Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with terror

What happened to the H.M.S. Terror, a la Dan Simmons? Please?

taz — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:16:10 -0800

Please help me understand aspects of the ending of the novel "The Terror" by Dan Simmons! Super spoiler-icious details inside (definitely don't read unless you've read the book, or are sure you never want to)... It's driving me crazy! Who sailed the Terror 200 miles south of it's original ice-locked position near the Erebus? Who was the rat-toothed corpse in Crozier's bunk?

Am I wrong in understanding that the top-deck hatches had been nailed shut from the outside? And this would indicate that the (apparently) single remaining seaman aboard had been locked inside either for the protection of others, or for his own protection?

Failing the possibility that the mystery corpse was one of a party of rescuers (and I reject this theory because the ships were never found in real life), logic dictates that he would have had to be one of the three - Reuben Male, Robert Sinclair, and Samuel Honey - who set out cross country to return to the Terror. Simmons is specific that the corpse in the bunk is about the height of Crozier, but elsewhere, Reuben Male (the more significant character of the trio) is described as shorter than Crozier, and there is almost no mention or development in the novel at all regarding Robert Sinclair or Samuel Honey (who is not Honey, the carpenter, but a blacksmith with the same last name who is basically never mentioned except for being included in that group that chose to try to return to the Terror).

However, one detail seems to suggest that it wasn't one of those three: the corpse is swathed in heavy clothes and blankets, which puzzles Crozier, since if the three had managed to make their way back to the Terror, it would have still been summer. (I mention this because it's specifically pointed out in the narrative. In fact, since this discovery happens 2+ years later, they could have returned, sailed the ship out during summer, and then this individual could have died at a later time.) Earlier, much was made of checking every nook and cranny of the ship before abandoning it, which seems to have been explicated especially to put aside any notion that whoever the corpse was (and whoever sailed the ship and nailed the hatches shut) weren't sailors who had surreptitiously stayed aboard. The constant head-counting by Crozier also indicates that nobody is unaccounted for after the crew leaves the ship.

Simmons is also quite specific that the Terror was anchored in a place that didn't make any sense; instead of harboring in the shelter of the various nearby inlets, it is anchored in open water (later, ice), leaving it exposed to the terrible storms. Was this, again, an effort to isolate the one left on board? Or was it just an indication of extreme incompetence? (Wouldn't pretty much any sailor know to seek some kind of safe harbor?)

And wtf, the rat teeth?

It also makes me crazy that Simmons writes this:

How Terror could have ended up here, almost two hundred miles south of where she had been frozen fast near Erebus for almost three years, was beyond Crozier’s powers of speculation.

He would not have to speculate much longer.

eh? Why not? He doesn't seem to have reached any conclusion (or none that were shared with us poor readers) about this after inspecting the ship.

It just doesn't make sense to me that Simmons would have put all these extremely specific details/clues - not to mention the relocation of the Terror at all - just to leave it all as a hanging mystery. Why? Why? What am I missing?

Terrorist Fist Jab, Hooray!

InsanePenguin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:52:58 -0800

Did the terrorists want Obama to win? Actually, though, I'm curious. As an Obama supoporter, during the election I heard many times from non-Obama supporters that "the terrorists want Obama to win," and I have two questions:

1) Is there any evidence that these ambiguous "terrorists" wanted Obama to be President, and

2) If they did, why? I would think that after 8 years of Bush invading their countries and committing war crimes, they would actually welcome a US President that was going to pull the US troops out of their countries, so it makes some semblance of sense that they would be happy (meaning, not wanting to kill us all because they hate our freedom /sarcasm.)

Also, wouldn't it be ironic if after 8 years of a War on Terror, Bush's political opponent (in policy, anyway,) ended the supposed terror attacks on the US just by being elected?

It's pretty much never a nice day for a white wedding...why?

sondrialiac — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:01:35 -0800

Weddings freak me out, why? Other people's weddings make me feel icky. Deeply uncomfortable. Think 2 girls 1 cup. Or a really effective horror movie.

