Looks like the Mayans were only partly right

Well-known New Zealanders have banded together in a new video to show solidarity for the proposed Marriage Amendment Bill. Former Governor General Dame Cath Tizard, Olympian Danyon Loader, supermodel Rachel Hunter, and psychologist Nigel Latta are among the more than 20 Kiwi icons who took part in filming the video in Auckland. The Definition of Marriage Amendment Bill, sponsored by Labour MP Louisa Wall, passed its first reading in Parliament in August by a convincing 80 votes to 40. Meanwhile, over the Tasman, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has delivered a chilling message confirming what many people around the world feared: the Mayans were right. Julia Gillard's 50-second message addresses her "dear remaining fellow Australians". She steps in ahead of CSIRO scientists to foreshadow the world's impending doom. For those who aren't even aware of the potentially overblown hype, according to the Mayan calendar, the world will meet its fiery end on the 21st. Ms Gillard lists the likely doomsday bringers to be flesh-eating zombies, demonic hell-beasts, or K-Pop. And speaking of K-Pop, as "Gangnam Style" gallops toward 1 billion views on YouTube, the first Asian pop artist to capture a massive global audience has gotten richer click by click. So too has his agent and his grandmother. But the money from music sales isn't flowing in from the rapper's homeland South Korea or elsewhere in Asia. With one song, 34-year-old Park Jae-sang (better known as PSY) is set to become a millionaire from YouTube ads and iTunes downloads, underlining a shift in how money is being made in the music business. An even bigger dollop of cash will come from TV commercials. From just those sources, PSY and his camp will rake in at least US$8.1 million this year, according to an analysis by The Associated Press of publicly available information and industry estimates. But he'll earn less than US$60,000 from online music sales in South Korea.