As we enter the new year, the most important question on people’s mind is whether or not the world will officially end as we know it by next December. But let’s face it, if 2012 is really going to bring about end times (because we should clearly be basing our plans for the end on the Mayan calendar), it’s going to have a tough act to follow. Many people are writing up 2011 as the year of this or the year of that, but let’s keep things in perspective here: 2011 was the year that the world descended into random chaos.

A “concerned citizen” in the UK has gone to his city council to demand answers. Sounds pretty fair so far. What’s he holding elected officials feet to the fire about? The inevitable zombie apocalypse, of course. As the Daily Telegraph reports, “Robert Ainsley…lodged his query on Tuesday, asking: ‘Can you please let us know what provisions you have in place in the event of a zombie invasion?” And if you’ve seen 28 Days Later, you know the UK doesn’t exactly have a spotless record in defending against zombies–just the kind of scare that sent Ainsley to the Leicester City Council with questions:

The back and forth between MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and Fox News’ Glenn Beck continues… And, is it our imagination, or do both men seem to be kind of in on the joke? They seem to be genuinely enjoying this.

The nuclear emergency currently underway in Japan as a result of last week’s deadly earthquake is some scary stuff– scary enough to make some pundits (ahem, Glenn Beck) wonder aloud whether this is the “end of the world.” In others, however, it appears to have had the completely opposite effect. Take Lawrence O’Donnell, for one, who begged viewers today to believing him, that “this is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt not the end of the world.”

And, so, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse continued their fun tour of the United States. They’ve left the midwest and have now headed to the East Coast as folks in Maryland discovered two million dead fish floating in the Chesapeake Bay. Of course, experts are positing some plausible explanations for the phenomenon, but they’re mostly boring so, naturally, we’re going to connect it to all the other dead animals and remind everyone that WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!

USA Today is reporting that Cold War era paranoia is alive and well in today’s society (albeit modified to accommodate the more ambiguous range of threats we face today) in the form of a booming underground bunker industry. But these aren’t your average hole-in-the-desert bunkers, mind you. These are bona fide luxury comfort subterranean shelters.

CNN is not about opinions, they’re about news. So listen, NASA, there’s this movie out about the world coming to an end in 2012, and we know you’ve been out trying to debunk this possibility.

But we need facts, and T.J. Holmes guest anchoring American Morning is going to be our fact-finding vessel.

Has Matt Drudge stumbled upon the Mayan code for the rumored upcoming 2012 apocalypse? A quick click on this morning’s Drudge Report might lead you to think so. (Plus, if there was such a code, Drudge no doubt, would be an early adopter). Alas, no.