http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0624/Massive-solar-storms-coming-Where-to-watch-aurora-borealis
There is a proverb somewhere about a man who spent all his fortune and time building a massive fort to protect his property and his life only to end up poor and alone within his compound.
I think prepping is a good idea in general, but natural and human made disasters need to be kept in perspective. Many of us take daily risks without thinking about it too much. There is a pic I've seen recently of a very overweight man in his basement all prepped, with shotguns in hand, and waiting for the world to end. Odd are that guy is going to be dead from a heart attack first.
Quote from: littleman on June 25, 2015, 05:01:14 PM
There is a pic I've seen recently of a very overweight man in his basement all prepped, with shotguns in hand, and waiting for the world to end. Odd are that guy is going to be dead from a heart attack first.
As a ranger I used to give a "staying alive in Yosemite" presentation (no Bee Gees music!). I would put up slides with stats on people killed during various activities like hiking over 10 years (say 32), rock climbing (say 26) then a picture of a massively fat guy with the number of deaths *each* year from heart disease (say 562,854) with the caption "Inactivities are more dangerous than activities"
Same idea here. It would be a shame to live a sad and lonely life only to not survive to see civilization collapse ;-)
NASA scientist Daniel Baker calculates there is a 12% chance that the earth will encounter another Carrington Event within the next 10 years..
According to the Heart Assoc, the risk of a heart attack (male, 60-79) is 11.3%.
Don't get older, LM, you won't like the odds. hhh.
Quote from: rcjordan on June 25, 2015, 10:34:17 PM
Don't get older
The oft-repeated advice my mother gave me before Alzheimer's took her mind completely.
I think it all boils down to a cost/benefit/risk analysis. That's the flip side to my comment above: the thing about hardening the grid or making some basic disaster prep is that it has benefits even if the specific threat you're most worried about never happens.
A book that I strongly recommend is Stewart Brand, The Clock of the Long Now. It essentially makes a case that though long-range plans are wrong almost all the time, the value of long-range planning is still high.
(https://th3core.com/chat/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fup6yu.jpg&hash=8d8fce52fb332d7eb318cdef3085f315481b7c71)
Funny, RC, when we first met I was in my twenties, now I'm 43 -- definitely a different age bracket. You may have a couple of decades on me, but we're getting older at the same rate. With the risk of getting too philosophical my mortality is a big part of my motivation -- not that I have my shit together as much as I'd like to, but I'm gobs ahead of where I thought I was heading.
Grit seems to be the key to everything, bigger than intelligence or charm -- I am a huge fan when I see it.
>The Clock
I'll check it out.