Greetings
(by way of introduction)
Survival, whether it be inner city, suburban or rural isolation will depend on one's ability to grow facial hair. I kid ye not. Think back to those dreadful news clips of starving 3rd World unfortunates, the blinkered will recall zylophonic acreages of ribs, spineoboes of vertebrae but not one unsightly beard. Because beardies are equipped to stave off the inner cannibal. As long as the beardy hasn't fallen foul of the table napkin, a hard habit to break for the First World beardy, he has a homegrown source for making soup, with water to hand or pushed, saliva. Taken to its logical assumption,
nose hairs, eyebrows and the oft disparaged ear sprouts are a forager's delight. It is time to replace the tired old maxim of `feed one's face' with `feed off one's face'.
Possessing facial hair also guarantees you will be one of the first in line to receive a weapon when those are dispensed, and if not a seat in the vehicle cab at least a place on the tray. Higher off the ground, travelling fast, better positioned to catch those wind-borne vitamins with your face. Which is why you are where you find yourself in the first place. It is all very, very circular.
Ladies, pluck an ye shall die. It isn't all doom and gloom on the way out, somewhere along the line you will be as thin as you've always wanted to be, but your `hurrahs' will be hollow.
On a personal level, my chances of surviving malnutrition are good, I have a goatee. Not any old run-of-the-mill goatee but a red (burgundy) goatee, flecked with several strands of ginger and distinguished silver. Minerals and herbs, folks, what others consider blight I call commodities. The wife, amid much handwringing and lamentation as the penny finally dropped, asked me what would become of us. I told her not to worry, the ruddy Van Dyke is now a burgeoning Van Gogh, there will be soup enough for both of us.
Onward apocalyptic soldiers:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=101858 (beware modem users)
Incredible pictures of the Projects in Brooklyn, I urge everyone to look at those buildings and consider possible outcomes. If the worst eventuates those people will be completely on their own and many won't survive, or you could posit they may be able to survive better than those in more salubrious surroundings because they are used to some sort of subsistence living, have less far to fall.
There be other dragons too. When it all comes out in the wash I imagine there will be many servicemen, recently experienced in methods of attrition, returning home and realising they were misled. I wouldn't want to be the ones responsible for misleading these men and women, especially if the societal fragment is rent asunder.
The U.S has over 2 million inmates, a high percentage of them incarcerated for violent crimes, who feeds them if there is no food or crippling food shortages? I heard an interview with a minister in Texas recently, he relayed farmers fears that they may not be able to plant crops due to drought and the rising costs of energy. The farmers were of the opinion food shelves in big city supermarkets might be empty in 18 months. Do you let the prisoners starve or do you let the prisoners go? Hollywood dramatic to be sure but the people declaiming the doom merchants are currently at least one stratum away from the seat of power, no matter the veracity of their cry to action.
I lean more toward Jay Hanson's vision of the future, I cite him because his body of work was the first grounding I had when I caught the Peak Oil bug about a month or so ago and little I've read since has given me much cause to think it can be otherwise. I lament this late wakeup call, I still don't understand how I managed to miss all the other related blogs and
websites because I've ardently read blogs concerning the current American mis-administration since the leadup to the last election, stunned he got back in, agog at unfolding events.
I only discovered this forum a few days ago, I must have spent at least 16 hours a day for over a month reading about Peak Oil, Global Warming, Gold/Silver, Survival and a truckload of related material, so I surely must've visited the front page of this website but neglected to see the `forum' link. I only half jest when I say these site admins should start using saucy and salacious meta tags to lure punters, I'd have probably discovered the entire movement a hell of a lot sooner, say 1996.
Had I familiarised myself sooner I'd have used the large sums of borrowed money spent renovating my two business on other things, like precious metals and goods I may eventually need. Btw, large is relative, I'm talking almost 6 figures. Honestly, the amount of grief one goes through to obtain `relatively' small sums makes me think those borrowing millions must be attuned to the sound of bankers undoing their flies.
Here's some random thoughts:
I've seen elements of gloom espoused by posters for the days ahead but each and every one of us is always an embolism/second away from destruction, if you heed and accept this fragility most everything else stands a good chance of smelling like a rose. Worrying about those we care for is a different matter, unavoidable and the stuff of nightmares, alas.
With much prodding by the media, we collectively pat ourselves on the back in reward for the labours and vision of a relatively small number of people and consider ourselves highly evolved. Individuals can touch greatness but the collective can only try and hang onto their coattails,
whether it be due to inherent limitations, a foot on the throat or any number of other reasons. Millions died today, some of them were likely damn good people, paragons of virtue and pillars in their community, but I feel no loss whatsoever because there was no connection, I didn't even know they existed. Until I post this nonsense not one of you knows I exist, I could wink out and you'd continue happily fossicking in that nostril. Btw, only pop that nasty in your mouth if you have a beard, otherwise best put it behind an ear for when times get tough. Talk of decimating the global populace to achieve sustainability doesn't faze me in the least. To be sure, if me or mine looked like we were getting sucked into the vortex my dander would be ruffled but I'll do all I can to avoid dancing that particular jig.
I don't wish ill upon anyone living in the Gulf of Mexico, Tornado Alley or drought stricken parts of Texas but I literally can't stop refreshing the following pages:
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=42003 (getting warmer)
http://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/
http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/
http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html
If it helps to alleviate any anger I also can't help checking on the price of gold and silver and I lacked the wherewithal to climb aboard that particular train.
Mankind has been on the slippery slope since the industrial age for numerous reasons, one being the lack of time available for contemplation..actually I'll leave that one hanging or I'll never get this finished.
I recently read a very interesting article on Bangladesh.
http://www.bdesh.info/info/ (Make or Break, by Jeff Kemp)
If you weren't already aware of it, check out some of the picture links first to add flesh to Kemp's bones. It is definitely worth reading that article, due to converging events we may soon emulate an impoverished Bangladeshi life while watching their country inundated.
Now I'd appreciate it if you American posters didn't go welcoming me to the forum because I like checking those climatic links with unfettered expectation
Later
p.s sorry about the jumbled nature of this post but it resembles my thought patterns of late. Our new neighbours recently bought a puppy, a barking puppy. As well as trying to assimilate all the information I've been reading I also have to contemplate whether I strangle the puppy, hope society crashes and the neighbours eat the puppy or the seas rise and drown the puppy. I should steal the puppy, sell it to an idiot and buy a couple of ounces of silver.