It's official: 2012 is the new 2000. Doomsayers everywhere, from Bible Code decipherers and Mayan calendar exegetes to trans-dimensional "Novelty Theorists," now insist that the End of All Things is a mere eight years away.

Then again, folks on the fringe have been telling us Doomsday is nigh with annoying regularity for the past two millennia, and guess what — we're still here!

So, how to account for the constant, if undeserved, allure of impending annihilation? "The human brain appears to have a receptor for such stories, as for opiates," opines David Ritchie in the New York Press.  Armageddon gets you high — who knew? Party like it's 1999!