Reasons Not To Rely On Technology.

I'm not sure I would believe that story, maybe in support roles, but frontline troops have to pass regular fitness tests.

 

I like the woods a lot and used to live near a big chunk of national forrest. 10 miles wide and 15 miles long doesn't sound like a lot BUT it is 150 SQUARE MILES of dense forrest. I used to just walk out into t and try to pay as little attention to where I was going as possible. I just can't seem to get lost and can nearly always turn and walk straight back yo my truck. Now one time I had to make a significant detour. I evedently walked up into a long deep loop in a small river and basically there was only one way out unless I wanted to take a swim. I wasn't worried about being LOST so much as not wanting to spend the night on the cold ground that night.

My wife always knew not to worry if I was late getting back in and knew that if darkness caught me I would just build a fire and sleep there. I always put on a little fanny pack when I went woods wandering and it had every thing that I needed for at least a couple of days. I don't need much. I am a big boy and like to eat BUT if I don't eat for several days or week it has almost no effect on me. I went two weeks one time on air and water with no problem. I was staying in touch with my Doc and after two weeks he encouraged me to ease off it. I ate every other day for a year and a half after that.

When I was young I don't think that I ever felt hunger. I LIKED good food a lot and ate like a wolf, all I could as often as I could. I was big but also rock solid under a layer of fat. You could break your wrist punching me in the body one fool actually did. He punched when I wasn't ready and I turned as he landed the punch. His wrist broke and he went to the hospital. I had a hell of a bruise. Normally when hit square on I didn't mark at all.

Technology is adictive and if you go for all the latest gizzmos and gadgets I think that you lose a little of the excitement and pleasure of just wandering in the woods. If you have a specific goal and a time limit they make things faster and easier but I don't ever want to be dependent on them. Batteries die or you drop or fall on then and they break... Hell I carry two compasses just in case I lose or break one.

 

I'm a compass and map guy but God Love Her, my wife can't understand a map to save her life. Her and her Mama got so lost one night trying to use a map that they ended up in another STATE. When we travel letting her navigate can be a mess so I navigate even when I'm the driver.

 

When in grammar school one of the things the crew in which I belonged obsessed on was maps -- big paper maps and detailed world globes. Sometimes it was national maps, but World maps were the ticket. One guy would try to pick as obscure a place as was possible on a large world map and the others competed to see who could find the place first.

I use Google Earth to fly over the continents of my planet and view places I've never been. I read about other countries. These things I like about computers, i.e. information gathering. When in grammar school I would read encyclopedias. I am a total information glutton. I graduated university summa cum laude & took my Masters with high grades, but not because I'm any sort of genius -- my "smarts" aren't genius level (one son of ours is). It was because I've always been way past curious about all manner of things. My interests are all over the place. In my latter career, I had to know psychology, medicine/physiology, and electronics (I've degrees in those areas). To me, that was a dynamite learning period; those past two decades of working (I worked for others over 50 years) meant that I was always having to learn and learn and learn just to attempt to keep up with technology and research. Finally, the technology crap just got to be a pain. First time I programmed a computer was 1974; one used punch cards to program computers. There were no computer terminals. My wife helped me with generating the punch cards and was my typist for university papers and thesis.

Lord knows how many times I've had to jerry-rig solutions. People would say, "How did you know how to rig that fix?" My response was always that I had been raised poor and people in that world are forced to make-do with what's available to them.

Here at home, if the electricity goes out, we have full bookshelves and many more books in boxes. Plus, we have lots of candles and the makings for more. I'll be reading until I die.

In my life, maybe I've played a half-dozen video games. I have zero interest in them. My dad had me test his electric gaming machines that he'd just repaired (pre-transister days; gambling machines were all contacts, coils, and drum mechanisms with wiper points), so I was thoroughly burned-out on games before Junior High and LONG before video games came out. I see adults playing games on their iPhones. To me this is bizarre / tragic.

As to navigation: My wife and navigation are not any sort of friends whatsoever. Nope. They may indeed be enemies.

