Will the end of the world come to Australia first?

Early in the morning, we are up and out of bed because we have a flood in our apartment and the disaster people are searching for the cause of the water that has broken out of the pipes and gone onto our floor. So we listen to a bit of the morning news, where they report that Australia has already celebrated the New Year.

So if the world really is going to end - let's see, the latest estimate is on December 21, 2012 - will Australia be gone before we wake up here in Vancouver?

It seems rather anti-climatic to have the world end while we slumber. So will the end of the world be on the morning news? Or will the end hit everyone at once, so the timing will be off for most of the planet?

What if the world ends when it's midnight in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Only the smallest fraction of people on the planet will see the world end at the time it's supposed to end. A bit of a dull end for the doomsday mongers.

Of course, if you look closely at the latest date for the end of the world, it's actually defined as the start of a new cycle. If you are an optimist, it's the start of something - but it's hard to make a compelling movie out of that, nothing blows up and L.A. does not do a swan dive into the ocean. If you are pessimist, not only can you make movies, but books, books, and more books can be written about the impending disaster.

Right now, another flood in our apartment seems much more likely than the whole world ending. Bad plumbing will end the world, mark my words.