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Fire, flood or giant calabash... pick your apocalypse
Topic Started: 11 Dec 2012, 01:31 AM (65 Views)
skibboy
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10 DECEMBER 2012

Fire, flood or giant calabash... pick your apocalypse

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Photo illustration shows Chamonix region in France. Devoured by a giant squash, engulfed by flood or flames, frozen in a nuclear winter or new ice age, mankind has looked to The End with fear and fascination since the dawn of civilisation.

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Photo illustration shows a motorbike passing through a over the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Islam also offers a repertoire of tales of mass destruction -- by sandstorm, invasion or fire.

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Photo illustration shows sheep huddled on higher ground near flooded fields in northern Wales. For Judeo-Christians, the flood evokes the biblical story of Noah's Ark, but the motif of a deluge sent upon man by an angry divinity stretches back deep in time.

AFP - Devoured by a giant squash, engulfed by flood or flames, frozen in a nuclear winter or new ice age, mankind has looked to The End with fear and fascination since the dawn of civilisation.

Nature's cycles -- day succeeding night, the four seasons -- long fed fears of being plunged into eternal darkness, or an endless winter.

"Before the great monotheistic religions, most ancient civilisations lived in fear that these cycles would one day stop," explained the historian Bernard Sergent, author of a recent book exploring 13 apocalyptic myths.

The Aztecs believed there was a chance that -- once every 52 years -- the sun would no longer rise, so they ordered copious human sacrifices to ensure it did.

But rather than The End of all things, throughout history a good old apocalypse has often been viewed as a way to reset the clock, divide good from evil and start anew.

Derived from ancient Greek, the word means "revelation". Chosen to figure in the Bible, the Apocalypse of John is just one of the many world's end scenarios that were in circulation in early Christian times.

The Book of Revelation, the last in the New Testament, describes a string of cataclysmic events that annihilate part of life on Earth, culminating with the announcement of the Second Coming of Christ.

Islam also offers a repertoire of tales of mass destruction -- by sandstorm, invasion or fire.

Plague, famine and brutal wars made Europe in the Middle Ages, to many, seem ripe for extermination -- leading to a flourishing of prophecies the world would end in 1,000 AD, just as doomsayers would foretell The End a millennium later.

At the start of the Renaissance, the Anabaptists were convinced the end of the world was nigh, and that it was vital to "rebaptise" adults before it came.

"What is most often at stake is being called to account by the gods, or by nature, it's about being punished for defying some higher order," said Jean-Noel Lafargue, author of a study of world's end myths through history

"Today we no longer need Gods to make us tremble. Man-made disasters suffice. That's what changed in the 20th century."

For thousands of years water was the apocalyptic weapon of choice.

For Judeo-Christians, the flood evokes the biblical story of Noah's Ark, but the motif of a deluge sent upon man by an angry divinity stretches back deep in time.

In Mesopotamia all-engulfing flood myths date from Sumerian times, between the fourth and second millennium BC, as told in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest surviving works of literature.

Ancient Greece and Rome had their share of floods, too: from the Greek deluge of Ogyges -- named after a mythical ruler -- to Atlantis, the legendary island swallowed up by the sea, as recounted by the philosopher Plato.

At the dawn of our era, a deluge myth told by a small people from the Near East, the Hebrews, went on to become the most famous of all.

According to the Book of Genesis, God decided to rid Earth of men and animals, instructing a single, "righteous" man, Noah, to build an ark to save himself and a remnant of life.

Fire usually comes just before, or after a flood.

Greece, Scandinavia, India and native American cultures all spoke of the annihilation of early mankind by flames.

Africa and ancient Egypt had no flood myths, but West African folk tales do speak of a "devouring gourd", or calabash, that swallows up entire settlements, homes, livestock, even the whole of mankind.

"I think it's part of the human make-up, part of the human psyche somewhere, to have a fascination with the end of the world," Jocelyn Bell Burnell, visiting professor of astrophysics at Oxford, told AFP.

