My fellow "doomers" I salute you

To the poster wondering why there are so many drug stores hawking the flu shot:

It's simple, if they get you into the store because of your fear of flu, you might just buy some candy and chips in the next aisle over.

Simple economics not the next pandemic.

Anything that gets people inside, no matter how stupid. Remember the pet rock?

reply to post by casinoed


IIRC . . . the next major threat on the near horizon is

Israel attacking Iran before the first of the year???

. . . morphing into a full blown WWIII with China and Russia attacking CONUS.

Is there any other near term remotely credible threat of that magnitude?

I don't know what the state of the El Hierro volcano is. Last I checked, it sounds like it's mostly building a new island.

However, the migration of the quake clusters to the north of the Island was interesting. What happens if a big eruption occurs between the new building island and north of the current El Hierro? Could get interesting, imho.

I don't know what the probabilities are about the major sunspot/solar flare hazard.

I heard an audio recently . . . forget what source . . . that Native American predictions are a 140 degrees F for at least a few hours plus devastating particle bombardments . . . such that 3 feet or so of earth covering would be wise.

Anyway--maybe your DOOMERs newsletter could have a colum or section with a running tab and a brief status measure of the current outstanding looming problems.

Something like a SUDs score (Selective Units of Distress)

Just list your own guesstimate on the likelihood of said item becoming a seriously devastating problem within whatever time frame.

I'd be interested.

reply to post by samkent
If you don't see the success of the pet rock as evidence of the elite's conspiratorial campaign to drive humanity towards apocalypse, I think maybe you're in the wrong place...

You're totally right, of course. But I might be too - you never know...

reply to post by BO XIAN


Thanks for the support, fancy a deputy editor post? Means doing most of the work but its still a fancy enough sounding title to get chicks running after you

reply to post by casinoed


Thanks for the honor of your query.

Alas, at 65, I'm not interested in chicks. Been there, done that.

My life is full as it is with teaching, the net writing, green house, pottery, weaving.

I'd be happy to suggest items to you and offer my usual commentary on topics that caught my attention, however.

Have you thought any more about providing your own guesstimate on a rating of likelihood and timeline on major items?

reply to post by BO XIAN


Sorry for not getting back to you before in response to your question. The truth is, I was pretty much banking on 11.11.11 being the Date of Doom and it has taken me a day or two to get over it.

I mean, how is that possible? All those ones coming together at precisely the same moment, just like that. Spooky or what? I can't have been the only one out there thinking "This is it! The final reckoning!" and all that. And then nothing. Just shocking!

I am now of the conclusion that ones are actually meaningless without a smattering of nines. When nines and ones coincide, all sorts of SHTF. So hang on to your hats everyone, because now we have it. The Big Date, finally revealed, and it is....drumroll........

11.11.9911 or possibly 11.11.9999

Put them in your diaries. I especially like the second one. The symmetry of it. Just reading it puts the hairs up on the back of my neck.

I shall give some further consideration to your question BO and devote issue 2 of Doomers' Monthly to your request. Now we have a definitive timeline (see above), I have somewhere between 94,800 and 95,856 issues in which to consider the various possible Doom scenarios.

And please, lets not have any argument about this date. I don't want no Smart-Alec debunkers coming on here. I know what you're going to say "Hey, where's your evidence, DOOM MONGER? What proof do you got? People are gonna get put into mental hospitals all because of YOOOOU!"

But its all there. Hard science. Nines and ones, OK. So all you non-doomers out there can just go EAT IT!

as small gift to the magazine

reply to post by casinoed

But its all there. Hard science. Nines and ones, OK. So all you non-doomers out there can just go EAT IT!

I love the claim of hard science. I think it is important to put out any dates way beyond your own life expectancy so that no one can hammer your for being like Harold Camping and Nancy Lieder and Calleman and others - failures in their own lifetime. Edgar and Nostradamus are other people where there are still predictions to fail.

Let's see, if 1s and 9s are important then what happened on 9/19/1919? Apparently nothing that important.

Please look through dates and see if you can come up with something interesting involving 1s and 9s. I'll bet that there is nothing to show except cherry picking a few dates in a sea of possible dates.

reply to post by stereologist


Well for starters, there's no 19th month

reply to post by stereologist


Then there was 11/9 (or as some like to call it 9/11)

Then we will have 11/11/9999

I rest my case Your Honour.

reply to post by casinoed


Well for starters your are right and this is obviously September 19, 1919. Nothing happened that was mentionable for the year.

This thread is friggin' hilarious !
I have a Fozzie Bear smile stuck on my face now

Speaking of Fozzie Bear... I wonder how Dark Knight and his pals are doing tucked safely away in their cave somewhere in the Tibetan hilltops... maybe someone should send a courier pigeon to let them know it's okay to come out now ?

Or am I just being prematurely optimistic ?

reply to post by casinoed


The year was 2001. Are you suggesting you are referring to November 9?

