I am Legend - Review

I am Legend - Review

Last night I took in "I am Legend" at Hamilton's cheapest theatre experience -the James Street Cinemas. $9.00 - a real deal these days.I enjoyed the movie, it played on our fears that the end is near and even if you're lucky enough to survive it you might be better off not. The premise is obvious but it's the relationship between him and his dog that is most moving.

Sam, or Samantha, the dog is his only companion for the majority of the time he spends alone in New York (3 years). He talks to her and cares for her and her for him and if you own a dog or have ever owned a dog you will go home when this movie is over and give your dog a big hug!

While the end time is painfully lonely for the main charater, it can at times be painfully slow for the audience. The infected 'people' are scary, but how is it they have the ability to suddenly scale tall buildings and the like? A little miuch, but then, the movie needed the scare factor, otherwise we'd be bored with it after the first hour or so.
As a doomsday movie it has something to offer, it's just not as entertaining as say, "Children of Men".

It's worth the watch - I'd give it a 7 out of 10.

For the quintessential doomsday experience get The Judas Syndrome

Safe locations during a Pole shift in 2012

Just a quick link here to help those in the know where to end up before 2012 during the eventual pole shift the Earth will suffer either during 2012 or some time in the future.

Safe locations during a Pole shift in 2012.

Brought to you by The Judas Syndrome!

2012 Ancient Hopi prophecy

Keeping 2012 in mind as the end of time - or at least time as we know it - is the comet Holmes.

Comet Holmes is significant since some have argued that itis the Blue Kachina prophesied by Hopi prophesy.

Ancient Hopi prophecy states, "When the Blue Star Kachina makes its appearance in the heavens, the Fifth World will emerge". This will be the day of "Purification".

More food for thought!

Check out this link.

http://www.the-judas-syndrome.com/

The end times prophesy 2008

From the website http://www.the-end.com/ comes "2008 - Gods final witness"

From now until the latter part of 2008, many prophecies are going to begin to be fulfilled, especially the Seven Thunders of the Book of Revelation, which the apostle John saw but was restricted from recording. Those thunders are revealed in this book, as well as detailed accounts of the final three and one-half years of man's self-rule on earth, which are recorded in the account of the Seventh Seal of Revelation.
Some of these prophecies concern the demise of the United States over the next year, which will be followed by man's final world war. This last war will be the result of clashing religions and the governments they sway. Billions will die! This time will far exceed even the very worst times in all human history.
As these events unfold, the world will increasingly become aware of the authenticity of the words in this book and realize that Ronald Weinland has been sent by God as His end-time prophet.This book is primarily directed to the people of the three major religions of the world (Islam, Judaism and Christianity), whose roots are in the God of Abraham. Ronald Weinland has been sent to all three.

Well, the book can be ordered free of charge so if you're interested go to The-End

Apocalyptic Dreaming

Ever had a dream that featured the end of the world? Many have, each has been unique, but at the same time they share one theme. If you have dreaamed of the Apocalypse then you too can express your dream on a site called Apocalyptic Deraming.
Here they allow a dreamer to comment on their own dream of the end and how it might happen.
It also includes sub categories suggesting whether it will be Natures fury that brings about the end times, if it is our fault (i.e. Nukes) and also a section discussing how it will never happen (for the Optimists :))
An interesting and well designed site that is worth checking out if you're at all interested in the concept that the world will end... soon.

