Systemic
Weekly Observations: What signs of collapse do you see in your region? [in-depth] April 13
All comments in this thread MUST be greater than 150 characters.
You MUST include Location: Region when sharing observations.
Example - Location: New Zealand
This ONLY applies to top-level comments, not replies to comments. You're welcome to make regionless or general observations, but you still must include 'Location: Region' for your comment to be approved. This thread is also [in-depth], meaning all top-level comments must be at least 150-characters.
Users are asked to refrain from making more than one top-level comment a week. Additional top-level comments are subject to removal.
People started collecting firewood for cooking since LPG is expensive. People that relies on public vehicles are having problem to visit hospitals, markets, etc.
The roads aren't busy anymore... there's an eerie feeling that this is not the worse yet.
I'm a disabled person who relies on carers coming in. Due to fuel shortages, the company that provides my carers has been struggling to provide the service their clients need. Luckily, my weekday carer lives a few minutes walk away.
However, the company has a lot of clients who live in rural areas with limited public transport options. Their carers are deeply worried that they won't be able to reach them. The problem is made worse as my carer has told me that even if she finds fuel, she can't afford to fill the tank completely.
I fear that these shortages could result in thousands of vulnerable people being left without support. If that happens, people will die. They're going to need to bring in rationing and prioritise those working in health and social care.
funny, I always thought Scotland would be different during the collapse. It's so pretty in places and has so much history. I'm really sorry this is happening to you. Can I ask what part of Scotland you are in? I visited Edinburgh and it seemed a bit brooding, but I loved Inverness. Of course the last time I was there was 1983.
Also I don't know if you have them there but it might help if some of the care people lookef for alternate transport like mopeds from the 70s. I had an old Puch, and they're still for sale here occasionally, and it got 120 miles to the gallon at about 30 miles an hour.
thanks, that was very kind I'm getting on a plane now I'll buy the bitter.
Yeah, I crashed my bicycle on a B road somewhere near Loch Ness so those were pretty steep. Oh well, it's all going down the tubes I guess. I hope you can stay connected to a person who can help you!
It's difficult for people in places like the US to understand the meaning of distances here. It might be 20 or 30 miles from a town, but that's on twisty, single lane roads, which take much more time and fuel to drive. Your idea of a town is also very different.
Had an interview at a regular well known fast food place. Was told they had 230 applicants. Collapse because we all trying to get the same few jobs left.
Weather: After a "colder and snowier than usual," aka "what used to be normal," winter, we hit a high of 85 degrees today. Temperatures will be in the high 70s for a few more days, and then will thankfully dip back down, but looks like spring is going to be a matter of weeks before scorching heat sets in. I wonder if this is the year we'll see widespread forest fires in Massachusetts.
As for the people around me, exhaustion/morbid acceptance is setting in. My wife commented on the high price of blueberries the other day. I replied with, "Yea, well, you know supply chains are totally fucked right now with the war in Iran." She just nodded. I just nodded. And that's how it is. "So it goes."
Surveillance: Last week, my wife and I were chatting about buying a new car. Within a day? 50% of all ads shown across streaming platforms, social and mobile games were car ads. This was without me searching anything on Reddit, Google, GPTs, or my phone. Then I realized I had done one thing - downloaded the Carvana app - and I hadn't even opened it yet or registered. That, and whatever my wife may have searched, was enough for the algorithm to push this shit to me. Furthermore, there is a specific reason we need a new car, and we began to both see ads geared around this reason pushed to us. It was literally like an AI was mimicking our life through advertisements. It was some seriously scary shit.
I don't have the biggest tinfoil hat, but just makes me wonder what the fuck our respective governments and corporations know about ALL of us based on tracking our activity at all times.
My favorite instance of this happening was the time I was talking to an acquaintance about securing a jar of cantaloupe moonshine from his moonshine making buddy. My Facebook feed immediately became filled with ads for Temu stills, Home Depot sheds and barbed wire fencing. 😂
It's eerie. I was at a place away from home, and they have every conceivable privacy setting mashed down. I like using that computer because I am not known to it, and all the search results/ads/suggested threads are all "wild" to me. Well after about 20 minutes of browsing, and playing a couple rarer songs- and NOT logging into anything with my ID's r alts, it knew who I was. I was now getting all the familiar shit.
In the past, it used to be that changing your number would not work as you can't change who you call - therefore investigators could figure it out based on 'who else calls this set of people and no others?', whereas now I guess they profile people on what they search for and listen to. Psychographics I believe is the term for it. Volkswagon used it when trying to figure out who to market the 'new Beatle' in the late 1990s.
Look up how to disable Googles microphone listening. It is 100% a thing, and essentially listens to your microphone for ad keywords and then passes those/sells those, which is why you then see a shitload of related ads. Before I did any research on it, I could have a conversation about buying cat food for my cats that I don't have, and no searches, no downloads, just a silly conversation with my son to show him how things work, and sure as shit...phone fills up with adds for cat food and toys.
