Ancient Mayan Prophecy Prompts BUTTERFINGER(R) to Seek One Last Worthy Candy Bar Spokesperson for the End of Time

From MarketWatch:  Ancient Mayan Prophecy Prompts BUTTERFINGER(R) to Seek One Last Worthy Candy Bar Spokesperson for the End of Time

GLENDALE, Calif., Jul 10, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- With less than 200 days remaining until the end of the world, BUTTERFINGER(R) today announced its search for one last spokesperson. Taking the beloved brand into the end of time, the winning pitchperson for the world's favorite crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery candy bar will become Butterfinger's last spokesperson until December 21, 2012, when the world will end, according to the ancient Mayan Prophecy. 

According to Butterfinger, signs of a complete BARmageddon began earlier this year when strange events took place nationwide, all related to the disappearance of Butterfinger bars. To help warn the world about BARmageddon, Emmy award-winning actress Jaime Pressly is signed on to help Butterfinger launch a nationwide search for its last spokesperson. Pressly, a longtime Butterfinger fan, is scheduled to attend Comic-Con on Friday, July 13, and will help identify talented candidates for the life-changing (and earth-shattering), one-of-a-kind role. 

"While nobody's gonna lay a finger on my Butterfinger, I will lay a finger on the last spokesperson worthy enough to represent my favorite candy bar," said Pressly. "I love the notion of BARmageddon because we've all been hearing about the Mayan prophecy, but Butterfinger is spinning it on its head. If the world's gonna end, you'd better believe Butterfinger is going out with a bang." 

The "Last Spokesperson on Earth" for Butterfinger campaign officially will begin July 13, at the world's largest comic book convention, where sightings of aliens and strange beings have been widely reported. To kick off the "Last Spokesperson" search, Butterfinger will be giving away a special edition Butterfinger BARmageddon candy bar, while supplies last, to convention attendees. While there, Pressly will play a principal role in the spokesperson search, as Butterfinger also launches an online video campaign that day at Facebook.com/Butterfinger starring Pressly, who will be judging (and possibly even hand-picking) candidates for the "Last Spokesperson on Earth." Pressly, best known for her award-winning work on the television comedy "My Name is Earl," for which she also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, recently appeared in the FOX comedies "Raising Hope" and "I Hate My Teenage Daughter." 

Her comedic skills will be fully utilized in the Butterfinger BARmageddon campaign, which will feature Pressly in a series of online videos, conducting the search for Butterfinger's "Last Spokesperson on Earth." 

"Our search for the last spokesperson comes on the heels of Butterfinger's BARmageddon News Network (BBNN) nationwide van tour," said Tricia Bowles, of Nestle USA Confections & Snacks. "The BBNN has been on the road since May, and it has found some pretty compelling evidence out there indicating a true BARmageddon, including a bizarre crop circle in Kansas, and eyewitness accounts of the disappearance of Butterfinger bars in cities throughout the U.S." 

Rare findings from the BBNN van tour, including comprehensive end-of-the-world evidence gathered from around the country, also will be released on July 13. BBNN van tour videos may be viewed online at ButterfingerBARmageddon.com. 

How to Enter the Butterfinger BARmageddon "Last Spokesperson" Search

Fans who think they have what it takes to be Butterfinger's "Last Spokesperson on Earth" may upload a video to ButterfingerBARmageddon.com simply explaining why they'd make the best, last spokesperson for Butterfinger. The winner will be featured in an online video campaign until the world ends on December 21, 2012, making them Butterfinger's "last" spokesperson. (And the winner will be able to enjoy their grand prize--a trip to fabulous Las Vegas and $15,000 in prize money--if the world doesn't end.)

More information and full contest rules may be found at ButterfingerBARmageddon.com. 

About Butterfinger Butterfinger is a one-of-a-kind candy bar with the crispety-crunchety, peanut-buttery taste people love. No other candy bar comes close to the intense flavor and texture of a Butterfinger. Keep up with the latest news about Butterfinger at Facebook.com/Butterfinger or follow its sweet tweets at Twitter.com/Butterfinger. 

About Nestle USA Named one of "The World's Most Admired Food Companies" in Fortune magazine for fourteen consecutive years, Nestle provides quality brands and products that bring flavor to life every day. From nutritious meals with LEAN CUISINE(R) to baking traditions with NESTLE(R) TOLL HOUSE(R), Nestle USA makes delicious, convenient, and nutritious food and beverage products that make good living possible. That's what "Nestle. Good Food, Good Life" is all about. Nestle USA, with 2011 sales of $10 billion, is part of Nestle S.A. in Vevey, Switzerland -- the world's largest food company with a commitment to Nutrition, Health & Wellness -- with 2011 sales of $94 billion. For product news and information, visit Nestleusa.com or NestleNewsroom.com.

