Monkey See, Monkey Die

The most common type of gorilla is on the verge of extinction. This is only partly because of massive amounts of poaching. The main culprit? Ebola. Remember Ebola? In its peak, it was the trendiest pandemic threat in town. Endearing phrases like “plague monkey” and “flesh-eating disease” were really coined for the first time. Then Outbreak went from the New Release section to the regular movie section, and we forgot all about it. Maybe witnessing our closest biological relative self-eaten into inexistence will remind us. Don’t try to wash your hands: it’s airborne!

Check out the original article.

Space Bugs Better than Earth Bugs

So never mind the illness from space that the people of Peru had to endure. New scientific evidence gives us the lowdown on bugs in space. Apparently, Salmonella typhimurium bacterial bugs mutate, thrive, and get worse amongst the stars. Researchers noticed that mice were three times as likely to die from the new variations.

Good to know that even if we manage to get away from this planet before it’s completely ruined, we can still all die from sicknesses that actually work better off the planet.

Read more here.

Melting Apocalyptic Turtles

There are the one-shot doozies that annihilate us overnight (like a comet), and there are the slow movers, the turtles of the apocalyptic world. The melting of icecaps is one of the latter. Bit by bit, ice melts, sea levels rise, and eventually tangible problems develop, magnify, and cascade into other catastrophes, and we all die. The problem with the apocalyptic turtles is that once the problem is noted in the (relatively) early stages, it’s hard to turn into a fresh headline, however pertinent the call to action may still be.

“In other news, ice caps are, well, still melting.” And? The same news, however bad or important, is no news. That’s why people jump all over occasions when something actually does change.

Recently, some satellite photos were taken across northern Canada, Alaska, and Greenland. Apparently, enough ice has melted that a new waterway has opened up, although it may not be fully operational as a shipping lane for quite some time.

See? There’s a reason for a headline if I ever saw one. What an opportunity! I love global catastrophes with a positive spin. A melting country and rising sea levels… a new waterway! Seafarers rejoice.

The original article can be found here.

Meteorite Causes Mysterious Illness

On September 17th, a meteorite crashed near a village in Peru. As if the thought of large chunks of space rock smashing into your neighborhood wasn’t enough to scare you, the thing is emitting toxic fumes that are hospitalizing people, inducing vomiting and headaches.

This straight-out-of-bad-science-fiction scenario’s still in the mystery stage, so even though the numbers affected are minimal so far, we can always imagine the worst. Here we are, betting on a massive comet slamming us into a dino-legacy, and the bloody thing’s got the nerve to bring along a mysterious illness. It’s that insult to injury overkill, like Superman being able to shoot molten-hot laser beams from his eyes even though he’s already got incalculable strength and speed, and is indestructible. Unless, of course, Kryptonite falls from space and lands near him and he gets sick and barfs. Hmm. Don’t trust space rock.

Here’s the original story.

Welcome to Ends of Days

Hello everyone.

We’ve all seen the headlines: hair-trigger nuke wielders, flesh-peeling diseases, environmental catastrophes, astronomical threats… we fear them, but are equally fascinated by them. For thousands of years, we’ve been interested in (and ambitious in bringing about) our end, in the most massive and final sense.

This blog explores the many ends we may face, and our culture as apocalypse-awaiters. We’ll keep an eye on the headlines for the latest best-bets, and on the history books for looks at the doomsayers of the past. Speaking of books, expect end of the world book reviews. Movie reviews, too. Following this stuff is sick, in a way, but it sure is fun, too.

Hope you enjoy it!