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Submission + - Ask /. -- Can we survive our Aging infrastructure 2

Submitted by kalieaire
kalieaire writes: On the topic of global disaster, apocalypse, and pandemics, people rarely consider our aging infrastructure. I definitely thought about this topic a little more after Monday's story regarding Ron Fouchier's 10th generation airborne H5N1 strain, in which his genetic engineering experiments bear striking similarity to a High School student's AP Bio Fruit Fly Lab. What would happen if the world was suddenly half as large? Obviously some population areas will be largely unaffected where as others would suffer catastrophic losses. So what happens to nuclear power facilities in the event that all the operators fall ill and die in front of their workstations? Do they have sufficient automated safeguards and safety systems to scram a reactor bringing it to a shutdown and keep itself cool for an indeterminate period of time? What about USAMRIID and the CDC what's to stop some random scavenger like http://textsfrombennett.tumblr.com/ open up a few vacuum packs of preserved flesh infected with ebola thinking it's a steak dinner to then transfer it to other folks? Think Slashdot community, think.

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Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable, and three parts which are still under development.

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