I have, in fact, been married myself (quite successfully so far) and it didn't bother me in the least. I did avoid 99% of wedding traditions.

I have only attended one wedding, but I needed to get good and drunk beforehand. (I was getting shaky, sweating, thought I was going to puke, basically going nuts).

Married people don't bother me. The mention of marriage itself, as an institution, doesn't bother me. But just the mention of a wedding sets me off. Writing this question is uncomfortable.

I also hate it when people kiss. Watching people kiss is, to me, like watching people get their fingers hacked off. I am cool with kissing others whom I know well, although it's not my favorite activity.

Any guesses about why I have these reactions? Think they're related? Any suggestions for a cure?

This time, I want to move WITHOUT trauma...

paultopia — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:39:51 -0800

How to manage short, cluttered move solo, with no swap space? I'm bad at planning big projects... I'm an on-campus grad student, and in just under a month, I'm moving from one end of campus to another. I'm really bad at big projects, and every other move I've ever made (many) has been a horrible traumatic crisis, with me frantically flinging stuff into boxes with the landlord looming waiting for me to get the hell out, etc. I'm really BAD at this. So I turn to mefi...

Here's the 411.

- It'll probably be just me (I hate recruiting friends to do this).

- No major furniture will be moved, perhaps just a couple of bookshelves.
-- but one of the bookshelves might not be movable (I might not be able to get it out of the old place without destroying it), so I might have to buy a new one before installing the books in the new place.

- But I must get rid of a bed first (and replace it with the disassembled university-provided one attached to my old place).
-- which requires finding the bolts and so forth to put it together, which are buried under mounds of stuff somewhere

- I have hundreds upon hundreds of books. Other than books, the major items to be moved are clothes, paperwork (lots of it), and misc clutter (old computers, etc.) But the brunt of it will be books. It's not too much stuff -- maybe 1.5 rooms worth.

- I'll have two days from getting the keys to the new place before I have to turn in the keys from the old place. So I have to transport everything in that period.

- I have no "swap space" -- that is, in the current place, there is approximately nowhere where I can do things like pre-pack things and pile them up. At most, I can find room for a few (like 4 or 5) small boxes.

- I'm just going across campus, so it seems silly to pack boxes and stuff...

- I have to clean the place too, after the stuff is gone. But I can possibly hire someone to do that on the cheap, and I probably will, because I hate cleaning.

- I can't afford to hire anyone to do anything else.

- Every time I've moved before, in my life, I've ended up living out of boxes because I've been so exhausted after the process that I can't bring myself to unpack.

Help? I'm at a loss for how to plan this. The best I can come up with is pack as many boxes of stuff as I can squeeze in, use that to clear enough space to switch beds out, and then leave the rest for a panicked miserable rush in the two days... ??

thx

How would you invest $100000?

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:43:33 -0800

About $100 000 has been transfered to me, and I don't know how to properly invest it. For various reasons, I am now in charge of about $100 000, cash. Problem: I am 21 years old and I know absolutely nothing about investing on this scale.

Can anyone give me some advice on how to properly invest this much? I already have a discount brokerage and savings accounts holding about 30 grand of my own money, so I'm not completely helpless, but I've never had to even think about this many figures before. I'm terrified that I'm going to mismanage this situation into disaster.

Okay, so details:

-I live in Canada. My job doesn't offer any sort of investing plan or anything like that.
-I want this money to grow. At minimum, I would like to "keep up" with what other people do (I'm imagining this is around 7-10% growth per year, is that correct?)
-I don't want to spend any of it for the foreseeable future.
-Tax! Please tell me about how to deal with tax.
-I have a fairly low risk tolerance
-Diversification is important to me. Simplification is not really, although of course it's welcome.
-Property is out of the question. I spent most of last week thinking about buying a Playstation 3. I most certainly cannot handle owning land at this juncture in my life.
-I really don't want a financial advisor. Self management is important to me.
-I have established accounts at TD and ING Direct.

