That End-of-the-World Stuff

Kanook – Tlingit Nation

October 18th, 2010

There is a rumor bouncing around the world that in less than 795 days, our Blue Marble will
suffer a calamity of such massive proportions that you and I won’t need to get out of bed the
following morning, in that I suppose there will be little left to get up too.
Over the past few years, I and maybe you too have read or seen articles or some person on the
boob tube making reference to the Winter Solstice in 2012, whereas these select few water
witches if you may, have extolled on something happening that will wipe our planet clean of most
of its animal life – including man! You’d have to make a journey to your local fisherman’s
supply house and make an expensive purchase of a pair of hip-waders or hip-boots to put on
when you wade through the varied explanations of the December 21st magic date.
As you wade through the pool of goo you’ll find too many to count religious opinions,
predictions, and Tibetan prophecies swirling about the date, and if you’re like me you’d feel a bit
out-of-sorts to take time to “challenge” anyone’s interpretation, being of sound mind yourself,
and walk on keeping your private thoughts as just that “private”.
Some “scholars” make a vague reference to “all” our galaxies, which by the way the latest
count or mathematical estimate puts this figure around 170 billion that we could see if we took
the time in our Universe, are pretty much “flat” and “circular” – albeit there are a few exceptions.
These 170 billion galaxies account for just 10% of the matter (again a wild estimate) while stuff
we can’t see (dark matter) accounts for the remaining 90%. Reminds one of their local politician
or money managers – whereas he or she speaks a good 10% about what you can see, but yet
manipulates 90% of what he or she considers won’t make no-never-mind in your daily life. It is
safe to say that there are plenty of interesting galactic alignments and heavy-duty arguments that
point here or there that could cause Dec 21st to be the day of awakening. Most debates bend
toward the fact that a great many thinkers in our scientific community believe that each galaxy
has an energy source a massive “black hole” at its center. This “supermassive” object spinning at
an incredibly high-rate, dragging its incredible mass around, as it rotates capturing and spitting
out stars, and other space debris, creating forces beyond the human minds conception – this they
say along with some of the other mass in each galaxy causes the constant movement in our
Universe.
 Most presentations are based on the suggestions that each galaxy has at its center a central
gravity plane, thereby influencing objects that happened to pass through the plane – but, a big but
on its way here, a black hole is said to have a spherical gravitational field, which in layman’s
language just means that there a mutual gravitational field from all surfaces of the hole, or
supermassive tennis ball – not just on one particular direction or plane.

Our own Milky Way galactic plane is visible, - if you happen to be far enough away from the
light pollution of civilization, such as above in Death Valley – whereas the dark bands slicing
lengthwise can be observed through its center – the dark band at the center of the equatorial plane
is believed to be filled with dust and mass – keep in mind the 10%/90% ratio. For us non-
scientific types this ratio is kind of like the story “The emperor has no clothes.”
Calculations beyond my capability tells you and I that our “solar system” slides through the
galactic plane from time-to-time, a fact some tell us the ancient “Mayans” were aware of – basing
their calendars on this cycle and named the period of time when we moved though this galactic
plane or the galactic equinox the beginning and end of a certain age. As it turns out we don’t
seem to be even “close” to this event, whereas if we were our sage’s suppose we’d drift through
what is known as the “dark rift” and things would go haywire (right now it is estimated we are
about 300 light years from the “dark rift”). So albeit there is a bucketload of controversy
regarding this cycle of time when our solar system would pass “in and out” of the galactic plane it
appears we’re safe for the next few years or more – many years if fact. With my limited
knowledge of “law of gravity” (soon to be repealed by a group of DTCP1 Republicans), I still
can’t help but believe that when our solar system zips through the galactic plane the over all
gravitational influence would be very small – that is considering the distances involved between
the objects in the vastness of space. But, being wrong more times than I have been right, I always
look at things with an open mind, if you know what I mean!

