But we need to save the sum total of all human knowlegde first. What should we salvage first, Wikipedia or Encyclopedia Britannica?
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Ooh, nice! by
on 2009-03-19 11:27:00 UTC
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And you rail at me for wangsting. by
on 2009-03-19 11:23:00 UTC
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Okay, that was only once, and it was for a good cause; but I just can't resist saying that. By the way, all hope isn't lost. After all, we can still prepare for the onslaught. Anyone know Survivalism 101, by any chance?
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does it have to be the only one? by
on 2009-03-19 11:02:00 UTC
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Sure, we've only got one Earth now. Plenty of other places even in the solar system though - how about some cash spent on working out successful ways to get a few colonies started? Then if it all goes tits up here, there's still some of us left to repopulate.
Not that I'd necessarily be in favour of repopulation, because I'm with Trojie on this one, but for those of you who actively don't want to see us all go kaput and have very little faith in our resiliency, it might be something to look into.
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Good mission by
on 2009-03-19 09:59:00 UTC
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I'm glad I've never run into any of that pro-life silliness in any of my fandoms. (though there was this one time when the option of abortion was completely ignored in the fic, though it would have made sense for it to be mentioned)
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No, I have no objections ... by
on 2009-03-19 09:15:00 UTC
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... to the continued survival of the human race, which given I'm a member of it isn't really surprising.
But my point is, if we nuke ourselves to death, we have only ourselves to blame. And if we do, well, it's not exactly the end of the world, in a literal sense, is it?
Basically I think that worrying about it is a useless exercise and so you might as well enjoy what you've got and stop worrying about something you can't control.
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Everything. by
on 2009-03-19 09:12:00 UTC
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That is, unless you're one of the ones that wants the entire human race (at least) to die out entirely. And, since everyone here is human, we will ALL be killed.
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So? What's that to do with the price of peas in Persopolis? (nm) by
on 2009-03-19 07:29:00 UTC
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Yeah, but WE are going to die. by
on 2009-03-19 07:28:00 UTC
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Sure, that means the planet is better off, but still! We're all DEAD.
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Well... by
on 2009-03-19 07:02:00 UTC
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Are you familiar with Pandora? It's a great music discovery website. I've got a few channels there with techno: Daft Punk Radio is, well, Daft Punk (real techno), while Keep Hope Alive Radio is more dance-esque (based around The Crystal Method's work). Dragonstea Din Tei Radio is real electronic dance ('90s, mostly), and E Nomine Radio is some of the fun-ness that happens at the intersection of Gothic Metal, classical choral music, and electronic.
Other music that's less techno but might appear in DoSAT would be E.S. Posthumous and Hyper (see Cascade Radio).
Okay, that's just music I like. But still, it's good music.
Just a note, I am still kinda working on DoSAT stuff. It's very, very backburner thanks to school, work, and life in general, but please don't make additions totally impossible.
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Taking, y'know, the long term view ... by
on 2009-03-19 06:48:00 UTC
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... which is what I do best, I'd like to point out that this is hardly a major perturbation.
Planet's been here for 4.6 billion years. It'll probably manage at least another 4.6 billion years. We've been here less than ten thousand years. Our influence extends maybe three or four miles into the crustal rocks, and up into the atmosphere, maybe the troposphere. And a few bits of space junk. This planet has some FABULOUS feedback systems that mean that, if we were removed, in the blink of a geological eye our influence would dissipate (of course, this doesn't take away from the fact that if we continue doing what we're doing, OTHER fabulous feedback loops will make things considerably worse, but I digress).
Given evolution works how it does, I suspect that another sentient species would arise. Or maybe not. It's not like a planet has to have a sentient species, it took about five hundred million years for us to toddle along, after all :)
Basically, guys, gals and undecided, life goes on. Whatever happens, the sun will keep shining, photosynthesis will keep happening, water will freeze and water will evaporate, sand will move, gravity will hold rocks down ... so why worry? Keep writing, or hey, go outside, look at the sky, see the grass (the most successful organism on the planet, grass), enjoy yourself. You're alive. That's all that matters.
/end serene eccentric scientist warbling.
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I wouldn't be so sure... by
on 2009-03-19 06:31:00 UTC
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Russian rearmament is fairly inevitable - their economy tanked in the 80s and continued going down when the Iron Curtain fell, so military spending dropped fairly significantly. A resurgence is only to be expected, especially with ex-Soviet states starting to have border squabbles. Also, considering the last seven years of American foreign policy, I wouldn't be surprised to see Russia taking a more aggressive hand in international politics.
If it does come to nukes, though, you're probably fine. Soviet-era nuclear doctrine consisted of atomic strikes on nuclear military installations (B-52 bases, sub pens, ICBM silos) and runways long enough to serve nuclear bombers (>11,000 feet, IIRC) in tactically important places. If you live more than ten miles from any of the above, you're not going to be killed by blast effects. While initial fallout will be major (and should be avoided if possible), it's mostly very hot, short-lived particles. In 10 days, radiation levels will drop to 1/10th of the initial, and after another 10 days, it'll be down to 1%. After a month, you're down to background radiation levels except for a couple square miles at each epicenter.
