My prediction for 2012 is that, like other major predictions of the end of the world or the end of civilisation as we know it, the whole thing will be a non-event. Apparently the Mayan people had a calendar that starts at creation and ends in 2012. Experts in Mayan culture say that the end of the calendar is no more than a turning point or transition, just like our celebration of the new year.

So the whole thing is based on a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar which is not based on any kind of notion that we would regard as scientific today. But not many of us are scientific by nature. Whatever really happens in the year 2012, there will be lots of people saying, “I told you so”.

Defenders of astrology will tell you that we are subject to so many other influences that it is impossible to be one hundred per cent accurate, but in what way CAN they be accurate? If you gather a crowd of people together and ask them details of their lives certain remarkable coincidences will occur. The likelihood of two people having the same birthday for instance. Of the thousands of people who read a particular magazine’s horoscope of course some are going to feel that the horoscope was accurate. There are also likely to be thousands who might notice the occasional uncanny coincidence between their lives and the horoscope, and there are all those people who habitually read the horoscope as part of their daily routine and have not found it to be particularly accurate.

James Randi once conducted an experiment with some college students who gave him some details about where and when they were born. He then had horoscopes done for each student. The result is on this video.

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Newspapers reports carry accounts of tornadoes sucking up groups of toads from a lake and dropping them on dry land as if someone had actually seen the animals lifted into the sky, but it seems more likely that the animals have been found in their new habitat after a storm, or seen to fall from the sky and the locals have put two and two together.

Here is a short video on the phenomenon of raining animals:

For more on this fascinating subject, here is a blog post at cracked.com on raining animals and other weird happenings

Not only that, but after a token effort on other people’s behalf I always feel that I have “done enough”. I’m not helping them if I don’t let then stand on their own two feet. After some attempts and much thought on the subject of making yourself happy through service to others, here are a few ideas.

I have recently started again to try to make myself happy by going out every day with the idea that I will simply be nice to the people in my neighborhood and those I come in contact with during my day. Although there are always exceptions, I have found that in general, if you make a conscious effort to be pleasant and helpful to others, they will feel the need to respond in kind. This kind of feedback always makes me feel that I’m on the right track.

Driving my car I am constantly telling myself that other drivers should not be behaving the way they do. I work myself into a state where I see other people on the road as morons who are blind to my needs. It is only when I’m calmer that I think about how other drivers must feel. They have lives, families and commitments that place them under stress, make them want to hurry and distract them from being courteous on the road. Many people leave the house in the morning with the attitude that they have to do battle with the world.

I do not have to be like that. I can give people I don’t know the benefit of the doubt. I can be generous inside. I may have to adopt a naive mental attitude, but if it helps me to be calm, what of it?

This video on how to be happy might help if you still prefer to chase happiness.

This video features a man who had to single-handedly turn his life around to be happy.

Picture by Chad Sellers

People have been known to commit sexual acts in a sleepwalking state, and a middle aged woman recently found that she had sent emails while she was asleep.

The young girl in this video is behaving in a way you would expect a sleepwalker to behave, doing normal everyday stuff in a state of semi-consciousness.

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The fact is, people giving advice on becoming famous are simply gleaning some information on how famous people got that way, then telling us about it as if fame can be duplicated like a fast food franchise. There’s plenty of advice along the lines of dressing like a celebrity and being seen at big occasions, but the best advice is to be the best at whatever you do, and try to be first at doing something.

In the Lifehack post, Eight Cheap Ways to Become Famous without Killing Anyone, Tatsuya Nakagawa notes that William Hung became famous by being the worst at something. If you don’t know who he is, I guess it’s wearing off.

On WikiHow, “The How-to Manual That You Can Edit”, you will find tutorials on how to act like a celebrity, how to become a celebrity and how to become famous.

I feel that I’ve given away far too much now. You all have the data necessary to go out and be famous. What’s the other thing you need?

You and I, as individuals can believe in ghosts because we have seen them or in palm reading because we’ve had them done and they were uncannily accurate, but scientists have to be able to prove what they tell us in the same way that they can prove that a bear shits in the woods. This kind of evidence is not available after psychic or tarot readings and dowsing for water. People go along with the reading or the downsing and say they have seen evidence when they really haven’t.

Here’s a quote from Neurologica Blog:

How, then, do believers defend their belief in phrenology, astrology, palmistry, iridology, or other such pseudoscience? Often the answer is simply, “I have seen it work.” They believe they have seen the method they employ work, and therefore the underlying principles must be true, no matter how much they appear to contradict established science. What true believers in such pseudosciences fail to appreciate is the basic skeptical principle that people are easily deceived, especially by themselves. The illusion of accuracy produced by cold reading often fools not only the client, but the reader as well, reinforced by each client who gushes over how accurate the readings were.

This principle is convincingly demonstrated by a classic tale told by psychologist and CSI fellow, Ray Hyman. As a youth he took up the practice of palmistry to make some extra money. He did not really believe in palm reading, but was amazed at the apparent accuracy of his readings, simply by following, cook book style, the formula in a standard handbook of palmistry. Before long he was convinced of palmistry’s fantastic power to penetrate the deepest secrets of his clients.

But Ray Hyman also had a scientific curiosity, an apparent rarity among palm readers. He decided to conduct a simple experiment to test the efficacy of palm reading. He began giving his clients the exact opposite reading as dictated by the handbook. To his surprise, his clients still claimed that his readings were amazingly accurate and were pleased with the results, to no less degree than when the “correct” readings were given. Dr. Hyman had discovered the power of cold reading and confirmation bias which lay behind palmistry.

Here is a simple exposition of the scientific method:

There is also the time-honored method of masturbating regularly enough to make public erections unlikely. This might seem a little extreme to men who treasure their self-pleasuring and would rather just do it as and when their penis demands it. Here is a video that offers some hints on hiding an unwelcome stiffy: