In 1895, President Cleveland displayed the first lit Christmas tree in the White House. In the early 1900's lighted trees were very expensive --- upward of $300, which in today's economy translates to more than $2000! General Electric sold lights for at-home trees in 1903, still expensive at $12 a strand ---- equivalent to about $80 today.
The pointsettia originated in Mexico where it was called the "Flower of the Holy Night." It was first brought to America by Joel Poinsett in 1829.
In 1836, Alabama was the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday. Oklahoma was the last state to do so making Christmas a legal holiday in the state in 1907.
The popular Christmas Carol, Jingle Bells, was originally written for Thanksgiving. It was composed by James Pierpont in 1857 and was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh.
About 37 million fresh Christmas trees are sold every year.
In an effort to raise money to pay for a charity Christmas dinner, a large crabpot was set down on a San Francisco street, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.
In his efforts to gain our independence from England, George Washington spent Christmas night of 1776 crossing the Deaware River in dreadful weather. He didn't do much better in 1777 when he spent Christmas at Valley Forge, celebrating with a dinner of fowl cooked in a broth of turnips, cabbage and potatoes.
Animal Crackers are cookies imported from England in the late 1800's. The circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so they could be hung on a Christmas tree.
Wreaths were used from the earliest time as a symbol of victory. In the 17th century, wreaths with holly, red berries and other decorations appeared, Holly, with its sharplypointed leaves, symbolized the thorns in Christ's crown-of-thorns. Red berries symbolized the drops of Christ's blood. A wreath at Christmas marked a home that celebrated the birth of Jesus.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
POP QUIZ (More of the sounds of the season)
One last look at Christmas songs, from the 1980s to today.
Match the song with the performer.
1. "All I Want for Christmas Is You," 1994
2. "Christmas All Over Again," 1992
3. "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," 1996
4. "Christmas in Hollis," 1987
5. "Christmas Lights," 2010
6. "Christmas Melody," 2003
7. "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball," 2011
8. "Fairytale of New York," 1987
9. "Mistletoe," 2007
10. "This Christmas," 2000
a) Ashanti
b) Christina Aguilera
c) Colbie Caillat
d) Mariah Carey
e) Coldplay
f) The Killers
g) Tom Petty
h) The Pogues
i) Run-D.M.C.
j) Trans-Siberisn Orchestra
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Answers : 1. d ; 2. g ; 3. j ; 4. i ; 5. e ; 6. a ; 7. f ; 8. h ; 9. c ; 10. b
Match the song with the performer.
1. "All I Want for Christmas Is You," 1994
2. "Christmas All Over Again," 1992
3. "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24," 1996
4. "Christmas in Hollis," 1987
5. "Christmas Lights," 2010
6. "Christmas Melody," 2003
7. "The Cowboy's Christmas Ball," 2011
8. "Fairytale of New York," 1987
9. "Mistletoe," 2007
10. "This Christmas," 2000
a) Ashanti
b) Christina Aguilera
c) Colbie Caillat
d) Mariah Carey
e) Coldplay
f) The Killers
g) Tom Petty
h) The Pogues
i) Run-D.M.C.
j) Trans-Siberisn Orchestra
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. d ; 2. g ; 3. j ; 4. i ; 5. e ; 6. a ; 7. f ; 8. h ; 9. c ; 10. b
You can't make this stuff up
High jinks and lowlights of 2012
Happy holidays.
My gift to you is a 2012 election trivia quiz.
No fair peeking at the answers!
1. Which lies did Romney utter repeatedly on his way to defeat?
a) President Obama was trying to "gut" the federal welfare-to-work law.
b) Obama had a "Kenyan, anticolonial worldview."
c) Obama's auto bailout was sending auto jobs from Ohio to China.
d) Obama traveled the world on an "apology tour."
e) Obama engineered "a government takeover of health care."
f) All except c.
g) All except b.
2. The autumn polls consistently showed that Obama would win, but the view was different inside the pro-Romney bubble.
Match the pundit to the prediction:
a) Dick Morris
b) Michael Barone
c) Bill Kristol
d) Peggy Noonan
I. "A Romney landslide."
II. "Fundamentals usually prevail. Bad news for Barack Obama."
III. "A Romney win. .... All the vibrations are right."
IV. "Marvelous Mitt" could get "a serious mandate."
3. Describe what Republican strategist Karl Rove did on Election Night, as it became clear that he had wasted $300 millionof his donors' money.
a) Phoned George W. Bush and they reminisced about the glory days.
b) Jokingly tweeted, "I've got to find myself another line of work."
c) Told his super PAC donors that he'd find a way to refund their money.
d) Melted down on Fox News, demanding that Fox not call Ohio for Obama.
4. Obama endorsed gay marriage in May because:
a) Human-rights protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue were disrupting his sleep.
b) Joe Biden forced his hand, saying he was fine with it.
c) His reelection strategists told him gay voters were crucial in swing states.
d) Over the protests of his strategists, he summoned the moral courage to lead.
5. How did Rush Limbaugh characterize Sandra Fluke, the law student who was barred by House Republicans from testifying that insurance plans should cover birth control?
a) She's a "prostitute"
b) "She's having so much sex, it's amazing she can still walk."
c) "She's a sex-obsessed socialist."
d) She's a "slut."
e) All except b.
f) All except c.
6. In the first presidential debate, a listless Obama said: "There are a lot of points I want to make tonight, but the most important one is .....
a) "........ that I sure wish my White Sox had made the playoffs."
b) " ....... I just want to wish, Sweetie, you, happy anniversary."
c) "........ that it's great to be here in Hempstead ---- no, that's the next one."
d) " ....... that Gov. Romney and I agree on a lot of the points I will make tonight."
7. True or False: On an episode of Game of Thrones, one of the severed heads on a spike at the castle of bratty King Joffrey was actually a prosthetic of George W. Bush. A producer explained, "We had to use whatever heads we had around."
8. At a Warsaw war memorial in July, when reporters sought to question a Romney spokesman about the candidate's embarrassing verbal miscues in London and Israel, he replied:
a) "You people have never run a business or met a payroll."
b) "Take a hike. Come back when your questions are less liberal."
c) "Knock off the Obama bias, or you'rewalking back to America."
d) "Kiss my a----, this is a holy site."
9. True or False: Several months after Pennsylvania's Republican governor and legislature enacted a photo-ID law, claiming it was needed to combat voter-impresonation fraud, their lawyers admitted in a sworn court affidavit that there was no evidence whatsoever of voter-impersonation fraud.
10. Foster Friess, a rich guy who bankrolled Rick Santorum's campaign, did his bit to help alienate women voters from the GOP when he said the best contraceptive was:
a) A Lawrence Welk record on the record player.
b) A chastity belt locked around the torso.
c) A Bayer asspirin lodged between the knees.
d) A New Testament clutched in the hands.
11. Name the 2012 memorial service where Obama said: "Out of this darkness, a brighter day will come."
a) For the five factory workers shot dead in Minneapolis (Sept. 27).
b) For the 12 moviegoers shot dead in Aurora, Colo. (July 20).
c) For the six Sikhs shot dead in Oak Creek, Wis. (Aug. 5).
d) For the 20 schoolchildren shot dead in Newtown, Conn. (Dec. 14).
e) Obama told his speechwriters that he'd never utter such an empty platitude.
12. Poetic justice: Romney was caught on Video telling fat-cat donors that 47 percent (fill in the blank) ----- and his final share of the popular vote was also 47 percent.
a) 47 percent of his wealth was securely sheltered in tax-free offshore accounts.
b) 47 percent of the square footage at his new LaJolla manse was reserved for a car elevator.
c) 47 percent of the Hispanic electorate would vote for him if his surname was Hispanic.
d) 47 percent of the American people were too lazy to take responsibility for their own lives.
e) 47 percent of the companies he purchased for Bain Capital have gone under.
13. True or False: Obama's reelection will usher in a new era of bipartisan comity in Washington.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers: 1. g ; 2. a - I , b - II , c - IV , d - III ; 3. d ; 4. b ; 5. f ; 6. b ; 7. True ; 8. d ; 9. True ; 10. c ; 11. b ; 12. d ; 13. Oh, please. You know the answer already.
Happy holidays.
My gift to you is a 2012 election trivia quiz.
No fair peeking at the answers!
1. Which lies did Romney utter repeatedly on his way to defeat?
a) President Obama was trying to "gut" the federal welfare-to-work law.
b) Obama had a "Kenyan, anticolonial worldview."
c) Obama's auto bailout was sending auto jobs from Ohio to China.
d) Obama traveled the world on an "apology tour."
e) Obama engineered "a government takeover of health care."
f) All except c.
g) All except b.
2. The autumn polls consistently showed that Obama would win, but the view was different inside the pro-Romney bubble.
Match the pundit to the prediction:
a) Dick Morris
b) Michael Barone
c) Bill Kristol
d) Peggy Noonan
I. "A Romney landslide."
II. "Fundamentals usually prevail. Bad news for Barack Obama."
III. "A Romney win. .... All the vibrations are right."
IV. "Marvelous Mitt" could get "a serious mandate."
3. Describe what Republican strategist Karl Rove did on Election Night, as it became clear that he had wasted $300 millionof his donors' money.
a) Phoned George W. Bush and they reminisced about the glory days.
b) Jokingly tweeted, "I've got to find myself another line of work."
c) Told his super PAC donors that he'd find a way to refund their money.
d) Melted down on Fox News, demanding that Fox not call Ohio for Obama.
4. Obama endorsed gay marriage in May because:
a) Human-rights protesters on Pennsylvania Avenue were disrupting his sleep.
b) Joe Biden forced his hand, saying he was fine with it.
c) His reelection strategists told him gay voters were crucial in swing states.
d) Over the protests of his strategists, he summoned the moral courage to lead.
5. How did Rush Limbaugh characterize Sandra Fluke, the law student who was barred by House Republicans from testifying that insurance plans should cover birth control?
a) She's a "prostitute"
b) "She's having so much sex, it's amazing she can still walk."
c) "She's a sex-obsessed socialist."
d) She's a "slut."
e) All except b.
f) All except c.
6. In the first presidential debate, a listless Obama said: "There are a lot of points I want to make tonight, but the most important one is .....
a) "........ that I sure wish my White Sox had made the playoffs."
b) " ....... I just want to wish, Sweetie, you, happy anniversary."
c) "........ that it's great to be here in Hempstead ---- no, that's the next one."
d) " ....... that Gov. Romney and I agree on a lot of the points I will make tonight."
7. True or False: On an episode of Game of Thrones, one of the severed heads on a spike at the castle of bratty King Joffrey was actually a prosthetic of George W. Bush. A producer explained, "We had to use whatever heads we had around."
8. At a Warsaw war memorial in July, when reporters sought to question a Romney spokesman about the candidate's embarrassing verbal miscues in London and Israel, he replied:
a) "You people have never run a business or met a payroll."
b) "Take a hike. Come back when your questions are less liberal."
c) "Knock off the Obama bias, or you'rewalking back to America."
d) "Kiss my a----, this is a holy site."
9. True or False: Several months after Pennsylvania's Republican governor and legislature enacted a photo-ID law, claiming it was needed to combat voter-impresonation fraud, their lawyers admitted in a sworn court affidavit that there was no evidence whatsoever of voter-impersonation fraud.
10. Foster Friess, a rich guy who bankrolled Rick Santorum's campaign, did his bit to help alienate women voters from the GOP when he said the best contraceptive was:
a) A Lawrence Welk record on the record player.
b) A chastity belt locked around the torso.
c) A Bayer asspirin lodged between the knees.
d) A New Testament clutched in the hands.
11. Name the 2012 memorial service where Obama said: "Out of this darkness, a brighter day will come."
a) For the five factory workers shot dead in Minneapolis (Sept. 27).
b) For the 12 moviegoers shot dead in Aurora, Colo. (July 20).
c) For the six Sikhs shot dead in Oak Creek, Wis. (Aug. 5).
d) For the 20 schoolchildren shot dead in Newtown, Conn. (Dec. 14).
e) Obama told his speechwriters that he'd never utter such an empty platitude.
12. Poetic justice: Romney was caught on Video telling fat-cat donors that 47 percent (fill in the blank) ----- and his final share of the popular vote was also 47 percent.
a) 47 percent of his wealth was securely sheltered in tax-free offshore accounts.
b) 47 percent of the square footage at his new LaJolla manse was reserved for a car elevator.
c) 47 percent of the Hispanic electorate would vote for him if his surname was Hispanic.
d) 47 percent of the American people were too lazy to take responsibility for their own lives.
e) 47 percent of the companies he purchased for Bain Capital have gone under.
13. True or False: Obama's reelection will usher in a new era of bipartisan comity in Washington.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers: 1. g ; 2. a - I , b - II , c - IV , d - III ; 3. d ; 4. b ; 5. f ; 6. b ; 7. True ; 8. d ; 9. True ; 10. c ; 11. b ; 12. d ; 13. Oh, please. You know the answer already.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
F. Y. I.
Still on the Books
In Guilford, Conn., only white Christmas lights are allowed for display.
Famous First
The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.
Quotable
by Hamilton Wright Mabi, American essayist (1846-1916)
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."
No Kidding!
Although most of Santa's reindeer have male-sounding names, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so those pulling Santa's sleigh are likely females.
State Stats
Alabama was the first state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
Healing Hue
The poinsettia was first culivated by the Aztecs in Mexico, who used it to reduce fevers and believed its red color symbolized purity.
In Guilford, Conn., only white Christmas lights are allowed for display.
Famous First
The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.
Quotable
by Hamilton Wright Mabi, American essayist (1846-1916)
"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."
No Kidding!
Although most of Santa's reindeer have male-sounding names, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so those pulling Santa's sleigh are likely females.
State Stats
Alabama was the first state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
Healing Hue
The poinsettia was first culivated by the Aztecs in Mexico, who used it to reduce fevers and believed its red color symbolized purity.
Yes, Virginia
Dear Editor:
I am eight years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, if you see it in the newspaper, it's so.
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O' Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see.
They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?
Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.
Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart a baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives. From now, Virginia, nay, ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
I am eight years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, if you see it in the newspaper, it's so.
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O' Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see.
They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds.
All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy.
Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove?
Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there.
Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart a baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, or even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart.
Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God, he lives. From now, Virginia, nay, ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
A Christmas Message
Yes, Santa, there is a Virginia
Dear Editor:
My friends at the North Pole tell me that little children of Christmas don't exist anymore. They say in a world of shortages and disillusionment, the magic of Christmas is gone.
The traditional Christmas tree is a fire hazard, the bright, colored lights that illuminated the sparkle in a child's eye have given way to the energy crunch, sugar plums cause cavities when you can get the sugar, and yule logs are over $50 for half a cord.
The mail to the North Pole is light because the postal system is caught up in bureaucracy and takes 18 days air mail. Christmas cards are being cranked out of mimeograph machines, and health authorities have just warned that eating snow is unhealthy and is germ-ridden.
My very presence in a red suit and a white beard has been decried by child psychologists as a damage to the emotional id of a child and confuses his identity with reality.
Mrs. Claus said if I read it in your newspaper (or Jack Anderson's column, whichever comes first) that Virginia still exists, it is true. Tell me, is there a Virginia?
Signed,
Santa Claus
Age 1,674
Dear Santa:
Yes, Santa, there is a Virginia.
She's not the same wide-eyed, barefoot child you used to visit, but she still exists.
She's a little older now, because during her lifetime she has viewed on television in a week what it used to take a lifetime to see.
She's a little harder to impress, but you must understand she lives in a world of talking refrigerators, dolls with plumbing and phones that talk back when there is no one there.
