Society's Child
These fears are based on misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar. On the 21st, the date of the winter solstice, a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun comes to an end. Although Maya scholars agree that the ancient Maya would not have seen this day as apocalyptic, rumors have spread that a cosmic event may end life on Earth on that day.
Thus NASA's involvement. The space agency maintains a 2012 information page debunking popular Mayan apocalypse rumors, such as the idea that a rogue planet will hit Earth on Dec. 21, killing everyone. (In fact, astronomers are quite good at detecting near-Earth objects, and any wandering planet scheduled to collide with Earth in three weeks would be the brightest object in the sky behind the sun and moon by now.)
"There is no true issue here," David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said during a NASA Google+ Hangout event today (Nov. 28). "This is just a manufactured fantasy."
Ahead of December 21, which marks the conclusion of the 5,125-year "Long Count" Mayan calendar, panic buying of candles and essentials has been reported in China and Russia, along with an explosion in sales of survival shelters in America. In France believers were preparing to converge on a mountain where they believe aliens will rescue them.
The precise manner of Armageddon remains vague, ranging from a catastrophic celestial collision between Earth and the mythical planet Nibiru, also known as Planet X, a disastrous crash with a comet, or the annihilation of civilisation by a giant solar storm.
In America Ron Hubbard, a manufacturer of hi-tech underground survival shelters, has seen his business explode.
"We've gone from one a month to one a day," he said. "I don't have an opinion on the Mayan calendar but, when astrophysicists come to me, buy my shelters and tell me to be prepared for solar flares, radiation, EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) ... I'm going underground on the 19th and coming out on the 23rd. It's just in case anybody's right."
In the French Pyrenees the mayor of Bugarach, population 179, has attempted to prevent pandemonium by banning UFO watchers and light aircraft from the flat topped mount Pic de Bugarach.
What took place in between is where his family and the police have drastically different stories. The arresting officers say that Lee-Bey simply fell and hit his head while trying to escape, but relatives -- who are speaking for him, since he can't do it for himself -- say they don't believe that version of the events for a minute.
"We're angry, confused, scared, and more than anything, we want answers," Lee's niece Alexandria Lee told The Root. "Police are telling us that he tripped and fell while interacting with police. But the doctors told us that his injuries are consistent with a severe beating. He had a stroke while they beat him and had to be flown to Chapel Hill for two emergency brain surgeries. For weeks he hasn't been able to say a word."
"I heard, 'Naeem he's coming again. He's coming again. You got to do something.' I kept hearing voices like that," Naeem Davis told The Post of his alleged victim, Ki Suk Han, in a jailhouse interview at Rikers Island.
"From the depths of my heart, I didn't mean to kill him."
Davis, 30, wearing an orange jumpsuit and slippers, said he diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his 20s but wasn't taking any medication to treat his condition -- though he was high when Han, 58, was killed.
"I was under the influence [of marijuana]. It wasn't my intention to kill him. I just wanted him to get away from me," he said.
Davis, who was staying at Bronx shelter on 136th Street, was headed to W. 28th Street to pick up some merchandize to peddle in Midtown.
Davis said an intoxicated Han first approached him near the 49th Street subway booth at 11:30 a.m. -- and threatened him, he said.
"He grabbed my arm. He said, 'I'm gonna kill you,'" he said. "I yelled at him, "I don't know you. Get away from me."
While the incredible special effects are certainly impressive, the movie has caused a man in China to take the Mayan apocalypse a bit too literally. Lu Zhenghai pooled his life savings to building his very own "Noah's Ark."
Interestingly, Lu, a master ship builder, lives in northwestern China's Xinjiang Uighur. The farthest location on Earth from any ocean, Lu's home town is the most landlocked area on Earth. An interesting occupation, what drives Lu Zhenghai to believe a ship is the answer to the apocalypse when many of his fellow neighbors have never even seen a body of water in their whole lives?
Nevermind the flawed logic - Lu Zhenghai is probably certified. A long-time enthusiast of ancient myths and legends, Lu first heard of the Mayan prophecy in 2010. Convinced of its validity, Lu set out to prepare for his survival by getting started on the ark. To date, Lu has already spent 1 million yuan, or $160,500, on building his vessel.
