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

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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?!

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?!

"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?

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

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