No evidence for 1s and 9s being of interest.

I rest my case.

reply to post by stereologist


My point exactly....

Moving swiftly on lest this discussion fill up our remaining 7988 years, which I'm sure it easily could.

Thanks heineken for the illustration. Makes you wonder how we can see Jupiter at all among all those killer rocks.

The wonders of the universe eh

reply to post by casinoed


Your point is that your claims of 1s and 9s is completing meaningless?

BTW, the asteroid belt contains so little mass that there is not enough to even a planet out of it.

Your point is that your claims of 1s and 9s is completing meaningless?

reply to post by stereologist


Yes indeed. I was just poking a little fun at those who like to point to arbitrary dates - especially ones that have some "significance" - as a precursor to some dramatic event.

I never for one moment imagined that 11.11.11 would harbour any greater chance for mankind's destruction than any other randomly picked day. In fact statistically, it was far less likely. Like the fella who always wears odd socks when he's flying. Statistically, how likely is it to be killed in a plane crash while wearing odd socks?

The same logic suggests that the odds of a life-changing event occurring on such a significant date would be less than for other less eye-catching random dates without any particular relevance, such as, I dunno, 15 March, 6 August or 21 December.

And that is the point of this thread. As we move into 2012, there's going to be a lot of crazy theories put out there. People are going to hypothesise and postulate about all sorts of possibilities and folks are going to get very irritated with one another. This thread will be a haven for all those Doomers to come and chill out. It will be somewhere to come and take a light-hearted look at "what's hot and what's not" in the world of doomsaying.

If 2012 is going to be it (a dead cert since it contains a 1 and 2+0+1+2+4=9 (4 being the number of digits in 2012)) I don't see why we can't have a little bit of fun along the way.

Doomers' Monthly
- for those who doom

Welcome back. In light of all the positive feedback I decided to have another crack at this. Even investing in a masthead and strapline, "for those who doom". What do you all think? Some marketing guys got paid a lot of money for that so I hope it doesn't completely suck.

In issue two we will be looking at the thorny issue of behaviour. The International Council of Doom - of which I am founder, life president and only living member - has issued its first directive:

Directive 1, informally known as:

The Panic Directive

Picture the scenario: The President of the United States of America, a kind and universally loved and respected man of African American heritage addresses the world in sombre tones. The world, it seems, faces certain destruction from [an as yet unidentified source]. As President, he has done everything within his power to prevent this catastrophe but Congress refused to sanction anything that would show him favourably and now, alas, we are all going to die....

You know what happens next. Crowds gather in St.Peter's square in Rome to repent their sins, poor Indian folks gather around the village's single television to watch the tragedy unfold on CNN, the dull glow of their candles heightening the trauma etched on their faces. Dramatic, melancholy music gradually fades in. Meanwhile, in Lower Manhattan, shoppers faced with the realisation that they have watched their last episode of "America's Next Top Model" begin screaming and running around like headless chickens, scrambling over one another as they desperately head for the "safety" of "higher ground".

But not everyone. Among the throng there is a number who have seen it coming. A frequently ridiculed bunch of outsiders sometimes referred to as "fear mongers". These "Doomers" have known it was coming and they are happy, yes that's right HAPPY, to know that they were right. Now they intend to sit back and enjoy the action.

But the Council of Doom takes a dim view of such behaviour and wants you to resist the urge to gloat. Hence Directive 1. Out of concern that your look of glee may be misinterpreted as fear, the Council wants you to join in the general panic.

A simple guide to panic is shown in the clip below.



Skip to 1:44 to see how it should be done. But check out the guy reading the paper by the fountain - Freak! That's just what the Council doesn't want.

For those who prefer something more "realistic", the Council is awaiting approval to hold a live "panic drill" on Wednesday 23 November outside the Whitgift Centre in Croydon S.London.



Map of Croydon

The plan is to drive a fully laden fuel truck off the multi-storey parking into the high street there, simulating a meteor impact in a crowded urban area. The proximity of multi-story parking close to pedestrianised shopping makes this the ideal venue. Together with the fact that, being Croydon, once the flames have been extinguished the area will appear largely unaffected.

Please notify me if you would like to take part in the drill.

Early applicants will get a 10% discount, kids and pensioners go free.

And remember the Council's simple mnemonic: "Fear ye not, but panic as though your life depends on it!"

People keep throwing out domsday theories at least one of them has to be right eventually

reply to post by KingJames1337


Especially true if your name happens to be Dominic:

"I feel great. This is going to be Dom's day, I'm sure of it..."

reply to post by casinoed


But now there is the doomsday clock and it seems like a bit of bull we have too many prophecies and they don't come true, look at religion every one of the three major religions is basically a doomsday prophecy and they have been in worse shape then now, for instance the 14th century had to have been the end all of doomsdays and Jesus did not return