She's a little more skeptical and cautious of promises, because she's living in a time that questions and demands and seeks proof.
But Virginia still believes because she is a child. And a child must have dreams to know joy ....... fantasy to know reality ...... and imagination to create her own private world to escape a real one.
She exists now, and, God willing, will exist forever for you who has never brought war, scandal, disaster, sickness or hatred to our earth.
As long as you bring only a spirit of love and peace, Virginia must believe.
Dear Editor:
My friends at the North Pole tell me that little children of Christmas don't exist anymore. They say in a world of shortages and disillusionment, the magic of Christmas is gone.
The traditional Christmas tree is a fire hazard, the bright, colored lights that illuminated the sparkle in a child's eye have given way to the energy crunch, sugar plums cause cavities when you can get the sugar, and yule logs are over $50 for half a cord.
The mail to the North Pole is light because the postal system is caught up in bureaucracy and takes 18 days air mail. Christmas cards are being cranked out of mimeograph machines, and health authorities have just warned that eating snow is unhealthy and is germ-ridden.
My very presence in a red suit and a white beard has been decried by child psychologists as a damage to the emotional id of a child and confuses his identity with reality.
Mrs. Claus said if I read it in your newspaper (or Jack Anderson's column, whichever comes first) that Virginia still exists, it is true. Tell me, is there a Virginia?
Signed,
Santa Claus
Age 1,674
Dear Santa:
Yes, Santa, there is a Virginia.
She's not the same wide-eyed, barefoot child you used to visit, but she still exists.
She's a little older now, because during her lifetime she has viewed on television in a week what it used to take a lifetime to see.
She's a little harder to impress, but you must understand she lives in a world of talking refrigerators, dolls with plumbing and phones that talk back when there is no one there.
She's a little more skeptical and cautious of promises, because she's living in a time that questions and demands and seeks proof.
But Virginia still believes because she is a child. And a child must have dreams to know joy ....... fantasy to know reality ...... and imagination to create her own private world to escape a real one.
She exists now, and, God willing, will exist forever for you who has never brought war, scandal, disaster, sickness or hatred to our earth.
As long as you bring only a spirit of love and peace, Virginia must believe.
10 days later, man who escaped high-rise Chicago prison missing
The FBI is still searching for one of two convicted bank robbers who escaped last week from a high-rise jail in downtown Chicago by lowering themselves on a makeshift rope nearly 20 stories to the street.
Kenneth Conley, 38, and his cellmate, Joseph Jose Banks, 37, escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center early on the morning of December 18. The pair apparently broke a window in the cell they shared, squeezed through the opening and lowered themselves to the street.
They then hailed a cab to make their getaway.
Banks was captured two days later, but Conley remains at large.
"There is no information or recent sightings," said FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde. "Given the amount of time that has passed given Mr. Conley's history of traveling, we believe he has left the area."
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for Conley's capture. He is described as white, 6 feet tall and 185 pounds.
The two convicts, who had been awaiting sentencing in the federal detention facility, made their rope from bed sheets and dental floss, according to local media reports.
Conley pleaded guilty to bank robbery in October. He is considered armed and dangerous, the FBI said.
Escape carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Kenneth Conley, 38, and his cellmate, Joseph Jose Banks, 37, escaped from the Metropolitan Correctional Center early on the morning of December 18. The pair apparently broke a window in the cell they shared, squeezed through the opening and lowered themselves to the street.
They then hailed a cab to make their getaway.
Banks was captured two days later, but Conley remains at large.
"There is no information or recent sightings," said FBI spokeswoman Joan Hyde. "Given the amount of time that has passed given Mr. Conley's history of traveling, we believe he has left the area."
The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for Conley's capture. He is described as white, 6 feet tall and 185 pounds.
The two convicts, who had been awaiting sentencing in the federal detention facility, made their rope from bed sheets and dental floss, according to local media reports.
Conley pleaded guilty to bank robbery in October. He is considered armed and dangerous, the FBI said.
Escape carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
So you find certain words annoying? Whatever
"You know," "whatever" is a really annoying term -- "like" "you know." We're "just sayin'."
When it comes to the most annoying words or phrases used in conversation, those four top the list in 2012, according to the annual Marist Poll.
"Whatever" headed the list, cited by 32 percent of adults, and next came "like," which 21 percent didn't like.
Runners-up included "Twitterverse" and "gotcha'."
The results mirrored last year's survey when "whatever" topped the annoying words list for a third straight year. But "seriously," named by 7 percent last year, dropped off the list entirely - really.
Marist questioned 1,246 adults in a U.S. nationwide, telephone survey.
Results showed differences by age and regions, with people younger than 45 or in the Northeast especially annoyed by "like," while "you know" offended more of the 45-and-over set.
Men and women gave similar responses overall, but whites were twice as likely as non-whites to find "you know" irritating. And people under 45 were more than twice as likely as those over 45 to be put off by "just sayin.'"
When it comes to the most annoying words or phrases used in conversation, those four top the list in 2012, according to the annual Marist Poll.
"Whatever" headed the list, cited by 32 percent of adults, and next came "like," which 21 percent didn't like.
Runners-up included "Twitterverse" and "gotcha'."
The results mirrored last year's survey when "whatever" topped the annoying words list for a third straight year. But "seriously," named by 7 percent last year, dropped off the list entirely - really.
Marist questioned 1,246 adults in a U.S. nationwide, telephone survey.
Results showed differences by age and regions, with people younger than 45 or in the Northeast especially annoyed by "like," while "you know" offended more of the 45-and-over set.
Men and women gave similar responses overall, but whites were twice as likely as non-whites to find "you know" irritating. And people under 45 were more than twice as likely as those over 45 to be put off by "just sayin.'"
Ukraine reminds Santas about tax
Cash-strapped Ukraine on Wednesday reminded entertainers making money by posing as Did Moroz - the local version of Santa Claus - and his helpers to pay income tax.
The former Soviet republic's government faces $9 billion in foreign debt repayments next year and its budget deficit almost tripled in January-October this year to more than $4 billion.
By studying internet advertisements, the state tax service found out that a Did Moroz with a traditional female Snihuronka (Snow Maid) helper would earn 250 to 3,500 hryvnias ($30 to $440) per hour in capital Kiev this season.
"Such citizens will need to file forms and pay taxes," the tax service said in a statement.
The service said it was barred from conducting tax checks on small businesses but urged ordinary Ukrainians to report tax-dodging Santas.
The former Soviet republic's government faces $9 billion in foreign debt repayments next year and its budget deficit almost tripled in January-October this year to more than $4 billion.
By studying internet advertisements, the state tax service found out that a Did Moroz with a traditional female Snihuronka (Snow Maid) helper would earn 250 to 3,500 hryvnias ($30 to $440) per hour in capital Kiev this season.
"Such citizens will need to file forms and pay taxes," the tax service said in a statement.
The service said it was barred from conducting tax checks on small businesses but urged ordinary Ukrainians to report tax-dodging Santas.
Moutai shares lead alcohol tumble after China bans spirits from army feasts
Chinese distiller Kweichow Moutai Co Ltd led a tumble in the country's alcohol sector on Monday after Beijing banned its top brass from hosting boozy banquets while working, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping's latest anti-corruption move.
Shares in Moutai, whose premium white spirits are much favored by the Chinese military, were down 5.8 percent in Shanghai at 9.07 p.m. ET, unwinding modest December gains.
The ban, announced in state media on Saturday, also bars senior military officials from staying in luxury hotels while on business, and comes after Xi made similar demands as he takes aim at the long, discursive meetings and extravagant welcoming ceremonies that mark official life in China.
Having gained almost one-third between January and the end of October, Moutai shares slumped 12.7 percent in November and are now up slightly more than 5 percent on the year.
Chinese alcohol stocks were first hit early last month when China's incoming leaders heated the anti-corruption rhetoric at the 18th Communist Party Congress meeting at which Xi Jinping became the new party chief.
Moutai and other white spirits are also typically presented as gifts by those seeking favor from officials in China.
The sector was further knocked in late November by a contamination scare involving Jiugui Liquor Co Ltd.
In Shenzhen, Moutai's sector peer Jiugui was down 2 percent, Wuliangye slid 3 percent, while Shanxi Fenjiu dived nearly 4 percent in Shanghai and was among the top drags on the CSI300 of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings, which was up 0.6 percent.
Shares in Moutai, whose premium white spirits are much favored by the Chinese military, were down 5.8 percent in Shanghai at 9.07 p.m. ET, unwinding modest December gains.
The ban, announced in state media on Saturday, also bars senior military officials from staying in luxury hotels while on business, and comes after Xi made similar demands as he takes aim at the long, discursive meetings and extravagant welcoming ceremonies that mark official life in China.
Having gained almost one-third between January and the end of October, Moutai shares slumped 12.7 percent in November and are now up slightly more than 5 percent on the year.
Chinese alcohol stocks were first hit early last month when China's incoming leaders heated the anti-corruption rhetoric at the 18th Communist Party Congress meeting at which Xi Jinping became the new party chief.
Moutai and other white spirits are also typically presented as gifts by those seeking favor from officials in China.
The sector was further knocked in late November by a contamination scare involving Jiugui Liquor Co Ltd.
In Shenzhen, Moutai's sector peer Jiugui was down 2 percent, Wuliangye slid 3 percent, while Shanxi Fenjiu dived nearly 4 percent in Shanghai and was among the top drags on the CSI300 of the top Shanghai and Shenzhen listings, which was up 0.6 percent.
Georgian village reinstates Stalin monument to mark anniversary
Residents of a mountainous village in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reinstated a monument to dictator Josef Stalin on Friday to mark the 133rd birthday anniversary of their famous compatriot.
Some 30 residents of the village of Zemo Alvani, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north-east of the capital Tbilisi, gathered to witness the unveiling of the three-meter-high stone statue of Stalin.
The statue was removed a year ago by local authorities after President Mikheil Saakashvili said the late dictator was too closely associated with what he called the "Soviet occupation of Georgia" and called for memorials to Stalin to be dismantled.
"I came here because I love Stalin and I love my people ... I remember when I was 12 how my grandmother was weeping when Stalin died," said Phatima Patishvili, a Zemo Alvani resident.
The monument's reinstatement is a sign that Stalin's personality cult is still alive across the former Soviet Union where supporters credit him with the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two and with turning the country into a superpower.
However, for many Georgians, including for pro-Western President Saakashvili, the few remaining monuments to Stalin are an unwelcome reminder of Moscow's lingering influence in Georgia two decades after the small nation gained independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Resentment of Russia flared in Georgia when the two fought a brief war in August 2008.
Saakashvili and others also believe it is wrong to still venerate a man who oversaw the purges, the Gulag prison camp system and man-made famines that killed millions.
Georgia's former government, then led by Saakashvili allies, removed another Stalin monument in 2010 - a 6-metre-high bronze statue in the dictator's native town of Gori.
The authorities were planning to replace it with a monument to victims of Stalin's purges and to those of the 2008 five-day war, but the project was never implemented.
Georgia's new government of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to improve ties with Russia. It said it did not oppose the reinstatement of the Stalin monument in Zemo Alvani.
It also said it would finance the restoration of the Stalin monument in Gori, the Georgian city most affected by the 2008 war that saw Moscow recognize the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would not reverse its decision.
A coalition led by Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, won Georgia's October 1 parliamentary election ending a long period of political domination by Saakashvili, who first rose to power as leader of the 2003 "rose" revolution.
Some 30 residents of the village of Zemo Alvani, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north-east of the capital Tbilisi, gathered to witness the unveiling of the three-meter-high stone statue of Stalin.
The statue was removed a year ago by local authorities after President Mikheil Saakashvili said the late dictator was too closely associated with what he called the "Soviet occupation of Georgia" and called for memorials to Stalin to be dismantled.
"I came here because I love Stalin and I love my people ... I remember when I was 12 how my grandmother was weeping when Stalin died," said Phatima Patishvili, a Zemo Alvani resident.
The monument's reinstatement is a sign that Stalin's personality cult is still alive across the former Soviet Union where supporters credit him with the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two and with turning the country into a superpower.
However, for many Georgians, including for pro-Western President Saakashvili, the few remaining monuments to Stalin are an unwelcome reminder of Moscow's lingering influence in Georgia two decades after the small nation gained independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Resentment of Russia flared in Georgia when the two fought a brief war in August 2008.
Saakashvili and others also believe it is wrong to still venerate a man who oversaw the purges, the Gulag prison camp system and man-made famines that killed millions.
Georgia's former government, then led by Saakashvili allies, removed another Stalin monument in 2010 - a 6-metre-high bronze statue in the dictator's native town of Gori.
The authorities were planning to replace it with a monument to victims of Stalin's purges and to those of the 2008 five-day war, but the project was never implemented.
Georgia's new government of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to improve ties with Russia. It said it did not oppose the reinstatement of the Stalin monument in Zemo Alvani.
It also said it would finance the restoration of the Stalin monument in Gori, the Georgian city most affected by the 2008 war that saw Moscow recognize the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would not reverse its decision.
A coalition led by Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, won Georgia's October 1 parliamentary election ending a long period of political domination by Saakashvili, who first rose to power as leader of the 2003 "rose" revolution.
Dead passenger found riding in Berlin underground
A 65-year-old man thought to be sleeping while sitting upright on a Berlin underground train as it cross-crossed the German capital was actually dead, police said on Sunday.
"It's tragic," a Berlin police spokeswoman said. "We don't know how long he was sitting dead on the train nor do we know the exact cause of death yet. There are no indications of foul play. He seems to have died of natural causes."
The man was found in the U-8 underground train line that runs all night at the Weinmeisterstrasse station at 5:45 a.m. when a rail worker tried wake the man up by gently shaking him. Medics were called in but could only pronounce the man dead.
A preliminary investigation showed no indications of the man being murdered. A more detailed autopsy is planned for Monday.
"It's tragic," a Berlin police spokeswoman said. "We don't know how long he was sitting dead on the train nor do we know the exact cause of death yet. There are no indications of foul play. He seems to have died of natural causes."
The man was found in the U-8 underground train line that runs all night at the Weinmeisterstrasse station at 5:45 a.m. when a rail worker tried wake the man up by gently shaking him. Medics were called in but could only pronounce the man dead.
A preliminary investigation showed no indications of the man being murdered. A more detailed autopsy is planned for Monday.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Earthweek : A Diary of the Planet (Week Ending Dec. 21, 2012)
Greenhouse Record
The amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide spwed annually into the atmosphere by human activities is expected to reach a record high by the end of this year, according to new figures released by the Global Carbon Project. Researchers there, including scientists at Britain's Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, project a 2.6 percent rise in mean global emissions from burning fossil fuels during 2012. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers say significant emission cuts are needed by 2020 to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius as a feasible goal. But many others have said that it is already too late to prevent exceeding that goal, no matter what is done with emissions. World delegates in the second week of the U.N. climate conference in Doha, Qatar, appear to be failing to reach any significant consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "If we don't completely rethink and radically accelerate the plans to reverse global warming, we will, in all likelihood, create catastrophic climate change in our lifetime," warned Global Carbon Project head Josep Canadell.
Snow's Retreat
Snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere melted last summer to the lowest level ever observed since satellite monitoring began 45 years ago. Data from various environment agencies also show that record lows of snow cover have been observed in NorthAmerica during three of the past five years. The maximum extent of winter snow has also been falling, while spring snow, especially at higher latitudes, is observed melting far ealier. Scientists say the retreat of the snow coverage is occuring much fasteer than projected by the leading climate models.
