March 31, 2009 • 23 mins
According to the Mayan calendar, a new age will begin on December 21, 2012. Will this mean the end of the world, or just a transition? Tune in as Josh and Chuck discuss whether 2012 will be a bad year for the planet or not.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Your lude, Chuck,
what delude? Oh but you said I'm alluded with a
(00:20):
little bit of both, Chuck, great? Yes, so this is
stuff you should know. I did? I did say your
full name? Didn't I? No, it doesn't matter. Just Chuck,
just Chuck CB. Yeah. Hell o, l So Chuck. Um,
did you know that just a couple of days ago,
the Earth actually had a near miss with an asteroid?
(00:43):
I did hear about that? Someone actually, a fan wrote
in and told me that I wasn't aware. Yeah, this
this asteroid about the size of a ten story building.
We know the height. I don't know the width or
death or anything. But UM passed within fifty thou miles
of Earth, which NASA considers a close call. Right, I
believe that is what they call it, or near miss
same thing, UM, But uh, the there've been closer asteroids
(01:09):
very recently, think two thousand four, two thousand six one
UM came within five thousand miles, but the thing was
pretty small and would have done much damage. This one
came within fifty thousand miles, which is a fifth of
the distance between us and the moon, so it was
really close. And it was about the same size as
the one that um leveled eight hundred square miles of
(01:30):
Siberia n eight Wow, So it could have been a
real problem, right right, we need we should have gotten
Bruce Willison the Gang of Drillers to go up and
uh explode it with I think they were at the ready. Yeah,
Ben Affleck too. Yeah, that was a terrible movie. It
really was. Are we allowed to say that? Oh, it
was a terrible movie. It was. Thank you Michael Bay
(01:52):
for that stinker. That's funny that you bring up Michael
Bay's name because he's doing something right now that um
we'll be out soon. I believe he may have already finished.
He's directing a movie called two thousand twelve. No he's not. Yeah, yes,
Rowland Emerick directed that film. Well, then we need to
update this article because this says Michael Bay. I believe
he's producing it. Same thing. Okay, okay, Michael Bay is
(02:16):
uh I worked with him. Let's hear it. Chuck, I
can't tell this full story honestly, because I would I
would most definitely get a phone call from his people.
Oh yeah, but yeah, I worked with him on a
truck commercial like the Grand Canyon. Pretty cool, very cool.
What truck the Canyon? Earra Oh I don't even remember. Okay, So, um,
well I bring up twelve because that's kind of what
(02:36):
we're talking about today. And Josh, this is another listener
suggestion we're kind of diving into these from Jason of
Santa Barbara wanted to hear about the doomsday theories of
the year twelve. So yeah, yeah, thanks Jason. Let's let's
do this, right, Chuck. Yes, okay, So basically it's not
just the year. Um, there's actually a specific date December one,
(03:00):
two thousand twelve, the Winner Solstice. And actually I was
on a site called all About twelve and it's sites
eleven eleven A m. Greenwich meantime as the moment when
the world's going to end. Really yeah, I think I
will hold off on buying my Christmas presents that year
till the twenty two. You do anyway, don't you? So
(03:20):
you know the end of the world is not gonna
if I plumped down like several hundred dollars on gifts
from my wife and then the world ended. Well, you're
not gonna need money anyway after the apocalypse comes. That's alright,
so well, Chuck. December twenty one, two thousand and twelve.
This is not an arbitrary date right now. This is
actually based on the Mind calendar or one of them, right, Yeah,
(03:43):
they had several The first we should probably say this
is this is actually becoming something of a trend. This
this kind of doomsday prophecy that uh, December twenty first,
two thousand twelve, is UM is going to see the
end of the world or at least significant changes. UM.
There's all sorts of groups around the world. I read
an article about one in Belgium, led by a guy
(04:06):
named what's his name Patrick? Yeah you heard of him too, Yeah,
I read that He's he's developing quite a following, and
apparently they he and his people have UM found a
plot of land in Africa in the highlands, I imagine
somewhere in Ethiopia, UM, where they're going to basically hold
up and wait and then come back out and try
(04:26):
starting civilization up again. It's what he said he's stockpiling stuff.
He quit his job a couple of years ago after
he saved up some money, and yeah, yeah, yeah. And
I mean we're talking probably the thousands of people who
are you know, actively thinking that this is going to
happen and maybe making preparations about it. But it seems
to UH to be gathering steam the closer we get
(04:47):
into two thousand twelve. Right, you remember why two K
Do you remember what a paranoid time that was? Well
for me, No, man, I remember, And I'm not just
saying this now, but I remember at the time saying,
not that's gonna happen. Nothing's gonna go wrong. Elevators aren't
gonna fall down the side of the building, and all
our computers aren't going to explode. And I just remember
(05:09):
thinking it's just all much ado about nothing. I feel
like you were in the minority then, like think about
remember X files had a tremendous run, and I think
a lot of it was because of the changing over
from you know, what one millennia do another. For some reason,
we friends attached great significance to a change in calendar,
even though it's a human construct, right, But I mean
(05:30):
it also these kind of doomsday prophecies. These um fears
that the world is gonna end are usually they usually
reflect like our cultural concerns at the time, like hy
two k uh that fears about that began to grow
alongside technology. Technology was taking off, and like the Internet
was this huge thing that we hadn't really figured out
(05:50):
what to do with except to put like really really
dirty porn that involved goats onto you know. So it
seemed like, you know, y two k it was tech
knowledgey based concern is fear and this two thousand twelve thing,
it's taking place, it's transpiring. UM while we're very we've
become a very eco conscious and um society. We're aware
(06:13):
of our environmental impact, and it seems like part of
two thousands, the two thousand twelve movement is kind of
this back to Earth thing. I think I get the
sense that a lot of people who are like, I'm
gonna be prepared, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna be
one of the lucky people who gets to repopulate earth.
