The Lemon Fool

tjh290633 wrote:People have never learnt the lesson of history. Nobody has ever had a successful invasion, occupation, colonialisation of Afghanistan.

Yes they have. Dozens of times. Persians, Alexander, Indians, Greeks, Huns, Arabs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
Some of them for hundreds of years.

Afghan invulnerability is a fairly recent phenomenon. Probably since they shifted from cavalry to riflemen.

Gryff

Tunguska may be a warning?

AiY

gryffron wrote:

tjh290633 wrote:People have never learnt the lesson of history. Nobody has ever had a successful invasion, occupation, colonialisation of Afghanistan.

Yes they have. Dozens of times. Persians, Alexander, Indians, Greeks, Huns, Arabs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
Some of them for hundreds of years.

Afghan invulnerability is a fairly recent phenomenon. Probably since they shifted from cavalry to riflemen.

Gryff

This is what churchill had to say about it, from his time there in 1897
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/taliban/tribal/churchill.html

in particular, about the Taliban and their ilk.....
Their superstition exposes them to the rapacity and tyranny of a numerous priesthood -- "Mullahs," "Sahibzadas," "Akhundzadas," "Fakirs," -- and a host of wandering Talib-ul-ilms, who correspond with the theological students in Turkey, and live free at the expense of the people. More than this, they enjoy a sort of "droit du seigneur," and no man's wife or daughter is safe from them. Of some of their manners and morals it is impossible to write. As Macaulay has said of Wycherley's plays, "they are protected against the critics as a skunk is protected against the hunters." They are "safe, because they are too filthy to handle, and too noisome even to approach."

nothing much has changed, it seems.
S

Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

1nvest wrote:Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

Where's the electricity for the AC going to come from? Are the power stations all on high ground as well?


Steve

stevensfo wrote:

1nvest wrote:Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

Where's the electricity for the AC going to come from? Are the power stations all on high ground as well?


Steve

Solar panels on the roof

1nvest wrote:Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

The rest of the world might want to move in with you / eat all your food, as the polar ice caps have gone and sea levels have risen, displacing a few billion people.

In the meantime, your weather system is going to get much more violent (all that extra heat energy in the atmosphere) so your wetter winters will be accompanied by hurricanes and plenty of lesser storms. The Gulf Stream will have faltered with the loss of the polar ice caps, so the weather in the UK will also lose that moderating factor.

The world won't end, but civilisation almost certainly will, at least as we know it. Current human numbers will be reduced, drastically. Good luck with being part of the chosen few to survive...

Oh, hang on - you were "avin a laugh", weren't you?

VRD

So plenty of guns/ammo as well.

Rather that than death-by/life-under alien invasion or volcanic eruption or ... the other 'choices'.

1nvest wrote:Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

Alternatively it might see the UK (and NW/Atlantic Europe more generally) a lot colder and wetter.

Our climate is exceptionally warm for the latitude, due to the gulf stream. Disrupt that and we could look more akin to Newfoundland.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

1nvest wrote:Global warming of 4 degrees sees UK summer weather hotter/drier, wetter winters, less snow/ice, more flooding.

I'd rather have rain than snow/ice, live on a high ground region with a good AC ... so bring it on.

Alternatively it might see the UK (and NW/Atlantic Europe more generally) a lot colder and wetter.

Our climate is exceptionally warm for the latitude, due to the gulf stream. Disrupt that and we could look more akin to Newfoundland.

But with no polar ice, 'relatively cold' might be quite pleasant. Hot summers might be more the concern (42 degree summer peaks) but bearable with solar powered ac. Flooding and extreme weather conditions perhaps being the greater issue.

Well perhaps "Global Thermonuclear Warfare (2)" has come up on the rails and now looks to be the favourite thanks to Vlad.
It's getting quite exciting isn't it.

If the media are to be believed the World is running out of heterosexuals to procreate and we're all non binary, gender fluid, LGBTQ+ or trans this or that. Probably a bigger threat to the future of mankind than any of the others.

WickedLester wrote:If the media are to be believed the World is running out of heterosexuals to procreate and we're all non binary, gender fluid, LGBTQ+ or trans this or that. Probably a bigger threat to the future of mankind than any of the others.

for which eventually the rest of the planet's species (99.99999999999999999999999999999999% of species) will be eternally grateful.

I have gone for "human overpopulation/crop failure/famine" which is a likely consequence of the other options, which humans may be able to survive to greater or lesser degrees in the short term.

But not on the list is a global "resource war", which would get my vote instead as the catalytic event. We are seeing a tiny glimpse of this today, with Russia turning off its gas taps. Western Europe is being caught with its pants down and I have the impression is in no state to - really - wean itself off fossil fuels anytime soon. Global superpowers will be competing more than ever to secure what's left of oil and gas reserves in 200-300 years' time.

WickedLester wrote:If the media are to be believed the World is running out of heterosexuals to procreate and we're all non binary, gender fluid, LGBTQ+ or trans this or that. Probably a bigger threat to the future of mankind personkind than any of the others.

Fixed that for you.

Snorvey wrote:Interesting to revisit this poll.

Anyone read about Lake Mead in the US?

It's coming home.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2022/ ... ws/629900/

Some images at the above link showing the amount the water has fallen.



AiY(D)

Nothing I have seen on this thread convinces me that the End of the World is Nigh. The human population may be very substantially reduced, but it is many many times what it was a few thousand years ago, so that isn't the end of the world. Rising temperature may make things difficult but the earth's temperature has always been going up and own. The Sun becoming a red giant would be the end of the world, but we are a long way from that.

ps Lake Mead is a manmade reservoir so its level is determined by it being drained by man quicker than it is refilling.