Eyjafjallajokull volcano

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:30

UndercoverElephant wrote:
JohnB wrote:
I think people have forgotten that things humans create aren't infallible, and we shouldn't be putting so many eggs in one basket.
We have become totally dependent on modern technology. Can you imagine what would happen if all the world's computer systems went wrong? We managed to survive for 200,000 years without them, but 30-40 years after we first started using them and our civilisation would collapse overnight if they were removed.

We have also bred a generation of children who can't do long multiplication without a calculator.

And can you imagine a world without mobile phones???

We are an evolving species.

Technology is part of that evolution.

I would rather live in a high-tech world, however fragile, than be stuck in the world of 200,000 years ago.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:34

I have argued for years that Just in Time (JIT) systems and supply chains would be our downfall, mind you I didn't really anticipate a Volcanoe would be the cause....

Nature always wins! The sooner we learn this again, the better!

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 08:49

I have argued for years that Just in Time (JIT) systems and supply chains would be our downfall,

Hopefully many will learn from incidents such as this:

1. Through increasing buffer stocks
2. Through increased localisation : local suppliers, local customers
3. Through parallel transport systems : high speed rail & road freight services introduced to parallel air freight services.

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 19 Apr 2010, 09:10

But it doesn'y have to be fragile. If we were a bit cleverer we could make it much less fragile.

I love technology too, I have been using a mobile phone since 1990 - I worked in logistics, transportation and distribution then. I have worked with computers (started as a trainee programmer) since 1982. I know all about technology and its benefits. But I also know about the problems that will arise when it stops working....

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 19 Apr 2010, 09:22

Snow's latest product

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 19 Apr 2010, 09:36

UndercoverElephant wrote:This is f***ing HILARIOUS.

Sorry I don't have anything more to add, but I'm guessing most powerswitchers are finding it every bit as hilarious as I do. I personally would be quite happy to never get on a plane again in my life. I hate the damned things.

+100%

UndercoverElephant wrote:And can you imagine a world without mobile phones???

Easily. I'm over twenty.

I've never had a mobile and have neither intention nor desire to obtain one. I am waiting for the brain tumour epidemic and I think I could be nasty enough to say, "I told you so".

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 19 Apr 2010, 10:49

See? CO2 offsetting really works.

Andy Hunt wrote:

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:12

I am waiting for the brain tumour epidemic and I think I could be nasty enough to say, "I told you so".

Following your post I had a bit of a Google.

The case is not clear for ANY major increase in brain tumour incidence resulting from mobile phone use.

Also, brain tumours are relatively rare so any significant increase in the incidence RATE, if proven, doesn't translate to an 'epidemic'.

However mobile phone use DOES increase the risk of a car crash by a factor of FOUR times.

I suggest that mobiles ARE creating an epidemic of deaths ... not through radiation, but through plain old car crashes.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:17

Vortex wrote:
I am waiting for the brain tumour epidemic and I think I could be nasty enough to say, "I told you so".
Following your post I had a bit of a Google.

The case is not clear for ANY major increase in brain tumour incidence resulting from mobile phone use.

I'll believe it when I don't see it.

Like many modern technologies, I've really nothing against them. It's more how they're used that get me. In the case of mobile phones, Vortex, you've pointed out one of the more deadly uses. As a cyclist, I can vouch for their use being the cause of many, many near misses. People are almost literally in another world when they're on the phone. As for people on bikes using a mobile...

I also wish people would put real & present human bodies ahead of virtual ones on the phone by, for instance, turning phones off when entering cafes, restaurants, music sessions, cinemas and funerals.

And, if they do have to answer a damned phone, wtf do they have to shout?

Post by **clv101** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:18

There's no reason to think this volcanic disruption won't last (at least intermittently) for months, or even years. This is a great opportunity to remodel European transport. Scale back aviation by a factor ten. There is a silver lining to this ashen sky.

I spent the weekend in London, staying under a silent Heathrow flight path. An amazing change walking along the Thames without a plane passing over ever 90 seconds.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:32

There's no reason to think this volcanic disruption won't last (at least intermittently) for months, or even years.

Certainly a wake up call!

(I have nagging concern in the back of my mind that it could have been a say 10 or 100 times bigger event. If a single poxy volcano can do this, what would a MAJOR nearby volcanic event - or small meteor strike - have done? I know some people stuck in sunny San Diego ... currently a nice vacation extension ... but would it have been so nice under leaden skies raining pumice for say 3 weeks? Doesn't bear thinking about.)

tattercoats · Post by **tattercoats** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:44

The latest I've read said that the ash plume was becoming intermittent, but that the tremor were intensifying...

There's still Katla, the girl-next-door, who tends to follow Eyafjallajokul into activity.

I'm alternating BAU with even more gardening, and watching my dvd of 'Supervolcano'. (Disaster looms? Plant stuff! Oil prices soar? Plant stuff! Having a down day? Plant stuff! I am in some ways a simple soul.)

I balk at putting Eyafjallajokul into a song, mind. *That's* a challenge!

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:50

tattercoats wrote:I balk at putting Eyafjallajokul into a song, mind. *That's* a challenge!

That's easy for you to say.

Strangely, I thought of you and your songs when I first saw the volcano's name...

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 19 Apr 2010, 11:58

Hey relax : popocatepetl and make yourself a cuppa.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 19 Apr 2010, 12:19

The airlines are getting more vocal about being allowed back into the air. They are running these test flights to 'prove' that there is no danger, even though ten flights without incident or measurable damage means nothing when one crash in 100,000 flights would be unacceptable.

It does make good PR for the airlines when asking for a bailout. "You cost us billions and stranded hundreds of thousands of our customers without cause!"

25 years ago we could not have monitored this dust, and the planes would have kept flying, with instructions to fly around any dense dust clouds.

I think it is only a matter of days before politics intervenes and some sort of flying is re-introduced over the heads of the air traffic controllers.

Also, a couple of billion bail out to the airlines would barely register relative the bankinf fiasco. Of course, we would be sending good money after bad, but they don't (want to) know that.