Armageddon

[king mob]

We came close to all being killed or living in a dire post apocalyptic world where women have turned into sex mad frogs only last month.

Now the advantage is you would never have to pay off your overdraft but what would you do in your last moments before a cosmic apocalypse?

Click

[Bill Oddie]

There's a lot of these "end of the world" threats* around at the moment, but looking back through history there always has been. Whether our modern ones are more scary because we base them on scientific observations is very questionable.



* Meteors, global warming, magnetic pole shifts, the energy crisis, nuclear armageddon, a nearby gamma-ray burst, Wolves' away record doesn't improve very soon, etc etc etc.

[Rats]

I thought you were going to say "wolves in the heating vent" there.
Do you think they'd tell us?

[Capuchin]

We came close to all being killed or living in a dire post apocalyptic world where women have turned into sex mad frogs only last month.

Now the advantage is you would never have to pay off your overdraft but what would you do in your last moments before a cosmic apocalypse?

Click

Look at you, puffing your chest and acting the loon.

The article says it was 30m wide, and would cause local devastation.
Of course, as a point of comparison they said "Potentially, the loss of life could have been much worse than 11 September. "
So similar to a bad natural disaster in a third world country with limited emergency resources.



I don't get the "end of the world" things flying about lately, they're not quite as devastating as the good old 'nuclear holocaust' or 'dead walk the earth' scenarios.
Climate change - parts of the world have a different pattern of weather to deal with than we have been used to in human existance. So we'll deal with it. It's not like places don't suffer floods and droughts and things regularly as it is, it's hardly "end of the world", more "change of the wolrd".
A similar not-really-end-of-the-world thing is the oil running out.
In 20/50/100 years, depending on who you ask, the oil may 'run out', meaning the way the West runs will have to change.
Sure, I'm sure there would be chaos if we went about it in the wrong way, but the scenario surely involves a change to the way life is at present rather than DOOMED! WE'RE ALL DOOMED! we managed fine without oil not so long ago and we can learn to manage without it again, the only worry is how long and how difficult this learning process will be.

Basically all the panic is "WESTERN WORLD MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT CHANGE NOT OF ITS OWN DESIGN" and it's being sold as the apocalypse to give people something to worry about.
Job done.

[Kingboy_D]

In 20/50/100 years, depending on who you ask, the oil may 'run out', meaning the way the West runs will have to change.
Sure, I'm sure there would be chaos if we went about it in the wrong way, but the scenario surely involves a change to the way life is at present rather than DOOMED! WE'RE ALL DOOMED! we managed fine without oil not so long ago and we can learn to manage without it again, the only worry is how long and how difficult this learning process will be.

The purpose is not to say "we're all doomed" it's to say "we're going to face some pretty fucking rough times if we don't change our ways and invest in sustaible energey resources immediately". No, it won't be the end of the world, but it will probably be a crisis akin to the Great Depression or maybe the Second World War, none of which were apocalyptic, but none of which were a really good laugh either. I think you may be more comfortable with dismissing it as the ravings of nutjobs becase automatically that means there is no credibility to the claims. Unfortunately the claims come from some of the most qualified people in the fields. Oh well.

Basically all the panic is "WESTERN WORLD MUST LEARN TO ACCEPT CHANGE NOT OF ITS OWN DESIGN" and it's being sold as the apocalypse to give people something to worry about.

Ok, so do you see the goverment making any really intensive efforts to invest in sustainible energy? Ok then, could you live without, running water, electricity, gas and cook'd and bomb'd? I suspect the answer is no, in which case it is sensible to be concerned about our total inability to accept and prepare for change, which is what the threads are about. Not armageddon.

There's a lot of these "end of the world" threats* around at the moment, but looking back through history there always has been. Whether our modern ones are more scary because we base them on scientific observations is very questionable.

Yeah because the world has been so stable for the past few thousand years, not one crisis or anything. Except hang on, there's been fucking tons of them.

People though it was the end of the world on the runup to the Crusades, the Napoleonic Wars, WW1 etc, none of them were correct of course but they were catalysts for radical change. The 'End of the World' is a psychological archetype for sudden and radical cultural change due to the accumulation of threatning outside environmental factors. We believe this 'world'* will last forever, and it won't

*world = our daily routine, stable social lifestyles, predictble cultural environment etc

[Tom U4EA]

I'd get a sniper rifle and sit in a tower and pick people off running about the streets looting things... add an extra dimension to the carnage...

[Capuchin]

The purpose is not to say "we're all doomed" it's to say "we're going to face some pretty fucking rough times if we don't change our ways and invest in sustaible energey resources immediately". No, it won't be the end of the world, but it will probably be a crisis akin to the Great Depression or maybe the Second World War, none of which were apocalyptic, but none of which were a really good laugh either. I think you may be more comfortable with dismissing it as the ravings of nutjobs becase automatically that means there is no credibility to the claims. Unfortunately the claims come from some of the most qualified people in the fields. Oh well.

Perhaps I was being a little flippant, but I was trying to highlight the difference between the end of human life as we know it and something else. These scenarios involve something else. I'm not dismissing anything apart form the matter of over-emphasis, perhaps. It's clear that we're not going to be able to carry on like this, sooner or later. I just dipute the idea that the end of the way things are done now is the end in general.

