tagged w/ Apocalypse News
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Survival kits, documentaries, and nearly 200 books presenting the "real" 2012 story are all on offer. And you could probably surf the Web from now until Armaggedon—tentatively slated for December 21, 2012—and still see just a fraction of the Web sites and products devoted to the topic.
But amid all the hype—including a viral marketing campaign for 2012, the disaster movie opening Friday—some people are developing honest "end times" anxiety that has experts seriously concerned.
NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, a senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.
"A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened," said Morrison, who thinks movie marketers, authors, and others out to make a buck are feeding some of the fears.
"I've had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn't want to be around when the world ends," he said. "Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn't have to suffer through the end of the world."
In general, fear over the 2012 doomsday prediction is just another example of a scenario that has been repeated over the centuries, said University of Wisconsin historian Paul Boyer.
Baptist preacher William Miller, for example, convinced as many as a hundred thousand Americans in the early 1800s that the second coming of Jesus Christ would happen in 1843. It didn't, much to the Millerites' "great disappointment."
And Hal Lindsey's 1970s national bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth suggested that the end could come in the 1980s. We're still here and so is Lindsey, who has since revised his theories.
"The crucial date always seems to be within a decade or so of the present, so that you have a sense of imminence, that it's going to happen soon," said Boyer, author of When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture.
A healthy distrust for authority fuels the fire.
Conspiracy theorists often believe that world governments and those "in power" know all about some impending disaster but are doing nothing to save the rest of us.
Now, thanks to the Internet, such theories can gain traction quickly and spread more widely than ever before. Yet something must account for the enduring appeal of an upcoming Armageddon. Perhaps it's knowing the future when others don't, or being one of the select few to solve impenetrable mysteries, Boyer said.
"For a lot of people I think it's almost kind of a parlor game. But there are also people who take it very seriously," he said.
"What strikes me is the total lack of historic awareness that people who get caught up in these things seem to exhibit. The most elementary look at history shows such a series of these episodes that are then proven false.
"Yet despite that, there always seems to be a market."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091106-2012-movie-end-world-fears-maya-predictions.htmlSurvival kits, documentaries, and nearly 200 books presenting the "real" 2012 story... more
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quanta
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14 days ago
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THIS COMIC IS A REVELATION!
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It’s no secret that the world is warming, but a new report published by the World Wildlife Fund suggests we may not have as much time to mull solutions as we think. If the world doesn’t commit to green technologies by 2014, the report says, runaway global warming and economic meltdown are all but unstoppable.
Written by a group at the experts at Australian insurance consultancy Climate Risk, the transformation to a low-carbon world requires an effort “greater than any other industrial transformation witnessed in our history.” At minimum, the world needs to embrace – and by embrace, they mean to the absolute maximum – low-carbon technologies by 2014. A minimum growth in all green industries of 22% a year is necessary to achieve that goal, according to their research, and that’s just to cut emissions to 63% of 1990 levels by 2020.
But the WWF has more ambitious plans: a reduction to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050, an industrial revolution that would require growths between 24% and 29% every year. This is the best way to stave off the doomsday scenario of 2 degree Celsius (about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warming across the board, according to the report. Unfortunately, we have a long way to go.
The research relied on complex Monte Carlo models of industrial growth, resource allocation, and technological advance, but the basic reasoning is thus: total greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are estimated 463 parts per million. Scientific research shows that a good comfortable spot for our atmosphere is about 400 ppm. But at around 475 ppm, a threshold that we are dangerously close to crossing, runaway climate change becomes increasingly more likely, at which point it will be difficult if not impossible to put the brakes on global warming.
Now, having said all that, it’s important to note that this isn’t the first doomsday climate change scenario to emerge, especially recently. Just today, two British Cabinet ministers showed off their own doomsday map, detailing rising sea levels and submerged cities that would result from a 4 degree Celsius (7.2 degree Fahrenheit) rise in global temps. President Obama has pledged a greenhouse gas reduction of 80 percent by 2050 (an easy promise to make with a two term limit), while the EU has stated that it will match those efforts if a deal is sealed at December’s UN climate change conference in Copenhagen.
But the WWF report, if taken seriously, places a new urgency on the issue. For one, most climate strategies rely upon an incremental ratcheting down of emissions while slowly transitioning to low-carbon sources of energy all the way up to 2050. According to WWF, this schedule simply won’t hack it. Further, WWF points out that only three of the 20 green technologies they’ve reviewed are moving forward fast enough to hit the 2014 deadline: wind, solar, and biodiesel. Other technological initiatives like low-carbon agriculture, sustainable forestry, and other forms of green energy generation are sorely lacking. The outlook, it seems, is dim.
