Earth - A Cosmic Experience?

What would we have to talk about if it weren’t for the Mayan calendar and December 21, 2012? How about healthcare, the state of the US$, oil prices, a possible war in the Middle East (when is there not that possibility?), and so on. But, how about a look not at when the Mayan calendar ENDS, but when it BEGINS?

Maybe as interesting as to when the Mayan calendar began is the fact that many calendars began at that same time.

What’s up with so many civilizations and cultures popping up at the same time? Was the world invaded by aliens, seeded by star particles, or visited by the Nephilim as the Bible mentions? Since being accurate to the day isn’t what carbon dating is about or the other methods of determining the age of things, what’s a couple hundred years when considering the earth’s age of some five billion or the universe at something like 13-15 billion years old.

BANG! Did it happen (the BIG one) 13 or 15 billion years ago?

Here’s the question. Is it strange that the Mayan calendar began at 3114BCE and that the Sumerian, Egyptian, and other civilizations appeared about the same time? Is it weird that Stonehenge and other massive megalithic structures date back to this same time? Isn’t it interesting that the Egyptian Phoenix cycle ends in 2012? There are far more commonalities for the 3000-3500BCE “start time” that one could rightly ask, is this whole earth thing some sort of a cosmic experience?

Have been put here on earth for a season and that season ends in 2012; however, a new season starts, whatever that is?

But of course there are other questions to be asked. What about prior to 3000-3500BCE? What about the stories of Atlantis, and Lemuria? Did they not exist or are the theories regarding their cultures wrong? And how old is mankind (with whatever definition you want to give him, or whatever biological labeling)? There are lots of questions. And maybe it’s the question that more important than the answer(s).

Galactic Equator

According to John Major Jenkins, it will take 36 years to precess through the Galactic equator.  The Galactic Alignment "zone" is
1998 +/- 18 years = 1980 to 2016. This is "era 2012"

[So why are we worried?]

Maya concepts of time

With the development of the place-notational Long Count calendar (believed to have been inherited from other Mesoamerican cultures), the Maya had an elegant system with which events could be recorded in a linear relationship to one another, and also with respect to the calendar ("linear time") itself. In theory, this system could readily be extended to delineate any length of time desired, by simply adding to the number of higher-order place markers used (and thereby generating an ever-increasing sequence of day-multiples, each day in the sequence uniquely identified by its Long Count number). In practice, most Maya Long Count inscriptions confine themselves to noting only the first five coefficients in this system (a b'ak'tun-count), since this was more than adequate to express any historical or current date (with an equivalent span of approximately 5125 solar years). Even so, example inscriptions exist which noted or implied lengthier sequences, indicating that the Maya well understood a linear (past-present-future) conception of time.
However, and in common with other Mesoamerican societies, the repetition of the various calendric cycles, the natural cycles of observable phenomena, and the recurrence and renewal of death-rebirth imagery in their mythological traditions were important and pervasive influences upon Maya societies. This conceptual view, in which the "cyclical nature" of time is highlighted, was a pre-eminent one, and many rituals were concerned with the completion and re-occurrences of various cycles. As the particular calendaric configurations were once again repeated, so too were the "supernatural" influences with which they were associated. Thus it was held that particular calendar configurations had a specific "character" to them, which would influence events on days exhibiting that configuration. Divinations could then be made from the auguries associated with a certain configuration, since events taking place on some future date would be subject to the same influences as its corresponding previous cycle dates. Events and ceremonies would be timed to coincide with auspicious dates, and avoid inauspicious ones.^[6]
The completion of significant calendar cycles ("period endings"), such as a k'atun-cycle, were often marked by the erection and dedication of specific monuments (mostly stela inscriptions, but sometimes twin-pyramid complexes such as those in Tikal and Yaxha), commemorating the completion, accompanied by dedicatory ceremonies.

The Pyramid of the Moon

Was is just a coincidence that all the great ancient civilizations of the earth started building Pyramids simultaneously? What do you guys think?

Pyramid of the Moon, Mexico

The photo was taken from 2 miles away

The Great Pyramid of Cheops, Egypt

The Ancient Pyramid of Chichen Itza, Mexico

The Once Magnificent Pyramid of Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Will the world end in 2012?

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com
According to the culture of ancient Maya, part of what scholars call Mesoamerica, astronomy predicts some major cosmic developments for December 21, 2012, including, perhaps, the end of the world as we now know it, as some people believe. Mayan calendars are still used by a few cultures in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador and are said to be the most accurate ones in existence. They date the solar year accurately within minutes, taking account of the cycles of sun, moon, Venus, and other cosmic bodies and only have to add one "leap day" after 380,000 years. Mayan civilisation was quite advanced, possessing technology that modern man is still trying to comprehend.

Pygmy Hippos in Cyprus - Eaten to Extinction?

Once again I suspect that archaeologists are making false assumptions when studying piles of bones.

Half way down a cliff on Cyprus's southern coast, researchers dug up thousands of remains of the animal which is thought to have roamed the island for perhaps a million or more years during the Pleistocene period, and then died out around 12,000 years ago.

Today, nothing remotely resembling a pygmy hippo roams Cyprus. Its largest wild mammals are timid sheep, strictly protected from an army of enthusiastic hunters, and donkeys.

..."There were over 500 individual hippos represented at the site ... for some reason they (humans) stored the bones, instead of throwing them into the sea, perhaps for use as fuel," said Simmons, who has written a book on the subject.

Together with thousands of pygmy hippo bones, as well as several large birds and a few dwarf elephants, the archaeologists discovered man-made implements on the same site, pointing to a link between humans and the animals.

Radiocarbon dating puts the site at around 10,000 BC, some 3,000 years earlier than most scholars had assumed humans had arrived on the island.

Simmons says a small group of humans could have triggered extinction of the animals, which were already under stress from cold and dry climatic changes around 12,000 years ago. Many animals went extinct around the same time.

The article has plenty of ammunition for my scepticism. Halfway down a cliff? Great place to eat dinner. They stored the bones "for some reason". Can't even hazard a guess? Oh, and they mention the sheep that are probably more tasty, but somehow not extinct.

When you have read the work of Delair and Allan - unlikely for most archaeologists - you are made aware of caves full of bones being a worldwide phenomenon. Quite often many species are found all jumbled up, and there is no evidence of humans being behind the slaughter.

However, when there is an indication that humans have also had some activity in a bone cave, the assumption becomes we ate them all. Ignoring the possibility of a global catastrophe that mostly likely occurred circa 12,000 years ago.

Survival of the Crops

Survivalists tend to focus on coping without access to the luxuries of the current era. An aspect that is often neglected is that, whether it is due to global warming, cosmic rays, volcanic eruptions or a pole shift, you could find yourself suddenly in a new climate.

Consequently the crops of today might not prosper. A smart survivalist will make preparations for local climate change, and be ready to deploy crops that suit the new environment. Given that nobody knows if or how drastically the climate might change, this would require storing the seeds of a wide variety of crops.

Over in Peru there is a currently an initiative that is attempting to ensure, no matter what the climate, we will always have potatoes:

The Peruvian farmers will be paid to look after the most diverse collection of potatoes in the world. They will try growing varieties at different altitudes and in different climatic conditions so that if today's commercially available potato varieties start to fail anywhere in the world, replacement varieties will be ready and waiting.