands of years. At least.

Humanity has gone through lots of b'aktun cycles: and sets of 13 b'aktun cycles. Odds are pretty good that humanity will go through quite a few more. Some folks may get excited each time the calendar clicks over. And if they do, others will be ready to help the first set spend money.

"Apocalypse?" Let's Say "Transition" Instead

"...In order to avoid perpetuating misconceptions about impending destruction, some tour operators have been careful to avoid references to 'end of the world' or 'apocalypse' in their marketing.

"In fact, in Belize, the message has been repackaged as an event celebrating a 'transition' in the Maya Calendar and the Tourism Board has recently come out with its latest brand: 'Where Will You Be When The World Begins Anew Belize? Maya 2012.'

" 'Without being archeologists or historians, from what we see and what we know there's a pretty big misinterpretation of what this calendar [ending] means,' says Jonathan Brunger, operations manager for Adventure Life, which is offering a 12-day 'Celebrate the Maya' tour that includes visits to Maya sites in Honduras and Guatemala. 'That's not going to be a theme of our trip, but I'm sure it's going to be a conversation piece.'..."

From the Lemming's point of view, the end of this particular Mayan cycle is about as momentous an event as taking down the 2011 calendar and putting up the one for 2012. Except that the Maya thing doesn't happen quite so often.

Then there was the Y2K thing, which actually did have something to do with legacy software and early programming strategies. And that is - what else? - another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Planet X, NASA, and the Lizard People From Outer Space"
  (January 2, 2012)
• "Apocalypse Whenever"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (June 14, 2011)
• "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
  (June 12, 2011)
• "The Neutrinos are Coming! 2012 and Hollywood Science"
  (November 16, 2009)
  Particularly
  • 2012, the Mayan Calendar, and Y2K
• "Want to be Paranoid, but Just Can't Find the Time?"
  (August 27, 2008)

Faster Than the Speed of Light: Maybe

"How Many Neutrinos Does It Take to Screw Up Einstein?"
Adam Mann, Wired Science (November 18, 2011)

"Results from a second experiment uphold the observation that neutrinos are moving faster than the speed of light. The OPERA collaboration, which first reported the superluminal neutrinos in September, has rerun the experiment and detected 20 new neutrinos breaking Einstein's theoretical limit.

"The findings are heartening to anyone hoping to see a major physics revolution in their lifetime. But scientists, as ever, are being cautious, and it will take an independent replication of the results by another team to even begin convincing many of them....

"...Neutrinos are subatomic particles with hardly any mass that are able to fly through most matter as if it weren't there. Despite their negligible mass, if they were somehow able to exceed the speed-of-light limit set by Einstein's theory of special relativity, it would present a major head-scratcher to modern physicists...."

Universal Speed Limit: Maybe

Quite a few observations made more sense, when Albert Einstein's math showed how the universe works when really large amounts of mass and/or energy are concerned. Or really small amounts. It wasn't that Newtonian physics was "wrong," quite. What Einstein's work did was provide a mathematical model that fit the way some extreme situations work.

The speed of light being a limit comes from what happens when an object is speeded up. Accelerating the object pumps energy into it, energy is equivalent to mass, and as the object approaches the speed of light - the added mass/energy would approach an infinitely large value. There's a sort or reverse-ski-slope curve that goes along with some explanations, and that's almost another topic.

There's a not-entirely-technical discussion of speed of light and all that online. Several, actually, including:

• "The Speed of Light"
  Michael Fowler, UVa Physics Department, University of Virginia
• "Finding the Speed of Light with Marshmallows-A Take-Home Lab"
  Robert H. Stauffer, Jr., Cimarron-Memorial High School, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (Reprinted with permission from The Physics Teacher, vol. 35, April 1997, p. 231. Copyright 1997 American Association of Physics Teachers )

Physics, Statistics, and the News

"...In their first experiment, the OPERA team used statistical analysis to show this situation was unlikely, but other scientists were not completely persuaded. The new experiment produced neutrinos in bunches over just three nanoseconds, far shorter than the faster-than-light anomaly. The results were the same: Neutrinos arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than the speed of light. The findings were robust enough that members of the OPERA collaboration who had refused to sign on to the first paper were now willing to put their name on the new one....

"...Tommaso Dorigo, a physicist at CERN, noted on his blog that there are still other possible sources of error. For instance, the OPERA collaboration's clock might not have a fine enough resolution..."

By Monday, the Lemming noticed mainstream news picking up the story, sort of:

• "Speed-of-light experiment 'was wrong after all' "
  The Telegraph (November 21, 2011)
• " 'Faster-than-light' observations reined in"
  News Technology & Science, CBC News (November 21, 2011)
• "Faster than light finding faulted in new neutrino test"
  Tech, CBS News (November 21, 2011)

What's happening is that scientists who didn't do the original experiments are pointing out possible errors: inaccurate/imprecise observations; unjustified assumptions in how the observations were analyzed; maybe even errors in the math.

