In Case of Apocalypse

The Colony

2009-09-02T19:37:00.002-05:00

How'd I miss this new reality TV show? Might have something to do with not watching TV. From the Colony website:

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter?

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

Over the course of the 10-week experiment, the Colonists must work together to build the necessities of survival, such as a water-filtration system, a battery bank that powered their electricity, a solar cooker, a shower system and a greenhouse – and even some niceties (a coffee maker!).

Tune in Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT to see who thrives and who fails to survive.

I'll have to check this out...

Knife, pig

2009-09-02T19:17:00.002-05:00

Another little tidbit to keep us warm. Xavier Rosset kept himself alive for 300 days on an isolated tropical island with nothing but a knife and a machete. By the end, it sounds like he might have even been a bit bored. That gives me hope that life will not be impossibly hard without all our modern conveniences.

Man survives 300 days with knife, pig via Neatorama

Lights out on plants

2009-08-26T20:36:00.003-05:00

A bit of good news in case the world is shrouded in darkness by a cloud of dust and ash. The plants might survive!

The results show that, contrary to common belief, catastrophic darkness does not completely destroy phototrophic organisms, says Cockell. "The photosynthetic biosphere is much more robust than generally assumed."

Survival in a post-apocalypse blackout [New Scientist]

Scenes from shelters

2009-08-26T20:24:00.002-05:00

Photographs of fallout shelters and other various kinds of emergency shelters from around the world.

Picture Show: Waiting for the End of the World [GOOD Magazine via io9]

Post Apocalyptic Movie Roundup

2009-06-07T10:01:00.002-05:00

Here's a good roundup of some better PA movies. There are several that I haven't seen yet. I'm particularly interested in La Jetée, the inspiration for the movie 12 Monkeys. I felt like the world in 12 Monkeys could have been explored much more.

Kontraband: 15 GREAT POST-APOCALYPTIC MOVIES via Digg

Billion year data storage

2009-06-02T10:05:00.003-05:00

One of my biggest worries about any potential apocalypse is that huge amounts of human knowledge will be destroyed or lost within a few decades, from simple stuff like how to make concrete to more advanced topics like psychology and astrophysics. I've considered things like paying for data to be etched into metal, like the Rosetta Project, but the amount of data you can store is really limited. But when I see something like this method for storing data indefinitely in carbon nanotubes, I get all excited.

I think that several caches of the contents of the Library of Congress (and other similarly encompassing storehouses of knowledge) should be scattered across the world. Embed these knowledge chips in national monuments and important locations likely to survive apocalyptic disasters - Mt. Rushmore, Stonehenge, the Washington Monument, and so on. Ideally, the more chips there are the better. If there's one in every home, we'd be able to retrieve one eventually. I'd also put a cache on the moon with a huge arrow pointing at it, visible from the earth.

Via Wired.

Diesel Sweeties Comic

2009-05-29T06:58:00.000-05:00

An apocalypse comic from Diesel Sweeties.

Radiation Resistant Plants

2009-05-17T09:27:00.002-05:00

Here's a bit of good news. New Scientist is reporting on a study on plants found inside the radioactive Chernobyl accident site that are developing radiation resistance. Here's the good part (emphasis added):

Compared to the plants grown in normal soil, the Chernobyl soya produced significantly different amounts of several dozen proteins, the team found. Among those are proteins that contribute to the production of seeds, as well as proteins involved in defending cells from heavy metal and radiation damage. "One protein is known to actually protect human blood from radiation," Hajduch says.

That's fantastic - plants that can not only survive in radioactive areas, but can actually help humans survive as well. These aren't genetically engineered plants either, they developed radiation resistance in response to their environment. That means it's pretty likely that other plants will develop similar traits in similar conditions.

There's also a related article on radiation loving fungi, but no word on if they pass along any rad resistance.