Philadelphia - She's just 9-years-old and the victim of an attack all over a cell phone.
It's a case that left even the seasoned investigators just shaking their heads.
The victim, Neidy Rojas, told Eyewitness News, "It felt bad and sad. I was scared."
Rojas says she was sprayed with a burning substance on her lips then pushed to the ground, scraping her knees.
Police confirm the motive was robbery as the suspect appeared to be after the 3rd grader's cell phone, a black Samsung Galaxy S2.
Rojas recalled, "She asked if she could use my phone and I said it doesn't work."
It was true. Rojas says the phone is missing the "Home" button and she could only use it to play some games.
The 46-year-old was found guilty on all counts despite protestations by his defence counsel that the jury foreman had lost control of the jury and didn't understand questions asked by the court registrar.
The defence counsel also expressed concern about a question asked by a jury member after they had returned three out of the four guilty verdicts.
The juror, who was not the foreman, asked the judge about the count of making threats to kill. He asked whether the prosecution had to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt or whether they should decide the case based "on what we believe."
Defence counsel Bernard Condon SC said it was concerning that the jury had asked such a question after already finding the accused guilty of rape, sex assault and false imprisonment because they may have approached those verdicts on the basis of a lack of understanding of the requirement to prove guilt "beyond reasonable doubt."
After being told they must believe the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury resumed their deliberations and returned shortly afterwards with another guilty verdict.
It is highly unusual for a juror other than the foreman to ask questions of the court but the juror said he had been delegated to ask it.

Who needs zombies when we've got psychopaths and a raft of other seriously character-disordered people crawling all over the planet like a virus?
Gurman was angry at Gelderman because she would not take the possibility of a real zombie attack seriously, reports WPIX-TV.
Nassau County Police Detective Lt. Raymond Cote told a press conference: "He feels strongly about the possibility that some military mishap could occur causing some tragic consequence. She felt that it was ridiculous."
Gelderman drove Gurman back to his home and then returned to her home in Long Island, New York.
"By focusing our defense resources into a space-superiority platform and weapon system such as a Death Star, the government can spur job creation in the fields of construction, engineering, space exploration, and more, and strengthen our national defense," the petition on the White House website reads.
The document, created on November 14 by a resident of Colorado, has already collected over 5,000 signatures. The petition needs around 20,000 more by December 14 for it to be formally reviewed by the White House staff.
The Death Star is the planet-destroying space station built by the Galactic Empire in the wildly popular sci-fi movie saga Star Wars, directed by George Lucas. The franchise is adored by millions of fans around the world.

Puerto Rican singer René Pérez, aka Residente, of hip-hop and reggaeton duo Calle 13, performs in Havana, Cuba. The island is to outlaw public performances of music styles it views as cheap and demeaning to women.
A crackdown on reggaeton and other unnamed musical styles that are threatening the revolutionary country's traditional musical culture will punish artists and fine those who programme it, according to Cuban Music Institute boss Orlando Vistel Columbié.
"We are not just talking about reggaeton. There is vulgarity, banality and mediocrity in other forms of music too," Vistel told the official Granma newspaper. "But it is also true that reggaeton is the most notorious.
"On the one hand there are aggressive, sexually obscene lyrics that deform the innate sensuality of the Cuban woman, projecting them as grotesque sexual objects. And all that is backed by the poorest quality music."
Comment: Once again we see how the heavily promoted zombie meme is bringing about some pretty freaky consequences. It's interesting that the
zombiegunman specifically pointed to the possibility of a zombie apocalypse arising from a military accident. The suggestion being made here is that a weird bio-sociological development such as the sudden appearance of hoards of disfigured zombies on every street corner would arise from man-made causes.But what if the same natural cosmic forces responsible for all the other Earth Changes phenomena we've been cataloguing here at SOTT could somehow affect the genetic blueprint of certain types to produce such cannibalistic 'walking dead'?
Is Solar and Cosmic Radiation Playing Havoc With Life on Planet Earth?
Alternately, this trending zombie obsession could be humanity's 'group unconscious self' sending itself messages, particularly regarding something horrific, widespread and impending... like a return of the Black Death?
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection