Contingency plan.
Posted on January 13, 2009 at 4:23 pm.
This is a work in progress and a collaborative effort. Please post your suggestions and they will be discussed and possibly incorporated.
Plan:
Once civilization as we know collapses, there will be a time of complete lawlessness. Lack of food, fuel and other necessities (especially in the cities) will cause shortages and hoarding. Those will in turn cause violence, looting, etc.
People who have a surplus of food, medication and fuel will be better suited to survive than most. Those who have weapons, a surplus of ammunition and the necessary skill will be in an even better position.
Preparation is essential. To ensure survival, the following steps must be taken:
1) A group of people must be selected that is to band together.
2) Once that is done, an amount of food, water, fuel, vehicles, weapons, ammunition and medical supplies must be prepared, which will last this group for two to four weeks.
3) The group will meet to the best of their ability.
4) If it is practical, those who could not make it to the designated meeting place are to be picked up. If it is not practical, they are to be left behind. No new members are to be admitted under any circumstances, unless all of the following conditions are met:
a. The person brings their own supplies of all the items mentioned above.
b. The person is known to be reliable.
c. The person brings a useful skill or knowledge that the group does not otherwise possess.
5) The group is to proceed to a designated location, away from the city, where they are to hide and remain safe for the duration of the initial round of violence and starvation.
6) If during travel, useful items are discovered, they are to be obtained, if it is practical to do so. Should the owner resist he is to be neutralized.
7) If the group is to be discovered by anyone who demands the group's supplies, aid, etc., those individuals are to be refused and if necessary destroyed. It is important to remember that the group's resources are not to be shared under any circumstances whatsoever. An amount of food that is enough to last one man a month, will only last them two weeks if shared with another man.
8) After the calming of the initial disorder, the group is to continue moving such time when they reach a climate zone where they will be able to survive the winter and if necessary feed off the natural resources. It must be noted that warmer climates make survival easier, while colder climates stimulate creativity and industriousness.
Once the worst part passes, and the population naturally decreases due to exposure, malnutrition, violence or disease, equilibrium will be reached. The survivors of the first few months are very likely to survive further. At this point it is necessary to establish order and plan for future grown and expansion. Feudal system is proven to work on small scale and will be the simplest to implement.
1) The group is to find a farmland that is able to sustain a moderately large group of people. Farmers will likely be alive, due to their distance from cities and abundance of food.
2) The group is to offer the farmers protection from other groups with similar agendas. In case of refusal the group is to impose its rule upon the farmers.
3) At this time the Feudal system will be implemented. All members of the community will be assigned a "social class" each with its rights and responsibilities.
4) Provisions must be made for upwards and downwards mobility, where one may rise or fall based on merit.
5) Judiciary will be law based, not precedent based.
6) A currency is to be established if one does not exist already.
Barring disaster, this will provide stability and containment for a period of time, during which the population will increase both by natural means and due to people joining the community. In particular a search for those of skill and knowledge will be ongoing.
Once feudalism is no longer practical, a republic is to be established.
1) Only citizens will have voting rights.
2) Citizenship will be granted to people who own property or have performed military service to the state.
3) Non-citizens will have an opportunity to earn citizenship.
4) Slaves will have the opportunity to become free non-citizens if their masters will set them free, or if the state decides to free a particular slave for possessing a skill or knowledge or as a reward for service. The master will be compensated in such cases.
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Crayon Physics Deluxe.
Posted on January 13, 2009 at 1:29 pm.
Yesterday I downloaded a demo of Crayon Physics Deluxe, an game that took the grand prize at the Independent Games Festival last year. For those of you who are not familiar with games, they are kind of like movies. The independent ones are usually more creative but have lower budgets.
In any event, it looks pretty cool with its crayon-drawn-children-art-style. The idea is also very simple, you gotta get a ball to touch a star. This is achieved by drawing objects, which then help the ball get to its destination.
All the in-game objects, including the ones you draw have mass, velocity and elasticity, which makes the whole thing possible and interesting.
My only complaint is that all the levels in the demo are too easy. Of course since the demo has only about 14 levels out of 80, this is to be expected.