Ultimately I'm concerned that the more things are reported as apocalyptic and are actually less so, when something absoutely fucking dreadful is on the horizon it'll be that much harder to get the momentum going in order to deal with it. Perhaps.

Ok, so do you see the goverment making any really intensive efforts to invest in sustainible energy? Ok then, could you live without, running water, electricity, gas and cook'd and bomb'd? I suspect the answer is no, in which case it is sensible to be concerned about our toal inability to accept and prepare for change, which is what the threads are about. Not armageddon.

Yes, I could live without them. Though there'd be unheard of levels of complaining and whingeing to anyone within earshot.

However, I do think the fact that many governments, especially the 'western' ones, have such pitiful records of research and practice concerning sustainable energy is absolutely fucking insane.
Every time I mention it I hear similar arguments about it being inefficient, not cost effective and such. There seems to be a tendency to totally ignore the fact that we have no choice. It's been accepted for decades that fossil fuels will run out, but our elected representatives seem to be dragging their feet.
What fucking excuse is there?

What I never understand is that those in power in governments and oil companies and such, largely responsible for dragging us into this mess, are all human too, so why are they doing it? There must be a point where money can't save them from climatic catastrophe?
Cuh.

[Smackhead Kangaroo]

What do you think all the cultists, weirdoes and people wearing tinfoil hats do when the time comes, goes and is never heard from again? All those people with suicide pacts must feel pretty stupid. Well they would I mean. if they weren't dead.

[king mob]

What do you think all the cultists, weirdoes and people wearing tinfoil hats do when the time comes, goes and is never heard from again? All those people with suicide pacts must feel pretty stupid. Well they would I mean. if they weren't dead.

I have a vision of the scene in Independence Day where the alien ships death ray blasts them into oblivion with a look of "Oh?!" on their faces.

[Macerate and Petrify]

I'm all for a dead walking the earth zombie apocalypse, at last I could claim that all that time spent playing computer games was put to good use. It would be just like in resident evil, I can guarantee it. Thankfully I live next to a fort and about half a mile from a castle so i'll be nice and safe, sipping wine on the battlements while people flee the population centres.

Of course, if it is like resident evil i'd probably have to find three fucking emblems to get in the fort in the first place.

[Citizen Erased]

Continual scare-mongering about the end of the world is a clever marketing ploy by a conglomerate  of companies that control 90% of the total Market CAP for Consumer Spending (the top 500 to be precise)... They meet in car parks and bribe scientists to reveal bogus 'near-misses' to the populace in order to make us apathetic towards the end of days. Having resided ourselves to certain doom and damnation in the next week/ month/ year/ decade/ century/ millennium, the concept of racking up severe un-secured personal debt and spending it on gifts for our own purpose and thus lining the pockets of the aforementioned corporate rapists via a vastly increased revenue.......

.....we'll be here for ages yet, you'll see... In answer to the question though, I'd like to be heavily submersed in some extravagant narcotic-fuelled porn frenzy and surrounded by naked female flesh whilst being rubbed vigorously with baby oil to achieve sexual gratification.....

[Sherringford Hovis]

Bring it on.

If I'm not killed in the first few minutes of whatever catastrophe awaits us , I'm afraid to say that I'd actually welcome society, commerce, law and all that other bullshit to come crashing down. This isn't a pose brought on by watching Mad Max too many times or anything: I've been quite ashamed of my feeling this way in the past, but I've come to terms with it because as the years go by, as I realise more and more that the world is just so full of tossers that I can't bring myself to care. I know I bang on about ethical products and somewhat socialist politics on here, but that's more of a mask than anything. The only way my worldview would work would be if everyone in the entire world was an irriligious Gardian reader who didn't mind paying 75% tax. My life is a constant battle to touch up the thin veneer of civilization that I must adopt to live outside of solitary confinement and a chemical straightjacket, so I welcome any scenario that means that I can remove my inhibitions and act exactly as I please. Maybe you think that makes my a psychopath (in the true sense of the word), but I feel that I genuinely love my dog and Mrs Hovis (probably in that order), so I'm probably not: under the formal strictures of psychiatry, it looks like Noddy Holder was right: EVERYONE's crazy now.

I look forward to eating YOUR tasty flesh crisped to crackling perfection over a burning pile of £50 notes - though I'll probably look pretty silly the following week when order is restored though.

[edit - less craziness and drooling]

[Nearly Annually]

Rape and pillage, naturally. Easy on the pillage.

I've always wondered in a four minute warning if I'd go for one four minute rape or two two minute ones. Or with all the extra adrenaline, could I manage four oners? If it's anything like my posting, I'll go for quantity. If you do both holes, is that two rapes, or one? You'd have to optimise. I've got the company call centre next door - they're all ugly, but they're women.

There's a lot of these "end of the world" threats around at the moment, but looking back through history there always has been. Whether our modern ones are more scary because we base them on scientific observations is very questionable.

