Apocalypse in 2012? Date spawns theories, film
(CNN) -- Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "Twenty-twelve."
Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012.

The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.

(Some scholars believe the cycle ends a bit later -- on December 23, 2012.)

Speculation in some circles about whether the Maya chose this particular time because they thought something ominous would happen has sparked a number of doomsday theories.

The hype also has mainstream Maya scholars shaking their heads.

"There's going to be a whole generation of people who, when they think of the Maya, think of 2012, and to me that's just criminal," said David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

"There is no serious scholar who puts any stock in the idea that the Maya said anything meaningful about 2012." Find out more about the history and culture of the Maya »

But take the fact that December 21, 2012, coincides with the winter solstice, add claims the Maya picked the time period because it also marks an alignment of the sun with the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and you have the makings of an online sensation.
http://us.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/01/27/2012.maya.calendar.theories/index.html

did anyone catch the new 2 hour doc about the galactic alignment, ancient cultures & nostradamus running in january? not saying anything one way or the other, but it was neat and i learned a lot of stuff (none that called for an apocalypse) i didn't know.

Thanks for posting Jesse. Actually, my son did a lot of research about this. Seems the Mayans were pretty smart people especially when it came to calendars and celestial matters. He was curious if this could be the date of the Rapture, the second coming of christ. I think he saw some other show on the History channel too linking this theory and some of Nostradamis' theories.

Interesting. Guess I better get my affairs in order...LOL

The date was set by the Maya who was carving the master calendar...he ran out of space on the stone.

Many Liberals are far more fearful of November 6th 2012

lol pug. I spit-out my Diet Coke on that one. I marvel at your ability to turn a topic

It's interesting but the temple at the Mayan ruins in Tulum have an apparent carving of Christ. How would they know what he looked like if he ascended to heaven when the Christian bible says he did??? hmmmm...

It's a bit like 1984. They picked a date so far into the future that during their lifetimes no-one could disprove what they said.

hallucenogenics

If they were so adept at predicting the future, how come they weren't able to predict that their tendency to clear-cut the areas around their cities and over-populate an environment that couldn't support the numbers would eventually lead to their civilization's demise?