My guess is that some of the objections have a bit of NIH ("Not Invented Here") behind them, but that's just human nature. It'd be unusual, to say the least, if data and conclusions like what OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus) published were greeted with a sort of triumphal ticker-tape parade.

That Wired article got it right:

Replicable Results

"...Ultimately, the only thing that would convince many in the field is if another team upholds the findings in an independent experiment. Plunkett, co-spokesperson for the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search (MINOS) experiment at Fermilab, says that his collaboration expects to have results checking the OPERA findings in the spring of 2012."

There's a big difference between some crackpot claiming to have produced gem-quality diamonds from coleslaw: and the same crackpot publishing details of a replicable process for doing the same thing. Although I'd expect the person to file with the Patent office, and retain an attorney before publishing anything. More topics.

The point is that science is at least partly about doing something: and showing how the same thing can be done again. Ideally, by someone who isn't connected with the folks who did the first experiment.

That's what Fermilab will be trying to do.

The CERN facilities, by the way, produced neutrinos that OPERA picked up at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. If CERN sounds familiar, that's the outfit with the Large Hadron Collider: the research tool that some folks said would destroy us all. The Lemming got quite a few posts out of the serious and silly sides of the LHC stories.

Back to OPERA, neutrinos, and physics: If the neutrinos were traveling faster than light, it's not by all that much. Researchers are debating over numbers of nanoseconds. That's a whole lot shorter than the blink of an eye.

Does the Lemming 'believe' that neutrinos have been traveling faster than light? That's the wrong question, sort of. The Lemming thinks that:

• OPERA has come up with some fascinating results
• Fermilab will be trying to do the same thing
  • Other labs, too
    • Most likely
• Physicists without labs like CERN or Fermilab are
  • Sensibly raising points to study
  • Not-so-sensibly applying the NIH principle

We may know more in 2012. and "2012" is yet another topic.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Crab Nebula Superflare: It's Not Supposed to Do That"
  (May 13, 2011)
• "IceCube Neutrino Observatory: Again"
  (December 28, 2010)
• "The Neutrinos are Coming! 2012 and Hollywood Science"
  (November 16, 2009)
• "Warp Drive Might Not Be Stable: Physicists Take Another look at Alcubierre's Work"
  (June 12, 2009)
• "CERN's Large Hadron Collider: A List of Posts"
  (October 14, 2009)

The Neutrinos are Coming! 2012 and Hollywood Science

" '2012' Sells Tickets, Sells-Out Science"
Discovery News (November 15, 2009)

"Last night, my wife Deb and I went to watch the Roland Emmerich movie 2012. Deb fell asleep. She was the lucky one.

"I'm joking, it wasn't that bad, we just had to attend the midnight showing as the earlier showings were all sold out. It looks like the 2012 doomsday phenomenon is still alive and strong.

"Sure, the scenes of planetary destruction were impressive, John Cusack did his thing and Beatrice Rosen smoldered on the screen, but as for the rest of it, I have similar criticisms as I had of Nick Cage's Knowing. Both movies got the science behind doomsday all wrong...."

The article isn't a movie review so much as it's a discussion of Hollywood science. I'd been wondering what the writers and director of 2012 decided to feature as the scary thing in 2012. The author saved me the trouble of sitting through the movie:

"...Neutrinos. Killer solar neutrinos. Yes, you heard me: neutrinos....

"...Emmerich opted to used one of the most unlikely candidates to kill Earth. After all, the neutrino is electrically neutral and it has minuscule mass. Also, the sun pumps out a lot of neutrinos -- the human body is bathed in 50 trillion solar neutrinos every second -- and just as many neutrinos can be found entering the Earth's crust on the sun-facing side of our planet as there are on the opposite side. The ghostly particles pass through our planet totally unimpeded.

"They are extremely weakly interacting particles that have zero effect on our everyday lives. They are very useful to scientists however, and many billions of dollars have been spent world wide on building neutrino detectors that can sense distant supernovae.

"In 2012, scientists discover (in the depths of a copper mine in India) that an increased flux of neutrinos from the sun is interacting with our Earth's core, causing it to heat up, increasing subterranean pressure...."

That's Hollywood science item #1. Next, Hollywood science #2:

"...Why is there an increased flux of neutrinos? Planetary alignment of course! This magically kick-starts the sun's flare activity. And there we have the popular doomsday theory that we will be killed via planetary alignment.

"No sign of Planet X though, I'm disappointed.

"So Emmerich found a way to kill the Earth using a faux astronomical event (there is no planetary alignment in the year 2012)..."

None of which will change the minds of 'true believers.'

Personally, I think the movie-makers made a good (by their standards) decision, having a non-existent planetary alignment pull killer neutrinos into Earth.

"Neutrino" sounds cool and scientific - and, although quite a number of people have heard the word "neutrino," my guess is that relatively few have learned how maddeningly hard it is to get a neutrino to interact with anything. Which is part of why neutrino detectors are so expensive.

So, as a vaguely-familiar, really scientific-sounding thing that very few people in the audience really know anything about: "neutrino" is a pretty good choice.

