The New York Times had a fascinating front-page article yesterday about a family split by the prognostications of Harold Camping and his followers.

It’s important to note that according to Camping, today is not the end of the world — it’s when the rapture is supposed to occur, with about 200 million people being raptured. That’s about three percent of the world’s population, so if you don’t see anything happening today, you’re just not part of that three percent, I suppose.

Meanwhile, the real end of the world is supposed to take place on October 21, so we have about five more months of Camping and his followers to endure.

You can Google all day long and find all sorts of fun stuff about this general topic. Here’s one interesting page that lists a couple of hundred dates for the end of the world from the year 44 through today, none of which (to my knowledge) have come true.

“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
—Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Over in the social media section of the CDC website, they’re warning us about the zombie apocalypse. Writes the CDC:

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Finally, something that makes me feel good about my tax dollars at work.

Ralph celebrates 13 years. Today I’m celebrating twice that. I hope it all goes a little smoother than this.

The New York Times dissects Matt Drudge’s success. The Washington Post disagrees with the data.