The Twelve (2009) novel

Judging from the reviews on Amazon.com, William Gladstone's first novel The Twelve (Vanguard Press, 2009) is a badly written story revolving around the silliness surrounding the Mayan Long Count calendar.




2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006) book

Daniel Pinchbeck's 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is one of the key texts in the global debate around whether the world will end, according to the Mayan Long Count calendar, in December 2012. Pinchbeck is not the most objective of authors on this subject since his book is essentially predicated on the assumption that hallucinogenic (psychedelic) substances such as were used by Mayan shamans, produce knowledge of future events that can or must be accepted as valid.

There is no reason to believe that someone's drug-induced vision of a future has any basis in reality or that the same vision can be reproduced by another person. Further, there is no actual evidence to link the cyclical Long Count calendar with any ancient Mayan prophecy on the subject of the world's end when calendar reaches the end of its current cycle and starts over again. As I have noted elsewhere on this blog, not even the ancient Mayans when the calendar was still in use, believed that the world would end in 2012.

Like any good doomsdayer, Pinchbeck attempts to link his own predictions with current extrapolations about future global collapse with the Mayan Long Count calendar countdown. The problem, however, is that those scientific models are based on scientific observations and at the earliest the models are predicting drastic effects around 2050, well after 2012. In a newspaper article I read about his book ("Cult figure on a mission to unlock the mysteries of 2012", Jamie Portman, Vancouver Sun, November 27, 2009), Pinchbeck did not even list nuclear armageddon as a more likely causal scenario for global destruction brought about through competition for depleted resources by an overpopulated world.

While Pinchbeck has an outstanding resume as an author, I think anyone who spends a great deal of time dissecting crop circles and their relationship to the Mayan calendar as well as their own personal life, is not the most objective analyst of the historical record.

The Aftermath (1982) movie

The Aftermath (1982) is a direct-to-video movie about two astronauts who return from a mission to find a gang and mutant-infested Los Angeles as the result of a nuclear war.

Legion (2010) movie

In the 2010 movie Legion the Angels of the Lord return to exterminate Mankind. And just when we thought things could not get any worse, humanity's only salvation is a single angel, Michael, who decides to help us and some strangers, including the mother of the unborn Savior, in a desert diner. I suppose the food there is just as bad.

Path of Destruction (2005) TV movie

Nanobots unleashed after an accident on an oil drilling platform threaten to destroy the world by producing bad weather, bad acting and bad special effects in the 2005 TV movie Path of Destruction. Somehow the United States military is also to blame, but then they've always been an easy target.

Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2009) TV documentary

This 2009 TV documentary, Seven Signs of the Apocalypse, looks at the end of world from the perspective of the Bible's New Testament's Book of Revelation as interpreted from a scientific viewpoint. From the few minutes I glimpsed, there seemed to be a lot of nuclear explosions and planetary impacts. This was broadcast on Canada's History Television on November 15, 2009, possibly to exploit the November 13 premiere of the movie 2012.

Nostradamus: 2012 (TV) documentary

Nostradamus and 2012, what more could an apocalypticholic wish for? This 2009 TV documentary, Nostradamus: 2012, was broadcast on Canada's History Television on November 15, 2009, likely to coincide with the premiere of the movie 2012 on November 13 and the United States' History Channel.

Update for July 1, 2010: I watched the DVD version and it's as bad as I remember it. One of the best factual bloopers is when the narrator states that the Mayans are thought to have observed the galactic alignment of around 26,000 years ago and that their Long Calender cycle, which is supposed to coincide with the next galactic alignment, was an astonishing astronomical prediction. There was a caption that appeared at one point after the narrator's bold statement that said "The Maya 2000 BC to 1500 AD."

What is this galactic alignment you're probably asking? According to this program it's when the sun appears to rise and pass across the center of the Milky Way galaxy, an area known as the Dark (better known as the Great) Rift according to these experts. One "expert," Lawrence Joseph (Apocalypse 2012) stated that the last galactic alignment coincided with the end of the last ice age. Nothing could be further from the truth since it's long been established and accepted that the last ice age, in which much of North America and Europe/Asia were covered by glacial ice sheets, ended around 10,000 years ago.

All the hype about 2012 is nothing more than fear-mongering with a very distinct anthropomorphic flavor. Assuming there is intelligent life elsewhere in this vast galaxy of ours, it's doubtful that they have any concerns at all about a galactic alignment that will have neither an impact on Earth or on any other part of the Milky Way. We are so far away from the Great Rift that the whole concept of the sun somehow aligning with the center of the Milky Way and causing catastrophic changes on Earth is ludicrous.

Terminator movies (1984-2009) and TV series (2008-2009)

The Terminator movie and TV series are among the most powerful, post-apocalyptic dramas ever created. The basic premise is an age-old science fiction theme, that of sentient or intelligent machines that decide to eliminate humanity. The first three movies starred California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as the unstoppable Terminator robot sent back to kill a single human in order to effect a change in the future. He also made a digital cameo appearance in the 2009 Terminator movie. The first three Terminator movie were co-written and directed by James Cameron and made him a major player in Hollywood.

Here are the existing live-action movies and TV series up to December 2009:

The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV series, 2008-2009)