And part of that is knowing how to plant crops
and you know, like raise livestock and that kind of thing.
(06:34):
So it seems to reflect the kind of the green
consciousness that we have right now. Although the common thread,
of course is that the world's going in right exactly,
and I think global warming has got a lot of
people scared and a lot of the people the verse
that's so good. You like that. A lot of bring
up things like global warming is like, this is a
sign the oceans will boil and uh, you know, volcanoes
(06:57):
will erupt and mass chaos. And a critic would say, yeah,
volcanoes erupt, you know fairly commonly. There are earthquakes and
there are floods. These things happen. You know, we don't
have enough of a handle on climatology to really say
either way, which is I think why debates like these rags? Right, Okay,
So like we said, the December twenty first, two thousand twelve,
(07:21):
the date it's based on a Mayan calendar. That's where
it all started. And actually among uh to borrow your terms. Um,
there's there's a predominant theory that the Mayans, the Mayan civilization,
were either aliens or in contact with aliens. And when
you kind of starting to look at the Mayan's you
could you get an idea of how somebody could say
(07:42):
that they they earliest Mayan settlement they found um is
from and they just kind of live primitively for a
couple of millennia and then out of nowhere, there's this
sudden birth of ingenuity and insight from the third century
to the tenth century CE, and all of a sudden
that the minds like developed this really tremendous understanding of mathematics,
(08:04):
including zero, which you can't function. You can't create a
mathematical system without zero. You have to have zero, and
it's it's very elusive and rare, and to develop it
out of nowhere is really something. Um. They understood crop domestication,
really elaborate architecture UM. And you know, they became arguably
the most advanced pre Columbian civilization and mess Mesoamerica almost
(08:28):
overnight historically speaking, right, Yeah, I think they were easily
the most advanced. They had an advanced system of writing,
they were the first people to do that. They had
a recorded history, they were the first civilization to record
their own history. Yeah, astronomy, Matt, like you said, mathematics, Yeah.
And one of the other things that they were really
really good at was marking time, especially through calendars and
(08:49):
building things. They were they were good at building things
and um blood lighting big into blood lighting really and
human sacrifice. Yeah sure, yeah, but blood ritual blood lighting
as well. Okay you can't. You can't leave that out
for the person whose blood is being it's pretty significant experience,
I imagine, uh, and probably for the person who's doing
the cutting two. But we'll find out later. UM. So
(09:11):
they had twenty different calendars at least that we know of, UM,
and actually five of them are still kept in secret.
Five bands today really kind of makes you wonder what
this five calendars are counting, right, UM. But there there's this,
there's I guess I call him the Big three calendars,
the Zulkin, which is actually a two hundred and sixty
(09:31):
day calendar that actually um parallels human gestation all about twelve. Again.
That that site, UM, which I found pretty cool. They
basically have a calendar for a pregnancy. Right. There's the
hob h a B. Yeah, that's three hundred and sixty
days with a five day period called the Way Up,
(09:53):
which basically it's a solar calendars, but it's essentially the
same thing as the one that we UM use, the
Gregorian calendar that we exactly. And then there's the calendar Round,
which is a fifty two year calendar, and then there's
there's actually the big one. This is the one that
all of this doomsday stuff is centered around, and it's
called what the Long Count calendar, right, yes, and that's
all about the Great Cycle, is what they call it, yeah,
(10:15):
which is a period of five thousand, one twenty five
point three six years very specific yeah, um, approximately, right, um.
And we know that this date of December twenty one,
two thousand twelve is the end of this Great Cycle
thanks to the conquistadors. So they show up and just
(10:38):
completely subjugate and commit genocide against the Mayans. Some of
them were left alive. Um. And actually there was one
Mayan scholar who adopted the Gregorian calendar in conjunction with
the Long Count calendar and started recording the same dates
on both and so eventually, um, some scholars went back
and started comparing dates and found the path and finally
(11:00):
determined that the last beginning of the beginning of the
last Great Cycle was August thirteen, fourteen b C. And
you know, five thousand, twenty five years after that is
point three six point three six would be December one,
So that's how we know that the the Mayan calendar
(11:21):
is going to reset itself on that date, right, But
I think it's now is where we should note that
the Mayans did not say this was the end of
the world. It was a restarting of the Great cycle,
and they, I believe, had gone through three other great cycles.
Is that correct so far? Yeah? Yeah, So they didn't
think it was gonna be the end of the world.
This is uh, something that other people have kind of
(11:43):
put on it, And apparently we're as far as the
minds are concerned, we're extraordinarily lucky to live through the
end of a great cycle in the beginning of another.
