2012

A Mayan 'long count calendar' nice - but it does lack any pictures of country scenes or puppies.

So here we are in 2012. Year of the imaginatively named film '2012'.

According to the (not very good) action film, or perhaps more correctly the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, the world will end in December 2012.

Apparently it's all written in the stars - I should have asked them when we went to Mount Stromlo a few weeks ago.

My prediction(!?) is that the months leading up to December will be preceded by countless newspaper and magazine articles and no doubt the odd documentary or ten refuting or supporting the end of the world prediction. REM will be rubbing their hands at the royalty payments from their 80's penned song 'It's the End of the World as we know it' which will form the soundtrack to the many documentaries.

I went to Mexico and Belize a few years ago where the Mayans had lived. They seemed a pretty advanced lot who then, (once they'd worked out that the World will end in December 2012) seemingly disappeared back into the jungle some time around 900AD. The conquistadors later added to the confusion by by burning a fair bit of their stuff and doing the usual looting and pillaging (and small-pox bringing) that foreign invaders tend to do. Were the Mayans right? will armageddon arrive? Should I stop making pension contributions? I guess we'll know in 12 months time.

More likely in January 2013 the media will be searching around for the next end of the world prediction. Presumably though even if someone gets it right it'll be a hollow victory, with not many people left around to say 'told you so!' to.