Gamma Ray Burst Visible with Eyes, No Telescope Needed

Ah, doesn't this make you feel all warm and cozy inside? Gamma rays burst and you don't need any special tools to see it! Kind of makes them seem extra dangerous don't they? It does raise a question, are we noticing them more now because we're looking for them, or are they too picking up in frequency? Ok, maybe not "frequency" as this one was 7.5 billion years old (the earth wasn't even here when it happened). If you look for something, maybe you'll just find it. But then with the Mayan Calendar "ending" in 2012, and all these exciting things going on, almost makes you wonder.

Almost that is. Personally I'd love to have a near miss of a burst, just once, just to see what it'd look like. The rioting would be about as amazing as the churches being overrun by the "so-called" religious that never visited before. I think I'd be more partial to an asteroid myself… that or a massive volcanic eruption. Something that gives so much warning that we may or may not know the exact day of the end; but just enough for people to show their true selves.

Gamma Rays

Just another way the world might be in a world of hurt. Only now it seems to be big in the news as well. Astronomers at the University of Sydney apparently found a binary star ready to go supernova, and it's pointed at us. To top it all off, it's only 8000 light years away! Well, on a galactic scale that's just down the street. Apparently the swirling appearance the star has proves we're looking right at the tail (poles?), more or less, so if a gamma ray were to be sent out, the earth could likely be hit. Scientists have apparently decided that a gamma ray burst about 6500 light years away could strip the earth's ozone layer (although I believe I've seen "strip the earth of its atmosphere" mentioned as well), thereby ending almost all life or all life.

Know what? Sure sounds like a "Jesus has returned" type of thing. Everyone on the planet would see it at the same moment and life would end as the people would be shoved into the heavens (or pummeled into the ground, vaporized, whatever). And now we've got proof it could happen! Although I doubt many religious people think Jesus and God are stars in a solar system. Or maybe it's just another little thing that could end all life that only now are people noticing and being told exist. The only real question is, if it happened, would we even notice? If death happened in a millisecond (total, brain dead, no chance for "near death" experiences so to speak), would anyone even realize it?

All I know is if you see a sign on the road telling you that interstate 666 is up ahead for all lanes -- it's probably over.

Privacy?

Got privacy?

Depending on how you define privacy, the answer can vary. Just by looking at this post you've just given the following information: your browser, your os, your IP, your general location and town, your language, your internet speed, how you got here, how long you spent here, whether you have Java, JavaScript and flash version. But not just to this domain, but also the web hosting company, Google, blogger, and the site that you were on before here and now. If you post some horrible thing and the FBI gets involved, you'd of started the process of giving out all your other information (since the FBI would be looking into everything).

That's a lot of information you're giving out isn't it? Not really. If you don't give your IP, there's no way to know who's requested the information. Most people in the world (most likely) use IE, Firefox, Safari, or Opera to browse the web. You've either got a dial-up or broadband/DSL connection. Most of the information involved is so general, that it could apply to one of a million people. I could say you're male and be right almost 50% of the time.

But everyone to an extent is so worried about their privacy. True, people would like to think that what they do won't be known to the "wrong people" or even government. People expect their phone calls to be unmonitored, their e-mails not to be read by others, even their postal mail to go unread except by the intended recipient. They don't even want machines to look into it, of course the second they find out that some evil plot could've been avoided had people of known of phone calls, mail, e-mail, etc, they're up in arms over it wondering why the government didn't step in.

But let's just think about the overall privacy of things shall we (everything following is USA based, just change the terms for your country if it applies)….

Got a SSN (social security number)? Do you know who has it? Every hospital, doctor, credit card company, utility, some superintendents (the people who rent your place), employers, schools, banks, car rental and dealerships, stores, library, video rental place…. Oh yeah, and your state and federal governments. The only people who don't have your SSN are your friends and family, you know the people you "trust"? People are so concerned about their privacy yet they give the one piece of information (their SSN) out to everyone so they can get credit checks, background reports, etc (and most times, it is done for these purposes) -- yet they're all worried that a website can find out what state they live in. Let's see… landlord knowing every credit card you own and the balance on them vs. some unknown person knowing what state you live in (or possibly city if your ISP is actually in your home town).