One's a time of really good luck. It's a time
to celebrate, exactly. It's not really a time to stock
up on bottle water, you know, evaporated milk. Yeah, exactly. Um.
But yeah, so that's kind of one of the fatal
(12:06):
flaws I think in this the whole doomsday prophecies, that
the very people whose calendar it's based on didn't necessarily
believe this, right, well, right, but the reason and you know,
I did a little more research too, and a lot
of Mayan scholars are really upset about this that it
cast them in in a negative light, and they're saying,
this is not all accurate, This is not at all accurate. Sorry,
(12:28):
and Mines didn't believe this, and this is something we
put on it because of the uh. It ends with
a winter solstice. That's the key right right there. There
are a couple of things that doing research I found
slightly unsettling. Let's hear them, and okay, I can I
tell you a quick white two K story. Yeah. I
wasn't big into it either, but I'm kind of one
of those. I was a cub scout for a little while,
(12:50):
never made it to boy scouts because I thought, respecting
your elders just because they're old, that's a stupid concept,
and I quit um. But I was a boy scout
long enough to learn to prepare just in case. So
on December thirty one, I was at Philips Arena at
a widespread panic show, and had you followed me back
to my van, you would have found a four ten shotgun,
(13:12):
some shells, my dogs, some water, and a couple of
other supplies. And I was ready to go to the
Georgia Mountains. Just I'm very serious, kidding, Yeah, you know,
a younger um much more out of it. Josh made
that decision, but hey, if it had happened, I would
have I would have, you know, been fine. I was
at the Gravity Pub in East Atlanta at night. Were
you a great place bringing in the new year? That's great?
(13:34):
Chuck a plug for the Gravity Pub seriously, and Philips arena.
Um So, come to Atlanta. We've got at least two
things for you to do. Um So, my point is
is that I'm not necessarily a really nervous person about
stuff like this. Um I I am prepared. I'm probably
not gonna do anything for December twenty first, two thousand
(13:55):
twelves and maybe throw a party. But there are a
couple of things, like I said, doing research that I
found that work on a weird about December twenty one,
two thousand twelve. One of them is that on that date,
the winter solstice, the sun is actually going to be
on that one day at the center of the Milky Way.
The last time that happened was about twenty six thousand
(14:17):
years ago, and apparently only happens every twenty six thou
years yea or so, And we're talking like a day.
This is this will it will be in that position
for a day, and probably not even the whole day
at eleven eleven, maybe even who knows. I found that
a little significant. UM. And then another is that we
are actually beginning a new sun spot cycle. This is
(14:39):
something that actually if you read some of the literature, um,
they keep talking about sun spots and sun spots and
how it's going to create you know, severe climate change
and imbalance in Earth processes. And on July thirty one,
two thousand six, uh NASA astronomers found a backwards sun spot,
meaning that it was polar I it's in the wrong
(15:00):
direction from south to north rather than a lying north
to south. It appeared on the Sun and it's basically
a planet sized magnet and they've been waiting for it
because it's it signals the start of a new solar cycle.
Okay um, and when that happens, we have like proton
storms and it actually messes with the Earth's magnetic field.
These happened, UM. Oh, I don't know, every every every
(15:24):
few years. I think a new there's a few year
period between solar cycles. UM. So it's not that significant,
but it could have a big effect. The thing is
is the Earth. So magnetic field right now is in
the process of reversing. It is. Did you did you
read about this? I did, and I know that think
that polar reversal might be one of the significant events,
(15:45):
as in sunrises in the west, sets in the east,
that kind of thing. And actually it is like I
read on a Science Daily of that we're about in
about probably years or saying it's going to reverse, and
it happens randomly, and they know that it's reverse through
some very clever techniques. They find ancient lava flow, and lava,
because of its composition, aligns itself with magnetic north. It
(16:08):
flows right, so whatever direction it's flowing in it basically
leaves like a line of this is where magnetic north
was on this day. And if you can date that
lava flow, then you know, right then hundreds of thousands
or millions of years ago, that's where magnetic north was right.
So they're finding now, um that that the the magnetic
(16:29):
field on Earth is reversing, and this only happens about
every seven hundred and eighty thousand years. So all these
things are kind of significant. And I can understand how
somebody who is very concerned about war famine, pestilence, and
it is, you know, conceivably into the end of the world. Sure, sure,
(16:50):
UM could kind of take all this information in and say, yea,
the summer twenty two thousand twelve and I'm gonna be
in a bunker in Ethiopia. I see your point, Josh,
But most serious scholars say there's nothing to it. And
I didn't find any mainstream scientists to endorse anything like that.
Everyone I ran across is like, no, no, no, no,
(17:12):
this is not going to happen, and in fact they
call it. A lot of them just call it out
as down irresponsible to spread something like this, but not
not only that, but a way to make a quick
money to with another criticism, I son, so will the
world really end in two thousand twelve? I'm going to
go ahead and say probably not, because humanity is far
too blemish to get off that lucky. Yeah. Wow, that's
(17:34):
an interesting point of view. I don't think it's gonna
end a twelve either, don't. Okay, we're in agreement, Chuck.
We typically don't give our opinions, but darn it, that's mine. Yeah,
And um, anybody out there stocking up for two thousand
twelve when listening to this podcast, more power to you.