What happens if we miss the deadline? According to the WWF report, from there things become increasingly difficult. Post-2014, low-carbon industries will need to grow at a minimum of 29% per year, and that’s just to have a better than 50% chance of staving off that nearly 4-degree Fahrenheit spike in global temperatures. But the news isn’t all bad: while the transition will be tough, long term investment in green energies should pay off, with renewable energy savings alone in the period between 2013 and 2050 expected to hit $47 trillion if we cut by 80 percent, a positive number among many grim figures.It’s no secret that the world is warming, but a new report published by the World... more
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Maybe the undead creatures surfacing everywhere in pop culture have something to do with Washington and Wall Street
That could be a question about one of the hippest retro fads that pop culture has going these days. Inspired by horror genres of past, zombies have lurched back to preeminence in books like "World War Z," video games like "Left 4 Dead" and blockbuster films like "Zombieland." Even the highbrow producers at National Public Radio recently devoted a segment to a University of Ottawa study titled "Mathematical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection." Indeed, the undead have become so popular, they've spurred "zombie walks" in cities and spawned Weird Al-ish parodies through Jane Austen knockoffs like "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and bands such as the Zombeatles (with their hit "Hard Day's Night of the Living Dead").
Frighteningly enough, though, that question about zombies could also be asked of America's political culture.Maybe the undead creatures surfacing everywhere in pop culture have something to do... more
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No one expects a zombie apocalypse. But the University of Florida is making sure officials are ready for a night of the living dead, just in case.
The school has a plan for responding to the undead on its Web site among outlines for dealing with hurricanes and pandemics.
The exercise lays out how university officials would respond to attacks by "flesh-eating, apparently life impaired individuals." It notes that a zombie outbreak might include "documentation of lots of strange moaning."
A University of Florida spokesman says the exercise was written by an employee to "add a little bit of levity" to disaster preparation discussions...
Good to know someone besides me is worried about that.No one expects a zombie apocalypse. But the University of Florida is making sure... more
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So, you're in the midst of a zombie outbreak. Do you head for the hills, or take refuge in a mall? A new physics paper says that hunkering down in a sprawling shopping center will increase your odds of survival.
A new paper from Davide Cassi at the Università di Parma, published this month in Physical Review E, explores how targets might be annihilated by "random walkers." These walkers might be any moving organism that can eliminate a target, but LiveScience notes that zombies are the perfect analogy for these "walkers" — organisms that meander without purpose and destroy any human they happen to come across.
The paper examines the likelihood of the targets surviving — that is, never coming into contact with these "random walkers" — if they remain immobile within various types of structures. One of Cassi's findings is that the more complex the hideout, the less likely a random walker is to encounter a target. This means that hiding out in a building filled with twisting corridors, such as a mall or a school, offers a better chance of survival than hiding out in the open or in more open structures.
Of course, all bets are off if your particular breed of zombie has a talent for sniffing out live humans — or if it's driven by an instinctive need to shop.So, you're in the midst of a zombie outbreak. Do you head for the hills, or take... more
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While some of us are stocking up on duct tape, gas masks and enough bottled water to last through the initial weeks of the end of the world, the government of Norway has partnered up with the Global Crop Diversity Trust to prepare for the event that doomsday leaves some survivors. The Svalbard International Seed Vault, dubbed the "doomsday vault," will house samples of every variety of crop seed available in every country in the world. The vault's purpose is safeguard agricultural biodiversity in the event that nuclear war, climate change, a meteor hit or another Earth-shattering event destroys all current plant life in the world or in a particular region.
The Global Crop Diversity Trust has named several other uses for the vault, including replacing seeds lost in damage to any of the 1,400 seed vaults around the world, safeguarding seeds for developing countries and spreading general knowledge of the threat to crop diversity (the United Nations puts the percentage of genetic diversity already lost to ecological damage at 75 percent). But other uses aside, the design of the vault screams "the end is near." This is definitely a structure built with doomsday in mind. Its main purpose is to provide diverse crop life in the event that life as we know it disappears.
Norway revealed the design of the vault in February 2007. It will be located on the remote, frigid island cluster of Svalbard, well north of Norway's mainland, 621 miles (1,000 km) into the Arctic Ocean. The entrance to the vault is on a mountain called Spitsbergen, chosen for a number of factors including its perpetually frozen temperatures. If the mechanical refrigeration system were to malfunction, the seeds would remain frozen due to the year-round permafrost in the mountain, maintaining an inner temperature of about -5C (23F). The entrance and the inner seed vaults stand at 430 feet (130 meters) above sea level. At this height, the vault will be protected from the sea-level effects of climate change, including the absolute worst case scenario that most scientists believe won't happen: If the entire ice structure of the continent of Antarctica were to melt, the sea would rise about 200 feet (61 meters). The seed vault wouldn't be touched by the rising water.
