THE END IS NIGH

This is the end...

2011-08-23T00:11:00.002+01:00

As you've no doubt noticed, there's been precious little activity here for the past few months.

Truth is, real life has repeatedly got in the way of The End is Nigh - since the last flurry of updates I've changed job, moved from north to south, and taken on greater responsibilities in both work and my other hobbies.

I am now forced to admit that the end has come for The End is Nigh, as I simply no longer have the time in the day to devote to producing the magazine or keeping abreast of the many eschatological developments in the world.

It's been a great ride and thank you so much to every single one of my many, varied and talented contributors for their hard work, perseverance and patience. I'm not the easiest editor to work with, but you guys all made The End is Nigh what it is - utterly unique, wonderfully entertaining and a blast from beginning to end.

I'd also like to thank everyone who bought an issue - you made the credit card bills slightly easier to deal with.

Two final thank yous - the first goes to those girlfriends who, over the years, have had to tolerate weeks of me never going to bed, becoming irritable at the smallest of things and swearing endlessly at my computer. The second goes to Paul Scott, who came up with the whole idea in the first place. Thank you, Paul - it's been great :)

So... this is the end.

And, like all ends, it's merely a different kind of beginning.

Cheers

Mike Molcher

2010: THE END IS NIGH'S Apocalyptic Review of the Year!

2010-12-30T10:00:00.003Z

2010 has been a remarkable year for apocalypse watchers the world over and The End is Nigh has been here to chart the doomsday depths and navigate the eschatological eddies for you, giving you the low down on the the names and numbers, the saints and sinners, the sects and the scientists who concern themselves with the end of the world.

So here we present our look back at some of our favourite highlights from 2010 - a truly apocalyptic year...

January
2010 began well for apocalypse-watchers, as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists nudged their Doomsday Clock a minute further away from midnight.
The group of prominent scientists shifted the clock back to six minutes to midnight - it has been a five to since North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon in 2007. The proximity to midnight denotes how close they feel mankind is to destroying itself with nuclear conflict.
The furthest away from midnight it has ever stood was 17 minutes, thanks to US/Russian nuclear arms treaties in 1991.
Citing "a hopeful state of world affairs," the group said in January that for the first time since World War II, leaders are cooperating in efforts to curb nuclear bomb-making. They also credited the US, particularly President Barack Obama, for a “newfound sense of international cooperation and engagement on the issue of nuclear weapons”.

The year also began with continuing head-scratching by commentators over some seemingly apocalyptic comments made by former governor of Alaska and vice-presidential hopeful, Sara Palin, in an interview with Barbara Walters where she talks about Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: " I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand."
Could this, it was asked, signify Palin’s belief in the Christian idea - derived from The Book of Revelation - that the final battle between good and evil will take place at Megiddo in modern day Israel, as discussed in The End is Nigh issue two?
And later in the year, concerns were raised that a potential Palin presidential bid could coincide with claims that the world will end in December 2012 - around the time of the next US presidential election.

February
More than a year after the jailing of self proclaimed messiah Wayne Bent, the first media were allowed inside his apocalyptic cult’s compound.
Bent was sentenced in December 2008 to 18 years in prison for molesting a young follower. Eight years of Bent's sentence were suspended, making the effective sentence 10 years unless the suspension is revoked.
Even after their spiritual leader went to prison, life continues for the 35 members of the Lord Our Righteousness Church: “Now, while they wait for their messiah to return to Strong City, they look forward to the time God takes them and all Christians off this earth completely.”
Bent’s lawyers have filed an appeal.

March
As we slowly thawed out after a particularly cold winter, we were warmed to discover that there is an 86 percent chance that Gliese 710 - an orange dwarf star - will plough through the Oort Cloud, a ‘cloud’ of ice and rock that extends some 0.5 parsecs into space from the Earth.
Such an approach would send an almighty shower of comets into the Solar System, forcing us to keep our heads down for a while. And a probability of 86 percent is about as close to certainty as this kind of data can get.
The good news is the chances of Gliese 710 penetrating further into the Solar System, inside the Kuiper Belt, are much smaller, just 1 in a 1000.

And we were given another date for our apocalyptic diaries: Leonardo da Vinci predicted that the world will end on November 1, 4006, according to a Vatican researcher.
Sabrina Sforza Galitzia said the clues were to be found in da Vinci’s Last Supper mural. She claims to have worked out that da Vinci foresaw the end of the world in a “universal flood” which would begin on March 21, 4006 and end on November 1 the same year.

April
The original prophet of environmentalism, Professor James Lovelock, said in April that despite all his best efforts to warn everybody, it's now too late to try and save the planet.
According to the BBC, he "now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change".

May
Speaking to Peter Hennessy for the BBC Radio 4 documentary Day One in Number 10, former Cabinet Secretary Lord Butler described how one of the first things the UK’s new Prime Minister, David Cameron, would have to do is personally write four letters, one for the safe of each Trident submarine, to be opened if the home government is destroyed.
"There has to be provision for what happens if the government has been destroyed by a nuclear strike, and somebody has then got to say well we have our missiles on the submarines, out under the seas and what should the commanders of those submarines do.
"And there has to be a plan for what would happen in that situation, and the person to make that plan - and it has to be made in advance because the home government may have been destroyed - should be the person that has been elected as the head of government. So that falls on the prime minister to make."
The cabinet secretary briefs the Prime Minister on the options, and then leaves him alone, in his words, "to do privately, wrestling with their own beliefs and conscience”. They then seal the letters, return them to the cabinet secretary, and they are transmitted to the boats.

August
Not content with selling more than 60m copies of his apocalyptic ‘Left Behind’ Rapture books, author Tim LaJaye decided to suggest to Fox News that President Obama is the Antichrist - a bestselling US author saying that his country’s president will bring about the end of the world represented a considerable step-up in both the anti-Obama and apocalyptic rhetoric by the American right-wing.

September
The visit of Pope Benedict XVI, otherwise known as Joseph Alois Ratzinger, to the UK aroused strong views amongst those opposed to the head of the Roman Catholic Church's views on the sexual abuse committed by priests around the world, homosexuality and atheism.
But it’s more as a harbinger of the apocalypse that the Pope aroused our interest. As detailed in The End is Nigh #2 (which is still available for free download) according to the fascinating Prophecy of the Popes, supposedly made by St Malachy and first published in 1595, Benedict is the ‘penultimate pope’. His successor, so the prophecy goes, will bring about the end of the world.

November
November has possibly been the most apocalyptic month of the year so far.

Dreaded bird flu reared its ugly head for the first time since the last minor outbreak in January 2009, while its compatriot swine flu - the subject of the main feature in the last issue of The End is Nigh - began to re-emerge among populations in the west. Within a month, it would be the cause of renewed warnings of flu epidemics with a rise in deaths as post-scare complacency is blamed.

As the whistleblowing website Wikileaks continued to publish confidential diplomatic US government cables, it was revealed just how much America is concerned that Pakistan may lose control of its own nuclear weapons or engage in conflict with India.

Epidemiologists in Uganda are still not able to identify a disease that has hit 96 people and killed 31 in the northern part of the country.
The disease, the symptoms of which include vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fever, abdominal pain and dizziness, first came to light in November in the Ugandan districts of Abim, Agago, Kitgum and Lamwo in November.
A forty-one year-old man from Wipolo village, Morulem subcounty in Abim district was the first recorded victim. He complained of headache and stomach pain on 2 October and died on 7 October.
According to the ministry of Health, he had attended a party where he reportedly drunk waragi and kwete - both locally made brews - before falling ill, yet other people who drank the same did not fall sick. Five family members who nursed him fell ill and his 12-year-old son also died.
Although more than a third of those affected have died, authorities have said recovery is possible if treatment is sought quickly.
Initial inspections carried out by the Uganda Virus Research Institute and international laboratories such as Center for Disease Control in Atlanta point away from Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley fever, Lassa fever, Congo Crimean fever or Typhoid fever. However, warnings to people not to touch, handle and eat sick or dead animals suggest authorities are concerned that this may be another case of zoonosis - a disease that has made the leap from animal to human.

But, y'know, at least we discovered that high-pitched crooner and former military man, James Blunt, saved us all from World War III!

December
Forty billboards sprang up this month around nine cities in the US, claiming that May 21, 2011 will be the date of the Rapture. Fans of Family Radio, a nationwide Christian radio network, paid for the billboards after the network's founder, Harold Camping, predicted the date for the Rapture.
In Camping's latest publication, We are Almost There!, he states that certain Biblical passages point unquestionably to May 21, 2011 as the date of "Rapture", and October 21, 2011 as the end of the world. This is despite already getting it wrong - in his book 1994? he claimed there was a very high likelihood that the world would end in September 1994, although he did admit he "could be wrong".

Any small French town would normally be delighted with a new influx of foreign visitors - but the mayor of Bugarach is less than impressed with the flood of apocalyptic travellers that has engulfed his community.
The population of this farming community in the Aude region of southwestern France - which sits at the foot of the Pic de Bugarach, the highest mountain in the Corbieres wine-growing area - is normally a modest 189, but this is being swelled by thousands of foreigners who are convinced that this sleepy village will escape the end of the world in 2012.
Jean-Pierre Delord, mayor of Bugarach, says rumours are circulating that the village offers shelter from an impending Armageddon.
The claims about the town have become the latest fad amongst apocalypse-watchers who believe that the world will end on 21 December 2012 - an event supposedly predicted by a calendar of the ancient Maya civilisation of Central America.
Many of the visitors believe that a group of aliens is hiding in a cavern in Bugarach's 1,231m mountain and will leave when the world ends and kindly take them with them, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
M. Delord claims that websites in the US are selling tickets for trips to Bugarach: "They are doing some business, and people are already organising visits and prayer and meditation workshops, etc," he told The Telegraph, adding: "This is no laughing matter … If tomorrow 10,000 people turn up, as a village of 200 people we will not be able to cope. I have informed the regional authorities of our concerns and want the army to be at hand if necessary come December 2012."
He said people had been coming to the village for the past 10 years or so in search of alien life following a post in an UFO review by a local man, who has since died. "He claimed he had seen aliens and heard the humming of their spacecraft under the mountain," he said, claiming that several "Ufologists" have bought properties in the mountain's shadow, with a mini-industry of gurus and prayer groups springing up.
The Herald claims the internet is awash with about claims the late President Francois Mitterrand visiting the peak, and mysterious digs conducted by the Nazis and later Mossad, the Israeli secret service. Recently, however, interest in the site had skyrocketed, said the mayor, with online UFO websites advising people to seek shelter in Bugarach as the countdown to Armageddon commences.
But, as we pointed out in October, the idea that the ‘end’ of the Mayan calendar on 21 December 2012 means the end of the world has been roundly debunked.
A new critique, published as a chapter in the new textbook "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World" (Oxbow Books, 2010), argues that the accepted conversions of dates from Mayan to the modern calendar may be off by as much as 50 or 100 years.
Most importantly, it means that 21 December 2012 is a meaningless date - the Mayan calendar doesn’t end then, if it ever indeed does ‘end’ (much the same as my desk calendar only going up to 31 December doesn’t mean the world will end then … I’ll just buy a new one) and therefore there simply cannot be a ‘prediction’ at all.
Not that this will stop the 2012 theorists - not even an explicit refutation by NASA managed that one...

So, that was 2010 - another year that humanity has inexplicably managed to survive in spite of all the predictions that the end was indeed nigh. We're a year closer to the next big apocalyptic date of 21 December 2012, of course, so expect the profile of the biggest diary entry in all armageddon-watchers' diaries to loom larger as 2011 continues and there's Family Radio's prediction of 21 May to look forward to.

And don't forget that if you want more analysis of the end of the world and those predicting it, issue four of The End is Nigh is still available to buy online.

We are The End is Nigh and this has been our apocalyptic review of 2010 - thanks for following us and we wish you a prosperous, safe and above all non-apocalyptic 2011!

Zoonosis emerges? "Mystery illness" claims 38 lives in Uganda

2010-12-07T09:45:00.003Z

At least 38 people have died from a mystery illness in northern Uganda. The Ugandan Ministry of Health said the preliminary tests had ruled out ebola, typhoid and several other diseases.

The illness was first reported on 10 November and more than 90 people have been treated for it.

