"You may think it is the year 1999, when in fact it's closer to 2199. We can't tell you exactly what year it is, because we honestly don't know."

Look on the bright side. The meteors won't arrive until December 2012. Also, I think they're bringing free cotton candy for everyone.

Leiv Eriksson, probably somewhere around 1003-05.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiv_Eriksson

Congratulations on missing the joke.

I find it amusing that because some old mathematicians only felt the need to plan out their calendar 700 years into the future, everybody thinks we're gonna get abducted by aliens or something.

I find it much more likely that some underpaid Mayan astronomy intern decided to take a coffee break right before the entire civilization mysteriously disappeared.

Mayan Calender is based on cycles which is what the doomsayers always conveniently ignore. It doesn't just stop it starts again. In many ways the Mayan Calender was highly advanced for it's time.

As long as Bilbo the Hobbit comes out before that.

Ever seen the skit that was done by Peter Cook and Rowan Atkinson (plus a few others) at the Hollywood Bowl? It was part of Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl and it's on Youtube. Basically a bunch of really goofy people think the world is about to end and sit and wait for it. When it doesn't happen they all walk off and say, "Ok, same time tomorrow?"

Is that a game or a movie?

The movie(s).

My hopes and dreams for a Fallout-esque world is ruined...

I actually think that a full-scale nuclear war with China is totally possible. It'll probably have to do with pandas.

The National Zoo refused to return one of their pandas to China when the lease was up a couple of years ago, and there was some heated diplomacy before they agreed to have the lease extended.

Pandas are serious business, and it would hardly be the silliest excuse for a war so far.

What joke?

That makes me a sadddddd Panda.