Break out the tin foil hats, the world is coming to an end.

Sorry, I am getting ahead of myself, that won’t be necessary until Dec. 21, 2012. If the myth/prediction/prophecy has escaped you thus far, it basically goes something like this:

On the Winter Solstice in 2012 (Dec. 21) the Mayan “Great Cycle” calendar will come to an end, which many conspiracy theorists believe marks the beginning of calamity and disaster, and possibly even the end of the world.

There are multiple theories about what will “occur” on this date, but it should be noted that the Mayan calendar was designed to make predictions and segment their civilizations existence, an existence that officially ended in 1697 when the Spanish conquered the final Mayan state, an end that was not predicted by their calendar.

One major theory that holds some weight is that on that date in 2012, a one in 26,000 year occurrence will take place. The sun will be in exact alignment with the equator of the Milky Way Galaxy, meaning energy that usually streams from the center of the galaxy to earth will be disrupted at exactly 11:11 p.m. Universal time. Although scientists agree that this event will occur, there are serious doubts any noticeable changes will occur at that time, and many scientists doubt the Mayans would have any way of foretelling this.

Another popular theory is that a pole shift will occur on that date. This means the magnetic poles will switch. The effects from this theory could hold some weight, as a sudden shift in polarity would cause many known and unknown changes to life on earth. It is documented from rock samples that shifts on average would occur every 300,000 years. The last shift occurred 726,000 years ago.

The only problem with this theory, the shift takes 5,000 years to complete and cannot happen in an instant.

The Mayan end-of-calendar, end-of-world theory is no different and holds no more scientific weight than many other end of world Armageddon theories. Take for example the year 999 Pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem because the final judgment was at hand.

In 1982, some believed the “Jupiter Effect,” a rough aligning of many celestial bodies, would be followed by doom and gloom.

In 1997, the Hale Bopp comet made its closest pass by earth, about 1.5 times the distance between the earth and the sun. Some individuals thought was disguising an alien craft in its tail; mass suicides ensued to avoid the alien abduction.

Of course, the most notable and most recent was the fear of end days on Jan. 1 2000. The infamous technological “Y2K Bug” that would cause a technological Armageddon.

None came true.

The Mayan calendar is no different. They even made predictions that occur after the 2012 calendar switch, even they didn’t believe it was the end of days. It should also be noted this came from an advanced civilization that could not even predict their own demise, let alone the demise of human existence 3000 years prior.

The only benefit to these “end of days” predictions are about every 10-15 years you can throw killer “End of the World” parties. Come the night of Dec. 20 2012, party on.

JP Coleman is a senior finance and economics major and can be reached for comment at [email protected].