Much activity going on here.
This afternoon there are supposed to be arriving
four individuals from a radio show
to do a taping.
A big limb came down on the house yesterday -
but fortunately did no damage to the roof.
Some neighbors came by and helped me
pull it on off.
The fellows coming this afternoon have said
that they will help me cut it up.
Wood is good - because we need to prepare for winter.
Word in just as I am preparing to send this out -
that Univ. of Toronto has closed the radio shack
so at the moment we have no place
to continue to try to test Darlene's radio software.
Last week I received from Toomas but still couldn't transmit.
While I now have a further idea to try, no place to try.
Adam is making great progress on the printed circuit board layouts.
He sent me this week the generation program
along with files
so that I could look at the schematics -
and component placement on the boards.
Bob still hasn't made the final decision
on the power transistors but I am hoping
that he will do that this week.
The battle goes on.
Many battles go on here. The single greatest need at Ark Two remains finding a small engine expert to come by.
There is one that I could get locally but $75 an hour
for two or three hours isn't in our budget.
Big advance this week in that Pierre has launched the FaceBook page.
So - please everyone - sign in there and give suggestions and link it to others so that we can get this functioning.
http://www.facebook.com/SAFE.Arktwo
Also Victoria has finished another Ark Two video in the series of 24 that we are working on:
Ark Two #3 - Water supply in the shelter
Tim came up from North Carolina last week -
for three days
and helped me work on some of the next videos.
A couple of guys supposed to come up from Washington DC
on Wednesday -
who want to do some drawings here -
for a comic book of all things.
Hoping for some other major help next weekend.
Lots going on in the news -
but I just don't see that the way that others do,
and there is really no time or space left for this newsletter to get into all that.
I need to get two big changes made to the SAFE pages -
http://www.webpal.org
and to put all the changes up on the two mirrors that Peter has provided us -
before sending this out.
All this takes lots of time and I may be up after midnight doing all this.
I am feeling fine. Getting lots done. They are wanting to put a heart
monitor on me - for me to wear for a couple of days but that is going to
have to wait until we have gas to drive down to get it. I also now have
an appointment set up with the specialist - and Jean's failed surgery
repeat is scheduled. I have misplaced the date - or I am beginning to
think it is the same date. That would be good. Just lots and lots of
activity. For us life is very good.
Now - to today' subject.
Recovery in the City
In the previous two newsletters I have treated recovery at Ark Two - but
now let us direct our thought to the location in which most people will
find themselves at the time of the catastrophe - and that is in a city.
Before we begin -
I do hope you will look at the following short video -
to focus your mind on what we are talking about.
Ten largest cities
While the video shows the affluent part of the cities -
there are also the ten largest slums -
occasionally associated with the same cities.
World's Biggest Slums
As for on ground pictures of these latter -
I am not even going to go there.
In 1800,
only 3 percent of the world's population lived in cities.
By 1900,
almost 14 percent lived in cities
but only 12 cities had 1 million or more inhabitants.
Today,
over half the world population lives in cities -
and we are approaching 500 hundred of those cities
having over a million people.
One single city has more of a population -
than Canada -
the second largest country in the world.
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Whatever the specific causes of the catastrophe -
coronal mass ejection (CME),
electromagnetic pulse (EMP),
systemic failure of the power grid,
(consider India this last month -
and historical events in Canada/US) -
societal collapse stemming from financial collapse -
earthquakes -
or other imaginable or unimaginable causes -
aside from "the sum of all fears" -
those who feel that there is an impending doom
in the Divine Destiny for the affairs of humanity -
anticipate circumstances beyond the comprehension
and dread of the most fearful person on the planet.
My purpose here
is not to describe the specific events
as to either their nature or timing -
nor to portray the details of their horror.
The history of man is replete,
in every century,
with samples/examples of the events
that the survivalist needs to steel themselves against -
or make effort to avoid.
Starvation - look to the Potato Famine in Ireland.
Entrapment in the city - look to Katrina.
Plagues - look to the history of Europe.
Earthquakes - look to New Madrid, past and future.
Radiation - look to Japan.
War - look to the last century and the ever increasing
proliferation of the fearful weapons of destruction.
Recent examples enough throughout the world -
of dread in the cities -
Chechnya
Tajikistan
South Ossetia
Estonia
even today in parts of Syria
for any who wish to examine them,
but naught that I shall belabor.
Nor do I have any advice,
other than what I have already given -
for those who wish to minimize/ameliorate the effects.
For those who wish to know how others have survived
in such circumstances
they might read some of the accounts by actual survivors
during the slaughter of millions during just the last two decades.
Those actual accounts will yield much better advice
than I can possibly give in any distilled version -
but my conclusion is that for any who survived
the immensity and intensity of those events -
it was largely by a confluence of coincidences
rather than because of any particular skill on their part.
Oftentimes, the reported skills
in being inconspicuous,
being able to barter,
developing necessary alliances,
supplemented by
good health
mature youth
were still subject to the fortunes of coincidence
in being in the right place
at the right time.
It was simply the coincidental survivors who remained to write their accounts.
While I have suggestions for reconstruction -
after the catastrophe -
(as I plan to address in the next newsletter)
no matter what form the catastrophe may take in the cities -
I think there will be so few survivors in the cities -
that there is no advice that one can give
on how to survive the catastrophe there -
and while there will be the need for Reconstruction -
in many cases there will be no possibility of recovery.
My estimate for the world population -
is that 80% will be eliminated in the Great Catastrophe.
For cities this rises to over 90, 95, 98 -
almost total obliteration in some instances.
Often sudden - a matter of hours -
but in other cases tortuous days or even weeks.
Whatever.
There is nothing to be gained by describing
this in detail -
any more than the horrendous condition of deprivation
of many children in the world -
in the slums and elsewhere today.
The first three rules for survival in the city are:
1. Get out of the city
2. Get out of the city
3. Get out of the city
This applies both pre and post holocaust.
Unfortunately, in the post-holocaust situation
one will probably die trying.
Post holocaust there may be good argument
that one may as well cling to the melting iceberg.
The dangers on the road -
and if one does not have a secure and prepared location
to try to travel to -
may mean that they will be better trying to survive in place.
Of this much I can be certain.
Few are going to conform ahead of time
to the first three primary rules.
And few will survive.
The longer they survive, if weeks and months -
it is likely the more tortuous will be their departure.
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