Sure you will have the last laugh at the world
really does it, as we usually say to each his
own and or her own. And if that's what you believe,
(17:55):
then yea stock up. Yeah, Chuck, that's one of those
podcasts that now that we've done it, it stays done.
I don't understand that. You don't have to. Okay, you'll
find out on December twenty twelve. You rat so, Chuck.
We're big time now and I want to I think
I think we should express this. We have a spoken
word album for love God, Chuck. We have a spoken
(18:17):
word album available for sale on iTunes. Right now, Let's
let's discuss, uh, correct, Josh, is the stuff you should know?
Super stuffed Guide to the Economy beautiful? And what we
tried to do is breakdown economics and the economy in
a way that the layman can understand, because we'd layman
(18:37):
as well. Exactly. We learned a lot. We think you'll
learn a lot. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I'm too.
I think it's worth four bucks. I do too. And Jerry,
our producer, did an outstanding job with the sound design.
It's much different and very special. We would be nowhere
without her. So you guys can find that on iTunes.
All I have to do is type super stuffed into
their handy search bar, and from my experience, as the
(18:59):
first thing that comes up and have at it, I
wouldn't click on anything else that said super stuff. Let's
put it away, agreed, Chuck agreed. And while we're at it,
while we're just plugging away, let's talk about our blog too,
which frankly I've come to be pretty proud of. I
wasn't sure about the blogging thing at first, and I'm like,
I get this. Yeah, Yeah, we have a blog now
called Stuff you Should Know, and you can access it
(19:22):
through the homepage on the right hand side there at
how stuff works dot com. And uh we post twice
a day. One of us posts. I post in the morning,
Chuck posts at night. Both of them are well worth reading.
And Chuck likes to do a little recap on Fridays
of the podcast the Weekend Podcasting, and we will answer you.
We chat with the folks. Yes, we follow up, and
it's a good way to reach us. Yeah. What, Chuck
(19:43):
likes to interact with you guys more than I do.
Because he likes to show off his cool guy hat
in in his photo that pops up every time he
posts something. So so ask us to come out and
play and we will. Okay, So relief. Yes, we we
got the spoken We're It album knocked out, we got
the blog knocked out. You know what that means. It's
(20:03):
time for yes, l M. But listener mail, listener mail, right, Josh.
This is significant because today is the day where we
retire Haiku Theater. Thank you? Did everyone here that we
are retiring Hiku Theater. We love your high Kus and
you can still send him if you want, but we're
not going to read him anymore. I agreed. Thank you, Chuck,
(20:25):
Thank you, thank you Chuck. Okay, so check, let's do it.
This is the final. Um, how can we get Jerry?
Maybe a drum roll in here? Right? And I should
say that one of the reasons we were retiring is
because we received the best Hiku ever and it cannot
be topped, and so I'm still looking forward to this one.
All right, So here we go. Um. Nathan of Akron,
(20:47):
Ohio says, I'm a c P, a anesthesiologist. Man, they
make some loot. Belinda, who doesn't say where she's from,
says Hiku and search bar no article for learning. I
had to google, so I think she was expecting an
article on hikus h. David, who is an l V
in which I believe is a nurse, says frozen missed
(21:09):
on ground. The railing has lots of holes. It's a
long way down. He's referring, of course, to Niagara Falls.
Uh Jesse, I'm gonna read this one pretty quickly. Odin
has an eye. Valhalla is in asgard. I do not
know why Thor has a hammer. Heimdal nine moms and
white God, please enlighten me. Balder dreamt his death, his
(21:33):
mom frigg dreamt it as well. Mistletoe, who knew then
him on Loki for Seti and his justice. How does
this all fit there? I have no idea how Norse
mythology in haiku that was gorgeous. We have one that
just came in today from Ryan, and I was gonna
not use it, but I told him I would make
a joke about him being a hack poet. Okay, so
(21:55):
here we go, And you did? You fulfilled your obligation
urban exploring squatting best place to get shot? Yes, I
am smarter, keep up the great work. I'll continue to listen.
Knowledge is power is that? Was that in hiku form? Yeah? Okay,
uh two more. Cassie in Minneapolis is getting married this June,
and we wish her all the best. She does a dance,
(22:17):
she says, stuff podcast alight. When I get a new podcast,
I dance at my desk. Good luck, test and your groom.
And now the last one ever, folks, that you will
ever hear from my mouth. This comes to us from
Austin from Fort Worth, Texas. He has this to say,
uninvited guests at night, they in my food, Los cocaraches,
(22:41):
tell me their secrets. One podcast to rule them all,
Los Coca And that was the best hiku I've ever
heard in my life. Wow from Austin. So thank you Austin.
Congratulations Austin, you just ended hi Ku theater forever. So
thanks Austin. That was awesome, awesome, awesome. Agreed, law school arches,
(23:03):
and thanks to everybody who sent us in hikus. Please
stop now. We love your creativity, but too much of
a good thing, and we'll move on. We'll think of
something else creative you guys can do for agreed. So
In the meantime, if you wanted to say hi, tell
us that um, we said something wrong, or send us
anything UM. I believe one of them was Shakespearean sonnets.
(23:23):
We're an idea in iambic pentameter. That was Jonathan Strickland
or colleague. Get text Stuff's idea. Anything you want to do,
Just just let us know that you're out there. UM.