In fact, whether our modern philosophies in general are any more valid because we base them on scientific observations is very questionable... < runs away doing a Woody Woodpecker laugh >

[terrorist]

I'd start smoking again.

chances are I wouldn't have the right change in my pocket though and would spend the last moments of our races existence queing at the bar.  Or maybe trying to light those paper matches.

[Cerys]

I'm waiting for somebody, possibly the US, to announce a (non-existent) impending asteroid, let utter chaos reign for a while, and then 'destroy' the asteroidy threat in time to be adulated worldwide....

[monkhouse terror]

I posted this site on the old 'cool links' thread and many people said they liked it, I spent a whole afternoon reading it myself. It's a little collection of end-of-the-world scenarios. A lot of them are quite entertaining really so go on, treat yourself:

Exit Mundi

[Lt Plonker]

I don't know what I'd do. I'm not sure if I'd lose my inhibitions in a crisis like that or not. I was going to post an hilarious reply about me going out to a club with 'I don't want to die a virgin.' stamped on my t-shirt, but I'm not sure I'd have the guts, despite their being being no consequences to my actions. I'd probably get drunk then go round the club begging.

I'd be up for a bit of karaoke, though. Oh yes.

[Alberon]

Look at you, puffing your chest and acting the loon.

The article says it was 30m wide, and would cause local devastation.
Of course, as a point of comparison they said "Potentially, the loss of life could have been much worse than 11 September. "
So similar to a bad natural disaster in a third world country with limited emergency resources.

If I remember correctly, since they realised it was going to miss us they've discovered that it is, in fact, 500m across.

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

[Capuchin]

Look at you, puffing your chest and acting the loon.

The article says it was 30m wide, and would cause local devastation.
Of course, as a point of comparison they said "Potentially, the loss of life could have been much worse than 11 September. "
So similar to a bad natural disaster in a third world country with limited emergency resources.

If I remember correctly, since they realised it was going to miss us they've discovered that it is, in fact, 500m across.

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

Quiet! Or someone will make a film of it!

[fanny splendid]

[elderford]

Well done fanny.

[Brigadier Pompous]

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

Yes, but  the percantage of the Earths surface covered with cities is very small when compared the the amount of deserts/oceans/etc...

In fact, it would be fantastically unlucky for a large asteroid to strike a city.

[Citizen Erased]

I'm waiting for somebody, possibly the US, to announce a (non-existent) impending asteroid, let utter chaos reign for a while, and then 'destroy' the asteroidy threat in time to be adulated worldwide....

Hmmm... Now that sounds like a great idea for a film plot...

[Brigadier Pompous]

Well done fanny.

Yeah, curse all those evil amateur astronomers searching for asteroids, they are all in the pay of the nasty americans and their filthy corporate lucre.

[Speciality meat product]

Well, I reckon that unless the amateur astronomer is equipped to deal with the asteroid, then he should keep the information to himself. There's no point scaring us.

[Brigadier Pompous]

Well, I reckon that unless the amateur astronomer is equipped to deal with the asteroid, then he should keep the information to himself. There's no point scaring us.

If you spent half your life in a darkened room peering at things through a telescope, and then actually found something, you'd want to tell people about it too...

[mook]

I wouldn't, that lady across the roads husband would kill me.

[king mob]

Look at you, puffing your chest and acting the loon.

The article says it was 30m wide, and would cause local devastation.
Of course, as a point of comparison they said "Potentially, the loss of life could have been much worse than 11 September. "
So similar to a bad natural disaster in a third world country with limited emergency resources.

If I remember correctly, since they realised it was going to miss us they've discovered that it is, in fact, 500m across.

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

Quiet! Or someone will make a film of it!

Yes but we would have Morgan Freeman as President and Liv Tyler would be all over you like a rash.

[Alberon]

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

Yes, but  the percantage of the Earths surface covered with cities is very small when compared the the amount of deserts/oceans/etc...

In fact, it would be fantastically unlucky for a large asteroid to strike a city.

True. the three impacts in the 20th were in Tunguska, South America and the Middle East. None hit populated areas. Potentially, I suppose several more could have hit water, though how big the waves generated by that would be I don't know.

If anything like that had happened in the Cold War though it might be misinterpreted as an off-course nuke. Apparently missile detection systems were always being confused by much smaller meteors exploding in the upper atmosphere.

[king mob]

In the 20th century there were three city-killer sized asteroids or similar that hit the Earth. We're overdue for the next one. There is fantastic footage of an asteroid skimming the atmosphere in the seventies. I suppose we're very lucky that a city-killer didn't hit during the height of the cold war.

Yes, but  the percantage of the Earths surface covered with cities is very small when compared the the amount of deserts/oceans/etc...

In fact, it would be fantastically unlucky for a large asteroid to strike a city.

True. the three impacts in the 20th were in Tunguska, South America and the Middle East. None hit populated areas. Potentially, I suppose several more could have hit water, though how big the waves generated by that would be I don't know.

If anything like that had happened in the Cold War though it might be misinterpreted as an off-course nuke. Apparently missile detection systems were always being confused by much smaller meteors exploding in the upper atmosphere.

But if we allign the misshhile platformsh we can blow it out the shky.