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I watched a National Geographic special the other day on NetFlix. It was about the Mayan culture in South America and Mexico. This documentary was about several anthropologist who took it upon themselves to decipher the ancient hieroglyphics that covered the buildings and walls of the decaying Mayan structures. It was quite ironic how the anthropologists romanticized the undisturbed culture of the Mayans and the harm (they say) Spanish priests brought to their way of life. Well, according to the history of their "civilization" these people lived in constant conflict and fear. War and bloodshed was a common community concern....

Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas - because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012. Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of - but the encounter has left him worried his life will be over next year. He recalls, “George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

Centuries before the first speakers and subwoofers, ancient Americans -- intentionally or not -- may have been turning buildings into giant sound amplifiers and distorters to enthrall or disorient audiences, archaeologists say. Temples at the ancient Maya city of Palenque (map) in central Mexico, for example, might have formed a kind of "unplugged" public-address system, projecting sound across great distances, according to a team led by archaeologist Francisca Zalaquett of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Zalaquett's team recently discovered that Palenque's Northern Group of public squares and temples -- built around roughly A.D. 600 -- is especially good at...

UN Climate Conference (COP16) Cancun, Nov 29 - Dec 10, 2010According to this page: COP16 is the official name of the Cancun summit, which is the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The COP is the highest body of the UNFCCC and comprises environment ministers from 192 countries who have met once a year since the 1992 Earth summit in Rio de Janeiro.Once again, the UN brought together many "faith traditions" in the spirit of Religious Syncretism and Interfaith Dreams. And. They. Just. Won't. Ever. Stop. Not until Christianity has...

Using new techniques and extensive excavations, researchers have found that the Maya coped with tough environmental conditions by developing ingenious methods to grow crops in wetland areas. "The work shows that this intensive agriculture is more complicated and on a par with these other areas of intellectual development," says Timothy Beach, a physical geographer at Georgetown University in Washington DC, who presented his findings on Wednesday at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver, Colorado. The Maya civilization, considered one of the most advanced ancient societies, lived in sprawling and densely populated pockets from the Yucatán Peninsula in...

A well-preserved tomb believed to be the final resting place of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala, scientists announced last week. The 1,600-year-old tomb was discovered on May 29 beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zotz. It is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who might have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death. However, much more work is needed before the scientists can piece together all the clues about the tomb's owner. "We still have a great deal of work to do," said Stephen...

A team of archaeologists led by Stephen Houston has discovered a royal tomb in Guatemala, filled with materials that have been preserved for approximately 1,600 years. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A well-preserved tomb of an ancient Mayan king has been discovered in Guatemala by a team of archaeologists led by Brown University’s Stephen Houston. The tomb is packed with of carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who may have been sacrificed at the time of the king’s death. The team uncovered the tomb, which dates from about 350 to 400 A.D., beneath the El Diablo pyramid...

TAMPA, Fla. — He was 28. She was 11. Her parents said they gave consent, claiming cultural norms of the Guatemalan highlands. But in Dover, Florida, a little girl with a baby raises questions. When deputies came, Teodoro Pablo-Ramirez understood only some of what they said, according to his lawyer. He speaks no English and little Spanish — just the Mayan tongue of Mam. The indigenous language, understood by few interpreters, has stymied court cases across the country. One interpreting service in Washington resorted to recruiting a Mam speaker out of a jail lobby. In Hillsborough Circuit Court, two cases,...

COME MONDAY, it is three years and counting. Three years till what? Three years until the end of the world! You didn't know that? Where have you been? Dec. 21, 2012--a Friday. That's the big day. The Mayans have supposedly predicted that this is when the end will come, and so have several other previous cultures. Why, even that old soothsayer Nostradamus is said to have determined that this date will mark the end of time. Of course, that makes me a little wary, because nobody seems to recognize Nostradamus' predictions until after they happen. After the Sept. 11, 2001,...

The world is beset by a series of outlandish catastrophes in the much-hyped Sony Pictures movie. An earthquake-devastated Los Angeles slips into the sea, the Vatican collapses, its dome crushing worshippers and a tsunami dumps an aircraft carrier atop an exploding White House. Meanwhile a tidal wave sweeps across the Himalayas and a meteor shower strikes Earth. The director Roland Emmerich - a veteran of catastrophe in his earlier films Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow - was inspired by theories that the calendar of the ancient Mayans foretells the end of civilisation on Dec 21, 2012. "The famous...

We humans love a good scare, don’t we? Remember Y2K? All the computers in the world were supposed to do horrible things, banks were going to topple, governments who depended on PCs for their defense systems would vaporize, and The Osmands threatened to come back to prime time TV... Fast forward to now. We’re on the precipice of the end of days: December 21, 2012. That’s when the cognoscenti are saying that the world, as we know it, will end. Right?

The year 2012 will not bring the end of the world, a Mayan elder has insisted, despite claims that a Mayan calendar shows that time will "run out" on December 21 of that year. Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the end of the world. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff," he said. A significant time period for the Mayans does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens...

MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world. Or is it?

EL MIRADOR, Guatemala (Reuters) - One of Guatemala's greatest ancient Mayan cities may have died out in a bloody battle atop a huge pyramid between a royal family and invaders from hundreds of miles away, archaeologists say. Researchers are carrying out DNA tests on blood samples from hundreds of spear tips and arrowheads dug up with bone fragments and smashed pottery at the summit of the El Tigre pyramid in the Mayan city of El Mirador, buried beneath jungle vegetation 8 km from Guatemala's border with Mexico. Many of the excavated blades are made of obsidian which the archaeologists have...

A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse, has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. The giant pattern - thought to represent a traditional Mayan head-dress - appeared next to the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe last week. Members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012. Karen Alexander, a crop circle enthusiast, said: "This is one of the most interesting crop circles I have ever seen. It is definitely...

A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse, has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. The giant pattern - thought to represent a traditional Mayan head-dress - appeared next to the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe last week. Members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012 Karen Alexander, a crop circle enthusiast, said: "This is one of the most interesting crop circles I have ever seen. It is definitely...

What destroyed the ancient Mayan civilization that built sophisticated calendars and ruled the Yucatan peninsula for millennia? The answer may be as simple as they cut down the trees. That's the theory from new scientific research developed in large part through University of Alabama in Huntsville satellite analysis technology, Vice President for Research Dr. John Horack says. The "satellite archaeology" technology and its uses in Central America were in the briefing package prepared for President Obama to take to the Conference of the Americas summit, Horack said... The Mayan findings will be presented to the Society of American Archaeologists meeting...

Archaeologists discovered maze of stone temples in underground caves MEXICO CITY - Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.

Mayan Apocalypse, 2012 If you observe the ancient Mayan calendar, then your time's running out. Dr Karl has been rummaging through ancient Mayan scribblings that are said to indicate an apocalyptic end by 2012. By Karl S. Kruszelnicki Villagers and tourists celebrate next to the Kukulkan pyramid at the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula(Source: Victor Ruiz/Reuters) The driver was taking me from Melbourne airport into the city. As we chatted, it came out that he was deeply worried. He had a wife and child, and a new baby on the way - but what was the...