The end of the world!!!

That photo of Ushuaia made me think of somthing I'd lost track of over the last few landlocked decades...I grew up on Puget Sound and was always drawn to the sea. As a young(er) adult I spent considerable time at sea in the Navy and Merchant Marine. The thing that stuck me so forcefully then and now again is that the Earth is a water planet and we are a sea-bound people. You can go ANYWHERE (almost) you'd want to go on the surface of that water and the sea is free to all for innocent use. The sense of possibility awes me. I never got bored just looking at the sea.

 

That's why I like globes. They are nearly astonishing after seeing too many flat maps.

 

As a youngster, I crossed the Atlantic three times and I never got bored looking at the sea, either. I don't think I ever could. Amazing. As a boy, I read quite a few old stories about other boys who had "run away to sea." It seemed common, back in the 18th and 19th centuries. I thought of doing it myself quite a few times in the 1950s - but I feared getting caught and being dragged back home.

In my working years, I'd quite often think running away to sea would be a good solution - but by then I had kids of my own. I think they were the real reason I stayed and worked. Otherwise, I'd probably be posting from Port Moresby - or Valparaiso, maybe.

 

It was still just possible in the Nineties to, if not "run away to sea", to come pretty close to it if you were an adult. The Coast Guard would give you a Merchant Mariner's Card, aka the "Z-Card", upon application and proof of identity. You could then go down to one of the union halls and if the books were open and no one else wanted the job, the union would send you to a ship as an entry level ordinary seaman, wiper, or steward. Hey Presto! You were a Merchant Seaman! No experience or training required. No physical, either.

Not anymore. Now, you have to meet a number of security, training and physical requirements before you can set foot on a merchant ship as crew. And the most demanding of these have to be re-done every few years. Frankly, I can't see that all the hoopla has made anybody any safer but what do I know?

My job has all but vanished at sea anyway. Alas...all good things come to an end eventually and I'm damned lucky to have tasted the seagoing life of that era before it ended forever. Steam and teak decks and break bulk cargo and polished brass and manila lines and Morse Code and signal flags...I'd have been perfectly at home on any U.S. cargo ship from about 1915 through 1999. No longer. Gone with the dodo.

 

-.-- . ... .-.-.- / --. --- -. . .-.-.- / ... .- -.. .-.-.- (Yes. Gone. Sad.)

 

Since the world is coming to an end soon, you ought to buy the right real estate (bonus gift - whatever happened to Jim Bakker?)

http://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/national/article210538069.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

I used to be a Faithful Listener (a.k.a. Saddle Pal) of the Riders in the Sky Radio Theater. One of their "sponsors" was the Tumbleweed Valley Bank (member F.O.L.D). The Bank offered Apocalypse Insurance so that, when everything is falling apart you will take comfort in knowing that there's a "Big Fat Check With Your Name On It."

I've seen them live maybe three or four times. They didn't disappoint. But I DO miss the radio show on Saturday nights.

 

Hmmm. Not the end of the world, just the end of Canada.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/emergency-system-fails-first-test-in-quebec-hit-and-miss-in-ontario-1.3917976?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

Well, many Canadians will tell you that Canada ends in Quebec.

 

Hmmm. No one could ever know the exact end of the world. Even the years of our life on earth.

 

The end of the world, drugs may have been involved

http://www.kxii.com/content/news/Couple-arrested-for-fleeing-Southmayd-home-naked-after-house-fire-assaulting-cops-482855251.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

 

There's nothing like a Top 10 list

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/10/18/17957162/nuclear-war-asteroid-volcano-science-climate-change

 

At least you have a few years to get ready. Maybe earn that degree . . . in Disaster Management?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/large-asteroid-packing-50-megatons-214202306.html

 

You know how much I love a crossover post, one that links two or more different DI themes. So here's one that links the END OF THE WORLD (in this case, Zombies) with Christmas ANDANDAND musical theatre (someone wake up Uncle Steve!) That right. It's a new small budget film called Ann and the Apocalypse! So forget the Grinch this year and go watch the Zombies take over the world.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/reviews/anna-and-the-apocalypse-film-review/ar-BBQadSn?ocid=spartandhp

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6433880/

 

So, this isn't just about the end of the world. It's about the end of the galaxy.

https://www.livescience.com/64433-milky-way-large-magellanic-cloud-collision-imminent.html

 

Apocalypse and Donald Trump (c'mon, you kind of knew it would come down to this)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/nyregion/trump-preacher-magachurch.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

 

OK, so maybe it's not the end of the world in a literal sense. But it is human extinction . . .

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/bill-mckibben-falter-climate-change-817310/

 

Is it really the end of the world? No, it's just a drill.

https://gizmodo.com/nasa-and-fema-will-simulate-an-impending-asteroid-strik-1834308695

 

this time it's official. we've only got 30 years left.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/597kpd/new-report-suggests-high-likelihood-of-human-civilization-coming-to-an-end-in-2050?utm_campaign=sharebutton