Kenyan Cult and Doomsday Prophesy

From the Worldwide Religious News site

""N-test vindicates doomsday prophesy: Kenyan cult" (AFP, October 10, 2006) Kinangop, Kenya - The leader of a Kenyan cult whose followers holed up in mud bunkers last month to ready for the apocalypse said yesterday that North Korea’s nuclear test vindicated their doomsday prophesy. Eliezer Kamotho, an elder of the House of Yahweh sect in Kenya, said Pyongyang’s test was proof the world is about to be engulfed by a nuclear war that the group initially believed would begin on September 12. “We were referred as liars when nothing happened on September 12th 2006, but our prophesy of a nuclear war is imminent,” he said from his bunker in central Kenya’s Kinangop division, a small trading post about 80km northwest of Nairobi. “What has happened in North Korea is nothing new to us as we had openly told the world but nobody cared to listen,” Kamotho said. Displaying an unusual grasp of international affairs for a rural farmer, Kamotho said the test, ensuring world outrage at North Korea and expected UN sanctions against the Stalinist state, marked the beginning of the end. “North Korea is now under pressure from the US and its neighbours and this will result in war,” he said, adding that the spark for the conflict would be in the Middle East on the Euphrates River in Iraq. The war will then draw in Israel, Syria, Iran, India, Pakistan, the US and China as well as North Korea, he said, dismissing as irrelevant his initial warning that Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon was the trigger. “North Korea is an ally of Iran and both will attack Israel in a bid to assist Syria which will be under attack by Israel soldiers,” Kamotho said. The House of Yahweh is a cult based in the US state of Texas although its followers in Kenya appear to be the only ones planning for the apocalypse. The group attracted attention and concern from local authorities last month when gas-mask-clad believers in long overcoats and gloves took to their poorly constructed mud bunkers to hide from a predicted nuclear winter. Police considered forcibly evicting them from the shelters, which they said were shoddily made and their possible collapse posed a more earthly threat to the members’ lives than a religious prophesy. Despite the failure of nuclear war to begin on September 12 as predicted, cult elders insisted the end was still nigh, first arguing the conflict had not started on time due to international time differences."

www.the-judas-syndrome.com

More buzz on 2012

Taken from the website: http://www.abhota.info/end6.htm

"Terence McKenna combines Mayan chronology with a New Age pseudoscience called Novelty Theory to conclude that the collision an asteroid or some "trans-dimensional object" with the Earth, or alien contact, or a solar explosion, or the transformation of the Milky Way into a quasar, or some other "ultranovel" event will occur on this day. Anyway, something is supposed to happen, and he has lots of pseudoscientific gobbledygook to back up his thesis."

If this isn't soom enough for you look into March 21, 2008 - "On this page, the Lord's Witnesses use convoluted numerology to demonstrate that "the end of the world is 2008 March 21st." They also claim that the United Nations will take over the world between March 26 and April 24, 2001, and afterward nobody will be able to buy or sell without the Mark of the Beast! "

www.the-judas-syndrome.com

Astronomy and the 2012

This is a lot to read, but it has what looks to be some pretty impressive illustrations and graphs that follow the long count calendar of the Mayans depicting the end of the world (as we know it).

It is well composed and offers a lot of information concerning the calendar and what a group of individuals is trying to do to avoid the year 2012 by adopting a new 13 moon calendar.

Very interesting stuff. http://www.tortuga.com/foundation/campaign/docs/book/g3.html

Also found some interesting correlations between astronomy and the year 2012. http://www.astrologyweekly.com/astrology-articles/transition-new-energy-2012.php

http://www.levity.com/eschaton/Why2012.html

Doomsday, the movie and the argument

Another example of yet another movie featuring the Doomsday scenario.

If you're looking for a serious and heavily intellectual debate on something called the Doomsday Argument then check out http://www.anthropic-principle.com/primer1.html where 'A Primer on the Doomsday argument' is discussed and a theory is broken down for the audience and you can either accept it's calculations or choose to fiddle with the theory yourself. It's an interesting take on predicting 'The End', but it is the first time I have come across a philosophical attempt at figuring out our chances with a mathamatical formula.
Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy

Revelations and the end of the world

Even with the Mayan long count calendar coming to a close in 2012, the I Ching confirming the date after a Westerner took it's cryptic language and added up the numbers to come to 2012, even after the Hopi Indians warned of the same fate on the same date, after hearing all of these threatening prophesies; still, the most disturbing of them all is to read Revelations through the point of view of someone that can bring about Armageddon in our time. To view a strictly Biblical site featuring an explanation of the End Times (In OUR Time!) click here.

Maybe it's my upbringing, maybe if I was a Native American I'd see the Hopi depiction of our demise as the most upsetting, the fact remains that every culture that has ever existed has foreseen a grim end to our reign over the planet. Perhaps it is because we are a species that hates itself deep down and want to see an end to our existence, if that is the case, then let's hope we don't believe in self fulfilling prophesy.

Terrorism and the end of the world

A departure from the last few blogs this may not be the grand scale 'Doomsday' as predicted in my last two entries but this is far more visceral and tangable. Terrorism is and will continue to be a plague on Western civilization. The war on Terror will go on and on for many many years (save the universe doesn't get us first in 2012) and so terrorism will continue outside of the middle east. This is of cousrse one of the tell tale signs the end is near, and as in my novel The Judas Syndrome, soon thereafter the end will come.
Here is an article on some recent threats in North America.

