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Why 536 AD was the worst year to be alive: Scientists say a mysterious fog that blocked out the sun causing crop failures and widespread famine was the worst global disaster in history

536AD was the start of 18 months of solid darkness caused by a mysterious fog
Harvard professor believes this is the worst year in the entirety of human history
Triggered a century of famine, crop failure, cold weather, disease and death

Bubonic plague, famine, war and flu pandemics have made some periods of human history infamous for death and suffering but one year stands above the rest in terms of misery; 536AD.

According to research from a Harvard professor, it is a prime candidate for the unfortunate accolade of the worst year in the entirety of recorded history.

Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia were plunged into 18 months of solid darkness by a mysterious fog.

It caused snowfall in China, continental-scale crop failure, extreme drought, famine and disease throughout most of the northern hemisphere.

The bleak year was triggered by a cataclysmic Icelandic eruption, scientists say, and was an ominous omen for a bleak century of suffering and death.

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According to research from a Harvard professor, the year 536AD is a prime candidate for the unfortunate accolade as the worst year in the entirety of human history. The bleak year kick-started the coldest decade for more than two millennia

Michael McCormick, a Harvard University archaeologist and medieval historian, told Science Magazine that the world did not show signs of recovery until 640AD.

‘It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year,’ Dr McCormick said.

The eerie fog created a drab world with darkness residing over the northern hemisphere for 18 months, with an unrelenting dusk persevering through day and night.

Effects on the climate were so severe that the Irish chronicles tell of ‘a failure of bread from the years 536–539’.

Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell between 1.5°C (2.7°F) and 2.5°C (4.5°F), initiating the coldest decade in the past 2,300 years.

The international devastation triggered by the unidentified fog gave rise to the moniker ‘The Dark Ages’ which has been used to refer to this ominous time.

Causes of the event have remained a mystery to scientists since it was first discovered via tree ring analysis that the world’s temperature dipped for several years at this point in time.

Dr McCormick and glaciologist Paul Mayewski at the Climate Change Institute of The University of Maine (UM) in Orono believe to have finally put the riddle to bed.

In their study, published in the journal Antiquity, the researchers reveal it was likely caused by a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland.

Analysis of ice cores – natural time capsules of Earth’s geological past – also unearthed that two eruptions followed in 540 AD and 547 AD.

Incessant volcanic activity is believed to have produced millions of tonnes of ash which spread over vast swathes of the world. It caused snowfall in China, continental-scale crop failure and extreme drought and famine throughout most of the northern hemisphere (file photo)

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE YEAR 536AD?

A cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland created a huge cloud that resided over most of the northern hemisphere for 18 months.

The eerie fog caused an unrelenting dusk persevering throughout day and night.

Effects on the climate were so severe that the Irish chronicles tell of ‘a failure of bread from the years 536–539’.

Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2,300 years.

This introduced a period of economic ruin which would steadfastly remain in place until a century later.

Incessant volcanic activity is believed to have produced millions of tonnes of ash which spread over vast swathes of the world.

The authors of the study write that this introduced a period of economic ruin which would steadfastly remain in place until a century later.

It was evidence of lead, and subsequently the smelting of silver, which rejuvenated the world’s economy and finally abated the suffering triggered by the 536 AD eruption.

The ice core analysis revealed that sulphur, bismuth and tephra deposits precede every unusually cold summer and found one for this beleaguered year.

Spikes in the ice core for lead proved smelting was taking place to create silver and this coincides with the advent of coin minting which helped revive the economy, according to archaeologist Christopher Loveluck of the University of Nottingham.

