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» Hatrack River Forum » Active Forums » Books, Films, Food and Culture » Mars, Worms, and Blackouts: A Coincidence?

   
Author Topic: Mars, Worms, and Blackouts: A Coincidence?
Alucard...
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Sure, Mars is as close to Earth as it is going to be for a very, very long time. (Just how long is too much for me to Google at this time, sorry!). Then, there is a HUGE Microsoft Windows worm munching through PCs with wreckless abandon...

Why is everyone so shocked that we had our worst blackout since 1977? In fact, it is being called the worst blackout in history, but this is wierd for me because we were without power just 2 weeks ago for 6 days due to a a series of "Microburst" tornado-like storms that ripped through our area. Heck, this blackout was just a walk in the park.

But back to the seemingly random series of events mentioned above, coupled with a recall election in California which is fronted by the leading candidate, Hollywoods' biggest action hero, Arnold Schwarzenneger.

I mean, this is the stuff ancient warnings and talismans and stonehenge are made of. Are there any quatrains from Nostrodamus that spell out the impending doom that recent events surely lead to?

Then again, maybe I am just a fatalist, and should go back to eating my Corn Flakes.

[Dont Know]

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Alucard...
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Ok, I felt bad about not having the info on Mars, so here it is.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_orbit_030121-1.html

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ClaudiaTherese
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Alucard: Pharmacist ... and Hatcracker

On weekdays, he dispenses pills and sage advice. (That is, when he has the thyme.)

On weekends, he dispenses his own brand of justice: that odd blend of skepticism, mysticism, burbliness, and guilt (over insufficent linkage) known as Hatcrack.

All hail Alucard.

[Wink]

[ August 16, 2003, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

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mackillian
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I had an odd dream about Mars being too close, 60,000 miles, burning and fire in the sky, big red ball.

[Eek!]

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Teshi
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I saw Mars again last night, walking home. I wish I had a telescope!

I'm pretty sure that Mars and Worms and Blackouts are all a coincidence, but I do like to imagine...

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mackillian
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Maybe it's making a wormhole.
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eslaine
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Well, if you must cite synchronicity and gravitation, I've noticed a conjunction of large planets on the other side of the sun. I doubt this has anything to do with it, though. You'll find daily disasters these days.... [Big Grin]
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Storm Saxon
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I like the way you think, Alucard. [Smile] You know, it is very plausible that Ahnuld is the leader of the Mars invasion. I mean, do you ever see him and Mars in the same place? Coincidence? I think not.
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littlemissattitude
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Are you saying that this is a Martian worm that lives in the dark and wants to control California politics? [Wink]
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ClaudiaTherese
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Maybe his stronghold will be baste in San Diego.

(Or 'e gonno work out of the city by the bay?)

I've heard quite a few salty tales about evil henchmen cumin in from foreign ports. Pretty soon they'll be peppering the sky with their nasty little wormholes and such. [Mad]

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Alucard...
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OK ALL YOU NON-BELIEVERS! Gather around the campfire as I crack the moldy covers of my favorite anthology of Nostradamus quatrains:

quote:
The god of War encroaches upon the Mother
while the New City is plunged into darkness.
The West leaders crumble with the East laying-in-wait.
The worms burrow their holes through the feathers of the Eagle.

Ok, so I made that up, but it sounds really, really cool.

Hi CT! I have another confession to make, I almost always post at work in the lulls between patients.

Mack, that dream may be reality. Mars was HUGE last night! As for wormholes, my sources tell me that Michael Jackson and Dennis Rodman are the Keymaster and Gatekeeper of the Lunar Wormhole. As for the martian wormhole:

Storm and LMA you are exactly right. Ahnuld does hold the key to the Martian wormhole and the California Governorship is just a platform for him to start the mass landings. The problem is that the Gatekeeper for the Martian Wormhole is reportedly Ross Perot. I guess Mr. Perot is not a big Ahnuld fan and that he has become a bit of a recluse.

Then again, my source for this information was divined from the Corn Flakes I had earlier, and I read them like some deranged Potteresque scene of the students reading their tea leaves. But like Milton Bradley infusing every Oijua Board game with supernatural powers, so do the folks at Kelloggs with my beloved Corn Flakes.

You think that's a chicken on the box? No, you silly fool! It is the screaming winged demon of the Netherworld that gives those of us with eyes to see the visions that we need.

