Yup, it's the year 2000 alllll over again!!!! Cause you know, the world totally ended in 2000.

No, I don't believe in superstitions.

Human civilization will terminate in a number of possible ways...
+ The Malthusian catastrophe (human population exceeds agriculture production) (the most likely, and most inevitable).
+ A "super plague".
+ A massive meteor impact.
+ Widespread large scale nuclear warfare.
+ Or, ultimately, the Sun goes nova.

The list is almost endless, these are just the ones that came to mind.

But, the end of the Aztec calendar does not foretell our doom.
I do have a keg party planned with my friends on 12.21.12 (it's a Friday night), but I don't have any plans to borrow a million dollars from a loan shark in the weeks leading up to the event.

Actually, he's referring to electrical outtages, not the solar flare itself when he says "very long time." And technically, he's correct in that a solar flare of sufficient magnitude and charge and all that could have damaging effects on electronics, transformers, substations, and other parts of the electrical grid. Of course, we can minimize this through both preventive measures, and by turning off equipment, and forcing blackouts.

I forgot I had saved this link:
http://news.discovery.com/space/ray-villard-doomsday-theories.html.

A very matter-of-fact article debunking the doomsday theories.

1. In a couple of billion year mankind will probably be extinct anyway, and who knows about life on Earth by then?

2. 500 years from now mankind will probably have a solution. Technology is on a rapid incline, and if we can cryo-freeze Bruce Willis like we did Walt Disney, then we'd probably be fine and he can save the planet.

3. Too stupid and too blind to believe or too conservative to believe in liberal myths?

I think it's the Mayan calender, which the Aztecs based theirs on, and they also would believe that the world was about to end every 60 years or so with something to do with the cycle of the calender. They never could figure out that the world wasn't about to end even though they kept thinking it would, going into a panic.

How long? That sounds very inconvenient.

Doh, you're right.
I said Aztec but meant Mayan.

"The (nearly direct) currents induced in these lines from geomagnetic storms are harmful to electrical transmission equipment, especially generators and transformers — induces core saturation, constraining their performance (as well as tripping various safety devices), and causes coils and cores to heat up. This heat can disable or destroy them, even inducing a chain reaction that can overload and blow transformers throughout a system.[14][15][16] This is precisely what happened on March 13, 1989: in Québec, as well as across parts of the northeastern U.S., the electrical supply was cut off to over 6 million people for 9 hours due to a huge geomagnetic storm. Some areas of Sweden were similarly affected."

In a large scale situation, with the proper preventative measures and prompt maintenance (which is obviously going to be a major priority), I'm guessing no longer than a day or two.

STOP DROP N ROLL NIBIRU IS COMING!!!

Depends. Quebec lost power for 9 hours once due to a geomagnetic storm caused by a coronal mass ejection from the sun. Honestly, the kind of circumstances needed for devestating power outtages and the like are not very likely, and certainly couldn't have been predicted by the mayans. I'd sooner see an accurate prediction of the color of my underwear on may 20th, 2064 by the combined wisdom of the SCOTUS then see the mayans accurately predict something that they wouldn't have even felt the effects of back when they made that blasted calendar.

edit1: if you're looking for a good time estimate, length of outtage depends on two things:

1.extensiveness of damage,

2. reliability and availability of repairs, up to and including replacement of equipment.

"The idea was first put forward in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the Web site ZetaTalk. Lieder describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extra-terrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 (though that date was later abandoned) causing Earth to undergo a pole shift that would destroy most of humanity. The predicted collision has subsequently spread beyond Lieder's Web site and has been embraced by numerous Internet doomsday groups, most of which link the event to the 2012 phenomenon."

Wow people are even crazier than I thought. :rofl:

My worry has nothing to do with the fabled 2012 "prophecy". I'm just curious to know how much of a pain some future electrical blackouts may be.

Let's put it this way, you'd have a strange sort of luck if you experience the effects of one in your lifetime. If you experience more than one, than the sun is a sentient entity that hates your guts.

Usually I just say no as bluntly as I can when people ask me if I believe in the crazy theory of the month. But with 2012 I honestly wouldn't be suprised if something really big happened just as a natural result of the political situation of the world. However if something does happen (big if) I still wouldn't think the Mayans were truely predicting the future and just got luck playing Nostradamus roulette.

I am not scared of 2012. I am scared of what people are going to do to themselves and others once it comes if they believe it. I think it is just another Y2K Story. A lot of people are going to get all hyped up about it, then when it is supposed to happen, it won't and people will have wasted a bunch of time and energy worrying about it. Thats just my opinion, nothing more.

But the damage could remain for a very long time in a worst case scenario (which is unlikely). Just said what I heard Not saying I believe we'll all die 2012, lol.

I believe in 2012. I also believe in 2013. And 2014 for that matter.

Dooms Day prophecies are always around. Kinda hilarious.

"People have been predicting the end of time since the beginning of"

And on facebook I am officially attending 2013