2015-01-23 Communication: disasters/apocalypses

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk
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apocalypse: the end of the world (as we know it)
post-apocalyptic dystopia: a story about the unpleasant world after an apocalypse

"Preppers" - people who prepare for the end of the world

"Death from the Skies" (book)
"Phil Plait's Bad Universe" (TV Documentary)
- Phil Plait (an astronomer) wrote a book about all the terrible things that could kill people on Earth. The Discovery Channel made a TV show based on the book.
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Y2K "bug" - Computers that only had two digits for the date would go from 99 to 00 at the beginning of the year 2000. This could cause many problems for systems that keep track of how long something has continued.

99-12-31 02:00 - a machine turns on
99-12-31 22:00 - it has been on for 20 hours
00-01-01 01:00 - it has been on for -99 years?

1999-12-31 02:00 - a machine turns on
1999-12-31 22:00 - it has been on for 20 hours
2000-01-01 01:00 - it has been on for 23 hours

19|99 to 19|100

http://ralfmaximus.tumblr.com/post/105116418636/faisdm-the-most-calamitous-jibini
(blog post about how much work programmers did before the end of 1999 to make sure y2k didn't cause the disasters people had predicted)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
(other incorrect predictions about when the world would end)

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/08/01/solar_storm_a_massive_2012_cme_just_missed_the_earth.html
(Phil Plait article about an event in July of 2012 that *could* destroy an entire country's power grid if it hit Earth)
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sectarian violence: violence between people who have different ideas about the same religion (Catholic/Protestant, Sunni/Shia, etc.)
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storm surge: the rise in ocean levels in front of a hurricane or tropical storm, which can cause flooding even if there isn't so much rain