Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Another Day, Another Doomsday

I love Doomsday scenarios. Documentaries on super-volcanoes eradicating North America and causing a nuclear winter; asteriods wiping us out with no warning; the Canary Islands falling into the sea and cauing a tsunami big enough to swamp the East Coast; terrorists detonating WMDs; and of course, Global Warming. All things that frankly we can't really do much about, so all you can do is shrug your shoulders, accept the risks and get on with life.

However, this article from the weekend's Sunday Times Magazine has really got to me.

Go read it. It's damn scary. Oil could run out within 10 years according to one Swedish University. The most optimistic professional assessment of oil stocks gives us 40 years.

Then check out the latest business pages from the BBC or whatever news site you use. Read about how increasing oil prices are pushing up US inflation at incredible rates, right now. Increased inflation means increased interest rates. It doesn't take a fool to realise that our mortgage repayments will be going through the roof, that our banked savings will become worthless, that saving for a pension becomes a waste of time.

Add in the fact that long before the oil actual runs dry, you won't be able to afford to drive to work, what are you going to do? Work locally? Same thing for food. It's too expensive to distribute by truck, so you need to find locally produced foodstuff. Businesses will fold. Society will break down faster than New Orleans.

You need to:

Learn survival skills
Learn to ride a horse
Learn martial arts
Buy a gun and learn how to use it
Buy a moutain bike
Buy an archery set and learn how to use it
Dig up the backgarden and plant vegetables and fruit trees
Fortify your property
Stockpile canned food, drinking water and medicine
Be prepared to kill someone for a can of dog food

Welcome to the Mad Max Scenario.
I am seriously freaked out!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Total Football: Come on you Herons!

My nephew Jacob is playing his first season of competitive football. If you'd like a new team to support, please let me introduce you to Hernhill Herons, sponsored by Dawes, who play in the Faversham & District Under 7's friendly league. They have their own stats page -- complete with match reports -- on the Football Association Fulltime website [You need to pull down the Division tab to show Under 7's]. Jacob, George and Joe represent the spine of the team, and are Hernhill's very own Terry, Lampard and Rooney. My brother is the coach and tactical mastermind behind the teams early success. I for one will be avidly reading the Heron's results on a Monday morning for the rest of the season.

Top of the league after two matches! C'mon!