I prefer the term "Mount Doomer"

As the day shortens at the end of the year, discussion turns to predictions of the future. The Doomers predict mass starvation, global economic collapse, and a world that makes "Fallout 3" look like a theme park.

More hopeful souls embrace the vision of a techno-Rapture, when alternative energy and the end of history produce a well-tended Shire, where inept Baby Boomers somehow procure hydrogen-powered hypercars and cheap MRI scans.

We're likely to end up in the middle. In the future, we will be forced to eat Hobbits.