Subliminal messages in Disney movies: sometimes teenage boys are right

I remember the boys in my junior high school telling me about all the hidden messages in Disney movies.  They said there were hidden propositions underneath characters’ voices, obscene drawings in the architecture, and nudity in the background.  I never believed them because adolescent boys see sex in the patterns of chicken nuggets on their cafeteria trays.

Turns out, they might have been right.  The evidence for pesky animators putting their adult tricks into children’s movies seems to be there, some of the time at least.  But you’ll never find them on your DVD’s.  After Disney found out about the hullabaloo surrounding these adult themes, they removed the obscene parts from all of their movies.  But here are some of the most famous subliminal messages from Disney movies, whether they are believable or not:

--The Lion King.  When Simba remembers his father on the top of a cliff, the word “S-E-X” is apparently written in the clouds above his head.  

--The Little Mermaid. The tower of the castle from the Little Mermaid’s movie cover looks a little less like a tower than another type of erection.  Rumor has it that the artist who drew the cover was about to be fired, so in his anger and hurry to meet his deadline, he didn’t disguise his final goodbye to Disney as discreetly as he had intended.  Later versions of the movie removed the tower. 

--The Rescuers Down Under. The 1977 movie has a photograph of an actual topless model during a short frame of the movie.  The naked lady makes an appearance as Bianca and Bernard fly through the city in a sardine can.  Disney recalled more than 3.4 million copies of the movie. 

--Aladdin.  In the scene during which Aladdin is trying to reach Jasmine on his magic carpet right underneath her window, he supposedly says, “Good teenagers take off your clothes” very quickly. Take a look for yourself. 

 

--Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  During a duet between Donald Duck and Daffy Duck, Donald supposed calls Daffy the n-word.  Donald is pretty difficult to understand and the captions say he calls Daffy “Goddurn stubborn nitwit,” which seems a little more believable.  Donald also had a potty mouth in a 1995 cartoon called “Clock Cleaners”—the cartoon was removed from shelves at Wal-Mart after complaints that the angry duck shouted “f---you!”

 

--Who Framed Roger Rabbit?  The dirty movie also features a scene during which the lady love interest, Jessica Rabbit, is shown being thrown from a taxi and exposing herself for a few seconds. 

--The Beauty and the Beast.  While most of these subliminal messages have been sexual in nature, The Beauty and the Beast features satanic images.  In the scene of the movie featuring a stained-glass window, there are signs of evil, including satanic horns and a skull.

Sometimes, we can let what we want to believe lead us in the wrong direction.  It’s hard to believe that the animators of The Lion King put so many hours into the film—but still decided it would be worth it to put the word “sex” into every scene.  Sometimes, these subliminal messages seem indisputable—like in The Rescuers—but sometimes, junior high boys, they really are complete bogus. 

 

Mob Mentality: the Danger of the Human Herd

Why things like the Vancouver Riots happen, and why they're likely to continue to happen.

 

How to start a fire:
  1. consolidate flammable material
  2. provide adequate oxygen to burn
  3. spark a flame

     Riots are nothing new, and often we hear about them happening in far away places and there's a sort of subconscious shrug as we dismiss it as "the way those people are". The Vancouver Riots last night are different for a few reasons, not the least of which is that they took place in Vancouver. Canada. It's not often that we see the social fabric pulled back from our northern neighbors. The country campaigns on its friendliness and courtesy, even highlighting those qualities in the 2008 Olympics (also in Vancouver). Of course, with a slightly longer memory we may recall the 1994 riots, again over the loss of their precious Canucks hockey team and again during the Stanley Cup finals.

     The race riots of the 1960's, the riots we've seen and read about in middle eastern countries still embroiled in their "Arab Spring"; I understand those. I understand that people fighting for their basic rights, or fighting to provide future generations with a better life, are fragile and angry and volatile. But hockey? Or for that matter, soccer? What the hell, people?

     To dismiss this as mere hooliganry (that quality in young men that forsakes the frontal lobe in favor of their animal brain) is too easy. Yes, many of the people (I'd say the vast majority) pictured in the riots last night were young, and most were male. However, there's plethora of circumstances that contribute to an explosive event like this.