1
Dummer Than Cow Poop
 Assuming that you may have forgot your 7th grader information about our own Milky Way
Galaxy, a little refresher is due. As galaxies run it is sort of a medium size one at only 100,000
light years across [diameter] (remember one second of a light minute equals 186,282 miles, one
light year equals 5,878.452 trillion miles) and is only about 1,000 light years thick – at best. It
contains between 200 to 400 billion stars (Suns), a figure that at best is a good guess depending
on who is counting. One of our neighboring galaxy’s the Andromeda has over one trillion stars –
if you are comparing sizes. Once I got over the amount of a trillion (national debt) I threw out
any numbers that attracted my attention, as just a guy walking the streets across the world
anything over 10 bucks was beyond my comprehension.
So keeping this in mind, I put the size at something I could conceive – where if we reduced the
Milky Way to 33 feet our solar system (Sun and its planets) would be approximately 0.0039
inches in width or 393.7 inches to 0.0039 inches. As for how old – well our scholar’s latest
observation of a star in the Galactic Halo gave them an estimate of some 13.2 billion years old,
almost as old as the Universe – in other words a little older than our solar system by some 8.6
billion years. Today, again depending on who is counting, it is estimated we are 26,000 to 35,000
light years distant from the Milky Way center – with our solar system sitting in one of the
galaxies spiral arms known at the Orion Arm – in reference to speed of travel our “solar system”
is sailing along in the rotating galaxy at some 492,125 mph, which calculates out to making one
revolution through the Galaxy every 225-250 million years or one Solar System galactic year,
which when considering the length of one of God’s days would put the number at 650,257.37
years approximately or some 4.55 million years for the first 7-days noted in Genesis, multiply this
number by 1000 and you arrive at the approximate age of the Solar System. Might be that Moses
didn’t have a computer and was off just a bit!
As for any immediate danger on 12-21-2012, it so happens that our position in the galaxy was
well planned – with an orbit very close to being circular and being roughly the same speed as that
of the spiral arms – which translates into maintaining its position within the arm – we are in little
danger of slamming into any large concentration of potentially harmful “supernovae”, which
there are many in the Orion Belt. Because of this fortune packed placement life on the planet
enjoyed the interstellar stability to evolve into a high state. We also lie well outside of the star-
crowded galactic center, which is good because in any other location near the center the
gravitational pull from nearby stars could cause the miscellaneous bodies in the “Oort Cloud” to
dislodge firing many comets into the inner solar system causing catastrophic events on our Blue
Marble, thereby along with the intense radiation at the galactic center vastly interfering with the
development of life on our home world. Some say that what little pull and miniscule radiation we
experience affects politicians more than the common man – I’m inclined to agree! Recent
analysis of certain interstellar events are showing that a close supernova bombarded us with bits
and pieces some 35,000 years ago – blanketing the earth (Solar System) with radioactive dust
grains and running amuck amongst comet-like bodies.

The Yellow ball on the left is our place in the Milky Way
Unknown to man is the reason for the sudden disappearance of stars beyond the 40,000 light
year distance from the Milky Way Galaxy core – whereas there is no sharp edge to the galaxy
disc, rather than just a smooth continuance of the star system. Once you get past that primary
stellar disk you encounter copious amount of gas, like a men’s room at MacDonald’s – a gaseous
disk that is around 12,000 light years thick, well maybe a bit more than MacDonald’s. The
Galactic Halo is limited in size by the orbits of two Milky Way satellites, the Large and Small
Megellanic Clouds – about some 180,000 light years from the Milky Way core.
Knowing this it is pretty safe to state that any event caused by our drifting anywhere close to
the center of the galaxy or one of our neighbors, or being affected by a galactic alignment will be
left to the creative artists in Hollywood or some politician looking to be elected to some office
near Dec 21st, 2012.
But, some believe we are know moving through the beginnings of a “very” thin band of forces
produced along the galaxies equatorial plane – a band that is very thin and concentrated compared
to the massive size of the galaxy – nevertheless these scientific minds tell us that we’ll be
traveling through these band for one or two years, some say months rather than years – no device
that I have or have seen will permit me or anyone else to provide an accurate estimation or even if
we’re traveling through the bands – you’d think someone with a sensitive nose would have
mentioned in some political rag by now. These select few base their assumptions on the fact that
we could have increased stresses on our lonely planet on average some 30,000 light years from
our Galactic core, pointing to some increased earthquake activity over the past few years and the
increasing magnitude along some of our planetary plate boundaries – who know they might be
right.
In my opinion we should be concerned about our 93,000,000 mile distant neighbor, the nuclear
furnace we see every morning 8.32 minutes after it peeks itself above our eastern horizon – 8.32
minutes is the time it takes for it’s light to reach us across the 93 million mile distance – just in
case you’re wondering.
I imagine that like me, most of you take our Sun for granted, what a shock it would be to one
day wake up and not see it peeking into your bedroom window…or pushing some light through a
layer of thick clouds along with a tiny bit of heat.
It is approximately 109 times the size of our Blue Marble and has an overall mass some
330,000 times of the Earth – remarkably it accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our entire Solar
System and yet as other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy it is considered a ho-hum star. Its mass is
mainly made hydrogen, with the rest being mostly helium with less than 2% consisting of heavier
elements including oxygen, carbon neon, iron and a smattering of other elements.

