I'm sure if you're over the age of 25, you remember the Y2K scare. There was hype built around it, and sure enough, absolutely nothing happened. The belief was that our computer systems would fail when adjusting to the “00” system. Clocks would fail, nuclear missiles would launch, etc. To sum it all up, it was the classic end-of-the-world scenario. Now another such scenario is upon us, but it has nothing to do with technology. No, this one focuses more on the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. Your result--simply 2012.

People began to notice that the Mayan calendar ended on Dec. 21, 2012, and started to draw conclusions that the Mayans predicted the end of the world. A movie—“2012”--was even made on this doomsday scenario.

So how will the world end? The first 2012 prediction actually was made in 2003, but when nothing happened, the doomsday scenario was moved to 2012. Some claims are that Earth will hit a planet called Nibiru.

Another claim was that when the planets aligned in 2012, it would cause major solar storms that would affect Earth in a horrible way. According to NASA, though, the planets are not going to align with each other until a few decades from now, and even if they did they would have negligible results. The last, and probably one of the most ridiculous predictions is the polar shift theory. This is the theory that the Earth will make a complete 180-degree rotational turn, which would cause major chaos. There is one problem with this theory--it's impossible, says NASA.

There have been many doomsday predictions since the beginning of time. They come and they go, and most people dismiss them. What do Trinity science teachers Mr. Dave Case and Mr. Mike Budniak think of the predictions?

Budniak doesn't think much of them at all. Asked what he thinks of the 2012 doomsday prediction, Budniak said, “Idiocy. Lunacy. Stupidity. Just because a man-made calendar runs out doesn’t mean the world ends.”

Yes, Mr. Budniak, I think we can agree with you on this one. I also asked him what he thought of the people who actually believe in the predictions. “Get a life,” he said. “Live your life. Stop worrying about what you can’t change. Get an education.”

Case also had an opinion on the doomsday predictions: “What does having a calendar end have to do with doomsday? Every calendar is only good for a certain period of time since the Earth doesn't travel around the sun in an exact time period that will mesh perfectly over thousands (or millions) of years. Did the Mayans say the world would come to an end at the end of their calendar?”

Since the most recent disaster prediction was Y2K, I was interested in what Case had to say about that one compared to this one. “Much more over Y2K,” he said. “There was a technical computer problem that indeed needed to be fixed to ward off a disaster in 2000. Possibility, yes; probability, no.”

So out of all the doomsday predictions Case has heard, what is the strangest? “They are all ridiculous,” he said. “You think Mother Earth is going somewhere? Hardly. Sure, we as a human species will only be here for a certain period of time, but Mother Earth? She'll be here billions of years more probably. Hardly doomsday for her.”