The Question Thread

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rstrong
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Re: The Question Thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:34 am
Boatrocker wrote:
Mon Jun 26, 2017 8:15 am
In order of our ability to do something about it (our will to do something is another argument): ...
Agreed, it's easier to sort the list by what actions we should take, but my question was more about threat level absent consideration of our theoretical ability to reduce the threats.
This is a threat that, like an asteroid collision, pops back into the American consciousness every few years. There was even a made-for-TV movie a few years back.

It would be like 1816 - the "Year Without a Summer" caused by Mount Tambora half a world away - AND an ash dump covering half the country. That event led to the settling of the American mid-west, as many farmers left the east looking for better growing conditions.

But America is indeed doing something about it: Globalization.

Whether it's just America's crops that get buried or the world's crops get frosted out for a year, America will have everything in place - and the ability to outbid everyone else - for the rest of the world's exportable crops. It's the second and third world that'll take the famine hit.

Every disaster needs an additional villain. That's where I come in, writing just-in-time inventory systems. Those mean that far less food gets thrown out before reaching our plates. But they're also responsible for there being only a few days worth of food in the pipeline if the source gets cut off.

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k9nanny
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Re: The Question Thread

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Those threats pale in comparison to the twit-in-chief.
OK- he could stupidly set off a nuclear war, so that's my pick, which is convenient, as that's been my fear since childhood.

Anyone else remember school day drills, putting our heads between our knees? While my classmates had fun with the diversion from class, I knew the whole thing was a crock. We were doomed, no matter where the bombs dropped.

Wonder which one of my parents let me see On the Beach at such a tender age.

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billy.pilgrim
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Re: The Question Thread

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k9nanny wrote:
Mon Jun 26, 2017 9:30 am
Those threats pale in comparison to the twit-in-chief.
OK- he could stupidly set off a nuclear war, so that's my pick, which is convenient, as that's been my fear since childhood.

Anyone else remember school day drills, putting our heads between our knees? While my classmates had fun with the diversion from class, I knew the whole thing was a crock. We were doomed, no matter where the bombs dropped.

Wonder which one of my parents let me see On the Beach at such a tender age.

Alas, Babylon!
After seeing pictures of bodies with the print pattern from their clothes burned into their skin like a photograph, this 4th grader was nervous wearing favorite white shirt with read pinstripes
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Vrede too
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Re: The Question Thread

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Y'all are a little older than me, I never did "duck and cover" drills. It could also be because I attended a private elementary day school.
Vrede too wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 8:50 pm
Which should we be most worried about - AGW, malevolent AI, nuclear war, a killer asteroid or the Yellowstone Supervolcano?
Kids shouldn't have to worry about at least 5 legit existential threats, 6 counting some super disease, with 3 of them being human made.
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Re: The Question Thread

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And, yet, the doomsday bunkers the fruit loops are so obsessive about are enjoying new popularity as fallout shelters. Everything old is new again. I know several people who cling to the notion that they only have to stay in one for 2-4 weeks before it's safe to come out, even in a full nuclear exchange. It's probably not necessary to point out that they are mostly trumpholes.
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rstrong
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Re: The Question Thread

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I watched one of those prepper shows.

Even after the crop was sold, my grandfather kept a grainery full of seed - the size of a large bedroom filled to a height of five feet - to feed the family the next year. And a second grainery with the seed for next year's crop. That's in addition to the vegetable garden and cattle, pigs and chicken.

The family in the show was going to do the same with a shoe-box full of seed packets.

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Re: The Question Thread

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I know a few of these off-the-grid, wingnut "prepper" types, including a first cousin of my wife. They cannot seem to grasp that judgement day will spell the end for things like electricity to run the irrigation and well pumps (they are miles from a natural source of semi-potable water), the well-stocked freezers and, ahem, the assorted security devices artfully placed about the compound. They do have small, solar chargers for cell phones, though.
You gotta laugh.
Last edited by Boatrocker on Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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JTA
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Re: The Question Thread

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Yeah I know some people like that. I don't get the paranoia. Well, I guess I do. Its good to be prepared and all. You never know what's gonna happen and I can agree with that. But I think with a lot of these people, they sit in their apartments and spend a lot of time watching TV or browsing the internet and get caught up in these bubbles that warp their views of reality. I used to do this too.
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Re: The Question Thread

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Admittedly I did get a few useful tips - for my 10-day survival kit.