Symptoms which last between two and 10 days appear to include a severe headache and dizziness, leading to diarrhoea and vomiting containing blood - although officials claim "a full recovery" is possible if medical help is received in the illness' early stages.

It is notable that people are being advised "not to eat meat from sick domesticated and wild animals" as it implies they may fear it to be a case of zoonosis - something that we discuss in issue four of The End is Nigh. A zoonotic disease is one that can be transmitted to people from animals and as noted in the Wikipedia page linked above, "of the 1,415 pathogens known to affect humans, 61% are zoonotic". The most famous of these include the devastatingly deadly Ebola virus, Marburg fever, 'bird flu' and, it is believed, HIV.

US billboards claim Jesus will return May 21, 2011

2010-12-02T13:00:00.000Z

... which, even by the standards of Christian predictions of the Second Coming, is kinda specific.

Forty billboards have sprung up around nine cities in the US, claiming that May 21, 2011 will be the date of the Rapture.

Fans of Family Radio, a nationwide Christian radio network, paid for the billboards after the network's founder, Harold Camping, predicted the date for the Rapture.

In Camping's latest publication, We are Almost There!, he states that certain Biblical passages point unquestionably to May 21, 2011 as the date of "Rapture", and October 21, 2011 as the end of the world. This is despite already getting it wrong - in his book 1994? he claimed there was a very high likelihood that the world would end in September 1994, although he did admit he "could be wrong".

Undeterred, 29-year-old Allison Warden orchestrated the billboard campaign in Nashville, Tennessee. Allison is a volunteer with WeCanKnow.com, a website set up by followers of Family Radio.

Although the exact nature of the Rapture is contested, in its most popular current form it involves Christ returning from Heaven to earth while saved individuals - both dead and alive - will rise up in the air and join him in the sky. A particular favourite of the evangelists in America, it's also the basis of Tim LeHaye's internationally best-selling 'Left Behind' series of novels.

Possible Palin presidential poll a sign of impending apocalypse?

2010-11-22T14:31:00.002Z

A new "political thriller" by one Sheldon Filger has been published, based on a scenario that former Alaskan governor and Tea Party darling Sarah Palin runs for - and wins - the 2012 American presidential election.

We've blogged about Mrs Palin's little girl before, but we're still searching for the fully expected linking of the Mayan end-of-the-world theories and the date of the next US election.

And, if you're in any doubt about the side of the debate that the author comes down on, he leaves a handy hint in the title: SARAH PALIN APOCALYPSE AMERICANA.

The OTHER Da Vinci Code ... of impending doom!

2010-11-17T10:00:00.001Z

This has only just popped up onto our radar (it's amazing what random Googling can bring up) but we'd not spotted this insomnia-inducing prediction about the imminent end of the world ...

It has been claimed that the original Renaissance man, painter and polymath Leonardo da Vinci, predicted that the world would end on ... wait for it ... November 1, 4006!

Now, before you start selling your wordly goods, this prediction of impending doom has been made by Vatican researcher Sabrina Sforza Galitzia, who claims 'clues' were to be found in da Vinci’s Last Supper mural.

The central half-moon window, or lunette, above his painting of Christ with his disciples before the Crucifixion contains a “mathematical and astrological” puzzle which she has deciphered, she said.

She claimed to have worked out that da Vinci foresaw the end of the world in a “universal flood” which would begin on March 21, 4006 and end on November 1 the same year. Documents showed that he believed that this would mark “a new start for humanity”, Ms Sforza Galitzia said.

Last year, the Vatican published her study The Last Supper of Leonardo in the Vatican, in which she examined a tapestry of the Last Supper made for King Louis XIII of France, based on da Vinci’s design for his famous mural in Milan.

Planning for Star Wars: space threat experts still watching the skies

2010-11-16T09:24:00.000Z

With governmental concern focused more on Armageddon of the financial kind over the past couple of years, it may sound like a costly extravagance to talk about asteroid-detection and deflection systems.

The end of the world, however, isn't something that is particularly concerned about whether we can afford to thwart it or not. Thankfully, the issue of global destruction at the hands of a sizeable lump of space rock has not dropped off the scientific radar. Late last month, representatives of the American, Russian and other national space programs met for three days at the European Space Agency's Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

Their goal is to put together a Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) to develop a global asteroid threat response. Participants studied several plausible impact scenarios to identify best responses to such an emergency.

Earlier John Holdren, President Obama's science and technology adviser, sent the House Committee on Science and Technology a letter calling for NASA to play a leading role in detecting and deflecting deep-space objects that threaten Earth.

Former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart attended the Darmstadt meeting and told Space.com that disastrous asteroid impacts "can be prevented ... only, however, if we properly prepare and work together with other nations around the world."

Not so beautiful: how high-pitched singer "prevented World War III"

2010-11-15T08:57:00.004Z

When we read a headline such as Singer James Blunt 'prevented World War III' we become intrigued. And then worried. And then tired. Then hungry. Then back to worried again ...

Singer James Blunt has told the BBC how he refused an order to attack Russian troops when he was a British soldier in Kosovo. Blunt said he was willing to risk a court martial by rejecting the order from a US General.

All jokes about his singing inducing the world's nucler powers into a mutual suicide pact aside, the account by the high-voiced hitmaker who healed a hundred million hearts has even been backed up by British General Sir Mike Jackson, commander of the British forces during NATO operations in Kosovo, who told him at the time: "I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War 3."

"...that sense of moral judgement is drilled into us as soldiers in the British army," said Blunt.

Phew.

Hit me baby one more time: asteroid impact calculator updated

2010-11-03T16:32:00.003Z

It's a dubious curiosity, but have you ever wondered what would happen if a 10km-wide asteroid came out of the sky and slammed down on your city?

Well now you can, thanks to the nicely-updated impact effects calculator, first produced by scientists at Purdue University and Imperial College London in 2004.

By filling in the details of angle, mass, speed and impact site you can get an idea of how devastating - or otherwise - an asteroid impact would be.

After the first go, it's kind of irresistable seeing just how much devastation one can cause ...

The apocalypse is postponed ... maybe

2010-10-20T12:55:00.002+01:00

As discussed in the most recent issue of The End is Nigh, the buzz over 2012 is increasing with every passing day and shows no sign of abating.

However, there's moxed news for those expecting the world to come to an end on 21 December 2012 - it might not happen.

Simply put, the often-unchallenged idea is that because the Mayan calendar comes to an 'end' on this date it means they 'predicted' the end of the world. These amazing prophetic powers didn't *really* do them a lot of favours in the 15th and 16th Centuries, but never let logic get in the way of a good apocalyptic idea.

However, according to Fox News (we know, we know), a new study suggests that not only is the date wrong but that the real date for this 'end' may not be knowable at all!

A new critique, published as a chapter in the new textbook "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time in the Ancient and Medieval World" (Oxbow Books, 2010), argues that the accepted conversions of dates from Mayan to the modern calendar may be off by as much as 50 or 100 years. That would throw the supposed and overhyped 2012 apocalypse off by decades and cast into doubt the dates of historical Mayan events.

The Penultimate Pope and the End of the World

2010-09-21T10:30:00.001+01:00

Last week, British TV screens were filled with little else but images of a short, old man dressed entirely in white (apart from funky red loafers) standing before crowds of flag-waving adherents.

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI, otherwise known as Joseph Alois Ratzinger, to the UK has aroused strong views amongst those opposed to the head of the Roman Catholic Church's views on the sexual abuse committed by priests around the world, homosexuality and atheism.

But it’s more as a harbinger of the apocalypse that the Pope arouses our interest. As detailed in The End is Nigh #2 (which is still available for free download) according to the fascinating Prophecy of the Popes, supposedly made by St Malachy and first published in 1595, Benedict is the ‘penultimate pope’. His successor, so the prophecy goes, will bring about the end of the world.

Starting from Pope Celestine II, the list supposedly written by Malachy details him and his 112 successors, along with their 'characteristics' in a short descriptive title, running from 1143 until the "end of the world". The prophecies seem to be relatively accurate till Urban VII (1590), but after that great efforts have to be made in order to make the prophecies fit each pope.

Looking at the modern era, according to this list - the translation of which itself is reinterpreted endlessly - the pope that corresponds with Benedict XV (Pontiff from 1914 'til 1922) is described as "Religion Laid Waste". Communism's spread and suppression of religion, along with millions of deaths during World War I is cited as proof of the accuracy of this, though often without explanation.

The outspoken criticism of Communism and Fascism by his successor, Pius XI (1922-1939), earns him the title of "Unshaken Faith" in the eyes of believers while "Pastor and Mariner" John XXIII (1958-1963) was also Patriarch of Venice (canals = mariner. You see?) and the three fleurs-de-lis of Paul VI's (1963-1978) coat-of-arms is 'proof' of Malachy's prediction that he was "Flower of Flowers".

And this is where it starts getting a bit complicated. Depending on who you believe, John Paul I (1978), who is cited as "Of the Half Moon" was elected when there was a half moon, reigned 33 days (which isn't actually a single month, but never mind), was born in the diocese of Belluno (which means 'beautiful moon') and was baptized Albino Luciani (meaning 'white light') and he died soon after an eclipse of the moon. Phew.

And as for “The Labour of the Son”, otherwise known as John Paul II (1978-2005), the fact that he was “the most travelled Pope in history”, there was a near total eclipse of the sun over Europe shortly after he was born, and “like the sun” came out of the east (assuming you’re standing to the West of him, of course).

The spot in the queue which Benedict now occupies, number 111, refers to "Gloria Olivae", or “The Glory of the Olive”. This motif got apocalypse watchers wetting themselves even before Benedict’s election took place in April 2005: some fringe members of the monastic order of Benedictines claimed the Pope would be chosen from their ranks, as a small sub-order of the Order is known as the “Olivetans”. Unfortunately, Ratzinger is not only not a Benedictine but while all Olivetans are Benedictines, few Benedictines are Olivetans. He did, however, choose Benedict as his ‘regnal’ name and in 1993 Ratzinger had been installed as cardinal bishop of Velletri-Segni, the coat of arms of which are emblazoned with three olive trees.

The difficulty is that ‘fulfilment’ of prophecy in hindsight is a very easy thing. Before his election, speculation included suggestions it could be any member of Benedictine Order, or a Latin American pope (since, y’know, they have “olive-coloured skin”) or any black pope, or any pope from olive-producing Italy or Spain, or any one of a thousand possibilities.

This speculation has obviously faded as time has gone on, but should Benedict meet and untimely end (Malacy has him down for a very short stint in the top job) expect a mini-industry to spring up overnight, though this is already underway. He successor, in case you're interested, is supposed to be "Peter the Roman", who reign will see the end of the world.

Of the 199 current Cardinals, we have quite a narrow field if you assume that 'Peter' is a dead giveaway. there's Nasrallah Pierre Sfeir, the 90-year-old Patriarch of Antioch for Maronites, or the Archbishop Emeritus of Tokyo Peter Seiichi Shirayanagi, the Archbishop of Cape Coast Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest Peter Erdö, the Archbishop Emeritus of Tamale Peter Poreku Dery and Archpriest of the Pontifical Basilica of St Peter in the Vatican Angelo Comastri. Our (tongue firmly in cheek) money is on Comastri.

While we're talking all things Popish, stories of threats to Benedict during his visit to the UK did evoke memories of a very-nearly-very-successful assassin, though. Mehmet Ali Agca was the Turkish ‘assassin’ who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II on 13 May 1981. When he emerged from prison nearly 29 years later, Agca promptly declared himself a messenger from God and announced that the world would end “this century”.

"I will meet you in the next three days," Agca said. "In the name of God Almighty, I proclaim the end of the world in this century. All the world will be destroyed, every human being will die. I am not God, I am not son of God, I am Christ eternal."

Agca, who has previously claimed to be the Messiah, said the Gospel was full of mistakes and he would write the perfect one. He delivered a similar message in a long, rambling statement distributed by Abosoglu outside the prison in Sincan on the outskirts of Ankara, the Turkish capital.

When assessed by doctors who had to decide if he should undertake the compulsory military service he was still eligible for, he was declared unfit due to his "antisocial personality disorder".

'Obama the Antichrist' claims top US author

2010-08-03T14:15:00.003+01:00

Yeah, I know - what a way to return! Well, here we are, Doomwatchers, back with a clip from Fox News in which Tim LaHaye, author of the insanely popular apocalyptic Left Behind books which have sold more than 60m copies in the US alone, suggests that President Obama is the Antichrist.

