Good news, PopWatchers! The world won’t be coming to an end in 2012, no matter what Roland Emmerich’s new movie says. We checked with Dr. Edwin Krupp, director of LA’s Griffith Observatory–who also happens to be an expert on the Mayan calendar–and he assured us that the Earth will continue going about its business despite what you’ll be seeing on movie screens when 2012 opens (Nov. 13). “On or about the 21st of December, 2012, the Maya calendar is going to complete one of its cycles, which is called a Baktun,” Krupp says. “It’s just an interval. It happens every 5125 years. This particular interval is Baktun number 13, as it’s known in the traditional Maya scriptures. But the Mayans never said anything about this being the end of time. That’s just something somebody made up. In fact, there’s only one inscription on one Maya monument that refers to Baktun number 13 at all. That inscription is about a Mayan god and how he’s going to do this that and the other thing–but there’s nothing about the end of of the world.” In other words, PopWatchers, whew.
2012 won't be the end after all
Blog Roll
- Best Week Ever
- BuzzSugar
- Coolfer
- Dark Horizons
- Deadline Hollywood Daily
- Digital Music News
- Gold Derby
- Hits Daily Double
- Hollywood Elsewhere
- Hollywood Wiretap
- Huffington Post
- Hypebot
- Idolator
- jaded insider
- Lost Remote
- Movie City News
- Movie List
- MTV News
- Pop Candy
- PopBytes
- Popeater
- reality blurred
- Salon: Arts & Entertainment
- Stereogum
- The Beat
- The Programming Insider
- Thompson on Hollywood
- Tuned In
- TV Barn
- TV Tattle
- TVFanatic.com
- TVNewser
- Velvet Rope
Featured Video
OscarWatch TV: 'Avatar' as underdog?
Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz on the rise of ''Hurt Locker,'' Sandra leapfrogging Meryl for Best Actress
More 
Today's Most Popular
-
Ken Tucker's TV The last 'Jay Leno Show': I watched it so you didn't have to -
-
-
-
Special Coverage
Totally 'Lost'!
Get up to speed for the final season:
New theories and news from Doc Jensen, exclusive video, photos, trivia, and more
More
Comments (1-15) of 28 Add your comment
Whew, glad that’s been cleared up. Because if the Mayans DID believe that the world would end in 2012, I would have been worried.
I always thought the world-coming-to-and-end crap was completely ridiculous but it’s nice to have some assurance from someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. So, yeah, I guess “whew” is appropriate.
This is all common knowledge, or so I thought. You mean some people really thought the Mayans predicted the end of the world in 2012 and believed it would really happen? Seriously? It never fails to surprise me how people with access to so much information can be so willfully ignorant and superstitious.
People see the face of Jesus on burnt toast, put it on eBay, and make hundreds of dollars. And you find *this* surprising?
I’m pretty non-conspiracy of any sort, but I’m not assured just yet because of one expert. I’ve been watching too many Nostradamus specials to not be freaked out.
So if the world is still going on by 2013, I’ll sigh a relief and worry about the end of the world when global warming finally snaps back in 2012 as others predicted, lol.
I approve of the use of the phrase “this that and the other thing.” It makes it all more comforting, somehow.
Yesssssss.
I never really believed it. I just bought all that canned food for the homeless…
I knew the end of the world wouldn’t happen so close to Christmas!
It kind of saddens me that people actually buy into this sort of thing. What are all the 2012 conspiracy theorists going to do on Dec. 22, 2012?
The world isn’t going to end on a day that anyone could have seen coming. That’s kind of the point, that it will come when no one really expects it. It’s futile trying to predict it, because 1) you’ll always be wrong and 2) if it’s inevitable, what’s the point in worrying over something that you have no control over?
Yea, I always thought they believed it was just some sort of beginning of a new era or something along those lines, NOT the end of the world…
I didn’t realize that there were actually people who honestly believe the world will end in 2012. Seriously? There are people who truly believe this?
Crap. I was kinda hoping the world would end before I had to deal with turning 40 in 2013.
2012 is the new Y2K. Remember what happened with that?
Well, Stewie turned into a mutant octopus and Lois got serenaded by Randy Newman, but otherwise, the Griffins fared pretty well. So, yeah…Y2K, no biggie.
Somewhere, Randy is still singing “Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot . . .”
Wow, old news is so exciting.
e