Friday, May 25, 2012

Solar Flares vs. Zombies

This month's National Geographic has an interesting story about solar flares.  If we got a really big solar flare it could knock out the electrical grid to half the continent.  The author points out that it would take weeks or months to get the power back up.  We would just have to cope with having no electricity for however long it took.

People lived for eons without electricity and really didn't have a problem with it.  I'm sure that a fair number of people even today live without.  That would not be the case for us.  It would be like Y2K but without a date for us to think of work arounds.  Life as we know it could change in a few minutes.  How many people do you know who are currently working a job that could be done without electricity?  How many young people do you know who can read a paper map?  How many people own a paper map?  How many people actually have cash on hand?  Or for that matter, have anything of value to barter that doesn't get plugged in?

Okay... here's the exercise for the day: Put aside your planning for the Zombie Apocalypse and come up with a strategy for survival in the event that the lights go out for three months.  I will be back here after Shabbat (I don't blog from sunset on Friday until after sunset on Saturday) with my plan, which of course will be the best plan.

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