Sorry, you still have to deal with your crappy boss. The world doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

We have an uncanny ability, as people, to believe in notions that are considerably improbable, and some are just down right impossible. I haven't a confident explanation as to why this is so, but it's quite a curious thing. For example: a doctor can forewarn a patient of imminent health problems, and often times that patient has the audacity to be skeptical of the doctor's expertise. This is done irrespective of the doctor's medical and scientific training, and his daily practice. Of course, the analogy isn't to insinuate that doctors are infallible; the doctor has the higher probability of being correct in the matter, and should therefore earn more of your trust. 

Yet, in many cases they don't. But people will lend 100% of their faith to superstition and things as trivial to your existence as a daily horoscope. To augment my confusion, I watch people visit neighbourhood psychics and swallow the reader's whole "prophetic" pill without question. 

Just as I am amused by the propensity to invest faith in neighbourhood psychics, the reverence that Y2K, Harold Camping's predictions, and the 2012 commotion received also has a strong command of my attention. Herein, I shall visit the three of these doomsday, scaremongering concepts. If nothing else, perhaps we will relieve some of their superfluous woes. The good news is--that the world is unbelievably older, and more stubborn than you are on your worst day.(even a Monday) And it will be that way for a number of years longer than we are used to putting into numbers. 

Y2K!!  

 I watched as reporter after reporter broadcasted live at various retail locations, as people frantically ridded stores of gallons of water and canned goods. To maintain integrity here, I should admit I was amongst the frantic patrons and crowd; I had no choice, as my age at the time was just a trifle too tender to have any say so in the matter. So, reluctantly tethered to mother, I helped to carry gallons of water as well, preparing for what she thought could be the end as we knew it-Y2K. 

How did all this come about? My computer savvy friends may be able to modify the sentences that will follow, or perhaps be more elaborative, but I think you'll get the gist. Though the story morphed and mutated a few times, the original cause remains intact. The problem that sent everyone into a frenzy was due to dated computer programs, as I understand. Yes, this is what had some people in chapel at midnight, and the reason Wal-mart and like stores experienced a fat payday, and customers lamented of skinny pockets. 

Until recent times, computer scientist, or programmers, used a month/day/year format that required a two digit number in the respective positions. For example: my birthdate would be written 11/21/84. You might be intuitively already suspecting a problem this could cause, come year 2000. Such a format cannot accommodate any such date from year 2000 onward. Inputting 11/21/00 could consequently cause faulty calculations and/or software crashes. I guess we expected the world to crash technologically. 

Software was merely, though not simply,  recoded so that it can understand and utilize numbers such as 00, 01, 02, etcetera. Nonetheless, we are still here, and have yet to technologically crash the earth. 

Harold Camping!!!   

Anyone remember the Judgement Day May 21, 2011 signs? Probably so. They are easily traceable to an American Christian radio broadcaster, namely Harold Egbert Camping. Mr. Camping erroneously predicted(on more than one occasion) that Christ himself would return to earth on May 21, 2011. As preposterous as you may think this, it caught on with many a entranced people. Camping has multitudes of followers, and sadly some of these people were naive enough to give up everything, as they braced for judgement that never came. The only judgment they received was from atheist, and even Christian skeptics alike. Robert Fitzpatrick, aged 60, surrendered his entire life savings of $140,00, to campaign for camping. Fitzpatrick is a retired transit worker from Staten Island, New York(http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-respond-to-campings-may-21-rapture-prediction--50275/)

27 year old Adrienne Martinez opted not to go to medical school. Instead, she and her husband migrated from NewYork to Orlando, where they too proceeded to exhaust the remainder of their savings. They didn't think it mattered(http://m.christianpost.com/news/christians-respond-to-campings-may-21-rapture-prediction--50275/). Both of these accounts are profoundly, and confusingly sad to me. 

Camping is said to incorporate numerology in his interpretation of the bible. This should easily be detected as a recipe sure to lead anyone considering it astray. Numerology involves studying the special(mystical) powers of numbers, or the divine, mystical relationship between a number and an event. The mixing of numerology with the bible seems a touch illogical to me, but Mr. Camping, having a BS (stuff he's also filled with) in civil engineering, found quite the sly way of manipulating the mathematics to work in his favour. Reportedly, Camping later admitted that his predictions were "sinful". Not quite the words I would like to hear, but at least the unrelenting pressure of the public squeezed that much out of him. 

2012!!!!

The earth is over 4 BILLION years old!  There is ample science to substantiate that. However, there are a plethora of theories suggesting that, regardless of how long it has been carrying on without our intervention, we get to tell it when it shall perish. It's hard to contain oneself from wearing a pretty firm smirk in response to some of the ideas. 

There are several assumptions about 2012 that contribute to its doomsday baggage. Some think that planets will align in such s fashion as to cause a negative effect on earth. Scientists don't think this to be plausible. The earth will not pass through the galactic plane in 2012. This plane is where most of the mass from disk-shaped galaxies lie. Even if some weird alignment was to occur, many scientists believe that the effects on earth would be negligible. As far as celestial wonders, we have nothing more to look forward to than the December Solstice, or Winter Solstice, if that tickles your fancy. 

I wanted to know and understand some of where the 2012, world ending predictions began. The following is what I've learned thusfar: Nibiru, an alleged planet, is headed toward earth. It was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians. According to the claim, the disaster was projected to happen on May of 2003, but quite apparently nothing happened. This caused the date of doom to be moved to December 21, 2012. When this fable was linked to the end of ONE of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar( that's right, one of the cycles), at the winter solstice, it solidified as a viable doomsday prediction. Calendars abroad will carry on. 

Here's the deal mates, the earth preexisted us, and it will out endure us. This is especially true considering how silly we are nowadays. We don't have to fret over some end of the world rubbish; with our behaviour, we're likely to destroy ourselves. 

-cheers