 

Head Mayan Elder, Apolinario Chile Pixtun, Visits San Francisco to Discuss Mayan Calendar

From Sacramento Bee:  Head Mayan Elder, Apolinario Chile Pixtun, Visits San Francisco to Discuss Mayan Calendar
July 10, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Elisabeth Thieriot, a San Francisco-based business woman, co-founder of PhoneCharge, Inc, philanthropist and author of Be Fabulous at Any Age hosted a questions and answers session for the Head Elder of the Mayan Council, Apolinario Chile Pixtun, on June 27th for friends and media at her home, Lions Gate in Tiburon, CA.

"I always enjoy coming to Elisabeth's house because she is a gracious host and has a warm heart," says guest, Sudha Pennathur. "It's even more of a pleasure to be invited to Lions Gate and get the rare chance to meet Apolinario to learn about the Mayan culture and her [Thieriot's] film that has been a big part of her life this year."

Guests sipped wine and savory hors d'ouerves, while Thieriot and Pixtun answered questions one by one from guests and media. Question topics ranged from the Mayan culture and the calendar, to the upcoming movie "Decoding B'aqtun." Guests represented a wide range of backgrounds, from the Catholic Church, a Cryptologist, an Indian jewelry designer, a Guatemalan female empowerment advocate and more.

Pixtun clutched his Mayan spiritual guidance stick while explaining spirituality in the Mayan culture and the meaning of this b'aqtun in particular. He also discussed the film, "Decoding B'aqtun," and the pleasure of working with Thieriot.

"[Working] with Elisabeth was different. It is a different work relationship. It is a different way of seeing life," Pixtun explained. "Working with her is good and especially working on a project that will save humanity."
Thieriot and Pixtun worked well together and bonded in a strong friendship during production. This is why Pixtun made a stop to Thieriot's house on his U.S.A. tour of hosting various Mayan conferences.
The film is a guide to the secret of how to live a fulfilled life through spirituality by the Mayan example. While Pixtun explained the Mayan culture, there is more to be revealed that the film touches on. "Decoding B'aqtun" is scheduled to come out at the end of 2012.

To watch the interview of Thieriot and Pixtun, respectively, as well as highlights from the question and answer session, tune in on July 29 at 5:25 p.m. to "It's a Red Carpet Life…" Red Carpet Bay Area's summer shorts on KICU TV36 and re-watch the segment with additional photos here.

About Apolinario Chile Pixtun Apolinario Chile Pixtun is the Head Elder of the Mayan Council. He is a spiritual guide. He carries the wisdom of his Mayan ancestors and passes it on to generations. He travels around the world to hold Mayan conferences and speak about the calendar.

About Elisabeth Thieriot Elisabeth Thieriot is a San Francisco-based business woman, co-founder of PhoneCharge, Inc, philanthropist and author of Be Fabulous at Any Age. She executive produced and financed the movie "Decoding B'aqtun."

About "Decoding B'aqtun" The film does not yet have a debut date. Shot in Guatemala, the film uncovers previously seen Mayan artifacts from the sites of Tikal and Quirigua, Guatemala. It takes its audience on a journey to discover the optimum quality of life through the Mayan prophecies and example.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/10/4622502/head-mayan-elder-apolinario-chile.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/07/10/4622502/head-mayan-elder-apolinario-chile.html#storylink=cpy

 

Tulane: Mayan discovery shows world will not end this year

From WWL:  Tulane: Mayan discovery shows world will not end this year

 

 

What are the chances of an archeologist discovering the second known Mayan reference to December 21st, 2012...this year?

Not only did that happen, but the find also addresses the end-of-the-world scenario attached to the Mayan calendar.

It was a Tulane University archeologist who made the find at La Corona in Guatemala, a small site with an amazing number of hieroglyphics.

The fears have been running rampant among some people that the world may end this year, due in part to 'supposed' predictions from the Mayan calendar.  A recent survey about that showed that ten percent of the worldwide population believes something dire is going to happen to the Earth this year.

Marcello Canuto, Director of the Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University is just back from Guatemala, and he says La Corona, which means The Crown in Spanish, has been an exciting find.  "This particular site was the mysterious Q site in Mayan archeology that we knew existed somewhere but hadn't really been found yet.

"This year we found this hieroglyphic staircase, where I found two panels in their original location in 2005.  This year we found 12!"

Even though the La Corona site has been looted over the years, countless hieroglyphics and inscriptions remain, including one that he says makes it clear the Mayans were not looking for the entire Earth to stop functioning this year.

He says it's amazing to find the 2012 reference this year.  And Canuto says this find makes it clear the world will go on for centuries. "What the text is saying is that the king is really powerful and he continues to be powerful, and that his reign and that the world order, think of it that way, sort of a metaphorical thing, that the world order will go on forever and forever.

