People

People

Solar Flare could kill the Grid

One of the biggest dangers to the grid is bothering the British Secretary of Defense Liam Fox. Today he warns that the electricity grid, financial networks and transport infrastructure could be paralyzed by a solar flare.

Fox is no fringe lunatic. He used to be a medical practioner.

There is a growing threat of electromagnetic disruption to the underpinnings of modern life, the Defense Secretary told a meeting of scientists and security advisers today.

Dr. Fox said he wants to address the “vulnerabilities” in the nation’s hi-tech infrastructure.

“As the nature of our technology becomes more complex, the threat becomes more widespread as well,” he says.…

Read More »
Events

Ex-Pres Clinton turns Meat to Veggie Lover

The recent declaration by former US President Bill Clinton that he is slowly turning  vegetarian awed the crowd.

In an interview, the former president admits that he is now on a  vegan diet, although sometimes, he still eats fish.…

Read More »
People

Justin’s just lovin’ his greens

‘Sexyback’ singer Justin Timberlake this week re-opened his luxury ‘eco-friendly’ golf course in Memphis Tennessee  after investing millions of dollars on an environmental upgrade.

Note that’s ‘eco-friendly’ not ‘zero-impact’ or even ‘low-impact.…

Read More »
Community

Wow, what a rain!

Living in the high desert means having to deal with long periods of dry weather punctuated by periods of mega-rains. We got one of those yesterday. I was not at the skycastle when this occurred, I was at a friend’s house. My drive home was a bit tricky, our roads are dirt, some gravel, some boulders and several places are clay. The clay is the problem, when it gets wet, soaked, it becomes a car eating muck pit. There are several places I have to cross that have lots of clay, one place in particular is a S-curve just before my place, I avoid it when it’s wet. That means going over an even steeper,  higher, rougher road, but it’s worth it to miss the mucky S-curve. As I was going over the alternate path, I noticed a couple of cars that were abandoned on the road, not a pleasant thing to see where I live. That usually means a long, rough walk for the occupants, unless they are lucky enough to find someone else driving though or are close enough to walk to a friend’s house, that usually means at least a half mile or more walking either up or down steep hills. Did I mention that cell phones don’t work out here?…

Read More »
People

What to wear for the Apocalypse

TV survival show “The Colony” is stocked with ridiculously good-looking inmates who must survive a global catastrophe. They should try living off-grid!…

Read More »

Relationship (Part 1)

In a post TEOTWAWKI or SHTF world, having a loving partner will make live much more enjoyable as well as safer. You know the old saying, many hands make light work, it’s very true, and having someone that you can completely trust with your life just may be what saves your life. Having someone at the homestead most of the time makes the homestead a more secure place, while one of you is out hunting or doing what needs to be done, the other can be at home, taking care of things there and being security. You can also take care of the other if one of you gets sick or hurt.…

Read More »
People

Green Tories

With a couple of hundred new members of Parliament in the British House of Commons, the work has started to identify which of them are strongly green in their political leanings. Nick Wood-Dow of the Tory Green group has made a first pass at identifying the new Green Tories who have arrived since the election on May 6th.

Zac Goldsmith is the prime new bug environmentalist.  He owns a web site called The Ecologist, and is likely to work closely with Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Letwin to promote the Quality of Life agenda.  …

Read More »
People

On board the Plastiki

Two of the world’s leading environmental campaigners have passed the halfway point on their voyage across the Pacific in a boat made from plastic bottles.

Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger.com and David de Rothschild who runs Adventure Ecology, set off on the journey to draw attention to the phenomenal rate at which plastic turns to waste and the way plastic is choking our oceans.…

Read More »
People

Alone in the Wilderness

Dick Proenneke is the star of Alone in the Wilderness, a grainy super-8 film he shot himself. It chronicles his life in the wilderness and it is a YouTube and Amazon
hit (click keep reading for the beautiful YouTube film).The long version of the film became a best-selling DVD; his little cabin an Alaskan tourist attraction, but not till after he died, age 83.…

Read More »