Q: 2012; Doomsday or hoax?

The year 2012 refers to the last year of the Long Count Maya calendar. The current "Great Cycle", is set to end on the winter solstice of 2012: December 21, 2012. Some predict that on this day either terrible events will result in the destruction of our world, or that we will enter a new era with massive changes to occur. However, is it real?

The Mayan calendar is rather complex, and is made up of groups of days, rather like weeks and months, but there are more of them. Using their calendar, it's true that 21 December 2012 will read as [13.0.0.0.0]. The concept of 2012 has been greatly misunderstood, and twisted to create a chance for a lot of people to 'cash in.' The Mayans did mark it as the last day of their calendar but it could mean several things, such as:

A. The end of their civilization, but not the rest of the world.
B. The beginning of the end of the world, but not the actual end.
C. They would have believed in a cycle system to the universe, so 2012 could be the end of a certain cycle.

Now, they do say that on 21 December, 2012, the earth, sun, and moon will be aligned, and that this will mess with the magnetic force, as this happens every 25,000 years. Scientists say that in a worst case scenario, the poles COULD shift. It is happening, but very slowly...perhaps an asteroid will hit the Earth in the near future, but NASA is working to take care of that...

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Q: Why is the water blue?

Water; in terms of chemistry, H2O. We drink it, we swim in it, we bathe in it...those are just some of the common uses for water. However, why is the water blue? More importantly, is water really even blue? There are several theories for such. Let's explore deeper.

Sunlight is made up of all the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Some of the sunlight reflects off the surface of the water, in result, also reflecting the color of the sky. However then, why is the sky blue? The gas molecules in the atmosphere interacts with the sunlight before the light reaches to our eyes. The molecules scatter the higher-energy blue portion more than they scatter the red portion.

Back on the subject, however, water does not always appear blue. Compare the color of water in a bottle to water on the beach. Most likely, the water in the bottle looks clear, whereas the water in the ocean looks blue. Water can be different colors other than blue, from a greenish color...to even red! The colors that we see depend on the reflection of the visible wavelengths of light to our eyes. On the other hand, most of the ocean is completely dark. Hardly any light is able to penetrate deeper than 200 meters, and no light, whatsoever, will penetrate deeper than 2,000 meters.

So, the short answer? Water is NOT blue, but simply, a clear, colorless substance.

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