Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Thursday, September 1, 2016

157 Years Ago

The Carrington Event began.

The cornonal-mass ejection hit the Earth square-on. The resultant auroras, what we often refer to as "northern lights", were visible almost to the Equator. The storm energized telegraph systems and caused small fires.

I don't know what would happen if one hit us now. There's been periodic attention paid to hardening the electrical grid, especially for a time after the 1989 solar storm. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued regulations two years ago, but there's debate if they were strong enough.

8 comments:

bearsense said...

Congress will simply deny its viability, eh ?

B said...

Only the Amish won't notice right away....

But even they rely on a supply chain that will be affected...badly.

I can go for about 3 months with careful generator use, then I am out of fuel. I got food for 6 people for a year, plus the freezer....heat for a year (wood)....

Give me time to prepare the defense against starving people. Of which there will be many.

After that? Who knows, really. Some places may only get minor damage. Others a LOT. Communications and the internet and telephony and data might be worst, and would be the biggest effect on our country and civilization, as communication is the first part of our supply chain,

All I can do is prepare for what I can, and deal with the rest as it comes.

Or fail. But I shall try.

The New York Crank said...

And don't forget, Y2K! That's really, really gonna kill us. Oh, wait...

Yours Crankily,
The New York Crank

Joe said...

Crank, you can laugh about Y2K because a hell of a lot of people worked a hell of a lot of overtime to fix it. I wasn't one of them; I just had to change two lines of code and fill out a form. But it was real. Some of my colleagues spent New Year's Eve stone-cold sober, watching control panels with a knot in their stomachs. When they popped the Champagne about 4 AM, it was a sincere celebration.

Comrade Misfit said...

Y2K was a known problem, with a known deadline and known consequences for not fixing it. That helped to concentrate efforts to fix it.

hans said...

what's the shelflife of MRE's?

B said...

Hans:

It depends on the storage conditions. 10 years, generally, although they are good for lots longer if stored in a cool dry place.

Comrade Misfit said...

Hans, a hell of a lot less than the shelf life of hardtack.