The good ol' 2012 prediction.

[vindicatedxjin]

I dunno if there has already been a thread on this subject, but I didn't see one. I'm just curious to know what everyone's opinions are...

[Amunet]

I think that the only thing that's going to really happen is the mass panic of the general population because of all the media hype about it. I really think it'll be worse than the Y2K thing because this isn't just about the electronics going haywire or stock market crashing, its supposedly the end of the human race, and because the fucking media is hyping up the credibility of these "prophecies" and people are gonna take it and run with it in my opinion. I dunno. I guess we'll just have to wait and see......

[Random Havoc]

Ask me again in 2013.

[Saya]

After I saw a few people on another forum mention "Sarah Palin 2012" stuff, I think there might be some merit to this after all.

[vindicatedxjin]

I honestly have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I do believe that if anything happens for sure, then it's going to have to do with the solar flare that's expected to happen that year. (Which is real by the way) The only reason why it's going to have any effect on us humans though, is because of our technology.It's supposed to burn up our satellites, causing our cell phones, tv, etc. to go bye bye. I highly doubt we'll be able to feel anything. It happens every 20 years. Only difference is at that time we didn't use cell phones or satellite tv. I found a news report where the well known scientist Michio Kaku...talked about it. I think you can find it on youtube by searching his name.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

I honestly have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I do believe that if anything happens for sure, then it's going to have to do with the solar flare that's expected to happen that year. (Which is real by the way) The only reason why it's going to have any effect on us humans though, is because of our technology.It's supposed to burn up our satellites, causing our cell phones, tv, etc. to go bye bye. I highly doubt we'll be able to feel anything. It happens every 20 years. Only difference is at that time we didn't use cell phones or satellite tv. I found a news report where the well known scientist Michio Kaku...talked about it. I think you can find it on youtube by searching his name.

Thats bull, satellite tv has been around since 1962 and commercially available since the seventies. Twenty years ago we had a monster of a satellite dish but it didn't break due to any solar flares. Cell phones have been around for ages too, my dad had to carry this big brick around with him, and guess what? Didn't fizz out due to solar flares. Also while satellite phones exist when you make a call it doesn't go to outer space and back, chances are you're using cell phone towers here on earth.

Also, solar flares are hard to predict and they don't happen every 20 years, the most powerful one in recent history was in 2005 and the main concern was radiation to our bodies rather than our technology.

[vindicatedxjin]

Well I'm just going based off of what a very credible scientist said. If nothing happens then yay for us, but if something DOES happen then it's going to suck.

[Saya]

A credible scientist? What credible scientist would claim cell phones and satellite tv didn't exist twenty years ago and that solar flares happen on a twenty year cycle?

[vindicatedxjin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hujQg2E_fDw

Gosh there's no need to be so argumentative.

[Random Havoc]

What you're talking about isn't just any solar flare. It's called a solar maximum.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

Solar maximum is contrasted with solar minimum. Solar maximum is the period when the sun's magnetic field lines are the most distorted due to the magnetic field on the solar equator rotating at a slightly faster pace than at the solar poles. The sun takes about 11 years to go from one solar maximum to another and 22 years to complete a full cycle.

More importantly, the last solar max was in 2001, well after cell phones and satellites became standard phenomenon here on earth. The next one is predicted by NASA for 2013, NOT 2012. There's an IMAX documentary about this subject if you'd like to learn more, regardless it is not the type of thing that's going to have a drastic effect on life on Earth. I'm sure Dr. Kaku would be thrilled to know his name is becoming well known, but his discussion of this subject only ties in with the mayan prediction in that he specifies the same year for the next solar max, 2012. Again, that's his personal prediction of when the next solar max will be, NASA dates their prediction of the event a year later.

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by Random Havoc

What you're talking about isn't just any solar flare. It's called a solar maximum.

Courtesy of Wikipedia:


More importantly, the last solar max was in 2001, well after cell phones and satellites became standard phenomenon here on earth. The next one is predicted by NASA for 2013, NOT 2012. There's an IMAX documentary about this subject if you'd like to learn more, regardless it is not the type of thing that's going to have a drastic effect on life on Earth. I'm sure Dr. Kaku would be thrilled to know his name is becoming well known, but his discussion of this subject only ties in with the mayan prediction in that he specifies the same year for the next solar max, 2012. Again, that's his personal prediction of when the next solar max will be, NASA dates their prediction of the event a year later.

Thanks for the info, I'm going to read up on that.

