2012: The Movie and The Doomsday Scare

It's not really my thing but last Saturday I went to see 2012. I suppose it's an okay movie if you happen to like catastrophe themed flicks with a body count in the billions and and orgy of special effects but, even then, there's only so much one can take before going WTF?!?

I mean, one thing is to discover that limos and campers are speed demons in disguise (and as nimble as squirrels to boot) but when I see tsunamis causing freak waves in the middle of the ocean, skyscrapers collapsing into each other rather than to the ground, and St. Peter's Basilica first flipping to one side (pretty much intact) then rolling over a pious crowd, my suspension of disbelief fails me miserably.

Still, I don't have a problem with the movie itself. As I said, I suppose it's good fun if you're into this sort of things. On the other hand, the same can't be said about the myths surrounding the year 2012.

I must confess that the first time I heard about the 2012 doomsday scare was after watching the trailer for the movie, and only because it suggested to "GOOGLE SEARCH: 2012", which I did. I was expecting more information about the movie, but Google's second suggestion was "2012 end of the world", followed by "2012 predictions", "2012 prophecy" and "2012 doomsday".

Of course I couldn't resist so I went ahead and discovered sites like 2012 Warning which, right in the front page, informed me that President Obama is, apparently, a Muslim:

Please watch the video below to hear these shocking words by the president of the United States. If you are an American living in the US, this may make you a little sick.

Uh? Why should it matter if he is a Muslim, why only to Americans living in the US and, more to the point, what does it have to do with 2012? Anyway, I went past that drivel and learned (so to speak) more about Planet Nibiru (a.k.a. Planet X), the Mayan Calendar and, of course, the always handy Nostradamus prophecies.

Now, as far as I'm concerned you can say whatever you want, even construe fiction or pseudo science as science and make a fool of yourself in the process but, with so many sites dedicated to the subject, it seems that people are beginning to take things a bit too seriously. So much, in fact, that NASA itself maintains a 2012 FAQ and even features guest articles about it.

If you're even remotely worried, check them out and you'll discover that there's no Planet Nibiru, the videos on YouTube are either fakes or false images of the Sun caused by internal reflections in the lens, and Zacharia Sitchin's had a very fervid imagination but very little grasp of both physics and sumerian -- but I won't hold the latter against him.