Send an email to us at Stuff podcast at how
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
(23:44):
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, Are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
From house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Chuck Bryant. Your lude, Chuck,
what delude? Oh but you said I'm alluded with a
(00:20):
little bit of both, Chuck, great? Yes, so this is
stuff you should know. I did? I did say your
full name? Didn't I? No, it doesn't matter. Just Chuck,
just Chuck CB. Yeah. Hell o, l So Chuck. Um,
did you know that just a couple of days ago,
the Earth actually had a near miss with an asteroid?
(00:43):
I did hear about that? Someone actually, a fan wrote
in and told me that I wasn't aware. Yeah, this
this asteroid about the size of a ten story building.
We know the height. I don't know the width or
death or anything. But UM passed within fifty thou miles
of Earth, which NASA considers a close call. Right, I
believe that is what they call it, or near miss
same thing, UM, But uh, the there've been closer asteroids
(01:09):
very recently, think two thousand four, two thousand six one
UM came within five thousand miles, but the thing was
pretty small and would have done much damage. This one
came within fifty thousand miles, which is a fifth of
the distance between us and the moon, so it was
really close. And it was about the same size as
the one that um leveled eight hundred square miles of
(01:30):
Siberia n eight Wow, So it could have been a
real problem, right right, we need we should have gotten
Bruce Willison the Gang of Drillers to go up and
uh explode it with I think they were at the ready. Yeah,
Ben Affleck too. Yeah, that was a terrible movie. It
really was. Are we allowed to say that? Oh, it
was a terrible movie. It was. Thank you Michael Bay
(01:52):
for that stinker. That's funny that you bring up Michael
Bay's name because he's doing something right now that um
we'll be out soon. I believe he may have already finished.
He's directing a movie called two thousand twelve. No he's not. Yeah, yes,
Rowland Emerick directed that film. Well, then we need to
update this article because this says Michael Bay. I believe
he's producing it. Same thing. Okay, okay, Michael Bay is
(02:16):
uh I worked with him. Let's hear it. Chuck, I
can't tell this full story honestly, because I would I
would most definitely get a phone call from his people.
Oh yeah, but yeah, I worked with him on a
truck commercial like the Grand Canyon. Pretty cool, very cool.
What truck the Canyon? Earra Oh I don't even remember. Okay, So, um,
well I bring up twelve because that's kind of what
(02:36):
we're talking about today. And Josh, this is another listener
suggestion we're kind of diving into these from Jason of
Santa Barbara wanted to hear about the doomsday theories of
the year twelve. So yeah, yeah, thanks Jason. Let's let's
do this, right, Chuck. Yes, okay, So basically it's not
just the year. Um, there's actually a specific date December one,
(03:00):
two thousand twelve, the Winner Solstice. And actually I was
on a site called all About twelve and it's sites
eleven eleven A m. Greenwich meantime as the moment when
the world's going to end. Really yeah, I think I
will hold off on buying my Christmas presents that year
till the twenty two. You do anyway, don't you? So
(03:20):
you know the end of the world is not gonna
if I plumped down like several hundred dollars on gifts
from my wife and then the world ended. Well, you're
not gonna need money anyway after the apocalypse comes. That's alright,
so well, Chuck. December twenty one, two thousand and twelve.
This is not an arbitrary date right now. This is
actually based on the Mind calendar or one of them, right, Yeah,
(03:43):
they had several The first we should probably say this
is this is actually becoming something of a trend. This
this kind of doomsday prophecy that uh, December twenty first,
two thousand twelve, is UM is going to see the
end of the world or at least significant changes. UM.
There's all sorts of groups around the world. I read
an article about one in Belgium, led by a guy
(04:06):
named what's his name Patrick? Yeah you heard of him too, Yeah,
I read that He's he's developing quite a following, and
apparently they he and his people have UM found a
plot of land in Africa in the highlands, I imagine
somewhere in Ethiopia, UM, where they're going to basically hold
up and wait and then come back out and try
(04:26):
starting civilization up again. It's what he said he's stockpiling stuff.
He quit his job a couple of years ago after
he saved up some money, and yeah, yeah, yeah. And
I mean we're talking probably the thousands of people who
are you know, actively thinking that this is going to
happen and maybe making preparations about it. But it seems
to UH to be gathering steam the closer we get
(04:47):
into two thousand twelve. Right, you remember why two K
Do you remember what a paranoid time that was? Well
for me, No, man, I remember, And I'm not just
saying this now, but I remember at the time saying,
not that's gonna happen. Nothing's gonna go wrong. Elevators aren't
gonna fall down the side of the building, and all
our computers aren't going to explode. And I just remember
(05:09):
thinking it's just all much ado about nothing. I feel
like you were in the minority then, like think about
remember X files had a tremendous run, and I think
a lot of it was because of the changing over
from you know, what one millennia do another. For some reason,
we friends attached great significance to a change in calendar,
even though it's a human construct, right, But I mean
(05:30):
it also these kind of doomsday prophecies. These um fears
that the world is gonna end are usually they usually
reflect like our cultural concerns at the time, like hy
two k uh that fears about that began to grow
alongside technology. Technology was taking off, and like the Internet
was this huge thing that we hadn't really figured out
(05:50):
what to do with except to put like really really
dirty porn that involved goats onto you know. So it
seemed like, you know, y two k it was tech
knowledgey based concern is fear and this two thousand twelve thing,
it's taking place, it's transpiring. UM while we're very we've
become a very eco conscious and um society. We're aware
(06:13):
of our environmental impact, and it seems like part of
two thousands, the two thousand twelve movement is kind of
this back to Earth thing. I think I get the
sense that a lot of people who are like, I'm
gonna be prepared, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna be
one of the lucky people who gets to repopulate earth.