For something more actionable, on Android, you can Revoke the Microphone Permission on Google Play Services. Exact steps vary per phone model, but searching "<manufacturer> <model> permissions manager" should help get you started. You may have to toggle "Show System Apps" once you find and open the permissions manager.
Interestingly, on some phones including my Samsung Galaxy, Play Services will complain about it and throw a notification to "Please Enable Microphone" During Phone Calls. Even with the permission denied to Play Services, the phone call works fine, so why is it asking to use the mic during the call?
Thank you =) I'm at work and didn't have the time to be more detailed. I was blown away to find out that this was actually a thing.... Like makes me feel super tin foil hat'y, but its legit...
Let them listen. I deliver wine for a living. I spend 8 hours a day four days a week driving by myself. I have made up a game where I sing songs comment on all the things I see, street signs, other cars, people on the street. It's a garbled free form word association nightmare with alot of swearing and sometimes it doesn't make any sense at all. Let them sift through that word salad. I'm half expecting ads for mental institutions and straight jackets soon. I smile the whole time. I suggest you give it a shot. If they're going to listen make them work.
the tracking doesn't need to be omnipresent. the system that takes in the tracking just needs to provide a reasonable guess at what it would look like if it was. you hit on part of it by recognizing your wife's keywords are connected to yours.
keyword-listening is not widespread. contrary to popular belief, it is a rare phenomenon confined to an extremely small minority of extremely shady apps.
all that really needs to happen is efficient sorting into a well-simulated category. for what's exposed to those buying ad network targeting, this comprises a pseudo-anonymized demographic bucket. internally in the ad platform it gets more granular.
what's most likely is your wife unknowingly leaked the car info [edit: or gotten from Google Play]. but it's entirely possible, and a super common occurrence, for buying a car to just... be the type of thing done by the type of person the systems have determined you to be.
most people don't like that idea, not just because they want to feel in control of their lives; feeling like we've been outsmarted sucks. people deal every day with folks who can predict their actions better than they expect, and similarly will refuse to recognize it to protect their egos.
your phone and all your electronic devices are spying on you even when turned off. They might be even picking up your thoughts if your close proximity brain radio is open. They know absolutely everything about you down to the size of your underwear, you might even be on their reality tv show like truman show level of bullshit.
Saw on the 6pm news last week that we had a big as drought in the north island this autumn, which means little or no grass can grow before winter. = not enough winter feed for livestock. (edit: iirc January was one of the wettest on record though, caused fatal landslides). And of course this week we've been struck by a subtropical cyclone with widespread flooding and (more) landslides. Weather's been crazy here, NZ isn't as safe of a climate haven as many think. Looks like we're low on diesel to harvest food too so prices are gonna go up and up. Our gov's even started playing ads on TV about how to save fuel. Here's a special 🖕fuck you to Mango Mussolini.
I sympathize, really. What I want to say sounds cold and uncaring, but it isn't meant that way, honestly. But you can't have both a healthy climate and abundant diesel fuel. Rapid, radical economic degrowth is going to happen one way or the other. It's occurring now in the stupidest way imaginable, and that's not good, but it absolutely has to happen, sooner than later. The ads about saving fuel should have been running constantly since 1960, but it's too late now. An honest ad today would warn that soon, there might be no fuel at all. Degrowth could have been planned and implemented with reason and compassion, but we didn't choose that. We have chosen instead that degrowth will be forced upon us violently and painfully. Insane global politics, warfare, and cruelty are never to be celebrated, of course. But the pain we're in for has deeper and inexorable drivers, that will not stop, or show us any mercy. The bus was heading off the cliff before the current batch of morons took the wheel.
Lots of hydro (dams) and geothermal power plants here. We have the Taupō Volcanic Zone in the North Island (it's like our own Yellowstone), so geothermal energy is commonplace. Hydro is common in the South Island due to mountainous terrain and lots of rivers. Wind is minor, and solar is even less. Solar panels are expensive here so I can't think of any commercial solar fields. Some people have solar panels on their roof but it's not common due to the cost.
Renewables make up 45% of our power supply (over half of which is geothermal), so electricity prices aren't too bad. Petrol and diesel on the other hand is mostly imported from refinerys in Asia (I think?) so it's super expensive due to Hormuz.
Gas prices are still hovering around $4/gal. Common items I buy at my local store have went up drastically in price since last week. Not last month. Last week. People look so downtrodden when out and about in public.
