What Mayan prophecy?

It's 2012, and there have been innumerable books, news articles, web pages, and post it notes about the Mayan calendar and the end times. We thought we should set a few things straight. First of all, there is no Mayan prophecy of the end times. No. Not one. The Mayans simply built a calendar and let it end at the natural time it would. (Much as the Gregorian calendar we currently use ends on Dec 31st, every year.) The Mayans if they could have predicted things, might have predicted the fall of their civilization. But they didn't. And although there is a population of Mayans who still speak the old language, and actually live much like their ancestors did, the Mayan culture that built the great cities of Palenque and Tikal has long since vanished. You will notice if you bother to look that none of the books, or web pages or post it notes were written by Mayans. What about the alignment of planets that will mean the end of our civilization you may ask? Are you talking about the alignment of planets that describes us lining up with the galactic center and causing a gravity overload that will send Venus or Mars or some other space body hurling into Earth? The same alignment that happens every year in December and has throughout recorded history? Sure it does happen, astrologically. (Note the italics) Due to the Earths wobble as it spins every year we bob and weave in and out of the astrological houses first put forth by the ancient Greeks. But Astronomically it's simply not happening. The Earth is actually not on the galactic plane. As a matter of fact if the Milky Way were a plate hurling through space. (An incredibly huge plate mind you. An immensely large plate billions and billions of miles across.) The Earth wouldn't even be on it. Nor would the sun. Nor any of the other planets. Because our solar system has been flung off the plate and are heading upward away from it. We are traveling upwards away from the galactic plane (or the galactic plate in this case) at about 5 miles a second. We are actually about 5 light years (or 2.93924991 X 10 to the 13th power miles) above the galactic plane. And this is actually good news. Because the Milky way galactic plate is a mess. It's got bits spinning about in it that would destroy our solar system in a second. So the farther we get from it, the calmer and quieter space will be.  (It's probably why life has survived on this planet as long as it has. We live in a very peaceful neighborhood of space.) So the next time you read an article about how we are aligned with the galactic center. Remember that person is quoting you astrology, an ancient method used by early primitive men to describe the night sky in ways they could understand it. (And all based on the wobble of the Earth as compared to those skies.) But an astronomer will tell you what is really going on. The universe is a strange and wonderful place. And we at The Crazy find it more amazing the more we study it. That's about it. Ciao for now.