And part of that is knowing how to plant crops
and you know, like raise livestock and that kind of thing.
(06:34):
So it seems to reflect the kind of the green
consciousness that we have right now. Although the common thread,
of course is that the world's going in right exactly,
and I think global warming has got a lot of
people scared and a lot of the people the verse
that's so good. You like that. A lot of bring
up things like global warming is like, this is a
sign the oceans will boil and uh, you know, volcanoes
(06:57):
will erupt and mass chaos. And a critic would say, yeah,
volcanoes erupt, you know fairly commonly. There are earthquakes and
there are floods. These things happen. You know, we don't
have enough of a handle on climatology to really say
either way, which is I think why debates like these rags? Right, Okay,
So like we said, the December twenty first, two thousand twelve,
(07:21):
the date it's based on a Mayan calendar. That's where
it all started. And actually among uh to borrow your terms. Um,
there's there's a predominant theory that the Mayans, the Mayan civilization,
were either aliens or in contact with aliens. And when
you kind of starting to look at the Mayan's you
could you get an idea of how somebody could say
(07:42):
that they they earliest Mayan settlement they found um is
from and they just kind of live primitively for a
couple of millennia and then out of nowhere, there's this
sudden birth of ingenuity and insight from the third century
to the tenth century CE, and all of a sudden
that the minds like developed this really tremendous understanding of mathematics,
(08:04):
including zero, which you can't function. You can't create a
mathematical system without zero. You have to have zero, and
it's it's very elusive and rare, and to develop it
out of nowhere is really something. Um. They understood crop domestication,
really elaborate architecture UM. And you know, they became arguably
the most advanced pre Columbian civilization and mess Mesoamerica almost
(08:28):
overnight historically speaking, right, Yeah, I think they were easily
the most advanced. They had an advanced system of writing,
they were the first people to do that. They had
a recorded history, they were the first civilization to record
their own history. Yeah, astronomy, Matt, like you said, mathematics, Yeah.
And one of the other things that they were really
really good at was marking time, especially through calendars and
(08:49):
building things. They were they were good at building things
and um blood lighting big into blood lighting really and
human sacrifice. Yeah sure, yeah, but blood ritual blood lighting
as well. Okay you can't. You can't leave that out
for the person whose blood is being it's pretty significant experience,
I imagine, uh, and probably for the person who's doing
the cutting two. But we'll find out later. UM. So
(09:11):
they had twenty different calendars at least that we know of, UM,
and actually five of them are still kept in secret.
Five bands today really kind of makes you wonder what
this five calendars are counting, right, UM. But there there's this,
there's I guess I call him the Big three calendars,
the Zulkin, which is actually a two hundred and sixty
(09:31):
day calendar that actually um parallels human gestation all about twelve. Again.
That that site, UM, which I found pretty cool. They
basically have a calendar for a pregnancy. Right. There's the
hob h a B. Yeah, that's three hundred and sixty
days with a five day period called the Way Up,
(09:53):
which basically it's a solar calendars, but it's essentially the
same thing as the one that we UM use, the
Gregorian calendar that we exactly. And then there's the calendar Round,
which is a fifty two year calendar, and then there's
there's actually the big one. This is the one that
all of this doomsday stuff is centered around, and it's
called what the Long Count calendar, right, yes, and that's
all about the Great Cycle, is what they call it, yeah,
(10:15):
which is a period of five thousand, one twenty five
point three six years very specific yeah, um, approximately, right, um.
And we know that this date of December twenty one,
two thousand twelve is the end of this Great Cycle
thanks to the conquistadors. So they show up and just
(10:38):
completely subjugate and commit genocide against the Mayans. Some of
them were left alive. Um. And actually there was one
Mayan scholar who adopted the Gregorian calendar in conjunction with
the Long Count calendar and started recording the same dates
on both and so eventually, um, some scholars went back
and started comparing dates and found the path and finally
(11:00):
determined that the last beginning of the beginning of the
last Great Cycle was August thirteen, fourteen b C. And
you know, five thousand, twenty five years after that is
point three six point three six would be December one,
So that's how we know that the the Mayan calendar
(11:21):
is going to reset itself on that date, right, But
I think it's now is where we should note that
the Mayans did not say this was the end of
the world. It was a restarting of the Great cycle,
and they, I believe, had gone through three other great cycles.
Is that correct so far? Yeah? Yeah, So they didn't
think it was gonna be the end of the world.
This is uh, something that other people have kind of
(11:43):
put on it, And apparently we're as far as the
minds are concerned, we're extraordinarily lucky to live through the
end of a great cycle in the beginning of another.
One's a time of really good luck. It's a time
to celebrate, exactly. It's not really a time to stock
up on bottle water, you know, evaporated milk. Yeah, exactly. Um.