Beyond the entrance, a concrete-lined tunnel leads 390 feet (120 meters) into the frozen mountain, leading to two vaults. Because they're situated so deep into the mountain, even a significant rise in air temperature should leave the vault temperatures unaffected should the electric refrigeration system shut down. The total storage capacity of both vaults combined is 3 million seeds. Ideally, the vault will house every type of seed available in today's world, and Norway will add to the collection as more seed types become available. The key, supporters say, to long-term survival after a catastrophic event is genetic diversity. In this case, it's genetic diversity in food crops. Who knows which seeds will be able to adapt to life after nuclear holocaust or major ecological destruction from global warming?While some of us are stocking up on duct tape, gas masks and enough bottled water to... more
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KSirys
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1 month ago
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Apparently, it's all down to whether you're a phototroph or a mixotroph - my hint is to work on your mixotrophic skills...over to New Scientist to explain more.....Apparently, it's all down to whether you're a phototroph or a mixotroph - my hint is... more
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In an effort to minimise the infection risk of the H1N1 influenza, 75,000 festival goers have been asked to be less rock and roll. The German health ministry has officially advised heavy metal fans to avoid hugging, kissing on the cheek, shaking hands and sharing bottles of beer.
Will they follow those tips?In an effort to minimise the infection risk of the H1N1 influenza, 75,000 festival... more
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The biggest news to rock the world since McDonald walked in on Burger King having an affair with Subway - is the scientifical discovery that a regular indulgeds in sugary-syripy-creamy iced coffee can lead to major health risks - and perfectedly described by Dr Stat-Ing O'BiViou-Se Thompson;
"if you are having them regularly then they will increase the chances of you becoming overweight which, in turn, increases your risk of developing cancer as well as other diseases such as heart disease and diabetes."
You heard her people - its time we put an end to this menace by destroying every cow, goat, sheep and lactating human in the world, before its too late!!!!!
(...thought i should include this little bit of trivia - the above is one obviouse and utter burp of sarcasim :P)The biggest news to rock the world since McDonald walked in on Burger King having an... more
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THERE IS A MARINE TSUNAMI WARNING CURRENTLY FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.
click on the link to find outTHERE IS A MARINE TSUNAMI WARNING CURRENTLY FOR NEW SOUTH WALES.
click on the link... more
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38 year-old Paul Powell was attacked by a buzzard while jogging in Gloucestershire.
The huge bird - with a 4 foot wingspan - dive bombed him, hitting him in the back of the head and even drawing blood.
'I felt an almighty thud at the back of my head,' he said. 'At first I thought someone had hit me and I was ready to let out a few choice words, and then I saw this big bird flying just above me. I couldn't believe it. Then I felt a burning sensation at the back of my head and noticed there was blood dripping on to the ground.'
Paul ran for cover, but was attacked a second time by the same bird before making it to a nearby farmhouse. Later, at the hospital, Paul was given a tetanus shot. He had four wounds to the head where the talons had punctured his skin.
Experts say the bird was likely protecting its chicks.38 year-old Paul Powell was attacked by a buzzard while jogging in Gloucestershire.... more
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Swarms of ladybugs!
The CNN video is at the link.
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A firefighter from Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue was killed on Sunday and another injured after a floor collapsed at a basement floor while fighting a fire at the Balmoral Bar in Dalry Road, Edinburgh.
Over 20 people (including a baby) were rescued from the multi-storey tenement block. Fire-fighters were alerted of the fire just after 12:30am. The chief fire officer says it was a very difficult fire to deal with.A firefighter from Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue was killed on Sunday and... more
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Floridians are generally not flummoxed by the variety of reptile species that invade their state. Even when pythons started turning up on the peninsula in large numbers a few years ago, most residents laughed off the huge, not-native snakes as yet another imported nuisance, little worse than some condo developers. But that nonchalance vanished in a heartbeat last week when 2-year-old Shaiunna Hare was strangled to death in her crib by a 9-ft. Burmese python kept as a pet, illegally, in her house near Orlando. (The owner, a live-in boyfriend of Shaiunna's mother, killed the python with a knife as it squeezed the girl, but it was too late.)
