Have you heard? May 21, 2011 marks the end of the world as we know it! But I, for one, feel fine. That's because, as these examples show, we've heard it all (and more) before, and all such prophecies so far have passed without incident...at least, since that whole dinosaur extinction thing.

PROTIP: If you plan on committing a heinous act of cold blooded murder, it might not be the best decision to tattoo every last minute detail of your crime onto your chest.

This however is exactly what Rivera-13 gang member Anthony "Chopper" Garcia did. And now he's in jail for first degree murder.

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File this one under "Never In a Million Years Actually Going to Court."

After suffering a severe injury in a car accident ten years ago, Frank Hebert is now confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life without the use of his legs. But when he found out that 27-year old Joshua A. Hardy had allegedly molested the young girl Hebert raised as his own granddaughter he knew what he had to do. Given his limited mobility he summoned Hardy to his computer sales shop where he tried to place Hardy under citizens arrest. When Hardy tried to flee the scene, Hebert incapacitated him with a baseball bat and now District Attorney Michael O’Keefe wants to put Hebert up on charges for which the 57-year old could be facing up to ten years in lockup!

Natural disasters happen all the time and generally, governments get a bad rap for their actions during the aftermath.

Right now the Japanese government faces its own criticisms after the earthquake and tsunami. Most of it is due to problems at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power complex and the government’s bureaucratic red tape.

Although it may seem like the Japanese government isn’t working as fast it could, it is a miracle worker compared to this list of worst government responses due to natural disasters.

If you hang around courts long enough, regardless of which side of the law you're on (ahem), you're bound to see some crazy things. Usually, the craziness comes from the litigants in the court cases, but sometimes judges lend their own sense of loopiness to the proceedings when they hand down their sentences. Here are 14 such instances of unusual sentencing, be they "creative" or "crackpot."