Your tax dollars, well spent (and I say that with no sarcasm whatsoever): NASA's "Why the World Won't End" web page, debunking crazy white people's 2012 Mayan Armageddon hallucinations.

  • forwardourmotto

    I like how NASA notes that the Mayan calendar doesn’t actually predict the end of the world. It kind of bugs me when people attribute the prediction to the Mayans.

    • http://twitter.com/anonotwit anonotwit

      Yeah, they’d have had a big party and started the calendar over again the next day.

  • http://twitter.com/Brainspore Tim Harrington

    As far as I can tell that “hysteria” is virtually nonexistent. Has anyone met a single person who actually believes the world is about to end?

    • Gilbert Wham

      Yes. Lots of them. Some very dear friends of mine and my crazy mother among them. Some people should not be allowed internet…

      • http://twitter.com/Brainspore Tim Harrington

        Have they actually been acting like people who truly believe that, though? Quitting jobs, selling off possessions, cashing in retirement plans and such to spend their last few weeks with their loved ones? I sure haven’t met anyone like that, and I live in a city swarming with New-Agers.

        • http://www.KladniFigures.com/ Scooter Jackson

           Never seen “doomsday preppers” have you?

          • http://twitter.com/Brainspore Tim Harrington

            No, but sounds interesting. Any good?

        • Gilbert Wham

          At least one person I know with this particular memetic infection is planning on spending the last few days in the house with family, ‘just in case’, yes. It’s really sad, she’s so fucked up by all this crap, and she’s one of my closest friends, and I love her very much, but I just can’t get through to her how damaging this garbage is, as she sees it as a personal attack if I try to counter any statements she makes about it (also Chemtrails, Flouridation = mind-control, Illuminati, HAARP, and so on).  You’re right though, as the date draws nearer, most of ‘em seem to be doing a lot of mumbling and hand-waving about how it’s going to be a ‘shift in global consciousness’, rather than the ‘Fuck, we’re all gonna get squashed by Nibiru! Aieeee! Run!’ of six months ago…

          I really, really fucking hate this particular brand of woo, it’s pernicious and destructive, and too many lovely, bright, creative people I know have been caught by it.

      • http://www.ecoevolution.org/ Ian G

        A co-worker used up all his holiday and comp time where I work “just in case…”

        • http://twitter.com/Brainspore Tim Harrington

          OK, but a “just in case” attitude by a handful of already-loopy folks isn’t exactly my idea of mass hysteria.

          • elix

            In this YouTube video (linked in the NASA article this post is about), one of the NASA scientists states that NASA has been receiving letters from people, mostly kids and teens, who are considering suicide because they’re terrified that the world is going to end because of this stupid shit. 
            Jump to 5:30 or so for the question and Dave Morrison’s answer, including a teacher that was approached by the parents of two students and told that the parents were planning to murder their kids and then commit suicide because of the supposed apocalypse.
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHXW9bZtgpc

          • Baldhead

            Never understood committing suicide in reaction to an end of the world scenario. Well at all, of course, but if this prediction is right, end of the world you die. If it’s wrong, end of your world, you die. Everyone else is just fine, however.  Why not bet on the better outcome? Seems like you have the better chance at coming out ahead.

          • http://www.ecoevolution.org/ Ian G

            Plus I think you are really limiting yourself with that definition of hysterical reactions… 

    • Gerald Mander

       No, but I’ve met a married person who does.

    • http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

      A crazy woman told me I was gonna die. So that’s at least one.

    • Richard

      Yes I have. Because of an early flight out of Heathrow I took a taxi rather than the Tube. At least the driver didn’t mention the Mayan calendar directly, but he covered similar, related topics in excruciating detail as he drove:

      He noted that a nuclear war with Iran was only narrowly averted by the re-election of Obama. (The driver is Persian, and more importantly to him one of the few living Sumerians).

      UFO flies into a Volcano (MEXICO)
      http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?51373-UFO-flies-into-a-Volcano–MEXICO-

      Sumerians and the Anunnaki. A presentation By Zecharia Sitchin
      http://youtu.be/uVidhmB0Fho

      At least he delivered me there in a timely fashion. So that I could be here when the world collapses after the huge UFO blows up the volcano and shifts the continents about… this month.