My “in” box filled up on Thursday with questions, after the shooting that took place at a Country music bar out in California Wednesday night. Well, let me clarify that. 99% of them were questions/comments and about 1% were rants about how we need more gun controls.
Most of the questions came from people asking if there’s anything you can do in a situation like that. The answer is yes, to some extent.
The answer SHOULD be that no mentally ill person even attempts such a thing, because everyone behind the bar, and every “bouncer” has a concealed weapon on them, and have been trained how to use them. A sign on the door should read that all employees are armed and trained. Unfortunately, that’s just a dream.
Mass shooters do NOT frequent places where they know the people are armed. There’s no active shooters at gun shows. None at gun ranges. None in police stations. You know the reason why. They can’t get their ten minutes of fame when 20 people blast them to pieces after they fire their first shot. No, they go exactly where our stupid laws TELL them to go.
Gun free zones are hunting preserves for the Mentally ill. Period. This isn’t rocket science folks. Think about it logically for just 2 silly minutes and you’ll know I’m right.
If I somehow snapped my lid and decided I want to go out blazing and taking 20 people with me, where would I go to achieve the best success? Would I go to the hunting and fishing expo, where upwards of 100 people might be carrying a concealed weapon? Probably not. You know that.
Of course he’s going to go to the school. The college. The nightclub. All places where normal law abiding folks are barred from carrying their weapons.
And, it works. It works because he knows he’s got between 5 and 9 minutes to shoot the hell out of people before the police get there. So, he marches in, sees 200+ people enjoying themselves and for what ever evil went berserk in his mind, he starts mowing them down. They are absolutely defenseless. Fish in a barrel.
Now, the lowest hanging fruit for those that don’t want to spend the time to realize the reality of things, is to push for either more gun laws, or outright gun bans. It’s so perfect in their minds. Make everyone turn in their guns,and outlaw them. See, problem solved! Except the problem isn’t solved. For one, you still have a mentally deranged evil person that wants to kill people.
Remember a while ago the spat of “truck killings?” where they were simply using trucks to run over people on sidewalks? Just last year, some lunatic used a moving truck on a bike path in NY and killed 8, wounding 30. The year before in Ohio another evil scum ran over 4, and then got out and started slashing people with knives. Evil people will find a way to do their deeds.
In London, it is virtually impossible to get or own a gun. In fact, not only have they banned guns in England for years, two years ago they banned “knives”. So how is this happening:
LONDON is experiencing a horrifying rise in violent crime, with 100 suspected murders in the capital since the start of the year.The total number of offences involving a knife or bladed instrument that have been recorded by cops in the year to March 2018 rose to 40,147, a seven-year-high.There was also a two per cent spike in the number of gun-related crimes too – that is now at 6,492.
Excuse me? Aren’t knives and guns banned in London? Indeed they are. Did it stop 40 THOUSAND knife assaults and over 6 THOUSAND gun related crimes? No.
And therein lies the problem with the low hanging fruit idea of outlawing, or banning guns. It doesn’t work. But wait, consider this. England has never been a “gun” country. The population was never very free to own guns, and only hunters and collectors would usually go through the hoops to obtain one.
But here in the states? Guns have been a part of rural America for 200 years. Remember the Christmas cards of Grandpa’s fireplace with the rifle hanging on the hooks above it, and a cozy fire burning?
That wasn’t fantasy, that was just a look into “every home” USA 80 years ago. Kids in the 50’s often had marksmanship classes at school. Kids in the 30’s often had to hunt rabbits and squirrel and deer, etc, to help put food on the table.
There’s an estimated 500 million guns in the US. I think that number is ridiculously low, but let’s use it anyway. Until 1968, you could buy a gun by mail order.
Read that again. Mail order. No back ground checks, no registrations, no records, nothing. So where are they coming up with their numbers, when there’s no way to know who bought what back then?
Or consider “bring backs”. In WWII tens of thousands (more) of our soldiers brought back German Lugers and Walters. These didn’t get registered anywhere. Who knows how many of them are still floating around.
So problem 1 is that guns are like drugs. They’re everywhere. They’re in uncle Joe’s attic, and Grandma’s basement. No matter how illegal you make them, I could find you one in ten minutes. Just like crack, coke, heroin, fentanyl, etc is illegal, I could get you any of it within the hour.
Problem 2 of course is that only law abiding citizens abide the law. Duh. So, they pass a gun ban, only the good people turn them in, the bad guys of course don’t, and they get to go play their evil games, knowing no one’s going to be shooting back at them.
We are way way past the idea that banning anything is going to stop evil people. This shooting happened in California. Very tough gun laws. It’s said he had extended magazines. They’re illegal in CA. Did it stop him from getting one? Did it stop him from breaking the law? Please.
So what’s the answer? Is there one? Well to start, I’d like to see all the states go back to spending a lot of their budget on mentally diseased people. Somehow we got civilized and did away with “Mental institutions.”
Now those people walk among us, often jazzed up on a cocktail of antidepressants and God knows what else. One of pharma’s dirty little secrets is that almost 95% of these kind of events finds the person has been using mood altering pharmaceuticals. Let’s start by getting people that need help, the help they need.
Of the 67 ‘shooters” in the last 30 years, 65 had been treated for mental issues. Let that sink in folks
The gun didn’t shoot those people. The person brandishing the gun shot those people. Since guns will always be available, no matter what laws come down the pike, why not work on the person that wants one to commit his evil?
Beyond that, things get messy. Why do I say messy? Because it will take a huge shift in societal thinking to put an end to these sort of events.
Consider this:
Two trends:
1930-1960-most mass shootings were familicides and felony related killings.
1960-present-most mass shootings are in public places against unknown bystanders.
Or this:
Mass shootings in America
By decade:
1900s:0