So basically, AskMe, I think I am asking how you would choose to invest this money, given these parameters. Please hold my hand and treat me like an idiot, since I am.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

We're here to protect you from all the terror.

greytape — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:16:54 -0800

What's the point of armed police at airports and train stations? So now we live in the age of terror and all, you often get armed police standing around aimlessly at airports and underground stations. I kind of wonder what the point of them is. Are their weapons loaded? Have they ever, anywhere in the world, been called upon to fire live rounds in public? I'm aware of Jean Charles de Menezes but in that instance the police were called onto the scene, and weren't already at the station. What sort of situation would require a man at a station or an airport to walk around with a big gun?
Or are they just a big bit of PR to keep us all feeling secure?
(Because they have the opposite effect on me.)

Made redundant in IT at 45yo. Career change advice?

lndl — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:28:44 -0800

TERROR! After 25 years in the IT industry in Ireland I feel like the 21st century equivalent of an expendable 19th century coal miner. I'm about to be made redundant (again) this afternoon and am gripped by terror. I don't even know now what I want. Any career counseling advice? OK, I'll be 45 in a few weeks. I've been working in the IT sector for 25 years, (though I wasted the first 10) but a series of changes outside my control meant there's been no clear carer progression though I've gone from an electronics tech to recently a business development manager. I've been in my most recent company for 8 years. I don't feel I have any actual detailed expertise any more.

I live almost literally in the middle of nowhere in Ireland and have worked from home for the last 8 years (pure luck originally). I don't really want to move, I've spent my life doing that. I just completed a MSc in Environmental Negotiation as a potential aid to escape the IT sector but no idea how to apply it. I'm not particularly entrepreneurial so Consultancy seems inappropriate for my personality.
The fear of change is overwhelming me as I'm highly introverted (but always rated highly by those I work with due to intelligence & drive) so the whole job-finding process is more suited to extroverts.
PS I doubt my redundancy payment will be much (after all the CEO had to be paid a $1m bonus for the same project that actually failed) but I have mortgage payment insurance that'll protect me for a while and any payment I get will have to provide a car and living moey for a few months.

oh god help me dentist

235w103 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:55:04 -0800

Oh god part of my tooth fell off and the university dentist is closed. Where can I get emergency dental care in Montreal, Quebec? I'm a student at McGill University and, this morning, after eating a frozen granola bar, part of my front left bottom tooth came off. I wasn't that worried, as this has happened before- when I was an infant, I had some sort of fever that made those two teeth come in without enamel, and crude early enamel applications eventually broke off, taking with them the rest of the tooth. It doesn't really hurt, but it is sensitive, really creepy and more and more of it is coming off.
The University dental center is closed until the 7th, as were most dentists I called. Are there any, like, emergency dentists, someone who could see me tomorrow?

Who sets the TV agenda?

pompomtom — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 07:23:34 -0800

Do propaganda shows like 'The Unit' and 'Threat Matrix' (and, I presume, '24', though I've not watched it) get US gov't funding, or are they just a private attempt to cash in on war-on-terra panic?

What are these horror creatures?

stammer — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:57:17 -0800

What are these two terrifying invertebrates? They live in rural southeastern Australia. They're bigger than they look in the photo; the spider's legspan was about two inches. The wasp-like creature had killed the spider and was dragging him backwards on the ground. The spider looks like a wolf spider to me, but he was about the size of a huntsman. I've never seen the flying beast before. When I interrupted them, he started flying around, and his wings were big enough to make one of those deeply unsettling hums that could be heard from a few feet away.

How do I avoid buying stocks in companies that fund terrorism?

spiderskull — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:26:16 -0800

How do I know if a company I want to buy stocks in funds terrorist groups? It's a construction company operating out of the United Emirates, and I realize there are many businesses that do not in anyway fund terrorist activities -- but, many of them do. Considering how many of the terror benefactor businesses happen to be construction companies, I'm a bit paranoid.

