Some people think you and I won’t be alive at this time Saturday. In fact, they think there won’t be a world for us to be alive on.
So here we are, on the eve of the day that some people think a Mayan calendar forecasts the end of the world. The latest apocalyptic interpretation ties the end of the world to the end of that calendar which is tied to the winter solstice.
University of Missouri astronomy professor Angela Speck says the winter solstice–the minute that the sun seems to reach its lowest point in the winter sky–is 5:12 tomorrow morning. She has no doubt we’ll still be here for the weekend. “It has less credibility than the Y2K scare,” she says.
The sad consequence, she says, is that there are usually some people who can’t face the end of the world so they end their own world first, with suicide.
One thing she doubts we’ll hear is an apology from those who’ve been proclaiming the end, some of whom have financially profited from all of this.