Editor's Note

Did you know that the end of the world is coming? Again.

According to a lot of people - I don't really want to call them nut-jobs, so for the sake of brevity I'll just call them crazies - the world is scheduled to end in December of 2012. Make your plans accordingly.

The idea that the world will end in a few years is so widely acknowledged, in fact, that famous end-of-the-world-blockbuster director Roland Emmerich has made a new end-of-the-world-blockbuster called, fittingly, 2012. The movie hit screens all over the world last week and is jam-packed with the kind of boffo, CG destruction that's made Emmerich famous. The director's other end-of-the-world-blockbusters include Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow and the crappy American version of Godzilla. With a pedigree like that, it's not surprising that he's jumped on the 2012 crazy train.

So what's so special about 2012, and why do so many people - the aforementioned crazies - think the world is going to end then? I'm glad that I imagined you asked.

The whole 2012 myth started because at some point some archeologists working in Mexico discovered what's known as the Mayan Long Count Calendar. This calendar was invented by the ancient Mayans, a group of people who lived in Mexico thousands of years ago. It's possible that the calendar dates back to the even-older Olmec people.

The Long Count Calendar is pretty complex and organises time into 5,125-year chunks - at which point, the calendar starts over again with another 5,125-year cycle. It's kind of like getting to the evening of December 31 on our modern calendar and starting all over again at January the next morning. The ancient Mesoamericans apparently just had more time on their hands and came up with their super-long calendar.

The point of explaining all of this is that the Long Count Calendar reaches the end of its current cycle in, you guessed it, December of 2012. The fact that this ancient calendar ends has led a lot of people who have a little bit of information and very limited critical thinking skills to conclude that the world will end when the calendar does.

The problem is that as far as we know the Maya never said anything about the world ending. Their calendar was simply meant to start over again when the previous one had run out.

Worrying that the world will end just because some ancient civilisation's calendar has run out is just like worrying that the world will end every December 31. I personally have enough stress in my life, so I avoid obsessing about doomsday at the end of the year by getting myself a new calendar sometime in December.

In the coming weeks, with the release of 2012, and in the years to come, as December 2012 actually approaches, you'll probably hear a lot about nutty prophecies that the world is going to come to an end.

I'm no psychic, it is possible that the world could end - it could end tomorrow, next month, in 2012 or in a billion years. One thing I can tell you is that it's not going to end just because some ancient Mexican guys didn't bother to get a new calendar.

Sean Vale
Editor
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