# An inevitable, extinction-level natural disaster is six months off. Do you want me to tell you?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 21, 2011, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684 "2011-11-21T20:57:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/41 "2011-11-22T18:58:14Z")
> [@salinqmind](#):
>
> How would one “have some fun” waiting for the 6 months to go by? I have an anxiety disorder and would probably curl up in my bed, shivering with fear, for 6 months.
As long as one doesn’t have an anxiety disorder, what’s to stop one from having fun?
YOU wouldn’t be able to enjoy it, but many of the rest of us would.
I’d hope the 6 months included late summer in the northern hemisphere, because I’d like to hike the Highline Trail in Glacier NP one more time, and visit Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Banff.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/42 "2011-11-22T19:04:12Z")
Yep, want to know. I want to know every single thing, so this is no different.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/43 "2011-11-22T19:43:42Z")
I will spend the next six months masturbating like a motherfuck.
Hmmm. Come to think of it, I can do that anyway.
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### Author:  [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/44 "2011-11-22T19:52:15Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> As long as one doesn’t have an anxiety disorder, what’s to stop one from having fun?
>
> YOU wouldn’t be able to enjoy it, but many of the rest of us would.
>
> I’d hope the 6 months included late summer in the northern hemisphere, because I’d like to hike the Highline Trail in Glacier NP one more time, and visit Yellowstone, the Tetons, and Banff.
The problem is that if everyone knows, many, perhaps most people are going to quit working. Food production and transport may cease. Same with medical goods and services. Those so inclined, or made desperate by lack of available goods and services, may turn to looting and mayhem. Utilities may not have enough people willing to show up and do the necessary work to keep electricity, gas, and oil going.
How are you going to get to Yellowstone et al? It’s likely you won’t be able to get gas. You may not be able to buy food. Your weapons and ammo may be stolen, assuming you have any.
It could be enjoyable if just the people I wanted to know knew. Not so much if everybody knows and society just falls apart.
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### Author:  [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/45 "2011-11-22T23:46:12Z")
If I’m going to be in the epicenter of the strike when it comes, don’t tell me. Then I can be all “oh, hey, what’s that bright speck in the-” before being obliterated.
If I’m going to be on the other side of the planet, then tell me so that I can move.
Fuck the post-apocalyptic society collapse bullshit. I’d rather die instantly and be blissfully unaware of it than be raped/murdered by my own species in a toxic wasteland.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/46 "2011-11-22T23:55:09Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#):
>
> Um, this IS a theoretical question, right?
>
> Right?
As **Oy!** and **Anaamika** are still posting, obviously nothing’s up. I’d have already relocated them to Narnia or Oz or some such benign fantasy world without internet access. Admittedly people not on the Short List would be ruthlessly abandoned. 😃
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### Author:  [@Oy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oy)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/47 "2011-11-23T00:04:32Z")
Oh, thank you, **Skald**! I didn’t know I was on your “save” list, but I appreciate it very much.
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### Author:  [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/48 "2011-11-23T07:54:09Z")
Yes, I’m sure I speak for the rest of us when I say how pleased I am for **Oy!** and **Anaamika**.
_casts reproachful look through big eyes at **Skald** _
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### Author:  [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/49 "2011-11-23T09:33:33Z")
Something that I think was poorly handled in the movie _Deep Impact_ was the month before the comet hit. The word gets out, the US government imposes martial law, people are panicked but forced to stay at home, until just shortly before the impact, when they were allowed to surge out and form a monster traffic jam trying to escape from the coast. We see Elijah Wood frantically track down his girlfriend as she and her family are stuck on the roads, then escape via moped with her and her baby sister. They barely survive by driving really really fast up the big hills (:rolleyes:) overlooking Virginia Beach and make it, getting just a splash of water from the giant wave as it laps at them before receding.