In 2012 our Sun is supposed to reach its solar maximum whereas over the past few years it has
been kind of slumbering not producing any fantastic actions, well that is not changing where in
2012 it is due. Once again pulling information from your 7th grade science class we know that the
Sun is a magnetically active star – supporting a “strong” changing magnetic field that varies from
year-to-year and “reverses” direction about every 11-years around the solar maximum (2012).
One aspect of our friendly master is it ability to eject massive “solar flares” where a single solar
flare or massive explosion on the Sun’s surface that expels 17% of the total energy of the Sun
produced in one second – which is propelled away from the sun in a concentrated path at
sometimes 33% the speed of light or 61,500 miles per second – not your ordinary drag racer at
the Saturday night pits in Compton. Large solar flares (really big) are labeled coronal mass
ejections (CMEs) and will cause powerful disturbances in the Earths magnetic field, if our little
Blue Ball is facing the side of the Sun when the CME occurs.
A massive CME occurring on Dec 21st, 2012 while not be an event causing a life-ending-event
here on earth would cause some problems – the most prominent one being a massive power
outage across a wide swath of the globe. High-voltage lines strung across the landscape would
act as collectors of the huge magnetic storm, whereas very high-voltages would be generated
overloading electrical circuits – blowing transformers and causing spikes in the control stations
injecting high-voltage spikes in the digital control circuits operated by low-voltage solid-state
devices over loading their operating parameters – consequently causing massive control circuit
failures. Result, power-lines would shut down and coffee pots would no longer operate causing a
real disruption in most human’s operating system, panic would ensue and mom’s and dad’s
would beat their children and the neighbors children causing mini-outbreaks of violence across
the globe. Linemen would work 23 hours per day and Wall Street would cry that the Unions
were making too much money on the backs of a natural disaster, while running about screaming
the sky is falling begging the sitting President for another bail-out.
 Just the other day (Oct 16th) it was noticed that there is this huge ring growing on the surface of
the Sun, it is believed to be a product of Sunspot 1113, located in the southeast quadrant of the
burning orb, that is creating this 248,548 mile giant filament stretching across the surface – today
it is noted that there is an enormous circular ring being created, which is linked to this 248,548
mile filament – and our scholars at NASA tell us that if the region erupts it could cause a pretty
good sized CME – and looking at the ring, I think “good sized” is a massive under statement,
might be we won’t have to wait for Dec 21st for a world wide power outage, or other problems
associated with such a CME. By the way, this side of the Sun is now aimed directly at Earth!
Hopefully nothing happens over the next few days, as the rotation of the sun will move this
disturbing condition away from Earth – keeping my fingers crossed and a few other items as well.
Well, short of the Sun going out on December 21st – I don’t really see anything it can do
causing a life-ending-event or even an end to our comfortable way of life, other than for the short
term if a CME takes out our power, satellites (GPS, good old map reading will make a
comeback), communications will go haywire for a bit, some PCs will start operating like Apples,
barber shops will go back to the razor cut and some (but not enough) Wall Street boys will take a
leap into the afterlife.
What would be the side effects of a massive power failure – in today’s world most of our larger
metropolitan areas depend on power to keep the water pumps working, consequently no power no
water pressure. Refrigerate foods would go bad, some within a day and others for sure in one-
week – and of course phones and other communications system would follow. Gas pumps,
HVAC, banks and their ATMs, and over an extended period of time our food supply network
would fade away from the lack of available fuel for the transportation system.
If it was a large CME you could count on a huge number of high-voltage transformers melting
from the overvoltage condition caused by the excessive current generated by the solar radiation.
This in itself is a big problem, whereas there are a limited number of replacements laying around
as spares – and manufacturing would become a big problem due to the lack of power, where
manufacturing plants would have to scramble around in search of high-wattage generators to
drive the manufacturing process – as you can see downtime is adding up!
No power to you and I would cause us a significant lifestyle change, to society water supply
would diminish, food chain would break, and our fuel suppliers would dry up – in reality not a
pretty picture. It is safe to say that people would begin dying by the end of the 1 st week, as
medical facilities tried to work around the loss of power, generators they’d run out of fuel and
with no re-supply they’d stop generating. Panic and the crime rate would accelerate resulting in
roaming gangs in search of food or water, within several weeks a complete civil breakdown
would happen, this coupled with mass migrations away from population centers in search of
material goods to survive on.
Albeit a CME would not cause a mass immediate extinction, over a period of time with no
power – a life ending event could be well on its way.

