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536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

sciencemag.org

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Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#31

Post by AlotOfReading »

anonAndOn wrote: post #9
jandrese wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North American natives were not good about writing stuff down, and by the time Europeans showed up it was almost a millennium later so the records would have been scanty even if the Europeans hadn't gone on insane rampages spreading death, disease, and destruction everywhere they went.

Doesn't "not good" in this context mean NEVER. Are there any native tribes/peoples that had a writing system before European contact? AFAICT, it's one of the main causes so many native languages are dying/extinct.

There's at least one script that's absolutely, a 100% definitive written language, Maya. There are about half a dozen more that qualify for certain reasonable definitions of writing. Beyond that, there are hundreds of systems of proto-writing that rely primarily on the cultural context of the speaker to interpret. These were still used to record events and stories, though.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#32

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #8

The Christian revolution around that time in Europe also put civilisation back there. See “The Darkening Age” by Catherine Nixey

A glance at Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkening_Age) indicates that the book was not well received - not by Christians, but by academics.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#33

Post by dekervin »

chrisco255 wrote: post #27
pureliquidhw wrote: post #17

How susceptible are we to another catastrophic volcano eruption? After COVID-19 shut down supply chains, there were some problematic delays, but seems like we quickly recovered. If the entire planet's crops were wiped out, we're all just SOL if we don't get canned goods in time? If we had 12 months notice, could we as a planet get it together? 6 months? 3 months? Is there forecasting for volcanoes? (looks like yes: h…

Forecasting volcanoes is a lot like forecasting earthquakes, it's really difficult to do and often there's very little warning, maybe a couple of days at most, but sometimes comes with no warning at all. The White Island volcano killed several people last year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island_e... This place was a famous tourist destination. One of my favorite sites for tracking Volcanic er…

I am genuinely curious, what hobby of yours makes you track volcanic eruptions regularly ?

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#34

Post by boomboomsubban »

jandrese wrote: post #4
danharaj wrote: post #2

Maybe not for Americans :) The eruption was hypothesized to have occurred in North America but did the team try to cross reference with native accounts of that time period?

North American natives were not good about writing stuff down, and by the time Europeans showed up it was almost a millennium later so the records would have been scanty even if the Europeans hadn't gone on insane rampages spreading death, disease, and destruction everywhere they went.

Though worldwide it's difficult to keep records intact for a thousand years, the Mayans had writing systems for nearly two thousand years. The Spanish priests burned any writing they found during the Mayan conquest,

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#35

Post by labster »

twic wrote: post #20
dang wrote: post #15

Discussed, a little, at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18469891

I didn't realise HN had been running that long.

Back then, people had to downvote by bleaching only a portion of the illuminated manuscript. Unfortunately the original karma logs were lost when the Knights Templar were disbanded.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#37

Post by [deleted] »

deanCommie wrote: post #10

These kinds of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions could happen today right? What's.......our intended process for dealing with this? Are there any technical solutions for dispersing ash from the atmosphere? I know this is a stupidly naive question to some degree - how do you prevent acts of god, but I am curious if someone has thought about it.

[deleted]

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#38

Post by danharaj »

jandrese wrote: post #4
danharaj wrote: post #2

Maybe not for Americans :) The eruption was hypothesized to have occurred in North America but did the team try to cross reference with native accounts of that time period?

North American natives were not good about writing stuff down, and by the time Europeans showed up it was almost a millennium later so the records would have been scanty even if the Europeans hadn't gone on insane rampages spreading death, disease, and destruction everywhere they went.

Oral traditions record, among other things, historical events.

Re: 536 was ‘the worst year to be alive’ (2018)

#40

Post by komali2 »

deanCommie wrote: post #10

These kinds of cataclysmic volcanic eruptions could happen today right? What's.......our intended process for dealing with this? Are there any technical solutions for dispersing ash from the atmosphere? I know this is a stupidly naive question to some degree - how do you prevent acts of god, but I am curious if someone has thought about it.

> What's.......our intended process for dealing with this?

The extent of the USA's preparedness, from the federal agency in charge handling Emergencies, is a website with a bullet point list of what you should have in a first aid kit in your house:

https://www.ready.gov/kit

I'm being only partially facetious. There are of course multiple agencies at the federal, state, county, and local level with their own plans and processes in place for this kind of thing.

But! We can look to the past for what would happen.

Katrina taught us that the US federal government doesn't have the resources, means, or disposition to rescue people from disaster zones. It also taught us that as an individual or family, the best thing you can do is take evacuation warnings very seriously, and be ready to be able to provide for yourself and your family for the short and long term. So, ready.gov build a kit, and stuff it full of cash while you're at it. Keep the cars gassed up.

Katrina also taught us that the US government will choose to enforce "property rights" before it will ensure people in disaster zones have shelter, water, or food. You could flip from one channel with a helicopter view of people waving for help on a roof, and another channel would be showing National Guard soldiers with rifles chasing off "looters." Hm.

The COVID pandemic also taught us that partisans and capitalists are motivated to prioritize the wellbeing of the stock market over humans lives - all the more reason to prepare to protect yourself and family rather than count on the Gov coming to your aid.

I'm not saying the homesteaders and preppers aren't a little crazy, but I'm also not saying they don't have the right idea...

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