Something to Worry About Today

Death by caffeine?

Every time you toss your latte cup in the bin, you’re killing off humanity’s most tireless allies. New reports say that honeybees are as easily affected by caffeine as we are and will often drown in the dregs of discarded cups.

Madurai Kamaraj University’s School of Biological Sciences found that over 25,000 bees died near five coffee outlets over a 30-day period. This amounts to “nothing short of apiscide,” says The Economic Times. Most bee deaths occurred between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm, prime coffee-drinking hours.

Sad news. But even worse when you realise that three-quarters of the world’s food crops are exclusively pollinated by the insects. A major loss of bees would result in a catastrophic famine scenario. Scientists already report that bees are in danger of mass die-offs as a result of a new virus. To make things worse, an Indian university has released data that the use of mobile phones has threatened hives by disorienting the direction sensors of the nectar gatherers.

No bees, no us. Keep that in mind next time you order a cappuccino.

Something to Worry About Today

Has it been 25,765 years already?

Cheery news found on the Net by fellow Doomwatcher Brad Gunn:

“The alignment of (our solar system with the axis of the galaxy or the galactic plane (about every 25, 765 years) will disrupt the orbits of the planets in our solar system generating huge chaos on each, and that this is the meaning of the Mayan calendar - it ends at the date of the next alignment of us with the galactic plane.”

Gee—it seems like only yesterday.

Something to Worry About Today

Grim news from medical researchers: your breakfast may kill you.

This warning isn’t the conventional one about dietary health. Abuse of antibiotics in meat production is bringing about a new crisis in human infections, the Lancet has warned. The journal denounced the “prophylactic” use of common antibiotics in pig and poultry farming.

By administering antibiotics to healthy animals to prevent their getting sick, the constantly mutating bacteria that cause illness in animals may be more likely to infect humans. Pathogens once easily dealt with in the “antibiotic age” have become resistant.  Already more than 25,000 people die each year from resistant strains in the UK alone.

The practice of wholesale dosing of farm animals, coupled with the slowed-down production of new antibiotics as firms withdraw research for financial reasons, has left the arsenals of doctors dangerously under-stocked. In trying to keep healthy the sources of bacon and eggs, farmers may be helping to kill off their breakfast-eating customers.

Muesli anyone?

Something to Worry About Today:

The Pill may be killing men off, a new study reports.

Researchers in a Toronto medical centre have identified a link between the widespread use of oral contraceptives and the incidence of mortality from prostate cancer. This is especially true in developed countries, where the Pill is used by large numbers of women.

Scientists have known for some time that oestrogen leakage from contraceptives has caused unusual effects in the environment. Fish with two sets of genitalia, sexually deformed otters and even penis shrinkage in Florida alligators are all blamed upon the increase of loose oestrogen in rivers. To worsen the problem, certain industrial by-products, such as a compound used for coating aluminium drink cans, have also been shown to produce oestrogen-like chemicals.

Is all life on Earth gradually becoming female?

See our chapter on Gender Erosion in The Coffee Table Book of Doom. Click on the cover for more information.

Something to Worry About Today

Space Age to Stone Age in eight minutes flat?

That’s how long it takes a massive solar flare to reach Earth from the Sun. And now it’s official: solar flares mean big problems for all of us during 2012, according to NASA.

While passing out the good news that a giant fireball from the Sun won’t destroy Earth next year, NASA also said that solar maximum flares (beginning in 2012) can cause serious disruptions to electronic equipment.  This, of course, is what modern civilization is almost entirely dependent upon.

In comparing solar storms to hurricanes, scientists said that just as in advance of terrestrial storms, precautions might need to be taken. This would include turning off the electronics and “getting out of the way”.

Severe enough flares can mean the disabling of satellites responsible for navigation and communications. A strong episode can render such things as cash points, mobile phones and air traffic control facilities encumbered or useless.