I realize this will make a trivial, if any, financial impact, but it's for the sake of my conscience.

Peace and Prosperity of the late 80's and 90's

Deep Dish — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 00:27:53 -0800

I found myself warm and nostalgic today for the brief period between the end of the cold war and the war on terror. Do you think history will look at it as a very good time to be alive or is this just me being a nostalgic Gen x-er?

What has changed since 9/11?

photoslob — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 12:34:08 -0800

What has changed since 9/11? I'm looking to compile a list of things that have changed in the USA since 9/11. I'm looking for everything from the obvious like the creation of the TSA, Patriot act and the prevalence of surveillance cameras to the more conceptual like people's attitudes towards muslims and a general irrational sense of fear of terrorist attacks.

How to Vanquish Bedbug-Borne Phobias?

Anonymous — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 14:35:56 -0800

I was heavily bitten by bedbugs over the summer of 2005, and although they're gone, I've grown very anxious about the thought of ever becoming reinfested. In August 2005, my doctor identified bites on my arms as bedbug bites. My landlord and I found my bed and boxspring had numerous bedbugs crawling along it. They had been biting me for about four months' time; I had chalked it up to mosquitos.

My landlady wanted to exterminate using an ineffective technique, but my research made clear that the method she suggested wouldn't work. I offered to split the cost of an exterminating service that has been around over a century. They performed two treatments, and after the second, I never saw a live bedbug in that apartment again. When I learned she was not going to inspect, let alone preventatively treat, the other apartments for bedbugs, I asked her if she would consent to letting me out of my lease early. She did, and I moved at the end of last October.

I've been at my new apartment for nearly five months with no bedbugs spotted. Although bedbugs can last without food for up to eighteen months, they're not going to voluntarily pass up food for that long. Thus, if I've not been bitten in the past five months, I hopefully most likely did not bring them with me to my new home. (Knock on wood.)

My perusal of blogs suggests to me it's not unusual for people who have dealt with bedbugs to have a good deal of residual anxiety even following the resolution of their infestations. My own anxieties no longer focus over the possibility that I've remained infested. I initially was casting a hard eye at every dark speck that happened to catch my eye. But the anxiety that remains from that experience focuses around the thought of reinfestation; of this occuring again.

It would help if I knew where my infestation originated. With no way of knowing for sure, I seem to subconsciously attribute it to one of two causes. Either I was infested while on public transit, which I ride daily; or I was infested when I stayed in a hotel in late February 2005. I don't remember noticing bites until late April 2005, and it would be odd for bedbugs to not feed for two months, but hotels are known to be the transmission vectors for bedbug infestations nowadays, and this hotel is even a regular home to crews for a particular international airline. And so I find myself checking subway seats before sitting down (not obsessively, but casting a hard eye at the cracks between the seats and the subway car side). And I am extremely anxious about the day in my future in which I will find myself needing to stay at a hotel overnight again. I'm honestly afraid that even if the experience doesn't cause reinfestation, it'll nevertheless turn me into a nervous wreck for the weeks preceding and following the experience.

So, you guys have the honest-to-God ability, through your answers, to make a substantial difference in my anxiety level, and I'm hoping you can offer advice in two arenas.

The first is from a practical perspective. (1) If one were to pay attention to the news media, you would think that every hotel and motel in America has a bedbug problem. I am wondering what the true likelihood of contracting a bedbug infestation from an overnight hotel stay is. One in five? One in a hundred? One in three thousand? In short, can anyone tell me what kind of odds I am running? The more the odds are in my favor, the more mental ammo I can provide myself. (Note that bedbugs infest both ritzy and poor hotels alike: they aren't attracted to filth, they're attracted to CO₂ and live off blood. Think tick-like, not roach-like.) (2) Can you recommend ways in which someone could determine prior to arrival whether a hotel has bedbugs? With million-dollar awards from juries for bedbug bites (seriously), hotels will now very happily lie through their teeth. (3) Once you arrive in your room, what things can you look for in that room to determine whether it suffers from infestation?

