@tagger: Except that you didn't tell the right story, sorry. :\

The problem is as following: Some nutjob(s) have heard that something about the Mayan calendar ends at December 21st 2012, and instantly thinks that it's the world that is going to end. But the fact is that the Mayans didn't predict anything about the world ending, it's just the end of the 13th cycle of their Long Count Calendar, after which it will restart. Kinda like our clocks; instead of violently detonating when the time reaches midnight, it just starts over at 0:00. Same thing with their calendar.