We're driving to some place. She's telling me I've made a mistake. I reply, "OK" and keep on driving. When we get to where we were heading, she says something like, "Oh I didn't think that road would take us here."

Before I go to a place I've got a printed map of it. For each state I travel, I get that state's road almanac. These rather large (14" tall by 11" wide ?; 36cm x 28cm) have around 70 pages of detailed maps with topographic lines. These maps show the tiniest county roads, dirt/gravel forestry roads, even hiking trails. I like to write on these maps. One can find geographic features as reference points, mountains, rivers, lakes, ... . I always have a compass in the glove box. As I travel, I watch the lengths of shadows and their direction relative to my travel direction and time of day.

Between my oldest son and I, we have numerous wind-up watches and clocks. When in antique stores, I'm not looking for nostalgic items, I'm looking for tools that are still useful. I'm well past convinced that previous generations were more intelligent that are we. They were forced to use their minds or perish. Big motivator, that.

Previous generations have my utmost respect and I will be deeply honored to meet them after passing from this life. I fear I will not be able gather up enough humility to stand in their presence over there. Scary stuff.
.

 

We should, of course, be mindful that a compass is technology, even the ability to light a fire was a technological break through - so what we are unhappy about is electronic technology more than anything.

Anything that requires a separate power source has a weak link, so anything powered by mains electricity is subject to the reliability of the electrical grid, anything powered by batteries is subject to battery failure (or batteries running out). But, to be pedantic the needle could fall off a compass (I realise there are well proved alternative ways to make a field compass and that navigation does not require a compass, but you get my point).

Anything can fail in use, it is the fallibility of manmade goods....

 

It technically is a form of technology, I know I was arguing semantics but, yes, I think we are talking anything electrical. It is surely good policy, regardless, to be able to navigate without maps etc, just as it is good policy to be able to make a fire without matches and eat without recourse to a supermarket.

WTSHTF we will very quickly be "out of" battery technology etc.

 

Very true

 

Fight for the Arctic. U.S. lagging. Russia more aggressive. Following article very informative. I include only a few paragraphs. Recommended read:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/17/climate-change-arctic-00071169

"SVALBARD, Norway — In January, when an undersea telecommunications cable connecting this far-flung Arctic archipelago to mainland Norway and the rest of Europe was damaged, Norwegian officials called to port the only fishing vessel for miles, a Russian trawler. Police in the northern city of Tromsø interviewed the crew and carried out an investigation into the incident, which was seen as a major threat to the security of Norway and other nations, including the United States. Had there not been a back-up cable, the damage would have severed internet to the world’s largest satellite relay, one that connects the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA and other government agencies from around the world to real-time space surveillance. [emphasis Old Gzr]

"The investigation’s findings were inconclusive, if worrisome. Something “man-made” had damaged the cable, but Norwegian police could not prove the Russian fishing vessel was responsible, authorities told me. The police allowed the fishing boat crew to return to their ship and set back out to sea.

"When I sat down in October with the governor of Svalbard, Lars Fause, he told me people here in the high north accept this sort of geopolitical intrigue as part of life. (He also stressed that nothing of value was lost when the cable was cut and the damage was repaired quickly.) Several Norwegian analysts and local journalists covering the Arctic told me they believed the Russians were behind the damage, and that they had damaged the cable as payback for Norway’s continued tracking of Russia’s newly upgraded nuclear submarine fleet that patrols this region. The Russian embassy in Oslo did not respond to a request for comment.

"Since the end of the Cold War, the Arctic has largely been free of visible geopolitical conflict. In 1996, the eight countries with Arctic territory formed the Arctic Council, where they agreed to environmental protection standards and pooled technology and money for joint natural resources extraction in the region. Svalbard, Europe’s northernmost inhabited settlement, just 700 miles south of the North Pole, perfectly represents this spirit of cooperation. While a territory of Norway, it is also a kind of international Arctic station. It hosts the KSAT Satellite Station, relied on by everyone from the U.S. to China; a constellation of some dozen nations’ research laboratories; and the world’s doomsday Seed Vault (where seeds from around the world are stored in case of a global loss in crop diversity, whether due to climate change or nuclear fallout). Svalbard, where polar bears outnumber people, is considered a demilitarized, visa-free zone by 42 nations.