Delayed Arrivals
New research has found that many migrating birds were delayed in reaching their summer breeding grounds in Northern Europe during 2011 due to a serve drought along their flyway in the Horn of Africa. Writing in the journal Science, University of Copenhagen researcher Anders Tottrup said he and colleagues used miniature tracking devices to monitor the migratory patterns of red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales from 2009 to 2012. They found that the birds arrival in 2011 was among the latest ever before documented. Tottrup says acute La Nina-induced drought in the spring of 2011 ravaged the food supplies that the birds typically fuel up on. This made it harder for them to build up fat for the final leg of their journey, resulting in the delayed arrival.
Earthquakes
At least eight people were killed when a 5.6 magnitude temblor rocked the area around the notheastern Iranian city of Zahan. Scores of injuries were also reported by the shallow temblor, which caused many homes and other buildings to collapse around the epicenter.
Earth movements were also felt in Taiwan, China's Sichuan province, eastern Bulgaria, south-central Alaska and southern Maine.
Tropical Cyclone
Flash flooding and high winds from Super Typhoon Bopha killed hundreds of people across the southern Philippines. While the former Category 5 storm weakened somewhat before striking Mindanao Island's eastern coast, it still dumped torrential rainfall that was responsible for most of the fatalities.
Wildlife Alert
Kenyan officials say the country's elephant and zebra populations have dropped sharply over the last four years, mainly due to poaching, demand for ivory, drought and climate change. Kenya Wildlife Service director William Kipkoech says the number of elephants fell from 7,415 to 6,361 during the period. There are currently only about 1,870 zebras across the country compared to 2,400 in 2008. After decades of successful conservation and law enforcement efforts to save Africa's wildlife, conservation groups are sounding the alarm that rhinos and elephants are increasingly being poached.
Lobster Cannibalism
A booming population of lobsters off the Maine coast appears to be crowding the crustaceans into cannibalism, researchers say. It's long been known that the sea creatures will attack and eat each other if crammed into confined spaces. This is why their claws are banded when they are put into supermarket lobster tanks. But now Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, says he's observed the behavior for the first time in the wild. "We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant," he told Reuters. He blames the population boom on warming waters in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change. Using special underwater photography, Wahle and graduate student Noah Oppenheim found that during the daytime, fish are what typically feed on young lobsters. But at night, most of the attacks on the small lobsters were from their larger counterparts.
The amount of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide spwed annually into the atmosphere by human activities is expected to reach a record high by the end of this year, according to new figures released by the Global Carbon Project. Researchers there, including scientists at Britain's Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research, project a 2.6 percent rise in mean global emissions from burning fossil fuels during 2012. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, researchers say significant emission cuts are needed by 2020 to keep warming below 2 degrees Celsius as a feasible goal. But many others have said that it is already too late to prevent exceeding that goal, no matter what is done with emissions. World delegates in the second week of the U.N. climate conference in Doha, Qatar, appear to be failing to reach any significant consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "If we don't completely rethink and radically accelerate the plans to reverse global warming, we will, in all likelihood, create catastrophic climate change in our lifetime," warned Global Carbon Project head Josep Canadell.
Snow's Retreat
Snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere melted last summer to the lowest level ever observed since satellite monitoring began 45 years ago. Data from various environment agencies also show that record lows of snow cover have been observed in NorthAmerica during three of the past five years. The maximum extent of winter snow has also been falling, while spring snow, especially at higher latitudes, is observed melting far ealier. Scientists say the retreat of the snow coverage is occuring much fasteer than projected by the leading climate models.
Delayed Arrivals
New research has found that many migrating birds were delayed in reaching their summer breeding grounds in Northern Europe during 2011 due to a serve drought along their flyway in the Horn of Africa. Writing in the journal Science, University of Copenhagen researcher Anders Tottrup said he and colleagues used miniature tracking devices to monitor the migratory patterns of red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales from 2009 to 2012. They found that the birds arrival in 2011 was among the latest ever before documented. Tottrup says acute La Nina-induced drought in the spring of 2011 ravaged the food supplies that the birds typically fuel up on. This made it harder for them to build up fat for the final leg of their journey, resulting in the delayed arrival.
Earthquakes
At least eight people were killed when a 5.6 magnitude temblor rocked the area around the notheastern Iranian city of Zahan. Scores of injuries were also reported by the shallow temblor, which caused many homes and other buildings to collapse around the epicenter.
Earth movements were also felt in Taiwan, China's Sichuan province, eastern Bulgaria, south-central Alaska and southern Maine.
Tropical Cyclone
Flash flooding and high winds from Super Typhoon Bopha killed hundreds of people across the southern Philippines. While the former Category 5 storm weakened somewhat before striking Mindanao Island's eastern coast, it still dumped torrential rainfall that was responsible for most of the fatalities.
Wildlife Alert
Kenyan officials say the country's elephant and zebra populations have dropped sharply over the last four years, mainly due to poaching, demand for ivory, drought and climate change. Kenya Wildlife Service director William Kipkoech says the number of elephants fell from 7,415 to 6,361 during the period. There are currently only about 1,870 zebras across the country compared to 2,400 in 2008. After decades of successful conservation and law enforcement efforts to save Africa's wildlife, conservation groups are sounding the alarm that rhinos and elephants are increasingly being poached.
Lobster Cannibalism
A booming population of lobsters off the Maine coast appears to be crowding the crustaceans into cannibalism, researchers say. It's long been known that the sea creatures will attack and eat each other if crammed into confined spaces. This is why their claws are banded when they are put into supermarket lobster tanks. But now Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine, says he's observed the behavior for the first time in the wild. "We've got the lobsters feeding back on themselves just because they're so abundant," he told Reuters. He blames the population boom on warming waters in the Gulf of Maine due to climate change. Using special underwater photography, Wahle and graduate student Noah Oppenheim found that during the daytime, fish are what typically feed on young lobsters. But at night, most of the attacks on the small lobsters were from their larger counterparts.
Islamology 101:
Few in US would pass the course
Google "Islamist" and you'll get more than 24 million hits. Google "jihadist" and you'll get millions more. Yet I bet the average American could not tell you what it is that Islamists and jihadists believe. And those at the highest levels of the U.S. government refuse to do so.
Why? John Brennan, the top counterterrorism adviser in the White House, argues that it is "counterproductive" to describe America's "enemy as 'jihadists' or "Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, about murdering innocent men, women and children."
I get it. I understand why it would be useful to convince as many of the world's more than a billion Muslims as possible that Americans are only attempting to defend themselves against "violent extremists." By now, however, it should be obvious that this spin ----- one can hardly call it analysis ---- has spun out. The unpleasant fact is that there is an ideology called Islamism and, as Yale professor Charles Hill recently noted, it "has been on the rise for generations."
So we need to understand it. We need to understand how Islamism has unfolded from Islam, and how it differs from traditional Islam as practiced in places as far-flung and diverse as Kuala Lumpur, Erbil and Timbuktu. This is what Bassam Tibi attempts in his most recent book, published this year and titled "Islamism and Islam." It has received nowhere near the attention it deserves.
A Koret Foundation senior fellow at Stanford University, Tibi describes himself as an "Arab-Muslim pro-democracy theorist and practitioner." Raised in Damascus, he has "studied Islam and its civilization for four decades, working in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa." His research has led him to this simple and stark conclusion: "Islamism is a totalitarian ideology." And just as there cannot be "democratic totalitarianism," so there cannot be "democratic Islamism."
Brennan and other American and European officials are wrong, Tibi says, to fear that "fighting Islamism is tantamount to declaring all of Islam a violent enemy." Tibi also faults Noah Fsldman, the young scholar who advised the Bush administration, and who insisted , despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that Shariah, Islamic law, can be viewed as "Islamic constitutionalism." Feldman failed to grasp the significance of the "Islamist claim to supremacy (siyadat al-Islam)," the conviction that Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists are inferior, and that their inferiority should be reflected under the law and by government institutions.
Tibi makes this important distinction: All jihadists are Islamists, but all Islamists are not jihadists. In other words, not all Islamists are committed to violence, including terorism. He asks: "Can we trust Islamists who forgo violence to participate in good faith within a pluralistic, democratic system?" He answers: "I believe we cannot ."
Google "Islamist" and you'll get more than 24 million hits. Google "jihadist" and you'll get millions more. Yet I bet the average American could not tell you what it is that Islamists and jihadists believe. And those at the highest levels of the U.S. government refuse to do so.
Why? John Brennan, the top counterterrorism adviser in the White House, argues that it is "counterproductive" to describe America's "enemy as 'jihadists' or "Islamists' because jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, about murdering innocent men, women and children."
I get it. I understand why it would be useful to convince as many of the world's more than a billion Muslims as possible that Americans are only attempting to defend themselves against "violent extremists." By now, however, it should be obvious that this spin ----- one can hardly call it analysis ---- has spun out. The unpleasant fact is that there is an ideology called Islamism and, as Yale professor Charles Hill recently noted, it "has been on the rise for generations."
So we need to understand it. We need to understand how Islamism has unfolded from Islam, and how it differs from traditional Islam as practiced in places as far-flung and diverse as Kuala Lumpur, Erbil and Timbuktu. This is what Bassam Tibi attempts in his most recent book, published this year and titled "Islamism and Islam." It has received nowhere near the attention it deserves.
A Koret Foundation senior fellow at Stanford University, Tibi describes himself as an "Arab-Muslim pro-democracy theorist and practitioner." Raised in Damascus, he has "studied Islam and its civilization for four decades, working in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa." His research has led him to this simple and stark conclusion: "Islamism is a totalitarian ideology." And just as there cannot be "democratic totalitarianism," so there cannot be "democratic Islamism."
Brennan and other American and European officials are wrong, Tibi says, to fear that "fighting Islamism is tantamount to declaring all of Islam a violent enemy." Tibi also faults Noah Fsldman, the young scholar who advised the Bush administration, and who insisted , despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that Shariah, Islamic law, can be viewed as "Islamic constitutionalism." Feldman failed to grasp the significance of the "Islamist claim to supremacy (siyadat al-Islam)," the conviction that Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists are inferior, and that their inferiority should be reflected under the law and by government institutions.
Tibi makes this important distinction: All jihadists are Islamists, but all Islamists are not jihadists. In other words, not all Islamists are committed to violence, including terorism. He asks: "Can we trust Islamists who forgo violence to participate in good faith within a pluralistic, democratic system?" He answers: "I believe we cannot ."
Anyone remember Advent ?
The first question was simple: "Siri, when is Christmas?
After the two-tone "BEED-EEP" chime, the voice of the Apple iPhone responded: "Christmas is on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. I hope I have the day off."
Then matters got complicated: "When is Advent?" Siri searched her memory and said: "I didn't find any events about "Ed Fant."
Trying again: "When is the Advent season?"
Siri cheerfully responded: "I am not aware of any events about 'Advent season.'"
After several more "BEED-EEP" chimes, the Apple cloud ultimately drew a blank when asked, "When does the Christmas season end?" Alas, Siri didn't understand the term "Christmas season."
That's understandable, since it's clear that millions of Americans are either confused about these questions or they disagree with answers rooted in centuries of Christian life, noted Jimmy Akin, senior apologist at Catholic Answers (Catholic.com).
The problem isn't just that the secular marketplace celebrates a different season ----- "the holidays" ------ which runs from the shopping day previously known as Thanksgiving through Dec. 25, which precedes several days in which gifts are returned, leftovers consumed, trees discarded and decorations jammed into garages.
The problem, said Akin, is that many Christian institutions have surrendered and no longer observe the four quiet weeks of Advent (Latin for "toward the coming") and then the 12-day Christmas season, which begins with the Dec. 25 feast and continues through Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. The Advent and Christmas seasons have for centuries been celebrated in many different Christian traditions.
"There is just so much noise out there in the culture this time of year, so many signals clashing with the church's traditions," said Akin. "The key to all this is that our culture treats Christmas Day as the climax of a giant holiday season, not as the day that, after the preparations of Advent, kicks off the 12 days of Christmas."
The bottom line: Most Americans, believers and nonbelievers alike, "front-load" Christmas celebrations into the weeks before Christmas, trample Advent and then ignore the traditional season of Christmas.
After the two-tone "BEED-EEP" chime, the voice of the Apple iPhone responded: "Christmas is on Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2012. I hope I have the day off."
Then matters got complicated: "When is Advent?" Siri searched her memory and said: "I didn't find any events about "Ed Fant."
Trying again: "When is the Advent season?"
Siri cheerfully responded: "I am not aware of any events about 'Advent season.'"
After several more "BEED-EEP" chimes, the Apple cloud ultimately drew a blank when asked, "When does the Christmas season end?" Alas, Siri didn't understand the term "Christmas season."
That's understandable, since it's clear that millions of Americans are either confused about these questions or they disagree with answers rooted in centuries of Christian life, noted Jimmy Akin, senior apologist at Catholic Answers (Catholic.com).
The problem isn't just that the secular marketplace celebrates a different season ----- "the holidays" ------ which runs from the shopping day previously known as Thanksgiving through Dec. 25, which precedes several days in which gifts are returned, leftovers consumed, trees discarded and decorations jammed into garages.
The problem, said Akin, is that many Christian institutions have surrendered and no longer observe the four quiet weeks of Advent (Latin for "toward the coming") and then the 12-day Christmas season, which begins with the Dec. 25 feast and continues through Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. The Advent and Christmas seasons have for centuries been celebrated in many different Christian traditions.
"There is just so much noise out there in the culture this time of year, so many signals clashing with the church's traditions," said Akin. "The key to all this is that our culture treats Christmas Day as the climax of a giant holiday season, not as the day that, after the preparations of Advent, kicks off the 12 days of Christmas."
The bottom line: Most Americans, believers and nonbelievers alike, "front-load" Christmas celebrations into the weeks before Christmas, trample Advent and then ignore the traditional season of Christmas.
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Did You Know ?
Many Christmas traditions are older than some celebrants might think. The tradition of lighting up a Christmas tree, for example, dates back to the days before Christmas lights. Before electric-powered twinkle lights were invented and even before electricity was discovered, people used actual candles to adorn the Christmas tree. As one can imagine, having an open flame next to a dried-out tree was risky, so it was customary to keep a bucket of water next to the tree in the case of fire. As if fire wasn't enough, the tinsel used to decorate trees was made from strips of silver and even lead ---- something that is now known to be a health hazard to adults and children alike. Although we've come a long way since candles and lead, even now trees that have frayed wires can just as easily lead to fires. Plus, plastic tinsel can be a choking hazard for children and pets. One Christmas staple that has lost its status as a safety hazard is the poinsettia plant. It has long been thought that poinsettias are poisonous to people and animals. While there is some toxixity to the plant, it would require the ingestion of hundreds of leaves to get a toxic dose of a plant's poison.
House Call
I recently read that supercaffeinated energy drinks may be linked to several deaths. Should I be worried about how much caffine I ----- or my kids ----- consume?
Most adults can tolerate 300 to 500 milligrams of caffine (a six-to-eight-ounce cup of coffee can contain 95 to 200 milligrams). Consume more than 600 milligrams and you may experience nausea, jitteriness, or a rapid heartbeat; extremely high intake can lead to a dangerous spike in blood pressure.
Kids should avoid significant amounts of caffine, whether in sodas or energy drinks.
We aren't sure of the long-term effects of caffine on growing bodies, plus it can interfere with sleep ---------- and most kids need more shut-eye, not less.
Andrea N. Giancoli, R.D. spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Most adults can tolerate 300 to 500 milligrams of caffine (a six-to-eight-ounce cup of coffee can contain 95 to 200 milligrams). Consume more than 600 milligrams and you may experience nausea, jitteriness, or a rapid heartbeat; extremely high intake can lead to a dangerous spike in blood pressure.