Via New Scientist

Bookshelf: Back to Basics

2009-05-16T14:00:00.001-05:00

I'm trying out a new book review format below, so please let me know what you think. Also you might notice that the book links below are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click the link it will take you to the Amazon page for the book and if you order it, I'll get a small kickback. When I get enough money, I'll order another book for reviewing. If you want to order the book without me getting a payment, don't click the link.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition by Abigail R. Gehring (editor)

I discovered this book through Amazon's recommendation system after looking at survival books, and I'm glad I found it. I think it's a great addition to the bookshelf. The book is a broad survey of many "traditional skills" that early American settlers and pioneers had. This includes things like building a log cabin, making your own timber, raising livestock, preserving foods, traditional crafts and so on. You can find the index of the book on the Amazon page.

(Disclosure: I haven't finished reading the book - it's slow going and I wanted to get this review up quickly. If any of my opinions change once I'm done, I'll be sure to update this review.)

Physical Structure

The book itself is standard sized for a large hardcover textbook, but it's bound landscape style instead of portrait, so it's long and will probably stick out of your actual bookshelf if it's not very deep. Textbook is a good comparison and the construction reminds me very much of textbooks I've used in the past - a stiff, strong cover with thin glossy pages. The binding seems strong and of better quality than I usually see in hardcover books. One pleasant surprise was that the longer landscape form helps to keep the book open to whatever page you're on without needing to hold it open, which is a great feature if you need to reference it while you're working. Overall I feel like this is book is of high quality construction and I wish I had more like it.

Layout

The book is divided into six sections, each focusing on a different aspect of traditional skills. Within each section are a number of subsections concerning specific tasks. For instance, Part One is all about picking out a piece of property and building on it. It includes topics like Preparing the site, Converting Trees into Lumber, Raising a Barn, Sanitation and so on. The book uses a 3 column per page layout for most entries, but makes heavy use of diagrams, illustrations and sidebars so you never get a page with just three columns of text.

The illustrations are designed to be as clear as possible and have explanatory text. Usually the illustrations have information that is not included in the general text. Sometimes the text has a brief high-level overview of a particular task and the illustrations have much more specific steps. I get the impression that they wanted each entry to be as complete as possible, so they were careful to not have redundant information.

The book is printed in full color and has many photographs. Because "traditional skills" are old and becoming more rare, a lot of the source images are quite old and still in black and white. Fortunately there are still a good number of color photos. Rarely is a photo in place simply for decoration - most have some important bit of detail to impart. Illustrations are mostly two color for simplicity, but a few (like plant identification) have full color illustrations.

I feel like the layout of this book was very carefully planned, and it shows. The layout can be complex at times, but it remains very easy to read and see how sections are separated. There is also a fairly complete index at the end, which is always nice to see.

Content

This book is packed with information. I was surprised by the breadth of information in it, and even more surprised that it wasn't dry and boring like a textbook. Most of the content is very clear and easy to understand, and can hold your attention if you have at least a little interest in it. Step by step instructions make complex operations relatively simple.

It should have been obvious to me when I ordered the book, but I was actually hoping for a bit more depth. In hindsight, that's fairly ridiculous - this book is just a survey. For any one of the subsections of this book you can probably write another whole 464 page book. I've got a pretty good idea of how I might go about building a log cabin now, but I'm sure there are things that I would prefer to know that the book didn't cover in any significant detail. Still, I know a heck of a lot more than I did before. Many sections also have a block of references at the bottom, so if you want to explore a topic more fully you've got a list of source material right there.

Another thing I didn't really expect was the extremely practical spin the book takes on "traditional skills." For instance, in the log cabin section they give instructions on how to use an axe to cut notches in logs, but also give an example of how to use a chainsaw to do it. In fact, most of the building section either explicitly recommends using power tools for ease of use but also gives examples of how you might do it with only traditional tools. They also recommend plastic or tar paper as moisture barriers in homes, and that's something folks didn't have 200 years ago but is a very important improvement over traditional methods. The section on juicing apples for cider has three examples of cider presses - one traditional screw press, one improvised lever based press, and one that uses a car jack. Cool!