(CBS News) U.S. officials believe Canadian arrests over the weekend and three recent domestic incidents in the United States are evidence the U.S. will soon be hit again by a terrorist attack. Privately, they say, they'd be surprised if it didn't come by the end of the year, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart in a CBS News exclusive. The first of the domestic incidents, all of which drew little attention at the time, began with the holdup of a string of Torrance, Calif. gas stations last summer. Muslim converts who bonded together in prison planned to use the robberies to finance attacks on 20 Army recruiting stations. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton admits they stumbled on the plot during a search. "Make no mistake about it," Bratton said. "We dodged a bullet here — perhaps many bullets." Police in Toledo, Ohio, busted another cell in February. This one consisted of three men training to attack U.S. forces overseas. Once again, luck played a role. When they tried to enlist someone in their mosque to help, he turned them in. "These individuals are often hiding in plain sight in cities like Torrance and now Toledo," says John Pistole, a FBI deputy director. Two months ago, a pair of Atlanta men, one a Georgia Tech engineering student, were arrested not long after communicating by e-mail with two of the suspects arrested in Canada over the weekend. The Atlanta men are charged with videotaping domestic targets, including the U.S. Capitol and the World Bank. Analysts now conclude similarities between all the cases were dramatic: All were self-financed, self-motivated, and in each case the men were seeking out others to join their cell. In short, Osama bin Laden didn't pay for these plots, recruit for them or even know of them. They were all totally homegrown — even amateurish. But if four, including the one in Canada, have been uncovered in just 11 months, officials fear there are inevitably other plots that have not been and are maturing even now. The next attack here, officials predict, will bear no resemblance to Sept. 11. The casualty toll will not be that high, the target probably not that big. We may not even recognize it for what it is at first, they say. But it's coming — of that they seem certain.

www.the-judas-syndrome.com

Russian doomsday cult leader refuses to talk with followers in hideout

'Kuznetsov, 43, an engineer from a devout family, declared himself a prophet several years ago. He left his family and established the True Russian Orthodox Church and recruited followers in Russia and Belarus.'

here is an excerpt from the international Herald website. For more on this Russian 'self proclaimed prophet' - but then what prophet isn't self proclaimed - visit this website


To learn more on end of the world themes visit this link.

2012 - the end of everything?

After watching the discovery program (mentioned in my previous blog) and doing some research into the subject of 2012 I have been able to read through tones of information concerning the end of the world come 2012. The Mayans predicted 2012 as the end of their calendar (after western researchers mastered the Mayans system and concluded that the end of their long count calendar approached 2012 on our Gregorian calendar.)
Mystics like Nostradamus and the fabled Mother Shipton Prophecies are being used to confirm the Mayan's predictions as well as one of the oldest prophetic works in recorded history the I Ching form China.
Granted, as people look at prophesy and work hard enough long enough they will come to similar conclusions - All prophesy a few years ago pointed at 1999 /2000 as the end of the world. Now it's been moved up to 2012 to jive with the Mayan calendar whose date ends with that number.
The Mayans may have concluded that the end of their Calendar was the end of the world - or just the end of another cycle - but to see a calendar that is thousands of years old essentially end in your time is disconcerting to say the least. That and the fact that the winter solstice on December 2012 (The predicted date the calendar ends) and the fact that we will be experiencing the most rare of astrological events on that day (galactic equator) does not bode well for the planet. Astrologists think that with this may come a bizarre turn for the worst in weather, and even that the poles may shift as they did 8,000 000 years ago. This event happens every 27,000 years and since there are no records back that far we can only assume what might occur.
Fact is when we look at "the end of the world" books like the Bible and the Quatrains of Nostradamus, they are always bleak and horrifying. It's been embedded in our DNA over the past few thousand years to fear the end, not to see it as an opportunity to change but to see it as a terrible suffering plague.
Who knows, the Bible states that no man shall ever know the true date the end will come, so why are we listening?

For more information on 2012 visit this link!