Kids should avoid significant amounts of caffine, whether in sodas or energy drinks.
We aren't sure of the long-term effects of caffine on growing bodies, plus it can interfere with sleep ---------- and most kids need more shut-eye, not less.
Andrea N. Giancoli, R.D. spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
POP QUIZ (Stay Healthy)
Have Yourself a Healthy Little Christmas
For the nearly 26 million Americans with diabetes, making the right choices at the holiday buffet is a serious matter. As party season gets under way, test your knowledge with our short quiz.
1. You're attending a neighborhood pot-luck party. Which hors d' oeuvre staple is your best bet?
a) A handful of nuts
b) Pigs in a blanket
c) Cheese and crackers
2. You're meeting friends for holiday cocktails. Which beverage will least affect your blood glucose level?
a) Beer
b) Wine
c) A gin and tonic
3. Your office holiday party is tonight. The best time to test your blood glucose is:
a) Before the party
b) After the party
c) Both
100 = Number of calories the average American adult consumes each day from alcoholic beverages.
52,000 = Number of additional primary care doctors that will be needed in the U.S. by the year 2025.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. (a) If your main concern is glucose control, you need to watch out for carbohydrates, which can cause a big spike in blood sugar. Nuts are relatively low in carbs and contain healthy fats and protein. Cheese is your second-choice, but skip the high-carb accompaniments like crackers or jam.
2. (b) Though beer and tonic water may not taste particularly sweet, both are high in carbohydrates compared to dry (non-sweet) wines. But before you indulge, it's important to talk to your doctor, since alchol and diabetes can be a dangerous mix. Drinking can camflage the symptoms of low blood sugar, decrease your willpower to make smart food choices, and impair your liver's ability to regulate your blood glucose level. So if you do drink, know your limit and stick to it.
3. (c) Yes, it's a pain to drag your glucometer to a party, but it's the only way to tell whether your blood glucose is in a safe range. Try to test shortly before eating and again two hours afterward, says the American Diabetes Association.
For the nearly 26 million Americans with diabetes, making the right choices at the holiday buffet is a serious matter. As party season gets under way, test your knowledge with our short quiz.
1. You're attending a neighborhood pot-luck party. Which hors d' oeuvre staple is your best bet?
a) A handful of nuts
b) Pigs in a blanket
c) Cheese and crackers
2. You're meeting friends for holiday cocktails. Which beverage will least affect your blood glucose level?
a) Beer
b) Wine
c) A gin and tonic
3. Your office holiday party is tonight. The best time to test your blood glucose is:
a) Before the party
b) After the party
c) Both
100 = Number of calories the average American adult consumes each day from alcoholic beverages.
52,000 = Number of additional primary care doctors that will be needed in the U.S. by the year 2025.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. (a) If your main concern is glucose control, you need to watch out for carbohydrates, which can cause a big spike in blood sugar. Nuts are relatively low in carbs and contain healthy fats and protein. Cheese is your second-choice, but skip the high-carb accompaniments like crackers or jam.
2. (b) Though beer and tonic water may not taste particularly sweet, both are high in carbohydrates compared to dry (non-sweet) wines. But before you indulge, it's important to talk to your doctor, since alchol and diabetes can be a dangerous mix. Drinking can camflage the symptoms of low blood sugar, decrease your willpower to make smart food choices, and impair your liver's ability to regulate your blood glucose level. So if you do drink, know your limit and stick to it.
3. (c) Yes, it's a pain to drag your glucometer to a party, but it's the only way to tell whether your blood glucose is in a safe range. Try to test shortly before eating and again two hours afterward, says the American Diabetes Association.
POP QUIZ (A musical Yule)
Our look at the songs of the season continues.
Match the hit from the 1960s and early '70s with the performer.
1. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," 1963
2. "The Christmas Song," 1961
3. "Christmas Time Is Here," 1965
4. "Feliz Navidad," 1970
5. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," 1971
6. "Holly Jolly Christmas," 1965
7. "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday," 1973
8. "Merry Xmas Everybody," 1973
9. "Step Into Christmas," 1973
10. "Up on the Housetop," 1970
a) Nat King Cole
b) Jose Feliciano
c) Vince Guaraldi Trio
d) Burl Ives
e) Jackson 5
f) Elton John
g) John Lennon
h) Darlene Love
i) Slade
j) Wizzard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. h ; 2. a ; 3. c ; 4. b ; 5. g ; 6. d ; 7. j ; 8. i ; 9. f ; 10. e
Match the hit from the 1960s and early '70s with the performer.
1. "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," 1963
2. "The Christmas Song," 1961
3. "Christmas Time Is Here," 1965
4. "Feliz Navidad," 1970
5. "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)," 1971
6. "Holly Jolly Christmas," 1965
7. "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday," 1973
8. "Merry Xmas Everybody," 1973
9. "Step Into Christmas," 1973
10. "Up on the Housetop," 1970
a) Nat King Cole
b) Jose Feliciano
c) Vince Guaraldi Trio
d) Burl Ives
e) Jackson 5
f) Elton John
g) John Lennon
h) Darlene Love
i) Slade
j) Wizzard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answers : 1. h ; 2. a ; 3. c ; 4. b ; 5. g ; 6. d ; 7. j ; 8. i ; 9. f ; 10. e
F. Y. I.
Star-Gazing
Doylestown's Pink (Alecia Moore) met her first celebrity, Brooke Shields, when she was 6 and the actor signed her hat.
Key Distinction
A grand piano can be played faster than an upright piano.
Quotable
by Princess Diana, Princess of Wales
"You can't comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable."
Lore Has It
Carrying a scale in your pocket from a fish eaten at Christmas will ensure a full purse all year.
Self-Serving
Parrots are the only birds that can bring food to their mouths with their feet.
Presidents' Files
Herbert Hoover, a West Branch, Iowa, native, was the first president born west of the Mississippi.
Doylestown's Pink (Alecia Moore) met her first celebrity, Brooke Shields, when she was 6 and the actor signed her hat.
Key Distinction
A grand piano can be played faster than an upright piano.
Quotable
by Princess Diana, Princess of Wales
"You can't comfort the afflicted without afflicting the comfortable."
Lore Has It
Carrying a scale in your pocket from a fish eaten at Christmas will ensure a full purse all year.
Self-Serving
Parrots are the only birds that can bring food to their mouths with their feet.
Presidents' Files
Herbert Hoover, a West Branch, Iowa, native, was the first president born west of the Mississippi.
PUZZLE
Complete the equation by filling in the five omissions with 1,2,3,5, and 6.
Each number may be used only once.
(___+ ___-___) x ___/___= 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer : (6 + 5 - 3) x 1 / 2 = 4
Each number may be used only once.
(___+ ___-___) x ___/___= 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer : (6 + 5 - 3) x 1 / 2 = 4
Word of the Year 2012: Bluster
According to Dictionary.com, the word of the year is "bluster." Defined as: to roar and be tumultuous, as wind; or to be loud, noisy, or swaggering; utter loud empty menaces or protests: He blusters about revenge but does nothing.
Obviously the most historical events this year were the election and weather events...... There has been a remarkable volume of different kinds of bluster across the political and cultural spectrum," said Jay Schwartz, Dictionary.com's head of Content.
This year we saw a lot of people looking up very common words that had to do with weather, and also sincerity and communication." Some of the most common weather-related searches on Dictionary.com this year were "harbinger, ecosystem, climate, hurricane," while frequent searches relating to the election included words "facetious, didactic, hubris, demeanor, obtuse." Dictionary.com then created a shortlist of words that could refer to both events including tempestuous, inclement, intemperate and of course, bluster.
It is this author's opinion that "bluster" definitely describes our times. I say Bravo! to Dictionary.com.
What do you say?
Obviously the most historical events this year were the election and weather events...... There has been a remarkable volume of different kinds of bluster across the political and cultural spectrum," said Jay Schwartz, Dictionary.com's head of Content.
This year we saw a lot of people looking up very common words that had to do with weather, and also sincerity and communication." Some of the most common weather-related searches on Dictionary.com this year were "harbinger, ecosystem, climate, hurricane," while frequent searches relating to the election included words "facetious, didactic, hubris, demeanor, obtuse." Dictionary.com then created a shortlist of words that could refer to both events including tempestuous, inclement, intemperate and of course, bluster.
It is this author's opinion that "bluster" definitely describes our times. I say Bravo! to Dictionary.com.
What do you say?
IS THIS NOT RIDICULOUS ?
(Excuse me, my opinion is showing.)
Jerry Flanory entered prison with only five teeth.
When he lost a tooth in 2006 and suffered gum disease ---- he decidedto sue the Michigan Department of Corrections because, he claims "he was denied toothpaste as a punishment for not attending prison classes."
U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
Jerry Flanory entered prison with only five teeth.
When he lost a tooth in 2006 and suffered gum disease ---- he decidedto sue the Michigan Department of Corrections because, he claims "he was denied toothpaste as a punishment for not attending prison classes."
U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform
Canada's "Ikea monkey" to spend Christmas at sanctuary
Canada's most famous monkey will not be donning his tiny Santa suit with his adoptive family this year, after a judge ruled on Friday that the primate should stay at an animal sanctuary until at least mid-January.
The animal's owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, tearfully navigated through a throng of reporters and cameras after being told she would not be allowed to take the 7-month-old monkey home for the holidays. Another hearing is set for January.
Darwin, a rhesus macaque monkey, shot to social-media fame this month after he was video-taped scurrying around an Ikea store parking lot in Toronto, clad in a fake shearling coat and diaper. He was later captured by animal control officers.
Monkeys are not legal pets in Toronto, so authorities moved Darwin to a sanctuary near Oshawa, about an hour outside Toronto. Nakhuda, a real estate lawyer, then launched a court bid to try to get him back.
In a statement of claim filed earlier this month, Nakhuda said she was coerced into surrendering the monkey under the threat of criminal charges and told she would not be allowed to see him unless she cooperated.
If granted custody, Nakhuda said she plans to move her family to a nearby cottage town that does not specifically ban pet monkeys. Darwin has lived with the family in their Toronto home since July.
The young monkey escaped from an animal crate in a parked car as his owners shopped at Ikea in early December. The monkey became an instant Internet sensation, complete with his own Twitter account.
Nakhuda has posted videos on YouTube showing the monkey brushing his teeth and dressed up for Halloween. She told local media that she has a Santa suit for him to wear at Christmas and a bow tie for New Year's Eve.
The animal's owner, Yasmin Nakhuda, tearfully navigated through a throng of reporters and cameras after being told she would not be allowed to take the 7-month-old monkey home for the holidays. Another hearing is set for January.
Darwin, a rhesus macaque monkey, shot to social-media fame this month after he was video-taped scurrying around an Ikea store parking lot in Toronto, clad in a fake shearling coat and diaper. He was later captured by animal control officers.
Monkeys are not legal pets in Toronto, so authorities moved Darwin to a sanctuary near Oshawa, about an hour outside Toronto. Nakhuda, a real estate lawyer, then launched a court bid to try to get him back.
In a statement of claim filed earlier this month, Nakhuda said she was coerced into surrendering the monkey under the threat of criminal charges and told she would not be allowed to see him unless she cooperated.
If granted custody, Nakhuda said she plans to move her family to a nearby cottage town that does not specifically ban pet monkeys. Darwin has lived with the family in their Toronto home since July.
The young monkey escaped from an animal crate in a parked car as his owners shopped at Ikea in early December. The monkey became an instant Internet sensation, complete with his own Twitter account.
Nakhuda has posted videos on YouTube showing the monkey brushing his teeth and dressed up for Halloween. She told local media that she has a Santa suit for him to wear at Christmas and a bow tie for New Year's Eve.
Georgian village reinstates Stalin monument to mark anniversary
Residents of a mountainous village in the former Soviet republic of Georgia reinstated a monument to dictator Josef Stalin on Friday to mark the 133rd birthday anniversary of their famous compatriot.
Some 30 residents of the village of Zemo Alvani, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north-east of the capital Tbilisi, gathered to witness the unveiling of the three-meter-high stone statue of Stalin.
The statue was removed a year ago by local authorities after President Mikheil Saakashvili said the late dictator was too closely associated with what he called the "Soviet occupation of Georgia" and called for memorials to Stalin to be dismantled.
"I came here because I love Stalin and I love my people ... I remember when I was 12 how my grandmother was weeping when Stalin died," said Phatima Patishvili, a Zemo Alvani resident.
The monument's reinstatement is a sign that Stalin's personality cult is still alive across the former Soviet Union where supporters credit him with the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two and with turning the country into a superpower.
However, for many Georgians, including for pro-Western President Saakashvili, the few remaining monuments to Stalin are an unwelcome reminder of Moscow's lingering influence in Georgia two decades after the small nation gained independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Resentment of Russia flared in Georgia when the two fought a brief war in August 2008.
Saakashvili and others also believe it is wrong to still venerate a man who oversaw the purges, the Gulag prison camp system and man-made famines that killed millions.
Georgia's former government, then led by Saakashvili allies, removed another Stalin monument in 2010 - a 6-metre-high bronze statue in the dictator's native town of Gori.
The authorities were planning to replace it with a monument to victims of Stalin's purges and to those of the 2008 five-day war, but the project was never implemented.
Georgia's new government of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to improve ties with Russia. It said it did not oppose the reinstatement of the Stalin monument in Zemo Alvani.
It also said it would finance the restoration of the Stalin monument in Gori, the Georgian city most affected by the 2008 war that saw Moscow recognize the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would not reverse its decision.
A coalition led by Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, won Georgia's October 1 parliamentary election ending a long period of political domination by Saakashvili, who first rose to power as leader of the 2003 "rose" revolution.
Some 30 residents of the village of Zemo Alvani, 200 kilometers (124 miles) north-east of the capital Tbilisi, gathered to witness the unveiling of the three-meter-high stone statue of Stalin.
The statue was removed a year ago by local authorities after President Mikheil Saakashvili said the late dictator was too closely associated with what he called the "Soviet occupation of Georgia" and called for memorials to Stalin to be dismantled.
"I came here because I love Stalin and I love my people ... I remember when I was 12 how my grandmother was weeping when Stalin died," said Phatima Patishvili, a Zemo Alvani resident.
The monument's reinstatement is a sign that Stalin's personality cult is still alive across the former Soviet Union where supporters credit him with the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two and with turning the country into a superpower.
However, for many Georgians, including for pro-Western President Saakashvili, the few remaining monuments to Stalin are an unwelcome reminder of Moscow's lingering influence in Georgia two decades after the small nation gained independence following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Resentment of Russia flared in Georgia when the two fought a brief war in August 2008.
Saakashvili and others also believe it is wrong to still venerate a man who oversaw the purges, the Gulag prison camp system and man-made famines that killed millions.
Georgia's former government, then led by Saakashvili allies, removed another Stalin monument in 2010 - a 6-metre-high bronze statue in the dictator's native town of Gori.
The authorities were planning to replace it with a monument to victims of Stalin's purges and to those of the 2008 five-day war, but the project was never implemented.
Georgia's new government of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili wants to improve ties with Russia. It said it did not oppose the reinstatement of the Stalin monument in Zemo Alvani.
It also said it would finance the restoration of the Stalin monument in Gori, the Georgian city most affected by the 2008 war that saw Moscow recognize the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would not reverse its decision.
A coalition led by Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia, won Georgia's October 1 parliamentary election ending a long period of political domination by Saakashvili, who first rose to power as leader of the 2003 "rose" revolution.
God's gender divides German government
A minister in Angela Merkel's government has sparked a pre-Christmas row among Germany's ruling parties by suggesting God be referred to with the neutral article "das" instead of the masculine "der".