Current Usage

The book is targeted at back-to-nature folks and people who want to live a more green lifestyle. I think I will find this book at least a little bit useful even if the world doesn't end any time soon. My wife saw the composting section and she wants to try that out in our garden this year. We're also intending on preserving food that we grow in our garden, and this book has some good info on that. I think it's most useful for people who live in the country and have some room to do the outdoor projects. An apartment dweller will be limited in the projects they can take on but could still find quite a bit to do, especially in the crafts section.

Post-Apocalyptic Usage

The first year or two after the apocalypse this book isn't going to be all that useful. At that point you'll either still be able to find preserved food and sturdy shelter or you'll be so fixated on basic survival that you won't be able to do anything else. The likelihood of you needing to move around a bit is also very high, so you won't be able to build a permanent home bring a lot of stuff with you. However, from year 2 through year 50 this book will be invaluable. It covers critical skills like growing and preserving food, building shelter, making clothing and so on. It gives enough info that you should be able to get by and learn by doing. Admittedly some things like building a log cabin aren't going to be very likely with plenty of abandoned housing around, but having a basic understanding of the concepts involved would be a big help when you do need to construct a new building.

The book does make assumptions about supplies that are available that might be hard (or impossible) to find in a PA world. Cement is a good example. Cement is difficult to make and is beyond the scope of the book, but it's really a requirement for the section on building with stone. Cement is such an amazing building material that I'm going to have to try and find a separate resource for that.

Overall

Well written, sturdy and packed with information. I paid about $17 for it, so it's also relatively cheap. Other books might have more info on specific topics, but the breadth of this one is hard to beat. Once you're past running for your life on a daily basis and start to settle in one place, you'll want this book.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition

Grey Goo Concept Art

2009-05-15T17:02:00.002-05:00

Here is some lovely concept art by Giacomo Costa of grey goo overrunning a city, along with a nice little blurb from io9 explaining the possible situation that could have caused it.

In case you're not familiar, "grey goo" is the common name for a scenario where self-replicating nanotech (which looks like a pool of grey goo) runs amok and turns everything on earth into more grey goo. Grey goo isn't a good PA scenario since it tends to end with everything, and I mean everything, dead. Even so, a more selective nanomachine - maybe one that eats plastics or metal - might make for a more interesting scenario. More on that some other time...

Grey Goo Artwork via io9

FreakAngels

2009-05-15T09:08:00.003-05:00

FreakAngels is a graphic-novel style webcomic by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. The story follows 12 psychic teenagers who are trying to survive in flooded Post-Apocalyptic London. It's starting to pick up speed, and Warren Ellis is his usual charming self. The violence in the comic can be a bit graphic and it's definately not for younger readers, but it's pretty interesting stuff. Their first book is also available.

FreakAngels

Book: Bugs in the Arroyo

2009-04-28T20:06:00.003-05:00

Reader (and friend) Abra pointed out this excerpt from "Bugs in the Arroyo" by Steven Gould. The story has a very interesting form of apocalypse: metal eating bugs. I get the impression they might be some kind of self-replicating machine gone wild. It reminds me of Ray Bradbury's short story "A Piece of Wood," where a man discovers a compound that quickly turns metal into rust.

A metal-free future would be a particularly difficult one. Certain things like saws would be difficult, if not impossible to make. Plows and axes are possible with other materials, but inferior. There would be no guns or bullets, or even nails. Harnessing electricity would be basically impossible. On the other hand, glass has a very sharp edge even if it doesn't hold very long, and some types of wood are as strong as some metals. I suspect that a culture prepared for an event like that might be able to develop some strong plastics (or as mentioned in the story, fiberglass) to replace certain metal items, but they'd still be locked into a permanent metal-free existence.

