Machinery for a Post Collapse World: Charcoal Tractor
Off the keyboard of NearingsFault
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on October 17, 2018
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Welcome to my kick off post. I find it the height of arrogance to blog as I claim no mastery in the subjects that interest me most. I’m a greenie, a builder, a single dad, an alternative energy enthusiast, a gardener, and deeply concerned about the sustainability of the world we have created. I probably won’t write all that often but look in from time to time as I muddle my way through building a better life. For today the topic will be My charcoal powered tractor.
Years ago I launched a search for a fossil fuel free way to charge my batteries in my off grid home. The amount of useable sun in the winter on my solar array would drop to 1.5 hours from a summer high of 5. Most off grid homes resort to propane generators to make up the difference. Propane was not cheap and like any good doomer I understood how precious it was. Steam, thermo electrics, stirling engines, Hydrogen brown gas, you name it I researched and tinkered. […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom Oct. 14: Getting Away with Murder
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on October 14, 2018
“I have left my home, my family and my job, and am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot… Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better.”
― Jamal Khashoggi
This was a week in which Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Cat 4 in the Florida Panhandle, and flattened Panama City and erased Mexico Beach. As of this writing, the crack SWAT teams of the Trump Administration had mustered a post-Maria Puerto Rican-style recovery effort, meaning that aside from the Red Cross, residents are on their own. We learned that Sears, once the largest retailer in the world, is closing hundreds of stores under the guidance of designated looter Fast Eddie Lampert. As Sears stores fail, Fast Eddie's real estate company buys out their leases and re-rents the space to flea markets and crack dealers, thus improving the American suburb. The Trump administration is weighing new family separation efforts at the borders.
A West Virginia politician who told liberals to “get you’re [sic] coathangers [sic] ready” in preparation for the overturning of abortion […] Continue Reading…
Michael – The Path of Total Destruction
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on October 14, 2018
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We've been tracking the progress of Michael Inside the Diner in our Strafing Run of Mother Nature thread since before he ever made it to Cuba, as we do with most cyclones that are either exceptionally huge and potentially destructive or which look like they have the potential to impact the FSoA in some location. We also watch the storms in the Pacific that generally hit the Asian continent also, but since most of the Diners live in the FSoA, these storms get more attention.
At the beginning, Michael didn't look like much, a Cat 1 bound for Cuba, but the track projected by the Supercomputer Models took it through the gap betwen Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. The projected track made a beeline for the Panhandle of Florida, and thus it became a Hurricane worth watching, despite the fact it was only Cat 1 at the time.
Once into the "abnormally" warm waters of the Gulf, Michael went through not one, but 3 cycles of rapid intensification, or […] Continue Reading…
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The Geopolitics of Petroleum
Off the keyboard of Geoffrey Chia
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on October 12, 2018
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This was a presentation to the members of ReNew/ATA (renewable energy advocates) at the Peace Centre in Brisbane in late September. Even though it is almost 90 minutes long, it is just a basic introduction. It is a much abridged version of topics already covered in articles previously written (see weblinks in text description beneath video)
Link to full talk:
This Week in Doom, October 7: It’s Ovah
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on October 6, 2018
“Unimpaired prosperity cannot withstand a single blow; but he who has struggled constantly with his ills becomes hardened through suffering; and yields to no misfortune; nay, even if he falls, he still fights upon his knees.”
― Seneca, "On Providence" (II, 6-10)
So Bart O'Kavanaugh has been steamrolled onto the Supreme Court, the crowning achievement of Mitch McConnell and the cult of vicious, old, white bigots now known as the Republican Party. The lying racist traitor in the White House nominated a lying, movement-conservative hit-man to the Supreme Court, whose nomination was a sham orchestrated by a smirking reptile willing to break the Senate. McConnell was willing to go to any lengths to tip the Supreme Court for a generation and secure Karl Rove's "permanent Republican majority" against any reform laws that might be passed by some future Democrat Congress.
Orange Jesus enjoys 85 per cent approval among Republicans, even as those who identify as Republicans shrinks to 26 per cent of the electorate. What that will mean in the coming midterms is anybody's guess..
Give mad props to Trump: he understands his marks, a base of pimple-backed mouth breathers certain that no matter how […] Continue Reading…
Windapult: The Hurricane Resistant Wind Tower
Off the keyboard of Category5
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Published on Dark Green Mountain Project & Doomstead Diner on October 7, 2018
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C5 Builds A Category-5 Hurricane Resistant Wind Tower-The Windapult
Posted on October 7, 2018 by Dark Green Mountain Survival Research Centre
With your host, Category5.
