[Aztlan] National Geographic Magazine

[eschele at austin.rr.com]

Hello All,

As many of you are aware, the National Geographic Manazine's issue for 
the Month of August, has a segment on the ancient Maya and "How a Great 
Culture Rose and Fell". After reading it, just for fun, I decided to go 
online to their companion website for the story and take their online 
quiz about the ancient Maya.  I was amused and surprised to see that as 
an explanation to the question "The Maya’s counting system was based on 
multiples of what?" (Answer of "20") they then included the following 
statement:

"The Maya used Long Count, a system starting at a mythological zero 
date, which can be traced back to August 11, 3114 B.C. According to 
this Maya calendar, the world is supposed to end on December 21, 2012." 

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0708/feature2/quiz.html

I know that NG magazine is designed for popular consumption, therefore 
their stories are often an oversimplfication, but they could have at 
least explained that for the Maya, the end was really the beginning and 
that with the right ceremonies and sacrifices, the calendrical count 
would indeed start anew.  I know that this sounds like a broken record, 
but you might think that at least the NGM could get it right. The 
ancient Maya did not believe that the world would "end on December 21, 
2012."  The calendar cycle ends yes, but not the world!

lol,
Elaine