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Hobbit Hole + World Class Fallout Shelter
ChaosMt writes "Slashdot has covered buying missile silos before, along with buying old microwave bunkers to provide the ultimate level of data protection. Making your own Hobbit hole has been covered too. Now you can have it all in the best shelter I've ever seen (even beating the Subterranean Fortress) in an undisclosed location outside of Durango, Colorado. It may not be your cup of tea, but it is very impressive to see and compare to your own disaster planning."
Wow, these guys really are preying on your fears, aren't they? Remember all the nutjobs who ran for the hills in the middle of all the Y2K panic? That was funny enough, but pushing this kind of place, on the vague premise that 'there hasn't been a virulent epidemic for a while now', is just silly...
..And live in the center of a city.
In Finland. I for one welcome any scared slashdotters.
Not because I think it's especially necessary, but because it's just really neat. I mean, if people insist on consuming resources for silly things you gotta admit an underground radiation proof hidden house is a lot more interesting than these thirty million dollar celebrity mansions.
This a) doesn't label you as a target for people looking for easy money and b) let's you live out those childhood fantasies of having a fort to retreat to (and to be honest, don't we all wish we could disappear into our own basement fort and vanish from the world once in a while?) Plus, there's always that 0.0000001 chance it might actually come in handy due to an event like it was designed for. Not a war probably, but suppose some terrorist sets off a nuclear bomb nearby? Not only would such a place be useful in ducking away from fallout, but unlike a full scale nuclear war a terrorist attack is worth surviving because there's still a world left over to come out to.
... that's pretty cool. Hobbit-hole, indeed! I say back down on the "imminent plague" bit and promote it to some environmentalist/Nature-loving types: doesn't have too big of a footprint, "energy-optimized"... you can imagine the little chipmunks and squirrels bounding about on top of the roof. Heck, you could make a small development.. and maybe make it a gated community to boot. Winding roads through wooded hills, no more evidence of human habitation than the driveway will provide...
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Many of the sites I read about this talks about how state-of-the art protection can be out in the middle of nowhere, but _getting_ there during a national crisis is another.
The worst kind of biological exposure is one that has a decent incubation period then nails you later in the blink of an eye.
You're either already exposed getting there, in which case you bring it with you, or include pointers and tips on how to cover yourself by getting to the safehouse without being exposed - something missed by most pundits on this issue.
When CNN screams, "We're being bio-attacked!", you get to jam yourself amongst the thralling masses trying to get away? Not good...
Never have a philosophy which supports a lack of courage
... the more quickly-lethal a virus is, the less likely it is to spread far out.
Ofcourse, the reverse also holds ground.
Right now, the most lethal *virus* would still be HIV IMHO (IANAM):
- long incubation time
- terrible outcome without treatment
And even with treatment, the toll on healthcare is quite big.
The only thing making it less dangerous is that it is spread through very distinct ways, and not by air, I guess.
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
Just two weeks ago, a similar thing happened to a young teenage girl two houses down from me.
This is a little offtopic, but the principle is the same. Its what happens when you have something others can take.
Her parents had to leave on business. It was her first time. Alone. She was frightened and lonely. She called *one* friend to come over and share the evening with her.
No sooner than her friend got there, could she call a friend over too?
Out comes the cellphone. Boop!Beep!Beepety-Boop! - Yakyakyak. Presto! Friend of a friend shows up. They have cellphones too.
Soon the air is ripe with Boop-beepety-boop-yakyakyak. Chain reaction. Friends of friends of friends call yet more friends. Exponential unchecked population growth.
For her, it was out of control. She couldn't leave the house, and had no idea what to do. She tried to evict them, but nobody would listen to her. Her house was now filled with people she did not know. First the neighbors thought there might be a problem, but when they saw so many people over there, they went back to bed just thinking she was just being socially noisy.
I heard it too, but generally I am quite tolerant of someone having a "social" provided they don't make a habit of it, or cause me problems.
It had gone past being noisy. People had not only brought their own liquor, but had also broken into and decimated anything of value in the house. It seemed no-one knew whose house it was, so it didn't matter anymore. Besides they were all drunk anyhow. The scene was reminiscent of the "old-West bar brawl".
If it wasn't for some frustrated and sleepy neighbors calling the cops on this noisy party, it would have been only her parents arriving to break up the mess.
As it turned out, the cops broke it up about 4AM, and the parents re-arrived about noon to a total shambles. All of us neighbors got a free tour of the demolition zone.
Its quite a condundrum. Nobody knows who did what. So its hard to go after any particular individual for damages. And the insurance company is reticent to call it a covered event because the calamity was "invited".
Just a word to the wise. Just because the law recognizes your property rights doesn't mean people will. If you have something like this - as much as you may hate to do this - even inviting one "friend" in could easily end in disaster.
My own recipe for survival is to have a really good knowledge of how things work. So no matter what goes wrong, I can fix it. Even if I can not fight worth a damn, or have much financial strength, I feel if I can make myself valuable to those that do, it will be in their best interests that I survive, just as it is in my best interests my tools survive.
Its times like this I feel I should have studied medicine instead of engineering. Everyone wants to make sure no-one harms their doctor!
Having something just means you have the onus to defend it. Or its quickly not yours anymore.
My greatest feeling of security is knowing that no matter what happens outside my realm, I know enough how to maintain my realm to keep the pumps running and the lights on. No matter what.
Being able to continue to operate autonomously in the event of separation from any central "authority" is my main thrust for running either older or open source stuff, as in the event of any disruptive activity, access to any central rights licensing/permission granting authority is apt to be denied.
Or worse yet, if the rights licensing/permission granting authority has been destroyed, I have no intention of having my data files suddenly rendered inaccessible and useless as those old Circuit City Divx disks suddenly became when they pulled their licensing server.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Well, that's nice. But while you go talk to Kim Ding Dong, what should we do in the meantime?
Using your same logic, you don't believe in wearing a condom, because you believe it would be more worthwhile to eradicate all STDs?
Don't wear a seatbelt because it would be more worthwhile to eliminate all auto accidents?
Don't cook pork and chicken because you are working to eliminate all food borne pathogens?
Great!
When's your funeral?
But in US: act in the peace movement and youll probably be judged as a terrorist/communist or something antiamerican
Oh Yawn.
Wake me up when Ashcroft pulls a Reno and serves up some Crispy Branch Davidians, shoots a mother carying a baby, or grabs a little boy who escaped from Cuba and ships him back.
Our current policy of, "Do as I say, not as I do." has not worked very well.
If we managed to have a worldwide ban rather than the weak non-proliferation treaty, then countries trying to develop nuclear weapons would be under threat of actions similar to Israel's bombing of Osirak to prevent Iraq gaining nuclear weapons; but backed by the UN and the world, rather than the economic slap on the wrist they get now.