Excuse me Doug but could you let me know what
TEOTWAWKI
is and what happens when it happens?
I feel perfectly ignorant,
Jim
doug swanson wrote:
>I agree that in tight times, basic or even primitive skills are more
>valuable than gold. Basics in Agriculture, animal husbandry, health
>maintenance, knowing how to preserve food without supplies you'd have to
>get at a grocer's store, blacksmithing, wood working, etc. are all
>skills that should be present in what I see as being a new birth of
>communities which will establish themselves once TEOTWAWKI happens.
>
>Energy systems can be a large part of this, since my wood heater
>currently relies on a chainsaw to supply fuel, and my biodiesel relies
>on restaurant "wastes" and petro-derived methanol, and industry produced
>hydroxides, I still don't feel that my current situation is
>sustainable. Solar makes a lot of sense in my location, and I've been
>working in that direction, but with a twist. The 10' parabolic
>collector can collect a lot of heat, and rather than convert it
>immediately to electricity, which I'd then have to store in some sort of
>battery (with all the problems that batteries come with, ie. disposal
>when they don't work anymore, and then having to acquire new ones..., )
>it makes better sense to store the heat from the collector in 55 gallon
>drums of water, which can actually make up the rear greenhouse wall...
>
>I've been studying Stirling engines for some time now, guess I've read
>everything that Google can show me about them, crammed all the ideas
>into my head, noted the major disadvantages of most of them, (They've
>got to be airtight, precision power piston, most aren't self-starting,
>etc...) and have come up with a design that addresses these problems,
>and eliminates them by integrating much of the engine into 3 moving
>parts. Heat goes in, electricity comes out. I really would like to
>build the prototype, but can't afford a machine shop to make a couple of
>its parts. Maybe someone on this list has the right tools to make the
>parts, and would like to see more detailed plans on this. Eventually,
>when a working prototype is producing electricity, the plans with step
>by step guidance will be under the "open information license" The point
>of the whole system is that wherever possible, the parts should be stuff
>that can be found at the junkyard, and that when completed, a home power
>generation system is running for under 3-400 bucks. Adding another
>collector just for home heat would be even simpler, under floor heat
>circulation would increase the cost due to plumbing, thermostat control,
>etc., but if the hot water was just circulated through a radiator
>(junkyard again) with a fan behind it, the home could be comfortable
>without huge expense.
>
>The efficiency of a Stirling engine makes it a potential candidate for a
>hybrid vehicle, and I've been working on something along that line also,
>but first things first...
>
>Any ideas are welcome, anything I can do to help pull us out of the mess
>this planet is in, I will do.
>
>doug swanson
>
>
>
>Jason& Katie wrote:
>
>
>
>>you dont need money if you can supply a need. i know more than just fuel, i
>>can build just about anything a person would have as a daily need. house,
>>furniture, small macines, engine repair, anyone with a skill is pretty well
>>safe. it is the people who have never had to work a day in their life (CEO's
>>and politicians) that are screwed.
>>Jason
>>ICQ#: 154998177
>>MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Mike Weaver" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
>>Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 9:01 PM
>>Subject: Re: [Biofuel] {Disarmed} Telegraph - US "could be going bankrupt"
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>Um, it's not really "they" it's "us" too...
>>>
>>>Jason& Katie wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>good. its about time. if i were to spend money like that, and then
>>>>piddle away my savings and retirement, i would have been bankrupt 2 or
>>>>3 times in the last year, so why should they get away with it?
>>>>
>>>>Jason
>>>>ICQ#: 154998177
>>>>MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> *From:* Kirk McLoren <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>>> *To:* biofuel <mailto:Biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
>>>> *Sent:* Friday, July 14, 2006 6:04 PM
>>>> *Subject:* [Biofuel] {Disarmed} Telegraph - US "could be going
>>>> bankrupt"
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/07/14/cnusa14.xml
>>>>
>>>> US 'could be going bankrupt'
>>>> By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
>>>> (Filed: 14/07/2006)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an
>>>> extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the
>>>> country's central bank.
