/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11874155
Unironically the Dune books.
The inspiration for arrakis and the fremen terraforming project was inspired by an article he wrote about a upper class enclave in northern california where there were sand dunes encroaching on the high value real estate, and they used poverty grasses to anchor the dunes in place. It was something that stuck in his head and he developed it for his fantasy universe.

>>10618562
>Mongol hordes
Literally the other big reason the middle east a shit.
You're always going to have regional conflict, but this is a region that's always been a corridor from east and west, and caught up in bigger designs. At least it had a continuity of civilization that went back to THE original civilization. Mongolians effectively stomped the region back to the stone age and it's never recovered.
I'm not trying to be an apologist, just saying that if there's one region in the world that's been a chess board for others its there. It's a hard place to not constantly what-if about.

>>10413701
Shields that block anything above a minimum energy level and that cause atomic meltdowns when they get shot with lasers.