Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Somewhere on a book shelf in my house is a book titled, 88 Reasons the Rapture will Occur in 1988.

On another shelf is a book by the same author, written the next year, that he had made a mistake and that the rapture would occur in 1989.

I don't know what that author is doing these days.

Also on my dusty shelves are some NewsGroup magazines from the mid 1970s confirming that we were entering a new ice age.

Also, I have from 2003 a copy of NewsGroup and a copy of Time predicting that the US armed forces were going to get chewed alive by the Iraqui army as they drew closer to Bagdad. Just after those issues arrived in the mail, I was reading them in the cab of my pickup truck, listening on the radio to news that the US forces had rolled into Bagdad and the city had fallen. (This isn't to say anything about the long and trying period to follow.)

NewsGroup no longer offers a print edition. Time is now a pamphlet-sized publication that specializes in ranking colleges and hospitals and propaganda.

Meanwhile, reality is very different from apocalyptic predictions. Mayan calendar, meteor, asteroid, war, disease, global warming, overpopulation, polution, death, the end!

ORIGINAL: wdolson

Doomsday scenarios are part of that negative bias. We have this niggling feeling that if things are going OK, they must be a sabre toothed tiger around here somewhere and we're its next meal. Because sabre toothed tigers are extinct (and we're not!), we scare ourselves with the dangers that could conceivably happen.

Bill

ORIGINAL: Nemo121

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned some of the more likely causes of apocalypse.... while over-prescribing of antibiotics won't end the race it'll mean people die from routine surgery once again... The real danger though is a fragile, rapidly mutating airborne virus a la "swine flu" or marburg. We've been lucky so far in that when Ebola went airborne it was a simian strain with really low infectivity for humans and very mild symptoms.... if a human strain of Ebola became airborne or swine flu variant became more lethal then we'd have a society-ending event ( some would live, obviously for many of the same reasons that a tiny % of the human population is "immune" to HIV ) but you could be looking at 95 to 99%+ death rates IF you had the right mix of latency, infectivity and lethality--- IOW all 3 of the factors which make something a Biosafety Level 4 hazard ( most of the diseases which are BSL 4 meet just one, maybe 2 of the criteria ). To put this into perspective HIV is BSL 2 since it really doesn't have the potential to destroy the world --- just the fabric of certain societies.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Somewhere on a book shelf in my house is a book titled, 88 Reasons the Rapture will Occur in 1988.

On another shelf is a book by the same author, written the next year, that he had made a mistake and that the rapture would occur in 1989.

I don't know what that author is doing these days.

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I, personally, subscribe to King's scenario in 'The Stand.'

ORIGINAL: Justus2

ORIGINAL: John 3rd

I, personally, subscribe to King's scenario in 'The Stand.'

That was a great book, I remember reading it years ago (shortly out of college). It was late one night, there was a storm out, I was listening to the radio and it cut out, so my little apartment became creepy-quiet. Next thing I knew, I coughed, and I sat up with a start "Oh my God, now I'm infected!!"

That was a sign of really being drawn into the story! [;)] Not really a fan of Steven King or the horror genre, but that one still stands out for me.

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Somewhere on a book shelf in my house is a book titled, 88 Reasons the Rapture will Occur in 1988.

On another shelf is a book by the same author, written the next year, that he had made a mistake and that the rapture would occur in 1989.

I don't know what that author is doing these days.

Also on my dusty shelves are some NewsGroup magazines from the mid 1970s confirming that we were entering a new ice age.

Also, I have from 2003 a copy of NewsGroup and a copy of Time predicting that the US armed forces were going to get chewed alive by the Iraqui army as they drew closer to Bagdad. Just after those issues arrived in the mail, I was reading them in the cab of my pickup truck, listening on the radio to news that the US forces had rolled into Bagdad and the city had fallen. (This isn't to say anything about the long and trying period to follow.)

NewsGroup no longer offers a print edition. Time is now a pamphlet-sized publication that specializes in ranking colleges and hospitals and propaganda.

Meanwhile, reality is very different from apocalyptic predictions. Mayan calendar, meteor, asteroid, war, disease, global warming, overpopulation, polution, death, the end!

ORIGINAL: Bullwinkle58
Like I said, MERS. It's coming!!!! [:)]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Somewhere on a book shelf in my house is a book titled, 88 Reasons the Rapture will Occur in 1988.

On another shelf is a book by the same author, written the next year, that he had made a mistake and that the rapture would occur in 1989.

I don't know what that author is doing these days.

Also on my dusty shelves are some NewsGroup magazines from the mid 1970s confirming that we were entering a new ice age.

Also, I have from 2003 a copy of NewsGroup and a copy of Time predicting that the US armed forces were going to get chewed alive by the Iraqui army as they drew closer to Bagdad. Just after those issues arrived in the mail, I was reading them in the cab of my pickup truck, listening on the radio to news that the US forces had rolled into Bagdad and the city had fallen. (This isn't to say anything about the long and trying period to follow.)

NewsGroup no longer offers a print edition. Time is now a pamphlet-sized publication that specializes in ranking colleges and hospitals and propaganda.

Meanwhile, reality is very different from apocalyptic predictions. Mayan calendar, meteor, asteroid, war, disease, global warming, overpopulation, polution, death, the end!

My father said he recalls seeing a guy back in the 1930s when he was a teen claiming the world was about to end. He's seen a lot of predictions of doom come and go since.

Bad things do happen in the world. The game this forum is about is one of the largest human events/disasters in history. (It was a disaster for those directly effected.) But I've found human imagination for what could conceivably happen is usually far more colorful than real events most of the time. Look at all the various disaster movies that have been made. Very few ever happened.

It's possible Yellowstone will explode tomorrow, or California will have a massive earthquake that does a lot of damage (or the New Madrid fault will move flattening St Louis), or, or, or. However, the safe bet is that the world will continue to bumble along like it did today. The news will have a few stories that may be worth note, but in the grand scheme of things, probably not anything that will be remembered in 100 years, nor will the human race go extinct any time soon.

Bill

ORIGINAL: wdolson

Washington State building codes take into account the possibility of earthquakes. I don't know of any Midwestern state that has earthquake provisions in their building codes.

Fortunately the geologic record shows that the New Madrid fault doesn't move very often. It has major earthquakes about ever 400 years, though there is a report from a missionary in modern day Tennessee who reported a mild earthquake on Dec 25. 1699 that was probably from the New Madrid fault.

bill