It's the end of the world as we know it...

Supposedly, the end of the world begins at 6 p.m. Lots of people, including Anderson Cooper, have said "I don't know if that's Eastern time or Pacific time." Well, I do. Supposed prophet Harold Camping is quoted in this article saying it is 6 p.m. in each local time zone. It's a "rolling rapture" apparently.

Christmas Island -- how appropriate, I guess -- is the "latest time zone" according to this site. And it's now... Saturday, 6:12 p.m. on Christmas Island, and apparently all is well. I guess no apocalypse tonight. I guess just to be safe he has until Saturday at midnight before people start saying he's wrong.

He was wrong once before, in 1994. I guess he'll just break out the Bible and the calculator and come up with a new date. I doubt he'll be around in 17 years to see the next one though, as he's 89.

So what was the point? It's not like he wanted to drum up attention for his church -- the guy has been a laughingstock for a month. If he's right, his church is irrelevant (because all true believers are in heaven). If he's wrong, everyone knows he's a joke. So it couldn't have been publicity.

Could it have been... money? This article says he raised $18 million in donations... just in one year, 2009. Who knows how much he raised last year and this year. I suppose it's easy to raise money from people who think the world is about to end.

Pretty amazing that a guy who not only predicts bullshit, but predicts bullshit twice, can raise that much money!

Anyway... how many bars are going to be playing that R.E.M. song above over the next 24 hours? Boring!

If you're looking for a song to go out on, how about "Rapture" by Blondie:



(Is that Flavor Flav?! No... no it isn't.)

If the earthquakes actually start, though, sign me up for Pink Floyd.