Not worried? See our new book for a list of some of the most drastic effects.

Something to Worry About Today

Is the world’s largest volcano getting ready to erupt and cause a global catastrophe?

The Yellowstone Caldera, the largest simmering reservoir of magma on earth, is showing worrying signs of blowing up, scientists report. If it does, an area the size of Europe will suffer complete devastation and ash up to hundreds of feet deep will collect thousands of miles from the crater. A “winter” caused by ash clouds blocking the Sun’s light would cause a global temperature drop of up to 20 degrees C, bringing about probable species extinction.

Including homo sapiens.

Recent studies have shown that the earth around the volcano has bulged by approximately ten inches, changing water levels in the National Park. This may mean that the 600,000-year cycle between eruptions is nearly at an end. It’s been 640,000 years since the last one.

That makes it 40,000 years overdue.

Something to Worry About Today

Is this the last chance for hot tamales, mariachis and tequila?

The Mexican government is using the end of the Mayan calendar to promote last-chance visits to their country. The calendar ends after a 5,000 + year run on 21 December 2012, giving yet more substance to the Doomsday predictions of scientists, priests and nonegenarian numerologists from California. Eeerily, this seems to mesh with a prophesy by St Malachy in 1143, who said that the world would end during the reign of the 112th future pope. The present incumbent, Benedict XVI, is the 111th, and he's 83 years old.

A full breakdown of some of the events that might come to pass in 2012 can be found in our book, The Coffee Table Book of Doom. Click on the cover opposite to see more.

While there's still time.

Something to Worry About Today

Alert: a huge asteroid is heading our way tomorrow, NASA scientists have reported.

The space rock, as big as four football pitches, will pass within .8 lunar distances—closer than the Moon. That’s a close shave in cosmic terms, and we hope the telescope boffins have got it right.

If not, the results of a collision would be a 4,000 megaton blast and a possible tsunami over 20 metres high. The dust cloud would probably cause an artificial winter that would decimate food production for anyone still around and who had an appetite.

This object will be back round in about 100 years.  Meanwhile, we have to worry about another big chunk of rock, expected in 2028, and passing even closer. There’s so much traffic up there these days that it keeps scientists busy making predictions.

Just hope they remember to look both ways.

Something to Worry About Today:

A cocktail of influenza viruses which already exist could become the next global killer, epidemiologists have warned.

Some such cocktails have already appeared, as when ordinary winter flu infects a patient at the same time as the more virulent swine flu. The more dangerous variety can then “hitch a ride” on the other and form a new illness. The nightmare scenario for human health involves a deadly bug such as bird (avian) flu, not normally found in humans, attaching itself to winter flu viruses and mutating into an attack nobody is resistant to.

Medical scientists will keep working on vaccines, even though such a flu contagion could spread in days across the globe. Meanwhile, wash your hands. 

Then wash them again.

Something To Worry About Today

It seems that Harold Camping, the 90-year-old prophet of California radio, has apologised for miscalculating the date of the Apocalypse. That seems OK, but he insists that a "spiritual rapture" did take place back in May.

Maybe you didn't notice it. So if you're still walking around, the bad news is that you've already missed the plane.

Never mind-- today sees the launch of our book, The Coffee Table Book of Doom, which sorts out the end times in a way that might not be able to rescue you but will make the end of the world more entertaining. You can click on the picture to your right to get a copy for yourself.

Something to Worry About Today

Uh-oh.

Just when we thought we had proof that the world is heating up, the research colleague of Professor Richard Muller of the Berkeley Earth Surfaces Temperature programme says he is wrong.

According to Professor Judith Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof Muller failed to mention that data exists showing that the earth’s temperature has not risen in the past 13 years. In response, Muller denies leaving out facts, distancing himself from recent claims of British scientists having fiddled the data.

Score one for the climate change deniers. Bad news for the rest of us:  if we can’t get the facts straight, how can we prevent slowly turning to toast?