Preparedness for when

Possession

Looks like China's crops aren't doing any better than ours unfortunately: http://world.time.com/2014/02/26/beijing-air-pollution-nuclear-winter/

GreyQueen

Possession wrote: »

Looks like China's crops aren't doing any better than ours unfortunately: http://world.time.com/2014/02/26/beijing-air-pollution-nuclear-winter/

That's frankly scarey.

About 35 years ago I had an elderly English teacher who'd lived in London as a young man and told us about the 'pea souper' smogs they'd had. About how he'd once gone walking about a mile across the city and his blond hair had been black when he'd arrived at his destination. And dripping with black tar...........it's an image which stuck.

I think that particularly bad smog killed several people and was the final straw in getting leglislation passed to clean up the air. Of course, a lot of people are reckoned to die before their time even in this country due to respitory illnesses caused or worsened by air pollution, it's just not so visible as that picture of smog.

It's something when 'progress' is endangering lives from smog and potential famine if their crop plants don't get enough light to photosynthesise.

maryb

My DDs are fascinated and disgusted in equal measure that I still remember most of the words to My Old Man's a Dustman. As well as Right Said Fred

But GQ I'm sure you don't look a proper 'nana in your allotment boots. And I expect daisy roots are a doddle compared with couch grass

But you never get nowhere if you're too 'asty

mardatha

Weirdly enough I've just been reading about the 1952 killer pea souper in London.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

If we end up with a lot of unrest due to hardship, it could be very dangerous to look affluent in your personal grooming, accessories, jewellery, choice of vehicle etc. Time to ditch the bling and live modestly or investment in gated compounds and bodyguards for the superwealthy.

Actually living in a gated community could be a target if it gets that extreme. The super rich might simply decamp to their yachts out of the range of the mobs. Though I think that most people will turn their anger against the government and the establishment.

grandma247

M1cr0s0ft will not be providing security updates after next month for XP. I'm not certain of the date but know it is soon.

An interesting article. I love tiny houses.

GreyQueen

Morning all.

The supersized yachts of the super-rich have crew. And that might be the downfall of the owners of them, if law and order breaks down totally.

Have you ever read the Bosnian blogger Serco? He remarked that in their troubled times, it was the homes of the well-to-do which were attacked and looted first. And that walls and gates didn't do much to protect them.

Thre have already been the cases of rich women in London being robbed of jewels and expensive watches on their own doorsteps in wealthy neighbourhoods. We have very few break-ins at Shoebox Towers, in fact the last one was more than a decade ago. Yet there are known burglars in the temp accommodation across the road. The newspaper quotes that address as where the burglars are living when they're done over yet again for burglary whilst fresh out of prison.

The homes they're robbing are either out of town or up on Acacia Avenue, my nickname for the rather select areas of the city. One of those things which make you think, hmmm? Don't know if its a vestigal instinct that you shouldn't foul your own nest, the opinion that these tiny flats of low income people are unlikely to offer many thieving opportunities, or the thought that there are some rough old boys in this block, who'd pay it back with interest.

Mardatha, bizarre co-incidence. It would have been that time that my teacher was a young man, he was near retirement when he taught me in the late seventies.

Grandma247, think it's 08/04/14 for XP. They were going to stop it years back but kept postponing it. My Pooter Wiz if of the opinion that it would be unlikely that virus writers would be including things in new viruses which would attack such an old system, so it being obsolete might be a form of protection. I shall drive it and see.

[Deleted User]

I think if a burglar broke into our house two things would happen, firstly the Lurcha would present him/her with a ballie and ping about like a mad thing wanting to play and then after taking a long and disbelieving look at the things we do have, he/she would probably leave us a present!!!

GreyQueen

Ditto here, but minus the lurcher.

The most valuable thing in my flat ain't a thing, it's me. I'd be seriously-aggrieved if someone decided to run off with any of my 'treasures' but, realistically speaking, that's quite unlikely.

This is a funny post from Miss Minimalist's website.

http://www.missminimalist.com/2010/05/nothing-to-steal/

Proving you should do some research before breaking down doors, as not all homes are equal when it comes to robbing-opportunities.

paidinchickens

Morning everyone (drizzly rain here)

While walking the hounds a few weeks ago DH stumbled across a "posh" phone on the corner of the street. We couldn't see anyone around who could have dropped it so we took it home.

It was an Iphone, cost of a small car phone, but the screen was broken.

When we tried to access the phone numbers to ring the owner up we couldn't get in as it had an access code widget on it. The owners rang the phone once for three rings which we didn't get to in time and for the rest of the day it had an alarm going off saying "being tracked" or something like that. The noise got louder and louder and we could not do anything about it as the phone had a lock on. It sounded like a bomb was going to go off every 15 minutes.

After a couple of hours of this I wished we had taken the blummin thing to a dodgy dealer and used the proceeds to go to the pub (not really but I'd had enough)

I spent the rest of the day attached to this "thing" just in case the owners decided to try and ring again.

6pm when the husband got home he rang it and I told him where we live, he was two streets away and his wife had left it on the top of her car when she left the gym. It nearly made it home!

When he got here I relayed the story of we couldn't ring as it was locked and it had driven us nuts all day, he just took the phone without a thank you, looked me up and down and just walked off :mad:

I must look like I was going to steal it, from my shabby appearance :rotfl:

What do they say? "No good deed goes unpunished" My nerves were shattered, it was worse than a screaming baby!! at least they do sleep.

Next time I find something I'm handing it in to the local cop shop and let them try and fetch it the three hours a month it opens (slight exaggeration)

PiC x

ETA for anyone who shops at A!di the £5 off £40 is in the paper today x