Family Minister Kristina Schroeder made the comments when asked in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit how she explained to her young daughter the use of the masculine form for God.
"The article is not important," she responded, adding that it was fine to use "das" instead of the traditional "der" when referring to God.
The remarks were immediately denounced by members of Schroeder's own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
"This intellectualized nonsense leaves me speechless," Christine Haderthauer, Bavarian social minister, told top-selling daily Bild.
Stefan Mueller, a CSU lawmaker, said he was "bewildered" by Schroeder's "inappropriate" comments.
When pressed on the matter at a government news conference on Friday, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert backed Schroeder.
"If you believe in God, the article is not important," he said. "If you speak to God in a different way, the prayers are still heard."
Family Minister Kristina Schroeder made the comments when asked in an interview with German weekly Die Zeit how she explained to her young daughter the use of the masculine form for God.
"The article is not important," she responded, adding that it was fine to use "das" instead of the traditional "der" when referring to God.
The remarks were immediately denounced by members of Schroeder's own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
"This intellectualized nonsense leaves me speechless," Christine Haderthauer, Bavarian social minister, told top-selling daily Bild.
Stefan Mueller, a CSU lawmaker, said he was "bewildered" by Schroeder's "inappropriate" comments.
When pressed on the matter at a government news conference on Friday, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert backed Schroeder.
"If you believe in God, the article is not important," he said. "If you speak to God in a different way, the prayers are still heard."
Dawn breaks on Maya "end of days," world lives on
Dawn broke over ancient holy sites in southern Mexico to celebrations on Friday, ushering in the start of a new era for the Maya people that had been billed as a possible end of the world.
A mix of mystics, hippies and tourists from around the world descended on the ruins of Maya cities to mark the close of the 13th bak'tun - a period of around 400 years - and many hoped it would lead to a better era for humanity.
After the sun went up in Mexico and the world continued to spin, visitors to the Maya heartland gave thanks.
"I'm just grateful to be here at all," said Graham Hohlfelde, 21, a student from St. Louis, Missouri. "I hope something happens to make me a better person. If I can get a little cosmic help I won't turn it down."
The end of the bak'tun in the 5,125-year-old Long Calendar of the Maya had raised scattered fears around the globe that the end is nigh or that lesser catastrophe lay in store.
However, to the people congregating in the imposing ruins of the city of Chichen Itza, a focal point for the celebrations in Mexico, it was quite the opposite.
"It's not the end of the world, it's an awakening of consciousness and good and love and spirituality - and it's been happening for a while," said Mary Lou Anderson, 53, an information technology consultant from Las Vegas.
Fears of mass suicides, huge power cuts, natural disasters, epidemics or an asteroid hurtling toward Earth have circulated on the Internet ahead of December 21.
A U.S. scholar said in the 1960s that the end of the 13th bak'tun could be seen as a kind of Armageddon for the Maya. Over time, the idea snowballed into a belief by some that the Maya calendar had predicted the earth's destruction.
A few minutes before the north pole reached its position furthest from the sun on Friday, a spotlight illuminated the western flank of the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, a 100 foot (30 meter) pyramid at the heart of Chichen Itza.
Then a group of five English-speaking tourists dressed in white made their way across the plain, dropped their bags and faced the pyramid with their arms raised.
As the sun climbed into the sky, a man with dreadlocks played a didgeridoo at the north end of the pyramid while a group of tourists meditated on brightly colored mats.
PARTY TIME
In Turkey, thousands of tourists flocked to Sirince, a picturesque village east of the Aegean Sea that believers in a potential cataclysm had said would be spared on Friday.
In Bugarach, France, a village that was said to be harboring an alien spacecraft in a nearby mountain that would enable people to survive an apocalypse, authorities cordoned off the area, fearing an influx of doomsday believers. But on Friday journalists and party-goers outnumbered the survivalists.
Meanwhile in New York, Buck Wolf, executive editor of crime and weird news for the Huffington Post, organized an end of the world party at Manhattan's Hotel Chantelle on Thursday night.
Wearing a gray t-shirt with a black Maya calendar on it, Wolf said he was inspired by a similar party he had attended in 1999 related to Nostradamus's doomsday prophecies. "It's all a big scam," said Wolf. "You might as well throw a good party."
In China, the United Nations issued a tweet on its official Weibo microblog denying it was selling tickets for an "ark" in which people could escape the apocalypse after people started selling such tickets online, albeit apparently as a joke.
Maya experts, scientists and even U.S. space agency NASA had insisted the Maya had not predicted the world's end.
"Think of it like Y2K," said James Fitzsimmons, a Maya expert at Middlebury College in Vermont, referring to the year 2000. "It's the end of one cycle and the beginning of another cycle."
'PURE HOLLYWOOD'
The New Age optimism, stream-of-consciousness evocations of wonder and awe, and starry-eyed dreams of extra-terrestrial contact circulating on the ancient sites in Mexico this week has left many of the modern Maya bemused.
"It's pure Hollywood," said Luis Mis Rodriguez, 45, a Maya selling obsidian figurines and souvenirs shaped into knives like ones the Maya once used for human sacrifice.
The Maya civilization reached its peak between A.D. 250 and 900 when it ruled over large swathes of what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
The Maya developed hieroglyphic writing, an advanced astronomical system and a sophisticated calendar that helped provide the foundation for the doomsday predictions.
The buzz surrounding the Maya "end of days" has generated massive traffic on the Internet, but the speculation stems from a long tradition of calling time on the world.
Basing his calculations on prophetic readings of the Bible, the great scientist Isaac Newton once cited 2060 as a year when the planet would be destroyed.
U.S. preacher William Miller predicted that Jesus Christ would descend to Earth in October 1844 to purge mankind of its sins. When it did not happen, his followers, known as the Millerites, referred to the event as The Great Disappointment.
In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult, believing the world was about to be "recycled," committed suicide in San Diego to board an alien craft they said was trailing behind a comet.
More recently, American radio host Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011, later moving the date forward five months when the apocalypse failed to materialize.
Such thoughts were far from the minds of gaudily attired pilgrims to Chichen Itza in search of something special.
Clad all in white, wearing an amethyst and a gold tiara, 20-year-old student Sydney Hughes said she believed contact with aliens was possible on Friday as she welcomed the dawn.
"It's selfish for us to think that we are the only life form that has intelligence," said Hughes, from Monterey, California.
A mix of mystics, hippies and tourists from around the world descended on the ruins of Maya cities to mark the close of the 13th bak'tun - a period of around 400 years - and many hoped it would lead to a better era for humanity.
After the sun went up in Mexico and the world continued to spin, visitors to the Maya heartland gave thanks.
"I'm just grateful to be here at all," said Graham Hohlfelde, 21, a student from St. Louis, Missouri. "I hope something happens to make me a better person. If I can get a little cosmic help I won't turn it down."
The end of the bak'tun in the 5,125-year-old Long Calendar of the Maya had raised scattered fears around the globe that the end is nigh or that lesser catastrophe lay in store.
However, to the people congregating in the imposing ruins of the city of Chichen Itza, a focal point for the celebrations in Mexico, it was quite the opposite.
"It's not the end of the world, it's an awakening of consciousness and good and love and spirituality - and it's been happening for a while," said Mary Lou Anderson, 53, an information technology consultant from Las Vegas.
Fears of mass suicides, huge power cuts, natural disasters, epidemics or an asteroid hurtling toward Earth have circulated on the Internet ahead of December 21.
A U.S. scholar said in the 1960s that the end of the 13th bak'tun could be seen as a kind of Armageddon for the Maya. Over time, the idea snowballed into a belief by some that the Maya calendar had predicted the earth's destruction.
A few minutes before the north pole reached its position furthest from the sun on Friday, a spotlight illuminated the western flank of the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, a 100 foot (30 meter) pyramid at the heart of Chichen Itza.
Then a group of five English-speaking tourists dressed in white made their way across the plain, dropped their bags and faced the pyramid with their arms raised.
As the sun climbed into the sky, a man with dreadlocks played a didgeridoo at the north end of the pyramid while a group of tourists meditated on brightly colored mats.
PARTY TIME
In Turkey, thousands of tourists flocked to Sirince, a picturesque village east of the Aegean Sea that believers in a potential cataclysm had said would be spared on Friday.
In Bugarach, France, a village that was said to be harboring an alien spacecraft in a nearby mountain that would enable people to survive an apocalypse, authorities cordoned off the area, fearing an influx of doomsday believers. But on Friday journalists and party-goers outnumbered the survivalists.
Meanwhile in New York, Buck Wolf, executive editor of crime and weird news for the Huffington Post, organized an end of the world party at Manhattan's Hotel Chantelle on Thursday night.
Wearing a gray t-shirt with a black Maya calendar on it, Wolf said he was inspired by a similar party he had attended in 1999 related to Nostradamus's doomsday prophecies. "It's all a big scam," said Wolf. "You might as well throw a good party."
In China, the United Nations issued a tweet on its official Weibo microblog denying it was selling tickets for an "ark" in which people could escape the apocalypse after people started selling such tickets online, albeit apparently as a joke.
Maya experts, scientists and even U.S. space agency NASA had insisted the Maya had not predicted the world's end.
"Think of it like Y2K," said James Fitzsimmons, a Maya expert at Middlebury College in Vermont, referring to the year 2000. "It's the end of one cycle and the beginning of another cycle."
'PURE HOLLYWOOD'
The New Age optimism, stream-of-consciousness evocations of wonder and awe, and starry-eyed dreams of extra-terrestrial contact circulating on the ancient sites in Mexico this week has left many of the modern Maya bemused.
"It's pure Hollywood," said Luis Mis Rodriguez, 45, a Maya selling obsidian figurines and souvenirs shaped into knives like ones the Maya once used for human sacrifice.
The Maya civilization reached its peak between A.D. 250 and 900 when it ruled over large swathes of what is now southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.
The Maya developed hieroglyphic writing, an advanced astronomical system and a sophisticated calendar that helped provide the foundation for the doomsday predictions.
The buzz surrounding the Maya "end of days" has generated massive traffic on the Internet, but the speculation stems from a long tradition of calling time on the world.
Basing his calculations on prophetic readings of the Bible, the great scientist Isaac Newton once cited 2060 as a year when the planet would be destroyed.
U.S. preacher William Miller predicted that Jesus Christ would descend to Earth in October 1844 to purge mankind of its sins. When it did not happen, his followers, known as the Millerites, referred to the event as The Great Disappointment.
In 1997, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult, believing the world was about to be "recycled," committed suicide in San Diego to board an alien craft they said was trailing behind a comet.
More recently, American radio host Harold Camping predicted the world would end on May 21, 2011, later moving the date forward five months when the apocalypse failed to materialize.
Such thoughts were far from the minds of gaudily attired pilgrims to Chichen Itza in search of something special.
Clad all in white, wearing an amethyst and a gold tiara, 20-year-old student Sydney Hughes said she believed contact with aliens was possible on Friday as she welcomed the dawn.
"It's selfish for us to think that we are the only life form that has intelligence," said Hughes, from Monterey, California.
French Apocalypse village looks forward to Christmas
Rumors the tiny French hamlet of Bugarach will be spared by a looming Apocalypse have sparked a storm of media interest, with journalists flocking in search of Doomsday believers who are so far proving few and far between.
Less than a day before the world is due to end according to an ancient Mayan prophecy, there were no survivalists to be found in the picturesque village or on its rocky outcrop, the Pic de Bugarach, nestled at the foothills of the Pyrenees.
At last count some 250 journalists were accredited for the much-anticipated event, outnumbering the 200 or so locals, who were becoming increasingly irate.
Mayor Jean-Pierre Delord said he expected Bugarach to still be standing next week, along with the rest of the world. His message: Don't show up, not even if you're curious.
"Don't come here. You'll only be making things hard for yourself, and there's even a risk of physical danger. So just don't come," he told reporters.
The origins of Bugarach's supposed immunity are unclear, although the area has been steeped in legend for centuries.
It was once inhabited by the mysterious medieval heretics the Cathars, and is even said to be the burial site of Jesus and possibly Mary of Magdalene.
The Pic de Bugarach, meanwhile, is said to be upside down, containing older layers of rock at the top than at the bottom.
More recently those myths have morphed into claims the mountain shelters an alien spaceship that will take off on Judgment Day, or even that it conceals a door to another world.
In 2011, the government's anti-sect watchdog Miviludes warned of a possible influx of New Age believers, after spotting six settlements in the area and noting that messianic groups had been holding conferences at local hotels.
Since then, media speculation has raged.
As a precaution for Friday authorities have closed off access to the village and mountain and drafted in extra police.
Some locals are even cashing in on the exposure, setting up a makeshift "End of the World" bar and selling a local wine labeled "Bugarach - The End of the World - I Was There."
Just in case the world does end, however, they've thoughtfully laid on a first-aid tent.
Judging by appearances though, if the prophecy does come true the only people saved will be locals and the hordes of international media. Whether they will make a fitting post-apocalyptic population, only time will tell.
Less than a day before the world is due to end according to an ancient Mayan prophecy, there were no survivalists to be found in the picturesque village or on its rocky outcrop, the Pic de Bugarach, nestled at the foothills of the Pyrenees.
At last count some 250 journalists were accredited for the much-anticipated event, outnumbering the 200 or so locals, who were becoming increasingly irate.
Mayor Jean-Pierre Delord said he expected Bugarach to still be standing next week, along with the rest of the world. His message: Don't show up, not even if you're curious.
"Don't come here. You'll only be making things hard for yourself, and there's even a risk of physical danger. So just don't come," he told reporters.
The origins of Bugarach's supposed immunity are unclear, although the area has been steeped in legend for centuries.
It was once inhabited by the mysterious medieval heretics the Cathars, and is even said to be the burial site of Jesus and possibly Mary of Magdalene.
The Pic de Bugarach, meanwhile, is said to be upside down, containing older layers of rock at the top than at the bottom.
More recently those myths have morphed into claims the mountain shelters an alien spaceship that will take off on Judgment Day, or even that it conceals a door to another world.
In 2011, the government's anti-sect watchdog Miviludes warned of a possible influx of New Age believers, after spotting six settlements in the area and noting that messianic groups had been holding conferences at local hotels.
Since then, media speculation has raged.
As a precaution for Friday authorities have closed off access to the village and mountain and drafted in extra police.
Some locals are even cashing in on the exposure, setting up a makeshift "End of the World" bar and selling a local wine labeled "Bugarach - The End of the World - I Was There."
Just in case the world does end, however, they've thoughtfully laid on a first-aid tent.
Judging by appearances though, if the prophecy does come true the only people saved will be locals and the hordes of international media. Whether they will make a fitting post-apocalyptic population, only time will tell.
UFO lovers, light-seekers and lawyers await Maya end of days
As pockets of anxiety crop up ahead of the day billed as the Maya apocalypse, a motley crew of New Age thrill-seekers, mystics and tourists have gathered at ancient holy sites in Mexico hoping to witness the birth of a new era.
In the Maya Long Calendar, December 21 marks the end of the 13th bak'tun, an epoch lasting roughly 400 years.
In the 1960s, one respected U.S. academic said the event might signify a possible "Armageddon" to the Mesoamerican culture, and the belief that Friday could be the world's last day has spread since.
But to many of the artists, hippies, lawyers and businessmen congregating in the nerve center of 12/21/2012 - the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in southern Mexico - the day will be the culmination of a spiritual journey, the dawn of a new consciousness, or the wellspring of untapped energies.
Or even all the above.
"There is an explosion of consciousness through this," said Shambala Songstar, a gray-haired Californian musician who gave his age as "eternal."
