The Sixth Mass Extinction
Off the keyboard of John Lounsbury, Ph.D., CFP
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Published on The Doomstead Diner February 16, 2020
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Documentary Of The Week: The Sixth Mass Extinction
Written by John Lounsbury
This documentary has been selected in honor of the 8th anniversary of the collapse chronical, The Doomstead Diner.
Since the first animal fossil register, approximately 800 million years ago, the Earth has suffered at least twelve massive extinctions, of which five were of truly gigantic proportions. Millions of species disappeared forever in these periods of massive deaths.
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Note: Reverse Engineer, Surly 1, and other denizens of The Doomstead Diner are frequent contributors to GEI.
When we hear of extinctions in pre-history, we tend to think of the time when the Earth was inhabited by fabulous animals: the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs dominated the zoology of our planet for one hundred and forty million years, a period which, in comparison with the history of our species, makes them almost eternal. Then a medium-sized meteorite crashed into the Earth. It was neither the largest nor the most […] Continue Reading…
Decade of Doom on the Internet: A conversation with John Lounsbury, Ph.D., CFP
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner February 12, 2020
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OK, I am a little late on getting this one up on the Diner. I am a Bizzy Guy! So sue me! lol. So instead of Sunday Brunch, Diner Blog Readers & assorted Lurkers get it on Wednesday instead! If you subscribe to our YouTube Channel on CollapseCafe.com, it actually did go up on Sunday! đ I will write more to encapsulate this video sometime today, when I am actually AWAKE and not playing Vikings, aka Diners:: War of Doomers. lol. Suffice it to say for now John, Surly & myself covered the history of Doom chronucling on the net over the last Decade pretty well.
I'll be BACK later today with more, so check back in here at the Diner when you are bored. lol.
Happiness and “The American Dream”
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Illustration by Anthony Freda
Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on February 9, 2020
“It’s not primarily a measure of whether one laughed or smiled yesterday, but how one feels about the course of one’s life."
â Jeffrey Sachs, co-creator, World Happiness Survey
What is happiness? Like the judge who couldn't define porn but said he'd know itn when he saw it, most of us don't have a specific definition of happiness; we know it when we feel it, and often use the term to describe a range of positive emotions, including joy, pride, contentment, and gratitude. If someone asks you on a scale of one to ten how happy you are in six different areas, would you be able to accurately respond? That's what we're discussing this week. We're not talking about global temperature measurements, or oil exports, GNP, P&L, or anything that can be measured, mapped and plotted on a spreadsheet; we're talking about how people report satisfaction in their lives.
You wouldn't think a subject like "happiness" could be contentious. Happiness might seem an elusive concept to quantify, but there is a science to it backed by thousands of individual assessments and statistical […] Continue Reading…
Kickoff!
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner February 2, 2020
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No, I'm not talking about the Super Bowl, which is well underway as I publish this article, although the Big Game does get a lot of play here today on the Diner.
Originally, I intended the Diner 8th Anniversary Celebration to just encompass the week surrounding February 12th, the actual 8th Anniversary more or less exactly. However the Gods of Collapse ordered otherwise, and it started early with a BLACKOUT here on the Last Great Frontier about a week ago. It was a great test of my Preps on the Electrics end of things and I actually produced a Video DURING the Blackout! đ
This sort of intermittent, not toooo long lasting blackout is one of the more likely scenarios for the collapsing electrical infrastructure system. It's unlikely that in the near future the entire grid will go down and stay down FOR GOOD! Much more likely is you will experience longer and longer blackouts & brownouts over the next few years as further problems […] Continue Reading…
The Week the World Changed: Feb. 2, 2020
From the keyboard of Surly1
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by Anthony Freda
Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on February 2, 2020
“Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.”
â Julius Caesar
Certain weeks in history resonate with a significance not always understood at the time, but made clearer as the days pass into months, years, and into history. The week of October 14,1066 the Battle of Hastings was fought, leading to the Norman conquest of England and the end of Anglo-Saxon rule. During the week of April 12,1861, Pierre Beauregard ordered the shelling of Fort Sumter, and with that act of sedition the beginning of America's Civil War. The week of June 28, 1914 a Bosnian separatist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the presumptive Hapsburg heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and touched off a series of events that led to the first World War. One could make a case that the past week may join them in the ranks of infamy: the US Senate, for all intents and purposes, elevated a king; Great Britain left the European Union; and the Wuhan coronavirus, an agent of uncertain communicability but established lethality, was making its way across the globe via air routes.
