The blog about the future
Experience a glimpse of the year 2145Archive for That's Sad
Let’s not forget, you have a few nukes pointing at yourself right now
Remember a few months ago, Russia and the U.S. both agreed on reducing their “stock” of nuclear missiles.
Calming to know… However, based on the somewhat disturbing website nukeometer there are 6645 nuclear missiles within range of my hometown right now. Hmm.
Let’s say the U.S. and Russia actually cut 25% of the arsenal (man, I’m an optimist for even thinking that might happen!)… Would it matter?
And that’s only based on the known, public announced, nukes. How many humanity threatening devices do the Russians, the U.S., Pakistan, China, Iran, Egypt, … really have? I don’t think they even know for themselves.
The nice thing is; Based on this damn interesting article, the Russian ‘Tsar Bomb’ was the biggest, most badass, most destructive thing ever built by humans.
Check out the short video here:
That one was detonated on October 30th, 1961. Today is over 50 years later. You are not convincing me when you tell me research and development stopped on that very day. No sir! Who’s to say what “they” are capable of now?
To wrap things up: Here’s a fun site. Let’s calculate how much damage you can do by dropping a Tsar bomb on your home town!
I hope you enjoyed, but don’t worry. If it should happen; you won’t die immediately, it might take a few weeks or even months of agonizing, horrible pain.
Home Sweet Home
Before humans went into space, several animals were launched into space, including numerous monkeys.
The United States launched monkey flights primarily between 1948-1961 with one flight in 1969 and one in 1985. France launched two monkey space flights in 1967. The Soviet Union and Russia launched monkeys between 1983 and 1996. In total thirty-two monkeys flew in the space program; each had only one mission: so that scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel before sending an actual human into space.
This advertisement by WWF is a nice swing at this concept. It shows one of these monkeys on it’s way home (finally). Keeping hopes up to see his family and the nice planet he remembered as his home… Alas he arrives at a barren uninhabitable land. Very well executed and a wonderful tune.
I hope it’s not a realistic view of the nearby future. Even though BP is doing a good job to establish it like that.
Ok! Yea, Let’s make this a nice place to live! Um no wait…
By the looks of this picture; PyongYang sure had a bunch of visionary architects running around a couple of years ago. I think this is actually an awe-inspiring city-scape. Too bad it ended up like this:
Welcome to the spooky Hotel PyongYang.
The building’s plan for a 105-story height was reportedly a Cold War response to the completion of the Westin Stamford Hotel in Singapore the previous year by a South Korean company, SsangYong Group. North Korean leadership envisioned the project as a channel for Western investors to step into the marketplace. A firm, the Ryugyong Hotel Investment and Management Co., was established to attract a hoped-for US$230 million in foreign investment. A representative for the North Korean government promised relaxed oversight, saying, "The foreign investors can even operate casinos, nightclubs or Japanese lounges if they want to."
Construction gone bad…
Though the basic structure was complete when construction came to a halt in 1992, the building shell sat vacant and without windows, fixtures, or fittings for 16 years. A rusting construction crane at the top assumed the role of a permanent fixture.
Even though the hotel still dominates the Pyongyang skyline, it has proven difficult to obtain information about the hotel or its future from North Korean sources. The problems associated with the hotel led some media sources to dub it "The Worst Building in the World", "Hotel of Doom" and "Phantom Hotel".[11]
Source: Wikipedia:
Alas, this futuristic hotel will never get to be finished.
You can find a lot more pictures of this lost hope of a prosperous thriving city: Hotel PyongYang
