Most people find the 2012 prophecies laughable, but that’s only because the earth, tenacious planet that it is, has managed to survive many doomsdays in the past decade.

People may think of it as an unfulfilled prophecy, but it is actually an incredible feat of survival on the earth’s part. Why, just last year, we’ve survived the apocalypse twice when Harold Camping made his two magnificently mistaken rapture predictions.

Of course, the skepticism is understandable, but you’d do well to suspend your disbelief. This year will really be the year it all ends if you go by the Mayan calendar, an ancient relic made by a long-dead civilization may be a credible source to some.

If that’s not enough to convince you that the world will end this year, well, just look around. Temperatures are rising and dropping by extremes. Polar bears are disappearing. Justin Bieber is said to have fathered a child. The signs are everywhere.

You’d best take heed and take a page from the preppers, a group of people who’ve read the signs, seen the truth, and started preparing for the catastrophic event that will alter life as we know it.

We may not know how it’s going to happen yet. It could be a stock market crash, nuclear warfare, alien invasion, coronal mass ejection, zombie apocalypse, or the coming of Bieberspawn. Whatever it is, here are preparations you and your family can do for the apocalypse that’s sure to come eventually.

Tip #1: Create a self-sustaining food farm in your backyard pool

One admirable prepper featured on a National Geographic documentary came up with the ingenious idea of turning his pool into an aquaponic farm. The most brilliant feature by far is the farm’s design, which makes sure that his tilapia colony can feed on the chicken droppings that fall from the coop—because we all love the taste of chicken-crap-fed-fish.

According to the prepper, he created this farm to lessen his dependence on electricity, which is crucial to survival in the case of a coronal mass ejection that will destroy the earth’s electric grid.

In that context, it really makes sense. But for those who don’t have backyard pools or cannot abide the taste of tilapia, another option would be to live with the Amish, or to experience a Filipino-style brownout. Either two are equally effective ways to learn how to live without power.

Tip #2: Stock up on canned goods, cup noodles, and MREs

Canned goods, cup noodles and MREs (meals-ready-to-eat, food eaten by American soldiers on the field) are the holy trinity of no-cook food.

They don’t taste half bad either. Remember not to overstock, though. Just about one cellar’s worth will be enough.

Do not forget to stock up on can openers and hot water keepers too, although when you’re on the move from looters or zombies, you might have to stick to your trusty Skyflakes, which, come to think of it, should also be on your prepper shopping list.

Tip #3: Purchase a luxury underground shelter

In most doomsday scenarios, this is really the only way you’ll survive. Food and water won’t matter when a collision with Planet X/Nibiru causes a torrent of fire to rain down from the heavens.

Lucky for us, there are a number of doomsday shelters already on the market. Those who want a no-nonsense roof over their heads can choose among some safehouses:

All these promise to provide safe and secure accommodations underneath cement-thick foundations and climate-proof ceilings.

But those who want to rough out the rapture with a touch of style might want to check out Vivos, a luxury underground safehouse placed in secure locations in the American desert.

For a co-ownership fee of only $9,950 per person you will receive a sure supply of food, fuel, materials, and a space in the Vivos community for 6 months.

Sure, it may sound like a steep price to some, but the kind people at Vivos do have a financial aid plan that allows the poorlings to pay the full amount in installments over a number of years. Because of course, even in the post-apocalyptic world, currencies, the economy, credit cards, and checks will continue to work in the same way as they do now.

Then again, for us here in the Third World, this third tip is barely an option. Doomsday shelters here are virtually non-existent, so in the case of a collision with Planet X, or any other earth-shattering catastrophe, well, to be perfectly frank, we’re good as gone, so let’s hope that the apocalypse comes in the form of something we know how to handle like EDSA traffic jams.

Sarcasm aside, for all we know, the preppers could be spot on in their beliefs, in which case, the apocalypse would be the biggest “I-told-you-so” in the post-history of mankind.

But until then, let’s focus on not letting paranoia get the better of us, and starting the New Year with optimism. By Amanda T. Lago, GMA News

A team from the Museum of Rockies in Montana State and the State Museum of Pennsylvania has described two gigantic vertebrae and a femur that it collected in New Mexico from 2003 to 2006 in a research report.

The bones belong to the sauropod dinosaur Alamosaurus sanjuanensis: A long-necked plant eater related to Diplodocus which roamed what is now the southwestern region of the US and Mexico about 69 million years ago.