” For most people, adapting to climate change isn’t the result of a long-term plan. It’s done in rush: a buzzing text message, an evacuation warning as the rain starts to fall, the National Guard humvee rolling up to your door, and the realization that you must leave home, if you can. “
Eric Holthaus
This is a long and epic read today. Sit down and pore yourself a glass. It should make up for and explain my lack of presence lately.
I’m starting to write this today, just as the remnants of Hurricane Florence finally rambled its way all the way to Dark Green Mountain in Nova Scotia. It’s the Fall equinox this eve but will be much later before you read this. Nothing dramatic to report here as the storm has already shot its load, and like a selfish lover, once it has […] Continue Reading…
Batteries
Off the keyboard of K-Dog
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on September 30, 2018
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A star if it is big enough, upon using up its hydrogen fuel will begin burning helium and other heavier elements to maintain nuclear reactions and keep from going dark. As we use up our fossil fuels we should be replacing them with alternatives. Alternatives which like the heavier elements in a star won't yield as much energy as the hydrogen in a star did or as fossil fuels on earth did, but that's better than dead. There will be less energy and civilization must make drastic changes but survival could be possible. Civilization does not have to go dark.
Most likely however we will go dark and die. This will be like a star burning up all its hydrogen fuel and then going supernova without burning heavier elements between hydrogen and iron first. Iron takes more energy to fuse than it yields and when the core of a star becomes all iron the star goes supernova as it collapses onto itself. Mankind will go straight to supernova. We are not […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom Sept. 30: “He Said, She Said”
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on October 1, 2018
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell”
― Carl Sandburg
Nothing brings out the bluster and tear-stained outrage of the monied elites in this country more than the cold water shock of the realization that their birthright privileges are under challenge. The kabuki staged in Congress for hearing the allegation brought by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh this week put that on full display.
Frat boys and the Republiconfederates everywhere decried political correctness, unsubstantiated allegations, Democrat skullduggery and "no proof" (after the day's hearing met that designed standard.) Right wingers like Bill O'Reilly decreed that the hearing was a byproduct of “a gender war” in America that had been set in motion by “the far-left.” The entitled classes call it "political correctness" when the oppressed finally get tired of eating their shit and push back. More on that later.
So it was this week as the one in six women in the US who have been sexually assaulted by their fathers, […] Continue Reading…
Preparing for Collapse, A Few Rants
Off the keyboard of Irvine Mills
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool July 25, 2018
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Beans and Squash in My Front Yard Garden
For a while now I been promising that when I got some other things out of the way, I'd actually talk about preparing for collapse. And that is just what I'm going to be doing in this and the next few posts.
Unfortunately, my crystal ball isn't any better than anybody else's, probably worse than some. What I'll be recommending will reflect my own biases and weaknesses. But even so, I think I do have some insights that will be of value to many people.
Among these insights are a few things that I feel the need to rant about. Let's get that out of the way first.
Rant 1: A Fast and Hard Collapse, NOT
I should admit that by using the phrase "preparing for collapse" I am really being somewhat misleading. As I see it, collapse is not a single event that will occur at some point in the future, but a process that has already been going on for several decades, since the oil shocks […] Continue Reading…
Seeking a Signature Steak 🥩 Sandwich
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on September 23, 2018
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OK, I was WRONG! This doesn't happen often, once a decade or so maybe, but ocassionally I am wrong. In the aftermath of the failed Last Great Alaska Bucket List Adventure, I came home with a ton of STEAK🥩 that didn't get cooked up while cruising trapped in the Bugout Machine Jump Seat to see Denali one more time and do some Whale Watching down on the Kenai Peninsula. So for about a solid week afterward I was eating some form of STEAK🥩 every day for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner and on some days all 3 meals, plus some snacks. I overdosed on STEAK🥩 so bad I was sure it would be at least 2 weeks before I could eat STEAK🥩 again. But I was wrong, it was only about 3 days before I once again craved some RED MEAT! My addiction to cow flesh is so intense I decided that The Diner needed a Signature Steak🥩 Sandwich as a regular Featured Menu Item. 🙂
Before I get into my 2 week long search for […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom Sept. 16: Florence
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on September 15, 2018
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
― Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5
Hurricane Florence stormed the East Coast this week inducing dread that roiled millions and left seventeen dead as of Sunday. When they tot up the final losses, what they'll miss are the people who died from stress induced by weather reporting hysteria.
The Weather Channel stands alone. They started weather reporting hysteria as a cynical marketing strategy. They have put their reporters front and right in the middle of the storm. They stand in knee-deep water, windbreakers flapping and report the fact that it is raining to people who can already see that it is wet.