Seen pictures of downtown Hiroshima? It's a thriving city, and grass grows around the ruins of the nuclear war memorial. Admittedly that was a small nuke, but the physics is the same, it's just on a larger scale.
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What the hell does that have to do with anything? by
on 2009-03-19 06:30:00 UTC
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Okay, so what, they're increasing militarization. How does that spell the end of the world, again?
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So, listening to more music as character research by
on 2009-03-19 06:16:00 UTC
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And God Damn, listening to the Decemberists makes me just really want to give their vocalist a HUG or something. He sounds so sad, and he sings about all this really depressing stuff.
Also, any fans of electronica and/or techno: I would much appreciate some suggestions, since I don't know that much about the genre myself.
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Re: Other than sheer insanity/stupidity. by
on 2009-03-19 06:12:00 UTC
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Fine, entertain your doomsday. Even if I did agree with the idea, I can't very well do jack about it, being as I am a poor college student. So I will ignore it and focus on what I can do.
Namely, readin' and writin'.
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Other than sheer insanity/stupidity. by
on 2009-03-19 05:43:00 UTC
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Pretty much everyone who's got nukes is waiting for an excuse to use 'em, and most of them are about to get that excuse, especially with the next Great Depression and Russia going all USSR again. Even if we don't get nuked into oblivion, we'll see a more conventional WW3.
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Nothing funny about the fact that we're all going to die. by
on 2009-03-19 05:42:00 UTC
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Unless you're from the Dr. Strangelove 'verse.
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Re: Now imagine all of those countries launching their nukes. by
on 2009-03-19 05:14:00 UTC
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I would like to think that the world's sanity quotient is higher than that. Pretty much all of the current crop of leaders were born during the Cold War, they know what the specter of nuclear terror looks like. They have no reason to want to resurrect such a nasty ghost.
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Now imagine all of those countries launching their nukes. by
on 2009-03-19 05:11:00 UTC
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Pakistan, India, Iran, Korea, Russia, and the US all launching their nukes would leave nothing left. And the US and Russia alone have enough nukes to reduce the Earth to glowing green rock. Imagine what happens if all the other nuke-happy fellows join in when the big boys start throwing nuclear punches?
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I hope you're deliberately being melodramatic. by
on 2009-03-19 04:59:00 UTC
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That's not funny.
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*raises an index finger dramatically* by
on 2009-03-19 04:45:00 UTC
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Do not fear, my friends! For in that sentence lies our great strength! Nothing is more powerful than friendship! It's the most powerful force in all the universes and beyon--
-gets shot-
Yeah, we're experiencing the warning signs again, aren't we? And history always comes with that irritating tendency to repeat itself. *headwalls* But you know, I don't mean to sound corny or anything, but we, the next generation, are the only ones who can really help at this point. I'm a teenager, adulthood is just beyond my reach, but it's still coming and I can't do a thing to stop it. The previous generation kinda effed things up for us, and it falls on the next set of adults of the world to set things right. In the end, it's all up to us. We humans ended up on this earth, a fact which we can all agree on, no matter what religion we follow or whether we follow one at all, and this earth is the only one we have. We have to take care of it, and we haven't been doing a very good job of it lately. When it all comes down to it, the fate of the world really does rest in our hands. WE decide whether or not we're dead.
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What do you mean, the world isn't glowing? :-P (nm) by
on 2009-03-19 04:40:00 UTC
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Doomsday will come from Pakistan by
on 2009-03-19 04:29:00 UTC
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They have the atomic bomb, and there are many fanatics with nothing to lose standing mere inches from power. And the situation with India, another country with weapons of mass destruction, is quite tense.
What worries me about Russia is not the new weapons they plan to get, but how they will dispose of the old ones. A few million dollars in the right pockets could put something very dangerous in the hands of a terrorist.
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God Damn, you're depressing even me. by
on 2009-03-19 04:12:00 UTC
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Just... just please stop, okay? Please. I don't need to hear this. You sound like a doomsayer sitting on a rock in Israel.
Things will be fine. All right? Things will be fine. Remember that. They have been MUCH worse, and we have been MUCH closer to nuclear armageddon before than now. And the world isn't glowing yet.
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Guess there's no point writing missions anymore. We're dead. by
on 2009-03-19 03:40:00 UTC
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7947824.stm
We're all going to die. First Vietnam II, then Great Depression II, and now World War III. Wish I could say it's been nice knowing you all, but I barely knew most of you. Let's all just hope we die in the initial blast, instead of surviving to be killed by the radiation and such. Makes you wonder if there's even a point in writing PPC things, huh? Heh, I guess technically the PPC would survive, they'd just see a sudden stop of recruits coming from World One.
This is the end, beautiful friend, this is the end, my only friend, the end...