Apocalypse... Now?

[JamesSavik]

I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

 

You can smell it can't you? The fear, the dread- something is coming. What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

[Tiger]

That sounds like fun. Can I be Death?

[thatboyChase]

You need a really nice vacation James.

[Nephylim]

There are four horsemen of the Apocalypse... but what they don't tell you is about the women riding behind in the chariot... just to make sure the horsemen are wearing their scarves, take proper breaks to eat and don't look too long at any other woman OR ELSE.

 

Personally I have my arms wrapped around Famine because he's so skinny there's most room on his horse. I'm going to seduce the antichrist, enslave him with my sexual expertise and pervert evil from the inside. I WILL RULE THE WORLD.

 

But don't worry, I will be a dark queen... all will love me.. and dispair. Unless you've given me a good review in which case you get a get out of hell free card

[Arpeggio]

I'm with Chase on this.

[Genetic_Drift]

There are four horsemen of the Apocalypse... but what they don't tell you is about the women riding behind in the chariot... just to make sure the horsemen are wearing their scarves, take proper breaks to eat and don't look too long at any other woman OR ELSE.

 

Personally I have my arms wrapped around Famine because he's so skinny there's most room on his horse. I'm going to seduce the antichrist, enslave him with my sexual expertise and pervert evil from the inside. I WILL RULE THE WORLD.

 

But don't worry, I will be a dark queen... all will love me.. and dispair. Unless you've given me a good review in which case you get a get out of hell free card

 

 

Nephylim? You're organization intrigues me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Are there minion positions available?

 

Chase

[Tiger]

Can I be a minion too?

[Nephylim]

Nephylim? You're organization intrigues me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. Are there minion positions available?

 

Chase

 

 

Organisation? No one has ever accused me of being organised. Organised chaos perhaps. There are no minions in my order... all are equal... except that some are more equal than others. Gird your loins, Sir Chase, grab a sword and venture forth... oh watch the horse shit on your way it tends to burn through metal if you get it on your armour. You can keep what honour, glory, lands and position you grab for yourself on the way... with a teeny tiny Neph tax of course. I am an EVIL queen after all

[Genetic_Drift]

Organisation? No one has ever accused me of being organised. Organised chaos perhaps. There are no minions in my order... all are equal... except that some are more equal than others. Gird your loins, Sir Chase, grab a sword and venture forth... oh watch the horse shit on your way it tends to burn through metal if you get it on your armour. You can keep what honour, glory, lands and position you grab for yourself on the way... with a teeny tiny Neph tax of course. I am an EVIL queen after all

 

 

*grabs his spatha and armour* By my Word, I will to the Lady be true and faithful, and love all which she loves and shun all which she shuns,according to the laws of the Gods and the order of the world.

 

*starts looking about for lands to conquer*

 

 

 

(Boy, those Anglo Saxons had a gift for oaths, eh?)

Edited August 20, 2009 by Genetic_Drift

[JamesSavik]

Analysis:

 

This time of year, schools are either starting or will be starting shortly. There is no better an incubator for a virus than a school and there are very few viruses that are more contagious than a flu. Biowarfare experts call the process of many people in an enclosed environment like an office or a school viral amplification. In this environment, a virus that isn't even very contagious will spread geometrically.

 

Viruses move through schools rather quietly at first. Before you know it, 20-60% are infected. Those that are infected are contagious before they are symptomatic.

 

Children take it home and spread it to butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. Before you know it, there is no tracking it and its completely out of control.

 

H1N1 virus is one of the worst possible flu viruses. It can cause the immune system to over-react and cause the lungs to fill with fluids (pulmonary edema) which can cause rapid death as was seen in the 1918 pandemic.

 

I am afraid that we are about to see a very serious public health emergency.

 

As of 8/20, Mississippi State University is reporting 100 cases. MSU FluWatch

 

If one of them have it then ten of them will have it and if ten of them have it a thousand of them will have it then we're in deep f**king shit.

