Mayan apocolypse: the end of the world But Henry went anyway, along with loads of other people. French police in Bugarach quashed attempts to party the night away while awaiting the end of the world last night by banning two rave parties in the surroundings and blocking several people attempting to reach the peak of its 1,230m mountain. One man seeking to reach the top was arrested in possession of a Taser, said Eric Freysselinard, the local government official. Asked whether it was really necessary to have ordered 150 police to seal off the area, he said: "We didn't want to overestimate the event but at the same time we couldn't underestimate it." How else can you anticipate the single most important event in the history of the world? Looks like they're on top of things for now. 08.13 You lot are obviously committed to spending your final hours feverishly refreshing my blog, but in case anyone calls asking for tips on how to see out their own swansong, Dr Brooke Magnanti is at hand. Here is my abridged version, we're all short on time. DO: Carve out some you-time. DON'T: Contact everyone you've fallen out with. DO: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow there's no such thing as gout. DON'T: Drink so much you pass out and miss the fireworks. DO: Go outside and shout your love and appreciation to the world (really?) DON'T: Post to Twitter, Facebook, etc with your final 'inspirational' message. DO: Chatroulette. I bet that is going to be amazing on the final day of human civilisation! DON'T: forget to turn off your 'safe search' settings on Google. Porn blocking on our last day on Earth is like going to a foam party dressed as a giant condom. Real the full thing here. 07.59 Now to China, where the security services have got their sledgehammers out for some seasonal nut-cracking. Nearly 100 people have been arrested in the country as part of a "pre-Apocalypse" crackdown on doomsday rumour-mongers. More on that here. Meanwhile, Tom Philips is in Shanghai, talking to a Chinese inventor. Yang Zongfu, a Chinese inventor who has shot to fame for building and selling radiation-proof "survival pods," has told the Daily Telegraph he does not believe the end is nigh. "I personally don't believe in the doomsday prophecy," said the 32-year-old behind the "Atlantis Ark" pods. Nevertheless, Mr Yang has been working around the clock to complete 12 pods before today. Many have been sold to wealthy coal barons from China's Shaanxi province, he said. Mr Yang claims he has not made a penny from pod sales and says he built them in memory of his late mother. I did this for my mother who passed away last year. I know how it feels when you lose loved ones. One of those end-of-the-world nuts. Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images 07.50 Our man in Belize, if you can believe will still have such a thing, is Sam Floy. The 21st is here in the Maya heartland. No great balls of fire yet. Some people are having cigars. More on this as soon as we get it. 07.35 So, in what form will the Apocolypse come? Beijing correspondent Malcolm Moore knows as little as everyone else, but reports nonetheless. Fire, reckons renowned scientific pioneer and "UFO believer" Dragan Milenkovic, from Rtanj mountain, Serbia. At first, people will see all the planets lined up, then on top of Rtanj there will be a violent fire. In five or six seconds - and I could be wrong here - the divine fire will go around the earth. And I could be wrong here. Really, what can you say? See Dragan in action in the video below. 07.24 SOME FACTS Let's get this unfortunate bit out the way now, a sop to the naysayers. More from Nasa: According to Maya theology, the world was created 5125 years ago, on a date modern people would write "August 11, 3114 BC." At the time, the Maya calendar looked like this: 13.0.0.0.0 On Dec. 21, 2012, it is exactly the same: 13.0.0.0.0 In the language of Maya scholars, 13 Bak'tuns or 13 times 144,000 days elapsed between the two dates. This was a significant interval in Maya theology, but, stresses Carlson, not a destructive one. None of the thousands of ruins, tablets, and standing stones that archeologists have examined foretell an end of the world. 07.21 Still here. 07.09 Don't rush your breakfast folks you have at least til mid-morning, our Los Angeles (and part-time end of the world) correspondent Nick Allen reports: On December 21, 2012 the 13th and final baktun of the 5,125-year Mayan Long Calendar comes to a close, supposedly signalling the end of times and the obliteration of Earth. Across the imperiled globe people were last night converging to witness the apocalypse at sites including Mayan ruins, Stonehenge, Stalin's bunker in Moscow, Byron Bay in Australia, and a sacred mountain in France. The exact timing of today's cataclysm is unclear but, according to some self-appointed experts, it could occur shortly after 11am UK time - the time of the winter solstice - leaving Britons chance for a final breakfast. 07.02 If for some reason you don't fancy the idea of spending your last day on earth reading my liveblog, or don't fancy spending it at all, you can skip straight to tomorrow thanks to the bods at Nasa. They've released a video and press release dated the 22nd, explaining why the end of the world wasn't even nigh in the first place. Smart arses. They'll see. And if you've been mourning the cutbacks to the space program this year, dry your heavenward-cast eyes. Nasa clearly needed the cash to pay the GCSE science students who make their videos. 07.00 Water? Fire? Brimstone? Place your bets now ladies and gentleman, you do not have very long. Whether you'll live to spend your winnings is anyone's guess at this stage. I am talking, of course, about the End of the World as We Know It. Today, the Mayan's predicted ages ago, when the most efficient way to write things down was still carving them into slabs of stone, "it will happen." What exactly "it" is we don't know, due to a convenient bit of weathering, but according to the current scientific consensus it is almost certainly the Apocolypse.