Don't cancel that Disney holiday vacation in 2012. The world will not end three years hence, no matter what Hollywood and New Age thinkers say.

For more than two years, there's been an apocalyptic murmur floating about what will happen when the so-called long count calendar of the ancient Mayan culture in Central America resets to year zero on Dec. 21, 2012.

Whatever happens, and nobody but the movie maker is saying what, it's bound to be wonderful or terrible or devastating. Even earth-shattering.

In the face of all this manufactured uncertainty, there is no end to suggestions of cataclysmic events that might occur on that date. Maybe the sun will go supernova, turning the Earth into a cinder; a killer asteroid will smash into the planet; earthquakes and tsunamis will destroy population centers.

Nothing says box office like the end of the world so, naturally, Hollywood next month will add its two cents -- and untold millions in special effects -- by combining several end-of-world scenarios in "2012," the movie. Sounds like great entertainment, but not the destruction of life as we know it.

But what if we're wrong? Well, if the result is collective consciousness raising, no one will care. And if the planet is turned into a speck of floating ash, we'll publish a correction.

First Published: October 23, 2009, 4:00 a.m.