Don't get your hopes up yet, there's still a good 12 months before 2012 is a complete let down for all its doom and gloom hype.  

I believe the relevant date for the Mayan calander is 12/12/2012, please correct me if I am wrong. However the end of the world is only one interpretation of it. It will be more relevant to see if we get to celebrate Christmas this year. As old Chinese saying goes, "May you live in interesting times".

Yes, I heard that the end is at the end of 2012, although whoever decided that seems a little suspicious. Whatever, at least I can still go to Japan and hopefully go to the beach with some friends this summer, where I can give them some souvenirs. After that, I can die and I wouldn't regret a thing.

People have been predicting the end of the world for 5000 years.
Scared people spend money and there is always people willing to make a profit from those fears.  Remember Y2K?  Some people made a killing!!

Personally, I think the Mayan scribe just lost his royal hammer and chisel, and when asked by the King "where is the rest of the calendar," to save face, the scribe replied, "Sorry, King, it all ends here!"

No no no you people have it all wrong, it is not the end of the world but the end of the age of man, The planet Nibiru will be passing close enough this year to allow the Gods from there to take charge of the Earth like they did 5000 years ago.
Educate yourselves people and get the facts straight

HAHA! The Myans predicted the end of the world for 12/21/12. The reason there is so much hype about it is that many of their predictions have come true. 

However, the predictions that have "come true" were vague in nature. Things like "in 4000 years, such and such will happen." or there will be a great earth rolling, wave making event... blah blah blah. 

There's a dude (I think in Utah?) who predicted the end of the world for early 2011. When it didn't happen, he changed the date to late summer, and when that didn't happen, he repredicted for October. He hasn't given a new date yet. LOL

I better be at the panda research base on the 12th (or will it be the 13th in China) ready to grab a panda... just in case. 

The Mayans never predicted earth would end 2012, somebody just found one of their old calendars, I think it was a swimsuit edition too. And thats the newest one found. If they could predict anything, how come they disappeared and left no forwarding address? The Incas same thing, after 200 years and they disappeared from Machu Picchu. I see a trend here,, cue the ''twight zone" music

The Mayans did not predict the end of the world. Their calendar stops on the day when the earth will be at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. I'd like to know how they could calculate this then and what instruments they used.

The Maya's had an extremely complicated method of keeping track of time, based on three separate calendars. The most important, most encompassing of these calendars holds the `Long Count': the period from the beginning until the end of time. And on December 21st 2012, the Long Count expires. It will be point zero. Time will be up for the Universe. It will be, literally, the end of days. The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012 which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god associated with war and creation. In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into roughly 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 sacred and the 13th Baktun ends next year. Unlike the 52-year Calendar Round still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20: 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals (360 days) made a tun, 20 tuns made a k'atun, and 20 k'atuns (144,000 days or roughly 394 years) made up a b'ak'tun. Thus, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 b'ak'tuns, 3 k'atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days.

Big deal, you might say. Still, there's a couple of very interesting (and disturbing) facts about the Maya calendar's end. Most intriguing, 21-12-2012 is not a day like any other. Up in the sky, an extraordinary and incredibly rare event will take place. The Sun will move to a unique spot in the sky -- and hold still for a while, since it is solstice day. The Sun will sit precisely on the heavenly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfect alignment with the center of the galaxy.

Er... what?

Well: the night time sky is crossed by several mathematical lines. One is the axis of the Milky Way -- the Milky Way, as you may know, being that bright band of stars you can see running across the heavens on a clear night. Another important line is the cosmological ecliptic: the axis along which the constellations travel, the line that defines coordinates in space.

You can say a lot about the Maya, but you've got to hand it to them: they knew a hell of a lot about stars. For instance, they calculated the exact duration of a year to a thousandth of a decimal point, much more precise than any Greek or enlightened philosopher ever did. Also, they were able to predict every solar and lunar eclipse until this day. And obviously, they knew where the galactic equinox and the exact middle of the Milky Way lay: they called this crossing `the Sacred Tree'.

More disturbing, the Maya's were awfully good at astrology, too. Mysteriously, they predicted in what year their civilization would be overrun by foreigners coming from over the seas. Legend has it they even predicted the world wars. So if a Maya tells you the world will end in 2012, you'd better take it seriously.

But in reality, they did not tell us that, in fact, there are no surviving records (just a very small numbe) of their writings, since invading Spaniards burnt most of their books and writings.

So, if you are pessimistic, think 12-21-2012 will be doomsday, if you are optimistic, think it will be the day of a new era for mankind.  And if you are like me, just sit back, relax and have fun evry day until 12-21-2012 arrives.