1910s:2
1920s:2
1930s:9
1940s:8
1950s:1
1960s:6
1970s:13
1980s:32
1990s:42
2000s:28
2010- present 54 so far
For 50 years, we didn’t have issues with mass shooting. Then starting in the 70’s (AFTER Gun registration became law!) they started soaring.
Why? Was it that gun education was removed from schools? Could be.
Was it the gradual breakdown of the nuclear family? Could be.
Was it the loss of mental illness funding? Could be.
Could it be the amount of anti-depressants that started rolling out about then?
Could be. Was it removing “God” from the school? Could be. It could be all that and much much more.
Look at the decade of the 50’s. There was one mass shoot situation.
What was different about life in the 50’s? Everything. Literally everything. June Cleaver hung at home, always nicely dressed while raising the boys. Ward made sure there was discipline in the home. Men went to sporting events wearing jackets and ties. People were civil to each other. One paycheck paid the bills. I could go on for ever.
Well this isn’t the 50’s and I don’t suppose we’re ever going there again. Today’s society is broken in a million different ways. Each year brings more violence, more insanity, more drugs.
With the left taking over the House, they’ve made it clear that they’re going for the low hanging fruit. “Gun control” is big on their list. This is a Headline from the Wall Street Journal on Saturday:
WASHINGTON-Democrats say they will pass the most aggressive gun-control legislation in decades when they become the House majority in January, plans they renewed this week in the aftermath of a mass killing in a California bar.
It’s coming folks. One thing I have to give the left credit for, is that they never stop. Ever. If they have a desire, they work toward it hard and long. They’ve wanted everyone disarmed and continue to work toward that goal.
Okay, so what could you have done in that bar? The answer unfortunately is not much. Even if you’re a legal concealed weapons carrier, most states have laws stating that you can’t carry in a bar. In the case of California, the law states:
While exercising the privileges granted to the licensee under the terms of this license, the licensee shall not, when carrying a concealed weapon:
* Consume any alcoholic beverage.
* Be in a place having a primary purpose of dispensing alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption.
So as you can see, a law abiding person with a valid permit couldn’t legally have his weapon in the Country music bar.
The shooter knew this, that’s why he went there. I so suppose that if a couple patrons of that bar had “broken the law” and carried their weapons in that bar that night, the outcome would have been different. But there’s the rub. Most Concealed weapons folks are incredibly law abiding.
So, since you can’t carry there, your choices are extremely limited when the shooter starts shooting.
First and foremost is situational awareness. I’ve mentioned this in previous letters, try and determine “exits” when you first enter any place. I like to know where the fire exits are, and I often make seating decisions around them.
If you hear a gunshot in a store, restaurant, grocery, bar, etc, GET MOVING.
There is NEVER a time when it’s okay to hear a gun shot in any of those places. If you hear one, you’ll probably hear many more soon. Get out as fast as you can.
Try your best NOT to head toward the main entrance if possible. There’s going to be a stampede trying to get out of there, and you could get trampled, or worse, the shooter might enjoy having 25 or 30 people stacked up in one spot that he can mow down.
Again, try fire escapes, or something else. If there’s a kitchen, you can almost always rely on their being a door to the outside for deliveries, etc. Head there.
If you’re in a big place, and the shooting is going on quite a distance from you, please realize that you are free to do any damned thing you can to get safe.
If that means picking up your chair and hurtling it through the front windows to get out, well so be it. They have insurance for their windows.
Proximity to the shooter will play the biggest role in your decision. If you remember nothing else in this article, remember this fact “Distance is your friend.”
Again, if you’re seated near an exit, and you’ve been smart enough to sit “facing the crowd, or entrance” and you hear shots or see someone walking in with a gun drawn, get moving.
But what if it doesn’t play out that way? What if our shooter kept his weapon in his jacket, until he was snuggled up to the bar, the same bar you’re sitting at just feet away?
At that point your choices get slim and ugly. Your first instinct will be to dive to the floor, or get behind cover. That’s a decent first reaction, but you can’t stay there.
You’re still going to want to use that cover for just long enough that you can make a break for a get away. These people get their jollies shooting people curled up in a ball under a table. Always be thinking about running.
What you need is distance more than anything. At 15 feet, it takes just a 5 degree cant of the weapon to miss you. Yes you read that right.
At 15 feet, if this guy puts his front site on your heart, but just wobbles that gun 5 degrees right or left, he misses you completely.
At 20 feet it’s even harder for him. So while cover is good to initially not get shot, the further away you can get, as quickly as you can, increases your survival by multiples.
Being unarmed in an active shooter situation is about as butt ugly as it gets.
Try and remember these basics, and you’ll have a better chance.
1) at the first hint of a shooting (like you hear one shot go off) DO NOT sit there and look around wondering what’s happening. Don’t pull out your phone and take video’s.
2) you want OUTSIDE and you want it as fast as you can get it. Get there any way you can, fire exit, kitchen door, break a window, etc.
3) distance is your best friend. If you can blend some distance, WITH some cover, you’re gold. ( for instance you make a move across the floor to a ceiling support column. Angle your next run away from the shooter by trying to keep that support column angled between him and you as you’re running)
Finally, there’s the run and hide idea.
That’s the worst one and only useful if there’s absolutely no way to get outside. The problem is that we don’t just want to run and hide in the building, because he might play “hide and seek”.
If ten people pile into the men’s room, this guys got a fish in the barrel game to play. The only way run and hide works is if you can run, hide AND DELAY this nut from coming in.
That’s easy in say a classroom, you can pile up desks, and file cabinets, etc. But in a bar bathroom? Not so easy.
It’s not 1950 any more folks. Learn to be aware of your surroundings. The worlds gone crazy, and it’s getting worse.
Stay safe.