"Norway and Svalbard are finding themselves at the center of a new battle to control the Arctic.

"For the past two decades,Russia has been dominating this fight for the Arctic, building up its fleet of nuclear-capable icebreakers, ships and submarines, developing more mining and oil well operations along its 15,000 miles of Arcticcoastline, racing to capture control of the new “Northern Sea Route” or “Transpolar Sea Route” which could begin to open up by 2035,and courting non-Arctic nations to help fund those endeavors.

"But17 Arctic watchers — including Norwegian diplomats, State Department analysts and national security experts focusing on the Arctic — said they fear thatthe U.S. and Europe won’t be able to maintain a grip on the region’s energy resources and diplomacy as Russia places more civilian and military infrastructure across the Arctic, threatening the economic development and national security of the seven other nations whose sovereign land sits within the Arctic Circle."
.

 

"Eastern US Power Grid Declares Emergency, Power Outages Top One Million, Flight Disruptions Persist Amid Storm Chaos"

"PJM Interconnection's power generation mix this morning is primarily coal, natural gas, nuclear, and crude oil. So much for unreliable renewables helping out when the regional grid that supplies power to 65 million Americans in 13 states and the District of Columbia is in an emergency.

"It's time for Americans to realize renewables are unreliable.

* * *

"The powerful winter storm that battered a large swath of the eastern half of the US has left behind an Arctic chill Saturday morning. A regional power grid with 65 million customers in 13 states and the District of Columbia has declared a rare emergency, over a million people have no power, air travel remains disrupted, and reports of highway accidents are some of the most trending topics this morning.

"Let's begin with PJM Interconnection, a regional power grid that stretches from Illinois to New Jersey, which declared a Stage 2 emergency late Friday and asked customers to conserve electricity due to the rising risk of grid instability.

"'PJM is asking consumers to reduce their use of electricity, if health permits, between the hours of 4 a.m. on December 24, 2022, and 10 a.m. on December 25, 2022,' PJM wrote in a press release.

"PJM's request for customers to reduce power comes as the grid manager is trying to prevent a Stage 3 emergency, which would result in rolling blackouts across the 13 states and the District of Columbia.

"Bloomberg said 200 million Americans — around 60% of the country — are under winter weather alerts this morning. "



=================================

Interstate pileups are killing people.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1606409313081335821
------------

"UPDATE: I-80 WB reopens after 4 confirmed dead from nearly 50-vehicle pileup on Ohio Turnpike"

https://news.yahoo.com/deadly-50-car-pileup-shuts-205211918.html

"Update at 3:50 a.m. ET, Dec. 24:

"Nearly 50 vehicles crashed in a pileup, including 15 commercial trucks, that left four dead and multiple injured, causing the Ohio Turnpike to close Friday afternoon.

“'This is a stark reminder of what can happen when you get behind the wheel and try to drive in bad weather conditions,' Sergeant Ryan Purpura of Ohio State Highway Patrol warned.

“'We ask that you do not travel unless you absolutely have to. If you do have to travel, we ask that you take precautions, take it slow, be patient, wear your safety belt, and increase your following distance,' Purpura continued.

 

"End of the world: what will happen if electricity is cut off worldwide"

https://www.forumdaily.com/en/konec-sveta-chto-budet-esli-vo-vsem-mire-otklyuchitsya-elektrichestvo/

"In addition to California, blackouts were also in Venezuela. As patients of Venezuelan hospitals can confirm, the doctors simply could not do anything. In the pitch darkness, broken only by the rays of a pair of flashlights and the shaky light of the screens of smartphones, medical workers watched helplessly as the patient died before their eyes.

"An elderly woman was admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in her lungs. A fairly common life-threatening case if appropriate medications and equipment are not used.

"Everything the doctors needed to save the woman, including the ventilator, was very close - in the intensive care unit several floors below.

"But there was no electricity, and the elevators did not work.

