IN: Chen Guangcheng (born 12 November 1971) is a Chinese civil rights activist who has worked on human rights issues in rural areas of the People's Republic of China. Blind from an early age and self-taught in the law, Chen is frequently described as a "barefoot lawyer" who advocates for women's rights, land rights, and the welfare of the poor. He is best known for accusing people of abuses in official family-planning practices, often involving claims of violence and forced abortions. In 2005, Chen gained international recognition for organising a landmark class-action lawsuit against authorities in Linyi, Shandong province, for the excessive enforcement of the one-child policy.

Chen is the youngest of five brothers of a peasant family from the village of Dongshigu, Yinan County, Shandong Province, approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) from the city of Jinan. When Chen was about six months old, he lost his sight due to a fever that destroyed his optical nerves. In an interview for the New York Review of Books, Chen said that although his family did not identify with an organized religion, his upbringing was informed by a "traditional belief in virtue that's present in Chinese culture--that might have some Buddhist content, but not necessarily that one believes in Buddhism." His village was poor, with many families living at a subsistence level. "When I went to school I'd be happy if I just got enough to eat," he recalled.  Chen's father worked as an instructor at a Communist Party school, earning the equivalent of about $60 annually. When Chen was a child, his father would read literary works aloud to him, and reportedly helped impart to his son an appreciation of the values of democracy and freedom. In 1991, Chen's father gave him a copy of "The Law Protecting the Disabled," which elaborated on the legal rights and protections in place for disabled persons in the PRC.  In 1989, at the age of 18, Chen began attending school as a grade one student at the Elementary School for the Blind in Linyi city. In 1994, he enrolled at the Qingdao High School for the Blind, where he studied until 1998. He had already begun developing an interest in law, and would often ask his brothers to read legal texts to him. He earned a position at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1998 but because his family was poor, they had to borrow $340 to cover tuition costs. They still fell short of the required $400 and university authorities reportedly had to be pleaded with before allowing Chen to enroll. He studied in Nanjing from 1998 to 2001, specializing in acupuncture and massage--the only programs available to the blind. Chen also audited legal courses, gaining a sufficient understanding of the law to allow him to aid his fellow villagers when they sought his assistance. After graduation he returned to his home region and found a job as a masseur in the hospital of Yinan County.  Chen met his wife, Yuan Weijing, in 2001, after listening to a radio talk show. Yuan had called into the show to discuss her difficulties in landing a job after graduating from the foreign language department of Shandong's Chemistry Institute. Chen, who listened to the program, later contacted Yuan and relayed his own story of hardship as a blind man living on just 400 Yuan per year. Yuan was moved by the exchange, and later that year, she traveled to Chen's village to meet him. The couple eloped in 2003. Their son, Chen Kerui, was born later that year. In 2005 they had a second child--a daughter named Chen Kesi--in violation of China's one-child policy. Yuan, who had been working as an English teacher at the time of the marriage, left her job in 2003 in order to assist her husband in his legal work.
QUESTION: Is he married?
IN: The 2012 phenomenon was a range of eschatological beliefs that cataclysmic or otherwise transformative events would occur on or around 21 December 2012. This date was regarded as the end-date of a 5,126-year-long cycle in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, and as such, festivities to commemorate the date took place on 21 December 2012 in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), with main events at Chichen Itza in Mexico, and Tikal in Guatemala. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae were proposed as pertaining to this date. A New Age interpretation held that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21 December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era.

Maya inscriptions occasionally mention predicted future events or commemorations that would occur on dates far beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun. Most of these are in the form of "distance dates"; Long Count dates together with an additional number, known as a Distance Number, which when added to them makes a future date. On the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque, a section of text projects forward to the 80th 52-year Calendar Round from the coronation of the ruler K'inich Janaab' Pakal. Pakal's accession occurred on 9.9.2.4.8, equivalent to 27 July 615 AD in the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The inscription begins with Pakal's birthdate of 9.8.9.13.0 (24 March, 603 AD Gregorian) and then adds the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8 to it, arriving at a date of 21 October 4772 AD, more than 4,000 years after Pakal's time.  Another example is Stela 1 at Coba which marks the date of creation as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, or nineteen units above the b'ak'tun. According to Linda Schele, these 13s represent "the starting point of a huge odometer of time", with each acting as a zero and resetting to 1 as the numbers increase. Thus this inscription anticipates the current universe lasting at least 2021x13x360 days, or roughly 2.687x1028 years; a time span equal to 2 quintillion times the age of the universe as determined by cosmologists. Others have suggested, however, that this date marks creation as having occurred after that time span.  In 2012, researchers announced the discovery of a series of Maya astronomical tables in Xultun, Guatemala which plot the movements of the Moon and other astronomical bodies over the course of 17 b'ak'tuns.
QUESTION:
Are there other dates of significance?