After […] Continue Reading…
The Week in Doom January 26
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Photo Illustration by Alicia Tatone
Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on January 26, 2020
"People who claim guns make America safer are currently threatening violence and are openly threatening to use their guns to kill Americans they disagree with and shoot down the democratically elected government. This rally is a perfect example of why these murderous fanatics shouldn't be allowed to have guns, ever, or carry them anywhere near the rest of us." –Jim Wright
The most important doom-related story from my perspective this week was the so-called "gun rally" in Richmond, Virginia on Monday. Richmond had not seen so many armed men downtown since it fell to Grant in 1865.
Since my daughter lives and works in Richmond, and reported meeting some of the attendees out on the town on Sunday night, I took a more than casual interest in the proceedings. The response of many Richmond natives to the arrival of heavily-armed mob was to close their downtown businesses, including the entirety of Virginia Commonwealth University, which suspended all activities for the day, including internships and clinical placements; a university statement made clear that this was in response to the threat, not the federal holiday. […] Continue Reading…
Henry the 8th: 8 Years of Collapse on the Doomstead Diner
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner January 19, 2020
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Despite the title of this article, it has absolutely ZERO to do with Henry 8th, King of England in the early part of the 16th Century, despite the fact it was a very interesting time period, just predating the real birth of Capitalism which didn't arrive until the 17th Century and the founding of the Bank of England by Master of the Mint at the time, Sir Isaac Newton. Yes, that is the same Isaac Newton famous for Newtonian Mechanics, his Gravity Equation, the Apple falling on his Head and so forth. His most significant achievement though was that along with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, they simultaneously invented The Calculus. You know, that Math class most of you never took, or if you did you only did so because it was required and you hated it and only did the first year of it on Differentiation and Integration. Not so with me, I LOVED mathematics, and took many further courses […] Continue Reading…
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Collapse of Global Industrial Civilization is Nigh
Off the keyboard of K-Dog
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on January 12, 2019
The Price of OilDiscuss thiss article at the Kitchen Sink inside the Diner
Collapse is now certain. It has been certain for a long time. But even collapse aware people have a hard time admitting this hard truth. Tipping points are without question crossed. Arctic methane is being released. Atmospheric CO2 concentration is on a fast climb. Perhaps this is not news to you? Perhaps you are a rare individual who knows atmospheric CO2 is now 0.55% more than it was one year ago.
CO2 is rising fast. Half a percent a year now. A rather important thing to know. A fact that should be known by more than a few people. People who don't know what to do with the information once they have it it. Thinkers who do not act. Half a percent a year should be common knowledge and the subject of talk everywhere we go. In another culture it would be. Not in America. This culture prefers to die.
Half a percent a year and increasing with no decrease possible. Atmospheric CO2 concentration does not go down. […] Continue Reading…
Sunday, Bloody Sunday: Wildfire & War Edition
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on Sunday, January 5, 2020
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Text synopsis to come… Right now I am doing heavy lifting for my Clan of Ruskies on Vikings and don't have time to write it up. LOL….
OK! I got my Garrisons out working scarfing up Resources for my Clan, plus I took a very necessary NAP because I was up since about 4AM Alaska Time both playing my Game (Vikings: War of Clans) as well as cooking and producing the video at the head of this article. Very BIZZY early morning for a retired cripple! lol.
The Diner is really increasing again now in Readership as well as in new Authors for the Blog, and actually it gets kind of hard sometimes to wedge myself in, when I get so much quality material submitted by other Authors. So these days, I am more of an Editor & Manager than I am Author, although I still produce a good number of my own Videos, which nobody else here at the moment is doing. I […] Continue Reading…
Black Saturday in Oz: December 7th, 2009
Off the keyboard of John of Wallan
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Published originally on the Doomstead Diner January 4, 2019
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Black Saturday: 7th December 2009, Victoria Australia.
180 people died, 450,000 ha (1,100,000 acres) burnt,7,562 people displaced,Over 3,500 structures destroyed, including over 2,000 houses.
The statistics sound bad enough. They dont tell half the story.
The area:
I live in Wallan Victoria. This is the start of the “high country” 50km dirrectly North of the Melbourne CBD, with Pretty Sally Mountain (Tiny by any other continents standards), being the first major rise you come to. My 2 acre rural/ residential property is about half way up Pretty Sally.
To my North is the town of Kilmore, where one of the main fires started when some overheated power lines failed. East of Kimore is Whittlesea and Kinglake, where I regularly go to cut firewood eith in the local state forest or on a private property. From Kinglake to Marysville further East again is thinly populated mountainous bushland with samll towns and farms all along the outskirts of Melbourne. It had been a place where saw mills popped up in the late 19th […] Continue Reading…
This Week in Doom January 3, 2020
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on January 3, 2020
Conrad Brean: "You watched the Gulf War, what do you see day after day? The one smart bomb falling down the chimney. The truth? I was in the building when we shot that shot – we shot in a studio, Falls Church, Virginia. One-tenth scale model of a building."
