3 big stories that we seem to have forgotten about.....Follow

3 Things that have been big news over the last 10 years that have drifted into obscurity.....

I'll start. Feel free to add yours.....


1. SARS.
It was going to be the virus that would equal the 1918 epidemic that killed upwards of 50 million people worldwide. Even tho it eventually killed only 750 people worldwide, it was the event that got people to fear the common cold and anyone who sneezed within a hundred feet. It also made an absolute fortune for anyone in the business of disposable surgical masks. It also made travel even more of a pain in the *****

2. Anthrax attacks in the USA.

The anthrax powder sent thru the mail to people in the media and to a couple of US senators was eventually blamed on Bruce Ivins, a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs. He conveniently killed himself with a paracetamol overdose (poor choice for someone in the know) just as he was informed of the impending prosecution. He was conveniently declared the sole culprit.

At the time of the attacks the Whitehouse exerted huge pressure on Robert Mueller of the FBI to blame someone in the Middle East, particularly Al Qaeda and OBL, and by October Iraq had been implicated by many public figures including Bush, Cheney and McCain.

3. Climate change.

Even tho we've all been bombarded constantly by predictions of impending doom, i have yet to witness the sea level rise, an ice cap melt away, a pacific island sink or a mass extinction.

What I have witnessed is a huge rise in the number of air-miles travelled by scientists and concerned politicians attending meetings where nothing is achieved, but massive amounts of funding is allotted. I have also witnessed huge amounts of concern being vocalised by the public as they continue living, travelling, eating, consuming and breeding in what are obviously completely unsustainable ways.

And a bonus no 4.
Bush's 2004 plan to spend US$12 billion over the next 5 years to get Americans back on the moon by 2020.
"We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this -- human beings are headed into the cosmos, mankind is drawn to the heavens for the same reason we were once drawn into unknown lands and across the open sea. We choose to explore space because doing so improves our lives and lifts our national spirit." He said.

The world laughed. The project doesn't seem to have made it very far as yet.




Edited, Dec 9th 2009 2:16am by paulsol

Rather than a critique, I was aiming for some more suggestions.....

Elian Gonzalez. Wonder what that kid's up to these days.

They found out he wasn't in the baloon.

How 'bout that there Y2K thing? Huh? Huh?

Have some polar ice caps melting.

http://geology.com/nasa/antarctic-ice-sheet-melting.shtml

With some drowning polar bears on top.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article767459.ece

You can watch a liger being born.

Or use time lapse filming to see an icecap melt. Or just have a lot of time on your hands.

Edited, Dec 8th 2009 4:08pm by Timelordwho

From your link.



Thats it! I'm moving to higher ground!

I was wondering if someone would comment on that!

I don't think the penguins are in as dire straights as the polar bears just yet. They have SOME ice left.

Last time I checked, the sentences "Have some polar ice caps melting. With some drowning polar bears on top." implied that the polar bears were on top of the melting ice caps.

Since the melting ice caps that were mentioned are, as the link states, in the Antarctic, the implication is that the polar bears are as well.

tl;dr: /whoosh

Polar bears don't drown because ice caps are melting. They drown because they're too fucking stupid to swim back to shore when the icebergs set afloat.

Oh. I tl;dr myself and didn't bother looking at that first link.


I MADE A MISTAKE OKAY?! *sob* GET OFF MY BACK! *sniff*

So you're saying we need to funnel more money towards polar bear education?