We've been here before, of course. Pick up a copy of issue four of THE END IS NIGH to find out just how the evangelicals and nutcases of the world greeted Obama's election.

However, it's impossible to overstate how startling this video is. Consider - this is a best selling author going on one of the biggest news stations in the world ... to tell the world that a politician heralds its end.

Thanks to Tom Mendelsohn at the Independent for blogging about this. LaHaye has, as he points out, previous...

And the good news for today is ...

2010-04-01T10:00:00.000+01:00

We like Professor James Lovelock.

As well as being the bloke who developed Gaia theory, and therefore modern notions of consequential climate theory, he's just come out and said that despite all his best efforts to warn everybody, it's now too late to try and save the planet.

Brilliant!

According to the BBC, he "now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change".

I smell an EiN5 interview coming on ...

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!

2010-03-15T20:00:00.000Z

And we are BACK ...

And what better way to return from our usual hiatus (during which we've been plotting the next issue of THE END IS NIGH) than the news that we have ONLY A MATTER OF YEARS LEFT TO EXIST!!!!!

Well, 1.5 million years, at any rate ...

there is 86 percent chance that Gliese 710 will plough through the Oort Cloud of frozen stuff that extends some 0.5 parsecs into space.

That may sound like a graze but it is likely to have serious consequences. Such an approach would send an almighty shower of comets into the Solar System which will force us to keep our heads down for a while. And a probability of 86 percent is about as close to certainty as this kind of data can get.

The good news is that Bobylev says the chances of Gliese 710 penetrating further into the Solar System, inside the Kuiper Belt, are much smaller, just 1 in a 1000. So that's all right, then.

Keep calm and carry on.

And don't forget that you can still order your very own copy of THE END IS NIGH #4 by going to www.endisnigh.co.uk and clicking on 'BUY'. G'warn, do it - you know you want to!

Man's best friend is less than friendly

2009-11-16T12:00:00.000Z

We love climate change.

Let's be more specific... we love the way that EVERYTHING is to blame for climate change, if you look closely enough.

Some researchers have claimed that Spot may have got us into a spot of bother far sooner than the gas-guzzling road behemoth his owners bought to ferrying him around in.

According to a study titled Time to Eat the Dog: The real guide to sustainable living, dogs have a greater eco-footprint than Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), that's 4x4s to us backward cousins on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

They claim the amount of land needed to produce the food to feed a single pooch is more than double the amount required to produce the energy to power an SUV driven 10,000 miles a year.

But hark, is that a healthy note of scepticism in the air?

"When I saw the study I ran some quick numbers," Clark Williams-Derry, chief researcher at a the Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability thinktank, told the Seattle Times. "The average dog has to eat at least twice as much as the average person for this to be right. People are just heavier than dogs so, I just had to scratch my head at that."

BUY THE END IS NIGH #4!

2009-11-16T09:00:00.000Z

Yes folks, you can now pick up a copy of THE END IS NIGH #4 through our so-cool-it-actually-reverses-global-warming website!

Crafted by our wonderful and patient-above-and-beyond-the-call-of-duty webmaster, Mr Paul White, you can now buy a copy of #4, download a FREE copy of #2 and either get in touch or loop back round to this blog. There's a brand new opening page (yes, I have just got a copy of Fireworks, why do you ask?)

And there's even a quote from the living god that is Mr Alan Moore, speaking about how much he likes us. And we like him too.

To reap the contents of this issue:

Our first issue since 2006 sees writers Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair pay tribute to the post-apocalyptic genius of JG Ballard, we mark the forthcoming milestone of 1,000 days till the end of the world, we examine The Rise of the Machines, we ponder on which animal will unleash the next killer flu plague, we ask 'Is Obama the Antichrist?' ... and it all comes with a free game of END TRUMPS, where the fate of mankind truly is in your hands!

The whole thing is topped off with an amazingly apocalyptic cover by Defoe artist Leigh Gallagher! We also have contributions from writer John Reppion, along with 2000 AD boarders Ed Berridge and The Emperor!

SO NOW GO BUY THE END IS NIGH 4 ... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

2012 hype "fuelling real fears"

2009-11-13T12:00:00.000Z

While we're sure every snake oil salesman and book writer will be cashing in on the hype surrounding 2012 supposedly being the end of the world, we're also convinced that few of them will think about the consequences:

"NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, a senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
"A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened," said Morrison, who thinks movie marketers, authors, and others out to make a buck are feeding some of the fears.
"I've had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn't want to be around when the world ends," he said. "Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn't have to suffer through the end of the world."

The computer says no ...

2009-11-12T12:00:00.001Z

As pointed out in our latest issue, the year 2000 seemingly taught nobody anything. While we don't have a Y2K bug to scare us, that's not stopped the hype surrounding December 21st, 2012 from getting out of all proportion - even with more than a 1,000 days still to go.

What marks this one out as unusual is that NASA scientists have been forced to issue what constitutes the most comprehensive denial in history, after continually being deluged with queries from concerned citizens, demanding reassurance that they'll see at least another three Christmases.

Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.

Well, thank goodness for that ...

Failed US doomsday prophet dies

2009-11-11T12:00:00.000Z

The woman behind a Montana sect that prepared for a nuclear holocaust that never came has died, leaving her followers pretty much directionless.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet - "Mother" to her thousands of followers - died, aged 70, following a decade-long fight with Alzheimer's disease.

Back in 1990, such supposed made a doomsday prediction that, predictably, failed to occur. The Church Universal and Triumphant still keeps its 750-person underground shelters stocked with food, though attempts to find a successor to Mother have so far produced none:

"Since Prophet fell ill, at least 15 people have stepped forward claiming to be the next messenger"

The end of the world ... YESTERDAY!!

2009-11-10T12:00:00.000Z

The web bots and others are predicting total global economic collapse this coming week. Here is what George Ure writes (note the October 25th date has been delayed until November 9th)

Yeah, that's what we thought - it's gonna have to be put back AGAIN. Tsk. These dates, eh? Soooo unhelpful when you're trying to predict the end of the world. This pesky planet just KEEPS ON TURNING!

If I am right, here are the events that will occur before the end of November 2009:
1. Total global economic collapse.
2. The Rapture.
3. Destruction of Damascus.
4. War of Gog and Magog--Ezekiel 38 & 39.

And if he's wrong ... well, I guess I have to keep saving for Christmas presents, don't I...

The end was nigh ...

2009-11-09T17:39:00.004Z

Well didn't that go splendidly ...

THE END IS NIGH #4 launched with a tea-and-cake-shaped bang at the Impressions Gallery in Bradford, with Plastic Scouse and cover artist Leigh Gallagher making an appearance to delight all with his artistic talent and marsh-like wit.

Pictured from left are some of the star attendees, including the delightful Gabrielle, APOCALYPSE OVERHEARD artist Oliver Redding, deputy director of Impressions Gallery Sarah Read, editor Michael Molcher (centre, with idiot grin on his face), Leigh (pointing) and his (for too) good (for him) lady Niki. Ta to Gallagher for the pic.

The editor's speech went down VERY well, considering he wrote it about ten minutes beforehand, and it even received one or two laughs! I know, it surprised him too. Especially as it was straight after he'd told a joke ...

The website should hopefully be updated soon, with a handy link through which you can buy THE END IS NIGH #4 for a more-than-palatable £3.99 (plus p&p)

Now, normal blogging shall resume ...

Finally ... THE END IS NIGH #4!

2009-10-30T10:00:00.002Z

The next issue of the THE END IS NIGH will launch at Impressions Gallery in Bradford this Sunday (1st November) at a fantastic free event!

Our first issue since 2006 sees writers Alan Moore and Iain Sinclair pay tribute to the post-apocalyptic genius of JG Ballard, we mark the forthcoming milestone of 1,000 days till the end of the world, we examine The Rise of the Machines, we ponder on which animal will unleash the next killer flu plague, we ask 'Is Obama the Antichrist?' ... and it all comes with a free game of END TRUMPS, where the fate of mankind truly is in your hands!

The whole thing is topped off with an amazingly apocalyptic cover by Defoe artist Leigh Gallagher! We also have contributions from writer John Reppion, along with 2000 AD boarders Ed Berridge and The Emperor!

Keep an eye on www.endisnigh.co.uk after this weekend for the chance to get your hands on a copy - stocks are limited!

Here is the blurb about this weekend's event:

From the Large Hadron Collider to the end of Mayan calendar in 2012, our fascination with potential apocalypse is ever present. Inspired by our exhibition The Last Things, Journalist Michael Molcher and editor of zine The End is Nigh, will take an informed yet satirical look at the speculation surrounding the end of the world in his free illustrated talk at 2pm. Join us and help predict the date the world will end!

Throughout the afternoon the award winning independent Comic Book Shop OK Comics, will be transporting their Drink and Draw event over to Impressions. Like-minded comic fans, budding artists and designers will be able to meet, exchange ideas, sup free hot tea and scribble away. Paper will be rolled over all the tables in the Studio and pens left everywhere, so come along and draw whatever you feel like. Everyone is welcome no matter what your artistic ability and pro comic book artist Leigh Gallagher will be on hand to trouble shoot your illustration irritations at his drop in surgery.

OK Comics will also be bringing a selection of apocalypse themed comic books, which you can browse over a wedge of cake, or yours to buy and take away.

Amble into the gallery and you’ll have a last chance to see our exhibition The Last Things by David Moore before it closes on 8 November 2009. Described by writer Iain Sinclair as a "photographer of secret spaces", Moore provides an exclusive glimpse of the Ministry of Defence’s secret crisis management centre beneath the streets of central London. This hidden space, only to be used in a major national emergency, hides a strictly controlled working environment continuously on stand-by in which a looming sense of threat is ever present.

More details of the venue here.

So do come along, meet the team, be the first to buy the new issue and hang out in a great venue!

THE END IS NIGH 4 is nigh!

2009-10-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

The next issue of the THE END IS NIGH will launch at Impressions Gallery in Bradford on Sunday 1st November at a fantastic free event:

From the Large Hadron Collider to the end of Mayan calendar in 2012, our fascination with potential apocalypse is ever present. Inspired by our exhibition The Last Things, Journalist Michael Molcher and editor of zine The End is Nigh, will take an informed yet satirical look at the speculation surrounding the end of the world in his free illustrated talk at 2pm. Join us and help predict the date the world will end!

Throughout the afternoon the award winning independent Comic Book Shop OK Comics, will be transporting their Drink and Draw event over to Impressions. Like-minded comic fans, budding artists and designers will be able to meet, exchange ideas, sup free hot tea and scribble away. Paper will be rolled over all the tables in the Studio and pens left everywhere, so come along and draw whatever you feel like. Everyone is welcome no matter what your artistic ability and pro comic book artist Leigh Gallagher will be on hand to trouble shoot your illustration irritations at his drop in surgery.

OK Comics will also be bringing a selection of apocalypse themed comic books, which you can browse over a wedge of cake, or yours to buy and take away.

Amble into the gallery and you’ll have a last chance to see our exhibition The Last Things by David Moore before it closes on 8 November 2009. Described by writer Iain Sinclair as a "photographer of secret spaces", Moore provides an exclusive glimpse of the Ministry of Defence’s secret crisis management centre beneath the streets of central London. This hidden space, only to be used in a major national emergency, hides a strictly controlled working environment continuously on stand-by in which a looming sense of threat is ever present.

Come along and meet the team, be the first to buy the new issue and hang out in a great venue!

In the meantime, this just popped into our inbox ...

"Richard Heene, the man suspected of the alleged "balloon boy" hoax, was driven by a conviction that the world will come to a cataclysmic end in 2012, according to a friend."

With friends like these ...

First chickens tried to kill us all, then pigs, and now ...

2009-09-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

In something completely unconnected with our intended theme for the next issue, a previously unknown virus that killed four of the five people it struck in an outbreak in South Africa last year has been identified as part of a family of viruses humans can catch from rats.

The virus, named Lujo, is an arenavirus that over nine days caused rash, fever, muscle pain, diarrhoea, severe bleeding, vomiting, organ failure and death, said Nivesh Sewlall, who treated the first patient at Johannesburg's Morningside MediClinic Hospital.

