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november2009_june_july_2009.qxd 23/11/2009 4:37 PM Page 28 28 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far? 28 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far? World to End in 2012: World to End in 2012: A Hoax Gone Too Far? A Hoax Gone Too Far? By Robert Roy Britt, By Robert Roy Britt, Editorial Director Editorial Director LiveScience LiveScience *** Spoiler alert. This article *** Spoiler alert. This article contains information that will contains information that will ruin a good hoax. *** ruin a good hoax. *** There's no shortage of end-of-the-world prophecies and hoaxes, but the latest one has a slick twist. Or, some might say, a sick twist. In fact, just by writing about it, I'm playing into the hands of a big media company that hopes I will write about it, or at least pass the word and a link, so that they can ultimately make money. Rather, I'll try to keep a few people from being frightened. The story starts with Mike Brown, an astronomer at Caltech who has found more you've been warned) is designed by Sony books on 2012 have arrived in mainstream planet-like objects in our outer solar system Pictures. Okay, score 1 point for Sony, no harm bookstores. A fourth is due this fall. Each than anyone. done, right? arrives in the wake of the 2006 success of 2012: Just like this reporter, Brown gets a lot Well, not so fast. The Return of Quetzalcoatl, which has been emails from people worried the world will end Brown, who is a pretty smart guy, selling thousands of copies a month since its in 2012. So many, in fact, that Brown has come admits that unlike many doomsday websites release in May and counts more than 40,000 in to call them "The 2012 People." He's long designed by quacks, it took him a while to print. The books also build on popular interest assumed they're rather gullible worry warts. His figure out this web site is a fake. in the Maya, fueled in part by Mel Gibson's view just changed a little. "It is slick. It is professional. There is no December 2006 film about Mayan civilization, The concerns often stem from bogus obvious sign anywhere that this is the work of Apocalpyto. information about a fantasy planet dubbed kooks," he said. Authors disagree about what humankind Nibiru which, the story goes, will swing into the We all hate spam. And sometimes we should expect on Dec. 21, 2012, when the inner solar system, smack Earth in 2012, and think its deceptiveness is distasteful, especially Maya's "Long Count" calendar marks the end of bring an end to it all. (Brown assures us there is when little old ladies are bilked of billions by a a 5,126-year era. no such planet, and no such looming scenario faux Nigerian banker. And hoaxes sometimes Journalist Lawrence Joseph forecasts known to science.) go too far. Some pranksters in New Jersey who widespread catastrophe in Apocalypse 2012: A The emails have been increasing of late. lofted flares on balloons in the night sky in Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End. And recently one concerned citizen went a step January, as a social experiment, were fined $250 Spiritual healer Andrew Smith predicts a farther and called and left Brown a voice mail: by a court that determined their UFO hoax restoration of a "true balance between Divine "I've got kids; this really scares the hell out of "posed a potential fire hazard and could have Feminine and Masculine" in The Revolution of me. Is there something I should be doing? Is this interfered with air traffic." It didn't, but their 2012: Vol. 1, The Preparation. In 2012, Daniel real?" deceptiveness, and the harm it could have Pinchbeck anticipates a "change in the nature of The planet hunter reassured the man that caused, was enough for the judge. consciousness," assisted by indigenous insights it was all just a hoax. The man was grateful. Brown wonders if this one goes too far, and psychedelic drug use. But the man got Brown's attention. scaring people who may never learn the truth The buildup to 2012 echoes excitement "This guy was inherently skeptical about that would alleviate their fears. and fear expressed on the eve of the new the 2012 claims, and was happy when someone "If the spam email had tried to scare me millennium, popularly known as Y2K, though with a ring of authority told him there was about the end of the world and then directed me on a smaller scale, says Lynn Garrett, senior nothing to it, but, still something had made him to a web site which turned out to simply religion editor at Publishers Weekly. She says worried enough that he had tracked down some advertise the movie, that would have been publishers seem to be courting readers who astronomer he had never met and called him to distasteful," Brown writes. "But what is the believe humanity is creating its own ecological reassure him about the safety of his family," right word for a spam email that tries to scare disasters and desperately needs ancient Brown wrote in his blog this week. me to go to a web site which then tries to scare indigenous wisdom. Then Brown found some spam among me even more and doesn't even admit to being "The convergence I see here is the his email, an ominous missive that purports to simply an ad for a movie?" [] apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with be from the director of the Institute for Human the fact that the environment is in the front of Continuity. It warns: "The IHC has uncovered Does Maya calendar many people's minds these days," Garrett says. Does Maya calendar evidence indicating that the disasters of 2012 "Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that predict 2012 are both real and unavoidable. We believe with predict 2012 notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth 94% certainty that ... cataclysmic events will in order to save ourselves." apocalypse? devastate our planet and many who inhabit it. apocalypse? "The convergence I see here is the December 21, 2012 cannot be ignored." apocalyptic expectations, if you will, along with A link in the email to the IHC's supposed By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Special to USA the fact that the environment is in the front of web site actually takes you to a site that is so TODAY many people's minds these days," Garrett says. cleverly designed, an unsuspecting person who "Part of the appeal of these earth religions is that doesn't recognize the actors on the page might With humanity coming up fast on 2012, notion that we need to reconnect with the Earth think the IHC is real, that the end is near, and publishers are helping readers gear up and count in order to save ourselves." that buying a ticket (to somewhere, on down to this mysterious — some even call it (Continued on Page 29) something, who knows?) is the only hope of apocalyptic — date that ancient Mayan societies survival. were anticipating thousands of years ago. NO MORE MISSED EPISODE OF Truth is the web site (it's here, it's fake, Since November, at least three new THE ‘X’ ZONE RADIO SHOW WWW.XZONEPODCAST.COM