If you know someone who is a True Believer in the 2012 Apocalypse, the only thing you can do to help them is to remember an urgent appointment or if speaking to them on the phone, tell them an important call is coming in and you ahve to go, 'bye now. No matter how much evidence you can produce to disprove their belief, which borderes on religious-type fanaticism in some cases, you aren't going to convince them. So just ease away when they get on their hobbyhorse.

This sort of impending The End Of The World As We Know It belief system is not new by any means. Y2K and the Mothership hiding in the Hale-Bopp Comet are the most recent manifestations, but crackpots with apocalyptic visions haqve been showing up for centuries. In the 1800s there were at least two that I can recall which originated in New England, and at least one in Russia. And that's without the people who study Revelations looking for clues about the End Times and End of Days, and the Kabbalists who try to decode the intentions of the Lord God from hints in the Old Testament, and of course without the con men who play on the gullible.

Me, I'm planning to observe December 21, 2012 with a bottle of good single malt whisky and a favorite book. And then on the 22nd I'll head over to the mall and see if there are any good bargains to be had in survival gear for last-minute Christmas presents.