     First, Vancouver has a highly congested downtown area and when game 7 of the Stanley Cup, in which the Canucks lost to the Bruins 0-4, nearly 100,000 fans clogged the transit routes and became stuck. (1. Consolidate flammable material)

     Second, during the 1994 riots police cracked down brutally on rioters, beating and arresting with impunity. Any show of force by police last night was likely seen as provocation. Also, Vancouver has suffered similarly to many other large cities from the economic recession and many young people are out of work. (2. Provide adequate oxygen)

     Third, the Canucks have never won a Stanley Cup in their 40 year history. That said, they were favored to win the game, not to be shut out 4-0. Since the team had come so close only to lose so badly, it was likely a major letdown. (3. Spark)

     One of the inherent dangers of large cities, particularly congested metropolitan areas, is the specter of mob rule. There are several psychological factors in play during a sporting event riot. Disindividuation is the process of subverting one's individual identity in favor of rallying to a larger communal identity; such as wearing a jersey, painting your face, and screaming your ass off for your home team. Projection is the act of substituting one emotional trigger for another. Often the emotion is the same, and may even be heightened by a new sense of justification. (I'm going to set fire to this squad car because the Canucks lost, not because my dad raised me not to trust the police and I was just evicted from my apartment.) Finally, there's the emotional contagion, or the process by which once one person has vented their frustration, others are likely to join in and participate. To me, this last one is the most fascinating aspect of mob mentality. It's literally the tearing off of the social bandaid; where people give into their animal brains and disregard all semblance of civilized social behavior because everyone else seems to be doing it too. This is the point within a riot that the "if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you?" argument goes out the window. Yes. They would.

     It should be noted that police acted very transparently and professionally this time around, and though the pictures and video on most media outlets show fires and violence, the worst was perpetrated by a relatively small group of people that were also pacified relatively quickly. This, according to Bleacher Report. A cost of doing business with modern civilization? Sometimes we just get medieval.

    

The name TITANIC spells DOOM!

Does the name Titanic mean your boat will sink?

The Titanic sunk again last week.  The Titanic II, that is.  Mark Wilkinson, a 44-year-old Brit, seemed like he was asking for trouble when he named his 16-foot cabin cruiser Titanic II.  Like its famous predecessor, the Titanic II was on her maiden voyage, but unlikely her costly “sister,” only cost $1,640 secondhand.  Wilkinson took the boat out fishing without event, but as he re-entered the harbor, he found that a hole had formed in the ship’s hull.  Wilkinson was saved by the coast guard, but his ship was doomed.  He was asked many times if he hit an iceberg. 

Naming the boat Titanic II seemed to foreshadow its destruction, but Wilkinson’s naval misfortune was not the first disaster that might have been thwarted with a simple change of name. If you believe that kind of thing.  The first disaster was allegedly predicted in an 1898 book called Futility written by a man named Morgan Robertson.  The ship in Robertson’s book was called the Titan, but there is a creepy similarity between the two doomed ocean liners. 

Here’s a comparison between the Titan and the Titanic:

Titan                                               Titanic

-Crossing Atlantic                   -Crossing Atlantic

-New York to Liverpool            -Southampton to New York

-Third voyage                         -First voyage

-Biggest ship ever made           -Biggest ship ever made

-Sunk by iceberg                      -Sunk by iceberg

-Capable of high speeds           -Capable of high speeds

-Minimum lifeboats                  -Minimum lifeboats

-Sank in April                           -Sank April 14

-Book                                   -A copy was in Titanic's library

But is it the naming of a ship Titan/Titanic really what causes it to sink?  Any logical person would say no.  In fact, pre-Titanic disaster, naming your ship after a race of Greek gods would inspire nothing but trust in the vessel’s voyage across the sea.  But now that there’s a history, is naming a ship Titanic really worth the risk?  Does it disrespect those who died on the tragedy?  Is the name really cursed?

I guess we will find out all of the answers to those questions next year on the hundredth anniversary of the Titanic disaster, April 10, 2012. The Titanic Memorial Cruise will set sail  from New York on the 100thyear to the day the Titanic left from Southampton.  The ship isn’t being named Titanic, however; it is called, tamely, Journey and is part of the Azamara fleet.

However, much of the voyage’s itinerary focuses on lectures centered on the Titanic disaster. Cruisers will hear tales of the life on the ship as they near the ship’s resting place, there will be a memorial service for the dead at 2:20am on the 100thanniversary night and there is a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the unclaimed victims of the disaster were buried.

It seems like Titanic-tourism has become big business after the mega-hit movie came out over ten years ago. This particular tour seems fairly educational; there’s no meals modeled after the meals served on the original ship or encouragement to buy period costume.  But is it still too much? Are Titanic-themed cruises or ships just asking for trouble or is anyone who hesitates to step aboard simply too superstitious?   

