What the hell: A new and less well known asymmetric threat has surfaced in the Gulf of Mexico oil gusher. Methane or CH4 gas is being released in vast quantities in the Gulf waters. Seismic data shows huge pools of methane gas at the location immediately below and around the damaged “Macondo” oil well. Methane [...]

This might have to be a weekly feature. Via Dangerous Minds, a time-lapse of a house decomposing: Via The Australian: Frank Fenner sees no hope for humans Fenner is an authority on extinction. The emeritus professor in microbiology at the Australian National University played a leading role in sending one species into oblivion: the variola [...]

Kids movies often have strange and borderline-inappropriate imagery.  In “Madagascar 2,” the movie begins by going back in time.  In order to show that this is years earlier, we see a view of the Manhattan skyline, including the twin towers.  For some reason, the filmmakers thought it was a good idea to evoke the memory [...]

A lot of people have made fun of Glenn Beck’s advertisers for hocking the crisis garden, but they’ve actually got a point. If something happens, you really will need to grow your own food. This is not all survivalist paranoia.  The crisis garden is being done on a massive scale via the Svalbard Global Seed [...]

We are living in science fiction: Before: After:

Good news!  AKA: What the fucking fuck? A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half [...]

You gotta go sometime: Sort of peaceful – compared to the slow-burning Apocalypse we’ve got going now. Curious how the Flaming Lips tackled this song. Fairly awesome, really: Also:

There’s an interesting piece on Disinfo that is also a bit too critical of its subject – Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short, and the concept that people in the financial sector were propelled by a kind of “mass delusion.”  The poster’s argument is that this is a kind of insanity defense  and absolves them [...]

Two interesting interviews found recently.  One via Futurismic with the founder of Paypal and principle investor in Facebook who has a sci-fi vision of the future. Wired: What happens if we don’t get the growth everyone expects? Thiel: If it doesn’t happen, people will go bankrupt in retirement. There are systemic consequences, too. If we [...]