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End of the World: Is the End of the World Coming?
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End of the World: Surviving the End of the World
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How to Survive 2012
by Patrick Geryl
The first question we have to ask here is whether the original How to Survive 2012 was written in English. I say that because of the rampant typographical and/or spelling errors. Geryl begins his premise with the notion that magnetic pole reversal is in fact the south pole becoming the north pole and the north pole becoming the south pole. How does this happen? Is it like an earthquake or a tidal wave, or do the tectonic plates suddenly move and the two poles swap places? The author doesn’t tell us how but he says its will be horrible. A pole reversal makes “the earth moan, pouring it’s oceans onto the lands, mountains collapse, rivers run upstream”. Somehow I feel like I’m watching Bill Murray in Ghost Busters, “If you let the ghosts out….mountains collapsing, rivers running upstream, dogs and cats living together, real Old Testament stuff…”
Geryl also makes the assumption that the Mayans and Ancient Egyptians “were privy to the sunspot cycle and the magnetic field theory of polar shift” The author is apparently try to excavate an ancient burial site that will reveal more about 2012 but he doesn’t tell us where on Earth he is digging. He does tell us that there have been many times during the zodiacal progression of the Sun that disasters have taken places between different ages. Like our current transition from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. He also make vague references to his other books including the World cataclysm in 2012.
How to Survive 2012 is a shining example of the casualties of digital publishing. In this era of “anyone can be an author”; meaningless, poorly written drivel like this pollutes cyber space. When there is no book editor, when anyone can sell a book at Amazon.com, the only things that stands between quality writing and chaos is a book review like this, truly the Armageddon of 2012 has already arrived.
Aftermath: Prepare For and Survive Apocalypse 2012
by Lawrence E. Joseph
Mr. Joseph has written a plausible and very readable 2012 Survival Guide. He begins by saying that the best way to test the Mayan Calendar predictions is to see how accurate they have been in the past. He refers to a Mayan prediction about butterflies that predicted the Spanish Conquest in the 1500's. I'm not sure if I connect those dots but the book details all of it's arguments in excellent, clear, and precise prose.
This book also embraces one of the core principles of the 2012 movement. - the notion that on Dec. 21, 2012, our Sun will interpose itself between the Earth and the center of our own Milky Way. This can be best understood by comparing it to an eclipse of the Sun. During a Solar Eclipse the moon interposes itself between the Earth & the Sun. For a few minutes the sun is blotted out by the Moon and along a narrow strip on the Earth, night appears and the stars come out. In the 2012 myth, the lining up of the Earth, Sun, & center of our Milky Way Galaxy will cause a powerful disturbances on earth. Just as the ancients feared that the Sun would not return so do 2012 dooms-dayers believe that the earth will be subjected to massive changes from this effect since it is predicted by the Mayan Calendar.
In defense of science, the fear of armageddon from such an alignment is comparable to the fear that the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court exploited to save his own life. In the Mark Twain story, a man with knowledge of eclipses from the Farmer's Almanac is transported back to the time of King Arthur when there was no prediction of eclipses. He warns the English who have him captive that he has the power to blot out the sun and since he knows there is an eclipse happening on that day, his prediction comes true. When the Court agrees to free him, he waves his hands magically and the Sun returns all seeming to be conducted by the Yankee's personal magic when in fact the eclipse came & went.
There are 2 things from an astronomical point of view that have to be kept in mind. First, the catastrophic event will is not be anything you can see in the night sky at the 2012 winter solstice any more than you could see planets aligned for the Harmonic Convergence. No planets were aligned for that event in reality and none were visible. Moreover, the Sun will cross the galactic center on the 2012 Solstice during the day because that is when the Sun is in Sagittarius where the galactic center resides.
As you can see, the arguments in this 2012 survival guide are well laid out, providing for a rigorous and exciting discussion even though some scientists like myself may believe the premises are dead wrong.
The 2012 Guide Book: How to Make the End of the World Fun!
by Corey Deitz
We’re going to end our 2012 Survival Guide Book critique and review with a hilarious send up of the entire 2012 phenomenon. Mr. Deitz is a radio personality who has taken on all the 2012 doomsayers. With chapter titles like “I love, love, love, my Mayan Calendar Girls”, “The World is full of IceHoles” “Space will kick your Assteroid” and “Black Hole in One” the fun begins on the very first page. This survival guide starts with “Just how would I fight off a cataclysmic zombie attack if the world were suddenly to end today…December 21, 2012. What the…? Everyone gets gypped out of Christmas because some Aztec Gregorian Calendar wannabes couldn’t get this thing right?”
Unlike the 2012 Survival Guide for Dummies which I really thought was going to be funny, this book is really hilarious. It even has funny pictures. The book is strewn with old photos (color and black and white) which are re-captioned. They include “Techalotl – the Aztec Goddess of iPhone apps” and another picture of the “Earth placed in a galactic museum as to be put on display for Alien Beings to See.” These captions are humorous but when you see the pictures in the book they describe you will laugh out loud. A sobering and entertaining look at the whole 2012 extravaganza, go out and buy it today!
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to 2012
This 2012 survival guide concentrates on the sudden disappearance of the Mayan culture, pyramid power, and magnetic field reversal as some of the major areas of possible 2012 catastrophe. Even though it’s called the Complete’s Idiot’s Guide, the introduction talks about the book being a “rosetta stone that can alleviate our own lack of awareness” about the Mayan prophecy. The actual rosetta stone is inscribed in 3 languages allowing for the first time an accurate translation of Eqyptian hieroglyphics. Whether the Complete Idiot’s Guide to 2012 is comparable to the rosetta stone we will leave to the reader.
Like many 2012 doomsday books, this tome must at the outset set forth that the Mayan were indeed an advanced civilization even though they possessed no modern technology and practiced human sacrifice. If I as a scientist were to write an Idiot’s Guide I would first question the idiocy of some primitive culture’s ruminations. Believing in the Mayan Calendar is really more similar to presuming the authenticity of Sharia Law as Mayans are much more closely related to the Taliban then an advanced, ancient civilization like Atlantis or Lemuria.
To the book’s credit, it is very nicely organized into 6 parts starting with “The Timekeepers” and finishing up with what to do after the apocalypse in a section called “After 2012”. The appealing and distinctive aspect of this 2012 survival guide is the use of various clever icons to help the reader discern fact from fiction (or at least influence the reader’s deductive process). These symbols include an icon portraying a warning klaxon which they call “cosmic caution” where taking a concept introduced in the book too far could lead to dangerous outcomes or outright delusion. These adornments plus the excellent layout of the book make it a joy to read.