The second is from an emotional perspective. I imagine few, if any, of you have had to deal with bedbugs. But I'm sure some of you have had moments in your life that have caused you great anxiety and influenced your long-term behavior following the experience. What did you do to help yourself get over it? I have gotten better; I will continue to get better, hopefully. I am a strong man in many different ways, and I do not focus over this anxiety 24-7. I'm not, in short, an insane, tremoring basket case. But it is enough of a recurring and strong presence in my mind that I want to decrease its power over me. I am in therapy, but my therapist has recognized in the past the value of group input that Ask MeFi offers; I'm hoping you guys can dish up some life-changing advice for me this time around.

(A postscript: I realize this is nothing compared to the anxiety that an Iraq War veteran or a Hurricane Katrina survivor might have to deal with. My intellect understands that sense of scale. But that intellectual sense is not hooked up very well to the parts of me that are generating this anxiety.)

Hotel Rwanda and other movies

gentle — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 11:37:35 -0800

I loved Hotel Rwanda. What particularly hooked me was the film's unflinching realism in showing civilization as it is slowly being encroached and oppressed by large-scale terrorism which casts a shadow of uncertainty and danger on even the most mundane routines of daily life -- a sort of real-life Night of the Living Dead. Other similar films are Salvador, Missing and The Killing Fields. I also enjoyed the recent The Constant Gardener. What else will I like? Bonus question: A few years ago I saw a film, which could have been from the 70s or 80s (not earlier, but possibly 90s) about a French clerk who during the Reign of Terror managed to save thousands of people from the guillotine by falsifying court papers. IMDb's keyword search is not being helpful. Anyone?

Where can I get a terror threat indicator for the home?

Brian James — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 23:39:00 -0800

Where can I buy a "terror threat level" indicator for the home? Inspired by the one I saw on "American Dad" (seen here), I'd like to get a threat level indicator for the home, preferably for the fridge. Has anyone seen something like this for sale?

I'm terrified I'll be plagued with bedbugs for the rest of my life ...

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:13:58 -0800

I am seeking emotional tips to handle dreading the recurrence of a somewhat traumatic event, when it is relatively impossible to predict whether or not said event will actually reoccur. Details inside. I beg everyone's pardon, in advance, for the length. I am posting this anonymously due to the stigma still surrounding bedbug infestation; even though there is really no 'fault' attached to it, I'd really rather not have someone Google me in the future and discover this little gem. Hope it'll go through.

The backstory:

I recently found out my apartment has been infested with bedbugs, probably since late May or early June. Until recently, I thought they were mosquito bites, but my doctor diagnosed them correctly.

Practically, I am proceeding step-by-step as best I can. My landlord had wanted to use a pest control service who I believe would have simply fumigated the apartment with, from what I understand, would have been standard fumigation chemicals, which are ineffectual with bedbugs; I got her to agree to go halfsies on this company, which I felt was more reputable, as it has operated in my metropolitan area since the late 1880s (that's not a typo) and has actual experience treating bedbugs.

The exterminator will spray my apartment and my empty furniture twice, once on the 22nd to kill 90% and once two weeks later to catch the remaining 10% that are in the walls. A family member is assisting me in the extremely work-intensive preparation required: we will have to empty numerous bookshelves and videoshelves and a fairly packed closet, move all furniture away from the wall, and clean all clothing or fabric that can be put into a washing machine.

For the two weeks in-between the two sprayings, I will find myself living in an odd state, with most of my belongings packed away and almost all of my furniture in a tight concentration in the middle of the apartment, as I can't foresee moving everything back on my own only to move it back out again two weeks later for the second spraying.

The problem:

I am terrified that I will never escape these damn bugs ever. And when I say terrified, I mean that my appetite's disappeared, I occasionally shiver for no reason at all, and I had a moderate panic attack already. But this is a tricky terror to vanquish, given that it has some basis of fact to it.

