The cost of the end of the world

2012 is by no means the most ridiculous end of the world prediction, though it's unique in that it has its own exotic appeal.  This one is not based on Abrahamic religions, which have built into them the basis for Apocalyptic fan-fic.  It's from deep in the jungle, where astronomers battled with the forest canopy to gaze at the night sky, and mathematicians created knot-based counting systems complex calendars.

It's the ending of their calendar that has caused all of this end of the world speculation.  And baseless speculation is what can hurt people.

This article touches on the continuing saga of people predicting the coming of Christ over the years, and how those predictions affected the decisions of many people, many to their ruin.  Harold Camping ruined the lives of many of his followers after his failed prediction of the Rapture and the Apocalypse.  It wasn't even his first failed prediction!

Other doom and gloom predictions have caused people to do horrible things to themselves, like suicide from the misguided belief the the Large Hadron Collider would end the world.  That was in no small part due to the irresponsibility of the non-skeptical news media hyping the event and inflaming the irrational fears of a non-skeptical audience.

So, are end of the world predictions something that should be ignored?  Absolutely not.  They should be questioned, investigated, and when necessary, mocked.  Mockery, I believe, is the best antidote to silly ideas.  Silly ideas are only dangerous if taken seriously, and it's hard to take something seriously when it's being mocked and satirized.

Time Travel

The 2012 Doomsayers can come up with some pretty crazy ideas, most of which have no basis in reality. But us normal everyday folk travel through time twice a year.  Today is one of those days where the government (the US government, in most states) mandates that we travel backwards in time one hour.

Yes, I know that we're not traveling backwards in time.  We're merely taking one hour from March and shoving it into November.  The purpose of such a thing was to give farmers more hours of daylight to work in the fields in the summertime.  I figure it would be easier if they just did everything an hour later.  We're not "saving" any daylight.  We're just fiddling with the clocks; creating chances for people to show up for work at the wrong time twice a year.

I don't find it annoying, but I do find it useless.  I read a quote, and I can't remember who it was by, nor can I remember the exact quote, so I'll do my best (and if anyone knows who said this, let me know): "How strange that the government thinks they can cut off the top of the blanket, and sew it to the bottom of the blanket, and think that they have a longer blanket."