Which, fast on the back of piggy sniffles, is a little worrying. Other animal-derived diseases such as Ebola have failed to spread widely because while it is extremely infectious and incredibly deadly, it has only so far affected isolated areas and presents symptoms and then kill its victims so quickly that outbreaks can be contained. SARS, similarly, only becomes a problem in certain conditions.

The high death rate for Lujo is worrying, though the conditions in which its victims became infected, and their medical histories may well be a significant factor - just as many of the deaths from swine flu have been from people with previous, though sometimes unidentified, medical issues.

Oops I did it again ...

2009-09-21T12:00:00.001+01:00

It's apparently only a matter of time before our number's up if we don't change our ways, as scientist have warned that human-made crises are 'outrunning our ability to deal with them'.

The world faces a compounding series of crises driven by human activity, which existing governments and institutions are increasingly powerless to cope with, a group of eminent environmental scientists and economists has warned.

Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say that nations alone are unable to resolve the sorts of planet-wide challenges now arising.

Which makes you wonder quite how screwed we actually are, if you consider the inability to get international cooperation on climate change, fishing etc etc

Back on the shelf

2009-09-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

But in some slightly-more-welcome news, President Barack Obama says the US has shelved plans for a missile defence system based in controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The system, so beloved of former President George W Bush and Neo-Cons everywhere, was intended to blow a missile attack on the US out of the sky. They said it was to stop 'rogue states' such as Iran and North Korea from attacking. But since Russia is pretty much the only country that is a) not a mate of the US, b) has ICBM capability and c) is far nearer to Poland and the Czech Republic than, say, Iran, it's hard to refute Russian allegations that the system was aimed at them.

It's baaaaack ...

2009-09-18T09:00:00.000+01:00

Doubled posting today, to make up for not doing so for ages.

And speaking of returns - swine flu looks to be on its way back, according to Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer.

More worrying:

Meanwhile, the Health Protection Agency has reported one confirmed case and one possible case of resistance to the flu drug Tamiflu.

There has been less than 30 cases like this worldwide with experts monitoring them for signs that the virus is mutating.

Who's fool idea was this?!

2009-09-14T12:00:00.000+01:00

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has announced that the country will soon take delivery of Russian missiles with a range of 300km.

Be prepared ...

2009-09-10T12:00:00.000+01:00

Worried that you're not prepared? Concerned that you might be too far and too lightly-armed to make it back to your back-garden bolthole? Well worry no longer, as the latest in on-the-spot survivalist techniques makes it to your computer.

We are reassured that they can show you how to: "Get inside the mind of an angry mob of parents with hungry children so your family is the last one to be attacked and looted."

Or, more worryingly, an angry mob of pre-armed survivalists who believe they are preventing barbarism.

Turn on, tune in, fall out ...

2009-09-09T12:00:00.000+01:00

Amazing what apocalyptia you find during a nice cliff-top walk in Cornwall ...

1,200 and counting ...

2009-09-08T12:00:00.001+01:00

Since we're *just* 1,200 days away from 21st December 2012, it seems fitting to revisit this particular apocalyptic curio.

Since the year 2000 turned out to be such a disappointment, 21/12/12 has increasingly become the new focus point for the apocalyptic community, apparently all based on the idea that the Mayan civilisation's calendar 'predicts' either the end of the world or, at the very least, some major event in world history. Armed with this snippet of half-baked information, every preacher and New Age crystal therapist under the sun has their own prediction about what WILL UNDOUBTEDLY HAPPEN!!

But who to trust? Do you believe those who reckon we're due an alien invasion or that it's The True Dawning of the Age of Aquarius or that it's finally the Rapture?

So it is with some relief that 'NY Times Bestselling author' Gregg Braden's Fractal Time: The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age cuts through the crap and tells us what we need to know, by revealing this little 'fact':

"On December 21, 2012, Earth will be perfectly aligned with the galactic center for the first time in over 5000 years — and attuned to the source energy of the Milky Way. Gregg believes this heralds "a rare opportunity to come together as a family on this planet, and to learn from the mistakes of past civilizations."

So there you go.

For goodness' sake, don't p*** him off any more ...

2009-09-04T12:00:00.000+01:00

A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served.

Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued God last year, saying the Almighty had "threatened him and the people of Nebraska".

After reading The Revelation of St John, we're inclined to agree with him ...

Station ident: This is the end of the world as we know it ...

2009-09-03T12:00:00.000+01:00

Apologies for the break in service - nothing too apocalyptic about that, just a temporary glitch :)

To reinvigorate your souls, enjoy the following sermon from the always-entertaining House of Yahweh, a sect out of Texas that has spawned branches in a number of other countries with their brand of fire-breathing apocalypticism (more about them in the next issue). Delivered by the man known only as "the only man who holds Yahshua's Authority on the face of this earth, the Greatest Teacher in the world, the Greatest Kahan, our beloved Pastor and Overseer Yisrayl Hawkins", it contains the most beautiful bit of post-failed-prediction justification ever ...

Basically, the reason the world didn't end when they said it would in September 2006 was because ... wait for it ... God decided to hold it back a bit.

No kidding, look:

The date that we gave, September 2006, that I found in Scripture was the same date that the hidden codes book shows would be the nuclear holocaust. Of course, that nuclear holocaust, they don't know it, but we know that it's being held back by YAHWEH as Revelation 7 shows. But this will be the beginning of The End of man's governments of the people and by the people.

So God left secret messages in the Bible about when the date of the end of the world would be, but then he changed his mind, but another bit of the Bible said he would anyway, but it's going to happen most definitely ... etc.

Apocalypse to be made worse by NIMBY survivalist nutters

2009-08-26T12:00:00.001+01:00

If you're expecting the EOTWAWKI any time soon, surely you'd be more preoccupied with stockpiling tins of beans and rounds for your semi-automatic, rather than arguing over rights of way?
Well, not if you're a heavily-armed religious survivalist group from Craftsbury in Vermont, USA, which is currently embroiled in an escalating dispute over a 150-year-old road the town says is public - but the church says is theirs.
Several people - including a public official - claim they have been threatened and intimidated by the group
The religious group Mission New England reside in a 276-acre compound near the town and isn't keen on people using the public trail on Coburn Hill Road in Craftsbury. Maps indicate the trail is a public right-of-way through the group's compound, but members have erected 'no trespassing' signs and bared the way with a locked gate.
A group of cyclists claim that when they tried to use the trail, they were "surrounded by at least a dozen men who all came running out of what they had claimed to be a church".

Town Lister Willy Ryan says he has been threatened and intimidated several times over the years when he has gone to the compound to assess the property values. The most ominous came this year by a man packing a gun. "He said well you are now on private property and I would tread lightly if I were you, because your life might be in jeopardy," Ryan said.
Ryan says the man with the gun was John Maniatty, the reported leader of the church group. He has websites that detail how Mission New England is a born-again Christian group, explaining why its member are survivalists driven by the notion that the world is coming to an end. Maniatty owns a gun shop in Morrisville. On the websites he has instructional videos demonstrating how to fire high-powered firearms, including fully automatic weapons.
As for the town road issue, Mission New England has offered a land swap that would result in the disputed road being turned over to the survivalist group. It's unclear whether town officials are interested in that deal.

World food/water/energy crisis "by 2030"

2009-08-25T12:00:00.000+01:00

Just finished reading Make Room Make Room, the Harry Harrison book upon which the film Soylent Green was based. I can heartily recommend it as a challenging piece of apocalyptic dystopia, describing a world starved and parched by rampant overpopulation and mismanagement of resources. It came complete with an afterword by Harrison in which he said he 'hopes he's proved wrong'

Well, according to "the UK government's chief scientific adviser" John Beddington, the world is doing all it can to make sure he's not ...

The BBC is reporting Beddington's warning of a possible 'perfect storm' crisis in 2030.

As the world's population grows, competition for food, water and energy will increase. Food prices will rise, more people will go hungry, and migrants will flee the worst-affected regions.

Specifically, he points to research indicating that by 2030 "a whole series of events come together":
The world's population will rise from 6bn to 8bn (33%)
Demand for food will increase by 50%
Demand for water will increase by 30%
Demand for energy will increase by 50%

It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere ...

2009-08-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

While the rest of us are understandably concerned at the cheery news that the effect of global warming heating the oceans could cause Earth's axis to tilt,we now find the NASA scientists have suggested that the best way to stop our planet from overheating would be to move it to a cooler spot!

All you have to do is hurtle a few comets at Earth, and its orbit will be altered. Our world will then be sent spinning into a safer, colder part of the solar system.

Well, that's alright then ... !

Greg Laughlin, Don Korycansky and Fred Adams of the Nasa Ames Research Center in California came up with the plan, which involves carefully directing a comet or asteroid so that it sweeps close past Earth and transfers some of its gravitational energy to Earth, nudging it slightly away from the Sun. Since life on Earth is able to thrive thanks to the planet's position in our solar system's Goldilocks Zone ("not too hot, not too cold"), shifting it around to control temperatures isn't that crazy. Actually, scratch that - read further into the article and you'll soon realise just HOW crazy it actually is ...

Engineers would have to be very careful about how they directed their asteroid or comet towards Earth. The slightest miscalculation in orbit could fire it straight at Earth – with devastating consequences.

It is a point acknowledged by the group. ‘The collision of a 100-kilometre diameter object with the Earth at cosmic velocity would sterilise the biosphere most effectively, at least to the level of bacteria,’ they state in a paper in Astrophysics and Space Science. ‘The danger cannot be overemphasised.’

There is also the vexed question of the Moon. As the current issue of Scientific American points out, if Earth was pushed out of its current position it is ‘most likely the Moon would be stripped away from Earth,’ it states, radically upsetting out planet’s climate.

Water, water everywhere ...

2009-08-21T12:00:00.005+01:00

... and, increasingly, not a drop to drink.

Having just spent a couple of weeks in Kenya and seeing the ecological, political AND humanitarian effects of lack of water, this piece by Brian Richter, director of the non-governmental Global Freshwater Program at The Nature Conservancy, is very alarming.

The front pages of Kenya's newspapers are still dominated by the Mau controversy over the near-total destruction of one of the country's key forest 'water towers' that has left the nation's capital. Nairobi, facing severe water shortages and power black-outs, with a dry summer undoubtedly about to lead to crippling food shortages. And that's just one country, a single country that technically shouldn't be facing a water crisis - if only politicians hadn't handed out publicly-owned forest to ordinary people, which they understandably then converted into farm land.

And the world is only going to get thirstier ...

Let us start with our global population, expected to rise from nearly seven billion to nine billion in just a few decades. That is why more than half the world's population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.

At the same time, in populous nations such as China and India, improvements in living standards and personal incomes are linked to greater consumption of clothing, meat, and water.

It takes 140 litres of water to produce one cup of coffee; 3,000 litres to make a hamburger; and 8,000 litres to create a pair of leather shoes. All of these processes require a vast amount of water to grow crops, feed cows, or produce leather.

On top of that, climate change will bring less rain to many regions, and cause it to evaporate more quickly almost everywhere.

Accordingly, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that "the proportion of the planet in extreme drought at any time will likely increase".

Keep going or start over?

2009-08-20T12:00:00.000+01:00

Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse? Well, in a fascinating debate, Paul Kingsnorth and George Monbiot argue it out over the idea that we should actually allow civilisation to collapse ...

The Great Global Fart

2009-08-19T12:00:00.000+01:00

Vast, ancient reserves of frozen methane, an even 'greater' climate change gas than CO2, may now be in the process of being released as the planet warms - potentially triggering 'runaway' climate change, a theory that's been doing the rounds for a little while and something we mentioned here last year.

Deep in the Arctic Ocean, water warmed by climate change is forcing the release of methane from beneath the sea floor.

Over 250 plumes of gas have been discovered bubbling up from the sea floor to the west of the Svalbard archipelago, which lies north of Norway. The bubbles are mostly methane, which is a greenhouse gas much more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Obama's Armageddon-proof helicopter kitchen ... no, we're not kidding

2009-08-18T12:00:00.002+01:00

Amazingly, US President Barack Obama has said he doesn't need a new presidential helicopter with an "Armageddon-proof kitchen".

While the President, his opponents and US media are more concerned with debating the merits of so-called 'pork barrel' military projects, we're more intrigued by the idea of a) a kitchen that could potentially withstand the end of the world and b) the logic of putting it in a helicopter that ... well ... wouldn't.

