2012 and the Mayan Long Count calendar.

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is a non-repeating, vigesimal (base-20) and base-18 calendar used by several Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya. For this reason, it is sometimes known as the Maya (or Mayan) Long Count calendar.

In the Mayan calendar, a baktun is a period of 144,000 days. The only reason for the 2012 paranoia is that it's the end of one Buktun (395 years).

1224, 1618 came and went without incident. 2012 will come and go. 2407 is too far in the future.

So return those ill-informed books, ask for a refund and move forward. Publishers will glady refund your purchase. If the Mayan calendar and 2012 amounts to nothing then what about this supposed planetary alignment?

Mesoamerican Long Count calendar => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar

Maya calendar => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_calendar