"We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy," he said.
In other parts of the world, fears that December 21 may bring doom, or unleash lesser disasters, has sparked scares.
On Thursday, Chinese state media said about 1,000 people had been detained for spreading rumors about Friday, such as the prospect of a three-day-long blackout.
The crackdown, which targeted members of the "Almighty God" cult, has not been enough to stem shortages of candles, instant noodles and matches, according to complaints logged on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblogging site.
In France, the media has buzzed about the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain said by believers in an impending catastrophe to be the only place that will survive 2012.
Social media spread fears that a mass suicide was being planned on a mountain popular among UFO spotters in Argentina. Local authorities decided to limit access to the Cerro Uritorco peak, though they said it was to prevent overcrowding.
A cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon has been U.S. scholar Michael Coe's 1966 observation that the end of the 13th bak'tun could herald an "Armageddon" for the Maya. Coe could not be reached for comment, but friends and colleagues say he never meant to forecast an apocalypse.
NASA, other scientists and other experts on Maya culture have also dismissed the idea of disaster striking, but media rumors and Internet fascination with the subject have put the spotlight on the sweltering heartland of the ancient civilization.
Thousands of people are expected in Chichen Itza, where pilgrims will converge on the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, an imposing 100 foot (30 meter) pyramid.
Visitors have come from as far afield as Asia, Europe and South America to share in the experience, and there is little apprehension among them that the world faces a day of reckoning in the annals of the Maya's 5,125 year-old calendar.
"At least we can die saying we saw the end of the world," said 27-year-old Minu Nair from Kerala, India, laughing and bathed in sweat after a steep climb to the top of the Maya pyramid at Coba, about an hour's drive from Chichen Itza.
HELPFUL ALIENS
Most visitors here describe Friday as a moment of positive change, a time for reflection over the planet's direction.
"A new age will dawn, and everybody who is involved in this knows that the world is in a very sad state," said Jill Baker, an artist from Kentucky, who, together with her partner Lee Pennington, spent $14,000 to visit Mexico for the big day.
"We want to learn how we go about bringing the peace all the elders of the ancient civilizations have told (of)," she added.
Many modern Maya, whose ancestors rose to prominence as a conquering civilization in much of southern Mexico and Central America during the first millennium, practicing human sacrifice along the way, have been baffled by the hype.
Scholars say the date has been exploited by purveyors of spiritual hokum and tall tales in exotic locations.
"This whole Maya prophecy is actually a hoax, which cynical pseudo-scholars have developed to sell their books," said Susan Milbrath at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Whatever the truth of the matter, Sandra Stocco, 39, a tax lawyer from Brazil, said she was honored to be in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and pointed to a group of meditating people dressed in white and quietly humming to explain why she had come.
"For this. This sound, this is the sound of the vibration of their heart, and Chichen Itza is the heart chakra," she said.
Others see the gathering of minds as a chance for humanity to correct its ways by calling on extra-terrestrial assistance.
"We're hoping for some sort of contact event and to meet some beings of other species," said Otto Martin, a production manager wearing shorts who had traveled from Los Angeles. "We're basically just hoping to ask them for help."
Lisa Harris, a 23-year-old jembe drummer from Oakland, California, with a nose ring and dreadlocks, said friends had paid for her to come to Mexico. She hoped she would see UFOs.
"I definitely believe in UFOs and alien ancestry, so that would be pretty cool if that does happen," she said.
Jeremy Berg, a 28-year-old from Oregon and fan of full-moon celebrations, solstices, solar eclipses, and meteor showers, said great energies were coming into alignment.
"All over the planet there are key lay-line positions that meet up into little vortex spots," said Berg, whose day job is running an electronics firm. "This is a momentous time in history. I look at it as a new beginning."
But in case Friday is the end, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid thanked his readers for their time over the years.
"It's been a blast," Reid wrote on Thursday. "So have an extra few roast potatoes today at lunch as it really won't matter if their prophesy turns out to be correct."
In the Maya Long Calendar, December 21 marks the end of the 13th bak'tun, an epoch lasting roughly 400 years.
In the 1960s, one respected U.S. academic said the event might signify a possible "Armageddon" to the Mesoamerican culture, and the belief that Friday could be the world's last day has spread since.
But to many of the artists, hippies, lawyers and businessmen congregating in the nerve center of 12/21/2012 - the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza in southern Mexico - the day will be the culmination of a spiritual journey, the dawn of a new consciousness, or the wellspring of untapped energies.
Or even all the above.
"There is an explosion of consciousness through this," said Shambala Songstar, a gray-haired Californian musician who gave his age as "eternal."
"We are becoming billionaires of energy. Opening to receive more light and more joy," he said.
In other parts of the world, fears that December 21 may bring doom, or unleash lesser disasters, has sparked scares.
On Thursday, Chinese state media said about 1,000 people had been detained for spreading rumors about Friday, such as the prospect of a three-day-long blackout.
The crackdown, which targeted members of the "Almighty God" cult, has not been enough to stem shortages of candles, instant noodles and matches, according to complaints logged on Weibo, China's popular Twitter-like microblogging site.
In France, the media has buzzed about the Pic de Bugarach, a mountain said by believers in an impending catastrophe to be the only place that will survive 2012.
Social media spread fears that a mass suicide was being planned on a mountain popular among UFO spotters in Argentina. Local authorities decided to limit access to the Cerro Uritorco peak, though they said it was to prevent overcrowding.
A cornerstone of the 2012 phenomenon has been U.S. scholar Michael Coe's 1966 observation that the end of the 13th bak'tun could herald an "Armageddon" for the Maya. Coe could not be reached for comment, but friends and colleagues say he never meant to forecast an apocalypse.
NASA, other scientists and other experts on Maya culture have also dismissed the idea of disaster striking, but media rumors and Internet fascination with the subject have put the spotlight on the sweltering heartland of the ancient civilization.
Thousands of people are expected in Chichen Itza, where pilgrims will converge on the Temple of the serpent god Kukulkan, an imposing 100 foot (30 meter) pyramid.
Visitors have come from as far afield as Asia, Europe and South America to share in the experience, and there is little apprehension among them that the world faces a day of reckoning in the annals of the Maya's 5,125 year-old calendar.
"At least we can die saying we saw the end of the world," said 27-year-old Minu Nair from Kerala, India, laughing and bathed in sweat after a steep climb to the top of the Maya pyramid at Coba, about an hour's drive from Chichen Itza.
HELPFUL ALIENS
Most visitors here describe Friday as a moment of positive change, a time for reflection over the planet's direction.
"A new age will dawn, and everybody who is involved in this knows that the world is in a very sad state," said Jill Baker, an artist from Kentucky, who, together with her partner Lee Pennington, spent $14,000 to visit Mexico for the big day.
"We want to learn how we go about bringing the peace all the elders of the ancient civilizations have told (of)," she added.
Many modern Maya, whose ancestors rose to prominence as a conquering civilization in much of southern Mexico and Central America during the first millennium, practicing human sacrifice along the way, have been baffled by the hype.
Scholars say the date has been exploited by purveyors of spiritual hokum and tall tales in exotic locations.
"This whole Maya prophecy is actually a hoax, which cynical pseudo-scholars have developed to sell their books," said Susan Milbrath at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Whatever the truth of the matter, Sandra Stocco, 39, a tax lawyer from Brazil, said she was honored to be in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and pointed to a group of meditating people dressed in white and quietly humming to explain why she had come.
"For this. This sound, this is the sound of the vibration of their heart, and Chichen Itza is the heart chakra," she said.
Others see the gathering of minds as a chance for humanity to correct its ways by calling on extra-terrestrial assistance.
"We're hoping for some sort of contact event and to meet some beings of other species," said Otto Martin, a production manager wearing shorts who had traveled from Los Angeles. "We're basically just hoping to ask them for help."
Lisa Harris, a 23-year-old jembe drummer from Oakland, California, with a nose ring and dreadlocks, said friends had paid for her to come to Mexico. She hoped she would see UFOs.
"I definitely believe in UFOs and alien ancestry, so that would be pretty cool if that does happen," she said.
Jeremy Berg, a 28-year-old from Oregon and fan of full-moon celebrations, solstices, solar eclipses, and meteor showers, said great energies were coming into alignment.
"All over the planet there are key lay-line positions that meet up into little vortex spots," said Berg, whose day job is running an electronics firm. "This is a momentous time in history. I look at it as a new beginning."
But in case Friday is the end, Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid thanked his readers for their time over the years.
"It's been a blast," Reid wrote on Thursday. "So have an extra few roast potatoes today at lunch as it really won't matter if their prophesy turns out to be correct."
Putin offers French tax row actor Depardieu a Russian passport
President Vladimir Putin offered French actor Gerard Depardieu a Russian passport on Thursday, saying he would welcome the 63-year-old celebrity who is embroiled in a bitter tax row with France's socialist government.
Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised press conference.
"If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively," Putin said.
French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that Depardieu had told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
"Putin has already sent me a passport," Le Monde quoted the actor as jokingly saying.
Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, and in 2012 he was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader.
He also worked in Russia last year on a film about the life and times of the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
He has already inquired about how to obtain Belgian residency rights and said he plans to hand in his French passport and social security card.
In what has become an ugly public dispute, France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's announcement as "pathetic" and unpatriotic. The actor hit back, accusing France of punishing success and talent.
But Putin said he thought the feud was the result of a "misunderstanding".
The 60-year-old former KGB spy said he was very friendly with Depardieu, saying he thought the actor considered himself a Frenchman who loved the culture and history of his homeland.
Belgian residents do not pay a wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales.
Hollande is also pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75-percent super tax on income over 1 million euros.
Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent.
Weighing into a dispute over a hike in taxes, Putin heaped praise on Depardieu, making the offer of citizenship in response to a question during his annual televised press conference.
"If Gerard really wants to have either a residency permit in Russia or a Russian passport, we will assume that this matter is settled and settled positively," Putin said.
French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that Depardieu had told his close friends he was considering three options to escape France's new tax regime: moving to Belgium, where he owns a home, relocating to Montenegro, where he has a business, or fleeing to Russia.
"Putin has already sent me a passport," Le Monde quoted the actor as jokingly saying.
Depardieu is well-known in Russia where he has appeared in many advertising campaigns, and in 2012 he was one of several Western celebrities invited to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader.
He also worked in Russia last year on a film about the life and times of the eccentric Russian monk Grigory Rasputin.
He has already inquired about how to obtain Belgian residency rights and said he plans to hand in his French passport and social security card.
In what has become an ugly public dispute, France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault criticized Depardieu's announcement as "pathetic" and unpatriotic. The actor hit back, accusing France of punishing success and talent.
But Putin said he thought the feud was the result of a "misunderstanding".
The 60-year-old former KGB spy said he was very friendly with Depardieu, saying he thought the actor considered himself a Frenchman who loved the culture and history of his homeland.
Belgian residents do not pay a wealth tax, which in France is now levied on those with assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.7 million). Nor do they pay capital gains tax on share sales.
Hollande is also pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75-percent super tax on income over 1 million euros.
Russia has a flat income tax rate of 13 percent.
As "Doomsday" looms, Serbs cash in on mystical mountain
If doomsday really falls on Friday, the residents of this Serbian mountain region are cashing in while they can.
"We're booked out December 20-23. We have a New Age convention and guests are coming because of the end of the world," said Nebojsa Gajic, manager of the 160-bed, Communist-era Millennium Hotel on the slopes of Mount Rtanj.
The region is selling itself as the best place to survive the looming apocalypse - which will fall on December 21, according to mystics whose calculations depend on the ending of an era in the 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar.
It is basing its promise on the mystical powers that locals say have flooded the area since its pyramid-shaped mountain swallowed a castle belonging to a well-to-do sorcerer, trapping him inside.
About 250 km (155 miles) east of the capital Belgrade, towards Bulgaria, Mount Rtanj is part of the Carpathian range and famed in Serbia for its herbal tea, pristine nature and clean air.
Like the French Pyrenean village of Bugarach - which is guarded by another magical mountain - Rtanj is offering salvation from Friday's cataclysm and safe passage into a golden age.
Residents say they have been inundated with enquiries from Serbia and abroad.
"We're booked out," said Darko Jovic, manager of the Balasevic hotel. "People were even calling from the United States and we had to say 'No'. I couldn't even get a room for my own mother and sister."
The Serbian daily Blic reported the going rate for private accommodation had shot up to 500 euros ($660) per night.
A Reuters reporting crew in Rtanj said the area appeared quiet, but bulldozers were clearing the roads of snow in preparation for the expected influx.
"We came because of the end of the world," said Dragoljub Arandjelovic from the nearby town of Paracin. It was unclear if he was serious, or in search of a good party.
"We tried to find a room but without success. If we can't stay here, we'll just have to grin and bear it," he added.
Locals say the sorcerer still lives in the mountain and that there have been sightings of fireballs hovering above Rtanj's foggy peak.
Serbian media reports say physicists have recorded magnetic anomalies in the area, which is riddled with abandoned coal-mine shafts dating from the 19th century.
Retired show-business promoter Dragan Milenkovic, 65, said the mountain, with its striking pyramid shape, was built by aliens who would return on Friday.
"On December 21, on the summit of Rtanj, we'll see a beautiful violet and red light that will engulf the planet for about five seconds and they (the aliens) will come," he told Reuters. "That will mark the beginning of a golden era that will last 1,345 years."
Others were unconvinced.
"For me, doomsday comes every month when I have to cover monthly expenses of 300 euros with a salary of 250 euros and a family of three to feed," said 36-year-old nurse Dragana Djordjevic.
($1 = 0.7568 euros)
"We're booked out December 20-23. We have a New Age convention and guests are coming because of the end of the world," said Nebojsa Gajic, manager of the 160-bed, Communist-era Millennium Hotel on the slopes of Mount Rtanj.
The region is selling itself as the best place to survive the looming apocalypse - which will fall on December 21, according to mystics whose calculations depend on the ending of an era in the 5,125-year-old Mayan calendar.
It is basing its promise on the mystical powers that locals say have flooded the area since its pyramid-shaped mountain swallowed a castle belonging to a well-to-do sorcerer, trapping him inside.
About 250 km (155 miles) east of the capital Belgrade, towards Bulgaria, Mount Rtanj is part of the Carpathian range and famed in Serbia for its herbal tea, pristine nature and clean air.
Like the French Pyrenean village of Bugarach - which is guarded by another magical mountain - Rtanj is offering salvation from Friday's cataclysm and safe passage into a golden age.
Residents say they have been inundated with enquiries from Serbia and abroad.
"We're booked out," said Darko Jovic, manager of the Balasevic hotel. "People were even calling from the United States and we had to say 'No'. I couldn't even get a room for my own mother and sister."
The Serbian daily Blic reported the going rate for private accommodation had shot up to 500 euros ($660) per night.
A Reuters reporting crew in Rtanj said the area appeared quiet, but bulldozers were clearing the roads of snow in preparation for the expected influx.
"We came because of the end of the world," said Dragoljub Arandjelovic from the nearby town of Paracin. It was unclear if he was serious, or in search of a good party.
"We tried to find a room but without success. If we can't stay here, we'll just have to grin and bear it," he added.
Locals say the sorcerer still lives in the mountain and that there have been sightings of fireballs hovering above Rtanj's foggy peak.
Serbian media reports say physicists have recorded magnetic anomalies in the area, which is riddled with abandoned coal-mine shafts dating from the 19th century.
Retired show-business promoter Dragan Milenkovic, 65, said the mountain, with its striking pyramid shape, was built by aliens who would return on Friday.