"It would let me cook a meal while under nuclear attack," Obama mused, said AFP. "Now, let me tell you something: If the United States of America is under nuclear attack, the last thing on my mind will be whipping up a snack."

The US Navy charged Lockheed Martin to build a new fleet of 28 helicopters to serve as Marine One in 2005. The new helicopter was to be based on Lockheed's EH-101 aircraft, currently produced by a British-Italian partner.

The new generation of iconic green-and-white helicopters are said to offer the president greater protection and a higher range than current Sikorsky models -- some of which are up to 40 years old.

Braaains, braaains, our braaains hurt ...

2009-08-18T10:30:00.003+01:00

Aaaaaand, we're back ... tanned (thanks to all the radiation from the old nukes crumbling to dust in the bunker) and skint (Armageddon-proof holidays don't come cheap, y'know) ... and so to work.

A double whammy of news for you today, and we're sure we're not the first to point you in the direction of this story - with scientists having another 'no shit, sherlock' brainwave. Actually, that's a bit unfair as it's actually quite useful to study an outbreak of revanantism in the context of it being a 'contagious disease'.

Their conclusion? ...

If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively.

In their scientific paper, the authors conclude that humanity's only hope is to "hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often".

Welcome back everyone ...

A little apocalyptic holiday reading ...

2009-08-10T09:00:00.001+01:00

The End is Nigh is off on holiday for a week, so no updates while we're busy sunning ourselves on an artifical beach entirely contained within a decommissioned nuclear bunker, drinking various apocalyptically-themed cocktails ...

However, we thought we'd leave you with a little something to remember us by. You may have seen the hoo-ha around former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who was 'revealed' by the papers to now be a transvestite living in a squat in rural England. What we *didn't* spot at the time was that he has supposedly become spouting some delightfully apocalyptic ideas.

Enjoy:

"Shayler told the local weekly paper: "I have realised that I am Christ and I am here to save humanity. In 2012 it is widely predicted that the world will end. It is predicted there will be a massive change in people's consciousness and we will see the end of Babylon and the end of the world as we know it. My job is to show people the way when this happens. Like Jesus I have been put in prison and punished and have come to see the way."

"He now also maintains a website entitled ''I Am Messiah'' dedicated to his views. It describes how he was convinced that he was the Messiah after seeing a headline in a London newspaper about a US rapper.

"He said that his mission to save the world included growing large quantities of hemp both for food and biofuel. He also admitted smoking large quantities of cannabis."

See ya.

Neo-Con thought on Iran and the Millennium

2009-08-07T12:00:00.001+01:00

We thought we'd seen all the permutations on the Millennium, from Christians who thought it was the date of the Rapture to the people who made a tidy sum by panicking people into thinking planes would fall out of the sky.

But The Iranian Time Bomb is a fascinating angle on turn of the century paranoia, this time roping in Iran long before the current on-going issues. Ledeen is well known for his theories that would make even Dick Cheney blush, but this one really does take the biscuit. It appears that foreign leaders believing in the end of the world is justification enough for wiping them out, but it's okay for your own leaders to do so ...

"They openly welcome the end of the world, which would usher in the millennium, under the sway of the long-vanished 12th Iman. They say they intend to precipitate the millennium by using atomic bombs on Israel. That is a chiliastic vision that embraces the murder of millions 0f us."

Chiliastic?

Will Obama bring about Ragnarok?

2009-08-06T12:00:00.003+01:00

A brilliant piece of lateral thinking here - with a smattering of Norse mythology and metaphysical trickery it becomes possible that not only is Barack Obama not a natural-born American citizen, as demanded by the US Constitution, but his legislative programme will also bring about Ragnarok, which must be proceeded (as we mentioned in The End is Nigh #2) by Fimbulvetr, three years of winter with no summer in between.

"What does this have to do with Obama? It’s simple. Obama has been essential in pushing through cap and trade legislation through the United States Congress, and his Administration has made it a major part of its agenda. But as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle point out in their tome Fallen Angels, preventing the greenhouse effect would lead the Earth into a devastating ice age. In other words, Obama’s Cap and Trade Agenda will directly lead to Fimbulvetr. As no real American would sponsor legislation that would lead to the Twilight of the Gods, it was necessary for Loki to use his powers to make Obama appear to be an American citizen so that Obama’s election to the Presidency would be assured. "Clearly, Loki’s influence into American Presidential elections should be stopped and Obama should be immediately impeached for making use of a foreign power to obtain the Presidency."

"I'm dreaming of an apocalyptic Christmas ..."

2009-08-05T12:00:00.000+01:00

We recently brought you news that the Doomsday-machine that never was, the Large Hadron Collider, was due to begin smashin' dem atoms again in September.

But sadly, Earth will have to wait to be sucked into an artifical black hole*, as its long-awaited restart has been postponed until the winter.

CERN attributed the delay to a number of technical difficulties, including vacuum leaks in two sectors of the LHC that had been cooled down to 80 K.

* joke!

Terrorists "could use internet to spark nuclear war"

2009-08-04T12:00:00.000+01:00

Terrorists groups could soon use the internet to help set off a devastating nuclear attack, according to new research, the Guardian says.

The claims in a study commissioned by the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (ICNND) suggest that under the right circumstances, terrorists could break into computer systems and launch nukes at another nuclear state – triggering a a devastating retaliatory attack.

Without better protection of computer and information systems, the paper suggests, governments around the world are leaving open the possibility that a well-coordinated cyberwar could quickly elevate to nuclear levels: "Though the paper admits that the media and entertainment industries often confuse and exaggerate the risk of cyberterrorism, it also outlines a number of potential threats and situations in which dedicated hackers could use information warfare techniques to make a nuclear attack more likely."

The End will be Twittered ...

2009-08-03T12:00:00.001+01:00

Tonight, why not pop ouside and have a look up at the night sky. Assuming it's a clear night, it's pretty isn't it?

Unfortunately, all those stars may look glittery, timeless and above all else, stationary, but we're in a crowded neighbourhood and there's quite a few lumps of spinning rock out there with 'To whom it may concern' stamped on the side.

According to Wired's The Real Twitpocalypse: Asteroid Alerts Come to Twitter, NASA has set up its own Asteroid Watch Twitter feed to keep you up to date on all the comets, asteroids, and other celestial objects that pose a threat to the Earth. The feed is a companion to the newly-launched Asteroid Watch website, operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

So that's a relief. We already guessed Twitter was a sign of The End, but who knew it'd be the first place we'd hear of it?

And if you're looking for recent near-misses, you can also check out Tom Taylor's lowflyingrocks feed.

Let the sun shine, let the sun shine ... AARRGGHH!! It burns!!

2009-07-31T12:00:00.000+01:00

While scientists remain baffled about just how low the sun's activity has got during its regular 'solar minimum', that's not stopped others deciding that its current quiet period is THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM!!!! Thanks to this little piece of solar scaremongering, we now know that "The sun is unusually quiet right now and has been for some time but there should be an increase in solar activity at some point in the near future."

The best bit, though, is the leap of logic (in the 'leap buildings in a single bound' sense) from the knowledge of a 'solar maximum' to this: "The best current scientific estimate for the next solar maximum is 2012. If this estimate is correct, there is still a few years to try and prevent the potential of a future global disaster. A disaster that would begin on the surface of the sun and could end with tragedy on earth.

However, we prefer to turn to NASA, who have said that although sunspot counts should pick up again soon, the solar maximum in 2012 or 2013 should be of "below-average intensity".

The REAL moment the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly erupted into war

2009-07-30T12:00:00.000+01:00

Declassified documents, revealed at a conference on the Cuban Missile Crisis in Havana, show that events edged closer to global nuclear war than previously thought.

The most dangerous day of all was apparently October 27, 1962 - when a US Navy destroyer dropping depth charges off the Cuban coast almost accidentally hit the hull of a Soviet submarine carrying a nuclear warhead.

The U.S. military "did not have a clue that the submarine had a nuclear weapon on board," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archives.

The nonprofit archive at George Washington University collected many of the documents for study during the three-day conference back in 2002.

The depth charges "exploded right next to the hull," Vadim Orlov, the submarine's signals intelligence officer, said in a written account of the incident. "It felt like you were sitting in a metal barrel, which somebody is constantly blasting with a sledgehammer."

At first, submarine crew members considered using the nuclear weapon, thinking war had erupted. But they ultimately surfaced, showing themselves to their American pursuers and defusing the tension.

What do you need to cripple the United States of America?

2009-07-29T12:00:00.000+01:00

Well, the New England bit of anyway ...

Well, according to Republican House of Representative member for Maryland Roscoe Barlett (great name, fella), you need a boat, $100,000 to buy a scud-missile launcher, and a crude nuclear weapon. Then you fire it into the sky and set it off.

The electro-magnetic pulse from such a weapon "might not paralyze the entire United States, Roscoe concedes, "But you could shut down all of New England. And if you missed by 100 miles, it’s as good as a bulls eye"."

Hardly a doomsday weapon by any stretch of the imagination, though surely if any rogue state or terrorist organisation actually HAD such a system they'd go for the wide-spread and altogether more attention-grabbing loss of life by firing it AT a major city, rather than wasting it inconveniencing a few New Englanders who find their TVs don't work no more?

Waiting for the End Times Part 2

2009-07-28T12:00:00.000+01:00

This post could be sub-titled "Still Waiting" ...

Jehovah's Witnesses, those darlings of the failed prophecy community and adherents to the idea that Judgement Day could be "any day now", continue to ... well, watch.

So do enjoy this charmingly sedate report about a Philadelphia district convention.

"Sister Odell Davis of Philadelphia, who said she had been waiting for Judgment Day since 1963, ... is "not at all disappointed" that it has not yet come."

Waiting for the End Times Part 1

2009-07-27T12:00:00.002+01:00

End Time Watching is big business - just ask those preachers through the ages who have only been too happy to bandy the apocalypse about. There's nothing more likely to get the faithful handing over their precious cash like the thought that it might buy them a one-way ticket to Paradise.

But make no mistake about it, it's as popular now as it was when all you needed was the birth of a two-headed cat and a pulpit to stand in. At least now cynicism can make a rough stab at standing up to blind faith, and the vast majority of reasonable, logical people needing only to cite that last failed prediction to take the wind from the sails of your average Armageddon seller.

Yet even the boom in recent years of scientific scaremongering (which we've reported on here, there and everywhere), whether by scientists themselves or a headline-chasing media, has not meant the fervent have gone away. No, if anything they're even MORE convinced that the end is nigh - bending reality still further to support their claims.

But why do they continue to get away with it? Why do people still believe them? Why do they not listen to sensible, thought-out demolitions of these absurd ideas?

It's refreshing to see a deconstruction of the mechanics of modern religious doomsaying, even though it does strain its metaphors somewhat ...

"Academic dishonesty seems to be the norm when passages don’t coincide with what the prognosticator has already concluded about a topic. Doctrinal concepts, conveyed in actual verbiage, considered malignant to the purveyors’ point of view, are given a sort of theistic chemotherapy, while others are transplanted to help prop up preconceived opinions. The outcome of these tactics is that we find ourselves in an intellectual gymnastics match, with those holding to the sensational being the Romanian all-stars and those who adhere to more realistic views being a team of overweight Slovakians with uni-brows. The irony here is that the latter, despite appearing to be tremendously outmatched, eventually emerges victorious. Why? Because truth always trumps error, no matter how nicely adorned or well groomed that error might be."

Games console nearly sparks Armageddon!

2009-07-24T12:00:00.001+01:00

Occasions when electronic video games consoles are appropriate: while relaxing at home, a distraction on long journeys, entertainment while on holiday ...

Occasions when they are NOT appropriate: GUARDING A HIGH SECURITY NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANT!

Three guards have been suspended for bringing video game devices, including one with transmitting capability, into the heart of a the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Spokeswoman Courtney Henry confirmed that the three security police officers were suspended without pay for an incident three weeks ago at the plant after they brought electronic game devices into the plant's "protected area" where warhead parts are made, dismantled and recycled.

Not even mobile phones are allowed in there, yet one of the players was a portable Sony PSP with "transmission capability".

The plant has since issued new rules requiring that guards personal bags be checked before they are taken into the area.

Will the Antichrist be a homosexual ... ?

