Huge panics and scares that never quite happened

seamus · 09-01-2013 03:20PM

smash wrote: »

And those who made billions putting in these man hours will tell you it would have been ok anyway.

OK in the sense that the world wouldn't have exploded, but there would certainly have been a fun few weeks in January and February 2000 where lots of corporations suffered major computer glitches.

If the issue had been completely ignored, then financially it could have had huge repercussions as stock markets and banking systems went into panic.

Turns out that we only delayed the inevitable by 8 years or so, but at least we couldn't blame it on a software glitch.

CruelCoin · 09-01-2013 03:21PM

1ZRed wrote: »

They are all real panics that happened and are currently happening. AFAIK bird flu is relatively under check and the hole in the ozone layer is slowly healing, but acid rain - acidification of the ocean, and climate change are massive current panics!

Superstorm Sandy was caused by more energy in the atmosphere caused by Global Warming and it's all getting worse and worse because nobody seems to be doing anything to curb Co2 levels, they're just talking about it.

The biggest mistake, and what'll most likely kill us eventually, is pretending it's not as bad as it is. I'm thinking it's too far gone as we get more hungry for resources, and so, Co2 levels keep skyrocketing - regardless of this talk of reducing emissions because it's just not going to dent the amount that's going into the atmosphere now, and in future.
People need to see it as a real and dangerous issue now and not a wind up.

/hippy rant

Dude, short of going back to living in caves and living meal to meal due to a lack of refrigeration, its not going to stop, so chiiill. (Not thats its real anyway, no matter what gore says).

Also, seeing as how 30 of all emissions are caused by flatulent farm animals, what do you propose there? Mandatory veganism?
(Don't you even dare think about taking my steaks away from me!)

1ZRed · 09-01-2013 03:24PM

Gurgle wrote: »

Where did this nugget come from?

(I know this is AH and people trot out any old bollocks that pops into their heads, but still...)

Hotter oceans + more heat = more energy.

Heat is energy, so the more you have the more violent and powerful storms of this type will become as they need heat to form.

Biggins · 09-01-2013 03:25PM

The King of Moo wrote: »

Now listen see, nobody's gonna wanna go to the pictures when they can watch a television set right in their own living room. I tell ya, by 1960 there won't be a movie theatre left in the country!

Wot ya on about!
Those darn movin' pictures thar with sound, they'll never catch on by-gum!

1ZRed · 09-01-2013 03:31PM

CruelCoin wrote: »

Dude, short of going back to living in caves and living meal to meal due to a lack of refrigeration, its not going to stop, so chiiill. (Not thats its real anyway, no matter what gore says).

Also, seeing as how 30 of all emissions are caused by flatulent farm animals, what do you propose there? Mandatory veganism?
(Don't you even dare think about taking my steaks away from me!)

How tf can someone not believe climate change is real? All or effects on the atmosphere have an effect. It's not coincidence or just natural that the temperature of the planet is rising.

The primary solution would be to push for a viable and efficient fuel that doesn't produce Co2. That would be a massive, massive thing and no need to go back to caves as you'd think, but progress in this area is stupidly slow.

iDave · 09-01-2013 03:35PM

After a bit of snow 2 winters ago we were supposed to be plunged into some sort of 10 years cycle of snowy winters.

latenia · 09-01-2013 03:35PM

I was on holiday in Vietnam during the SARS "crisis" and it helped turn it into the best trip ever. It seemed that there was only about 50 tourists in the entire country-between Saigon and Hanoi I kept running into the same people everywhere I went over a month. I was staying in nearly empty 5* hotels for $15 and best of all I was literally the only person in the walled city in Hué apart from the security guard at the gate and a guy in the gift shop.

stevedublin · 09-01-2013 03:36PM

1ZRed wrote: »

Superstorm Sandy was caused by more energy in the atmosphere caused by Global Warming

/hippy rant :P

Nonsense, superstorm Sandy was caused by HAARP to get Obama re-elected

Fits Morris · 09-01-2013 03:38PM

Amazingly enough that climate change thing that was a problem back in the 80s is still actually a problem.

Cabaal · 09-01-2013 03:39PM

Fits Morris wrote: »

Amazingly enough that climate change thing that was a problem back in the 80s is still actually a problem.

Indeed it is, and approx 98% of scientists worldwide agree it is an actual issue.

The media of course would make you believe its closer to only 50% agreeing on it,

Fromthetrees · 09-01-2013 03:40PM

kfallon wrote: »

That fart in town one day when I pushed too hard and was sure I'd followed thru. My jocks didn't stick to me hole so knew I was in the clear, phew!

As one gets older one learns to never trust a fart.

Mr. CooL ICE · 09-01-2013 03:46PM

Aliens from one of Jupiter's moons were living in a lake under Antarctica. Or something like that.

Zillah · 09-01-2013 03:46PM

Gurgle wrote: »

Where did this nugget come from?

(I know this is AH and people trot out any old bollocks that pops into their heads, but still...)

Saying that Global Warming caused the storm is a rather gross simplification, but the idea behind it is sound. That's the whole point of the term "climate change". We heat up the planet, which leads to a more energetic climate, which leads to more extreme weather patterns. We couldn't possibly say that any given storm happened because of climate change, but storms will tend to be more frequent and more destructive the more the planet heats up, yes.

Zillah · 09-01-2013 03:47PM

THAT WHOLE SMALLPOX THING WAS TOTALLY OVERBLOWN

PogMoThoin · 09-01-2013 03:52PM

1ZRed wrote: »

How tf can someone not believe climate change is real? All or effects on the atmosphere have an effect. It's not coincidence or just natural that the temperature of the planet is rising.