Kind of puts things in perspective doesn't it? Exactly why does anyone (other than places that give you money) actually need your SSN? Credit reports? They're trying to get a "likelihood to pay a doctor credit report" that you'd have to get checked before any medical treatment (and they're sure that doctors won't treat people differently because of it! [so um, why's it needed then?]). Bad credit? Maybe you were unemployed after an accident or injury and bills piled up. Now you can't get a job because of not having a job; can't afford car insurance (since it's based on credit history) since you don't have a job; can't get a job elsewhere since you don't have a car to get to that job; can't move to another town because the landlord will pull your credit history --and all because people get to collect your SSN to run these checks. Do they ever ask why you have a bad credit history? Nope, doesn't matter, they'll just find someone else that has a better one.

But do people complain about this? Of course not! Why complain, it's just a number! Yet people will complain about their search history being made public, or even their phone number being listed online. Everyone's just a number anymore. We're all marked by a number or two or a dozen -- and many of them are tied to our SSN. It's probably the #1 privacy breach out there, yet if you don't provide it, you'll get nothing. Funny isn't it? Isn't the "recognized only by a number, and can't buy/sell things without it" one of the signs of the biblical end of the world?

What are the signs of the end of the world? Or even still, the end of time?

When you start to think about it you realize that the end of the world and the end of time are two different things in a sense. The end of time is more of a universal thing (the actual universe), whereas the end of the world is just that, our world. Religions, philosophers, shamans, prophets, and even "nut cases" (you know, those on the street corners with the signs as we so often think of t hem) all have their own ideas and times as when the world will end. And the thing is, they don't entirely all agree on how or when. But pretty much they all would agree that sometime, eventually, the world will end and probably the universe too.

So how will the world end? Will the end of the world come at the finger of a man controlling the nuke button? Will the end of the world come with a natural space-born disaster such as an asteroid? Perhaps the world will end when our sun expand? Maybe the world will end when a deity will return to earth? When it happens, it won't really matter -- that'll be it. But what does matter is how people prepare for it. And what's not too surprising is the preparations are the same no matter what you believe. Even if you believe that God will return, there's no reason not to prepare for an asteroid impact! It's perfectly likely that we'll have another one. We've had thousands in the past, and they haven't stopped yet.

It doesn't really take that much effort to prepare (as much as any human without government funds at least). Really, everyone should be doing this as it is anyway! And it's quite simple:

• Stock up on canned foods -- rotate the stock, but always keep at least 6 months supply on hand (with rationing at the least).
  
• Stock up on bottled water (or if you can find out how, bottle your own).
  
• Get battery-powered devices, "green" power (solar panels & small wind turbines), and power generators
  
• Keep a can opener and some "camping" cooking utensils by the food
  
• Keep an "emergency" food and first aid kit in every car (even if just simple camping stuff), AND at your workplace at your desk
  

Now the first time you buy the stuff, you're going to have a huge bill compared to normal. After all, you are buying enough canned goods for 6 months (assuming you eat only 1 canned item per day, that's 180 cans for one person; 300-360 for two [sharing cans], etc). And that's a LOT of cans! They'll take up the majority of anyone's pantry. It's probably best to also buy a commercial food cart to store the foods on. They come in different sizes, are designed for food storage, meet food service guidelines, many/most times are on wheels, and they're designed to hold 500-2000lbs. Why bottled water? They'll be a shortage, or just the tap will be undrinkable (not to mention high prices in stores).

Well the second the world's coming to an end (like an asteroid or some other problem) what do you think will happen? People will rush to the stores. And if you're lucky, really, really lucky the governments will put a lock on all prices before all the goods sell out. And they will. Pop, water and canned goods will be gone within minutes of an announcement. People will rush to the streets to get to the stores. Now if you stock up in advance, you'll be fine! No need to rush to the store, no need to even leave the house. All you'll need to do is make sure others don't know you have food (otherwise they'll probably break in to steal it, killing you and your family in the process). And don't let the religious people or any "good natured" people fool you. When the world comes to an end, people will revert to animalistic "kill or be killed" instincts. Your friend today will be enemy the second the world's end is near.

But it is very, very important to cycle the foods! Keep on shopping as normal. Buy foods to replenish those eaten, just put the new cans in the back -- remember oldest goods get eaten first (so push the goods forward, and stock the back). The same goes for water! Water can't be saved forever; it has an expiration date (for one reason or another). So treat it just like the other foods.

And even if the end doesn't hit in your lifetime (even though I'm betting something really "world ending" will happen by 2060), being stocked up on food is good for any "minor" disaster such as earthquake, flood, tornado, volcano, etc. And the thing is, you'll actually be eating the food, so it's not like you're wasting money (so much). Even if the government does the right thing when the end of the world's announced, by having food stores for people, do you really think they'll have enough for everyone in the country to eat for six months? Of course not! For one they figure many of the people will die. But no matter what, you'll be forced to eat whatever they give you without choice (any religion-based diets, vegetarians, etc would be pretty much, well, screwed). By stocking up now, you'll be prepared for the world's end when it happens.