All those people who just died in the tsunami created by the comet’s hitting the Atlantic Ocean could have lived by being informed of where the safe areas likely were, and being allowed to travel to them earlier. I get that they were trying to prevent complete chaos, but surely the key would have been clear communication with the best information as soon as it was available.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/50 "2011-11-23T09:37:08Z")
> [@shantih](#):
>
> Something that I think was poorly handled in the movie _Deep Impact_…
You mean, apart from the whole 120 minutes, from start to finish?
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### Author:  [@ProbablyProcrastinating](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProbablyProcrastinating)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/51 "2011-11-23T09:37:21Z")
Don’t care. It wouldn’t make a huge difference. I can’t think of anything I’d do differently. Maybe not replace my car windshield. I’d still put the snow tires on, though.
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### Author:  [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/52 "2011-11-23T10:00:19Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> You mean, apart from the whole 120 minutes, from start to finish?
Now, be fair. I don’t remember being irked by the opening credits at all.
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### Author:  [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/53 "2011-11-23T11:31:36Z")
Already prepared for the end of the world, so I’d be quitting my shithole soul crushing job and hookering it up with Cherry and Fantasia in my swanky hotel overlooking the Anchorage War Memorial.
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### Author:  [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/54 "2011-11-23T11:55:55Z")
Absolutely I’d want to know, **Skald**!
Because whatever the end, those last six months will have been blissfully, joyfully, spontaneously, materially-unattached, emotionally honest, _worth_ it.
As would the cocaine.
Oh make it so, **Skald** - make it so!! Lay that bitchin’ disaster _on_ me…!!
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### Author:  [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/55 "2011-11-23T14:34:48Z")
I’d want to know. Six months gives me time to assess whether or not the disaster may be personally surivivable for me, my friends, and hand-picked goons we’ll use to forge a new and terrible Empire of Man from the charred ashes of the old world. 😃
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/56 "2011-11-23T16:05:51Z")
> [@shantih](#):
>
> Now, be fair. I don’t remember being irked by the opening credits at all.
No movie with Tea Leoni in it can be completely bad.
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### Author:  [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/57 "2011-11-23T16:07:25Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#):
>
> Absolutely I’d want to know, **Skald**!
>
> Because whatever the end, those last six months will have been blissfully, joyfully, spontaneously, materially-unattached, emotionally honest, _worth_ it.
>
> As would the cocaine.
>
> Oh make it so, **Skald** - make it so!! Lay that bitchin’ disaster _on_ me…!!
[Evil!Skald]
I am not that sort of villain. Why would I destroy the Earth? In the first place, I fail to see how that would make me any money. In the second place, all my stuff is here. In the third place, it would make Adele Atkins sad.
[/evil!skald]
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### Author:  [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/58 "2011-11-23T16:10:06Z")
I don’t want to know. The majority of our emotions are based on anticipation, be they positive or negative. I can happily imagine that great things are happening next year, instead of sadly mourning “this is the last slice of pepperoni I’ll ever eat.”
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### Author:  [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)
#### Post date: [November 23, 2011, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/59 "2011-11-23T17:19:18Z")
Assuming I’m dead (along with everyone else) whether or not I know, I’d rather not know. I don’t particularly need to pack in experiences before I die, I’ve already had quite a lot and would rather spend time loving my family. I’m doing exactly that already, and it’d just make me an emotional wreck if I knew it was all about to end.
Now, if I were going to die of cancer in six months and leave family and friends behind me, it’s more of a tossup. In some ways I’d much rather just die in my sleep of an aneurism, but in other ways there’s a lot I could do to prepare everyone around me for my passing if I had advance warning. And maybe I could make something that would be my legacy.
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### Author:  [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-inevitable-extinction-level-natural-disaster-is-six-months-off-do-you-want-me-to-tell-you/603684/60 "2011-11-24T01:35:11Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> I’d want to know.
>
> I don’t want to grade that big pile of exams and research papers for nothing.
And I don’t want to take the exam or write the papers. Tell me please!
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