In the globalised 21st century, the apocalypse -- on the silver screen -- most often comes as a pandemic or climate cataclysm, but the most enthusiastic doomsayers will doubtless be stockpiling supplies as December 21 supposedly marked by the Mayan calendar as a world's end moment, draws near.

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skibboy
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11 DECEMBER 2012

Guatemala Nobel winner criticizes 'doomsday' hysteria

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, pictured here on 4 November 2011, is unhappy about the commercial hype over the supposed ancient Maya predictions of an end of the world on December 21.

AFP - Rigoberta Menchu, the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner, is unhappy about the commercial hype over the supposed ancient Maya predictions of an end of the world on December 21.

The date marks the end of an era that lasted over 5,000 years, according to the Mayan "Long Count" calendar.

Some believe that the date, which coincides with the December solstice, marks the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs -- an idea ridiculed by scholars.

Nevertheless, millions of tourists are expected to flock to Mexico and Central America for celebrations that will include fireworks and concerts held at more than three dozen archaeological sites.

But don't expect much authenticity, said Menchu, an indigenous Guatemalan of Maya ethnicity.

"The authentic celebration of the Mayas -- that will not be seen by everyone, that is part of the private lives of the Mayas," said Menchu late Monday as she marked the 20th anniversary of her Nobel win.

"We are going to bid farewell to the grandfather sun and will bid him farewell in thousands of ways," Menchu said. "We don't care what the government will do."

The government of President Otto Perez has planned events at 13 archeological sites, especially at Tikal, some 530 kilometers (330 miles) north of Guatemala City.

Native Maya communities, however, have separate ceremonies planned at 11 other sites.

Menchu is hardly the first native Mayan to decry the exploitation of her heritage.

"We are speaking out against deceit, lies and twisting of the truth, and turning us into folklore-for-profit," Felipe Gomez, leader of the Maya alliance Oxlajuj Ajpop, said in October. "They are not telling the truth about time cycles."

The Maya culture flourished between the years 250 and 900, then slowly entered a period of decadence ending around 1200.

Archeologists believe long catastrophic drought sparked political destabilization and triggered wars that led to the collapse of Maya culture.

Scholars say that December 21 simply marks the end of the old Mayan calendar and the beginning of a new one.

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skibboy
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Stock exchange analyst predicts earthquakes for ‘Mayan Apocalypse’ day

Planetary alignments may well lead to major natural event, says famous markets and trends watcher.

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The ancient Mayan settlement at Chichen Itza in Mexico.
Image: Eye Ubiquitous/PA Images

IN RECENT MONTHS, Art Cashin – director of floor operations for UBS at the New York Stock Exchange – has been warning about increased earthquake activity driven by peculiar planetary and solar angles.

It might not sound like it should be part of his job, but spotting trends, patterns and predicting events which might have an impact on trade markets, is of course part of his remit.

In one of his “Cashin’s Comments” columns this week, he notes that another planetary alignment could trigger earthquakes during the period when we’re supposedly going to experience the Mayan apocalypse:

Coincident Anniversary And The Mayans – Pop culture has delighted in focusing on the December 21st Mayan calendar number. Some have even projected the date as the end of the world.

(In fact, floor wags teased disconsolate Romney supporters after the election, by saying “Cheer up. Sure Obama’s re-elected but the world’s gonna end in a month and a half.”)

Some traders note that the Mayan date comes reasonably close to the Anniversary of the great New Madrid earthquake of 1811.

They bring that up because, at least one planetary observer claims that the period of December 17 through 23 will have planetary alignments, which he claims may be conducive to more frequent and more powerful earthquakes on this planet.

This is not astrology.

It simply measures the angle of alignment as if you were observing from the surface of the sun.

Just one more thing to keep track of.

Back on 9 September, Cashin warned of increased earthquake activity just hours before a major earthquake struck off of the coast of Costa Rica.

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