"On December 21, on the summit of Rtanj, we'll see a beautiful violet and red light that will engulf the planet for about five seconds and they (the aliens) will come," he told Reuters. "That will mark the beginning of a golden era that will last 1,345 years."
Others were unconvinced.
"For me, doomsday comes every month when I have to cover monthly expenses of 300 euros with a salary of 250 euros and a family of three to feed," said 36-year-old nurse Dragana Djordjevic.
($1 = 0.7568 euros)
Maya apocalypse and Star Wars collide in Guatemalan temple
At the center of the rebel base where Luke Skywalker took off to destroy the Death Star and save his people from the clutches of Darth Vader, Guatemala is preparing for another momentous event: the end of an age for the Maya.
Deep inside the Guatemalan rainforest stand the ruins of the Maya temples that George Lucas used to film the planet Yavin 4 in the movie "Star Wars," from where Skywalker and his sidekick Han Solo launched their attack on the Galactic Empire's giant space station.
This week, at sunrise on Friday, December 21, an era closes in the Maya Long Count calendar, an event that has been likened by different groups to the end of days, the start of a new, more spiritual age or a good reason to hang out at old Maya temples across Mexico and Central America.
"If it is the end of the world, hopefully Luke will come and blow up that Death Star," said Alex Markovitz, a 24-year-old consultant and Star Wars fan from Philadelphia, looking out over the site of Skywalker's rebel base. "I see why they shot here. It doesn't look real. It looks like an alien planet."
Once at the heart of a conquering civilization in its own right, the ancient city of Tikal is now a pilgrimage site for both hard-core Star Wars fans and enthusiasts of Maya culture eager to discover what exactly the modern interpretations of old lore portend.
In the 1960s, a leading U.S. scholar said the end of the Maya's 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - could signify an "Armageddon," though many people trekking to the old temples believe it could herald something wonderful.
Discovered in 1848 when locals unearthed human skulls whose teeth were studded with jade jewels, Tikal draws tourists from around the globe. Visitors this week said they felt a powerful presence in the blue skies above them.
"The force is strong here," said Jimena Teijeiro, 35, an Argentine-born self-help blogger. "The world as we know it is coming to an end. We are being propelled to a new age of light, synchronicity and simple wonderment with life."
Maya scholars and astronomers have dismissed the idea the world is on the brink of destruction but mystics and spiritual thrill-seekers have flocked to feed off Tikal's energy. Park guards said they had to throw out 13 naked women who were dancing and chanting around a fire pit near the temples last week.
"Something big is going to happen," said the president of Guatemala's Star Wars fan club, entrepreneur Ricardo Alejos. "The Maya were an incredibly precise people. Something big is going to happen and we'll find out what in a few days."
Surrounded by thick jungle home to jaguars, monkeys and toucans, the view of Yavin 4 from the top of Tikal's Temple Four, known as the temple of the double-headed serpent, has changed little since Lucas filmed here in 1977.
CIVIL WAR
Lucas chose Tikal when he saw a poster of the site at a travel agency in England during the production of the original "Episode IV: A New Hope" film, and sent a crew to Guatemala in March 1977 to shoot during its 36-year civil war.
His team hoisted bulky camera gear and heavy lights to the top of the 210-foot-high (65-metre-high) Temple Four with a pulley system and paid a guard with six-packs of beer to protect the equipment with a shotgun for four nights, locals said.
A year after the shoot, the wooden huts where Lucas' film crew camped were burned to the ground by leftist rebels fighting against a right-wing military government.
Extending for 222 square miles (575 square km) through Guatemala's sweltering north, Tikal is one of the largest pre-Colombian Maya sites and known by some as the New York City of Maya ruins because of its high temples that climb toward the heavens.
The peaks of the limestone structures pierce the dense, green canopy of the jungle and howler monkeys wail at sunrise.
Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi Knight academy. However, fans said that Disney will likely film those scenes in a studio rather than return to Tikal.
The shrines, believed to have been used mainly for worship, also appeared in the 1979 James Bond movie "Moonraker" in which 007 was lured through the jungle to the lair of his enemy Hugo Drax.
Local guides are expecting a rush of visitors this week and the Guatemalan government forecasts a record 235,000 foreign tourists for December. Hotels in Tikal are fully booked.
"There are passionate groups that come," said tour guide Gamaliel Jimenez. "One group told me 'If you don't take us to where they filmed Star Wars, we aren't going to hire you.'"
Deep inside the Guatemalan rainforest stand the ruins of the Maya temples that George Lucas used to film the planet Yavin 4 in the movie "Star Wars," from where Skywalker and his sidekick Han Solo launched their attack on the Galactic Empire's giant space station.
This week, at sunrise on Friday, December 21, an era closes in the Maya Long Count calendar, an event that has been likened by different groups to the end of days, the start of a new, more spiritual age or a good reason to hang out at old Maya temples across Mexico and Central America.
"If it is the end of the world, hopefully Luke will come and blow up that Death Star," said Alex Markovitz, a 24-year-old consultant and Star Wars fan from Philadelphia, looking out over the site of Skywalker's rebel base. "I see why they shot here. It doesn't look real. It looks like an alien planet."
Once at the heart of a conquering civilization in its own right, the ancient city of Tikal is now a pilgrimage site for both hard-core Star Wars fans and enthusiasts of Maya culture eager to discover what exactly the modern interpretations of old lore portend.
In the 1960s, a leading U.S. scholar said the end of the Maya's 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - could signify an "Armageddon," though many people trekking to the old temples believe it could herald something wonderful.
Discovered in 1848 when locals unearthed human skulls whose teeth were studded with jade jewels, Tikal draws tourists from around the globe. Visitors this week said they felt a powerful presence in the blue skies above them.
"The force is strong here," said Jimena Teijeiro, 35, an Argentine-born self-help blogger. "The world as we know it is coming to an end. We are being propelled to a new age of light, synchronicity and simple wonderment with life."
Maya scholars and astronomers have dismissed the idea the world is on the brink of destruction but mystics and spiritual thrill-seekers have flocked to feed off Tikal's energy. Park guards said they had to throw out 13 naked women who were dancing and chanting around a fire pit near the temples last week.
"Something big is going to happen," said the president of Guatemala's Star Wars fan club, entrepreneur Ricardo Alejos. "The Maya were an incredibly precise people. Something big is going to happen and we'll find out what in a few days."
Surrounded by thick jungle home to jaguars, monkeys and toucans, the view of Yavin 4 from the top of Tikal's Temple Four, known as the temple of the double-headed serpent, has changed little since Lucas filmed here in 1977.
CIVIL WAR
Lucas chose Tikal when he saw a poster of the site at a travel agency in England during the production of the original "Episode IV: A New Hope" film, and sent a crew to Guatemala in March 1977 to shoot during its 36-year civil war.
His team hoisted bulky camera gear and heavy lights to the top of the 210-foot-high (65-metre-high) Temple Four with a pulley system and paid a guard with six-packs of beer to protect the equipment with a shotgun for four nights, locals said.
A year after the shoot, the wooden huts where Lucas' film crew camped were burned to the ground by leftist rebels fighting against a right-wing military government.
Extending for 222 square miles (575 square km) through Guatemala's sweltering north, Tikal is one of the largest pre-Colombian Maya sites and known by some as the New York City of Maya ruins because of its high temples that climb toward the heavens.
The peaks of the limestone structures pierce the dense, green canopy of the jungle and howler monkeys wail at sunrise.
Yavin 4 and the rebel base return to the Star Wars plot in the forthcoming Episode VII, announced in October by the Walt Disney Co, in which Skywalker comes back to the planet to build a Jedi Knight academy. However, fans said that Disney will likely film those scenes in a studio rather than return to Tikal.
The shrines, believed to have been used mainly for worship, also appeared in the 1979 James Bond movie "Moonraker" in which 007 was lured through the jungle to the lair of his enemy Hugo Drax.
Local guides are expecting a rush of visitors this week and the Guatemalan government forecasts a record 235,000 foreign tourists for December. Hotels in Tikal are fully booked.
"There are passionate groups that come," said tour guide Gamaliel Jimenez. "One group told me 'If you don't take us to where they filmed Star Wars, we aren't going to hire you.'"
"Dear Santa" letters answered by U.S. Post Office program
One 13-year-old boy who sent a "Dear Santa" letter to the U.S. Post Office this year asked only for covers for his bed, "so I can stay warm this winter."
Another letter from a 12-year-old wanted nothing for himself, just something for his single mother, because she worked so hard.
Heartrending letters like these are sent each year to the Post Office "Letters to Santa" program, now in its 100th year.
Postal employees go through the hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole, Alaska" to separate out those that express serious need.
Some of the letters are answered by charitable groups, businesses, schools, postal employees and individual anonymous givers, who can come to participating branches, pick letters and go shopping.
The Chicago branch has already seen 18,000 letters come in -- with more arriving every day, said communications director and "Chief Elf" Robin Anderson on Tuesday. She expects about 2,500 will be answered. The New York "Operation Santa" program is the country's largest, receiving more than a half a million letters each season.
Letters this year are reflecting a greater need for necessities, and have included more letters from adults looking for work who need help buying for their children, according to both Chicago postal workers and givers.
"You're reading letters from six-year-old, eight-year-old kids who aren't asking for video games, they're asking for winter coats and food on the table, which is not something you'd think of kids writing to Santa for," said Kelley Fernandez, 26, who along with her colleague Debbie Schmidt, 53, who work for Toji Trading Group and have answered letters from Santa for three years.
Last year, Schmidt and Fernandez got other colleagues involved, and this year the whole Chicago office plus the Singapore office participated. The employees bought gifts for 26 families this year, including 106 children -- at 40 boxes the largest "Santa" shipment this year from the Chicago branch.
Anyone who wants to adopt a letter at a participating branch must fill out a form and show a picture ID. Then the giver comes back with a gift by December 22 to match the letter, and pays for postage.
To protect the privacy of the recipients, the full names and addresses are known only to the U.S. Post Office, which delivers the gifts.
One man who is an annual giver to the Santa program in Chicago used to be a recipient himself, said Anderson.
Schmidt and Fernandez say they bring a box of tissues to read the letters, because they can be so emotional. Fernandez recalled that last year, a little girl wrote, "Dear Santa, we're staying with our auntie because our mother can no longer take care of us, and we want you to know where we are this year."
Schmidt said she also sees requests from grandmothers, single moms and single dads.
Schmidt said she and her co-workers are sending handwritten letters back to the families along with the presents, signed by Santa. "We let everything be from Santa," she said. "The kids are so young, and still believing in Santa."
Another letter from a 12-year-old wanted nothing for himself, just something for his single mother, because she worked so hard.
Heartrending letters like these are sent each year to the Post Office "Letters to Santa" program, now in its 100th year.
Postal employees go through the hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole, Alaska" to separate out those that express serious need.
Some of the letters are answered by charitable groups, businesses, schools, postal employees and individual anonymous givers, who can come to participating branches, pick letters and go shopping.
The Chicago branch has already seen 18,000 letters come in -- with more arriving every day, said communications director and "Chief Elf" Robin Anderson on Tuesday. She expects about 2,500 will be answered. The New York "Operation Santa" program is the country's largest, receiving more than a half a million letters each season.
Letters this year are reflecting a greater need for necessities, and have included more letters from adults looking for work who need help buying for their children, according to both Chicago postal workers and givers.
"You're reading letters from six-year-old, eight-year-old kids who aren't asking for video games, they're asking for winter coats and food on the table, which is not something you'd think of kids writing to Santa for," said Kelley Fernandez, 26, who along with her colleague Debbie Schmidt, 53, who work for Toji Trading Group and have answered letters from Santa for three years.
Last year, Schmidt and Fernandez got other colleagues involved, and this year the whole Chicago office plus the Singapore office participated. The employees bought gifts for 26 families this year, including 106 children -- at 40 boxes the largest "Santa" shipment this year from the Chicago branch.
Anyone who wants to adopt a letter at a participating branch must fill out a form and show a picture ID. Then the giver comes back with a gift by December 22 to match the letter, and pays for postage.
To protect the privacy of the recipients, the full names and addresses are known only to the U.S. Post Office, which delivers the gifts.
One man who is an annual giver to the Santa program in Chicago used to be a recipient himself, said Anderson.
Schmidt and Fernandez say they bring a box of tissues to read the letters, because they can be so emotional. Fernandez recalled that last year, a little girl wrote, "Dear Santa, we're staying with our auntie because our mother can no longer take care of us, and we want you to know where we are this year."
Schmidt said she also sees requests from grandmothers, single moms and single dads.
Schmidt said she and her co-workers are sending handwritten letters back to the families along with the presents, signed by Santa. "We let everything be from Santa," she said. "The kids are so young, and still believing in Santa."
Canada's massive maple syrup whodunit ends in arrests
The world's supply of maple syrup just got a little safer.
Police in Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec announced a breakthrough in the mysterious disappearance last August of truckloads of Canadian maple syrup.
Three suspects were arrested, vehicles were seized and syrup-making equipment recovered after a manhunt in Canada and the United States, the Quebec provincial police force said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Quebec police statement did not say what happened to the syrup or how much was stolen, but Canadian news sources said $18 million to $22 million worth was taken and two-thirds of it was recovered.
Five other suspects were still being "actively" sought in the investigation that also netted two elevator carts, four syrup kettles, platform lifts and six electronic scales.
The syrup heist was uncovered by a routine inventory check by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers earlier this year. The federation said the loss was significant but did not specify the size of the loss from the warehouse that held 10 million pounds of maple syrup, worth some $30 million.
Quebec produces about 75 percent of the world's maple syrup, a favorite on pancakes and waffles and also used in foods ranging from sweets and pastries to bacon and sausage.
Police in Canada's French-speaking province of Quebec announced a breakthrough in the mysterious disappearance last August of truckloads of Canadian maple syrup.
Three suspects were arrested, vehicles were seized and syrup-making equipment recovered after a manhunt in Canada and the United States, the Quebec provincial police force said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Quebec police statement did not say what happened to the syrup or how much was stolen, but Canadian news sources said $18 million to $22 million worth was taken and two-thirds of it was recovered.
Five other suspects were still being "actively" sought in the investigation that also netted two elevator carts, four syrup kettles, platform lifts and six electronic scales.
The syrup heist was uncovered by a routine inventory check by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers earlier this year. The federation said the loss was significant but did not specify the size of the loss from the warehouse that held 10 million pounds of maple syrup, worth some $30 million.
Quebec produces about 75 percent of the world's maple syrup, a favorite on pancakes and waffles and also used in foods ranging from sweets and pastries to bacon and sausage.
Mysticism, Internet fuel Mexico's Maya "Armageddon" fears
A few words by an American scholar, a crumbling Mexican monument and the love of a good yarn were all it took to spawn the belief that the world could end this week.
December 21 marks the end of an age in a 5,125 year-old Maya calendar, an event that is variously interpreted as the end of days, the start of a new era or just a good excuse for a party.
Thousands of New Age mystics, spiritual adventurers and canny businessmen are converging on ancient ruins in southern Mexico and Guatemala to find out what will happen.
"No one knows what it will look like on the other side," said Michael DiMartino, 46, a long-haired American who is organizing one of the biggest December 21 celebrations at the Maya temple site of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula.
It is not the world but "the way we perceive it" that will end, said DiMartino, who pledged his event at ground zero for 2012 acolytes will be a "distilling down of various perspectives into a unified intention for positive transformation, evolution and co-creation of a new way of being."
A mash-up of academic speculation and existential angst seasoned with elements from several world religions, the 2012 phenomenon has been fueled by Hollywood movies and computer games, and relentlessly disseminated by Internet doom-mongers.