Nostradamus and Doomsday 2012

Sorry this is coming so late - but this is exactly the sort of thing anyone reading this blog should see... tonight!
From the channelcanada website:

"Nostradamus: The Truth"Sun., Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PTThis one-hour special tells the true story of Nostradamus, uncovering the myths and speculations that surrounded the life of this legendary figure. He battled against anti-Semitism and the Inquisition to become the confidante of some of the most powerful and dangerous figures of his time. Nostradamus was a man who tried to ignore his "visions" but, forced by poverty and prejudice, he decided to capitalize on them. It was this fateful decision that would bring him into conflict with the establishment, as well as a poisonous rival who would stalk him throughout his life. In the end, the rise and fall of dynasties would rest on his words.

Doomsday 2012: End of DaysSun., Nov. 18 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PTThere are various prophecies and oracles from around the world that seem to point to December 21, 2012 as Doomsday. The ancient Mayan Calendar, the medieval predictions of Merlin, the Book of Revelation and the Chinese oracle of the I Ching all forecast this specific date as the end of civilization. A new technology called "The Web-Bot Project" undertakes massive scans of the Internet as a means of predicting the future... and this new technology has turned up the same dreaded date: 2012. Skeptics point to a long history of "failed Doomsdays," but many oracles of doom throughout history have a disturbingly accurate track record. As the year 2012 ticks ever closer, this one-hour special speculates whether there are credible reasons to believe these doomsayers.

http://www.the-judas-syndrome.com/

Post Apocalyptic DVD's

Looking for a few reference materials to prepare for the end of the world? (At least the end of the world as we know it!) For a complete list of DVD's featuring the Apocalypse follow this link.
Here Christopher Griffen, Survivor and self-proclaimed post-apocalyptica expert, gives a brief synopsis of each film ranging from Mad Max to Soylent Green right up to Terminator 3.
It is, in my opinion, the quintessential grouping of movies dedicated to the genre of Post Apocalyptica.


If you're looking for a great read visit The Judas Syndome website, a novel of the Apocalyptic genre by a new author.

End of the world

With a sense of humour this annimation from the website "the end of the world" tells the story of nuclear war and what possible effects WWIII might have on the planet.
Not unlike evey culture in the history of the world the Mayans had predicted their own end and again in 2012 that there would be another end or apocalypse, a major change in the world of men.
To view a list of predictions both failed and those whose proficies are yet to pass follow this link.
Entertaining stuff.

The Doomsday Clock

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has moved the minute hand on its Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight. On the 60-year-old Doomsday Clock, midnight is nuclear destruction, the end.

The closest the clock has ever been to midnight is 11:58 p.m., which was in 1953, the year both the United States and Russia tested hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen bombs are more powerful than the atomic bombs developed by the Manhattan Project physicists.

The most recent move ia due to North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia. Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilization have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.

PBS and the Apocalypse

Here is a site that is very well put together and answers a lot of questions while offering plenty of new information on the Apocalypse - from its origins to the end times. PBS - Apocalypse includes interviews with historians and scholars on 2000 years of millennial beliefs and events.
They also discuss in detail that of all of the books in the Bible, none has fired the Western imagination more than Revelations.

This site offers a report on the rise of the Antichrist as a central figure in end time scenarios and portrays Apocalypticism's fierce beasts, wild imagery and end time prophets and events over 2500 years of predictions.
Scholars assess apocalypticism and the American psyche, and what happens after the year 2000....
Check it out. And while you're at it check out the newest offering into the apocalyptic theatre The Judas Syndrome

Test yourself on the coming apocalypse

Looking to kill some time? Want to rate your survivability in the face of the coming apocalypse? Click here and take a test designed to see how well you would fair in the apocalypse.
Of course this is only a test and no one can actually tell you exactly what will happen, how it will happen or when it will happen. But I took the test and scored a miserable 39% chance of surviving the end times.
I like to think my odds would be better than that but I think a person would have to have no attachments, live in the country and have a vast warehouse of canned goods and a truck load of ammunition to make it through the 7 years the bible suggests the apocalypse will take to run its course.
But whether the words in the bible are truth or the words of Nostradamus or any of the other 'seers' that have prophesized the coming apocalypse we'll only know when it is upon us. Fact is - it's coming and no one can be truly prepared enough. Though I heard that Tom Cruise is building a bunker on his Californian property for just such an occasion - better hope he's not half way around the world shooting a film when it all comes down.