The primary solution would be to push for a viable and efficient fuel that doesn't produce Co2. That would be a massive, massive thing and no need to go back to caves as you'd think, but progress in this area is stupidly slow.

Eh, the temperature of this planet has always been changing, a few thousand years ago we had an ice age

Ray Palmer · 09-01-2013 04:01PM

keano_afc wrote: »

Y2K.

Load of hullabuloo.

That would because people spent years fixing the problem before hand. I found a y2k bug a few months ago.

1ZRed · 09-01-2013 04:06PM

Zillah wrote: »

Saying that Global Warming caused the storm is a rather gross simplification, but the idea behind it is sound. That's the whole point of the term "climate change". We heat up the planet, which leads to a more energetic climate, which leads to more extreme weather patterns. We couldn't possibly say that any given storm happened because of climate change, but storms will tend to be more frequent and more destructive the more the planet heats up, yes.

Actually yeah, I agree with you, though I didn't mean to imply it was the sole cause of the storm, but it's no doubt climate change had an effect on it's severity mainly because there is more energy in our atmosphere now.

Earthhorse · 09-01-2013 04:09PM

Huge efforts were also put into ensuring infected animals and meat were destroyed and the disease wasn't spread in the case of CJD too, which is the example in the OP. The Millenium Bug falls into the same category; lots of scare mongering but very little fall out in the end.

Robbo · 09-01-2013 04:12PM

The Euro collapsing and us returning to the Punt. Every second day there was some goon on here saying that his friends cousins windowcleaner was talking to a guy who works in the mint and they were printing up the ould James Joyce greenbacks to beat the band.

BrensBenz · 09-01-2013 04:15PM

"Your car runs on....LPG????? Jayzus, don't park it near me!"

1ZRed · 09-01-2013 04:16PM

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Eh, the temperature of this planet has always been changing, a few thousand years ago we had an ice age

Yes, but over 10 thousand years ago when the last ice age occurred, by deffinition we are still in one, in global terms humans had near zero impact on the earth's climatic systems.

So now that humans have such reach and influence on the world like absolutely no other species had before it, and we are altering the world and changing environments and therefore climates, could we just continue to pump out billions and billions of tonnes of Co2 but then when the temperature begins to rise just say it's natural because "the temperature of the planet has always been changing"?

No, we are the ones influencing it, it's not natural at all.

BrensBenz · 09-01-2013 04:20PM

So far, this is mostly about received cr@p / f@ct. What about the cr@p that WE spouted? "Of course I'll respect you in the morning."

Deise Vu · 09-01-2013 04:22PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

That would because people spent years fixing the problem before hand. I found a y2k bug a few months ago.

With all due respect please donlt try to tell me that every country in the world followed the Western panic and invested billions in new software and re-engineering and that every potential problem was fixed. Yet I have not heard of a single plane falling out of the sky, a single ATM malfunction, traffic lights stuck on green or microwave oven attacking it's owner anywhere in the world. It was a minor problem not the potential catastrophe vested interetss liked to portray.

On the original topic nobody has mentioned global over-population. There will be war, war! And for some strange reason we will all have to dress like indian beggars.

Was it for bird flu or SARS I had to queue for 2 hours to get a jab? The Mrs jibbed and they didn't do the eldest as he was going to get a jab in school (he didn't). Amazingly none of us died.

Happyman42 · 09-01-2013 04:26PM

Willy Does Dublin 2

*(not that scary really)

Skinnykenyan · 09-01-2013 04:28PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

That would because people spent years fixing the problem before hand. I found a y2k bug a few months ago.

Did you crush it?

09-01-2013 04:29PM

Robbo wrote: »

The Euro collapsing and us returning to the Punt. Every second day there was some goon on here saying that his friends cousins windowcleaner was talking to a guy who works in the mint and they were printing up the ould James Joyce greenbacks to beat the band.

Merkel (via the ECB) opened her bazookas and delayed the problem by three years and is preying that the banks can sort themselves out before the repayments are due.

Ray Palmer · 09-01-2013 04:31PM

Deise Vu wrote: »

With all due respect please donlt try to tell me that every country in the world followed the Western panic and invested billions in new software and re-engineering and that every potential problem was fixed. Yet I have not heard of a single plane falling out of the sky, a single ATM malfunction, traffic lights stuck on green or microwave oven attacking it's owner anywhere in the world. It was a minor problem not the potential catastrophe vested interetss liked to portray.

On the original topic nobody has mentioned global over-population. There will be war, war! And for some strange reason we will all have to dress like indian beggars.

Was it for bird flu or SARS I had to queue for 2 hours to get a jab? The Mrs jibbed and they didn't do the eldest as he was going to get a jab in school (he didn't). Amazingly none of us died.

The software came from the west. Their software was updated.

Lawrence1895 · 09-01-2013 04:45PM

Liverpool playing the UEFA Cup final against Alaves in Dortmund, people were scared of football fans from England, months after some English supporters went bonkers in Munich (Germany vs England in a qualifier). Nothing happened, just some Pool fans having a party :-)

Deise Vu · 09-01-2013 04:52PM

Ray Palmer wrote: »

The software came from the west. Their software was updated.

So every third world country such as Zimbabwe, Haiti etc etc could afford all the updates and dilligently carried them out 100%? That is unbelievable. And I mean unbelievable.

09-01-2013 05:07PM

Deise Vu wrote: »

So every third world country such as Zimbabwe, Haiti etc etc could afford all the updates and dilligently carried them out 100%? That is unbelievable. And I mean unbelievable.

Most of the systems in these countries were mechanical so the y2k bug was irrelevent to almost all of their working practices, in the few rare occasions that there was an issue it was a simple case of CTRL-ALT-DELETE and continue on.

Huge panics and scares that never quite happened

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