This planet will self-destruct in 10 seconds...

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
Anyone else think the world might be coming to an end or is it just going through a rough patch? Everybody's heard this sort of thing before but I just want to get some opinions about what the hell is going on. Terrorist attacks becoming more frequent, the planet tearing itself apart with earthquakes, me not winning a single game on RHP... Surely all this m ...[text shortened]... being the unfortunate subjet. I'm just scared about what the punch-line is gonna be...

Rough patch? What rough patch?
Do you have any evidence for your unsubstantiated claims that Terrorist attacks becoming more frequent, the planet tearing itself apart with earthquakes? Or are you just young enough not to remember worse times?
I think if proper analysis is done it would be found that the human condition is generally improving world wide and that natural disasters though not changing significantly in frequency tend to have far less impact on humans than in the past (though the increase in population should be taken into account).

Originally posted by twhitehead
Rough patch? What rough patch?
Do you have any evidence for your unsubstantiated claims that Terrorist attacks becoming more frequent, the planet tearing itself apart with earthquakes? Or are you just young enough not to remember worse times?
I think if proper analysis is done it would be found that the human condition is generally improving world wide ...[text shortened]... act on humans than in the past (though the increase in population should be taken into account).

Ok, maybe I am too young to know what WWII or apartheid were like but you can't deny that since 9/11, things have gradually been getting worse(The London bombings, not to mention the suicide attacks in Iraq on U.S soldiers and Iraqi civillians, the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and most recently the terrorist plot of using liquid explosives on planes). Maybe I'm not as versed as you are in the intricate workings of global politics, but would that not constitute a more dangerous climate than one of say perhaps 8 years ago? Also, were there really as many natural diasters occuring as frequently any other time in history than now? You're from Cape Town, maybe you would have heard of the flooding in the Karoo. To all who read this, feel free to enlighten me with information deeming my claims to be nothing more than words of paranoia and that while things aren't as bad as WWII, tell me why we're actually living in a really exciting time.

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
Anyone else think the world might be coming to an end or is it just going through a rough patch? Everybody's heard this sort of thing before but I just want to get some opinions about what the hell is going on. Terrorist attacks becoming more frequent, the planet tearing itself apart with earthquakes, me not winning a single game on RHP... Surely all this m being the unfortunate subjet. I'm just scared about what the punch-line is gonna be...

Sometimes the world isn't such a nice place, after all. It's as simple as that.
B.
Edit: G'night!

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
Well, my guess is that the planet still has some life left in it but considering how humans shorten that life- span with the things they do best (breeding, pollution, and killing), I reckon that mother Gaia may be dying more quickly than we give ourselves credit. For the record, I don't hate anyone, except snobs and maths teachers.

I hate no one.My enemies are not worth the effort it takes to hate.So I pity them,yet when the time comes to slay them,I shall do so without remorse or hesitiation.That comes from years of slitting throats in the packing plant. 😞

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
Ok, maybe I am too young to know what WWII or apartheid were like but you can't deny that since 9/11, things have gradually been getting worse(The London bombings, not to mention the suicide attacks in Iraq on U.S soldiers and Iraqi civillians, the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and most recently the terrorist plot of using liquid explosives on planes) ...[text shortened]... things aren't as bad as WWII, tell me why we're actually living in a really exciting time.

bad things happen, for variouse reasons they tend to happen in bunches, the same aplies to good things, and for that matter just things. if this is a rough patch WWII was a force 6 hurricane, of the 6 billion people on the planet, the number killed by terrorism is patheticaly small and is undetectable on a human population graph, unlike the two world wars which are easily visible, a terrorism obsessed media (and public) means that things get blown out of all proportion, a flash flood in england that kills 5 people gets hours of coverage and many followups to show how the people are 'rebuilding' there lives and homes, a flash flood in indonesia killing hundreds if not thousands gets one five minute mention, and just have a look at the difference in coverage difference between the few thousand deaths to civilians and soldiors of the west on 9/11 and after, and in iraq and afganistan, compared to the coverage of the hundred thousand (mostly civilians) or more killed (by us) and the millions of people displaced, and homes destroyed, there are troubled times ahead for certain, (no, not terrorism, climate change, water and food shortage, plus running out of oil and asociated wars), but the problems are solvable, and one way or another we will come out the other side, even a general nuclear war, is unlikely to wipe humanity out completly (it would however kill billions, destroy the world as we know it, and be generaly a bad thing). most of the hassle, bother, disruption and fear in this country is caused by our own government and police forces inept and authoritarian atempts to deal with the terroists, in fact to cause masive disruption and chaos to our transport systems a potential terorist doesn't need to bother going to all the trouble of actually blowing stuff up, they simply need to send of a letter threatening to blow one up, our own security forces will take care of the rest. most of us however don't have any trouble with terrorists, but do have a problem with drunken louts pissing in the street and making a racket at 2 in the morning, but then people were complaing about that and how the world was falling apart in the 11 century, so I wouldn't worry too much. In short, the world isn't going to end, and right now you have (if you are in a 'developed' country) pretty much never had it so good, If action is taken now to deal with the aformentioned problems, there is no physical reason why this should not continue to be, and life quality get even higher.