I'm not prepping for the fall of civilization. But 10 days without utilities is entirely plausible. Say, after an ice storm takes out power lines. It's a good idea to have a bin full of supplies to make life less inconvenient while waiting for power to return.

Some things I've set aside:

- Wind-up radio / light / USB charger
- Candles & matches
- Flashlight
- Sterno cans (for indoor cooking without generating carbon monoxide)
- Big metal mug for heating soup or tea
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)
- Box of survival rations sold to preppers - 48 meals, very long shelf life
- Bottled water - 2-year shelf life
- Medical kit
- Chocolate

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Re: The Question Thread

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Also, too much TV romanticising the "post collapse" life where you get to roam around free, no obligation to a shitty oppressive meaningless jobs. It sounds good in the movies most of the time, and it's fun to play dress up and suburban Rambo when you have civilization to fall back on. But the reality of the situation is much much worse, and most preppers would die if civilization were to collapse.

Here's a good quote:
“The closer men came to perfecting for themselves a paradise, the more impatient they became with it, and with themselves as well. They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, it was easier to see something was missing in the garden, some tree or shrub that would not grow. When the world was in darkness and wretchedness, it could believe in perfection and yearn for it. But when the world became bright with reason and riches, it began to sense the narrowness of the needle's eye, and that rankled for a world no longer willing to believe or yearn.”
― Walter M. Miller Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz
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JTA
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Re: The Question Thread

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rstrong wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:05 am
Admittedly I did get a few useful tips - for my 10-day survival kit.

I'm not prepping for the fall of civilization. But 10 days without utilities is entirely plausible. Say, after an ice storm takes out power lines. It's a good idea to have a bin full of supplies to make life less inconvenient while waiting for power to return.

Some things I've set aside:

- Wind-up radio / light / USB charger
- Candles & matches
- Flashlight
- Sterno cans (for indoor cooking without generating carbon monoxide)
- Big metal mug for heating soup or tea
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)
- Box of survival rations sold to preppers - 48 meals, very long shelf life
- Bottled water - 2-year shelf life
- Medical kit
- Chocolate
- liquor
You aren't doing it wrong if no one knows what you are doing.

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Boatrocker
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Re: The Question Thread

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rstrong wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:05 am
Admittedly I did get a few useful tips - for my 10-day survival kit.

I'm not prepping for the fall of civilization. But 10 days without utilities is entirely plausible. Say, after an ice storm takes out power lines. It's a good idea to have a bin full of supplies to make life less inconvenient while waiting for power to return.

Some things I've set aside:

- Wind-up radio / light / USB charger
- Candles & matches
- Flashlight
- Sterno cans (for indoor cooking without generating carbon monoxide)
- Big metal mug for heating soup or tea
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)
- Box of survival rations sold to preppers - 48 meals, very long shelf life
- Bottled water - 2-year shelf life
- Medical kit
- Chocolate
We did almost 2 weeks in the dark after Hugo in Charleston. That's a good list- agree with JTA to add liquor. Weed, too, if you're in to that, and maybe a gun. There were all sorts of shady types wandering around peeking into windows and shit, specially after dark.
I will not lie down.
I will not go quietly.

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Vrede too
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Re: The Question Thread

Unread post by Vrede too »

Communities of some sort may survive long term, most individuals won't. My plan - trade on my medical skills.
JTA wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:07 am
rstrong wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:05 am
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)

Even warmer if it's covered with extra blankets.
- liquor
Hard copy porn.

Water buckets if you've got room somewhere for flushing the toilet now and then, or sealing buckets to use as a toilet.

CDC: emergency supply kit

"Extra cash" is a good one that hasn't been mentioned yet.
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billy.pilgrim
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Re: The Question Thread

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I keep a hundred dollar bills. After Erin no one could cash a twenty
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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billy.pilgrim
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Re: The Question Thread

Unread post by billy.pilgrim »

Boatrocker wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:31 am
rstrong wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:05 am
Admittedly I did get a few useful tips - for my 10-day survival kit.

I'm not prepping for the fall of civilization. But 10 days without utilities is entirely plausible. Say, after an ice storm takes out power lines. It's a good idea to have a bin full of supplies to make life less inconvenient while waiting for power to return.