But for the end of time, in a universal aspect, there's not much you could do. On the plus side, most likely no one will be around to see it. So end of time, end of the world, world's end, end of existence, extinction level event (ELE "ellie") -- whatever you want to call it, it's time to be prepared. I personally don't believe in using guns. You have a gun, neighbor has a gun, comes down to using guns the winner's the best shot or just the one who pulls the trigger first -- and really, when all life might be ending a person's survival instinct will cause them to charge a man (or woman) will a fully loaded shotgun if that person has what they need. Why? While you might shoot them (and they'd die), if they don't, they'd die; but if they charge and you miss, they live.

Now there's a lot more for the end of the world stuff that needs to be done. Much, much more. But for now I'll end it here. I have detailed plans for everything needed to survive during an end of the world event, or at the least survive longer than others, that everyone can do. And if implemented, could save the lives of almost everyone not at ground zero for the event. Of course, extinction level event method greatly influences this (i.e. planet-sized asteroid impacting = kiss butt goodbye [food or no food], small meteor striking the earth = potential for survival of almost everyone).

End of the world. Yes, the end really is near. 2012-2060

The end is near.

I'm not even talking about all those doomsday people that go around saying "the end is near!" and have been since the beginning of time. Nor am I talking about the Mayan civilization that marked the end as being December 21, 2012 (since they also said time would exist after, so if time exists after, it can't really be "the end"). Nor am I talking about Newton and the end of the world in 2060 (who some say the figure was based on religion, not science).

But it's close.

The world as we know it will end between 2012 and 2060; and after that, humans will either band together, or be like all the thousands of other animals that used to be here -- extinct.

What it's based on is just a simple prediction of probability. We're designing new and improved ways of killing ourselves off and record speeds. We haven't had a volcanic eruption (major one) in many, almost hundreds of years. We're overdue or just "any time from this second, to a thousand years" away for a major earthquake, island collapse, tsunami, volcanic eruption, meteor or comet impact, or other population reducing planetary event.

Not to mention global warming melting the ice caps which cause the earth to release methane gas (a global warming compound) which causes it to increase even more. Some scientists believe there's as much methane gas buried in ice in the permafrost and oceans as there used to be oil! Or enough to put 10x the current greenhouse gasses into the environment if it melts. Ice melts, oceans rise, land's lost, causing overcrowding and disease in the remaining lands – even less land for food, thereby causing a major reduction in the human population.

And that just assumes that it doesn't increase the intensity of weather, or kill off plants – which it does. So we'll have less to no food, less land, and the same population crowded into smaller areas. That will then be pounded by hurricanes and tornadoes. Some groups all over the world will turn to cannibalism to survive (since animals will either be killed for food, or killed by the lack of food); since humans will be the only food source that'd be "fresh".

Of course, that assumes we even live that long. As soon as the first "yes, the world's really ending" is announced ( as in the day and time is provided – in some cases to the second, others, the week), many people will become religious hoping to get some points in before they die; others will kill themselves and others , some will rape others, and others will just torture and do things – since at that point what's the worst someone could do, end their life a few days early? People will start to do whatever they want without consequence, for they know they're already condemned to die. Some will even joke about it "what are you going to do, kill me?"

And then governments will try to enforce martial law. But at that point, one where people know that everything's going to end (or at least believe it), the military personnel will have a choice: obey the government 'til they die, or go AWOL by going home and protect their family. And which do you really think someone would do? Protect someone from being shot a few minutes before they get killed by an asteroid, or hold their spouse and kids so they can be together when they die?

And it's not if it will happen, but when.

And when is between 2012 and 2060. Within these years the world as we know it will end. For some it will be the end of the world.

The worst part of the end of the world is, in many cases we can potentially prevent it, or just quickly recover and protect most the people from it. Now it depends on what world-ending event were to happen. Asteroids or comets we might be able to divert it entirely; or just evacuate the impact site while building arks throughout all the countries to help save millions/billions. Volcanoes, earthquakes, or other "no warning" types of events will have causalities. Earthquakes are currently completely unpredictable, other than saying an earthquake will hit (they happen somewhere daily, to a small extent). Volcanoes are, somewhat, obvious when they're going to erupt; they give small signs of being active, so the areas can be evacuated. But with them, you still don't know when they're erupt, only that there's an extremely likely chance it'd happen sometime within a few months. But man's impatient. So not everyone leaves, governments don't force people to leave (and actually pay them to do so, since moving does cost money), so people die.

