Well, ok. Let's just say that many other concerns earn a sense of proportion in light of this. Looks like warm clothes are in order. At least you can stay warm while starving to death.

Seriously . . . and that was seriously, our world could become our graveyard (it eventually does anyway), with little left but our prayers and the testing of a latent altruism to lead us unto death. This possible future is one we all share. Sometimes when I've had a pleasant chat with some customer service person over one of my concerns, as we're hanging up the phone I realize: I'll never speak to this person again, and want to have said "Have a good life," instead of simply "Goodbye."

Humbling. Very humbling.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4326987.stm

Yep. Could happen.

More likely . . .

- the western part of California falls into the ocean;

- another major hurricane strikes the Gulf Coast;

- an F5 tornado strikes a major metropolitan area;

- a terrorist group nukes a major city, sending the economy into a tumble.

Remember the Cold War days, when we were just so certain that the US and USSR would have a nuclear shoot-out. I recall in 1976, when I married, wondering if it was a good thing to bring children into such a world.

Somehow, with all the possible terrible things that might happen, we have to live as though we will have another day, and make our plans as though we will be there to carry them out. The mind cannot seem to function properly otherwise.

I agree. This piece I saw on PBS didn't so much frighten as humble. There's a kind of solidarity in that, somehow, where we share so many basic needs and vulnerabilities regardless of other differences.

Of course, if we survive the terrorists, global warming, and geo-thermal disasters, there are always asteroids to worry about.

quote:

It is the stuff of nightmares and, until now, Hollywood thrillers. A huge asteroid is on a catastrophic collision course with Earth and mankind is poised to go the way of the dinosaurs.

To save the day, Nasa now plans to go where only Bruce Willis has gone before. The US space agency is drawing up plans to land an astronaut on an asteroid hurtling through space at more than 30,000 mph. It wants to know whether humans could master techniques needed to deflect such a doomsday object when it is eventually identified. The proposals are at an early stage, and a spacecraft needed just to send an astronaut that far into space exists only on the drawing board, but they are deadly serious. A smallish asteroid called Apophis has already been identified as a possible threat to Earth in 2036.

- http://www.guardian.co.uk/scie...y/0,,1950258,00.html

I hope Bruce Willis and the gang are still up to it by then.