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ClaudiaTherese
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Arrrr, that thar Alucard, he be a wicked alchemist, he be. Brewing up trouble 'e is, stirring the pot o' discord betwixt 'is patience, like a trio o' witch hazels boiling up a savoury stew. Well, I ain't no spring chicken, and the ways I see it, iff'n you tarry long in naming evil, you'll tarragon.

Arrrr ...

[ August 16, 2003, 01:49 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

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littlemissattitude
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If Ross Perot is the Gate Keeper, who is the Key Master? [Big Grin]
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Alucard...
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When I boiled up some brew in the pharmacy one night, I had sprinkled in some centipede legs instead of millipede legs. Well the lights went out and this ghostly apparition, who looked a little bit too much like Rip Torn, floated up out of the concoction and told me all about the Martian wormhole. Of course I told him he was talking out of his own wormhole, and he gave me a really bad case of toejam to silence my skepticism. But the Keymaster is none other than Arnold Swartzenegger. See how it all fits?

C'Mon! This stuff is better than Weekly World News!

[ August 16, 2003, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]

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ClaudiaTherese
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That littlemissattitude, she be a spicy lil' minx. Don't ya be fallin' for that ginger peach smile; she curries flavor like a jolly roger, she do.

Arrrgh, I knows her kind, I do ... tart on 'er outside, and tart on 'er inside. Shiver me timbers, she do.

Arrrr.

[Big Grin]

[ August 16, 2003, 02:16 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

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Alucard...
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*Runs out to the Eyecare Section, grabs an eyepatch, and puts it on*

Aye, Cap'n! Walk'n the plank, she'd be doin' if'n she knew 'er place'n on yur ship!

[ August 16, 2003, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]

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ClaudiaTherese
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(My ship? No, this is your ship. And it's your playful thread, to which I've been able to bring the twin delights of pirate talk and atrocious punning.)

Arrrr, I votes we make the Ginger Peach our cap'n, I does. She can head the hunt for the Mighty Schwarzenegger. Ahoy, and all. Arrr.

[ August 16, 2003, 02:23 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]

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Alucard...
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Yeah, but you're the better pirate-talker!!!

Let's form a loosely-governed Triumverate! But we still need one more CT, unless of course, one of the two of us has multiple identities... [Wave]

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T_Smith
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::high fives lma::
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Alucard...
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P.S. CT, your puns shiver my timbers, and Hatrack needs more shameless punningisms, in a very GWB kind of wayishness.

[ August 16, 2003, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]

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ak
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There could possibly be a connection between the worm and the blackout. The SCADA systems that are supposed to protect against the sort of chain reaction that occurred with this blackout are PCs and they are required to monitor the situation constantly and act within milliseconds in order to work. It's possible that the worm was currently messing up one or more of these systems, and that it came at a time when energy demands were very high and the whole system was close to 100% capacity.

Computer hackers are treated usually as pranksters but they can turn into mass murderers in situations like that. At least 3 people died as a result of the blackouts. I think we should prosecute things like this as the serious crimes they are. That and call for all hackers to convert to white hats.

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Alucard...
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ak,

I live about 60 miles south of Lake Erie, which was implicated as part of an ongoing investigation into a power surge that supposedly reversed polarity. This Lake Erie Loop is something I've never heard of before, and I've already had to deal with Three Mile Island in my childhood.

I suppose I live in the armpit of the power commodities market.

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jexx
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Wait, Wait, Whoa, slow down here...today's not Talk Like a Pirate Day, is it? It's September 19th, I thought? Because I'm not prepared. I was going to make hand-outs for the cadets and make them perform for my amusement.

Dang. I'll just *tell* them it's Talk Like a Pirate Day on the 19th, they don't know any better. Hehe.

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ClaudiaTherese
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jexx, every day is Talk Like a Pirate Day,

(because it makes the groundhogs in the backyard look frickin HUGE!!!)

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Alucard...
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CT,

That was immaculate. We should build a shrine for you :-).

But if you get any unruly patients who are married to Dwight Yoakham, look out. You have been warned!

[Evil Laugh] [Evil Laugh] [Evil Laugh] [Evil Laugh]

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Icarus
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Oh, I already built a shrine to CT.

::slaps hand to mouth::

I dunno if I was supposed to admit that or not . . .

[Embarrassed]

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