The end of the world as we know it...again

Tim Dowling explains the numerous prophecies of the imminent doom we can all expect this year:

Every year has its own end-of-the-world predictions. A group called the Watcher Ministries has pegged 2004 as the year of the second coming, using complex calculations based on measurements of the Pyramid at Giza. Another apocalyptic number-cruncher named Clay Cantrell is more specific, setting October 17 as the start date for the Rapture. Australian doomsday prophet William Kamm, whose followers call him the Little Pebble, predicts the end of the world as we know it for Easter Sunday. In The Bible Code II: The Countdown, Michael Drosnin plumps for a June nuclear attack on New York City, touching off the third world war and hastening the end-time. One to keep your eye on.

There's nothing too special, really, and certainly nothing to match my favourite doomsday prediction from the 90s when a rather demented individual took out full page adverts in several newspapers to tell us that the impact of Shoemaker-Levy into Jupiter would cause a giant flare from the Great Red Spot that would kill all life on Earth unless we got down on our knees and began to repent. If you're going to predict the end of the world, you should at least be original rather than going back to hoary old favourites like the Pyramid of Giza.