Postscript: Doomsday May 21, 2011

May 21, 2011 has come and gone nearly everywhere in the world and the world has not been ravaged by earthquakes nor have any Christians been gathered up by the Rapture, at least not that any of the mainstream media have reported. That's one less prophet to worry about now. I do feel sorry for those who have been duped by their faith in this man. To err is human, after all.

Doomsday May 21, 2011

In case you had not heard, the end of the world (Judgment Day in Christian circles) is supposed to start on May 21, 2011, with a series of earthquakes just before 6 pm (not sure what time zone though) and the Earth will be utterly destroyed in October 2011. All this according to various news reports about Christian "prophet" Harold Camping who preaches through his Family Radio Christian network (FamilyRadio.com). Camping apparently did his calculations from Biblical verses but only counted forward from 4900 BC. Other Christian leaders have dismissed his claims. Camping had previously calculated Doomsday to be in September 1994, so clearly he has no credibility. Robert Fitzpatrick's book The Doomsday Code (2010) is based on the Camping Calculations.

Apocalyptic earthquake in Japan, March 11, 2011

Northeastern Japan was struck by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011. A large tsunami was generated that not only devastated parts of Japan but also swept across the Pacific. While Hawaii and British Columbia were spared any significant damage, there were reports of damage in California. My deepest condolences to the victims and their families. I hope you will help support the recovery effort in Japan by a donation to one of these disaster relief organizations. Here is a link through which you can follow Google News indexed coverage of this terrible catastrophe.

Carriers (2009) movie

In the 2009 movie Carriers, a virus outbreak in the United States has decimated just about everyone, at least in what appears to be the western half of the continent. A road movie starring Christopher (Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk) Pine as an extremely unlikeable protagonist, he and his younger brother, along with their respective girlfriends, are on their way to the ocean (California?) to recapture their childhood and teenage years when their family vacationed there. At the end of the journey only two of the four are left alive at their destination. This is a grim and unrelenting look at an apocalyptic future.

"Long Count Calendar Blues" music excerpt

Since one of my passions is music, I've been working on a series of dance pieces as part of a concept CD I call "The Apocalypse Sessions: Dances for Dark Days." Here's an excerpt from a track I composed titled "Long Count Calendar Blues" in reference to the Mayan Long Count Calendar that allegedly predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012.

A track excerpt of 2 minutes, 27 seconds duration is on the Internet Archive and the full version (not downloadable) is available through my SoundCloud account for your listening pleasure.

The Crystal Skull (2008) novel

British novelist Manda Scott in her 2008 novel The Crystal Skull tackles the 2012 Mayan Long Count calendar "prediction" of the end of the world by mashing it up with the mysterious and completely fabricated Mesoamerican crystal skulls (all known examples that have been authenticated were created in the 19th century present era and later, not by Aztecs or Mayans). She claims that the Mayans "carved thirteen crystal skulls" (paperback back cover blurb) and that the Mayans "to protect humankind ... sent them to the four corners of the globe" (paperback back cover blurb). The Mayans are not known to have had deep seafaring capabilities, so she must an ingenious explanation as to how they got the skulls to the four corners of the globe.

Shades of Grey (2009) novel

Jasper Fforde's highly imaginative and satirical look at a post-apocalyptic world organized around color scheme is one of the few novels to take a lighthearted approach to doomsday. In Shades of Grey, Fforde slowly reveals the strange workings of the Colortocracy that rules Chromatica, the world that exists after Something That Happened and where to be a Yellow, Red, Blue or any of the other acceptable colors, even Grey, defines one's sole being.