But yeah, so that's kind of one of the fatal
(12:06):
flaws I think in this the whole doomsday prophecies, that
the very people whose calendar it's based on didn't necessarily
believe this, right, well, right, but the reason and you know,
I did a little more research too, and a lot
of Mayan scholars are really upset about this that it
cast them in in a negative light, and they're saying,
this is not all accurate, This is not at all accurate. Sorry,
(12:28):
and Mines didn't believe this, and this is something we
put on it because of the uh. It ends with
a winter solstice. That's the key right right there. There
are a couple of things that doing research I found
slightly unsettling. Let's hear them, and okay, I can I
tell you a quick white two K story. Yeah. I
wasn't big into it either, but I'm kind of one
of those. I was a cub scout for a little while,
(12:50):
never made it to boy scouts because I thought, respecting
your elders just because they're old, that's a stupid concept,
and I quit um. But I was a boy scout
long enough to learn to prepare just in case. So
on December thirty one, I was at Philips Arena at
a widespread panic show, and had you followed me back
to my van, you would have found a four ten shotgun,
(13:12):
some shells, my dogs, some water, and a couple of
other supplies. And I was ready to go to the
Georgia Mountains. Just I'm very serious, kidding, Yeah, you know,
a younger um much more out of it. Josh made
that decision, but hey, if it had happened, I would
have I would have, you know, been fine. I was
at the Gravity Pub in East Atlanta at night. Were
you a great place bringing in the new year? That's great?
(13:34):
Chuck a plug for the Gravity Pub seriously, and Philips arena.
Um So, come to Atlanta. We've got at least two
things for you to do. Um So, my point is
is that I'm not necessarily a really nervous person about
stuff like this. Um I I am prepared. I'm probably
not gonna do anything for December twenty first, two thousand
(13:55):
twelves and maybe throw a party. But there are a
couple of things, like I said, doing research that I
found that work on a weird about December twenty one,
two thousand twelve. One of them is that on that date,
the winter solstice, the sun is actually going to be
on that one day at the center of the Milky Way.
The last time that happened was about twenty six thousand
(14:17):
years ago, and apparently only happens every twenty six thou
years yea or so, And we're talking like a day.
This is this will it will be in that position
for a day, and probably not even the whole day
at eleven eleven, maybe even who knows. I found that
a little significant. UM. And then another is that we
are actually beginning a new sun spot cycle. This is
(14:39):
something that actually if you read some of the literature, um,
they keep talking about sun spots and sun spots and
how it's going to create you know, severe climate change
and imbalance in Earth processes. And on July thirty one,
two thousand six, uh NASA astronomers found a backwards sun spot,
meaning that it was polar I it's in the wrong
(15:00):
direction from south to north rather than a lying north
to south. It appeared on the Sun and it's basically
a planet sized magnet and they've been waiting for it
because it's it signals the start of a new solar cycle.
Okay um, and when that happens, we have like proton
storms and it actually messes with the Earth's magnetic field.
These happened, UM. Oh, I don't know, every every every
(15:24):
few years. I think a new there's a few year
period between solar cycles. UM. So it's not that significant,
but it could have a big effect. The thing is
is the Earth. So magnetic field right now is in
the process of reversing. It is. Did you did you
read about this? I did, and I know that think
that polar reversal might be one of the significant events,
(15:45):
as in sunrises in the west, sets in the east,
that kind of thing. And actually it is like I
read on a Science Daily of that we're about in
about probably years or saying it's going to reverse, and
it happens randomly, and they know that it's reverse through
some very clever techniques. They find ancient lava flow, and lava,
because of its composition, aligns itself with magnetic north. It
(16:08):
flows right, so whatever direction it's flowing in it basically
leaves like a line of this is where magnetic north
was on this day. And if you can date that
lava flow, then you know, right then hundreds of thousands
or millions of years ago, that's where magnetic north was right.
So they're finding now, um that that the the magnetic
(16:29):
field on Earth is reversing, and this only happens about
every seven hundred and eighty thousand years. So all these
things are kind of significant. And I can understand how
somebody who is very concerned about war famine, pestilence, and
it is, you know, conceivably into the end of the world. Sure, sure,
(16:50):
UM could kind of take all this information in and say, yea,
the summer twenty two thousand twelve and I'm gonna be
in a bunker in Ethiopia. I see your point, Josh,
But most serious scholars say there's nothing to it. And
I didn't find any mainstream scientists to endorse anything like that.
Everyone I ran across is like, no, no, no, no,
(17:12):
this is not going to happen, and in fact they
call it. A lot of them just call it out
as down irresponsible to spread something like this, but not
not only that, but a way to make a quick
money to with another criticism, I son, so will the
world really end in two thousand twelve? I'm going to
go ahead and say probably not, because humanity is far
too blemish to get off that lucky. Yeah. Wow, that's
(17:34):
an interesting point of view. I don't think it's gonna
end a twelve either, don't. Okay, we're in agreement, Chuck.
We typically don't give our opinions, but darn it, that's mine. Yeah,
And um, anybody out there stocking up for two thousand
twelve when listening to this podcast, more power to you.
Sure you will have the last laugh at the world
really does it, as we usually say to each his
own and or her own. And if that's what you believe,
(17:55):
then yea stock up. Yeah, Chuck, that's one of those
podcasts that now that we've done it, it stays done.
