With 2012 around the corner, doomsday alarmists will no doubt be looking for signs of the end of the world.
According to the 2012 doomsday hype, the Maya predicted that the world will come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012 based on the premise that that particular date is when their Long Count calendar, which runs about 5,125 years, ends. How this incarnation of the end of days manifests itself is the subject of debate among doomsayers.
But giving them the benefit of the doubt (no, really), we’ll check in to see how their version of future events jives with reality. And while we’re on the subject, since the 2012-ers are not the only ones proclaiming imminent doom and we’d like to give other apocalyptic visions equal time, we’ll also check for traces of reality in other end-times scenarios.