"So it's sort of like actually trying to use their calendar not to predict the end of the world, but try to avoid the end of the world. They're trying to say the world will continue, it's a grand cycle. 'I'm a king of great importance and I will continue to rule.'"

But Canuto does wonder why people are looking to the Maya for predictive capabilities.  "That's what I've always found curious, is that everyone worries about the Maya predicting the end of the world in 2012, but nobody worries about the fact that they couldn't predict their own collapse."

Canuto says the text makes it clear the world will go on for centuries, and that the Mayans did not consider the calendar phase that ends this year to be the final chapter for mankind

2012 Solar Flares, bunkers, and Mayan prophecies

From Examiner.com:  2012 Solar Flares, bunkers, and Mayan prophecies

Solar flares; are they the beginnings of the Doomsday prophecies.

When we look at the Mayan and their advanced knowledge of our solar system, even the most skeptical individuals may need a moment to pause. On Friday July 6, 2012 a ‘X-class’ eruption showed the power of the Sun’s 11-year solar flare cycle.

With Friday’s ‘Coronal Mass Ejections’, http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center reported, that the flare was 15 times the length of Earth, and say that more X-class eruptions will usher us into 2013.

Are these the events Mayans had witnessed and foretold of, incorporating them into their prolific prophecies? Were they telling us that over the next few months, we will not only have to take cover, but also change the way we do everything going forward? What will the future hold, or are we looking at the beginning of society ending, mega destruction?

Scientists everywhere disprove the theory of a global killing solar ray, yet even the best scientists only have historic and perceived data on this twenty-thousand year cycle.

Geologists and cosmologists alike cannot predict the idiosyncrasies of the Sun’s actions or their impact on Earth; they too can only report what events have taken place.

Taking in the latest heat wave that engulfed North America, will we soon be slathering on the SPF 1000? On the other hand, will we be looking for ways to survive in the depths of the Earth?

People at Vivos: http://www.terravivos.com believe, so much that they have placed a hefty price tag on their six-month all-inclusive packages. For the deluxe model stay in Indiana, you only have to dole out a mere $50,000 per adult and $35,000 for each child. However, for the budget conscience they have downsized some of their luxury suites to accommodate 1000 souls for the price of $9,950 per person in their economy section.
Remember the Titanic, steerage anyone?

 

Mayan Renaissance tracks 4,000 years of Central American history tonight on TV

(This happened on July 12, but will doubtless be repeated a few times.)

From Denver Westworld :  Mayan Renaissance tracks 4,000 years of Central American history tonight on TV

It's safe to say that the year 2012 is a big one in Mayan culture -- but few people really know the extent of its importance, argues PeaceJam Executive Director Dawn Engle. Not up to speed? No worries: Tonight you can catch Mayan Renaissance -- a Peacejam-produced movie that puts 4,000 years of Mayan history in perspective -- on Colorado Public Television. The documentary, the first on the subject to be shot from the Mayan viewpoint, highlights the influence of European visitors on Central America and travels through 500 years of oppression before continuing to the Maya peoples' present-day struggle to preserve their culture...and also run for political office in Guatemala.

"There's been a lot said about the Maya, but it's always some white professor at Harvard telling you what the deal is," Engle says. "They've never had their own voice heard, the Maya, and we see this as a chance."

In May, an audience at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York gave Engle and PeaceJam co-founder Ivan Suvanjieff a standing ovation at the conclusion of a screening of the film. But its most welcome reception has been from the culture it celebrates.

"The Maya love it because they see their story told onscreen for the first time exactly how they would tell it," says Engle. "We were trying to capture Mayan civilization without the denigrating tactics like historical reenactments on the History Channel. We didn't want it to be our view on anything. We wanted it to be the Mayan view."

To facilitate that perspective, the film's creators obtained artwork and artifacts, many of which had never been seen by outsiders, stretching back to the dawn of the Maya civilization. PeaceJam had already been working with the Maya peoples for seventeen years, collecting film footage along the way. The most difficult aspect of this production, then, was slimming 4,000 years of history down to one hour and eight minutes.
Somehow they managed, though, and Mayan Renaissance has since been translated into Spanish and distributed around the globe. PeaceJam sponsors are currently in talks with the prince of Monaco to stage a European release in Monte Carlo later in the year.

Mayan Renaissance is the first in PeaceJam's Nobel Legacy Film Series, which will showcase the work of a different Nobel Peace Prize laureate each year. Next year's edition, Children of the Light, features South African political activist Desmond Tutu, who delivered what Engle remembers as an "Earth-quaking" speech on social issues at the tenth anniversary celebration of PeaceJam in Denver 2006.
In 2014, Educating the Heart will follow the Dalai Lama's campaign to restructure global education with an experiment in Newark, New Jersey.

But in the meantime, 2012 is the perfect year to shine a spotlight on Mayan culture, aided by the onscreen presence of Rigoberta Menchú Tum, a Nobel laureate and indigenous Guatemalan who ran for the country's presidency in 2007 -- and survived.