"Approximately the same situation was repeated in many hospitals throughout Venezuela in March 2019, when there was a power outage for five days, which further plunged this country into a political and economic crisis.

"Hospitals were unprepared for this. Standby generators in a number of medical institutions immediately collapsed, while others had enough energy only for the wards most in need.

"When those five days passed, it turned out that 26 people died in hospitals, the result of a power outage according to Doctors for Health, which monitors the health crisis in Venezuela.

"But the problems affected not only hospitals. Some elderly people living in high-rise buildings had to be carried down the stairs in their arms. People cooked at bonfires and dined by candlelight. Without electricity, food spoiled in quickly heated refrigerators. Traffic lights on the streets did not work, which led to chaos in the transport system.

"Pumps pumping water also stopped working, people went for water to rivers and springs. They even used water from the sewer.

"Other critical infrastructure elements, such as water supply and sewage systems, rely on pumps driven by electricity. Without electricity, gas stations, traffic signs, traffic lights will not work, and trains will not run.

"Trade, the delivery of goods and fuels, food storage systems that rely entirely on computers will stop. Air conditioners, gas boilers, heating systems will not work."
---------------------------

"earthquake san francisco 'without electricity for weeks'"

https://news.yahoo.com/could-happen-tomorrow-experts-know-230027986.html

"It's the elevators that worry earthquake engineering expert Keith Porter the most.

"'And the electricity could remain off for weeks.

"'That means people are dead in those elevators,' Porter said."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What would happen to the world without electricity?

https://curiousmatrix.com/world-without-electricity/

"The second day starts, and electricity is nowhere to be seen. Still, the whole world is in the dark. Well, at least that part where there is no sunlight at that particular time. Nevertheless, darkness is not such a big problem. Many other things are, such as heating, water supply, gas supply, and so forth. Without electricity, gas stations cannot pump gas unless they have a generator or an alternate source of power. Some stations have generators to work 24 hours, some perhaps 48, but inevitably if the power outage continues, this becomes a huge problem for overall transport. Let’s say that on day two, most gas pumps do not work properly, then immediately we have problems with transporting essential things such as food. So, the food chain could become broken very soon, and this is the real problem. Most of today’s communities cannot live long before running out of food in their homes, as rare people live self-sustainable lives. People are going a couple of times per week to stores to buy groceries. ...

"Day three arises. Still nothing. The whole world is still in electricity blackout. But now, many essential services will run out of backup electrical power. ... Food in the refrigerator is also running out, and the nearby store is either not working, or most food is missing. What about tap water? Well in majority households water comes out of the pipe which is connected to city water. And those get filtered powered by electricity. So, if you even can get some water, this water isn’t drinkable. Then you need to heat it up to boiling water so that it becomes drinkable. But where to heat it. On gas oven, of course, but for how long. How long could this last?

"Fast forward to two weeks without electricity. Now it is whole mayhem in the world. Everything is collapsing. ... What about food? Well, if you live in a village and have your own farm perhaps you can do something. But if you have a big farm, well, that one also isn’t working without electricity, ...

"... Now six months into the blackout and society is on the verge of complete collapse. Famine is now widespread as food chains are entirely collapsed. No food can be seen in stores; actually, there are no open stores to be found. Some self-sustainable people are coping quite well, but their family estates are being taken over and robbed by so many hungry and possibly quite unstable and dangerous people. Normal people transformed into something unrecognizable, perhaps best described as some characters from the movie Mad Max. Roads around the world are collapsed almost completely since people just left their cars on the streets in lack of gas and electricity for Teslas of the world. Basically, everything is collapsing like a house of cards. Sole fabrics of society are broken into pieces, and it seems like no one can sew them back together. And the most important thing that is being broken is the human mind. Rare people can cope with this kind of situation – suicide and crime are on the highest levels in history. And did I also mention that without electricity, prison doors are opened very soon? Probably in the first month. So then, triple murderer and rapist Joe with his three friends arrive at your door asking where your wife is. Not an easy challenge to resolve now, is it?"
.

 

I am more and more thinking about a long term power outage around here....say ...more than a week.

The last one for us was during and after Hurricane Isabelle. We here at this house were without electricity for 10 days.