– Stanley Motss: '"Is that true?"
– Conrad Brean: "How the fuck do we know? You take my point?”
â From Wag the Dog, 1997 film
On Thursday night, Trump ordered the assassination of Major General Qassim Suleimani, a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, without any notification nor authorization from Congress, . The drone strike also killed four others outside Baghdad’s international airport. To attempt to put this in context, imagine China or North Korea assassinating the US Joint Chief of Staff outside the airport in Mexico City. Trump is pushing us to the brink of unnecessary war. When Trump entered office in 2016, he inherited one of the best chances in decades the US has had for peaceful relations with Iran. Three years later, with a cabinet full of ideologues and warmongers, he’s torn up a treaty and is now […] Continue Reading…
What Keeps You Going?
Off the keyboards of Cam & Eddie
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Published on The Doomstead Diner on January 1, 2020
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Cam
Bussing Staff
Posts: 12
What keeps you going?
« on: December 31, 2019, 06:50:22 AM
Learning about all this stuff has made me quite a bit less cheery and optimistic than I used to be. That is completely understandable, but I (and my parents) am worried about getting myself into some mental rut where I feel only sad, angry, scared, etc.
All of you have been thinking about and dealing with this stuff for a lot longer than I have, and you all still seem to be doing okay. My question is: When the going gets tough, what keeps you getting out of bed every morning? Do you have hope for humanity, even if it is a tiny sliver of the population? Do you carry hope for life itself? Or do you take some other perspective entirely? Looking forward to your responses.
Happy New Years
Eddie
Global Moderator
Master Chef
Posts: 17580
« Reply #6 on: December 31, 2019, 07:32:42 PM »
I think that's a very good question to ask. It was something that took me a […] Continue Reading…
The Year in Doom 2019
From the keyboard of Surly1
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Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on December 29, 2019
"Violence is as American as cherry pie." –H. Rap Brownâ
2019 has been a year of notable accomplishments and disasters: China became the first country to gain access to the far side of the moon, thus announcing itself in the space race, the Ebola epidemic continued in the Congo, birds and insects continue to die at alarming rates, upsetting natural ecosystems everywhere, drought continued in southern Africa and, more recently, Australia, in combination with ruinous bush fires. California continue to burn during the autumn months.
War continued in Yemen, with millions on the brink of famine and starvation. Protests swept the world, from Haiti to Hong Kong, also making appearances in Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia. (It seems some folks don’t like neocolonialism as much as the west does.) Migrants continue to flee from the Middle East and Africa, and Central America, to places with more hospitable climate and arable soil; Nationalists shrieked in horror, rushed to build walls and whip up furor against potential newcomers. Brazil’s Boisonaro continued to burn the Amazon rainforest; people around the world wringing their hands. United States declared a trade […] Continue Reading…
Christmas Dinner & Tâwas the Nightmare Before Christmas 2019
Published December 24, 2018 | By RE | Edit
Off the keyboard of RE
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Published on the Doomstead Diner on December 24, 2018
T'was the Nightmare before Christmas Published originally December 24, 2012
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In re-publishing the Diner Christmas Eve Doomer Poem this year, I thought I would go ahead and do a Cooking Zone food video along with it, and prepare for myself a real Amerikan style Conspicuous Consumption FEAST! Rest of the meal comes tomorrow on Christmas Day, and I hope all the Diners will join me around the Dinner Table here to discuss Doom and probably argue, as all families do when they get together for these things. lol.
For today, were just looking at the preparation of the Main Course, a USDA Prime Ribeye steak. I'm not doing a whole Prime Rib Roast since I got nobody up here IRL to she it with. It would be a hhuge waste of food. However, I am cooking this in a faashion that will make it similar, and in some respects better than a full rib roast. Watch the video to find […] Continue Reading…
Dark Days of the Winter Solstice 2019
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner December 22, 2019
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The Winter Solstice has arrived again like the astronomical clock that it is. With that comes the long dark nights and the bitter cold of deep Winter, particularly up here on the Last Great Frontier of Alaska. Right now we only get around 6 hours of daylight where I live in the Matanuska-Susitna River Valley, and the outside temperature tonught here is 4F or -16C, whichever scale you prefer it is fucking COLD!