In their report, the palaeontologists have written how carrying the the vertebrae alone was a “killer” task taking up an entire day because they carried them 1.2 miles through 100- degree heat, a website reported.

Denver W Fowler at Montana State University, who led the team, said: “Alamosaurus has been known for some time, its remains were first described in 1922 from the Naashoibito beds of New Mexico.

“Since then, more bones have been discovered in New Mexico, Utah, some really nice material from Texas, and Mexico, including a few partial skeletons.”

He said the sheer size of the new bones had caught the researchers by surprise, who had believed that a fully grown Alamosaurus measured around 60 feet long and weighed about 30 tons.

The enormity of the new bones puts Alamosaurus in the same size league as other giant sauropods from South America, including Argentinosaurus which weighed about 70 tons, and is widely considered to be the biggest dinosaur of all.

Dr Fowler said: “Over the past 20 years, Argentinean and Brazilian paleontologists have been unearthing bigger and bigger dinosaurs, putting the rest of the world in the shade.

“However, our new finds not only show that Alamosaurus is newly recognised as the biggest dinosaur from North America, but also that it was right up there with the biggest South American species…”

He added: “We found a shed Tyrannosaurus tooth with another Alamosaurus neck bone that we were excavating. The Tyrannosaurus may have lost its tooth while feeding on an Alamosaurus carcass.” Zeenews

A day before the voting ended yesterday night, the Philippine government mounted a “last ditch” effort through the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) by ordering all local government officials from governors down to barangay captains to urge Filipinos around the country to cast their vote for the underground river.

Agencies under the DILG, including the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, were also ordered to urge their members and linked groups to vote for the underground river.

The other six New 7 Wonders of Nature, based on provisional results, were South America’s Amazon River, Vietnman’s Halong Bay, Argentina’s Iguazu Fallas, South Korea’s Jeju Island, Indonesia’s Komodo Island and South Africa’s Table Mountain.

The New7Wondres Foundation, meanwhile, clarified that “it is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners.”

It said that the list released early today was “in alphabetical order” and not in any position of ranking.

The foundation said that the voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified. The official New 7 Wonders of Nature will be announced early 2012, it added.

“The results will now be checked, validated and independently verified. Once the voting validation process is completed, in early 2012, New7Wonders will then work with the confirmed winners to organise the Official Inauguration events,” Bernard Weber, the foundation’s founder and president, said as he announced the provisional winners.

Weber announced that “one or more” may be erased from the list of the provisional winners.

“It may happen that one or more of the provisional winners announced today will not be confirmed during the validation process, New7Wonders will issue a media update should this happen,” he said.

Weber also commended the other participants and the people who joined the voting for the search for the new seven wonders of the world.

“I would like to thank the many champions, citizens, voluntary organisations, public bodies and governments that have helped promote the New7Wonders of Nature campaign over the past four years, starting with over 440 locations from over 220 countries and all the way to the 28 Finalist candidates from whom the New7Wonders of Nature have been chosen,” he said.

The foundation said that more than a million cast their vote since the start of the search. From 440 contenders, the list was trimmed to 220 and then to a shortlist of 77.

From 77, the number of contenders was trimmed further down to 28 and finally the seven provisional winners.

The votes were cast through text, internet and by telephone. By  Angelo L. Gutierrez, The Pinoy

University of Oxford team suggests that a common history is vital in shaping the way animals behave in a group.

The team, which took into consideration an analysis of 200 primates, has identified the transition from non-social to social living to about 52 million years ago.

Contrary to the previous researches, which suggest that primate social groups developed gradually in size over time, the new study suggests that transition happened in one step, and coincided with a move into daylight.

It also coincides with a change in family dynamics or female bonding, which emerged much later at about 16 million years ago, the BBC reported.

“If you are a small animal active at night then your best strategy to avoid predation is to be difficult to detect,” said Oxford’s Suzanne Shultz, who led the study.

“Once you switch to being active during the day, that strategy isn’t very effective, so an alternative strategy to reduce the risk of being eaten is to live in social groups,” she added.

Dr Shultz thinks that the move to day-time living in ancient primates allowed animals to find food more quickly, communicate better, and travel faster through the forest.

Human societies likely descended from similar large, loosely aggregated creatures, Dr Shultz explained, but the key difference, she pointed out, is that our closest cousins’ societies do not vary within a species, while humans’ do.

