Nature Always Wins - the Growing Threat of Cataclysms

There's not a snowball's chance in magma that we'll escape global cataclysm.  Most of us don't bother thinking about it, but the fact remains: we are experiencing a surge in potential extinction-level events all over the world.

Don't believe me?  Maybe the media has you convinced otherwise and that's fine, because there's a possibility the rising activity is only a phase and it will subside--but what if it doesn't?

SkyNet Ancestry: It's Baby Steps to Robot Terrorism

Harvard is synonymous with the best, brightest, and upcoming minds--right?  Well, those eggheads have cooked up something easily construed as a precursor to the Hollywood famous "Terminator" franchise.

In the words of scientists working on the project: "The breakthrough could lay the framework for future robot brigades that collaborate to execute large tasks..."

Self-organizing, semi-autonomous robots.  Sounds like the beginnings of true artificial intelligence; it seems "Terminator", "The Matrix", and "I, Robot" weren't clear enough to warn away from this madness.

Am I over-reacting?  Is it possible that we might see artificial intelligence in our lifetime?

Here Comes the Next Superbug (We're All Gonna Die!)

West Africa is under siege by some pesky little critter known as Ebola. According to the CDC, the situation is severe enough that they recommend against travelling to the region. Now, I don't think Mama Nature plays games when it comes to this stuff, but the death toll is around 730 as of this writing.

 In the time it took for this information to reach my eyes, and then for me to type this article, more people died in the U.S. from drunk-driving than in West Africa from Ebola.

Solar Roulette

Every so often, the Sun loads up and fires a blast into space.  These coronal mass ejections (CME) have the capacity to do some serious, serious damage upon striking Earth.

According to NASA, recent solar CMEs raced through Earth's backyard.  Here's the article.

What sort of impact would CMEs have on Earth?  Let's discuss.