>>>> A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb
>>>> could send! the economic superpower into insolvency, according to
>>>> research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve
>>>> Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve.
>>>> Prof Kotlikoff said that, by some measures, the US is already
>>>> bankrupt. "To paraphrase the Oxford English Dictionary, is the
>>>> United States at the end of its resources, exhausted, stripped
>>>> bare, destitute, bereft, wanting in property, or wrecked in
>>>> consequence of failure to pay its creditors," he asked.
>>>> According to his central analysis, "the US government is, indeed,
>>>> bankrupt, insofar as it will be unable to pay its creditors, who,
>>>> in this context, are current and future generations to whom it has
>>>> explicitly or implicitly promised future net payments of various
>>>> kinds''.
>>>> The budget deficit in the US is not massive. The Bush
>>>> administration this week cut its forecasts for the fiscal
>>>> shortfall this year by almost a third, saying it will come in at
>>>> 2.3pc of gross domestic product. This is smaller than most
>>>> European countries - including the UK - which have deficits north
>>>> of 3pc of GDP.
>>>> Prof Kotlikoff, who teaches at Boston University, says: "The
>>>> proper way to consider a country's solvency is to examine the
>>>> lifetime fiscal burdens facing current and future generations. If
>>>> these burdens exceed the resources of those generations, get close
>>>> to doing so, or simply get so high as to preclude their full
>>>> collection, the country's policy will be unsustainable and can
>>>> constitute or lead to national bankruptcy.
>>>> "Does the United States fit this bill? No one knows for sure, but
>>>> there are strong reasons to believe the United States may be going
>>>> broke."
>>>> Experts have calculated that the country's long-term "fiscal gap"
>>>> between all future government spending and all future receipts
>>>> will widen immensely as the Baby Boomer generation retires, and as
>>>> the amount the state will have to spend on healthcare and pensions
>>>> soars. The total fiscal gap could be an almost incomprehensible
>>>> $65.9 trillion, according to a study by Professors Gokhale and
>>>> Smetters.
>>>> The figure is massive because President George W Bush has made
>>>> major tax cuts in recent years, and because the bill for Medicare,
>>>> which provides health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid,
>>>> which does likewise for the poor, will increase greatly due to
>>>> demographics.
>>>> Prof Kotlikoff said: "This figure is more than five times US GDP
>>>> and almost twice the size of national wealth. One way to wrap
>>>> one's head around $65.9trillion is to ask what fiscal adjustments
>>>> are needed to eliminate this red hole. The answers are terrifying.
>>>> One solution is an immediate and permanent doubling of personal
>>>> and corporate income taxes. Another is an immediate and permanent
>>>> two-thirds cut in Social Security and Medicare benefits. A third
>>>> alternative, were it feasible, would be to immediately and
>>>> permanently cut all federal discretionary spending by 143pc."
>>>> The scenario has serious implications for the dollar. If investors
>>>> lose confidence in the US's future, and suspect the country may at
>>>> some point allow inflation to erode away its debts, they may
>>>> reduce their holdings of US Treasury bonds.
>>>> Prof Kotlikoff said: "The United States has experienced high rates
>>>> of inflation in the past and appears to be running the same type
>>>> of fiscal policies that engendered hyperinflations in 20 countries
>>>> over the past century."
>>>> Paul Ashworth, of Capital Economics, was more sanguine about the
>>>> coming retirement of the Baby Boomer generation. "For a start, the
>>>> expected deterioration in the Federal budget owes more to rising
>>>> per capita spending on health care than to changing demographics,"
>>>> he said.
>>>> "This can be contained if the political will is there. Similarly,
>>>> the expected increase in social security spending can be
>>>> controlled by reducing the growth rate of benefits. Expecting a
>>>> fix now is probably asking too much of short-sighted politicians
>>>> who have no incentives to do so. But a fix, or at least a
>>>> succession of patches, will come when the problem becomes more
>>>> pressing."
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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