Apparently, enough jittery preteens are threatening to kill themselves over the Mayan end-of-world prophecy that the government felt the need to reassure them with an official blog post at USA.gov, a popular children’s Internet destination:
Unfortunately, these rumors have many people frightened, especially children. NASA has received thousands of letters concerned about the end of the world. David Morrison, a planetary astronomer and senior scientist for NASA who answers questions from the public about astrobiology, says, “At least a once a week I get a message from a young person — as young as 11 — who says they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday.”
The post added, “The world will not end on December 21, 2012, or any day in 2012,” which actually seems like a counterproductively unnerving level of specificity.