 

  

Foreign accent syndromes makes speakers bumble over their native languages

The other day NPR ran an odd story.  An American woman from Oregon, where accents are as flat, went into the dentist for a routine procedure.  They put her under general anesthetic and she came out of the procedure in good health.  One thing had changed, however. She now spoke and speaks with an Irish accent. 

 

This woman’s case was not an isolated occurrence.  In fact, sixty such cases have been recorded since 1941.  She has what is called Foreign accent syndrome, a medical condition that causes patients to speak with an accent unlike their native accent, such as a German woman suddenly speaking her native German with an Australian accent.  The disease, like in the case of the NPR woman who suffered a mild stroke, is usually caused by brain injuries, like strokes or head trauma.

 

Patients afflicted with Foreign accent syndrome don’t actually adopt the true speech patterns of other nationalities.  Instead, the accent sounds convincingly “foreign” to speakers of the patient’s original language, but would sound off to those who actually spoke the patient’s new language.

 

Patients' speech is still understood by all listeners, but common mistakes occur in all cases.These mistakes include equal and excess stresses on incorrect syllables, consonant deletion or distortion and difficulty pronouncing consonant clusters. Some patients can no longer pronouncetheir native language properly, as if they were non-native speakers themselves.  

 

In some cases, those afflicted with Foreign accent syndrome simply distort syllables, following no specific accent recorded anywhere in the world.  Parts of the brain hypothesized to create Foreign accent syndrome include those that control linguistic functions, as well as the cerebellum which controls mechanical functions.  Although it has not been proven, doctors think that speech patterns may be mechanical in nature, thereby affected by brain injury to the cerebellum.

 

Foreign accent syndrome was first discovered in 1907 by Pierre Marie, a French neurologist.  A famous example was the case of Astrid L., a Norwegian woman, who, after shrapnel caused her a head injury during an air-raid in 1941, gained a German accent and was ostracized by her countrymen.

 

More recent cases include that of Jerry Connor, of Asheville, North Carolina, who, in 2001, suffered a stroke and woke up with a proper British accent. In 2006, an Australian man abused diazepam and suffered a stroke.  When he came to, he had a mixture of Irish and American accents, often switching between the two in mid-sentence.

[endif]--> Some researchers think that adoption of a native language could also be part of the Foreign accent syndrome.  One possible example occurred in 2007 when Rajesh, a boy who lived in remote India, started speaking in English, although he had never been out of his hometown.  Few associated his condition with Foreign accent syndrome, but many of his symptoms were consistent with the syndrome. 

 

Currently, there is no cure to Foreign accent syndrome.

 

 


 

Alien Caught On TV in Argentina and Fresno?

This mega-popular YouTube video purports to show an alien caught by accident in the background of a TV interview. The video was aired last August (that's the middle of winter in Argentina, for those of you wondering about the wool hat).

It caused quite a stir, and features a dimly-seen figure which seems to be lurching towards the foreground.

Some have speculated that the figure might be a newborn deer. It looks a bit too large for that to me, although the awkward, "how do you get these stilts to work" movement is indeed very fawn-like. And there is one brief moment when it looks like the distinctive V of a deer's black tail edged in white.


However, the first problem that I noticed is that the background seems to blur behind the "alien." As if it is leaving its own shimmering heat trail behind it. Or as if someone got too wacky with the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop.

But the obvious problem with this footage is that the sun is clearly shining on the woman's face from the right. However, the "alien" has a shadow which indicates that the lighting is shining on it from the left. Unfortunately, this is clearly a fake.

This footage led me to the next item. Apparently this footage was featured on a recent episode of "Fact or Faked," which is a show I quite enjoy. And for once, the team was unable to reproduce or debunk the footage!

This footage was caught by a CCTV (security camera) in Fresno.


And here is the MUFON presentation of this footage, by paranormal investigator Victor Camacho.


The video comes from the front yard of a man who lives in Fresno. As you can see from the extended footage from the MUFON conference, both the fence (at the edge) and the palm (at the center) are about shoulder high.

These two "stick figure" aliens seem to be out for an interesting stroll. One alien steps into the bottom of the field of view, seems to dawdle or hesitate, then slips away. It is standing on the sidewalk in front of the man's home.

The other alien is far more visible, and more interesting. It crosses the man's yard with a very peculiar (you might almost call it "unearthly) gait. It seems to be struggling to move against a headwind.

