End of the world?

It is in 2012, if the film of the same name is right. But then, when has Hollywood ever gotten anything right... except Princess Bride, of course. However, that is today's buzz... just as it was in 1998 with the movie Armageddon and from the book Death From the Skies... and don't forget Nostradamus and Y2K, etc.  Lots of this stuff.

Sooner or later, maybe somebody will get lucky... but then there won't be anyone around to gloat about it. What fun is that?

The odds are with us though, in an astronomical sense. Do you know that 20-40 tons of meteoric rock hit the earth every day? It is estimated (by Las Vegas?) that there is a 1 in 700,000 chance that one may eventually be big enough to kill everyone in a large city on a direct hit... and even more if the 350-yard-wide asteroid, Apophis, touches down in 2029. Other mortal dangers include a supernova explosion closer than 25 light-years to us (One light-year is 5.8 trillion miles, in case you are checking it out on Mapquest), or a gamma-ray bust by some distant collapsing solar system.

If I were a betting man however, I'd go for our own self-destruction in some crazy way... like if everyone in China jumps up and lands at the same millisecond, earth could be thrown out of orbit and there you have it.

In any case, I really do have other, more pressing concerns in my life... like what time is dinner and to remember not to jump up if I see someone else doing it.