I'm sure these aren't the only two examples of metal-free futures, or ones where certain resources are "off-limits." If you can think of more, let me know in the comments.

Swine Flu

2009-04-27T10:34:00.000-05:00

Swine Flu has been all over the news the last couple of days. Lots of people are using the word pandemic. Is this the big one? Personally, I doubt it. Governments got very scared about SARS and Bird Flu in the last few years, so I think the appropriate agencies are relatively well prepared for this.

Just a word of advice - when it comes to science and medicine, don't listen to your friends. They don't know anything (unless they're, you know, doctors and scientists in appropriate fields). Find authoritative sources. The Center for Disease Control, scientific websites like New Scientist and Nature and professional health-focused sites like WebMD are a better source of information than that guy you talk to on the bus. Even the usually terrible local evening news is slightly better. Misinformation is very dangerous during an emergency.

So, after all that let's get all worked up. This is all hypothetical. What would an apocalyptic swine flu pandemic look like?

If we look at a real pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu, which killed about 100 million people, it's easy to see that a disease on that scale isn't really apocalyptic in nature. The Spanish flu killed between 2.5-5% of the human population. To be apocalyptic it would have to go way beyond that and kill maybe 25% or more, like the Black Death did in 14th century Europe.

For the sake of argument, let's assume that it has high lethality, is resistant to treatment, spreads easily and ultimately kills about 25% of the population, spread around evenly. Since it was caught after quite a few deaths in Mexico, and there are known cases in the US, it's a safe bet it has spread to other locations via major travel hubs and large cities - LA, NYC, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, etc... If things go well any infected people will be quickly identified and isolated and the spread of the disease halted in that area. If they don't go well once these major travel hubs are thoroughly infected they will be next to impossible to lock down. The disease will spread out to smaller cities and towns as panicked people head away from the bigger cities.

Once the disease really starts to infect large numbers of people and the authorities try to restrict travel we can expect to see problems with resources. I think this is especially true of places like the US and Europe, where there are not necessarily a lot of local resources of particular types because it's cheaper to centralize and ship long distances. For example, car manufacturers might have a hard time getting steel because their trains are restricted or there are too many sick engineers. Certain goods will become very hard to find, for instance tropical fruits in the upper midwest US. Obviously the authorities will try to keep medicine and necessities in good supply, and if nothing else happens to make it worse, the effects of the pandemic will probably end somewhere around there. Lots of people dead, but little else truly impacted. Critical infrastructure and government will likely remain in place and functional.

As long as the percentage of deaths doesn't go too high, there will be a shifting in people's focus. People involved with luxury items and non-essentials will shift to fill the gaps in more essential services. We might see a drop in dog groomers, florists and baristi and an increase in local farming and manufacturing jobs. Some other interesting fallout would be a wide-scale housing market upset, as so many vacant homes come on the market. You won't be able to sell your house because it's so easy to get a cheap vacant one. People who are renting currently will be able to cheaply move into their own houses and the rental market will be in big trouble.

For a few years after the pandemic I expect there will be a kind of resistance to large social gatherings, or even the use of public transportation. The car market may boom despite recent environmental concerns as people shy away from the close quarters of the bus and train. Telecommuting will become huge, first because it will let people work while ill without any risk to coworkers, and second because it will be necessary to recruit people from farther away if there are shortages in skilled workers locally.

The developing world is going to be hit much, much harder than the US and Europe. Medical supplies are already limited, and areas that are already experiencing war, famine or the AIDS epidemic may be all but wiped out. Places that loose too much of their population will see their basic infrastructure collapse, and the rest of the world will be ill-equiped to assist.

All in all, it would be a pretty scary and nasty event, but compared to the other big potential apocalypses (nuclear war, environmental collapse and zombies) this one is pretty mild. The human race will certainly survive and the world won't be a wretched hellscape for generations. There may even be some upshots. After facing a brush with apocalypse, people might start to think in longer terms than they did before and plan more effectively for this kind of thing. A drastic reduction in population will also cause a drastic (temporary) reduction in environmental impact which could slow the approach of some of the environmental dangers looming on the horizon.

