By CHRIS HAWES
SARASOTA - She has coral from the Pacific Islands, volcanic rock from Costa Rica and some of the sand that surrounds the Great Pyramids of Egypt. In total, Jo Mooy has natural remnants from more than 100 locations worldwide — and she still has 21 months to build her collection. Mooy, 65, is on a mission to brighten up the public's perception of December 2012, presented in movies and by some New Age leaders as the end of the world. "There's a lot of fear and anguish around 2012 as the date begins to come closer," said Mooy, who has studied metaphysics for almost 50 years. "But I wanted to combat the Hollywood version of the end of the world in 2012 by uplifting and unifying people." The year 2012 has triggered such widespread speculation, and become the fodder for doomsday movies, because it marks the end of the Mayan "Long Count" calendar. But most scholars now agree that predictions of catastrophic events, including deadly solar-magnetic flares, are misinterpretations of both Mayan history and science. Nevertheless, predictions of doom and gloom continue. Mooy hopes to offset the negative predictions with her "Sands of the World Mandala" project. Mooy will make use of the multi-colored and multi-textured sand, soil, shells, rocks, reef and other remnants on Dec. 12, 2012 — the last time a dateline of 12-12-12 will occur for another 1,000 years. Read More