 

Influenza type A, subtype H1N1

 

CDC H1N1 Flu Page

 

US Deaths from H1N1 as of July 17

 

US H1N1 Deaths 436 as of Aug 5

 

Australia's Worst Case Scenario 6,000 Deaths

[Tiger]

I want the vaccine...

[Rilbur]

There are four horsemen of the Apocalypse... but what they don't tell you is about the women riding behind in the chariot... just to make sure the horsemen are wearing their scarves, take proper breaks to eat and don't look too long at any other woman OR ELSE.

 

Personally I have my arms wrapped around Famine because he's so skinny there's most room on his horse. I'm going to seduce the antichrist, enslave him with my sexual expertise and pervert evil from the inside. I WILL RULE THE WORLD.

 

But don't worry, I will be a dark queen... all will love me.. and dispair. Unless you've given me a good review in which case you get a get out of hell free card

 

You know, some people get a kick out of roleplaying the evil card.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't. Nor do I understand it. That said...

 

Greetings and defiance, fairest and fallen! Thou shalt not take this world by force, not while I have breath yet left in my body. Though I may not have target to strike, still shall I strive against the dark, and in the day you give me that target thou shalt fall! You may be beautiful and terrible as the morning of the night, you may be fair as the sea and the sun and the snow upon the mountain, but that shall not sway me (hey, I had to match your Tolkien reference somehow! )! My wrath shall be as dreadful as the storm and the lightning, and shake the very foundations of the Earth! You shall face me and despair!

 

Edit: You know... Neph, thanks for that; I just had some ideas for some story scenes. (Read: some really melodramatic dialogue that fits the SOB perfectly...)

[Mark Arbour]

I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

 

You can smell it can't you? The fear, the dread- something is coming. What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

 

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

 

You don't even believe in this stuff.

[Nephylim]

Everyone dies of something, it's the only sure thing in this life.... well that and that you have to eat,drink, breathe etc. There is no point in panicing, what good will it do, it will just make what life we all have left miserable. Prepare for the worst and it just might happen, hope for the best and at least you have a time of peace.

 

 

ANd Rilbur... who said I was roleplaying the evil card

 

Bring it on. This is the real world where evil gets to win.

[Rilbur]

ANd Rilbur... who said I was roleplaying the evil card

 

Bring it on. This is the real world where evil gets to win.

 

Evil gets a chance, sure, but so long as good men hold true that chance is much reduced

[Nephylim]

Evil gets a chance, sure, but so long as good men hold true that chance is much reduced

 

 

The question I would like an answer to is.... who's true? Is it something about her perfume? Where can I get some? ;p Don't give me half a chance that's all I can say... on your own head be it if you do

[JamesSavik]

Be Ready for Another Wave of Swine Flu Cases

[Tiger]

Geeze... they're making a mountain out of a mole hill. 1,800 isn't that many when one considers the millions who have died of AIDS or how many would die if something like Ebola spread around the world. It's not even nearly as bad as the flu that spread around the planet in 1918 that killed millions of people. Yeah, it could hit again, but I don't see it causing millions or billions of deaths.

[JamesSavik]

The problem occurs when a great many people have it and medical facilities get overloaded.

 

AIDS is a poor metaphor for flu because it is so slow and its spreads via blood and fluids.

 

Flu is airborne and can infect anyone. People with pre-existing conditions are at special risk.

 

A bug that is only 1% fatal still kills 10,000 people when 1,000,000 people get it. When that number rises to 10 or 100 million cases, so do the numbers of fatalities.

 

In the case where medical facilities are overloaded and supportive care is unavailable, the fatality rate could easily rise up to 5-12.5%.

 

The problem with epidemiology is that if you do nothing, you get blamed for the results.

 

If you do something and forestall a serious problem, you get blamed for over-reacting.

 

It's a no win situation for politicians that aren't known to get excited about sticking their necks out.