The above pic comes from a video report offered up by TWC's Mike Seidel making the rounds on social media. Seidel appeared to be waging a valiant struggle against the elements, swaying back and forth with mighty effort against the vicissitudes of Florence as he filed his ever-so-essential report. And then… just watch the vid.
As someone who stared down […] Continue Reading…
It’s not the Wind, it’s the Water
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on September 16, 2018
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It's now a litle over 24 hours since the "landfall" of Florence, which hit Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina as a Cat 1 Hurricane, substantially below the earlier predicted landfall as a Cat 4. PHEW! We dodged a bullet there! Well, except for one problem…all that WATER!
When it comes to Weather Disiaster reporting with Hurricanes, the focus is almost entirely on where the cyclone comes in on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which strictly measures the wind speed around the eyewall. It doesn't measure the overall SIZE of the cyclone or the amount of water it drags along with it to wherever it decides on going, which is also not all that predictable, A Cat 4 which makes landfall in a low population zone is a major YAWN, but a Cat 2 which hits a major population zone like NOLA (Katrina) or NYC (Sandy) or Harvey (Houston) is newsworthy material!
So the critical point here is in terms of being "newz worthy" is "How many Homo Saps were affected by this event?" When you look at […] Continue Reading…
The Doom Loop
Off the keyboard of Category5
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Published on Dark Green Mountain Project on August 26, 2018
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Just a time sensitive quicky today A few articles showed up that were worth reading… if only to show how far we have gotten into The Doom Loop.
Its chilly out there this morning. Sort of a premature fall. Its sort of nice after that blistering heat wave. There lies the problem. The sigh of relief and subconscious desire for things to return to normal. A time to forget. A return to slumber. To apathy.
Its chilly because smoke from the west coast made it all the way to the east coast, a rather large continent away.
… But before I get there. A special hello and welcome to anyone trickling in from Peak Oil News https://peakoil.com/. They posted my last article. People seem to like my rants more than my survival advice. I noticed my article was shoe horned in between Ugo Bardi at Cassandra’s Legacy and John Michael Greer. That was flattering. I guess I am now sitting at the grown ups table.
The real reason for this article was just to re-post […] Continue Reading…
This Week In Doom, Sept.9: Crazytown
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on September 9, 2018
“Real power is, I don't even want to use the word, fear.”
― Donald Trump, interview with Bob Woodward, 2016
This was a week in which the pace of bizarre and unsettling news swirling through the White House could only be described as "epic," a thesaurus full of superlatives thus drained. Excerpts from Bob Woodward's book, “Fear: Trump in the White House,” dropped, with the usual eruptions of "Lies!" and "Fake News!" uttered by the usual suspects. The book, which will be officially released on 9/11, promises to be a devastating, meticulously researched account of the Trump Presidency. This is Woodward's eighth book on a President; over 40 years, few have challenged his veracity. The book will be consulted as a first draft of the history of these dark times.
Major takeaways are that the work culture of Trump's White House is so toxic and volatile that many of 45’s top staffers are in the habit of working around a scattered, unstable and uninformed boss.
Trump has been floundering and reacting out of stress as a result of the Russia investigation and related probes. "Fear" was the first of a one-two punch, followed up by the […] Continue Reading…
By Candlelight
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on September 9, 2018
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One good thing came out of the failed Last Great Alaska Bucket List Adventure for me, and that was a new passion for fires. Well, it's really an old passion, but I got reinspired to pursue it in the aftermath of the LGABLA.
The control and mastery of fire is probably the main thing which led Homo Saps down the path to an inevitable Civilization Collapse, and possibly his own Extinction and the extinction of many other large life forms currently inhabiting Planet Earth. Along with Agriculture it is highly resource intensive and as population size increases the tendency is to burn too much and to take away habitat from other animals sharing the same space. Over the Millenia since both Ag and Fire have been a part of the human existence on Earth we have desertified and deforested many locations, changed the local climate and precipitated the decline and fall of numerous Civilizations prior to this one. None of those prior events of course was nearly so […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom September 2: The McCain Edition
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on August 26, 2018
"America has no need to be made great again because America was always great."
–Meghan McCain
The world's most prominent Resistance meeting took place Saturday as the Washington establishment memorialized the life of John McCain. McCain's body lay in state at the Capitol Rotunda, then was moved to the National Cathedral for the final obsequies that would mark his career. Although the service was ostensibly religious, the liturgy advanced was decidedly civic, full of stories of McCain exemplifying those virtues Americans like to believe about themselves told by career politicians,. The real purpose behind the speeches was a recertification of the idealized American civil religion to which John McCain had dedicated his life, in contrast to the self-serving values of the White House's current occupant.
