According to several Maya calendars, time will end on December 27, 2012. Stuart Everly discovers that if he performs human sacrifices at ancient Maya sites in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the location of a valuable key to extend time beyond that date will be revealed. He must consummate the first offering under the full moon on a Mayan equinox. Russell Palmer, a Los Angeles professor of Central American civilizations, learns of the first sacrifice and rushes to Cancun to prevent future murders. Frustrated by dubious police officers and haunted by an unfortunate incident in his past, Russell must convince the wary authorities that he has well-founded intentions as the frantic search to prevent more sacrifices and to find the Maya key leads Russell and the police deep into the tropical jungles.

The only small, popular book on the important subject of ancient calendars. The study of heavenly cycles is common to most ancient cultures. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, and Babylonians all tried to make sense of the year. But it fell to the later Mesoamerican Maya to create a series of calendars that could be cross referenced. In doing so, the Maya discovered many strange numerical harmonics. Their lunar calendar was extremely accurate-far more so than the Greek Metonic cycle; they tracked Venus to an accuracy of less than a day in five hundred years and their tables could have been used to predict eclipses seven hundred years in the future. This book will provide a much needed compact guide to the Mayan calendar systems as well as covering the essentials of calendar development throughout the world.

An odyssey for the 21st century in poems that bind family and myth.

In the year 2012, there will be a presidential election in Finland on January 15; the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games will begin in London at 7-30 p.m. UTC on July 27; there will be 7 billion people living on Earth on October 19, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; and, on December 21, the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, referred to more familiarly as the Mayan calendar, will complete its thirteenth cycle and, based on all of these events- according to the Mayan belief system- the world will come to an end. If you don't believe the Mayans, you can check in with The Bible Code, which predicts a meteor, asteroid, or comet will collide with the Earth; The Nostradamus Code, which opts for a possible nuclear war or some other natural or man-made destruction; or The Orion Prophecy, which claims there will be a reversal of the Earth's magnetic field. Pick your poison - no matter what happens, we're all toast. Or maybe not - maybe the year 2012 is just a new opportunity, the dawning of a new age, where we'll all get a shot at a second chance and can opt to get things right this time. Could 2012 bring us good things instead of bad? The Complete Idiot's Guide to 2012gives readers a look at what the Mayan prophecy is all about, what it means to them, and much more- The Cosmic Calendar revealed - and how the ancient Egyptians, the Bible, the Koran, Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, and other sources all refer to an end time in 2012 Global warming and climate change, and how the Mayans predicted them Your own personal journal, and the tools you'll need to survive into the 6th Age After 2012 - the end of the world or a Golden Age to come? Glossary of terms and symbols, resources for a changing world, and exercises to assist you in your journey.