2009-07-23T12:00:00.001+01:00

... clearly not our words, but most definitely those of Ron Hamman, pastor of the Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla. You may remember Wasilla as the hometown of former vice-presidential candidate and now outgoing governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

Marvel in the theological vitriol of Rev Hamman as he posits the idea that as homosexuality is "the greatest of sins" it follows that the Antichrist would be he who sins the most. Ergo, the Antichrist would/will be gay:

"While the word “homosexual” is not in the Bible, the behavior of those who practice homosexuality, and God’s estimation of them, very definitely is. When the word came into existence I cannot tell you, but what we can say for sure is that when Noah Webster published his first dictionary in 1828, it was not included. This means that homosexuality is a modern word invented to replace the word Noah Webster did include, sodomy, defined as a crime against nature"

Would it be too churlish to point out that the word 'Antichrist' isn't in the Bible either ... ?

Don't panic! ... (but has swine flu started to mutate?)

2009-07-22T12:00:00.000+01:00

The Telegraph, always keen to ask the questions that other feel are moderately irresponsible, is asking whether the ol' piggy sniffles* virus is starting to mutate and become more virulent.

Littered with phrases like "very difficult to be sure", it succeeds only in proving how little we actually know - so speculating really helps no-one.

As our next issue is due to explore, if anything the focus on "AM I GOING TO DIE?!?!?" hides a more important point with a cloak of panic - doesn't the swift and unstoppable nature of swine flu prove that even with all the world's preparation and vigilence we would still be utterly helpless in the face of a more deadly virus?

* we'll get tired of calling it that eventually ... honest!

"Mayan" crop circle warning sign of End Times

2009-07-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

A 350ft crop circle of an ancient Mayan symbol, "said to be a sign of an impending apocalypse", has appeared next to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.

According to the Telegraph, "members of the crop circle community believe the mystic symbol is a signal of the end of the 5,126-year Mayan 'Long Count' calendar on December 21, 2012".

Karen Alexander, a crop circle enthusiast, said: "This is one of the most interesting crop circles I have ever seen. It is definitely a Mayan symbol and we are sure it is linked to the Mayan calendar, which ends in 2012.
"It appears to be a warning about the world coming to an end when the calendar does. For the ancient Maya, reaching the end of a cycle was a momentous event, so we are taking this crop circle very seriously as an indicator of a possibly huge event in 2012."

1) the Mayan calendar doesn't "end" in 2012
2) the Mayans didn't "predict" the end of the world
3) buy The End is Nigh #3 if you want the full rundown of why
4) as "warnings" go, it's pretty poor
5) and since when were a Mayan headdresses and a Phoenix now signs of the end of the world?
6) a little research appears to show that Karen, who "has been researching crop circles for over 15 years", has been the 'go to' for a lot of lazy, lazy journalists ... still, she *does* have a book out ...

'Armageddon' alarm bell rings over Pakistan

2009-07-20T12:00:00.001+01:00

All is not well in Pakistan.

The north western region of Buner is only 65 miles from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, yet it has become a stronghold of the Taliban after locals allowed them operate with impunity in exchange for the local implimentation of Sharia Law.

This underlines the growing concern that the Taliban are a significant threat to the Pakistani state - something echoed by former CIA Middle East expert Bruce Riedel - who is now warning about "Armageddon in Islamabad".

In February, President Barack Obama appointed him chair of an inter-agency overhaul of US policy on Afghanistan and Pakistan. His latest assessment says, "A jihadist victory in Pakistan ... would create the greatest threat the United States has yet to face in its war on terror ... [and] is now a real possibility in the foreseeable future." It would bolster al Qaeda's capabilities tenfold, Mr. Riedel concludes.

It would also give terrorists a nuclear capability.

"A jihadist, nuclear-armed Pakistan," says Riedel, "is a scenario we need to avoid at all costs."

Back in May, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif claimed Pakistan’s nuclear command and control system was "safe and more secure than that of any other country in the world", yet the Taliban insurgency in the north of the country has only heightened the fear of the US and its allies that, unless stopped, the militants could conceiveably gain access to nuclear weapons. Assurances that their missiles could be scuttled in the event of a Taliban victory have done nothing to allay fears, as even basic nuclear material could be engineered into so-called 'dirty bombs' that require no delivery system more complex than a van.

It has long been assumed by Pakistan and others that the main threat to its security was the long-standing emnity with its regional rival, India, and its first nuclear test 11 years ago sparked fears of a serious local nuclear arms race between the rwo - the flashpoint assumed to be the disputed region of Kashmir. Pakistan now has between 35 and 120 warheads, all within the 25-36 kiloton range, and they also possess the means to deliver them - their Shaheen-II missiles have a range of 3,500km.

Panic as Penultimate Pope 'rushed to hospital'

2009-07-17T14:33:00.006+01:00

We at Doom Towers don't believe in the end of the world. You might think that's odd for a bunch of people who produce a magazine about the end of the world but from the general tone of this blog it shouldn't really come as much of a surprise.

Yet even we, with all our sneering and cynicism, felt our hearts jump into our throats when we saw the 'Pope rushed to hospital' headlines pop up a few hours ago. Y'see, we've been watching Pope Benedict for a while now and, well, we've been praying that he avoids a ... somewhat untimely fate.

For according to the so-called Prophecy of St Malachi, Joseph Ratzinger is due for a very short stint in the top job. As reported in The End is Nigh #3, Malachi supposedly penned a list of all the popes "up till the Second Coming". When Ratzinger was elected in 2005 he became, according to that list, the 'penultimate pope' - the last before the final pope, who would either be the Antichrist or the one ushered him in.

There is plenty of evidence that the list was made up long after Malachi died (not the least of it being that it's remarkably cryptic and requires quite a stretch of the imagination to 'fit' each pope to their description), but if you're a believer then you'd know that Ratzinger would supposedly reign only for a short time before dying.

And, since he's only been in post since '05, we ... well ... we were worried for a moment there.

Luckily, we stopped panicking when we saw this - turns out he just had a bit of a spill.

Phew.

Ring a ring o' particles ...

2009-07-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

The Large Hadron Collider, the massive science experiment which broke down last year within days of being switched on, is to start up again in September - a year after it was first activiated.

Amidst the hoo-ha that in the race to discover the so-called 'God Particle' it would create a black hole and bring about the end of the world, the activation of the machine produced not even the slightesy hint of anything apocalyptic. And then it broke.

The machine is currently being readied for its restart and the first beams of particles will be fired around its 17-mile ring in September with the first collisions will follow about a month later.

The LHC, based at the Swiss headquarters of the European nuclear research organisation Cern, was switched on in September last year amid a fanfare of publicity. But just 10 days later an electrical fault led to a catastrophic leak of helium used to cool the machine's powerful magnets, causing a complete shut-down.

Iranian nuclear chief 'resigns'

2009-07-16T12:35:00.000+01:00

The BBC is reporting that the head of Iran's nuclear programme has resigned.

No immediate reason for the resignation has yet been revealed, but back in April during one of the inumerable stand-offs between the US and Iran over the latter's nuclear programme, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran had increased the number of centrifuges - required to enrich (and, the US claims, weaponise) nuclear material - it is running from 6,000 to 7,000 in February.

This little piggy went to hospital ...

2009-07-16T10:30:00.000+01:00

The excellent BBC interactive map showing the spread of H1N1 'swine' flu gives a real sense of how patterns of travel and migration have spread the disease to specific countries.

At the same time, the UN's top health official, World Health Organization head Margaret Chan, has said that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable.

"As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable," Dr Chan said in her opening remarks.

The virus has entered more than 100 countries, infected more than 70,000 people and killed more than 300 worldwide. While Mexico has seen swine flu cases decrease, the peak of the flu season is approaching in South America - Paraguay has reported its first fatality, while in Central America El Salvador has also recorded its first swine flu death.

A notice and some good news

2009-07-16T09:13:00.003+01:00

I guess it wouldn't be THE END IS NIGH without the unexplained and prolonged silences, followed by intense bursts of blogging, followed by more inexplicable breaks ...

But we're back! It's been a bit of a busy few weeks, apocalypse watchers - what with the piggy sniffles cutting a swath through the tabloid press and further dire warnings of impending climate disaster.

So I hope you'll be pleased to hear that, after a FOUR YEAR hiatus, the next issue of THE END IS NIGH is due to be published in October.

More details, and hopefully more regular blogging, here soon ...

The End is Nigh: The Conference!

2009-03-19T19:56:00.003Z

Y'know, while reading coverage of this year's International Prophecy Conference I'm not actually sure what scares me the most. It's either that preacher Mark Hitchcock has penned *20* books on apocalyptica or that there's a CONFERENCE where people go and talk.

It's no surprise to see Tim LaHaye, he of the bestselling Left Behind series, down as one of the speakers at this conference, though Hitchcock's latest title (The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals about America's Last Days) is a sobering reminder that the evangelical Christian community in America is very much alive and well and busy claiming the current crisis as a sign of the times. He's also author of the cherrily-titled Could the Rapture Happen Today? and Iran: The Coming Crisis.

Hitchcock confidentally proclaims that America will NOT be a superpower during the End Times, meaning it will have already be brought low by "anything from "a nuclear 9/11'' to an economic collapse to the expected Rapture that could swoop 30 million believers into heaven"

"We don't want to be obsessed with it,'' he said. I really hope the irony of that statement is clear.

Global crisis 'to strike by 2030'

2009-03-19T10:03:00.003Z

A "perfect storm" of food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources threaten to unleash public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration as people flee from the worst-affected regions, the UK government's chief scientist is warning.

In a major speech to environmental groups and politicians, Professor John Beddington, who took up the position of chief scientific adviser last year, will say that the world is heading for major upheavals which are due to come to a head in 2030.

He will tell the government's Sustainable Development UK conference in Westminster that the growing population and success in alleviating poverty in developing countries will trigger a surge in demand for food, water and energy over the next two decades, at a time when governments must also make major progress in combating climate change.

"We head into a perfect storm in 2030, because all of these things are operating on the same time frame," Beddington told the Guardian.

"If we don't address this, we can expect major destabilisation, an increase in rioting and potentially significant problems with international migration, as people move out to avoid food and water shortages," he added.

I need a hol-i-day, a nuclear hol-i-day ...

2009-03-17T13:48:00.004Z

Love is all around at the moment. Nuclear love, that is, as Russia announces a "comprehensive military rearmament" from 2011 - partly in response to perceived shortcomings during the recent war with Georgia and also in reaction to NATO's expansion and America's continued plans for its missile defence shield (no word on that yet from the Obama administration?) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev specifically named his country's strategic nuclear forces as being in need of the $140bn (£94.5bn) boost.

Meanwhile, China has voiced concern about the rising tensions in Korea over the forthcoming North's rocket test launch - with Japan even suggesting it could deploy a vessel equipped with missile interceptor technology to the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to destroy the rocket. Worries continue that North Korea is slowly but surely building an arsenal capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

And British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told Iran it should "let the world help it get civil nuclear power" and announced that an expansion of nuclear power was needed globally to meet carbon reduction targets. This less than a month after Iran and Russia started tests of the Middle Eastern country's first nuclear power plant.

Edit:
Further to coverage of Gordon Brown's warning to Iran, the BBC (where would I be without them?) helpfully did a nice little feature on the issue of Iran's civilian nuclear programme, but one which makes it clear that the UK is involved in this nuclear rearmament race, even if it is by stealth.

Elsewhere in his speech ... the UK leader also proposed to further reduce Britain's own nuclear warheads in the run-up to the next five-yearly proliferation review conference next year. These warheads now number fewer than 160.

The weakness in his argument, other governments might say, is that at the same time Britain is also starting on a major programme of renewing its nuclear weapons. It is planning to build four new submarines, will take part in an American programme to extend the life of the Trident D5 missile and is examining an upgrade for its own warheads.

Scientists anticipate 'more bad news' on climate change

2009-03-10T10:19:00.003Z

More than 2,000 climate scientists gathering in Copenhagen are expected to give a much clearer - and up-to-date - picture about the effects of climate change.

The scientists are concerned that the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date. Latest data suggests greater rises in sea levels this century.

For the scientists, this conference is "about removing as much wriggle room as possible from the political negotiations on a new global climate treaty taking place in December".

