Thanks so much for this session, fascinating indeed! There is often a troll that is sent to derail useful discussion, so no surprises there. He runs in, is extremely rude and disrespectful, and then acts surprised when his ignorant opinions and snobby attitude are not welcome in this house of Work. How would he like someone running into his house and behaving like this? This assumes he even has the capability of putting himself into the shoes of another.
Anyway, I think it's pretty clear that things are heating up in more ways than one, and they are indeed accelerating. The masses are being distracted, but it might take a tunguska-like event over a metropolitan area before they take notice - and even then, it may be ruled out as a freak event, or a tragic military missile accident, or even blamed on 'terrists.
I think one of the most important things we can all do right now is to establish a network of support with friends and family. I'm currently working in SoCal, but I'm making plans to go back to my home in Mass and to work with my brother to get ourselves as prepared as we can - for anything. And that's the trick, we can't anticipate the future scenario/situation, but we can be reasonably prepared for multiple outcomes. I plan to take some basic survival course, perhaps a bit of carpentry, practice canning/storing food, but also learn to be light on my feet and be prepared to abandon the house if needed, and be able to survive.
Also some basic disaster planning is good to have - places to meet in case cell phones are out and you can't communicate, locate sources of fresh water in my general area and see which ones are drinkable, etc. Survival for its own sake is pretty useless, so I think it's important to remember to work for the benefit of as many as possible, and not to overdo it and neglect what is important right now - to keep paying attention and sharing information.
Many people are not ready to hear about what is coming down the pipeline, but I think a lot more people will be receptive to basic disaster preparedness, if you frame it as something that is simply a sensible thing to do, cuz you just never know. Mention the Japan earthquake/nuclear meltdown, the wildfires, recent floods, and that you just don't want to be helpless if something happens to come down the line. Better to be prepared and not need it, than be unprepared and be caught off guard.
So in light of this, would it make sense to create a thread/forum section for some useful disaster preparedness info? Like maps of fresh bodies of water around the world, some tips and tricks on starting fires with flints or something, ways to find/collect/kill/skin/cook/store/transport food/water, ways to portably filter things, etc, all under one umbrella somewhere on the forum? I don't want to get stuck in 3rd density "panic mode" at all, but it might be handy to have a collection of useful information that can be printed/used in an emergency.
For example, and I'm just throwing this out there for discussion, what happens if the sun burps and blips out satellites/electricity? Should we all focus on our local area/environment and work on that level only, or does it make sense to make any kind of contingency communication options with other forumites, mods, admins, Chateau crew, etc? The C's mentioned that we will end up communicating with kites somehow, but even something like this may require us to know ahead of time how something like this could potentially work, and just keep it on the back burner.
I don't want to head down the wrong direction, so I'd appreciate any/all thoughts. Am I going overboard, is it too much/too soon, too anticipatory?