More stick figures were caught by CCTV above Fresno in Yosemite National Park. These look considerably more human than those in the previous footage. In fact, I would bet the farm that they are just kids in silly costumes.

Although these two examples of "nightcrawlers" caught on video share similar physical characteristics, the movements could not be more different. The creature in the first Fresno video is no-nonsense, scampering across the man's lawn without a second's thought.

However, the creatures in the second video look almost suspiciously cautious in their movements. As though they were performing a Looney Tunes-style pantomime of "spooky creature." They also seem to be feeling for the ground, almost as if they were actually just some guys in stilts and a creepy sheet costume.

Latte Stones: Guam's Mystery

Strange stone megaliths are dotted throughout Micronesia, but one of the most mysterious is the Latte Stones of Guam. Pronounced "lah-dee," the Latte Stones seem to have something to do with housing. Although whether they were meant to house the living, or the dead, or both depending on context, remains a mystery.

The classic Latte Stone is a tall cylinder of stone, capped with a stone hemisphere. Imagine cutting a tennis ball in half and sticking it atop an empty paper towel roll, round side down, and you have the basic shape. They vary in size from only a few feet tall, to the tallest which is 25 feet tall.

Latte Stones were built from approximately 800 AD until the beginning of the era of Spanish colonization, in 1520 AD and later. One of the many mysteries surrounding these stones is how they were put in place, with only human power and little in the way of infrastructure or earthmoving equipment.

The Chamorran people, who are native to the island of Guam, have the answer to that question: according to their legends, the Latte Stones were moved into place by the Taotaomona, the spirits of the dead. The Taotaomona are extremely strong, which allows them to move massive stones around without assistance.

The Taotaomona are understandably protective of the Latte Stones. Anyone who disturbs a Latte Stone will raise the wrath of these ancestral spirits, who will enact their revenge come nightfall.

There are several theories on the Latte Stones' original purpose. They are usually found in pairs, placed in a rectangular shape. The more pairs of Latte Stones, the taller they tend to be. This indicates to many people that they had something to do with architecture. The Latte Stones may have served as support beams for an elevated longhouse-like structure, or they may have been holding up the ceiling of an open-air shelter. The idea being that the longer the building, the taller it was, and that this signified status.

One problem with this theory is that the earliest travelers to Guam never observed people living in structures created from Latte Stones. Instead, they lived on the ground, inside thatched huts and lean-tos. Archaeologists have also failed to find the expected signs of human occupancy (including broken tools, cookware, and other items) among the Latte Stones.

The architectural theories continue with the theory that they may have served as shelters for proas, which is a sort of catamaran that was developed in Micronesia. Proas were important vessels both for travel and for fishing, and they were highly valued in their communities. In an area with rainfall as abundant as that of Micronesia, the need to shelter a vessel during bad weather is crucial.

Others believe that the Latte Stones were used to create a sort of cemetery. This is based on finding bodies buried near many pairs of Latte Stones. Latte Stones are associated with burials particularly along the coastline, and less so in the interior of the island.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the persistent mystery, the Latte Stone has become the unofficial symbol of Guam. The familiar shapes can be found being used as icons throughout Guam, and the Chamorro people are proud of their heritage.

Photo credit: Flickr/jetalone

The No-Show Rapture: Financial Ramifications

It’s the end of the World as we know it. Or is it? Unfortunately for the disappointed Christian followers of Harold Camping and his kooky ideas, the world is still here, as are most of the Christian believers. If the great Rapture of May 2011 came this weekend, most of us missed it.

 

Harold Camping actually predicted that the Earth would end on October 21, 2011. His original prediction was that the Rapture would start at 6:00pm on May the 21st at some unspecified location on Earth with a big earthquake at which time the devout would be taken miraculously to the Heavens. Harold Camping estimated that about 200 million believers would have been saved while the rest of us Heathens would have been left on Earth to slowly perish.

 

Reportedly, Harold Camping was flabbergasted that the Rapture didn’t occur, as were many of his followers.lWhat were the financial ramifications for the true believers when the Rapture was a no-show? One believer interviewed by the Associated Press said, “I worked last week. I wouldn’t have gotten paid last week if the Rapture didn’t happen.”

 

Some of the non-believers out there were able to take advantage of the extreme Christian gullibility:

 

The owner of Eternal Earth-Bound Pets was revelling yesterday in the fact that his 300 punters would be regretting his no-refund policy. Looks like they won’t need him to take care of those “loving pets who are left behind” when their owners are “saved”. 