Aside from that, I loved it. If you are at all into games, download a demo from their site. It's very small. Also the full game is only $19, which is a nice break from the regular game prices of $50.
P.S. - There is also a level creator tool, which I haven't tried, but I suspect it will be the source of the most amazing puzzles, once the fan community gets some time with it.
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Umm... wait, what?
Posted on January 12, 2009 at 11:03 am.
In the picture below is one Natalie Dylan. She is 22 years old and has a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies. She is also auctioning off her virginity in order to pay for her master's degree in Family and Marriage therapy.
So far the highest offer she received is $3.7m.
Now, I generally don't have a problem with this. In fact I firmly believe that prostitution should be legal, taxable and so forth.
In this particular instance, however, I have two issues:
1) Why would anyone want a virgin? Virgins don't know what they are doing and thus are terrible in bed. Deflowering one is a chore.
2) This woman is FUGLY! Even "free" sounds way overpriced here. I don't understand how someone could pay ten bucks for her, much less over three-and-a-half million.
Any ideas?
Source: here.
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Spore and Vampyre Story.
Posted on January 10, 2009 at 11:51 am.
I don't just play WoW you know.
Right now I am playing Spore, a game where you oversee the creation and evolution of a species from a unicellular organism to a space-faring people.
Also I am playing The Vampyre Story, an old-school point and click adventure game, which Yara gave me for New Year.
So far both games a lots of fun!
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New Mac announced.
Posted on January 6, 2009 at 9:55 am.
Apple users, rejoice! A new Mac is announced - one with no Keyboard!
While you are out rejoicing, don't forget to grab a can of iVaseline to go with your new shiny Apple product.
Yea, it's the Onion, but the point they make is very, very valid.
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Sucker fish.
Posted on January 5, 2009 at 3:35 pm.
My good friend Jenya just came back from his trip to Honduras, where he was diving in the ocean. There he took lots of underwater pictures, most of which did not turn out too good.
Apparently water absorbs most wavelengths of light leaving only shades of blue. Imagine that. Those who are serious about underwater photography, correct this with powerful underwater projectors and strobes.
Those who are not so serious, correct it with Photoshop. Jenya made it sound like a challenge and there I went - spending a considerable amount of time on this picture, only to prove myself.
It was damn difficult, by the way! Some Photoshop gurus may laugh at my attempt, but I think I did a good job for someone who is not a pro. I am NOT doing another one though!
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Back in (gaming) business.
Posted on January 5, 2009 at 10:53 am.
It feels so good to play on my Legendary Gaming Rig again. While it was broken I played on a bunch of laptops, which were not nearly powerful enough to accommodate me.
I love being able to run at high resolution with all the settings maxes out and not worry about the frame rate.
On this note, I'd like to brag about my WoW progress. We went into Naxxramas last night and finished up the Construct Quarter. This leaves only 2 bosses until the full clear. Grobbulus was kind enough to drop me a Miasma Mantle and Thaddius got one-shotted on the first try. In short: we rock!
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Commiefornia steals your TV.
Posted on January 5, 2009 at 10:44 am.
For the greater good of course, comrade.
Мы не буржуи, чтоб электрическую энергию зря жечь. / We are not the bourgeoisie, to burn electrical energy in vain.
Link: here.
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My computer (update).
Posted on January 3, 2009 at 5:37 pm.
I received a new motherboard yesterday.
EVGA didn't have an 680i SLI to give me under the warranty, so I got upgraded to 780i SLI, which is good I guess. Once I put it in, I discovered that my RAM had gone too. This is seriously the last time I am buying something from both OCZ, whose RAM died on me three times, and EVGA, whose motherboards fried twice.
In any event, I went to Microcenter and got some nice Corsair RAM. We'll see how it holds up, but everyone seems to swear by it.
I've reinstalled Windows and drivers, and right now am in the process of reinstalling software, games and restoring my data from backups.
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The Count's song.
Posted on January 2, 2009 at 5:25 pm.
This is very uplifting. =] Enjoy!
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An outhouse is not the cultural equivalent of indoor plumbing.
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