"This is their time," Engle says. "For them to be so resilient, to preserve their culture over so many years and then step up now to lead is an incredible story of courage. When people watch the film, they're very inspired because they think that wow, in the face of all of this historical oppression and death, the Maya can create a niche for themselves in the world."

Watch Mayan Renaissance tonight on Colorado Public Television at 7 p.m.; it will repeat five more times through the weekend. Or wait and watch it on the big screen: On August 14, the Denver Film Center will present the film as part of its Women + Film series.

 

Cut Tongue, Penis Gave Mayan Vision Serpent: Lewis Lapham

From Bloomberg.com:  Cut Tongue, Penis Gave Mayan Vision Serpent: Lewis Lapham

In A.D. 681, when Shield Jaguar ascended the throne in Yaxchilan, now near the Guatemala-Mexico border, his principal wife, Lady Xoc, knelt, perforated her tongue and drew a thorn-studded rope through the wound. 

Accompanied by music and dance, such pain-filled Mayan rituals date back at least to A.D. 199. They were watched by the assembled people, who’d fasted and washed in preparation.

At the climactic point, the new ruler would lacerate his penis, agitating the wound to make the blood flow more copiously.

Burning the strips of paper that caught the blood created great clouds of black smoke from which the Vision Serpent appeared.

 

Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world, and Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts will be ready

From MichiganLive:  Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world, and Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts will be ready

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Mayan calendar predicts the world will end in 2012, and Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts will be ready for it.

But as ArtPrize 2012 comes first, UICA will be a venue for the $560,000 competition first and celebrate the end of the world later.

In connection with the premiere of “Free Pie Film,” held Thursday at UICA, the arts organization announced its 2012-13 season with cutting-edge contemporary art, film, education programs and special programs for its 35th anniversary season.

The contemporary arts organization, which has suffered some blows lately, including the sudden, unexpected departure of executive director Jeffrey Meeuwsen in April, will return to regular operating hours, open six days a week, with films each day, beginning today.

Related: UICA has a fresh slate of new, independent films coming over the next several weeks.

But UICA, which just moved into a brand new home in the Gallery on Fulton last year, is bouncing back with a season of innovative programing, unveiled after the premiere of "Free Pie" by Caleb Slain, creator of Microsoft's Surface viral ad, plus nine more video projects by local filmmakers.

“The 2012-13 season marks the thrilling intersection of our new space, countless dynamic artworks, and expanded education, public and special programming,” said Kathryn Chaplow, president of UICA’s Board of Directors and Janet Teunis, director of operations.

In September, UICA will be a venue for the fourth ArtPrize with an exhibition titled “Somewhere Else” that opens with ArtPrize on Sept. 19 but continues through November with work that “transports viewers to another place, constructs surreal contexts and envisions different environments” with immersive installations, aggressive escapism and panoramic perspectives argue that there is no place like home.

“Somewhere Else” also refers to UICA’s 4th and 5th floors, which haven’t yet been used, but will be open to the public for the first time as part of this event.

Special events include “The Odd Ball” in September, a fundraising celebration of exhibitions, costumes and food on Sept. 18 on the eve of the opening of ArtPrize 2012.

Coming in October, UICA welcomes Open Projector Night. Beginning Oct. 9 and continuing the second Tuesday of every month, the free event offers filmmakers a platform to share their own work, inspiration or quirky found-footage with film lovers.

UICA’s Holiday Artists’ Market returns for  one-of-a-kind shopping on Nov. 30-Dec. 1 for work by regional artists.

In December, UICA hosts its “End of the World Party” with live music, performances, food and drink to usher say farewell to the current World Age, according to some interpretations of Mayan and Hopi lore.
Assuming the world doesn’t end in December, UICA’s “Live Coverage” will be back on Feb. 16, 2013 to showcase more than 50 West Michigan visual artists creating art on the spot, part of a fundraiser with live and silent auctions for UICA’s programming.

In March, UICA will participate in the third Gilda’s LaughFest, humor through public programming and film screenings.

Also in the spring, UICA’s first curated Short Film Festival will debut on a date to be announced later. The one-day festival, featuring awards and categories for both students and professional filmmakers, offers a new way for artists working in our community to share their work with film fans.

Coming first next month, UICA’s ArtWorks Youth Program will unveil a mural at 106 S. Division Ave. on Aug. 9, and UICA also will launch new, regularly scheduled Education Programs.

Family Saturdays will be held the first Saturday of every month, beginning Aug. 4 for families to get their hands on art.

Quirkshops, for adults to try their hand at ceramics, begins Sept 6 for hands-on, one-night art making workshops.

Beginning in January 2013, ArtWorks Teen Night will provide students with informal opportunities to be engaged through art-related, career explorative experiences.