 

Unfortunately for many of the Christians who believed in Harold Camping’s false prophecy, the consequences were much more serious than losing a small amount of money to a con artist. Some of Harold Camping’s followers quit their jobs and made other truthfully poor financial and life decisions in the mistaken belief that they were going to be swept up into the Heavens on May 21st, which will leave the devout struggling until October 21 (Harold Camping’s new Rapture date).  

 

What’ stranger even still is how much money was spent on advertising for the Rapture by Harold Camping himself. Harold Camping and his ministry FRI spent millions on the 5,000 billboards and the 20 RVs that he used to advertise the Rapture. Is Harold Camping financially devastated after mis-predicting the Rapture for the second time? Not even close. Harold Camping can afford it as his FRI company reported over $18 million in donations in 2009 and was worth approximately $104 million. Not too shabby for an aging preacher with a losing prophecy track record.

 


H.H. Holmes was America's first serial killer

I’ve always been fascinated by the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The temporality of it all. The opulent buildings that were only as solid as the winds that blew around them. The ability to mold oneself into who you wanted to be away from your home and you obligations. 

But that same exciting fleetingness was what gave H.H. Holmes, dubbed America’s first serial killer, his opportunity to kill women looking for that same kind of escape.  Holmes killed somewhere around 200 women—but only admitted to killing 27—in his “World’s Fair” hotel.

Holmes was born Herman Webster Mudgett in New Hampshire and moved to the Midwest to attend medical school at the University of Michigan.  There, he learned the crime ropes, stealing bodies and disfiguring them to make false insurance claims and in medical experiments. He was expelled from the school when his crimes against the deceased were discovered.

Holmes moved to Chicago in 1886 where he found respectability in his chosen pharmaceutical profession and in his alias, Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

In Chicago, Holmes created his “Murder Castle” that included three-stories—the top for living and the bottom, a series of small rooms, for Holmes to torture his victims. The castle contained a maze of over one hundred rooms, with stairways to nowhere and doors only able to be opened from the outside.  He used several different contractors during the building’s construction so that no one but Holmes knew the entire layout of the house. Some of the rooms included gas jets for Holmes to use to asphyxiate his victims, as well as a giant bank vault in which he would suffocate victims.  The house also included chutes and trapdoors for Holmes to dispose of his victims in a kiln. He would strip other bodies of their skin and organs and sell the skeletons to medical schools.

During the Exposition, Holmes started calling his home a hotel and inviting visitors to stay. This is where he drew in many of his victims.  He killed women that were part of his staff, as well as his lovers.  Often, he forced his victims to take out life insurance policies with himself as the beneficiary. 

Holmes continued to commit insurance fraud during the time that he was killing women.  He tried to collect $10,000 from a life insurance in a plan with Benjamin Pitezel, and when in jail in Texas, he brought in another inmate into their life insurance plan.  Holmes couldn’t deliver on it, however, so the inmate told the authorities of Holmes’ whereabouts. 

Before the police caught onto him for insurance fraud, Holmes murdered Pitezel and kidnapped and killed three of Pitezel’s children. Holmes tried to set up Pitezel’s death as a suicide, but coroners could tell that chloroform had been administered after Pitezel was already dead. A Philadelphia detective found Holmes in Indianapolis where he had recently killed the third Pitezel boy with drugs and chopped up the boy’s body and put it in the chimney.

Holmes was first charged with insurance fraud and stood trial for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Holmes told the police many stories and admitted that he had killed 27 people. He was hanged in 1896 in Philadelphia for Pitezel’s murder. 

Estimates say that Holmes killed anywhere from 20 to 200 victims.

 Sources and further reading:

http://www.biography.com/articles/H.-H.-Holmes-307622

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes

The Apocalypse fails again...and again

Everyone I knew had a clever Facebook status about Saturday’s predicted end of the world.  They were having parties with apocalyptic cocktails, dressing up like “raptors” to celebrate the “rapture,” stocking up on canned goods to survive in their underground cellars. Cute.  Despite these preparations, as you have now assumed, the world did not end. How many times have hyper-religious whack jobs pulled the fleece over their followers’ eyes and had the world running for their canned tuna and Snuggies?  As is to be expected, quite often.  Here are some of the most hyped end-of-the-world predictions in the last two millennia:

--30 CE: In the New Testament, Jesus said that God’s Kingdom would be on earth in a short time. In Matthew 16:28, Jesus apparently said that  "...there shall be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” If you read all of this literally, Jesus said that the Second Coming would happen during the 1st century. 

