Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

sciencemag.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 365 posts

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

#41

Post by freehunter »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #32
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.

I have no skin in the game either way but it seems like any book that tries to tackle controversial materials would have some people who don't like it. Interestingly the Wikipedia page only lists negative feedback in the Reception section, despite the book having generally good reviews and accolades from multiple different experts.

The fact that the book won awards from NYT, Royal Society of Literature, BBC, and many other publications and is well-reviewed, yet Wikipedia only lists negative feedback in the Reception section indicates to me that there must be bias in the Wikipedia article. I don't see any other answer for why more than half of the article is just listing criticism that doesn't seem to be reflected across the broader industry.

Again I haven't read the book and don't really care about the subject matter either way, but the Wikipedia does not seem to hide its bias.

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

#43

Post by pmiller2 »

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…

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

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

#44

Post by pmiller2 »

komali2 wrote: post #40
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…

Spot on. We no longer have a government for the people, by the people, of the people. Just take a look at the net worth statistics of our congresscritters and their voting records.

In fact, we never really have. Initially, only free, white landowners could even vote!

Edit: ah, found yet another “thing you can’t say on HN,” I suppose. :) Talk about lack of TP in stores: +6. Talk about how our “representatives” don’t represent most of us: -2

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

#46

Post by [deleted] »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #19
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.

> Are there any technical solutions for dispersing ash from the atmosphere? Seems like the dispersal of the ash is the problem, and you'd want to be collecting it.

[deleted]

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

#47

Post by izzydata »

chadlavi wrote: post #11

The worst year to be alive _so far_

I imagine there will come a time when the earth is just on the cusp of no longer being able to sustain the massive population that it has grown to or human life at all. Since the earths human population will be so high even a 5th of people dying off will be drastically more deaths than any worldwide catastrophe of the past. Maybe within another 1000 years.

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

#49

Post by dentemple »

labster wrote: post #35
twic wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Defenestration of Prague made for some real lively debate here.

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

#50

Post by _jal »

pmiller2 wrote: post #43
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…

In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions? I go to the store and still routinely see empty shelves where TP should be; have experienced meat shortages in recent days; and stores are still rationing things like hand sanitizer (when you can find it), canned goods, meat, and rice.

> In what sense have we “recovered” from supply chain disruptions?

The initial shock has past, and consumer product makers have had plenty of time to do whatever they were going to do.

"Recovery" is a word that sets up certain expectations. It seems to me that what happened during the first half of this year is more usefully considered "change".

Post reply on HN