Across town sections of neighborhoods came on line electrically ...over time...as repair crews were able to sort it out and make repairs.

Fortunately for me I had a 4000 watt generator which I still have. Since then I have bought three more generators....a 7500 watt model and two 1200 watt smaller more portable models.

The issue here will be finding gasoline.

I notice that since back in those days....more and more people in the neighborhood have gone out and made the purchase of their own generators.
Glad to see more people taking such initiative...and being prepped.


One of the sidelights I try to maintain here is to never let my vehicles gas tanks go below half. It just made sense to me.


Watcherchris
Not an Ishmaelite.

 

In my family, it hadn't been so many years past that they first got electric power into their homes/cabins. This was rural Appalachia. One of my older generation kin worked on a TVA dam project.

It was coal furnace heat or a coal stove in the middle of a cabin or country store. Everybody kept kerosene lanterns. We visited our kin who still lived up in the mountain hollers. As a kid, I hunted with them. Fond memories. Crystal clear water shooting out of a mountain rock face. Gravel/dirt roads went through tree tunnels. Beneath you, all around you, above you, was life. You were enveloped by nature. The First People didn't see themselves as being anything outside of nature.

I've always been put-off by cities. Business trips had me going to major cities. All I wanted to do was get out of there. Seemed a false world, a big dirty cartoon. No body speaks to anybody else there ... land of zombies.


.

 

If this happens again, there is a good chance all our electronics will cease to function. Simon Whistler gives an ionic and comic view of the potential effects.

 

Power companies have attempted to protect substations via large very expensive capacitors. In England, specific reactions to solar flares before they hit the Earth have been and are being put into place. Factory automation equipment has EMP protection because of the electromagnetic noise given off by MIG and TIG welding. Military equipment has EMP protection for the possibility of having to fight during a nuclear exchange.

Having said all of the above, the vulnerability of electric grids is still inadequate to prevent mass damage. With increasing technology people have become increasingly dependent on technology. If we get mass damage to electrical grids, people are not going to handle it well. Urban dwellers will decompensate psychologically.

Here's a video with more technical information concerning solar storms / Carrington events:

 

Absolutely, it could take out almost everything nowadays.

 

I agree, we are wide open for mass systemic failures. It would be possible if enough warning is given for all electronics to be turned off and they should then decide. You can bet your last quid however that the human race would not be that organised and would make money the main priority.

This brings me to a subject I often ponder about natural disasters in that they are always measured in terms of money lost rather than human cost. WTSHTF I wonder if the flickering and dying embers of the internet will be carrying stories about how many billions of dollars/pounds etc have been lost....

 

It most assuredly does not aid government insiders that the populace should actually come to the understanding that they are existing in a house of cards.

Government-speak = "You are safe!" "Economies can have bad days, but they cannot fall." "The dollar is sacred." "Government debt is not a big issue; debt can be stretched out for all eternity." "If there is a disaster, you could be without electricity maybe a week, but not more than two weeks." "National Guard units can handle any emergency."

"Trust us!"

 

TPTB more likely do not care. I remember back in 1983 a story running about a council in the north West somewhere having spent £1 million pounds on a bunker for the councillors and their wives and families in case of a nuclear attack, but nothing for anyone else. A chap I worked with, at the time, said that if he had lived up there and the bomb was dropped and he somehow survived it, that his final act as he died of radiation sickness would be to mix ready mix concrete and block them in permanently

 

I shouldn't think it has and, anyway, who more useful to keep alive after TSHTF than a bunch of politicians, with all their practical skills they will survive marvellously

 

Absolutely - the world would be a better place without them.

 

Sadly our politicians have merely become self serving pocket-liners. They are an absolute disgrace.

 

I an sure that greed and corruption has always been present in politicians, but nowadays they seem to be so arrogant that they cannot even be bothered to try and hide it.

 

That makes it very difficult for them to relate to the common person. For example, only this morning, an MP is reported in the newspapers as having told nurses to "budget better" rather than ask for a pay rise. That's a bit rich from someone on a starting salary of £85k GBP.

