[ShadowMarth]

Panda's dead on about the magnetic poles switching, and the cause. It's happened many times before in the history of the planet, and life continued. So nothing to worry about there.

Second, the Mayan calendar is hilarious bull****. Seriously. The Mayans predicted a lot of things, and very few have come true. You know how many people predicted "The End" at the turn of the millenium? And what happened? It's just a calendar. Besides, this was a staple of their religion. A religion no one in the world follows anymore. A religion you yourself do not believe in. So why do you give some civilization with only a basic understanding of the movement of stars credence in their prediction of the apocalypse in 2012?

Just for fun, a quote from your bottom link:

Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it's likely they've got the end of the world right as well.

*cough*

Upon further examination of that bottom link, the second poster pretty well thrashed every last point about as well can be done. Read his statements before you post any response, as you might miss a detail, since you obviously missed the entire post.

Also, from your linked Digg article:

That was a solar maximum. The Space Age was just beginning: Sputnik was launched in Oct. 1957 and Explorer 1 (the first US satellite) in Jan. 1958. In 1958 you couldn't tell that a solar storm was underway by looking at the bars on your cell phone; cell phones didn't exist. Even so, people knew something big was happening when Northern Lights were sighted three times in Mexico. A similar maximum now would be noticed by its effect on cell phones, GPS, weather satellites and many other modern technologies.

That was in fact a WORSE solar storm than is anticipated in 2012. And that was during a time of great exploration, the beginning of the space race, advancing electronics... And here we are, continuing to advance, having weathered the storm without noticing it. I believe the phrase is "RTFA".

As for volcanoes and Earthquakes... Yeah? Those are and have always been ticking time bombs. Tension builds along fault lines, and eventually it releases. Predicting that earthquakes will occur and volcanoes will blow is like predicting that eventually it will rain in the UK. It might not happen today, might not happen tomorrow, but it will happen. Always has happened, always will, world continues.

This all reminds me of my youth pastors back when I was younger. Back in the time of El Nino. They said that it would cause massive hurricanes, tornadoes, ect (which it did, to some extent), and that these weather anomalies were a sure sign of the coming of the lord. And once again, here we are, years later.

You want to see an accurate apocalyptic prediction? Check out #3.

Originally Posted by Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)

About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamour and opposition.