In the context of the wrangle over the language used when talking about the effects of climate change, it will be interesting to see what conclusions a sober, research-based and non-political analysis will come to. The acid test will come when the politicians meet later in the year and what tactics they will employ to evade acting over what will undoubtedly be a pretty miserable prognosis.

N Korea gets jumpy, threatens war

2009-03-09T09:34:00.002Z

Good to see the stand-off in Korea continues to bubble along nicely*, while talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions remain stalled.

North Korea has warned that any attempt to shoot down a satellite it says it plans to launch will result in war, while also putting its military on full combat alert as an annual military exercise by US and South Korean forces begins. North Korea is always rankled by the annual drill, which tests the joint forces' ability to defend the peninsula.

The South and the US believe Pyongyang could be preparing to test-fire a long-range missile under the guise of a satellite launch.

In January, N Korea scrapped a series of peace agreements with the South over Seoul's decision to link bilateral aid to progress on "denuclearisation".

* irony

Murder suspect claims "the apocalypse is now"

2009-03-04T23:26:00.003Z

An American man who allegedly stabbed his sister "claims that he is God, his sister was Satan and the Apocalypse is now".

'Close shave' by space rock

2009-03-03T16:11:00.001Z

An asteroid which may be as big as a ten-storey building has passed close by the Earth, astronomers say. The object, known as 2009 DD45, thought to be 21-47m (68-152ft) across, raced by our planet at 1344 GMT on Monday.

The gap was just 72,000 km (44,750 miles); a fifth of the distance between our planet and the Moon.

International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre (MPC), which catalogues Solar System objects, lists the closest recent flyby as 2004 FU162, a small asteroid about 6m (20ft) across which came within about 6,500km (4,000 miles) of our planet in March 2004. The latest object, 2009 DD45, passed by our planet at only twice the altitude of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

So what's your favourite apocalypse?

2009-03-03T13:30:00.001Z

Got a favourite prediction for the end of the world? Or even one of your own? Which doomsayer has caught your eye?

Pop your top prediction, plus a link, in the comments box and we'll publish a selection in the next issue ...

Deadly shipment 'under threat from terrorists'

2009-03-03T13:23:00.004Z

According to the Times yesterday (no, go and find your own damn link!), Greenpeace is claiming a French consignment of reprocessed nuclear fuel to Japan contains enough bomb-grade plutonium to make 225 nuclear weapons and is at risk from being hijacked by terrorists.

The shipment of mixed oxide (MOX), a blend of plutonium and reprocessed uranium, is being carried on two ships from the British-based firm Pacific Nuclear Transport from Cherbourg this week. Areva, the reprocessing company, confirmed the shipment and said the vessels would be "armed and protected by specifically trained guards from Britain".

Just so you know, you recover bomb-grade plutonium by re-processing spent nuclear fuel and separating the plutonium from remaining uranium and waste fission products.

Radioactive relic found

2009-03-03T13:22:00.001Z

A bottle discarded at a waste site in the US contains the oldest sample of bomb-grade plutonium made in a nuclear reactor, scientists say.

The sample dates to 1944 and is a relic from the infancy of the US nuclear weapons programme.

The type of plutonium in the bottle - known as Pu-239 - is a so-called alpha emitter. These alpha particles are too bulky to penetrate skin or paper, but they can cause poisoning if swallowed or inhaled.

It has a half-life (the time it takes for half the radioactive nuclei in a sample to decay) of 24,110 years.

The bottle in question was discovered in a burial trench at the Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, north-western US.

Established as part of the Manhattan Project in 1943, Hanford was home to the world's first full-scale plutonium production facility.

The End is Nigh for Twitter!

2009-02-26T21:14:00.002Z

Yes, The End is Nigh now has its own newsfeed through Twitter - regular updates on all the apocalyptic news that's fit to scare your socks off!

How to survive the 21st Century

2009-02-26T21:04:00.002Z

The New Scientist has provided a blueprint for how mankind might make it through the next 91 years, if Mr Lovelock's direst predictions actually come true ...

Life "doomed" by four degree rise in global temps

2009-02-26T20:45:00.003Z

James Lovelock, the former Nasa scientist and chief proponent of Gaia theory, has hit the headlines again with 'doomsday' predictions of the effects of climate change.

Climate change will wipe out most life on Earth by the end of this century and mankind is too late to avert catastrophe, a leading British climate scientist said.

Lovelock, 89, has said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions.

His apocalyptic theory foresees crop failures, drought and death on an unprecedented scale. The population of this hot, barren world could shrink from about seven billion to one billion by 2100 as people compete for ever-scarcer resources.

"It will be death on a grand scale from famine and lack of water," Lovelock told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. "It could be a reduction to a billion (people) or less."

More worryingly, he claims that even if the world found a way of cutting emissions to zero, it is now too late to cool the Earth.

Ironically, this comes just a few weeks after experts at Britain's top climate research centre launched an attack on scientific colleagues and journalists who exaggerate the effects of global warming.

Talking up the apocalypse

2009-02-26T20:06:00.002Z

We've talked before about the language of the apocalypse, particularly in issue two in reference to natural disasters. In the verbose excesses of a globalised media, analogies of apocalypse and disaster are easily employed to strike home to the reader or listener the gravity of the situation in a natural, almost knee-jerk reaction to events that seem too big to be true. Such words are not the preserve of the doom-monger, as even those who promise relief and rescue from a frightening and seemingly overwhelming situation find it all too easy to create a backdrop of despair, against which their efforts shine even more brightly.

But what effect does this have? What seeds does it sow? According to the latest report from the Global Language Monitor, 'words of hope in the global media have given way to those of despair and fear relating to the economic meltdown in a three-month period since the US presidential election in November'. The way we use language fundamentally affects our view of the world and as people are bombarded with words such as 'armageddon', 'meltdown', 'doomsday' and 'apocalypse' their emotional reaction to the situation will inevitably shift towards feelings of fear and despair. Couple that with the genuine problems faced by people around the world, such as rises in food prices and shortage of commodities, and the consequences can be significant. As people panic, so do their leaders. As a climate of fear evolves, so does the situation where drastic measures seem reasonable.

There are some who inevitably see these societal 'collapses' as precursors for social unrest and, eventually, war; so the way we talk about a crisis deserves attention. Are we playing things up for effect? Are we at risk of affecting the outcome of this economic depression just because of our choice of words? Are we making things worse due a simple poverty of allegory?

Keep watching the skies!

2009-02-24T22:58:00.000Z

Chicken Lickin' wasn't kidding ...

Seriously ... what?!

2009-02-17T22:28:00.003Z

'Many have seen how crowds react to his speaking and have wondered “Is Barack Obama the Antichrist?”'

Many?

We're all for refreshingly new points of view, but this odd blend of post-millennial anxiety, Biblical prophecy that even Joseph Smith would snort at, pseudo-Kenyan nationalism and mis-translation makes even my head hurt.

Of course, many figures have been fingered as The Antichrist, of Revelations fame - the Pope, Henry Kissinger, even JFK. But Obama? It's notable that this prophecy comes out of Kenya itself, rather than from certain right-wing evangelical Christian commentators in America who suggests their new president's moves to repair/improve American relations with the rest of the world means he's due to become some kind of 'President of the world' which, of course, would mean he'd be the unifying Antichrist ...

No, I don't get it either.

A little New Year's treat for us all ...

2009-01-08T20:59:00.003Z

Wondered how long it would be before H5N1 reared its ugly little head. Expect hysterical Daily Mail headlines within a month ...

Bird flu re-emerged as a threat in Asia today after China reported the disease killed a woman in Beijing and neighbouring Vietnam said a girl had contracted the virus.

The cases are the first involving humans in the two countries in nearly a year, and mark a reappearance of the H5N1 virus as Asia moves into the cold winter months that typically favour the spread of the virus.

Oh, and happy new year - let's all hope we make it through 2009!

Nuclear neighbours spooked by apocalptic headlines?

2008-12-30T18:38:00.003Z

The spotlight looking on how the media use apocalyptic language has fallen on the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.

Even before the situation was over, the Indian media was "quick to pin the blame on Islamabad" while the Pakistani media were no less blameless - quickly responding against all accusations.

However, the more worrying aspect was the way the global media picked up on the tensions and you'd have been forgiven for thinking we were on the verge of a war between two nuclear neighbours. Yet in reality, neither country seemed to be anywhere near that stage or even thinking about it. Pakistan's indignant reaction to the early accusations do raise the question of whether the media can itself contribute to and escalate an already tense situation.

But apocalyptic language can make quick and easy headlines. The consequences of using it, however, are not so easily dealt with.

18 years for apocalyptic preacher

2008-12-30T18:31:00.003Z

Wayne Bent has been sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison for molesting one of his followers. Eight years of his sentence have been suspended.

Before the sentencing, Bent admitted in an looong online posting that he laid down naked with the two girls in 2006 but said any touching was "an act of religious healing with no sexual overtones".

US apocalypse in 2010, scholar predicts

2008-12-29T23:59:00.005Z

A former KGB analyst and Russian academic predicts a civil war in the United States which will lead to the eventual fall of the country.

Igor Panarin, doctor of political science and dean of the foreign affairs department at the Diplomacy Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry claims that the economic decline, mass immigration and "moral degradation" will trigger a civil war in the US "as early as the autumn of 2009".

The piece claims Panarin's theory of the US demise was "first introduced in 1998" but "the current global financial meltdown has lent credibility to his prediction". Er ... if it was inaccurate in 1998, how precisely does the stock market not doing so well lend him credibility ... ?

Bent to be banged up?

2008-12-29T23:46:00.003Z

Just before Christmas, a jury convicted our dear friend Wayne Bent - leader of a New Mexico apocalyptic sect - of criminal sexual contact with a minor and "contributing to the delinquency of two minors" in 2006.

Although acquitted of the more serious charge of sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, the 67-year-old self-proclaimed Messiah of The Lord Our Righteousness Church (LORC) was found guilty of the 'sexual contact' during 'spiritual healing' he conducted on two naked sisters aged 14 and 16 two years ago. The two girls had testified that the incidents were religious healing and not sexual.

Bent continues to claim he's being persecuted, going so far to claim that he is the Messiah in a post on his website. He has previously stated that his persecution would lead to the end of the world.

It didn't.

He faces a sentence of up to 18 years in prison, though he has been allowed to wait at his cult's compound in northeast New Mexico under house arrest until his court date, which is tomorrow. On the site, he continues to claim he has been crucified and falsely convicted like Christ, threatening to starve himself in prison.

Survivalism inudstry gets a boost in uncertain times

2008-12-29T23:25:00.005Z

Far be it from us at The End is Nigh to suggest newspaper headlines cause people to act irrationally, but one Wisconsin TV station is reporting that firms touting survivalist paraphernalia are doing brisk business.

Lehman's, an Ohio retailer of "home self-sufficiency equipment" has apparently recorded "large sales increases, with water-pump sales up 95 percent and sales of home agriculture equipment up 50 percent from last fall. Minnesota-based Safecastle, which markets home shelters for protection against disasters like hurricanes and chemical attacks, has seen revenues more than double since 2007, says founder Vic Rantala."

"If most people think of a survivalist as an armed loner with extreme views -- there are folks like that out there, but there are many more in America who are simply involved in preparing for down times, lean times, or disaster," says Mr. Rantala, a former US intelligence analyst. "It's logical. It's common sense."

We're sure the US economy could do with the spending boost, but after years of being told just how misleading those old Cold War public service announcements about 'Duck and Cover' were, why are people still handing money over to KI4U, a Texas-based firm that peddles "personal radiation-detection devices", 'anti-radiation' potassium iodide pills and "distributes free nuclear-disaster survival guides, instructing people to keep rain ponchos, dust masks, and honey (a high-calorie food that doesn't spoil) on hand at all times"?!

An expedition to Armageddon

2008-12-22T22:27:00.004Z

Nice but short piece in the Washington Post about Megiddo, the place where the world will end (see John Reppion and Leah Moore's piece in issue two, available as a download from our website)

"There is an eerie sensation of time displacement one gets at Megiddo, or a foreboding of a future disaster that those of us standing on the mount were powerless to prevent. Mr. Cline used to give out T-shirts to his volunteers that said, "I survived Armageddon."

But where do you collect your winnings?!