 

My fear is that with people going back to school and being housed in dorms, this thing is going to take off in numbers that will be serious.

 

In the 1918 outbreak, the groups most susceptible to Swine Flu were young people under thirty. It killed so many that it hastened the end of World War I.

 

Today the population of humans are so large and interconnected that this could be a very serious problem.

[W_L]

They are testing vaccines right now with good progress:

 

Kid's doing clinical tests

 

This story makes me feel good, if anything gives me just that small glimmer of hope in mankind and the generations that follow us.

 

Perhaps, we will still make our mistakes, but there are still people out there that care for others first, which makes life worth living just that little bit more.

[JamesSavik]

from the article: FREDERICK, Maryland

 

If you read Twilight, you know what is there.

[Procyon]

There's always some apocalypse or other. Just get used to it.

[Nephylim]

The problem occurs when a great many people have it and medical facilities get overloaded.

 

AIDS is a poor metaphor for flu because it is so slow and its spreads via blood and fluids.

 

Flu is airborne and can infect anyone. People with pre-existing conditions are at special risk.

 

A bug that is only 1% fatal still kills 10,000 people when 1,000,000 people get it. When that number rises to 10 or 100 million cases, so do the numbers of fatalities.

 

In the case where medical facilities are overloaded and supportive care is unavailable, the fatality rate could easily rise up to 5-12.5%.

 

The problem with epidemiology is that if you do nothing, you get blamed for the results.

 

If you do something and forestall a serious problem, you get blamed for over-reacting.

 

It's a no win situation for politicians that aren't known to get excited about sticking their necks out.

 

My fear is that with people going back to school and being housed in dorms, this thing is going to take off in numbers that will be serious.

 

In the 1918 outbreak, the groups most susceptible to Swine Flu were young people under thirty. It killed so many that it hastened the end of World War I.

 

Today the population of humans are so large and interconnected that this could be a very serious problem.

 

 

Dont forget that in 1918 many people were malnourished, TB was rife leaving those who survivied with lung weaknesses, housing was overcrowding with poor sanitation, many people, even the wealthier ones suffered from poor nutrition and many young men coming back from the war had lung conditions from being gassed. Children often didn't survive past five, and those who did worked down mines, in cotton mills etc and had weakened lungs. It was a very different time.

 

Humankind have an uncanny knack of adapting and coping. We survived the 1918 outbreak and we will survive the 2009 one... if it comes. I refuse to live my life in fear of what might happen. For me the worst already has and I go on savouring every moment, living for today to the fullest extent possible for as long as I can.

[JamesSavik]

Humankind have an uncanny knack of adapting and coping. We survived the 1918 outbreak and we will survive the 2009 one... if it comes. I refuse to live my life in fear of what might happen. For me the worst already has and I go on savouring every moment, living for today to the fullest extent possible for as long as I can.

 

I have no doubt that we will survive. My concern is how many will we lose.

 

If it follows the model of the 1918 outbreak and kills so many kids...

 

If I had any kids, they sure as hell would NOT be going back to school for a while.

[Nephylim]

I have no doubt that we will survive. My concern is how many will we lose.

 

If it follows the model of the 1918 outbreak and kills so many kids...

 

If I had any kids, they sure as hell would NOT be going back to school for a while.

 

 

As I have already mentioned children in 1918 were very vulnerable in any event. They OFTEN died before age 5 flu or not. They were malnourished, and under weight. They lived in squalor and were sent out to work. In ANY outbreak the children suffered becuase 1. their immune systems were not developed and 2. they were in no condition to fight.... oh and there were no immunisations

 

These days children are far better equipped to fight illness. They get their immunisations which boost their immune systems very young, they are better fed and not exposed to diseases such as cholera and TB. Very young children will still be at risk as will the elderly and sick but by and large we are far better able to deal with illness now than we were then. I have faith... not in god you understand but faith nevertheless.