“In human societies we have polgyeny… we have monogamy, and in some places we have females leaving the group they were born in, and in others males leave,” she said. DNA India

Large trees are magnificent monuments in the landscape, but small trees can be equally significant landmarks in your own backyard. Big trees take your eyes to the sky; small trees shade a space, such as a patio, without dominating it. They define the flow of the eye and the feet through a garden, and punctuate the views. Small trees have a way of keeping the experience of a garden intimate and inviting.

“Most people want to look at things that are in scale with them, at their eye level, and if you choose the right small tree with the right form, you can create a great sense of place,” says Brian Kissinger, a garden designer and the director of horticulture at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.

“I use small trees for visual layering,” he says. “They help you build up a backdrop, create niches in the garden; they have lots of impact.”

In gardens in the desert Southwest, Kissinger plants little-leaf palo verde trees, which grow to only about 20 feet tall. They thrive in heat, tolerate drought, and bloom in spring, when they’re covered with bright yellow flowers. He likes to contrast the graceful habit of palo verde with sculptural cacti. Kissinger, who grew up in the Midwest, used to plant sweetbay magnolia trees, crabapples, redbuds, and other small specimens in the richly textured gardens he designed in the Kansas City area.

Small trees have lots of advantages. They fit neatly under the canopy of large trees in expansive gardens, and they’re not likely to outgrow their spaces. Many small trees also bloom profusely, putting on a brilliant, outsize display: Crabapples, dogwoods, and redbuds steal the show in spring gardens before the large trees even leaf out. These little trees are also prized for their handsome structure: They’re not just lollipops with green tops, but have characteristic shapes that add to the drama of a garden.

Trees sold at garden shops are all relatively small, but look closely at plant tags and you’ll discover that the mature height of oaks, maples, birches, willows, and other trees can be 50 feet or more. They’re fine if you have plenty of room (and no overhead power lines), although even a large garden can really only accommodate one or two big oaks. Small trees, which generally grow to about 20 feet (and no more than 30), suit the scale of small gardens much better. When you stick with smaller specimens, you can also plant more of them.

No one tree is right for every garden. “Most people like trees, but you have to choose them carefully,” says Ivan Katzer, an arborist in the Kansas City area. “A great tree is one that is appropriate for the site – for the exposure and conditions,” he says.

Katzer strongly recommends small trees, and he includes large shrubs in the same category. Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), which grows slowly to 15 to 20 feet tall, is a showy, very small, early-blooming tree on his list of favorites. He also recommends serviceberry (Amelanchier) for its sparkling bloom and blazing fall color. You may have to do some research and then shop around to find the right small tree (or large shrub) for your space, Katzer says, but you’ll be glad you did.

Bill Thomas, director of the gracious Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, especially likes sweetbay magnolia trees for their small size and their fragrant, creamy-white flowers. ‘Henry Hicks,’ a hardy evergreen cultivar grown at Chanticleer, can be planted quite close to a house, Thomas says.

“It’s very accommodating,” he says. “The flowers are small, but it blooms over a long period of time, so you can really enjoy the fragrance.”

Thomas also likes whitebud, the white variety of our native redbud tree, for its delicate flowers and interesting structure. The flowers are “a crisp, clean white” in spring, he says; they look especially striking against a brick house. The heart-shaped leaves cast a pretty shade in summer months, and a redbud’s dark silhouette is beautiful against snow in winter. Although redbuds grow to about 25 feet tall, you can keep them much smaller by pruning them every year or two, or even by cutting them to the ground from time to time.

“It will come right back,” Thomas says, sending up lots of shoots that can be thinned to just a few of the strongest.

Chaste tree (Vitex) gets the same treatment at Chanticleer. “I think it’s best if you whack it back every year,” he says. The vigorous new growth reaches 10 or 15 feet by mid- to late summer, with silvery-blue flowers at the tips of the branches. By Marty Ross, Philadelphia Daily News

To determine whether it will work, state geologists are using a $21.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to look for geothermal prospects throughout the country. Exploration efforts include studying underground temperatures, heat flow and thermal conductivity of rocks to determine whether geothermal energy is the right answer.

“Every state has potential,” said Lee Allison of the Arizona Geological Survey, who is principal investigator for the three-year study.

The first step is collecting data from oil and gas wells to look at temperature changes.