Mass hysteria in a Russian prison, a Chinese man building survival pods for doomsday and UFO lovers seeking refuge with aliens in a French mountain village are just some of the reports that have sprung up in the final countdown to December 21.
Robert Bast, a New Zealander living in Melbourne who wrote a book called "Survive 2012" on how to cope with the possible catastrophe, believes the Maya may have sent out a warning.
"The most likely thing for me is a solar storm, but that's not going to kill you straight away. It's more of a long term disaster," said Bast, 47, noting a flu pandemic could also strike the planet. "I feel the world isn't as safe as we think it is. The last couple of generations have had it very cozy."
When dawn breaks on Friday, according to the Maya Long Count calendar, it marks the end of the 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - and the beginning of the 14th.
This fact would probably have languished in academic obscurity had not a young Maya expert named Michael Coe written in the 1960s that to the ancient Mesoamerican culture the date could herald an "Armageddon" to cleanse humanity.
Since then, the cult of 2012 has snowballed.
Among the sun-bleached pyramids, shaded mangroves and deep cenotes of the Maya heartland, there are hopes December 21 will bring a spiritual re-birth.
Nobody seems quite sure what to expect on Friday, but it has not stopped people getting their hopes up.
"This is the Arab Spring of the spiritual movement," said Geoffrey Ocean Dreyer, a 52-year-old U.S. musician wearing a sombrero and mardi gras beads. "We're going to create world peace. We're going to Jerusalem and we're going to rebuild Solomon's temple."
ANXIETY ATTACKS
The words of Coe, a highly respected Maya scholar, were published in 1966 at the height of the Cold War, stirring fears in a world haunted by the prospect of nuclear holocaust.
Coe could not be reached for comment for this article, but friends and academics who know him insist he never meant to inspire a vision of apocalypse when he committed them to paper.
Stephen Houston, a Maya expert at Brown University in Rhode Island and student of Coe's, said too much has been read into the end of the 13th bak'tun, which was little more than a "dull mathematical declaration" used to bracket dates.
"I see it all as an expression of present day anxiety and not much more than that," Houston said.
Few remaining inscriptions refer to the event, and the best known one is part of a monument recovered from a Maya site in Tabasco state called Tortuguero - much of which was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of a cement factory.
Still, the mix of religion, ancient inscriptions and media-driven speculation about impending doom remains potent.
"I got an email the other day from a mother who was contemplating taking her own life, because she didn't know what was really going to happen, she didn't want her children to live through this ordeal," said David Stuart, a Maya expert at the University of Texas. "We can dismiss it as a kooky idea, which it is, but they're still ideas and they still have power."
U.S. space agency NASA has sought to allay fears of impending catastrophe, noting that "our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."
Nothing has given the 2012 theories more oxygen in the run-up to the big day than the Internet, noted John Hoopes, a Maya anthropologist at the University of Kansas.
"Computers come straight out of the same people who were smoking pot and protesting at Berkeley and Stanford," he said, referring to U.S. student movements in the 1960s.
"This Maya calendar stuff has been part of hacktivism lore for 40 years, since the beginning, and with every significant change in computer technology, it's gotten another boost."
Many of those gathering in Chichen Itza praised the Internet as a discussion forum and organizing tool for New Age events.
"We don't need leaders now we have the Internet," said Muggy Burton, 66, who had traveled to Mexico from Canada with her 15-year-old, blue-haired granddaughter, Talis Hardy.
The two, who communicate with each other by whistling, plan to live in Mexico for six months, according to Burton, who is going to homeschool Hardy. "It's the end of the world for her, and the beginning of a new one," she added.
MAYA SKEPTICS
Mexico's federal government is not officially marking the phenomenon, but the country's tourism agency has launched a "Mundo Maya 2012" website with a countdown to December 21.
Up to 200,000 people are expected to descend on Chichen Itza alone for the night of December 20.
Among modern descendants of the Maya, the idea it could all come to an end on Friday generally raises a wry smile - but they are happy to play along if it makes money.
"It's a psychic epidemic," said Miguel Coral, 56, a cigar salesman in Merida, a colonial town and capital of Yucatan state. "It's all about business, but that's fine. It helps our country. I think it's excellent we've exported this idea."
Nearby, workers built a pyramid of spray-painted polystyrene blocks for the opening of the town's Maya festival.
"If people who believe in this joke want to come, let them," said Jose May, a Merida tourism official of Maya descent. "Nobody here believes that. Those people were sold an idea."
Hazy rumors have helped feed the sense of anticipation.
A few hours' drive south of Merida in the remote Maya town of Xul, which means "the end," media reports began circulating as early as 2008 that a group of Italians were readying themselves for impending doom by building apocalypse-proof bunkers.
Today, the settlement dubbed the "end of the world resort" is open for business as "Eco Spa Las Aguilas."
"There's no truth in it," said deputy manager Andrea Podesta, 45, referring to speculation it was a cult.
"Some people came here, took some hidden photos, and published some very unpleasant articles about us," he added, noting the glistening new spa was booked up well into 2013.
Inside, a group of elderly Italians, mostly dressed in white, were watching the path of an asteroid on a giant screen. A black-and-white image of Christ's face hung from the wall and a large stone statue of a robed woman greeted visitors.
Whatever lies in store for the planet, even Maya academics who have fought to play down the hype surrounding the passing of another 24 hours feel there could still be some surprises.
"I think there may be some mischief on December 21 because the whole world is watching," said Hoopes in Kansas, citing rumors hacktivist group Anonymous was planning a stunt. "It's a very fertile opportunity for a tremendous prank."
December 21 marks the end of an age in a 5,125 year-old Maya calendar, an event that is variously interpreted as the end of days, the start of a new era or just a good excuse for a party.
Thousands of New Age mystics, spiritual adventurers and canny businessmen are converging on ancient ruins in southern Mexico and Guatemala to find out what will happen.
"No one knows what it will look like on the other side," said Michael DiMartino, 46, a long-haired American who is organizing one of the biggest December 21 celebrations at the Maya temple site of Chichen Itza on the Yucatan peninsula.
It is not the world but "the way we perceive it" that will end, said DiMartino, who pledged his event at ground zero for 2012 acolytes will be a "distilling down of various perspectives into a unified intention for positive transformation, evolution and co-creation of a new way of being."
A mash-up of academic speculation and existential angst seasoned with elements from several world religions, the 2012 phenomenon has been fueled by Hollywood movies and computer games, and relentlessly disseminated by Internet doom-mongers.
Mass hysteria in a Russian prison, a Chinese man building survival pods for doomsday and UFO lovers seeking refuge with aliens in a French mountain village are just some of the reports that have sprung up in the final countdown to December 21.
Robert Bast, a New Zealander living in Melbourne who wrote a book called "Survive 2012" on how to cope with the possible catastrophe, believes the Maya may have sent out a warning.
"The most likely thing for me is a solar storm, but that's not going to kill you straight away. It's more of a long term disaster," said Bast, 47, noting a flu pandemic could also strike the planet. "I feel the world isn't as safe as we think it is. The last couple of generations have had it very cozy."
When dawn breaks on Friday, according to the Maya Long Count calendar, it marks the end of the 13th bak'tun - an epoch lasting some 400 years - and the beginning of the 14th.
This fact would probably have languished in academic obscurity had not a young Maya expert named Michael Coe written in the 1960s that to the ancient Mesoamerican culture the date could herald an "Armageddon" to cleanse humanity.
Since then, the cult of 2012 has snowballed.
Among the sun-bleached pyramids, shaded mangroves and deep cenotes of the Maya heartland, there are hopes December 21 will bring a spiritual re-birth.
Nobody seems quite sure what to expect on Friday, but it has not stopped people getting their hopes up.
"This is the Arab Spring of the spiritual movement," said Geoffrey Ocean Dreyer, a 52-year-old U.S. musician wearing a sombrero and mardi gras beads. "We're going to create world peace. We're going to Jerusalem and we're going to rebuild Solomon's temple."
ANXIETY ATTACKS
The words of Coe, a highly respected Maya scholar, were published in 1966 at the height of the Cold War, stirring fears in a world haunted by the prospect of nuclear holocaust.
Coe could not be reached for comment for this article, but friends and academics who know him insist he never meant to inspire a vision of apocalypse when he committed them to paper.
Stephen Houston, a Maya expert at Brown University in Rhode Island and student of Coe's, said too much has been read into the end of the 13th bak'tun, which was little more than a "dull mathematical declaration" used to bracket dates.
"I see it all as an expression of present day anxiety and not much more than that," Houston said.
Few remaining inscriptions refer to the event, and the best known one is part of a monument recovered from a Maya site in Tabasco state called Tortuguero - much of which was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of a cement factory.
Still, the mix of religion, ancient inscriptions and media-driven speculation about impending doom remains potent.
"I got an email the other day from a mother who was contemplating taking her own life, because she didn't know what was really going to happen, she didn't want her children to live through this ordeal," said David Stuart, a Maya expert at the University of Texas. "We can dismiss it as a kooky idea, which it is, but they're still ideas and they still have power."
U.S. space agency NASA has sought to allay fears of impending catastrophe, noting that "our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."
Nothing has given the 2012 theories more oxygen in the run-up to the big day than the Internet, noted John Hoopes, a Maya anthropologist at the University of Kansas.
"Computers come straight out of the same people who were smoking pot and protesting at Berkeley and Stanford," he said, referring to U.S. student movements in the 1960s.
"This Maya calendar stuff has been part of hacktivism lore for 40 years, since the beginning, and with every significant change in computer technology, it's gotten another boost."
Many of those gathering in Chichen Itza praised the Internet as a discussion forum and organizing tool for New Age events.
"We don't need leaders now we have the Internet," said Muggy Burton, 66, who had traveled to Mexico from Canada with her 15-year-old, blue-haired granddaughter, Talis Hardy.
The two, who communicate with each other by whistling, plan to live in Mexico for six months, according to Burton, who is going to homeschool Hardy. "It's the end of the world for her, and the beginning of a new one," she added.
MAYA SKEPTICS
Mexico's federal government is not officially marking the phenomenon, but the country's tourism agency has launched a "Mundo Maya 2012" website with a countdown to December 21.
Up to 200,000 people are expected to descend on Chichen Itza alone for the night of December 20.
Among modern descendants of the Maya, the idea it could all come to an end on Friday generally raises a wry smile - but they are happy to play along if it makes money.
"It's a psychic epidemic," said Miguel Coral, 56, a cigar salesman in Merida, a colonial town and capital of Yucatan state. "It's all about business, but that's fine. It helps our country. I think it's excellent we've exported this idea."
Nearby, workers built a pyramid of spray-painted polystyrene blocks for the opening of the town's Maya festival.
"If people who believe in this joke want to come, let them," said Jose May, a Merida tourism official of Maya descent. "Nobody here believes that. Those people were sold an idea."
Hazy rumors have helped feed the sense of anticipation.
A few hours' drive south of Merida in the remote Maya town of Xul, which means "the end," media reports began circulating as early as 2008 that a group of Italians were readying themselves for impending doom by building apocalypse-proof bunkers.
Today, the settlement dubbed the "end of the world resort" is open for business as "Eco Spa Las Aguilas."
"There's no truth in it," said deputy manager Andrea Podesta, 45, referring to speculation it was a cult.
"Some people came here, took some hidden photos, and published some very unpleasant articles about us," he added, noting the glistening new spa was booked up well into 2013.
Inside, a group of elderly Italians, mostly dressed in white, were watching the path of an asteroid on a giant screen. A black-and-white image of Christ's face hung from the wall and a large stone statue of a robed woman greeted visitors.
Whatever lies in store for the planet, even Maya academics who have fought to play down the hype surrounding the passing of another 24 hours feel there could still be some surprises.
"I think there may be some mischief on December 21 because the whole world is watching," said Hoopes in Kansas, citing rumors hacktivist group Anonymous was planning a stunt. "It's a very fertile opportunity for a tremendous prank."
Internet ayatollah: Iran's supreme leader "likes" Facebook
Facebook - banned in Iran due to its use by activists to rally government opponents in 2009 - has an unlikely new member: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Launched a few days ago, the Facebook page "Khamenei.ir" displays photographs of the 73-year-old cleric alongside speeches and pronouncements by the man who wields ultimate power in the Islamic Republic.
While there are several other Facebook pages already devoted to Khamenei, the new one - whose number of "likes" quadrupled on Monday to over 1,000 - appeared to be officially authorized, rather than merely the work of admirers.
The page has been publicized by a Twitter account of the same name that Iran experts believe is run by Khamenei's office.
Both U.S-based social media sites are blocked in Iran by a wide-reaching government censor but they are still commonly used by millions of Iranians who use special software to get around the ban.
In 2009, social media were a vital tool for those Iranians who believed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Facebook was used to help organize street protests of a scale not seen since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The protests - which the government said were fuelled by Iran's foreign enemies - were eventually stamped out by the security forces and their political figureheads remain under house arrest.
Khamenei's Facebook page has so far shared a picture of a young Khamenei alongside the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the early 1960s.
It shares a similar tone, style and content with accounts devoted to disseminating Khamenei's message on Twitter and Instagram and to the website www.khamenei.ir, a sophisticated official website published in 13 languages.
Experts said the social media accounts showed that Iran, despite restricting access to such sites inside the country, was keen to use them to spread its world view to a global audience.
"Social media gives the regime leadership another medium of communication, one that can share their message with a younger and far more international demographic," said Afshon Ostovar, a Middle East analyst at CNA, a U.S.-based research organization.
Iran is locked in a decade-long dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is aimed at developing a bomb, something Iran has repeatedly denied. Iran, the West and regional states are also often opposed on issues such as the violence raging in Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Iranian authorities have said they are trying to build a national intranet, something skeptics say is a way to further control Iranians' access to the global web. Tehran tried to block Google Inc.'s email service this year but soon reopened access.
Launched a few days ago, the Facebook page "Khamenei.ir" displays photographs of the 73-year-old cleric alongside speeches and pronouncements by the man who wields ultimate power in the Islamic Republic.
While there are several other Facebook pages already devoted to Khamenei, the new one - whose number of "likes" quadrupled on Monday to over 1,000 - appeared to be officially authorized, rather than merely the work of admirers.
The page has been publicized by a Twitter account of the same name that Iran experts believe is run by Khamenei's office.
Both U.S-based social media sites are blocked in Iran by a wide-reaching government censor but they are still commonly used by millions of Iranians who use special software to get around the ban.
In 2009, social media were a vital tool for those Iranians who believed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged. Facebook was used to help organize street protests of a scale not seen since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The protests - which the government said were fuelled by Iran's foreign enemies - were eventually stamped out by the security forces and their political figureheads remain under house arrest.
Khamenei's Facebook page has so far shared a picture of a young Khamenei alongside the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in the early 1960s.
It shares a similar tone, style and content with accounts devoted to disseminating Khamenei's message on Twitter and Instagram and to the website www.khamenei.ir, a sophisticated official website published in 13 languages.
Experts said the social media accounts showed that Iran, despite restricting access to such sites inside the country, was keen to use them to spread its world view to a global audience.
"Social media gives the regime leadership another medium of communication, one that can share their message with a younger and far more international demographic," said Afshon Ostovar, a Middle East analyst at CNA, a U.S.-based research organization.
Iran is locked in a decade-long dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which the U.S. and its allies suspect is aimed at developing a bomb, something Iran has repeatedly denied. Iran, the West and regional states are also often opposed on issues such as the violence raging in Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Iranian authorities have said they are trying to build a national intranet, something skeptics say is a way to further control Iranians' access to the global web. Tehran tried to block Google Inc.'s email service this year but soon reopened access.
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