2008-12-22T22:19:00.003Z

In an interesting follow-up to our feature in issue three about the odds bookmakers William Hill were placing on various apocalypi, Irish bookmaker Paddy Power has apparently given odds of 4/1 for the lord God to reveal him/herself in a definitive manner in the 365 days that constitute 2009.

Unconvinced, many punters are still plumping for the 'safe' bet of a Mayan-related apocalypse (or possibly even a Palin-related one) in 2012.

Bush - how on Earth did we survive EIGHT years?!

2008-12-22T22:09:00.002Z

"The president of the United States, now for 50 years, is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a 'football' that contains the nuclear codes that he would use, and be authorized to use, in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States. He could launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen. He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in"

-- Dick Cheney

Bill Gates: the nuclear antichrist?

2008-12-22T22:05:00.001Z

It seems Microsoft Windows is now powering the British Royal Navy's nuclear-armed submarine fleet.

The end, surely, cannot be far away ...

Anti-MAD adviser dies

2008-12-19T00:10:00.003Z

William Kaufmann, 90, a political scientist and Pentagon adviser who helped shape Cold War nuclear defense strategy, died on December 14.

The former national security expert spent many years fighting the prevailing war plan of the United States - all-out nuclear attack in response to any potential Soviet armed threat no matter how trivial.

Kaufmann attracted attention in military circles for a controversial 1954 essay, "The Requirements of Deterrence, which criticised the idea that the US could 'win' a nuclear war.

"We must face the fact," he wrote, "that, if we are challenged to fulfill the threat of massive retaliation, we will be likely to suffer costs as great as those we inflict."

The coal apocalypse?

2008-12-18T23:31:00.002Z

Coal kick-started the modern world - is it possible that it could also end it?

Scientists are claiming that if growth in carbon dioxide emissions is to be constrained and even reversed then the world cannot afford a 'coal renaissance'.

But at an American Geophysical Union meeting, researchers said it was possible oil's demise could trigger an acceleration in emissions through more coal use.

Which is worrying, considering that in the US coal has for some time been touted as an environmentally friendly alternative to oil ... yes, that's right ... Coal. Environmentally friendly. In the same sentence. Without the word 'isn't' inserted in the middle. Environmentalists have been fuming (geddit?) during the election over the coal industry's concerted efforts to establish the 'myth' of 'clean coal' so they can cash in on the drive for cleaner energy.

And is it working? Well, in his speech accepting his party's nomination on August 28th 2008, President-elect Obama promised to end America's dependence on Middle East oil within a decade by investing $150 billion in 'alternative' energy sources that included, yep, so-called clean coal alongside wind, tidal etc.

As the Washington Post found itself, almost Cassandra-like, forced to point out - coal ain't clean, whether you're sticking it in a power station or liquefying it to stick in your car's fuel tank. It ALL produces as much, if not more, CO2 - the primary climate change gas - than the demon oil. And demand is rising.

Obviously, while the Americans argue, everyone else seems to have decided it's a gamble worth taking in a world where extracting oil means dipping toes into the Middle East. The Russians and the Chinese continue to consume coal like it's no tomorrow - reserves are believed to be far, far greater than those of oil - and in response to the Russian propensity to use its natural gas supplies to Europe as a bargaining chip, Europe's getting in on the act too ...

Coal has become another pawn in the global trend towards major countries striving for 'energy independence'. The consequences on the environment of these nationalistic concerns are grim.

The point of no return ...

2008-12-16T18:26:00.000Z

Scientists have found the first unequivocal evidence that the Arctic region is warming at a faster rate than the rest of the world at least a decade before it was predicted to happen.

Climate-change researchers have found that air temperatures in the region are higher than would be normally expected during the autumn because the increased melting of the summer Arctic sea ice is accumulating heat in the ocean. The phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, was not expected to be seen for at least another 10 or 15 years and the findings will further raise concerns that the Arctic has already passed the climatic tipping-point towards ice-free summers, beyond which it may not recover.

The Arctic is considered one of the most sensitive regions in terms of climate change and its transition to another climatic state will have a direct impact on other parts of the northern hemisphere, as well more indirect effects around the world.

Get me a new apocalypse, this one's Bent!

2008-12-02T21:32:00.003Z

Not only did Wayne Bent's persecution not lead to the apocalypse, it didn't prevent him from spending a few days behind bars.

Known as Michael Travesser within his The Lord Our Righteousness Church, sometimes called the Strong City Cult, the former Seventh Day Adventist preacher and his followers moved to New Mexico Idaho in 2000. As of this year, the community apparently consists of 50 people, but the failure of a sustained fast - in which his followers consumed neither food nor water - leaves the future of the commune in doubt.

Bent originally announced the Day of Judgment would be on October 31 2007 after calculating a Bible prophecy number (490) and adding it to the year 1517, when the Protestant Reformation began, yielding 2007 as a result. The specific date October 31 comes from the day that Martin Luther produced his 95 Theses.

The details of his arrest, the removal of young followers from the camp by the authorities and the ongoing battle by and against the sect are interesting enough, but what will be fascinating now is - since the day of judgment failed to appear - how the sect changes its 'narrative', in other words how does it explain away the failure? They have apparently ended their fast, claiming that they had essentially 'held up their end of the bargain' with God (

Bent is due to face his own personal apocalypse when an expected week-long trial begins on December 8. He is accused of criminal sexual contact with two of his female teenage followers.

“They were looking for deliverance from God,” said Sarah Montoya, an attorney for the church’s leader, Wayne Bent. Montoya spoke with Bent’s son Jeff on Saturday. “They’re disappointed, but they understand that life goes on.”

World 'must tackle space threat'

2008-12-02T21:28:00.000Z

The international community must work together to tackle the threat of asteroids colliding with Earth, a leading UN scientist says.

Professor Richard Crowther's comments come as a group of space experts called for a co-ordinated science-led response to the asteroid threat.

The Association of Space Explorers (ASE) says missions to intercept asteroids will need global approval.

The UN will meet in February to discuss the issue.

It wasn't quite the end

2008-12-02T21:27:00.000Z

Many apologies for the lack of post activity around here - for some reason known only to itself, Blogger wouldn't let me log in. All fixed now. And so, on with the apocalyptic action!!

NEWS: Cult leader claims his 'persecution' will lead to end of the world

2008-10-15T19:39:00.002+01:00

A self-proclaimed messiah being investigated for inappropriate contact with children says his “persecution” is bringing about the end of the world.

Union County cult leader Wayne Bent is accused of molesting children whom he says he was only “healing”.

In a statement on his website, he says the investigation into his activities have caused such things as the crisis on Wall Street.

NEWS: Arctic Sea "Foaming" with Methane

2008-10-02T22:57:00.001+01:00

Unsure whether to introduce a new category of apocalypse entitled merely 'global fart' ...

ANALYSIS: it's the global apocalyptic financial end-of-the-world money armageddon!!

2008-09-23T19:21:00.003+01:00

Far be it from me to suggest that the mainstream media has a nasty tendency to overhype things, but as you'll have seen if you've read Doomwatch in issue two, they have a nastier tendency to reach for the apocalyptic phrase book when things turn sour, as evidenced by the language used in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

So is it unreasonable for the financial press to avoid “crash,” “panic,” “apocalypse,” “Armageddon,” “meltdown” or “freefall” in news stories?

More to the point, does the speed with which they fall back on apocalyptic imagery alter our behaviour towards such events? If we're conditioned to react instinctively and quickly to such strong language then doesn't using it without just cause make over-reaction more likely? Do such words spark an inherent herd instinct to protect ourselves? What effect did the publishing of images of queues outside Northern Rock have?

How easy is it to describe something as an 'apocalypse' yet how hard to explain precisely how - while many people are suffering from the effects of a global economic downturn, will the world's financial sector crumble to dust, leaving us homeless, destitute and eventually eating each other in the streets? Highly doubtful. Yet frightening images are conjured up by these words and when big financial decisions are being made based on the latest rumour, words and how you use them become very important indeed. Image a president or a prime minister using words like 'apocalypse', 'armageddon' or 'end of the world' - we know they don't, simply because they'd spread panic. So what happens when reporters put such words into people's mouths? For all our tomfoolery at The End is Nigh, in the big wide world the apocalypse is not for toying with.

NEWS: magnet problem spanner in the works for LHC

2008-09-23T19:19:00.002+01:00

A reprieve ...

The Large Hadron Collider near Geneva will be shut off until Spring 2009 while engineers probe a magnet failure.

"Cheer up, it's not the end of the world!"

2008-09-16T14:22:00.002+01:00

Yeah, it wasn’t funny the first hundred times I heard that either …

But doesn't it worry you that, maybe, one of these days someone's going to be right? Hideously, devastatingly right? No, me neither ...

That, apparently, is odd for a man who edits a magazine about that very subject.

Three issues of the official magazine of the apocalypse in and I'm becoming something of an authority on the subject ... a terrible boring authority ... yet you could never exactly call me a believer as such. I don't start to fret when oil prices go up, I remain unconvinced that George W Bush is the anti-Christ, I really think God has better things to do than dole out virgins to trigger-happy idiots. And yes, shock, horror, I don't believe in THE END OF THE WORLD.

Completing this circle of non-belief is 'most people', as it is they who now don't believe me. Chief amongst these is lawyer-turned-acerbic-TV-host and Bee Gee baiter Clive Anderson. I found this out while being interviewed for a BBC Radio Four show called The End is Nigh ... Again last year which, rather festively, was broadcast on New Year's Eve. It purported to examine the latest predictions of the end of the world and included interviews with apocalypticly-minded minds such as Gaia-theorist James Lovelock.

And me.

The questions were benign enough, but when all of my answers tended to slightly mock whatever theory we were talking about, Mr Anderson and his producer were a little bemused.
The problem is that I just don't believe. Sure, mankind isn't going to on forever, whether it's fire, ice, war or plague that wipes us out, but I certainly don't believe the one day I'll wake up and find that all the Christians have been hoovered off to heaven or that global warming will make this place completely uninhabitable. The end will come, but it'll either come before we can do anything about it, or it will be the long, slow twilight every race must suffer – bare in mind that 99% of the species that have ever existed are now extinct. There, that puts it into context, doesn’t it.

So how, asked Anderson, could I say I didn’t believe in the end of the world (other than when our sun gasps its last and destroys whatever is left of our home planet) when I edit and produce a magazine about it? Easy, say I, I just find the concept and its hold on the human psyche utterly, endlessly fascinating. Witness the reams of newsprint, the mountains of books and the endless number of webpages about this most timeless of concepts. Ever since mankind developed a sense of the future, he has had a sense of it coming to an end; as mortal beings we are only too aware of our impending death, yet we are ultimately powerless to change or delay it. Predicting it is a cunning way to try and exert some control, exercise some measure of influence over that dark day that awaits us all. Doesn't work, but that never stops people trying. Whether it's voices in their head, a feeling in your gut, an alignment of stars or the way your dog's entrails sit just so on the makeshift Stonehenge in your back garden, trying to second guess fate has been a favourite past time since time immemorial. But we just can't seem to get it right ...

And that’s where THE END IS NIGH! comes in. We seek to chart and preserve mankind’s on-going fascination with its own demise, examining the claims of those who would see us consumed by solar fire, dashed to pieces by flying rocks, obliterated by nuclear weapons or wiped out by a big bad bug. Where there is a hell-fire preacher predicting perpetual purgatory, you will find us. When a scientist looks up from his microscope or telescope eyepiece in horror, we will be there.
In the end, they cut me out of the programme, preferring instead to concentrate on the scientists and their pet theories.

Just as well really ...

NEWS: Spanish town still haunted by its brush with Armageddon

2008-09-15T13:05:00.003+01:00

Fascinating piece in the International Herald Tribune about the Spanish town that very nearly became ground zero for a nuclear holocaust in 1966, after a B-52 carrying nuclear weapons exploded above it in midair ...

On the morning of Jan. 17, 1966, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber returning from a routine Cold War alert mission exploded during airborne refueling, sending its cargo of B28 hydrogen bombs plummeting toward earth.

One went into the azure waters of the Mediterranean and three others fell around this poor farming village, about 200 kilometers, or 125 miles, east of Granada.

Seven crew members on the air force planes perished in the fireball, while four parachuted to safety. No one on the ground was killed. The nuclear warheads, many times more powerful than those that fell on Hiroshima, did not go off - exactly.