Originally posted by googlefudge
bad things happen, for variouse reasons they tend to happen in bunches, the same aplies to good things, and for that matter just things. if this is a rough patch WWII was a force 6 hurricane, of the 6 billion people on the planet, the number killed by terrorism is patheticaly small and is undetectable on a human population graph, unlike the two world war ...[text shortened]... no physical reason why this should not continue to be, and life quality get even higher.

Nicely said 'fudge. I guess the media is just good at what it does best: Highlighting bad news (It sells). As a species, I think humans have a natural disposition towards violence although we try to hide it. The planet still has a few billion years left in it and it's history has proven that no species is absolute so while we may not disappear anytime soon, I doubt we'll hang around long enough to see our world experience its final days.

Our Solarsystem just changed the zodiac sign.
Therefore we are influenced by other natural forces.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Rough patch? What rough patch?
Do you have any evidence for your unsubstantiated claims that Terrorist attacks becoming more frequent, the planet tearing itself apart with earthquakes? Or are you just young enough not to remember worse times?
I think if proper analysis is done it would be found that the human condition is generally improving world wide ...[text shortened]... act on humans than in the past (though the increase in population should be taken into account).

I would be inclined to agree. The problems in the world have not changed, rather, they are simply on a larger scale. In regards to the prophecies of Revelation, however, you kids ain't seen nothin yet. I think we can all agree, however, that apacolyptic scenerios are much easier to fulfill today than in times past. Simply look at humanities increased technological advancements in weaponary to see this.

Originally posted by whodey
I would be inclined to agree. The problems in the world have not changed, rather, they are simply on a larger scale. In regards to the prophecies of Revelation, however, you kids ain't seen nothin yet. I think we can all agree, however, that apacolyptic scenerios are much easier to fulfill today than in times past. Simply look at humanities increased technological advancements in weaponary to see this.

So are you saying that our interpretation of when the Revelation prophecies will occur largely depend on how bad a state the world is in at any particular point in time? ("Oh no, America nuked Japan! This must be the end of the world!" or "Israel and Lebanon are destroying each other! Look out everyone, Judgement Day is coming!"😉

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
Ok, maybe I am too young to know what WWII or apartheid were like but you can't deny that since 9/11, things have gradually been getting worse(The London bombings, not to mention the suicide attacks in Iraq on U.S soldiers and Iraqi civillians, the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and most recently the terrorist plot of using liquid explosives on planes) ...[text shortened]... things aren't as bad as WWII, tell me why we're actually living in a really exciting time.

Actually I remember bush seniors iraq war and many people at the time talking about the start of ww3. Never happened. The problem it seems is that your understanding of world events is strongly biased to the west. Why mention the london bombings when what happened in madrid and india killed far more people? do you remember rwanda? have you forgoten the vietnam war?
Israel has never been peacefull as far as I know and I see no signs that it is particularly violent at present. Sadam killed lots of iraqi's why is it different if americans are doing it?
Most of africa is more peacefull than in the past and there is significant hope that the trend will continue. The cold war is over. In general the world is a better, safer place.
Make a list of all recent natural disasters and all natural disasters of a similar size in the last two centuries and you will find no significant increase.
flooding in the karoo? nothing new. some years back there were masive floods in mozambique which were much worse. I remember reports of masive floods in europe too.
Sanfransico is over due for a big earthquake surely thats a sign that disasters are less frequent?
The international media biases it reports depending on the number of americans and europeans affected. Watch the chinese news from time to time and you will get a different picture.
The news is not a good source of statistics.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Actually I remember bush seniors iraq war and many people at the time talking about the start of ww3. Never happened. The problem it seems is that your understanding of world events is strongly biased to the west. Why mention the london bombings when what happened in madrid and india killed far more people? do you remember rwanda? have you forgoten the vi ...[text shortened]... ime to time and you will get a different picture.
The news is not a good source of statistics.

I'm not biased to the west. I gave those examples because those were the ones I'm most familiar with. Of course I remember Rwanda and Vietnam, I did projects on them this year for varsity.

The media places importance on subjects and society accepts them as such (America: Most powerful country in the world, a thousand die in a terrorist attack= global coverage for the simple reason that that sort of thing is now believed by society to be of utmost importance thanks to media influence; India: Third world country, a million die in a similar way= just another tick on the checkist of "Other places in the world affected by terrorism", now for the weather).

As for Americans kiling Iraqi's vs Saddam doing the same thing, the important thing to remember here is "context". If a dictator kills a million people in a country, that's already been established as a norm (Hitler) but if an invading country did the same thing, voila, instant international uproar. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why.

Ok, I admit I exaggerated on the natural disasters thing so I'll just accept that hurricanes, floods and earthquakes provide climatologists with work and that their frequency may not have changed all that much since Noah said that it looked like rain.

I don't want to turn this into a debate, all I wanted was a few opinions but if that means that I have to deal ith the odd argument, so be it.
BTW: If the news is not a good source of stats, what is?

Originally posted by D3vilBoy
BTW: If the news is not a good source of stats, what is?

No-where convenient, which is perhaps something people should be more concerned about.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Thats for sure, the earth can get along fine with out the uh, 'help' of humans. It might take a few million years to get over the human hangover though.

Not that long IMO. If you think about how little time it's taken nature to get rid of virtually all traces of civilizations which have disappeared (Mayans, etc), then think about our freeways and buildings overcome by natuarl elements. how long would it take the wind, rain, and vegetation to overtake and destroy a freeway, for example? 100 years? 500?