It's the end of the world as we know it

[CourtesyFlush]

Obligatory wail link

They are an improbable group of superheroes. But some of Britain's greatest minds have got together to focus their powers on saving humanity from itself.
Led by the Astronomer Royal and Cambridge don Martin Rees, famous thinkers such as physicist Stephen Hawking and former Government chief scientist Robert May have formed a society to draw up a doomsday list of risks that could wipe out mankind.
From crippling cyber-attacks by terrorists using the internet to cause havoc, to the release of engineered diseases and killer computers, they warn the future is far from rosy.

This got me thinking. Interesting how Obama reaches for the military intervention card first, then settles for the diplomatic approach later. Then as soon as the dust settles he starts rattling the sabre at Iran.

The Middle East has nukes. The Middle East is unstable. There are sleeper cells the whole world over. Currently the doomsday clock is at 11:55. I think this is optimistic given the recent code brown events over Syria.

Anyone else think we're not far off some kind of extinction level event?

Enjoy your afternoon.

[CourtesyFlush]

Cunning Plans, old chap, Cunning Plans.

Decorating your lab with tinfoil isn't going to save you Zeity.

[MyUserName]

When I heard about that soldier being killed by those two lunatics who then chatted to passers by that it would make an awesome terrorism tactic.

You would need sleepers in place but once you do have them do this in different cities over the UK every fortnight or so. Tell them to brutally kill someone in public and then tell as many passers by as they can to film them as they delivered their propaganda messages.

It turned out to be nothing of the sort, of course and was just some random nutcases.

[alreadypacked]

For me it's:
Fundamentalist gaining control of the Egyptian Army ( I am guessing it was one of the reasons why the Egyptian Army supported the ousting of Mohamed Morsi. To stop this happening)

Fundamentalist gaining control of the Turkish Army. (not so far fetched, if the protests in Turkey escalate)

If the Fundamentalist gain control of either of these two armies, they will "Liberate" several countries across North Africa. Then it will get serious

[CourtesyFlush]

If you were an insurgent in Syria sitting on a stockpile of chemical weapons, it'd be all too tempting to rock the boat right now. This is what worries me.

[Mich the Tester]

For me it's:
Fundamentalist gaining control of the Egyptian Army ( I am guessing it was one of the reasons why the Egyptian Army supported the ousting of Mohamed Morsi. To stop this happening)

Fundamentalist gaining control of the Turkish Army. (not so far fetched, if the protests in Turkey escalate)

If the Fundamentalist gain control of either of these two armies, they will "Liberate" several countries across North Africa. Then it will get serious

I don't see much chance of fundamentalists getting control of Turkey's army. They might concievably get political control, but that doesn't mean the army will do as they tell them.

How about;
Greek government collapses under popular rebellion and the public vote a nationalist, militaristic strong man into power who then picks a fight with Turkey over Cyprus and other border disputes to demonstrate his strength. Two Nato countries are at war and others are forced to take sides.

Spain's very young democracy collapses, similar strong man comes to power and picks fights with Britain and Morocco, then sides with Argentina in Falklands dispute. Again, others are forced to take sides.

There are plenty more scenario's and if southern European states don't get the help they need, it could get very nasty.

[sasguru]

For me it's:
Fundamentalist gaining control of the Egyptian Army ( I am guessing it was one of the reasons why the Egyptian Army supported the ousting of Mohamed Morsi. To stop this happening)

Fundamentalist gaining control of the Turkish Army. (not so far fetched, if the protests in Turkey escalate)

If the Fundamentalist gain control of either of these two armies, they will "Liberate" several countries across North Africa. Then it will get serious

Which Fundamentalist do you mean? (S)he must be a VIP, if (s)he's capitalized.

[sasguru]

A zoonosis is the most likely candidate to kill off a swathe of humanity in the next few years as humans and animals interact in increasingly crowded conditions, especially in the Asia.

[TykeMerc]

Decorating your lab with tinfoil isn't going to save you Zeity.

As a Giant Alien Lizard he's probably got more than a few yards of tinfoil to fall back on if something went off

There is risk with all of the things that are happening, but to be fair that level of risk isn't higher than many other points in the last 30 years so I'm not going to run round screaming that the sky is falling just yet.

[Mich the Tester]

I'm not going to run round screaming that the sky is falling just yet.

I will if the rate's good.