      While I can understand the middle eastern drivers needing to give some reason and order to the chaos of their lives that caused them to be driving a taxi in London now, I certainly was less than convinced I should become immediately concerned.

      • Mark Lee McDonald

        Yeah, well that first one may not be so crazy; who the fuck knows what kind of shit Romney would’ve gotten us into.

        • Richard

           Right. But unfortunately in the context the taxi driver was constructing with B.O. as an ancient wise man who will save the world, I rather had my doubts even about that apparently simple observation.

    • http://singularity-2045.org/ Singularity Utopia

       I fully agree. The hysteria is an illusion. The whole issue has been very quite for the past 6 mths or longer. BUT… maybe this quietness is something to fear? Why are NASA talking about hysteria when there is no hysteria? ARRGGhhhh the world is going to end! :-D

    • Halloween_Jack

       They’re not as noticeable because they’re not members of a single doomsday cult that tend to be loud and proselytizing in their beliefs. Plus, of course, there’s the “happy” version of the prediction in which the Singularity will just sort of happen and there’s no particular need to get ready for it.

    • niktemadur

      Yes I have, unfortunately, even a college graduate among them, which baffles me.
      Independently from the ’12 apocalyptic trappings, I’ve also met people who seriously believe that Niburu is a scientific theory, and every time I ask them the same question:  “You listen to Art Bell, don’t you?”  They nod.  Every time.

      Therein lies a big chunk of the problem – Clear Channel. If they aren’t feeding morning bullshit from an obese oxycontin junkie, it’s the late night bullshit from coast to coast. As toxic as Fox, maybe even more so.

  • http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

    Couldn’t it just end for them? 

    For just $1000 cash and a document certifying me as your sole beneficiary I will weld you into a 50 gallon barrel and drop you into the ocean. This is the only surefire way to survive the coming apocalypse! Act now! Offer good to first 100,000 customers! Barrels are limited!

    • Andrew Singleton

      Here. We’ll even give you koolaid to drink on the way down. Grape flavored even.

      ….I am going to burn in hell aren’t I?

      • http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

        Grape flavoured Kool Aid? What sorcery is this? I’ll stick to purple flavoured Kool Aid. It tastes like purple!

    • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

      Just tell them the world is going to be eaten by a giant space goat.

      • http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

        You mean star beast? Which has absolutely nothing to do with anyone’s secret breeding projects?

        • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

          Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy actually, though Star Beast is a great book. My son is starting to work his way through the Heinlein Juveniles, most of which I stole from my dad.

          • ANDREW BREEN

            Where is Slartibarfast when we need him?  Anyone have the keys for the Heart of Gold?  Found the Silver Bail?

          • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

            They are all Somebody Else’s Problem.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/John-Koeberlein/1490512280 John Koeberlein

      BAWHAHAHAHA! That’s evil but I like the cut of your jib.

  • Daemonworks

    You mean the same group of people that tracks Santa? Very convincing.

    • http://profile.yahoo.com/GLM7OD3M4VH46HDVQBLO3TWEU4 Brendan

      NORAD.

  • Boundegar

    Laugh now, mockers.  We’ll see who’s laughing when Hun-Hunahpu is eating you like popcorn.

    • bardfinn

      With xocolatl sauce

      • niktemadur

        Hey, that’s Aztec, not Mayan.

  • planettom

    Avoid the terrible faux pas of scheduling your holiday party at the same time as the Mayan Apocalypse with the help of my MAYAN APOCALYPSE COUNTDOWN CLOCK!
    http://planettom.home.mindspring.com/test/mayanapocalypsecountdown.htm

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GVKHNINUD55NXFN4TRNHMBRDB4 Alexandros

    God, I´m so glad when that bullshit is over…
    Its like the Y2K bug, just more idiotic.

    • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

       i got some nice over time pay for that one.

    • TimRowledge

      Except for the whole thing about y2k problems being real issues and being averted by a whole lot of people doing a whole lot of actual useful work and actually solving the freaking problem. Aside from that, yeah just like it.

      And when exactly is boing boing going to replace this idiotic disqus system with something that works?

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Suggestions?

        • Gilbert Wham

          Just not Kinja, ok?