Suddenly Floridians, and the rest of the country, are paying more sober attention to the warnings of wildlife officials and environmentalists that proliferating pythons are a threat to critical ecosystems like the Everglades as well as to people. On July 8, Florida Senator Bill Nelson turned up the heat when he told a Senate subcommittee weighing his bill to ban the importation of Burmese pythons, "The crown jewel of our national park system has been transformed into a hunting ground for these predators. It's just a matter of time before one of these snakes gets to a visitor."
The threat to humans, however, is still slight compared with the eco-damage the invasive serpents can wreak. Officials, for example, fear pythons may be on the brink of wiping out what remains of the endangered Key Largo wood rat and that other South Florida animals like the Key Deer could be next. The Everglades are estimated to contain as many as 150,000 pythons now, preying on rare bird and mammal wildlife. "If we don't get on top of this, they're going to eradicate the indigenous species of the Everglades," Rodney Barreto, Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission chairman, said during a visit this year by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Or beyond: the pythons are believed to be moving northward into other parts of Florida and the U.S.
The python problem started in the 1990s, when many Americans decided that big constrictor snakes like pythons and boas, often imported from Southeast Asia, would make cool house pets. It didn't take them long to realize that the snakes are not quite the exotic delights they thought. Burmese pythons can grow as long as 20 ft. (6 m) and weigh 250 lb. (113 kg). As they grow larger, they require more-spacious homes and bigger, more-expensive animals to eat, like rats and rabbits. They also get more difficult and unpleasant to clean up after. And as last week's tragedy drove home, they can be quite dangerous. It's not easy, however, for disillusioned owners to get rid of them. Because there aren't many python-rescue agencies available, the snakes get dumped in the wild — a practice that's gotten out of control in Florida since 2000.Floridians are generally not flummoxed by the variety of reptile species that invade... more
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An increase in tremors deep under California's San Andreas fault may be the harbinger of a major earthquake, according to a study out Friday in the journal Science.
Seismologist Robert Nadeau of the University of California at Berkeley reached this conclusion after analyzing tremors along a segment of the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield, California.
Nadeau found that after the 2003 6.5-magnitude San Simeon quake and the 2004 6.0-magnitude Parkfield quake -- both located mid-way between San Francisco and Los Angeles -- tremors became more frequent and underground stress increased at the end of a "locked segment" of the San Andreas fault.
A "locked segment" is as a portion of a fault that has not moved in years and is at high risk of a major earthquake.
The researchers believe that the increase in tremors could mean that stress is accumulating faster than in the past along that segment of the fault, "which ruptured in the moment magnitude 7.8 Fort Tejon earthquake of 1857," read the article in Science.
"We've shown that earthquakes can stimulate tremors next to a locked zone, but we don't yet have evidence that this tells us anything about future quakes," Nadeau said.
"But if earthquakes trigger tremors, the pressure that stimulates tremors may also stimulate earthquakes."
Seismologists believe there is a 70 percent probability that a devastating earthquake will strike California in the next 30 years.An increase in tremors deep under California's San Andreas fault may be the harbinger... more
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South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. Web sites, a lawmaker's aide said Wednesday.
The sites of 11 South Korean organizations including the presidential Blue House and the Defense Ministry went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, according to the state-run Korea Information Security Agency. Agency spokeswoman Ahn Jeong-eun said 11 U.S. sites suffered similar problems.
On Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service told a group of South Korean lawmakers it believes that North Korea or North Korean sympathizers in the South "were behind" the attacks, according to an aide to one of the lawmakers briefed on the information.
The aide spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the information. He refused to allow the name of the lawmaker he works for to be published.
The National Intelligence Service — South Korea's main spy agency — said it couldn't immediately confirm the report.
Earlier Wednesday, the agency said in a statement that 12,000 computers in South Korea and 8,000 computers overseas had been infected and used for the cyber attack.
The agency said it believed the attack was "thoroughly" prepared and committed by hackers "at the level of a certain organization or state." It said it was cooperating with the American investigative authorities to examine the case.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said military intelligence officers were looking at the possibility that the attack may have been committed by North Korean hackers and pro-North Korea forces in South Korea. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it could not confirm the report.
South Korean media reported in May that North Korea was running a cyber warfare unit that tries to hack into U.S. and South Korean military networks to gather confidential information and disrupt service.South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in... more
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Researchers at the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute have created human sperm using stem cells from an embryo, claiming that with minor modifications, the sperm could potentially fertilise an egg.
The scientists say that if developed further, the technique could help infertile couples have children that are genetically their own. It may even open up the possibility for women to have babies without men, if sperm can be created from female stem cells.
This is the first time human sperm has been created anywhere in the world in a laboratory.Researchers at the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute have created human sperm... more
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