Not so down under in Oz, where they are setting record heat nearing 122F or 50C, and baically the entire province of New South Wales is on FIRE. NSW is where most of the population of Oz lives, it's where the Sydney Opera House is located. One of our Diners, John of Wallan lives in the neighboring province of Victoria where the other Oz Big Shity of Melbourne is located, and they are doing a bit better than NSW but the fire danger is still EXTREME. He lives on a Doomstead […] Continue Reading…
Winter Solstice 2019
Off the keyboard of George Mobus
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Published on the Question Everything on December 21, 2019
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I hope this finds you well and, at least for now, safe.
When I sat down a few weeks ago to start sketching what I would write about for this post, and after several false starts it dawned on me that there really is nothing much more to say! At least there is nothing really new to say. It seems that all of the kinds of global dangers I have been concerned about for all these years are now sufficiently advanced to be visible to all but the most stubborn willfully ignorant. And there are certainly many of those. Nevertheless, we now have growing movements such as behind Greta and Extinction Rebellion re: climate chaos. There have been a steadily growing number of economists who are starting to question the conventional wisdom regarding capitalism and free markets, if not the conventional theories behind the quasi-science. The public is still being hoodwinked by the oil and gas industries regarding the future of fossil fuel energy production; they have hyped the fracking […] Continue Reading…
On Greta Thunberg: A Letter to my Non-Western Friends
Off the keyboard of Ugo Bardi
Video & Audio by RE
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Published on Cassandra's Legacy on December 12, 2019
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On Greta Thunberg: A Letter to my Non-Western Friends
Dear non-Western friends,
first of all, let me tell you that I understand your perplexity about Greta Thunberg. I understand how you see this latest stunt of the Western Media of naming her "Person of the Year." From your viewpoint, it looks just like another trick of the West, one among many. And I understand that it makes you even more suspicious that the whole story of climate change is nothing but a hoax created by the Western Empire to maintain its grip on the whole planet.
Yes, I understand. But I would like to ask you to make an effort to understand us, the Westerners. You see, sometimes I have a feeling that one of the characteristics of Hell could be that the people who are in it don't realize that they are in Hell. It would be truly wicked, but it was a Western poet, Baudelaire, who said that the best trick of the devil is to convince you that […] Continue Reading…
Responding to collapse, Part 15: shortages of diesel fuel
Off the keyboard of Irv Mills
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Published on The Easiest Person to Fool on November 27 2019
Lake Huron on a rare sunny day in November
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In part 10 of this series I expressed the opinion that supplies of electrical power, diesel fuel and money will be at the heart of many of the troubles that lie ahead as collapse progresses. Especially for those of us living in small remote towns, as I recommend you do. Over the last few posts I've spent a lot of time considering the gradual breakdown of the power grid, the effects that will have, and how we might prepare for them. Today I'll move on to consider what happens when supplies of diesel fuel become problematical.
For a number of solid technical reasons, diesel engines are preferred to gasoline engines for ships, locomotives, heavy trucks, and agricultural equipment. If, like me, you're living in a small remote town, the latter two are of great importance. Essentially everything that gets here comes in a truck that burns diesel fuel. Much of that stuff falls in the "necessities of life" category. Agriculture is an important […] Continue Reading…
A World on Fire
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner December 1, 2019
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Working up the energy for a blog for Sunday Collapse Brunch this week has been tough for a few reasons. Health wise, I am doing crappy again, but this isn't the only problem. My main computer is also getting close to death, it was crashing on me about every hour for a few days. Now it seems to be in a sort of remission.and hasn't crashed since late last night. So I am risking writing an article and hoping I don't lose it before I have a chance to publish.
Beyond the health issues and technical problems there are other deeper ones ongoing here. As I peruse the headlines on the Google Search Engine each day there is a new riot occurring in a new city. The entire continent of South America appears to be on fire now. Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Brazil…you can bring up Videos now on YouTube that are IRL versions of Children of Men every day. Then there's Hong Kong, Paris, Barcelona and of course Istanbul […] Continue Reading…
Thanksgiving Pizza
Off the keyboard, microphone & camera of RE
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Published on The Doomstead Diner November 28, 2019
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Thanksgiving 2019 has ARRIVED, and it's time to itemize what we have to be Thankful for this year. We can be Thankful for the fact many of us are still alive, although according to Statistics, we are dieing faster every day. We can be Thankful for the fact that FOOD is still available here in the FSoA at mostly affordable prices even on a SNAP Card budget. We can be Thankful that as of this morning, Planet Earth has not collided with a Planet Killer asteroid.
Beyond that though, we have a good deal MORE not to be Thankful for here on the last Thursday of November 2019. It's not a great day for Happy Motoring to your relatives for your Turkey Dinner, since a Bomb Cyclone has dumped mega tons of snow in many spots acrss the country. It's not too good for Albanians who lost everything in their latest Earthquake. Californicators who have been burned out of their McMansions or just […] Continue Reading…
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