Of course there are end of the world volcanoes on the planet (such as Yellowstone) that give signs of erupting every day! The hot springs, geysers, earthquakes, and land movements of Yellowstone would be the warning signs for other volcanoes; but for Yellowstone, it's just another normal day. At least that's what we believe. Hindsight might say that these too are warning signs, just a few thousand year warning. After all, until it erupts and destroys all the existing things there we'll never know. It's possible that after it erupts, earthquakes subside, and there's no geysers or land movement for hundreds-thousands of years! But it too will erupt again, and we are due.

If it were to go, in a massive scale, it's estimated that it would end the world as we know it. Ash would cover most of the USA in 2 meters (if I remember correctly) of ash. Not to mention the loss of a state, or more accurately, the "moving of the state to cover the world" -- well, technically the state would still exist, it'd just be unpopulated. The ash would cause millions of homes to collapse, killing those inside. Emergency vehicles wouldn't be able to move, since the engines would get blocked with ash, not to mention it's not really easy to drive through a meter high snow-covered road (without a plow), let alone ash which is more dense. Millions would die from the original eruption; millions would die from the ash (breathing it in); millions would die from buildings collapsing from the ash; millions-billions would die from starvation caused by the "nuclear winter" from the ash and gasses in the atmosphere.

It kind of makes you wonder, who's the lucky ones when a massive volcano erupts – the ones that die first without warning, or those that survive everything to keep the world going?

And that's even simplifying it all. The actual result of any world ending event would me much, much worse. It'd be one of those things that Satan itself would say "that's just wrong".

And it will happen. And soon. The world as we know it will end sometime from 2012-2060. It might even happen tomorrow, but what can I say, I'm optimistic. I'll give humanity a bit over four years left to live.

So… how do you want to die today?

Beginning or the End

Everything's been done. Everything's already been said. Nothing is truly new. It's all just a variant of things past.

As life keeps on ticking on, people keep on repeating the same chores day in and day out. Work, eat, sleep. But nothing is ever really done. No matter how much work people do, it's all futile in the end. They get money that's used for food and shelter, and the toys that make life "worth living" but nothing else. Humans have become so dependent upon their technologies that they wouldn't be able to survive if it all were to be wiped out tomorrow.

We may be intelligent. Highly evolved. Perhaps even spiritually advanced. But we are so tied up doing unimportant things that we've forgotten the basic needs of ourselves.

How many of us could start a fire without matches or any other man-made device? Or even grow crops to support our families? Build shelter? How about know how to bend wood to make a wheel? Make the cloth for clothing? Make thread? Shoes? Or even simpler: know which plants can be eaten that grow in the wild, and which can't? How about make brick? Make tools from metals?

These simple things required for all life on the planet have been outsourced to others. Efficient, and allowing people to become more advanced - perhaps. But they aren't even taught anymore. People aren't even aware of the warning signs of a volcano erupting, even a tsunami -- if they were hundreds-thousands wouldn't die what seems to be every time one happens (extenuating circumstances being excluded).

But what will happen when we have a massive volcanic eruption, a so-called super eruption, that sends the planet into massive cooling -- or even an asteroid or comet hitting the planet? And yes, I say when, for it will happen. It has before, it will again. We'll be cut off from our satellites causing a lot of our technology to stop working, or at the least lose a lot of functioning. Crops will start to die off, as well as animals. Power systems will fail taking out heating and cooling systems to billions of people. And what will people do then?

We haven't been trained to know what to do. There's no foraging classes taught that are required. No "keeping warm without power". We can't even imagine living without power. My grandparents didn't live without power, even my great-grandparents had power for most of their lives. Take that away, and we're lost. All work stops, people panic, food spoils. A simple 72 hour power outage can cause a family to lose most of their food. But it's all due to technological advances and people's fast work schedules. Everything has to be "now" or "five minutes ago". Canned foods make up a small portion of many households, replaced in favor of frozen foods -- yet these foods are impervious to power outages. Many can even be eaten without being reheated.

Canning itself is a modern technology too, simple in it's implementation -- yet how many people now even know how to do it?

Everything we have that makes us so advanced will be our downfall. The beginning of every new technology, while a wondrous achievement, just adds to our loss of knowledge. For every advancement, we take steps backward in the simplest of things. And one day, it'll be the collapse of our civilization -- the human civilization.