Mark Hohmeister: And now for some daring predictions

Ah, but instead my life is a string of "if onlys." As in, if only I hadn't bought that house in New Jersey right before the housing crash of the early '90s. If only I had bought that Boss 429 Mustang when I was a teenager — and kept it in the garage. If only I had become a forest ranger.

As Dan Evans, an occasional My View writer for this section, told me the other day, "My crystal ball is a mud puddle."

Still, it's the end of 2009 and maybe even the end of a decade (though I'd hate to revive the old "Did the new millennium begin in 2000 or in 2001?" debate), so I thought I'd offer a few predictions that I'm reasonably certain will come to pass in 2010.

I'll put "2009" for the date on the first five checks I write in the new year.

Florida State will go unbeaten and win the national title in its first season under Jimbo Fisher. Well, OK, they aren't all predictions. Some are more like wishes.

I will think everything that my new grandson does is wonderful. Likewise, my wife will exclaim repeatedly, "What a smart little boy!" after notable accomplishments such as drooling, grabbing the corner of a quilt he hoped to lick or looking in the general direction of his parents.

Another space movie will come out that I refuse to see because it's so implausible. I'm still upset that all the characters in the "Star Wars" cantina scene were bilaterally symmetrical. This year, we had the "galactic alignment" of 2012 with its ridiculous earthquakes and God knows what else. And "Avatar"? Chimpanzees share about 98 percent of our DNA with us, yet a chimpanzee-human "love interest" would be fairly perverted. But a "love interest" between a human and a blue, tailed creature from a planet light years away? No problem. As long as she has a good figure, I guess.

2012—Pole Shift, Death, And The End Of Earth

A planetary “pole shift” associated with the coming 2012 Event refers to an upside down Earth, which will continue to orbit and revolve naturally in space, but wherein the planet’s outer crust is wrenched around upon it like the detached skin of a grape slid upside down whilst the stem remains where it was.

In other words, the theory of 2012 pole shift is that the north and south top and bottom of Earth will be wrenched upside down whilst floating upon the sea of magma beneath. And that this will cause untold cataclysmic upheaval and destruction upon the earth.

Normally this process would take 1-100 million years, to achieve even a 50 % pole shift. The earth is in fact undergoing this very type of geologically “slow” polar shift right now, at about 4 inches per year.

A 2012 Theory of polar shift involves the melting of polar ice, perhaps by volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, or meteors—all caused by the 2012 Alignment of sun and galactic core. Massive amounts of ice-sheet melt water would “unbalance” the Earth’s crust, and it would spin over like a detached grape skin.

There is recorded in rocks and sea-sediment the fact of an actual shift of 50%, over 800,000,000 years ago, so this phenomenon is real, but it necessarily involves the movement of untold massive amounts of matter within Earth’s mantle—continental plate tectonics.

Polar shift and magnetic reversal are two separate things. Magnetic reversal is a 180-degree flip-over of Earth’s magnetic field—it’s magnetic polarity, which is related to fluidic movement of the molten iron core. This process is not plate tectonics.

In 1831 the magnetic northern pole did begin shifting northeastward at a speed of about 10 miles per year. In 1989 its speed increased to about 35 miles per year as it continued to move away from approximately Canada’s Ellesmere Island, and toward Siberia in Russia.

Most geologists (not “scientists,” which can mean anything) agree on the paleomagnetic and paleogeologic evidence that neither of these process could occur instantly, or even fast enough to be perceived by humans. They are proposed as “glacially” slow processes—albeit real and ongoing.

That is—if you can trust to “infinitely godlike” knowledge of people who can’t even predict today’s weather: sunny or cloudy, rain, or no rain.

Another question might be, from whence does the 2012 Event Theory of INSTANTANEOUS polar shift and/or magnetic reversal come from?

Well—it comes from the idea that something will somehow happen because of the coming galactic alignment. Something will affect the Earth—like a rogue planetary body, or gravity, volcanoes, earthquakes, meteors, asteroids, or mystical forces, or magic, or aliens.

Or the Yellowstone super-volcano could blow again and destroy all life. It is 435 miles long and 310 miles wide: this is one gigantic caldera reportedly already getting to blow out again, according to a swarm of 800 earthquakes and a bulging of the caldera floor.

So, it seems there are many ways the Earth could be destroyed. Then, why should it be destroyed by the 2012 Event, and is that at all plausible?

It seems that “racial memory” of paleologically distant catastrophes are buried deep in our DNA and mythology. But are they really memories of real events or just some “survival instinct” to keep humanity alert to its safety, in order to help ensure its survival?

Well—if “survival instinct” comes from evolution, under the influence and shaping power of external events, then it would necessarily have to be based upon past fact and reality over vast geologic Ages. Ergo, yes, Virginia, there do seem to be racial, mythic, genetic “memories” of stuff to watch out for, i.e. death.

So—we are “programmed” to watch out for stuff.

Sometimes this programming seems a nearly a compulsion, or obsession, faith, or even hope, as with the coming 2012 Event. Associated with 2012 are all of humanity’s nightmares and best dreams: cataclysmic destruction of Earth, death, return of the Space Fathers (and Mothers), cosmic renewal, survival, a new beginning, benevolent aliens, and stuff.

So what will actually happen on December 21, 2012, at 11:11 AM (GMT), when the sun completes its ordained path through the ecliptic of the zodiac and squats upon the center of the galactic core?

I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s just the fear and desire of Humanity—our own in-born human-ness.

Anything I say, someone else can say whatever they say. The truth is, nobody alive today has the least fact-based idea of what might actually happen, if anything.

Like good detectives, maybe we will just have to patiently wait and see what happens.

But, you’d better be ready, anyway.

By Jeffrey Avalon Friedberg

Top 5 highest ODIs totals in international cricket

Although India scored a mammoth 414 runs against Sri Lanka in the first of the five one-day internationals (ODIs) Tuesday, it is still not the highest total in the international cricket.

However, it was India's highest total ever against any international team.

Sri Lanka has the privilege to score most runs in an ODI innings when it scored massive 443 for 9 in 50 overs against the Netherlands in 2006 on Amstelveen ground.

The second and third highest ODI total were scored in the same match played between the

two powerhouses of the cricketing world in the Wanderers Stadium of Johannesburg on March 12, 2006.

As cricket pundits term it the most memorable cricket match in history, Australia batting first scored huge 434 for 4 off their 50 overs, smashing the previous record of 398-5 by Sri Lanka against Kenya in 1996 during the World Cup.

In reply, South Africa scored 438-9, winning by one wicket with one ball to spare and hence setting up the new record at that time as Herschelle Gibbs scored his career-best innings of 167 runs.

South Africans once again backed themselves to put up yet another sparkling performance against Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom in 2006, when they scored 418 for 5 in 50 overs.

On Dec. 15, 2009, Indian batsmen brutally hit Sri Lankan bowlers all across the Rajkot Stadium to help their side pile up huge 414 for 7 in 50 overs (the fifth highest ODI score),while in reply Sri Lanka fell just 3 runs short of the total, making it the 6th highest total in the history of One Day International Cricket.