If you watched the service, it didn't take long for the swipes at the Singularly Uninvited Guest to begin. Meghan McCain led off with a tear-strained address in which she said, “we gather here to mourn the passing of American greatness. The real thing, not cheap rhetoric from men who will never come near the sacrifice he gave so willingly.” At the time she said this, Cadet Bone Spurs […] Continue Reading…
Some Inconvenient Truths About Collapse Economics
Off the keyboard of Eddie
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on September 2, 2018
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One of the first collapse pundits I ever read was Chris Martenson, way back before he turned his site into pay-for-view. I read The Crash Course, and took it to heart, like a lot of doomers. I know there are people who check in here who hold Chris in high regard. I do too, but my continued experience with collapse since 2010 when I started prepping has led me to some conclusions about typical collapse planning advice that I want to write about.
And I'm not just singling out Chris, who is a sincere, smart guy who gets it right about a whole lot of things. What I want to get to has to do, not with what happens AFTER the SHTF and BAU ends, but to WHAT happens between NOW, today, and THEN, whenever THEN turns out to be. It applies to each and every one of several collapse pundits whom I've read who all agree on one or two or three important issues.
One issue is the automatic knee-jerk assumption that everyone […] Continue Reading…
61
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on August 31, 2018
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It's my 61st Birthday today! Happy Birthday RE!
Longtime readers of the Diner may have read two prior Birthday Celebration articles I wrote on "BIG" Birthdays numerologically speaking, my 55th and 60th Birthdays. I didn't think 61 had much numerological significance other than being a Prime Number, but according to the Numerology Experts it is very meaningful.
Number 61 Meaning
61 is a number of introspection and family.
The numerology number 61 is a number of introspection and family. It is studious, mentally sharp, and resonates with balance and harmony.
The energy the number 61 represents tends to be nurturing of family and close friends. It also tends to be somewhat protective. And tends to have an idealistic vision.
61 analyzes what it does and observes the effects it creates and notices effects that weren't created as they were expected to. It determines reasons why and changes its approach accordingly.
61 constantly acquires knowledge of and about itself and its experiences.
The energy represented by the number 61 is perpetually accumulating wisdom about itself and it's family and friends.
Social gatherings […] Continue Reading…
Requiem for a Failed Bucket List Adventure
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on August 26, 2018
RE enjoys a fun vacation trapped in the jump seat of an RV
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The photo in the header here should tell you everything you need to know about my long anticipated Last Great Alaskan Bucket List Adventure. Does that look like a Happy Camper to you? For 4 days I rotted in the Jump Seat of an RV in the damp cold, while my Healthy friends went off galavanting around the various campgrounds we stayed at to go see Glaciers and observe the incredible amount of water we have flowing everywhere around here these days. Right now, drought in Alaska is about the last Natural Disaster we have to worry about. Here's what Happy, Healthy people look like when they are on a camping vacation, even if it is raining all the time:
You can read a lot more about the failed Last Great Alaskan Bucket List Adventure Inside the Diner, where I did some chronicling of the tripwhile it was ongoing, plus a few more articles since covering the failed aspect of […] Continue Reading…
The Last Great Alaskan Bucket List Adventure 1: Of Talismans and Shrines
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on August 12, 2018
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From Google
tal·is·man
ˈtaləsmən,ˈtalizmən/
noun
noun: talisman; plural noun: talismans
an object, typically an inscribed ring or stone, that is thought to have magic powers and to bring good luck.
synonyms: lucky charm, charm, fetish, amulet, mascot, totem, juju
"this talisman has been in our family for more than twelve generations
From Merriam Webster
Definition of talisman
plural talismans
1 : an object held to act as a charm to avert evil and bring good fortune
2 : something producing apparently magical or miraculous effects
talismanic
play \ˌta-ləs-ˈma-nik, -ləz-\ adjective
talismanically
play \ˌta-ləs-ˈma-ni-k(ə-)lē, -ləz-\ adverb
_____________________________________________________________________________________
From Google
shrine
SHrīn/
noun
noun: shrine; plural noun: shrines
1.
a place regarded as holy because of its associations with a divinity or a sacred person or relic, typically marked by a building or other construction.
synonyms: holy place, temple, church, chapel, tabernacle, sanctuary, sanctum
"the shrine of St. James"
a place associated with or containing memorabilia of a particular revered person or thing.
"her grave has become a shrine for fans from all over the world"
a casket containing sacred relics; a reliquary.
a niche […] Continue Reading…
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