Preparedness for when

mardatha

If the Tories get in again then that will be the SHF moment for an awful lot of us QG.

[Deleted User]

We're in effect in the same uncertain position that our parents or grandparents faced in the 1930s aren't we? The world and all the uncertainties is going to do what it wants regardless of how we the populace feel and our leaders will do what they see as best practise regardless of public opinion and regardless of political party. We are still here, desppite two world wars, some of us will still be here should there be a third. Humankind is tencious and stubborn and overall a survivor in most situations. Life will be hard, frightening and may be too much for some as in WW2 but some will make it through and the human race will continue.

GreyQueen

:T Well said, Lyn.

My parents were both born in the early years of WW2. Mum's family were in the East End of London and had the bombing to cope with. Dad's family nearly got wiped out when an American bomber crash-landed after returning from a raid over Germany. My Nan has huddled under a kitchen table clutching her tots whilst an enemy aircraft shot up the village street, a combination of someone breaching the blackout at the same time as that plane managed to get past our defenses. Provincial City was badly bombed itself; some of the Anderson shelters are still up on the allotments, re-purposed into small sheds and compost corrals.

We who are adults now in this country have lived through a stable and peaceable time in history. It hasn't always been so, and people have become a bit complacent, IMO, especially about what the enemies of the common people like the Tories get up to, if given half a chance.

[Deleted User]

GQ what you can imagine is sometimes much scarier than reality. I'm not saying there isn't enough potentially really scary stuff that could happen that IS worth worrying about but we only hear of the worse things, and 24 hour media coverage on a loop in our sittingrooms or in our ears makes it seem as though the whole world is a dark and sinister place where unknown enemies are just waiting their chance to harm us. What we don't get because it's not newsworthy is all the small everyday 'goodnesses' that happen in every corner of the world and these much outweigh all the 'bad' actions perpetrated by very few individuals who most likely would be criminals if they weren't fanatics. We are actually ALL made of much stronger and sterner stuff than any of us realise and should we be tested I'm certain that not one of us will fail!

mardatha

For us, the Tories are far more dangerous than ISIS.

[Deleted User]

MAR you're more than a match for any political party aren't you pet?

Karmacat

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Difficult to tell what way the wind is blowing sometimes and maybe part of it is down to whichever news one follows. I read both the Daily Mail and Guardian online and figure that, between the two, I should be able to work out an objective take on what is happening.

...

That's the problem = trying to work out EXACTLY what is happening (ie is it worse than normal - ie 1960s-1980s I would say being Normal Times) and, if so, then how to evaluate what is likely to happen next? Will it get steadily worse/dramatically worse/go back to Normal at some point?

I like the idea of reading both extremes of the news outlets - I do the same I think one important issue is that news is so much more prevalent now, so much more is reported (in some ways, anyway) - the news agencies pick stuff up on Twitter or whatever, and find out about stuff that way. ISIS posts to youtube! Says it all, really

But don't forget, in those "normal" times, of the 1960s- 1980s, there was Vietnam (America using Agent Orange and much else), Cambodia (millions of people dead), famine in Pakistan and Africa (millions dead), war in Chile, apartheid in South Africa, war in Zimbabwe, wars in the Middle East, we ourselves went to war against Argentina and Iceland, the IRA were at war with us, the Welsh Liberation Army was attacking English people in Wales ( a few, anyway, not on the same scale as the other things ).

Bad stuff is always happening, right along with the good stuff ...

Karmacat

GreyQueen, have you seen this instructable? http://www.instructables.com/id/Bow-The-Amazing-Bike-Wheel-Bow/?ALLSTEPS

To me, it doesn't look workable, but as our archery expert, I thought I'd ask you to take a butcher's

GreyQueen

Karmacat wrote: »

GreyQueen, have you seen this instructable? http://www.instructables.com/id/Bow-The-Amazing-Bike-Wheel-Bow/?ALLSTEPS

To me, it doesn't look workable, but as our archery expert, I thought I'd ask you to take a butcher's

I'm so far from being an expert that it's comical but that isn't a bow, per se, that's a form of catapult firing arrows.

If you read the directions and study the photo, he's using a rigid semi-circle (the wheel rim) as a frame to support a cat's cradle of catapult rubber and using the force from that to power an arrow. He says that the arrow isn't nocked (arrows have a piece on the back called the nock, which clips onto the bowstring) so he's just using a bit of rubber pressing on the rear of the arrow and, when released, the arrow takes the enegy stored on the rubber for its propulsion. The wheel rim is rigid and cannot flex, which is how bows actually work.

With a bow, the limbs (the upper and lower bits on either side of the bit you hold, called the riser) flex when you draw the string back. The length of your draw is determined by the length of your arms, you cannot draw back further than the maximum capability of your own body. When you drop the bowstring (meaning relaxing your fingers) the limbs of the bow flex and transmit their stored energy to the bowstring, which send it behind the arrow, which makes it fly. You should never release a strung bow when you don't have an arrow to loose because the energy has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is into the bow where it'll do it no good.

The physics of the arrow's flight will be no different to firing it from a bow; he'll have to keep the front hand holding the wheel-rim very still, until the back end of the arrow clears the wheel rim, or it'll fly off target. This is because of what's called the archer's paradox (google it, it's amazing to see in slo-mo) whereby arrows swim like fish. As they undulate, the back end of the arrow has to clear the bow before you move even a smidge, or it gets knocked off course. It's that stillness, and the release off your string holding hand (will be the dominant hand holding the bowstring) which makes archery such an accomplished art.

This cata-bow is pretty clever, though, but you'll always be at the mercy of the supply of rubber. You can make bows out of all sorts of things which have some bend in them, such as pvc pipe, old skis, random bits of wood. The more random, the better the archer you'll have to be to get a good result shooting them; the distance he quotes is pretty low at 20m, even longbows can shoot several times further than that.

Karmacat

Thank you so much! And I guarantee you, to me, you sound like an expert much appreciated.