Submit your apocalyptic works for review

Submit your apocalyptic works for review to Strange Horisons. Your target audience is there and the more publicity the better! Also look for bloggers that review novels and other works of apocalypse literature and submit to them as well.
If for no other reason than to get another persons view on your works. Do it before you're ready to publish and treat the review like an editors comments. There are lots of opportunities out there to get feedback on your work.
The Judas Syndrome is slated to be published in the Spring of 2008.

Humour and The Apocalypse

Apocalyptic literature is not without humour. So many botched prophesies over the past 3500 years, its comical really. A fun site to view listing all of the failed prophesy where the Apocalypse was concerned can be found by clicking on this link.

This site offers a comprehensive index of prophesy dating back to 2800 BC and loaded with possible future dates predicting the end time. For example we just narrowly missed the 2nd Rapture according to Marilyn J. Agee. "September 13th 2007 - An asteroid is supposed to hit the Earth on this day, she claims. (Oropeza p.89)"

But there are many more prophetic doomsdays to look forward to, mark it on your calendar: "On this page, the Lord's Witnesses use convoluted numerology to demonstrate that "the end of the world is 2008 March 21st." They also claim that the United Nations will take over the world between March 26 and April 24, 2001, and afterward nobody will be able to buy or sell without the Mark of the Beast! "

Fun stuff. Regardless of how you view the Apocalypse it is something that has been imbedded into our DNA to fear and so creates a certain interest when someone has a prediction concerning it.

Companion websites for the Apocalypse

As I've mentioned before this blog will introduce you to other interesting websites that offer a similar theme.
Apocalypse Fiction Magazine is an excellent resource for short works of fiction, editorial, comics, series and novels in the Apocalyptic genre.
The Strange Horizons website is another site that educates curious readers. Featuring reviews of apocalyptic works, columns, articles, poetry, and an art gallery, Strange Horizons is based around Christian Apocalyptic Fiction (as most good apocalypse literature should be).
Check these two sites out and don't forget to look up http://www.the-judas-syndrome.com to check out upcoming new movies and literature in the apocalyptic genre, and for news about it's release.

Apocalypse Soon. And other educational websites

I will offer other interesting websites and blogs that speak to this theme. Websites like Apocalypse Soon offer information and speculation on the end times and what terrible fate might await us all.

For example: " Two thirds of mankind will perish during this time of unbelievable devastation and only the return of the Lord Jesus Christ will prevent the total destruction of mankind."

This is a very religious view of what end we are fated to but others will not be. I do encourage reading sites like this as they can educate a reader on the religious overtones that will be visited in the book The Judas Syndrome .

Movies in the Apocalypse

With movies like Resident Evil 'Extinction', 28 Weeks Later, The Children of Men, and countless other apocalyptic themed films surfacing in the media it is easy to see that the genre is experiencing a renaissance of sorts.
The idea that our society has come to the point of extinction by our own hands is a very popular one right now. A few years ago it was asteroids and comets crashing into the earth, now it has reverted to our own undoing through technology, disease, war or worse.
The idea that we will die is scary enough, but to think that the whole human race with all we've achieved will disappear is a catastrophe of biblical proportions as in The Children of Men, where the human race has lost the ability to reproduce. That there would be nothing left and no one left to carry on is a hopelessly depressing vision, a future where nothing will have ever mattered.
The genre is dark, but it offers a myriad of interesting questions and juxtapositions for a writer.

Apocalyptic fiction at its best, this will be the quintessential Apocalyptic novel.

Apocalyptic fiction in books movies and other media

As movies and books featuring apocalyptic themes emerge in greater numbers it is hard not to be caught up in the grim visions and bleak futures today’s artists are painting. The apocalypse is - and has always been - a theme that feeds on the fears of humanity. The end.

It can only be devastating and it can only mean death and destruction. In and of itself it is a brutal and horrifying prospect, the end of everything, the end of art, the end of culture, the end. It is however a fascinating subject and has offered many scenarios that might bring about the end.

the 50's and 60's the threat was nuclear war, in the 70's and 80's it was disease, in the 90's and moving into the 21st century the concerns are varied and more involved. In the Judas Syndrome the end is a throw back to the 50's and 60's mindset with a modern twist.

To read a sample of the Apocalyptic novel "The Judas Syndrome" visit this link.