(And NO, that’s NOT the name of my ’90s pop punk band.) Check out this news footage of a supposed UFO flying around Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano. I admit my Spanish is TERRIBLE, but I think this news report is about aliens who come to earth to commit suicide in our volcanoes. HEY ALIENS! Sorry your […]
PANIC!
Posted inThe Apocalypse
Birth of a Killer Tornado
Okay, so I just watched this video? And my PTSD from growing up in tornado alley Alabama just jumped into overdrive. This completely engrossing video was shot by a guy who witnessed the birth of the tornado that ravaged Oklahoma and took dozens of lives. At :50 you see it coming out of the sky, […]
Posted inPANIC!
20 Phrases to Write on Your Anti-Fluoride Sign
From this week’s Mercury: Add your own below!
Posted inPANIC!
Today in Chumming the Anti-Fluoridated Waters…
Look, I understand if you stopped reading all the comments we’re still getting on our feature article this week (“The Sanest Arguments Against Fluoridation… And Why They’re Still Wrong”), because frankly one’s interest begins to wane after the 209th comment accusing us of being “bought off” by big money dental fertilizer arsenic companies. (Ummm… if […]
Posted inPANIC!
Keep Your Fluoridation Chemicals Out Of My Water Chemicals
I’m going to set aside an actual discussion of the pros/cons to adding fluoride to our drinking water because that’s what the good people at Clean Water Portland have done. Let’s instead look at how they’re trying to market their cause. Cute kid. But that’s… not how water works. This is going to come as […]
Posted inNews
Cops Catch “Hammer Pants Bandit”: A Win for Them, an Enormous Loss for Us
Cue the “guess you CAN touch this” quips. Police are announcing they arrested the so-called “Hammer Pants Bandit” on Thursday, after the suspect eluded authorities for months. Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office According to a fresh release from the Portland Police Bureau, cops arrested 46-year-old Weston Miner Rogers at his residence on SE Aspen Summit Drive, […]
Posted inNews
Disaster Porn’s Second Coming, or More Earthquaking Good Times
Once again, the fine editorial staff at the Mercury has let me write a cover story about a disaster. This new piece—which Steve Humphrey lovingly refers to as “more disaster porn”—looks at what might happen to Oregon’s communications networks when the “Big One” strikes. It also examines what Oregon telecoms are doing, or not, to […]
Posted inPANIC!
Here Come the Superbugs
Eeeek: Antibiotic-resistant bacteria with the potential to cause untreatable infections pose “a catastrophic threat” to the population, the chief medical officer for Britain warns in a report calling for urgent action worldwide. Also: “The problem of microbes becoming increasingly resistant to the most powerful drugs should be ranked alongside terrorism and climate change on the […]
Posted inThe Apocalypse
The Asteroid Missed Us… As You Were
From Yahoo News: An asteroid half the size of a football field buzzed Earth in a historic flyby today (Feb. 15), barely missing our planet just hours after a much smaller object exploded above Russia, injuring perhaps 1,000 people. The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 cruised within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth […]
Posted inAstronomy
Meteorocalypse! (Asterocalypse? WHATEVER!) Sweet Video of Meteor Explosions!
As Denis mentioned in Good Morning News, Russia had some little visitors yesterday—meteorites that exploded over the Urals in Russia, damaging 300 buildings and injuring 900 people (mostly via broken glass). Here’s an awesome news report from Russia Today in which the (fairly flippant) Brit host and his not-exactly-a-scientist-but-she’s-cute “expert” reporter describe what happened and—here’s […]
Posted inPANIC!
BREAKING: Telekinetic Panda Still on the Loose
Okay, even though this blog post was tagged “PANIC!”—do not PANIC! The authorities have this situation completely under control, and the best thing you can do at this point is to stay inside your homes and await further instructions. For those just joining us, a panda bear with telekinetic powers has been spotted wandering the […]
Posted inPANIC!
Your Friday Doomsday Reading
Grist has a long post up about how the ocean off the shore of the Pacific Northwest is becoming deadly: It is ironic that despite relatively progressive clean energy policies the West Coast is paying an unusually high price for global carbon emissions. Ocean water off the Pacific coast has absorbed so much carbon that […]