About 390.43 million miles from our planet is Jupiter, the vacuum cleaner of the solar system,
it by all accounts is the largest planet in our system having a mass of slightly less than 1/1000th of
the Sun, but having 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in our system. Its size is about 11
times greater than our Blue Marble, whereas its mass makes it the great attractor in our Solar
System having a large gravitational pull – where objects 30 feet in diameter might hit Earth once
every ten years, whereas on Jupiter they smack into the planet once or twice a month.
Although Jupiter pulls in most large objects deflecting them from an eventual impact on Earth,
our geological history is full of impacts that failed the Jupiter test – such as the infamous 6.2 mile
space object that slammed into the Mexican peninsula creating a 110 mile impact crater some 65
million years ago, or a similar sized asteroid that smacked into the earth near Vredefort in South
Africa some two-billion-years ago creating a crater that is approximately 155-186 miles in
diameter – an impact that today is classified as the largest impact in our planets history – there
even maybe a larger impact which took place in Antarctica (The Wilkes Land Crater) that
preliminary finding suggest a crater over 300 miles in diameter.
These being noted along with 43 other impactors having struck our Blue Marble between 2.02
billion years-ago and 14.8 million years-ago, who is to say that there is not some large object
lining itself up to bump into the earth sometime in the near future. Whereas an object plunging
through space at many thousands of miles per hour, some 6 miles in diameter, its trajectory lined
up with hitting our precious home, smacks into the Pacific Ocean at 100,000 plus miles per hour
the immediate effect would be a series of giant tsunami’s wiping out life along the coasts of the
Pacific, impact vibrations across the globe would trigger tectonic plates to break loose causing
9.0 magnitude earthquakes killing millions and in general making a sustainable life a thing of the
past. Mankind, albeit a fraction of human’s could survive their existence as a race would be put
in serious jeopardy, in other words it would be safe to assume that even if one did survive
adapting to life without all our present amenities would in itself be life-ending.
I realize that we have a monitoring system in-place that will warn us if one of these killer
objects is headed our way, but up to today our only defense is to send up some nuclear bombs on
the front of a tin-lizzu in hopes that if we can ram into the object we might be able to either
destroy it or at least deflect its path away from mother-earth – this assumes that we discovered the
object with sufficient time to prepare our mechanisms to deploy. If not, you can kiss your butt
goodbye and spent some time having a good time – other than that it has become apparent that
there are some things we just can’t defend against.
So, although asteroid or meteors are not high on out list for Dec 21 st, there still might be a
chance one slips by our space cops and does its level best to end all life on Earth.
Closer to home, there is always the chance that some nutcase
develops a biological agent that they release into our biosphere, quick
acting or not, this agent could eventually wipe out the human race – we
seem to concentrate on terrorists destroying our physical infrastructure
or messing with our computers, whereas you’ve got to think that
tucked away in some far off location a guy is tinkering with some
chemicals that will maybe produce an airborne, or waterborne agent that is invisible and odor
less, they succeed and hop a plane or two leaving their deadly agent at airports or various ports
scattered across the globe, and in 12-months are less the streets of the world will be devoid of
humanity complaining about the price of a loaf of bread.
In reality our governments are defenseless against this kind of attack, all the full-body scanners
placed at airports across the Blue Marble cannot detect a bug inside someone’s body, who as a
carrier is free to leave anywhere by simply spitting or putting a drop of blood on a counter, taxi
cab or airline cart why he or she jets across the world leaving a trail of hopeless individuals on the
verge of dying, but not before they too pass on the death agent to their friends or loved ones.
Is December 21st, 2012 a valid worried? It really depends on what you’re capable of worrying
about – in my opinion the number one of the list of causes would be the last one – that biological
agent spread amongst the population of the earth – the others run a distant 100th or 1000th of
happening – germs are right up there as an immediate threat!