Anybody watch "Revolution"?

[Netpackrat]

Anyway, I was mainly poking fun at NPR. For a state that is all manly-rugged-hardy-individualist-survivors, all the time, Alaska has problems with too damn many people on the dole just like the rest of us.

No offense taken. Of course we have our share of people on the dole. But they are still outnumbered by the rest of us, and most of them don't have guns. And here, pretty much everybody else who works for a living does, even the libs. Depending on what time of year the apocalypse hit, it could be bad, but I think that we'd come out of it better than most of the rest of the US. In many ways, it would be better if it happened in the dead of winter, because that would give people time to find alternative refrigeration solutions for the hundreds of pounds of fish and game meat that most Alaskans have in their freezers.

[staylor]

Anyway, I was mainly poking fun at NPR. For a state that is all manly-rugged-hardy-individualist-survivors, all the time, Alaska has problems with too damn many people on the dole just like the rest of us.

No offense taken. Of course we have our share of people on the dole. But they are still outnumbered by the rest of us, and most of them don't have guns. And here, pretty much everybody else who works for a living does, even the libs. Depending on what time of year the apocalypse hit, it could be bad, but I think that we'd come out of it better than most of the rest of the US. In many ways, it would be better if it happened in the dead of winter, because that would give people time to find alternative refrigeration solutions for the hundreds of pounds of fish and game meat that most Alaskans have in their freezers.

By "alternative refrigeration solutions" do mean "chucking it outside"? Or would that risk freezer burn?

[Netpackrat]

By "alternative refrigeration solutions" do mean "chucking it outside"? Or would that risk freezer burn?

Egg-zackly. Well, chucking it outside would be the interim solution.

[blackeagle603]

Yes, Alaskans have a long history of chucking meat outside. Errr, out and up.

[Dinochrome]

By "alternative refrigeration solutions" do mean "chucking it outside"? Or would that risk freezer burn?

This reminds me of my tour in Point Barrow AK. We were quartered in a #2 Quonset hut next to the storehouse where they kept the supplies for Ice-Island T3. Some of the supplies were a couple of years old because the Ice-Island was on the Soviet side of the pole at the time (1970), so the civilian radio-operator (and holder of the storehouse keys) let us sailors in to "salvage" some of the canned ham and ice-cream. We stored the ice-cream in a snow-bank outside the front door,... until RMC Glenzer drove the Travelall over it one night!

It seems to me that if your meat is properly packed, it shouldn't be in any more danger of freezer-burn then it would be in the freezer. Roving carnivores would be a bigger danger.

[evan price]

I had a thought the other day- if electricity stopped working a-la Revolution, does that mean magnetism also stopped working? The two are directly related after all.

Maybe I'm just trying to put too much thought into a crappy hollywood storyline.

[tfbncc]

The real problem seems to be crappy hollywood writers that didn't put enough thought into a crappy hollywood story line.

[Draven]

Yeah i can't even bear to look at it... electric power goes out and we revert to mid-15th century? No one remembers how to make blackpowder? water wheels and steam power don't work? with no electricity we'd revery to the mid-to-late 19th century, not the 15th.

[Netpackrat]

Yeah i can't even bear to look at it... electric power goes out and we revert to mid-15th century? No one remembers how to make blackpowder? water wheels and steam power don't work? with no electricity we'd revery to the mid-to-late 19th century, not the 15th.

Eventually. There are very few people these days who have worked with those technologies. Quite a few of us have a general idea of how they should work in theory, and given sufficient resources would be able to rig something up. But there would be a lot of trial and error involved, not to mention we'd be busy trying to survive the disaster itself, plus the aftermath. It could very easily take a decade or two to work back up to a 19th century level of technology given a disaster of sufficient magnitude, and if electricity was for some reason off limits.

It isn't just the lack of practical knowledge; the tools required to build those tools no longer exist in any meaningful way. Sure, you can rig modern machine tools to run off steam, but what are you going to use to build your steam engine? Flowing water will probably be the only option initially, and again, the facilities to harness that will have to be built from scratch, mostly by people with only a rudimentary idea of what they are doing.

Same goes for black powder. Many of us will remember that it is a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. A few will even know the proportions. But how many have the first clue about obtaining the raw materials, and then processing them into usable powder? I actually have a book around here somewhere on the subject, and based on what I remember from reading it, the processes are a huge, time consuming pain in the ass, and there is a very good chance you will blow yourself up, even if you are careful.

And even once you manage to produce black powder, you'll be limited to flintlocks for all practical purposes, because the priming compounds needed to produce percussion caps and primers are NOT something you want to be messing around with. So yeah, in a world where all electricity and firearms suddenly ceased to exist, I would expect the first few years of warlordism to devolve to archery and contact weapons, with everybody feverishly working to achieve matchlock and then flintlock muskets.

One could go on and on, but honestly, it is a pretty stupid premise to begin with.

[Highspeed]

But how many have the first clue about obtaining the raw materials, and then processing them into usable powder?

*Raises hand*

Come the electroapocalypse everyone get yourselves round to my place for a powder making party and bring plenty of urine

Except that if electricity ceases to exist then so will the entire universe - which may put a damper on things.