I suppose it's easier to make people believe that killer neutrinos from outer space will make things go boom; than to sell the idea that simultaneous cases of static cling will create a lightning bolt that destroys lower Manhattan.

Now that would be a disaster flick!

2012, the Mayan Calendar, and Y2K

I've heard that the Mayan calendar ends in December of 2012, and that this somehow means that the world will end then.

I did a little checking, and found out that, following the same logic, the world ended in December of 999 and 1999. Since we're still here, there may be something wrong with the idea that the world ends each time a calendrical cycle ends, beginning a new cycle.

From "Commie Plots, Cholesterol, Frank Burns, Hugo Chavez, and 2012"
Another War-on-Terror Blog (November 15, 2009)

"...Quite a number of people seem to assume that 2012 will be when the world ends. As a matter of fact, December 21, 2012, is when a 'Long Count' cycle of the Mayan calendar will end - assuming that the current Long Count started on August 11, 3114 BC. If it started on August 13 - which is possible - the cycle re-starts on December 23, 2012. It'll also re-start in the spring of 7138, summer of 12263, autumn of 17388, and so on.

"Western civilization's calendar uses a base-ten numeric system, and involves centuries and millennia. We just experienced the end of one of our 'long cycles' - December 31, 1999 - and Y2K went past without an apocalypse. (Yes, there was a real issue with legacy software - which encouraged some long-overdue upgrades and re-engineering.)..."

Disaster Flicks, Hollywood Science, and the Killer Tomatoes

From the sounds of it, "2012" is a disaster flick that might be worth the price of a ticket. But in terms of having plausible reasons to account for the special effects extravaganza? You might as well be watching "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!"

Related post:

• "IceCube, Neutrinos, Kamioka Observatory, and All That"
  (July 15, 2008)

Background, about the Mayan calendar:

• "Converting from the Mayan Calendar"
  University of Nevada, Reno
• "Mayan Calendar"
  Pomona College, Claremont, California
• "What's going to happen on December 21st 2012?"
  Curious About Astronomy?

Internet to Become Television-Like Medium Without Small Websites?

"2012: The Year The Internet Ends"
IPower (June 1, 2008)

"Every significant Internet provider around the globe is currently in talks with access and content providers to transform the internet into a television-like medium: no more freedom, you pay for a small commercial package of sites you can visit and you'll have to pay for seperate subscriptions for every site that's not in the package.

"Almost all smaller websites/services will disappear over time and multinationals who are used to using big budgets to brute force their content into every media outlet will finally be able to approach the internet in the same way...."

I sincerely hope that these people are wrong. On the other hand, this doesn't have the feel of the run-of-the-mill crackpot conspiracy theory.

I'd really appreciate comments. Particularly informed comments.

"House of the Future" - Another One, this Time in Brussels

" 'House of the Future' on Display in Brussels"
FOXNews (June 6, 2008)

"BRUSSELS, Belgium — Have you ever dreamed of living in a home that automatically could sense which groceries needed to be replenished and then order them from the store, or could warm up the shower before you stepped out of bed?

"That dream may be closer to reality than you think. A company founded by a Belgian entrepreneur is showcasing the house of the future — today.

"Living Tomorrow, which specializes in high-tech consumer goods and design, is exhibiting its 'House of the Future' in Vilvoorde, a suburb of Brussels.

" 'We're quite confident this is pretty much what the future can be,' said Peter Bongers, the co-founder and chief executive of Living Tomorrow...."

The article comes with about 15 photos of this "House of the Future."


(from FOXNews, used w/o permission)
Looks cool - and very pricey.

This 'house of the future' is set in 2012, four years out - and I think it's plausible. Also quite fashionably 'green.'

I'm not sure which I prefer: this one, or the Disney "House of the Future" of 1957.

For those planning a little trip to Brussels, the "House of the Future" and other exhibits are on the Living Tomorrow website. It's not quite designed for the computer of tomorrow, but does make some optimistic assumptions about your computer's resources.

Oh the other hand, it's got a cool-looking interface that doesn't take too long to figure out.

Join Them! Fight 2012! Or, Not

"2012 Logo Campaign - Help fight 2012!"
Daily Common Sense (March 31, 2008)

"One of Daily Common Sense’s mission is to inform people. My most popular article is my article about 2012 and why it shouldn’t be feared. ... Now, I provide you with a couple 2012 logos you can use freely."

There's a discussion thread going, about that post, on BlogCatalog: "Help fight the year 2012 scam!"

---

Sound familiar? I've posted about 2012 before, in "New and Improved Conspiracy: 2012! And "They" are Hiding the Truth!" (January 20, 2008)

New and Improved Conspiracy: 2012! And 'They' are Hiding the Truth!

"2012 Explained And why it shouldn't be feared"
Daily Common Sense (January 22, 2008)

If you liked the Millennium Bug, you'll love the 2012 Conspiracy!

Apparently, the Maya predicted that the world will end on December 21, 2012: and, naturally, there's a conspiracy to hide the truth.

This website looks like a good place to go for a cold shower, for anyone hot and bothered by 2012. And, unlike some of the 2012 sites, this one doesn't seem to be after you money.