 

Two types of troops, 'front line' combat ready troops who are kept fit and then all the support troops who are not so fit; nothing new there, same in every army.

 

What politicians are particularly good at is lying and hypnotizing the weak-minded. This goes for both Conservatives and Leftists. (Me, I'd vote Libertarian if that party had a snowball's chance in hell of winning ... yet, they never have).

If the winner is the one who garners the votes of the majority of the general electorate, then you get a government that promises everybody everything. This is what has happened here in the USSA. The last election saw MASSIVE voter fraud, nevertheless, the masses have gone weak and dependent. We have at least a 100,000,000 people who are basically next to useless and/or overtly without moral character.

It would be a horrible mistake for Russia or China to nuke our cities. If they got rid of our urban cancers, America would come back much stronger as a nation.
.

 

I see most of the politicians as pickpockets which is just another word for a thief.

 

Yes indeed. I often imagine long bony fingers (like those of Montgomery Burns) reaching into my pocket to carefully pul out a banknote. His character, albeit fictional, sums up his sector of society very well indeed.

 

"Dodging the Apocalypse"

March 23, 2023

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/03/dodging_the_apocalypse.html

"A little over a week ago, on Sunday, March 12, a near-catastrophic event occurred that could have wrecked the lives of everyone reading this:

"'A Powerful Solar Eruption on Far Side of Sun Still Impacted Earth.

"'A massive eruption of solar material, known as a coronal mass ejection or CME, was detected escaping from the Sun at 11:36 p.m. EDT on March 12, 2023. The CME erupted from the side of the Sun opposite Earth.'

"What happened on March 12 was similar to the 1859 outburst – only worse. Early estimates suggest that this explosion was ten to a hundred times more powerful than the one of 1859. Such events – if not quite so extreme -- are not uncommon. One serious difference from 1859 was that explosion took place on the side of the sun facing away from earth. If it had been facing in our direction, if the earth had borne the full brunt of that blast, we can scarcely imagine the results. It’s likely that all operating electrical systems would have been immediately destroyed, the same as the telegraph systems in 1859. Any active electronic instruments – and possibly even those that happened to be shut down – would have been fried, transformed into useless hunks of plastic, metal, and silicon. The electrical and electronic networks (e.g., the Net) that form the framework of Third Millennial civilization would have been annihilated. Once they were destroyed, all power would vanish. Industry would grind to a halt. Massive amounts of data, including almost all financial data, would simply disappear. All methods of communication beyond voice range would no longer exist. It wouldn’t be a matter of waiting to be rescued by a government of any sort. Government would have shrunk to little more than a notion. The very tools on which relief, and even recovery, depend would simply have vanished. The consequences beggar the imagination. A new Dark Age would have been the best option to expect."

https://blogs.nasa.gov/sunspot/2023...r Side of Sun Still,of the Sun opposite Earth

 

Don't kid yourselves. They don't HAVE to pick your pocket. They can just as well print money and by doing so devalue what YOU worked for. Our government has become a separate organization from the citizens. They may be elected BUT they get to pick who exactly we get to vote for. Actually, in my case, I almost NEVER vote FOR someone. I generally more vote against than for. The lesser of two evils so to speak.

Sadly, there is an old saying that is becoming more and more likely to come to pass.

The tree of freedom needs to be regularly watered with the blood of patriots. In the past, that blood was spilled fighting enemies from the outside. The threat is now more from the inside than the outside. It is not just that those in power are grabbing more and more power. The most disturbing thing to me is that more and more people don't care and are perfectly willing to give up what our forebearers fought and died for without complaint.

Socialism is a sweet trap. It promises much that is good BUT when you put in people that all goes to crap. People only share and pay their part when they are forced. If the government came out tomorrow and told people that they didn't have to pay taxes but if the services weren't paid for they would be shut down. Instead of taxes, they asked for "donations".

Within a year anarchy would rule. The Roads would be falling apart and without cops enforcing the traffic laws I am not sure that I would WANT to drive any more than I had to!!! It would be like an endless demolition derby...except with the addition of guns pretty quickly.