LLNS may have excluded the wrong people in last VSSOP? The exclusions were based on outdated job categories and related skills. ULM are now thinking that in the future, job categories and functional areas will have to be re-defined. The next VSSOP/ISP will be based on the new categories and functional areas. The questions I have are: 1) Why didnt they think of that before the transition. It seems like their style is “change things as you go”. Planning is out the window! 2) Who will give input on the new changes? The next RIF apparently is going to be more lucrative than the VSSOP. Depending on the length of employment, a RIFed person, not only gets their 1 week pay per year of service but also from 30 to 120 days notice, essentially 30 to 120 days pay. Please feel free to comment on the rumors or add new ones you actually heard.
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After the ill fated rollout of the Covid vaccines and the purported problems of RNA - or messing with Mother Nature, I wonder if we could end up with a bunch of Audrey II plants from 'The Little Shop of Horrors'.
However, if a bunch of Audrey II clones suck up the CO2 while chomping down the occasional unfortunate bystander and they Greta Thunberg and Al Gore off the front page, it might be worthwhile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth
Introducing various genetically engineered species could also cause the extinction of various lifeforms native to Earth, including possibly humans, by disrupting the biosphere. In effect they would be invasive species that are better adapted.
The movie Interstellar featured a "blight" of this nature as a plot device:
https://interstellarfilm.fandom.com/wiki/The_Blight
https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Revelation-Chapter-16/
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
4And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
When genetic engineering began of course, there were noble goals like producing synthetic insulins from biologically modified organisms or cells. There was a slippery slope argument at the time that this would inevitably lead to problems later on and the technologies intrinsically would lead to various forms of harm -- the possible lab escape of COVID could be an example of that if true, of course.
In any case, most physicists believe in the many worlds theory, so if there is some extremely bad outcome there will in that case, perhaps be many different Earths who survive any given existential or societal risk and avoid the suffering when it takes place.
Otherwise, from a Christian point of view of course, some people believe we will be raptured before any of this takes place, and unbelievers will then be left behind on a world that will be all but uninhabitable -- there are a long list of bad things that supposedly happen during a so-called "tribulation period". Confusingly, of course, not all Christians interpret the Bible this way, and of course other faiths have different views about what might or might not happen.