“The data … will help find where geothermal potential is hidden,” Allison said. When underground temperatures are high enough, the energy can be used to run power plants.

Ohio’s data from 16,412 oil and gas wells doesn’t look that good. The deepest hole is 13,727 feet and has a bottom temperature of 190 degrees, said Mac Swinford of the Ohio Division of Geological Survey.

Drilling wells that deep would not be economically viable, Swinford said, adding that the temperature is still not high enough to produce steam to run a power plant.

The temperature below ground in Ohio increases between 1 and 2 degrees per 100 feet, compared with 2 to 4 degrees in many western states, said Tim Leftwich of the Ohio Division of Geological Survey.

However, geothermal-powered heating-and-cooling systems might be a viable option.

“Ground-source heat pumps are established in Ohio and will probably continue to thrive on their own,” Leftwich said.

Ohio State University is drilling 500 shallow wells to heat and cool five residence halls, said Scott Conlon, projects director for the school’s facilities-design and -construction department.

This ground-source method, which pipes water below ground to pick up Earth’s temperature and bring it back to the surface for heating and cooling, is efficient, Leftwich said. Water drawn from below ground is cooler than the surface temperature in the summer and warmer in the winter.

Still, rock cores also are being sent to Battelle to determine thermal conductivity. Researcher Steven Shaffer is testing the samples.

Insulators such as shale can conceal heat sources below them, Leftwich said.

Researchers also are preparing to explore developing geothermal heating-and-cooling systems using abandoned, flooded coal mines in eastern Ohio. This kind of system would use the water in the mines to heat and cool buildings. That project probably will begin next year.

“The easy way to get energy is just to burn something,” Leftwich said. “The new world requires a little more technology and thought processes.” By  Dylan Tussel, The Columbus Dispatch

The precious metal was found nearly 4,000ft down in Lausitz region where one-in-five are jobless.

Eight hundred miners have already been called to sign on for jobs and there are estimates that double that number could soon be on the payroll, the Daily Mail reports.

The KSL mining company also struck the intended copper-bearing rock laden with an estimated 2.7 million tons, as well as lesser deposits of silver and platinum.

KSL has agreed to share a large part of profits from the mining venture with the impoverished region.

The gold seam was hit almost two years after drilling began, the paper said.

Klaus-Peter Schulze, mayor of the town of Spremberg near to the drilling area, said that the region has over 11 per cent joblessness, therefore the latest discovery is ‘fantastic news’.

“We need miners, contractors, suppliers. This is the economic miracle that East Germany needed,” the paper quoted Schulze, as saying. DNA India

If you can, wait until fall because fall trees do better, said Brian Jervis, horticulture extension educator with Tulsa Master Gardeners.

A 3- to 6-inch layer of mulch and daily water are important to helping keep any plant healthy in this heat, he said.

Jervis recommends home owners plant trees in September, October or November.

If home owners or landscapers must plant trees now, Jervis said, keeping the root ball intact is critical. Trees can’t pull up the necessary moisture if the root ball is broken.

He also suggests taking a tree’s final height and branch spread into consideration when planting near a house or building.

The Master Gardeners compiled a list of nearly 30 trees recommended for the area, but Brian Jervis, horticulture extension educator with Tulsa Master Gardeners, suggests five specific types if you’re looking for shade.

Bald cypress

Bald cypress is the tallest, with a height of 70-90 feet and a 40- to 70-foot branch spread. It has fern-like foliage and a medium growth rate, which means it will grow between 8 and 12 inches a year. Jervis describes it as a good, tough shade tree and adds it will better withstand some of the winter ice storms. The bald cypress also doesn’t attract a lot of pests. Prices start between $20 and $25 for young plants.

Chinese pistache

Chinese pistache also has a medium growth rate but only reaches between 25 and 40 feet in height. It’s branch spread is between 20 and 30 feet. The Chinese pistache has a bright orange fall color and has few diseases or insect problems. It starts at $25 to $30. Jervis recommends the Chinese pistache in lieu of maple tree varieties, which can sometimes have weaker wood.

Gingko

Gingko is the slowest growing of Jervis’ top five shade trees at 6 to 8 inches a year. A gingko tree’s final height ranges from 10 to 30 feet but can have a branch spread of 40 to 50 feet. It has a fan-shaped foliage and yellow color in the fall. Like the bald cypress and Chinese pistache, gingkos have few diseases or insect problems, as well. Prices start at $30.