I don't understand that. You don't have to. Okay, you'll
find out on December twenty twelve. You rat so, Chuck.
We're big time now and I want to I think
I think we should express this. We have a spoken
word album for love God, Chuck. We have a spoken
(18:17):
word album available for sale on iTunes. Right now, Let's
let's discuss, uh, correct, Josh, is the stuff you should know?
Super stuffed Guide to the Economy beautiful? And what we
tried to do is breakdown economics and the economy in
a way that the layman can understand, because we'd layman
(18:37):
as well. Exactly. We learned a lot. We think you'll
learn a lot. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I'm too.
I think it's worth four bucks. I do too. And Jerry,
our producer, did an outstanding job with the sound design.
It's much different and very special. We would be nowhere
without her. So you guys can find that on iTunes.
All I have to do is type super stuffed into
their handy search bar, and from my experience, as the
(18:59):
first thing that comes up and have at it, I
wouldn't click on anything else that said super stuff. Let's
put it away, agreed, Chuck agreed. And while we're at it,
while we're just plugging away, let's talk about our blog too,
which frankly I've come to be pretty proud of. I
wasn't sure about the blogging thing at first, and I'm like,
I get this. Yeah, Yeah, we have a blog now
called Stuff you Should Know, and you can access it
(19:22):
through the homepage on the right hand side there at
how stuff works dot com. And uh we post twice
a day. One of us posts. I post in the morning,
Chuck posts at night. Both of them are well worth reading.
And Chuck likes to do a little recap on Fridays
of the podcast the Weekend Podcasting, and we will answer you.
We chat with the folks. Yes, we follow up, and
it's a good way to reach us. Yeah. What, Chuck
(19:43):
likes to interact with you guys more than I do.
Because he likes to show off his cool guy hat
in in his photo that pops up every time he
posts something. So so ask us to come out and
play and we will. Okay, So relief. Yes, we we
got the spoken We're It album knocked out, we got
the blog knocked out. You know what that means. It's
(20:03):
time for yes, l M. But listener mail, listener mail, right, Josh.
This is significant because today is the day where we
retire Haiku Theater. Thank you? Did everyone here that we
are retiring Hiku Theater. We love your high Kus and
you can still send him if you want, but we're
not going to read him anymore. I agreed. Thank you, Chuck,
(20:25):
Thank you, thank you Chuck. Okay, so check, let's do it.
This is the final. Um, how can we get Jerry?
Maybe a drum roll in here? Right? And I should
say that one of the reasons we were retiring is
because we received the best Hiku ever and it cannot
be topped, and so I'm still looking forward to this one.
All right, So here we go. Um. Nathan of Akron,
(20:47):
Ohio says, I'm a c P, a anesthesiologist. Man, they
make some loot. Belinda, who doesn't say where she's from,
says Hiku and search bar no article for learning. I
had to google, so I think she was expecting an
article on hikus h. David, who is an l V
in which I believe is a nurse, says frozen missed
(21:09):
on ground. The railing has lots of holes. It's a
long way down. He's referring, of course, to Niagara Falls.
Uh Jesse, I'm gonna read this one pretty quickly. Odin
has an eye. Valhalla is in asgard. I do not
know why Thor has a hammer. Heimdal nine moms and
white God, please enlighten me. Balder dreamt his death, his
(21:33):
mom frigg dreamt it as well. Mistletoe, who knew then
him on Loki for Seti and his justice. How does
this all fit there? I have no idea how Norse
mythology in haiku that was gorgeous. We have one that
just came in today from Ryan, and I was gonna
not use it, but I told him I would make
a joke about him being a hack poet. Okay, so
(21:55):
here we go, And you did? You fulfilled your obligation
urban exploring squatting best place to get shot? Yes, I
am smarter, keep up the great work. I'll continue to listen.
Knowledge is power is that? Was that in hiku form? Yeah? Okay,
uh two more. Cassie in Minneapolis is getting married this June,
and we wish her all the best. She does a dance,
(22:17):
she says, stuff podcast alight. When I get a new podcast,
I dance at my desk. Good luck, test and your groom.
And now the last one ever, folks, that you will
ever hear from my mouth. This comes to us from
Austin from Fort Worth, Texas. He has this to say,
uninvited guests at night, they in my food, Los cocaraches,
(22:41):
tell me their secrets. One podcast to rule them all,
Los Coca And that was the best hiku I've ever
heard in my life. Wow from Austin. So thank you Austin.
Congratulations Austin, you just ended hi Ku theater forever. So
thanks Austin. That was awesome, awesome, awesome. Agreed, law school arches,
(23:03):
and thanks to everybody who sent us in hikus. Please
stop now. We love your creativity, but too much of
a good thing, and we'll move on. We'll think of
something else creative you guys can do for agreed. So
In the meantime, if you wanted to say hi, tell
us that um, we said something wrong, or send us
anything UM. I believe one of them was Shakespearean sonnets.
(23:23):
We're an idea in iambic pentameter. That was Jonathan Strickland
or colleague. Get text Stuff's idea. Anything you want to do,
Just just let us know that you're out there. UM.
Send an email to us at Stuff podcast at how
stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands
(23:44):
of other topics. Is it how stuff works dot com
brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, Are you
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Josh Clark
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