A new TEOTWAWKI situation.......

This past weekend, I watched a TV series from 2006 (caught the entire one-season run on HULU), and they brought forth an interesting new possible cause for Human disaster and extiction......

A major new invasive species that threatens to bump us off the top of the food chain......

"SURFACE". Catch it if you can - pretty good for a TV series. Plenty of Government cover-up/CT stuff to keep the tinfoil hat crowd happy, and lots of TV Science stuff. Pretty neat critter too.

If the scenario of this show actually took place - we're all sushi!!

 

We're not quite sushi, just yet.

I think you may be underestimating humanity's capacity for defending itself, and for destroying other creatures.


At the moment, humans are destroying ocean fish stocks with gusto, and if the moratorium on whaling doesn't hold up, we'll be driving many whale species to extinction. The more likely scenario for man's destruction is likely to be from global starvation and its collateral effects (war, disease, economic and political instability etc) than some super critter knocking us of our precarious position on the evolutionary ladder.


We are probably more of a danger to ourselves than some other species out competing us. Our species' capability of using our brains to solve problems, is a two edged sword...that same problem solving capacity also has, as often as not, a problem creation capability too, whether it be intentional or otherwisel.


The series that you speak of is a science fiction show....and as entertainment, having a rapacious creature of mysterious origins terrorising humans upon the littoral margins of the world makes for better entertainment than watching a bunch of humans starving miserably to death.

Still, there's nothing wrong in enjoying a well scripted, and well made science fiction TV show. : )

 

speaking of science fiction.... V the series, the original died without a whimper. Then we had the resurrected newer hotter V series, .... did it die without a whimper also or did we go Will Smith "independence day" on their rat eating reptile carcasses? I was just wondering.... or wandering depending on who you ask or where .... like the institution I escaped from

 

I ain't in no stinkin institution. I is free I tell you.

 

Don't be so modest Tac : )

Oh tac.....you're definitely an institution here!(at SM).

 

all this chit chat.... and no one yet has answered my question about V the series.
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I would be lying if I didn't say that I love Survival Monkey. If I am a slightly bent institution, so be it. If Melbo should ever feel I have gone too far, he need not ban me. I respect this place enough, that should he ask me to leave, I would be gone instantly. Sad, but gone.

 

Chell, it IS a valid consideration - a new species vying for domination - fiction or otherwise. Just an intersesting scenario anyways. An additional kicker is the critters were deep in the earth under the oceans, before coming up. Their increased activity is making 'Global Warming' look like a Sunday picnic - basically the entire Earth climate is being changed by them, in a way that dooms humanity. Tough critters too - impervious to many methods we would employ.
The series ended with only one season, and a huge tsunami wiping out the East Coast......

Never came back to show us how to deal with thousands of huge carnivorous amphibious critters rampaging the Earth.......
Nuking would NOT be an option.......

 

So, you don't think maybe someone at Monsanto might not get a little too creative, and the world be have unleashed upon it, say.... a ravening horde of "Spider Goats" hungry for human flesh?

And yep, Nimrod was adorable - in a way only a little boy could love. In a few years though, the kid will need a much bigger tank........

Actually, we do see localised examples of "Mother Nature striking back" with packs of critters roaming where they shouldn't and attacking people.
The carnivorous black squirrels in the Moscow winter, killing and eating dogs.......
Wolves, the bigger Canadian Greys, attacking livestock and even people in a way our indigenous wolves do not.......
As this old Earth is ravaged by Man, she seems to be fighting back occasionally. Whos to say some new species might not decide to contest ownership with us? Man has had his Million Years to make something constructive of himself, and has pretty well bollixed the job.
In any case, it plays better than 'zombies' or Space Aliens......

 

An animal Conspiracy In Az?

Arizona woman attacked by elk - CBS5 - KPHO - Phoenix News, Weather and Sports

Gilbert woman stable after surgery for bear mauling - CBS5 - KPHO - Phoenix News, Weather and Sports

Besure to carry if you liove in Arizona... there is a reason for the laws...

 

It's not so much the people, I blame the heat!
Ok, maybe it's Al Gore and his danged POLAR BEARS stirring up all the trouble?
Either or, there are some very very stupid people that just want to get closer to nature....and then scream when they get chewed on! Who knew?

 

Bruce, talk about 'stupidity in action' - I once watched a PBS special on Alaskan Brown Bears raiding trash dumps, and the city was trying to 'clean up their act'. Before that though, this idiot tourist wanted to photograph the bears up close - had a danged PORKCHOP in his coat pocket! Reckon he figured on tossing it on the ground and clicking pics of Brer Bear eating....... he didn't seem to realise once the bruin downed the snack, HE'D be the main course! Lucky for him a taxi driver saw him and forced him into the car and took him back to town.......
Some people.......

I call it the "Disneyfication of nature". They fail to reckon with the 'wild' in wilderness.

 

A lot of people think that life is Disney movie. You know where physics and gravity only apply when you want them to and the animals talk to you.

 

That might make a cool story. Ever read 'The Kraken Wakes'?

Chris

 

It's a recurring theme in the genre

Yes......by John Wyndham......it's a good read, with sea monsters monstering humanity, disturbed by nuclear testing if I remember rightly.

Another Sci Fi Novel of the humanity killing style is the Day of the Triffids, by the same author. The Legacy of Heorot, by Niven, Barnes and Pournelle have similar marine creature to the one featured in the OP.

 

Just watched the movie "Deep Rising", starring Treat Williams. Bad guys assault a cruise ship, hoping for a huge heist. They find huge mutant sea worms instead, of the "Chaotic Hungry" variety (old AD&D reference...).
Good action flick, with a nifty rotating multi-barrel assault rifle of supposed Chinese design...... gotta research that - it was KEWL!!!!

 

It actually happend just a few miles from me. Bears with little kiddie bears will always protect their little guys. This lady actually got between the mommie bear and the kiddie bear. Wrong ! Fact. I have fished up in N. Idaho along the canuck border and ran into a couple of Griz's that would make the record books shrink. Even on a narrow switch back hiking to high mtn. lakes where there is almost no way to give ground. By the way, bears don't usually give ground, and I am still here. Moose and Elk make me more nervous then bears ususally do. Both are big, nasty and the thought of having those antlers stuck up my rear end do not make me feel good. Mountain lion attacks also seem to be on the rise. Have seen several in last years. Wife heard some munching sounds on the front porch about 15 years ago, and being a little groggy from a deep sleep , assumed we somehow locked out one of the dogs. Upon opening the front door, was somewhat startled to discover a mtn. lion eating the dogs food. Just closed and locked the door and came back to bed. Lol . Still laugh at that one. I once had a rabid skunk stager into our campsite, and contrary to my wife's yelling at me to shoot it, simply chased it away with a few small stones well aimed at it. Knowing full well if I put a .44 mag into the stupid skunk, it would have rendered our camsite useless.

I guess to sum up what I am saying is that when you stumble across wild critter's in their back yards, give them plenty of room and usually, you will fair ok. Try and get close to take a picture or feed them, and its anybodys guess what will happen to you.