[Random Havoc]

Oh, and just an aside.. I'd be wary about using anything from Fox News to back up any information you've found. Very few people actually consider it a credible news organisation. I've heard it referred to as the National Enquirer of prime time news.

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by Random Havoc

Oh, and just an aside.. I'd be wary about using anything from Fox News to back up any information you've found. Very few people actually consider it a credible news organisation. I've heard it referred to as the National Enquirer of prime time news.

Yah I don't like fox nor watch it, but I do like Kaku, and find his opinions worth listening to.

[Saya]

Oh jesus fox news. He lies when he says Nasa agrees btw:

Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html

Kaku's pretty famous but he has no evidence that this is going to be disastrous for us, the most we have to worry about is some NASA equipment getting damaged.

[Ben Lahnger]

A single scientist is your source? There are multiple "credible" scientists with opposing opinions, but you want to go with the one that feeds your Chicken Little fantasies?

The really credible scientists, the ones who diligently researched these things found three things: 1) the calendar was meant to be cyclical. 2012 isn't the first time it's run out , so the Mayans weren't predicting the end of the world by any means, 2) there won't be a significant planetary alignment occurring at this time, but the earth has withstood such alignments previously in it's 4 billion year history with no problem and 3) there are no predictable space collision/impact events that are imminent that could cause this date to be significant.

2012: Why The World Won't End by N.A.S.A.

The Great 2012 Scare by The Editors of Sky & Telescope

The 6 Best 2012 Apocalypse Theories (Are All Bullshit) by Cracked.com

Also, wasn't this a thread already that died a well-deserved death due to boredom with the subject?

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by Random Havoc

Oh, and just an aside.. I'd be wary about using anything from Fox News to back up any information you've found. Very few people actually consider it a credible news organisation. I've heard it referred to as the National Enquirer of prime time news.

Ditto for using Wikipedia. LOL!

[vindicatedxjin]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Also, wasn't this a thread already that died a well-deserved death due to boredom with the subject?

I never saw one. And I don't have chicken fantasies. I honestly don't think much is going to happen if anything. And I know that the concept of nothing happening outweighs the possibility of something ACTUALLY happening. But still even if there was a 1 percent chance of anything possibly going coocoo, I would still be curious.

[Random Havoc]

LOL Yeah, I know.. Wikipedia isn't the 'best source' for anything, it's the quick source for things that are pointlessly trivial, and some of the information is valid, though you do have to check it against other sources, more often than not..

[FlowerGirl]

I remember back in 1999, there was a huge hype about the possibility of the world ending in 2000 (along with the Y2K bug). Year 2000 came and went. Nothing happened.

Then there's renewed interest again when people misinterpreted that December 21, 2012 will be the end of the world, according to the Mayan long count calendar. Hollywood grasped this opportunity to make the another predictable end-of-the-world movie "2012". All they did was create awesome effects and put John Cussack as the lead actor to make it awesome. (Btw, my all-time favourite end-of-the-world movies are still "Armageddon" and "Independence Day") -__-

[vindicatedxjin]

Umm.....okay?

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

I never saw one. And I don't have chicken fantasies. I honestly don't think much is going to happen if anything. And I know that the concept of nothing happening outweighs the possibility of something ACTUALLY happening. But still even if there was a 1 percent chance of anything possibly going coocoo, I would still be curious.

Then I am deeply saddened for you that you do not have more interesting things in your life to be curious about.

[vindicatedxjin]

I'm curious about EVERYTHING.

[Ben Lahnger]

Originally Posted by FlowerGirl

(Btw, my all-time favourite end-of-the-world movies are still "Armageddon" and "Independence Day") -__-

I'm partial to "The Day After Tomorrow" just for the big screen special effects. "Armageddon" was pretty cool. I found "The Omega Man" to be a guilty pleasure. And in book form, I like "The Stand" and "The HAB Theory."

[FlowerGirl]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

I'm partial to "The Day After Tomorrow" just for the big screen special effects. "Armageddon" was pretty cool. I found "The Omega Man" to be a guilty pleasure. And in book form, I like "The Stand" and "The HAB Theory."

Yes - i remember that awful movie. I mean, why slowly freeze to death in an Ice Age rather than just get wiped out by a massive asteroid.

Ehh. Stephen King. (no comment)...

"The HAB Theory" on the other hand, is a good book (amazing plot) - although the subplots drag on a bit long.

[PortraitOfSanity]

Originally Posted by vindicatedxjin

I'm stupid and gullible.

Fixed this 4 u.