--1000 AD: Sort of like the W2K hysteria in 2000, folks in the year 1000 went crazy over Jesus’ predicted return on January 1, 1000 AD. None of the Bible’s predictions were happening—no great floods or earthquakes or what have you—but the year 1000 scared people.  In 999 A.D., everyone tried to make good on their Christianity, selling their possessions or giving them to the poor, making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, setting criminals free, forgoing planting crops.

--1850, 1856: Ellen White, the founder of the Seven Day Adventists, predicted many days for the end of the world.  She wrote that the end of the world was near in June of 1850, after saying that her personal angel told her that the world would be over in a few months. The angel misspoke, apparently, and White went on to say that the angel said the end of the world would come in 1856 instead.

--1890: Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormons, said he heard the voice of Christ while he was praying.  Apparently, the voice said that if Joseph lived until age 85, then he would see Christ’s face. Smith was confused if this meant that Christ would come and strike up the apocalypse or if Joseph would die on his 85th birthday, but he decided to believe this year would be the new millennium.  Turns out that neither of these predictions came true—Smith was assassinated by a mob when he was 39. 

--1914, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975 and 1994: The Watchtower Society predicted all of these years based on some kind of highly sophisticated calculations.  1975 was allegedly the 6000th anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve and that meant that God was done with us. Somehow, they also predicted that if a generation was 80 years, Armageddon would occur in 1914. 

--1994: Harold Camping, the same guy that predicted Saturday’s Apocalypse, predicted the same thing in 1994.  I’m sure it was bigger this time around because of Facebook and the Internet, but I wonder if Oprah got into it back then. 

I’m not religious, but I don’t understand why people get so hyped up about this kind of thing.  Even I, as a non-believer, can understand that nobody is supposed to know when the world will end. Matthew 24:35-36 says, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."

But never fear, believers! Harold Camping is at it again. Apparently, he miscalculated—the world is actually ending in October. 

Sources and further reading:

 http://www.religioustolerance.org/end_wrl2.htm

http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm

It's Not The End Of The World

If you spend any time on Twitter or Facebook, you probably noticed the overwhelming flood of "end of the world" jokes. These all stem from the preachings of one lone loon who proclaimed that the Rapture would happen on May 21, 2011.

Guess what!

Yeah.

Here's what I always wonder: how do these guys stay in business? You would have to be pretty foolhardy - or crazy - to give out a solid date for the Rapture. If it doesn't come to pass, which let's face it, it probably won't, then you look like a total goober.

And yet!

At least this Rapture Report was relatively minor in scope. The last time I remember hearing about something like this, it was when the Heaven's Gate cult committed mass suicide in response to the approach of the Hale-Bopp comet. (And in response to the reports of self-proclaimed remote viewer Courtney Brown, who insisted that a UFO or small planet named Nibiru was trailing along in the comet's shadow, to destroy our world.)

According to the Christian mythos, the Rapture will bring in the End Times. In the Rapture proper, the good people will be sucked up to Heaven to live out the End Times on their fluffy clouds. Meanwhile back on Earth, Christ will return and begin the final battle of Armageddon.

Frankly, the Rapture itself is given short shrift in the Bible. Its current incarnations have more to do with interpretations that have arisen in the last few hundred years. I dare say that when many modern Christians think of the Rapture, they think of the Left Behind series. These sixteen novels deal with the time between the Rapture and the end of the world, a time span which encompasses the seven year Tribulation during which time God rains down judgment upon the Earth.

The end of the world is a popular topic in pop culture, and it has been for thousands of years. Even the Mayans, a pre-Columbian civilization dominant in South America from 2000 BC to about 250 AD, couldn't resist talking about the end of the world. They ran their calendar forward what must have seemed a preposterous number of years, then declared that at the end of the calendar - poof - end of the world. (Or perhaps their 2012 predictions just mean that you have to flip your big stone calendar over and start again at year zero.)

No matter what culture you live in, or when you live, eventually you get a little tired of it. You start to imagine what it would be like if the whole thing collapsed. This penchant for disaster porn is practically built into our species. Just watch a little kid spend an entire day building a beautiful sand castle, only to destroy it in minutes with stamping feet and buckets of water.

In another sense, our world ends every day. Revolutions happen all the time, all around us, and it's impossible to say where one ends and another begins. Every day is a new day; who could ask for more?

Photo credit: Flickr/Watt_Dabney

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