Shumard and Burr oaks

Oaks have a slow to medium growth rate. The Shumard oak can reach around 80 feet in height and have a 40- to 60-foot spread. Prices start at $39.

The Burr oak reaches 60 to 70 feet tall with a 50- to 60-foot spread. Burr oaks have large, 8- to 12-inch leaves and acorns the size of golf balls, Jervis said. Prices start at $25.

Oaks are solid trees and long-term investments, Jervis said, noting they will be around for more than 100 years. By Amanda Bland, Tulsa World

The water we drink falls as rain, usually on higher ground, often designated as a catchment area. The terrain would ideally be covered in vegetation, because otherwise the runoff would be muddy, the reservoirs would silt up and the valleys would flood. But plants depend on billions of insects to pollinate them. Insects also devour foliage, so forests depend on birds by day and bats by night to keep insect populations under control. To prevent a population crash, there must also be raptors to keep the insectivores in order – and the taps running. At every level, human civilisation is underwritten by the planet’s countless and still mostly unidentified wild things – the jargon word is biodiversity – that pollinate our crops, cleanse, conserve and recycle our water, maintain oxygen levels, and deliver all the things on which human comfort, health, and security depend. Economists and conservationists have tried to put a value on the services of nature: if we had to buy what biodiversity provides for nothing, how much cash would we need? The answer runs into trillions, but the question is nonsensical. Without healthy ecosystems, there would be no cotton and linen to make banknotes and no bread or clean water for sale.

Last week the European commission unveiled its 2020 biodiversity strategy, and introduced the notion of a “green infrastructure” from Orkney to the Black Sea. A continent-sized strategy is indeed necessary: swifts, swallows and swallowtail butterflies do not care about national boundaries. It focuses on the economic value of forest, grassland, heath, wetland, lake, river and farmland ecosystems. The auguries are not encouraging. One fourth of all Europe’s farmland birds flew away between 1990 and 2007; 40 or more of Europe’s 435 butterflies are now fluttering to extinction. Yes, extinctions are a normal part of evolutionary history, but not on such a scale and pace. And who knows which species an ecosystem can do without, and still function for human benefit?

The EU in 2006 vowed to halt species loss by 2010, but in 2008 admitted frankly that targets would not be met. Around 18% of Europe’s land area is protected, but governments and environment agencies need to think very hard about not just protecting but restoring habitats in much of the remaining 82%. Inevitably, those critics who do not condemn Brussels for the failure of its biodiversity policies so far will vilify it for fretting about dragonflies, toads and liverworts while economies stagnate and industries collapse. Both responses are wrong. Europe may propose, but the member states must implement. And although the cost of conserving biodiversity will be considerable, the price of not doing so could be truly terrible. The Guardian

After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, 1250 of the workers called in to deal with it later killed themselves out of fear of the consequences for themselves or their children.

An extensive study of the health aftermath of the disaster was carried out in 2005 by the Chernobyl Forum, made up of scientists from Europe, the UN, the World Health Organisation and the Food and Agricultural Organisation, the International Labor Organisation and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The forum’s task was to study all available epidemiological data to measure the levels of death, disease and economic damage caused by Chernobyl.

About 57 people, mainly power-plant staff and emergency workers, died in the explosions or within months from burns or the severe radiation poisoning they suffered on the night of the April 26, 1986, disaster.

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Most emergency workers and people living in the contaminated areas received relatively low doses of radiation compared to natural background levels.

However, 350,000 people moved out of affected areas found relocation traumatic.

A paralysing sense of fatalism among those even lightly affected led them to accept exaggerated fears about the likely damage to their health.

Fears of birth defects prompted between 100,000 and 200,000 women in Western Europe to have abortions in the years after the accident.

The study concluded that about 4000 people, most of whom were children or adolescents at the time of the disaster and who lived in areas with the highest radiation levels, would eventually die from cancer caused by radiation.

Of 6.8 million other people living further from the power station and who received much lower doses, a further 5000 might be killed by that radiation.

Cancer caused about a quarter of all deaths in Europe and Chernobyl was likely to account for 0.01 per cent of those cancer deaths.

The 1979 Three Mile Island radiation leak and partial meltdown triggered a spontaneous evacuation of the surrounding area of Pennsylvania but studies indicate the radiation hurt no one. Brendan Nicholson, The Australian