Dec. 21, 2012
The last day of the Mayan Calendar.
Just in case you not whatch the News on this Morning, I will like to share this part of a very
interesting story!
From: CBS News) It's Dec. 21, the last day of the Mayan calendar. Since this writing,
the world hasn't ended.
However, some people will keep worrying until they wake up safe and sound
tomorrow morning.
All this year, doomsayers have been saying, in effect, that poet T.S. Eliot
had it backwards: the world will not end with a whimper, but with a bang. Images
akin to those portrayed in the big-budget film "2012" are what some people have
been saying today will look like, that the end of the Mayan calendar on Dec. 21
means mass destruction on a global scale. But scientists remain unconvinced.
Donald Yeomans, manager of the NASA Near Object Program, said, "The earth is not coming to an end. There is no evidence whatsoever for that."
In fact, NASA has taken a lead role in debunking the Mayan myth, posting several YouTube videos in an attempt to soothe a shaken populace. In one of those videos a narrator says,"No known asteroids or comets were on a collision course with Earth. Neither is a rogue planet coming to destroy us."
NASA also has a website, intended to put people's mind at ease. Some 5 million people have logged on to read reassuring words like: "The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years."
Experts say the public's fears may be unwarranted, but they're understandable.
David Ropeik, a risk perception consultant, said, "It is a reflection of the human tendency to be unsettled by uncertainty. And these are certainly unsettled times, making the uncertainty even greater."
Outside Moscow, some people aren't taking any chances. They'll be riding out today in a Cold War-era bunker, about 185 feet underground. The price: the equivalent of $1,000 per person. Come tomorrow morning, we'll know if it was worth the rubles to avoid the rubble.
But no matter what, doomsday clock-watchers will gather everywhere from the Mayan ruins -- where it all began -- to Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles which is staying open until midnight tonight to handle the crowds. And it won't take a rocket scientist to prove the world hasn't ended.
Yeomans said, "If you like, you can just look down on Dec. 22 and see that the Earth is still here."
Some Mayan experts say the calendar doesn't mark an ending, but a new beginning. That sounds familiar in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury where they once heralded the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, where peace and love would rule over the world. That didn't happen, either.
For John Blackstone's full report, watch the video above.
So is this all much ado about nothing? Best-selling author Michio Kaku, a physics professor at the City University of New York, said on "CBS This Morning," "All week I've been telling people, 'Don't quit your day job. For God's sake, pay your rent and do your laundry.' The thing is Mayans never made this prophesy. This was hijacked. Hijacked by a doomsday machine that every 10 years, sells books, does TV specials propagating these things. Remember Y2K? Every 10 years. ... This a cash cow unfortunately."
Kaku said the sky would be on fire if the so-called prophesy were correct. He said, "We should be colliding with a black hole or the 10th planet out there. But, hey, it's raining and snowing. The sky is not on fire."
Kaku said there are possibilities, such as a meteor or comet impact, that could end the world like what happened 65 million years ago when an object about six miles across slammed into Mexico. He said, "However, even though that event killed the dinosaurs, we see no evidence of any meteor or comet out there in outer space at the present time."
For Kaku's full "CTM" interview, watch the video below.
Donald Yeomans, manager of the NASA Near Object Program, said, "The earth is not coming to an end. There is no evidence whatsoever for that."
In fact, NASA has taken a lead role in debunking the Mayan myth, posting several YouTube videos in an attempt to soothe a shaken populace. In one of those videos a narrator says,"No known asteroids or comets were on a collision course with Earth. Neither is a rogue planet coming to destroy us."
NASA also has a website, intended to put people's mind at ease. Some 5 million people have logged on to read reassuring words like: "The world will not end in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years."
Experts say the public's fears may be unwarranted, but they're understandable.
David Ropeik, a risk perception consultant, said, "It is a reflection of the human tendency to be unsettled by uncertainty. And these are certainly unsettled times, making the uncertainty even greater."
Outside Moscow, some people aren't taking any chances. They'll be riding out today in a Cold War-era bunker, about 185 feet underground. The price: the equivalent of $1,000 per person. Come tomorrow morning, we'll know if it was worth the rubles to avoid the rubble.
But no matter what, doomsday clock-watchers will gather everywhere from the Mayan ruins -- where it all began -- to Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles which is staying open until midnight tonight to handle the crowds. And it won't take a rocket scientist to prove the world hasn't ended.
Yeomans said, "If you like, you can just look down on Dec. 22 and see that the Earth is still here."
Some Mayan experts say the calendar doesn't mark an ending, but a new beginning. That sounds familiar in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury where they once heralded the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, where peace and love would rule over the world. That didn't happen, either.
For John Blackstone's full report, watch the video above.
So is this all much ado about nothing? Best-selling author Michio Kaku, a physics professor at the City University of New York, said on "CBS This Morning," "All week I've been telling people, 'Don't quit your day job. For God's sake, pay your rent and do your laundry.' The thing is Mayans never made this prophesy. This was hijacked. Hijacked by a doomsday machine that every 10 years, sells books, does TV specials propagating these things. Remember Y2K? Every 10 years. ... This a cash cow unfortunately."
Kaku said the sky would be on fire if the so-called prophesy were correct. He said, "We should be colliding with a black hole or the 10th planet out there. But, hey, it's raining and snowing. The sky is not on fire."
Kaku said there are possibilities, such as a meteor or comet impact, that could end the world like what happened 65 million years ago when an object about six miles across slammed into Mexico. He said, "However, even though that event killed the dinosaurs, we see no evidence of any meteor or comet out there in outer space at the present time."
For Kaku's full "CTM" interview, watch the video below.