The exterminator says that there are three main causes of bedbug infestation he has seen: purchase of used furniture, being somewhere that was severely infested and bringing some with you, or travel within a building from another apartment. We can eliminate the first one, as I've purchased no used furniture in nearly a decade.

That leaves the remaining two. As I live in one of the bigger cities in America and use mass transit daily, it is certainly a possibility that the second option was the cause. If this is the case, the possibility of reinfestation is close to nil, as the procedures he's doing should rid my apartment of all bedbugs, including the hard-to-spot nymphs.

But most of the 'basis of fact' of my terror lies in the third option. The exterminator says that if they did indeed come from another apartment, the possibility of reinfestation within a few months is 70-100%. My landlord is going to spray, but I'm relatively certain she is not spraying every apartment, and I'm also not certain of the efficacy of the chemical she's using.

The quirk:

It may sound counterintuitive, but aside from the physical discomfort of the bites (lessened significantly since we removed the boxspring), I don't think the bugs themselves are the cause of the terror. If I spot and can catch them, I squash them and clean up the bit of blood on my hands. I really don't find myself afraid of the bites or of the bugs themselves (aside from the moment of revulsion).

When I try to determine what is inciting the cause of fear and panic, the best I can do is that they seem centered more around (a) the thought of having to do such extensive physical work yet another time [I am unfortunately quite morbidly obese and extremely physically weak and unconditioned], and (b) the possibility of this being a continually repeating curse -- of running into these again here, of accidentally bringing an infestation along to a new apartment, of running into these again into a new apartment or a new home.

(Additional causes of the panic seem to center around (a) the disruption to my usual 'routines', (b) panic surrounding the idea of doing necessary things without the necessary supplies (i.e. sleeping on the wood floor if my cat punctures a loaner air mattress, once we toss the infested mattress, which I'll do prior to the spraying), and (c) the continual drain of funds from replacing items that must be thrown away, i.e. mattress, boxspring.)

What I'm doing already:

I am fortunate enough to have access to both physical and mental health care; my therapist knows of my problems (and indeed talked me down from a moderate panic attack on Sunday morning), and I've left a message asking my physician to consider prescribing some sort of anxiety-reducing medication. Additionally, given my metropolitan area's local landlord-tenant ordinances, I think I could argue before a municipal court to get out my lease if they did come back, but then I'd still be concerned I might bring them elsewhere or run into them elsewhere, given the fact that my research indicates both that they are hitting my metro area somewhat strong, but evidently are on a national upswing as well due to the higher use of gel bait and the outlawing of DDT.

A few final educational notes, considering I'm hoping this can be posted anonymously (and thus will not be able to reply to questions). If I'm wrong on any of this, let me know, but this is what my research has turned up, and part of what makes this so scary: bedbugs infestations have nothing to do with cleanliness (think ticks, not roaches); they are attracted by exhaled carbon dioxide; due to their shape, they can hide in a million different crevices and cracks and are willing to travel nearly 100 feet to reach their food; they don't seem to be particularly slowed down by winter; they can survive up to 18 months without a meal.

Finally, I acknowledge and am very grateful that this situation is not far worse than it could have been: there are far worse things to dread reoccuring than bedbugs, and while I am not rich, I am not so close to the poverty line that I cannot handle this, albeit not without significant financial inconvenience. Furthermore, this is not a building that traditionally has had problems with bedbugs, thank God. I'm aware of all this, but sometimes terror does not behave rationally.

Do we negotiate with terrorists?

MrAnonymous — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 23:37:02 -0800

Do we negotiate with terrorists? I've always believed the line that we don't negotiate with terrorists. That an American citizen may die (like Nick Berg or Paul Johnson), but we will not negotiate with their captors. Do you buy this? Is there any kind of underhanded dealing that goes on? A friend of mine insists we negotiate, but I say we don't. Have there been cases that are clear examples of one or the other?