Some things I've set aside:

- Wind-up radio / light / USB charger
- Candles & matches
- Flashlight
- Sterno cans (for indoor cooking without generating carbon monoxide)
- Big metal mug for heating soup or tea
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)
- Box of survival rations sold to preppers - 48 meals, very long shelf life
- Bottled water - 2-year shelf life
- Medical kit
- Chocolate
We did almost 2 weeks in the dark after Hugo in Charleston. That's a good list- agree with JTA to add liquor. Weed, too, if you're in to that, and maybe a gun. There were all sorts of shady types wandering around peeking into windows and shit, specially after dark.

We had cops stealing from vacant homes. Sheriff had asked that you tell them if you left town so they could protect your home.
But a SR deputy and a tampa cop on loan used the list to hunt for goodies.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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billy.pilgrim
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Re: The Question Thread

Unread post by billy.pilgrim »

Do we have a Canadian heath care thread?

There is this that the morons at liberty news are wetting their pants over

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/can ... 743c507eed
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”

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rstrong
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Re: The Question Thread

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Vrede too wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:54 am
Water buckets if you've got room somewhere for flushing the toilet now and then, or sealing buckets to use as a toilet.
Yup. Because the plan is to hunker down in place, I'm assuming that I'll have all the regular food on my shelves, things like blankets, buckets, books, etc.

Those who live in a house might want a small generator. A few of those were stolen in the ice storms in Ontario/Quebec/North-East US 15 or so years back.

Those ice storms were a disaster for Kohler and other generator manufacturers. They had deals with Walmart which included Walmart's no-questions-asked return policy.

When the power went out everyone ran to Walmart to buy generators, and returned them when it was over. They ran them 24 hours a day, without doing the mandatory oil change after the first couple hours of operation. Kohler got back a mountain of used generators with trashed engines.

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rstrong
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Re: The Question Thread

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billy.pilgrim wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:03 pm
Do we have a Canadian heath care thread?

There is this that the morons at liberty news are wetting their pants over

http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/can ... 743c507eed
Canadians know their healthcare system is mediocre. It's just far, far preferable to the US one. We all know Americans and hear their horror stories. "US Style Healthcare" is used in Canadian elections the same way that "communism" or "terrorism" is used in American ones.

One thing in the report that I have a few suspicions about: The "29 per cent of Canadians had to wait four hours or longer before being seen by a practitioner during their most recent emergency department visit."

Canada and the US use different standards to measure this. The Canadian wait time is the time from arrival to being either released, or admitted into the general hospital population. The American time is the time until you first see a doctor.

I visited emergency for chest pains a decade ago. (Turns out I was OK, but there's a family history of heart disease so I was told to go if I wasn't sure.) I was triaged by a doctor within five minutes. And got a thorough checkout by another doctor 20 minutes later. And was released after EKG, X-Rays and blood test results came back after four hours.

By American standards I had a five minute wait time. By Canadian standards I had a four hour wait time. I think the standard they're using here would call it a 20 minute wait if not four hours.

JTA
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Re: The Question Thread

Unread post by JTA »

Vrede too wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:54 am
Communities of some sort may survive long term, most individuals won't. My plan - trade on my medical skills.
JTA wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:07 am
rstrong wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:05 am
- Tent (It can be 20 degrees warmer inside a tent set up in the living room)

Even warmer if it's covered with extra blankets.
- liquor
Hard copy porn.

Water buckets if you've got room somewhere for flushing the toilet now and then, or sealing buckets to use as a toilet.

CDC: emergency supply kit

"Extra cash" is a good one that hasn't been mentioned yet.
When the collapse happens I'll barter with my programming and computer repair skills. Give me some food for an app to track your resource consumption. Got a virus on your computer? Fixed if you give me a gallon of water.

Fullproof.
You aren't doing it wrong if no one knows what you are doing.

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Vrede too
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Re: The Question Thread

Unread post by Vrede too »

"Fullproof." - Are we back to discussing liquor?
billy.pilgrim wrote:
Tue Jun 27, 2017 11:58 am
I keep a hundred dollar bills. After Erin no one could cash a twenty
Good point, small bills or get ripped off when "We have no change."
Last edited by Vrede too on Tue Jun 27, 2017 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Always be yourself! Unless you can be a goat, then always be a goat.
-- the interweb, paraphrased
1312. ETTD.

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