All this is just my opinion, obviously. What do you think could happen during or after an apocalyptic plague? Let me know in the comments.

ICA on FARK

2009-04-26T21:36:00.003-05:00

The site got linked on FARK recently, so hello to all you FARKers. I just wanted to let you know I'm working on a longer post about Swine flu, and I'll be trying to incorporate the suggestions I've received into an update on the Bookshelf. Thanks for reading!

Geomagnetic Apocalypse

2009-04-24T16:52:00.003-05:00

Wired has been on an apocalypse kick lately, and this one is the best yet. They even have a form of apocalypse I haven't heard of before - geomagnetic. The short version is that modern power grids basically act like antennas, and when the sun tosses a lot of charged particles our way they can blow the grids. Imagine you see a little color in the sky one night, and then BAM! Your block goes dark and stays that way for months while the government scrambles to rebuild critical electrical infrastructure.

The Geomagnetic Apocalypse - And How to Stop It via Wired.

Apocalypse Then: [Wired's] Favorite World Expiration Dates

2009-04-23T08:04:00.003-05:00

It looks better in the print magazine, but Wired has a rundown on their favorite potential apocalypse dates of the last 1000 years or so.

Apocalypse Then: Our Favorite World Expiration Dates via Wired

Children are our future

2009-04-21T16:18:00.003-05:00

Children are our future, and our children are thinking about an environmental apocalypse in their lifetime. One in three of kids surveyed were afraid the world will actually end in their lifetime, while over half said they think it will merely be an unpleasant place to live.

That's a good start, but I hope they're playing their video games.

Via Treehugger

Forward thinking

2009-04-21T16:03:00.003-05:00

Some forward-thinking individuals spent a whole lot of money making these 16' tall granite pillars with "instructions" on how to rebuild society after some kind of apocalypse. I think the instructions are well meaning and I agree with many of them, but they're really more like the 10 Commandments than real instructions. What I want to see is a 16' tall granite pillar covered with the basic principles of electronics or chemistry.

American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse from Wired.

Site work

2009-02-27T14:21:00.002-06:00

I'll be messing with the look of the site for the next few days, don't be surprised if it looks all goofy.

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

2009-02-27T14:08:00.001-06:00

Truly, they are America's Finest News Source.

Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

Ground Zero

2009-02-26T14:01:00.003-06:00

This neat tool has been making the rounds. Plug in your location and the size of your nuke - or asteroid - and it will give you info on what gets destroyed. Click the map pin for details on the various zones. For a some nice examples see this BLDG|BLOG article.

Via Neatorama.

An Axe to Grind

2009-01-29T13:13:00.005-06:00

An axe is a very simple but very useful tool. Most folks probably don't even know how to swing one correctly. Cool Tools has a short review of the USDA's free guidebook on the use and maintenance of the axe.

The USDA Forest Service has a number of other interesting looking publications, including some on rock crushing and using saws.

Photo by TinyWhiteLights

New Scientist interview with James Lovelocke

2009-01-23T14:43:00.002-06:00

James Lovelocke has a pretty bleak outlook for our future in this interview with New Scientist. Every day it sounds a little more like global warming is going to be an apocalyptic event.

DIY grow lights and gas masks

2009-01-15T13:17:00.002-06:00

A couple of cool DIY projects from Popular Science.

A homemade gas mask, based on designs from a 1942 article in the Popular Science magazine.

These indoor grow lights will keep you and your plants safely inside, away from the rigors of the environmental disaster or zombie apocalypse going on outside. Assuming you have a power source, of course.

It's a good day for a doomsday

2009-01-13T18:38:00.002-06:00

Discovery Space blogger Cosmic Ray has a neat article about some upcoming doomsday prophecies and a look at what an impacting comet can do to a planet.

Link