    • http://twitter.com/hainsworthtv Michael Hainsworth

       I’m sure the computer programmers who toiled in obscurity to ensure Y2K wasn’t apocalyptic appreciate your suggestion that it was idiotic to be concerned about it. Your world would have come to an end if it wasn’t for the geeks who still knew COBOL. But go ahead and dismiss the massive effort it took to keep your ATM machine running, your cable service operating, and the filtration plant processing the poo out of your drinking water.

      • http://www.facebook.com/johannes.fabian.ney Johannes Ney

        But what about the millions of small businesses that did not have the ressources to hire some COBOL wizard? And the many countries that did not react quite as extreme as the US? They did not go down in a fireball of chash-less bored people dying of poor sanitation, did they?

        I am not saying more problems wouldn’t have arisen with less preparation, but I am very skeptical of the narrowly avoided catastrophy narrative. I think it was to a large extend a media hype. 

        That being said, since it was at least a legitimate concern it is not really fair to compare it to utter idiocy like this.

      • ocker3

         Not to mention the 1999 bug, I knew a number of people who were up late making sure that didn’t cause too many problems.

  • http://twitter.com/BonzoDog1 BonzoDog1
  • Lobster

    Why am I going to trust a government-funded organization whose SOLE PURPOSE is getting off the planet?

  • Ping Kee

    The belief that the end of the world is nigh is quite widespread in China, with one company even giving employees a holiday on 20-21 Dec so they can spend time with their families on the last day… 

  • Anne Onimos

    How did you manage to give this a racial angle?  Oh, right.  You’re USAmerican—everything can have a racial angle.

    • princessalex

       WTF???

    • Doug Black

       It’s part of our charm.

      • http://www.ecoevolution.org/ Ian G

        our tangy-zip, like Miracle Whip

    • http://twitter.com/MoreScaryRobots MoreScaryRobots

      I think it’s a reference to the fact that the Mayans didn’t actually predict the world would end with their Great Cycle. It’s western new age nonsense, basically.

  • http://profiles.google.com/matware matthew sanders

    Ha, 
    Fools its ending and here is our Prime minister announcing it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebtj3gDaE64
    That my friends is as official as it gets… I’m off buy 10,000 liters of fuel and add wheel knives to the  XB Falcon. 

    • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

      I am more of a gyro copter man myself.

    • Wreckrob8

      ‘My fellow surviving Australians….’

      Is there really no hope for us non-Australians, then?

      • Ryan Woodhouse

        Yeah the Stuff.co.nz article it said she jokingly made that statement.So what does that tell you?

  • msbpodcast

    I think that NASA should be using this as an opportunity to cull the herd of the weakest minds among us by just shutting up.

    If the feeble minded out there believe that the world is ending whenever, let em.

    The day after, NASA should issue a pronouncement about the survivors having better luck time.

  • ANDREW BREEN

    Meh.  I suppose a nihilistic approach is apropos, right?  If it happens, we’re fucked.  If it doesn’t, we’ll all slog to our dead-end jobs, processed foods, and crushing consumer debt–just like every other day.  Six one, half dozen the other.   

  • http://twitter.com/Joe_Bingham Joe_Bingham

    100% of people who drink water will die.  Uga buga!

  • Ryan Woodhouse

    This kind of idiotic rubbish needs to stop NOW!

  • Kram.02

    No worries  Dec 21, tis wifes B’day, we big party. BIG worry as Southern Ocean (surrounds Antarctica) reverses direction of circulation. Lowest 1/3 of southern ocean warming CATASTROPHICALLY fast NOW = melt ice caps from beneath + expansion water > changed ocean currents globally, therefore practice swimming + adjust to drinking salty water. PS, Don’t Worry much     

  • Kram.02

    other PS, google “sun objects”. Worldwide news item 20 mths ago, forgotten in 2 days. Still there. NASA pictures, No Nasa Answers

    • Ryan Woodhouse

      Here we go again the mayan calender said the world won’t end in December and even the modern-day mayan descendants said the world won’t end in December after all they’re the ones who wrote the calender.Sometimes i wish that ****ing calender had never been discovered.btw this whole Planet X thing was predicted for 2003 and it didn’t happen so it got coveniently moved to 2012.

    • tubacat
      • Ryan Woodhouse

        Thanks for providing the link to that article.Well done!!