Odd Ad

An interesting advertisement stretched across the top of the main page of SPACE.com today. The ad noted that December 21, 2012, marks the end of the Mayan calendar. Clicking on the ad takes the clicker to a websilte about UFOs, Nostrodamus, etc.

Nostrodamus, at least, would seem to have no connection at all with the Maya, except that New Age gurus who want to predict the end of the world-- and have that end come quite soon-- use the man and the civilization for their own purposes, Whenever the Mayam calendar ends, the Maya world ended roughly a thousand years ago. Had it flourished for another few hundred years, evolving as vigorous cultures do, it's at least possible that their calendar might have been extended beyond 2012. Even if not, focusing on the presumed prediction of one fairly isolated society is sort of strange.

Also strange is why such a link would be on SPACE.com. SPACE.com covers, almost exclusively, factual stuff related to space-- some science fiction, a regular SETI feature, and the occasional UFO story-- but it's in no way a New Age site. Its visitors wouldn't seem terribly interested in fringe ideas. The ways of Madison Avenie can be about as obscure as one of Nostrodamus' couplets.