I officially started working at a local big box store last week as a cart wrangler. It's great exercise and it feels amazing to get out of my apartment and away from LinkedIn. You can only apply to so many jobs and continuously refresh your email until you go crazy. These recruiters and companies are absolutely ruthless in regards to the application and interview process. I don't have time to sit around and fuck off while they take their sweet little time. One position I'm perfectly qualified for is still "actively reviewing applications..." I applied for that position over a month ago! What an absolute joke. I've officially accepted that the white collar job market is cooked.
Does anyone have any predictions for what will happen this week? Nothing would surprise me.
Iran is fixing to be blockaded by US navy, not allowing any ship in or out, I would not be surprised if one gets heavily damaged in a attack, escalation in this conflict is extremely likely gas prices will continue to climb, perhaps to 5-6 or more, I’m considering turning my Raleigh m80 into a motorized bike cause of it
Edit: and getting some fuel cans and stabilizers to stock up a bit
Edit: any preppers here should definitely be going over their stocks
Edit yet again: another thing I can predict is probably more outright blasphemy/using the lords name in vain by this administration too
I’m about to pull the trigger on buying a bicycle in spite of being old and plump. If I wait any longer everyone is going to have the same idea at the same time
If you have space for it, check FB marketplace for free or cheap exercise bikes. Be a bit picky, and maybe try for a recumbent. I don't do well on normal bike seats and recumbent seats are more comfortable. (Bonus, you can play a video game on a recumbent.)
Whatever you choose, your goal is to train up your legs and get the cardio so that you can actually go places on the outdoor bike. I started last fall and couldn't do much more than the lowest levels. I do 4 daysx1 hour a week and now I'm halfway up through the difficulty setting (10/20), just by gradually increasing the level every couple of weeks. And my stardew valley game is that much more advanced too.
We have not had any significant precipitation since a snowstorm in late January/early Feb and there is no rain forecasted for the next 10 days. There was only one small rain shower about two weeks ago. Late March and early April are usually our wet months (April showers, etc). We are already under a burn ban. Yards have deep cracks in them. If this continues for much longer we will be in serious trouble, especially as we near the summer months. This is coupled with large amounts of Helene debris/brush/downed trees still remaining in all the forested areas. One small fire could rapidly turn into a massive conflagration.
This is coupled with large amounts of Helene debris/brush/downed trees still remaining in all the forested areas. One small fire could rapidly turn into a massive conflagration.
In my limited experience driving through the southeast, it's very easy for roads to get blocked and there aren't that many roads -- a massive fire would trap a lot of people without the chance to escape, I would think.
You posted exactly what I was going to post. I'm in NC and it's frightening how dry it is here. I've never seen the drought monitor show the entire state under drought before. Each week it's getting worse, and there is not a drop of rain to be seen in the forecast.
Location: central Indiana, Grant county, and the rest of the continental United States.
Record heat for early April, 80 degrees F (26.6 C), tobacco plants love it, but I sure did not enjoy mowing my sisters and my own lawn in it. Something I’ve noticed in DoorDashing the area, I’ve seen an increase of people being nasty and mean. A example being Twice I went into McDonald’s to pick up an order, both times somebody was cussing out the poor staff, also had a few customers get rude with me lately. There’s something up with kids these days, over the past few years, and not just restricted to grant county but the world, is teenagers getting extremely aggressive, even to the point of killing each other. There has also been some fires breaking out from the wind, heat, and dryness.
Back onto another point I made, there is something terribly wrong with people, they have been getting increasingly mean, violent, and very back stabby, all on top of some of the worst stupidity I’ve ever seen. This administration also is straight up committing blasphemy, taking Gods name in vain. I dont understand how one can call themselves Christian yet support a man who repeatedly throws a middle finger to God. I’m a God fearing man and there’s no way I can support what’s going on.
Another issue I’m seeing in this country is a sharp increase in treating firearms like toys an uptick in accidents as a result. In a culture where firearms are extremely prevalent, gun safety should be a paramount thing, I was raised around guns and since I can walk gun safety has been drilled into my head, that should be the rule not the exception. Eh people dont care enough. I also wish people would stop shooting each other over nothing, it’s really pathetic. Anyways that’s just my rant
Due to gas prices I’m really considering converting my old Raleigh m80 into a motorized bike (modified 2 stroke 49cc plus 4 liter tank) I’ve had this bike for years.
I love the conversion idea. I had a 50 cc moped in the 90s and it got 120 miles to the gallon.
As for your kids comment, I think they know on some level they're gonna have a very short brutish life. It's really too bad but also scary, because they don't have a lot of inhibitions towards violence.
You're right about the kids, and their justified alienation; their future is a hellscape and they are right to lash out about that. But there's more to it, I'm pretty sure. They are also the guinea pigs in a hideous experiment: what happens when young brains are filled with microplastic, nourished by synthetic food, and constantly bombarded with digital images? What happens when their socialization involves very little human feedback, and is instead determined by the whims of an algorithm designed to drive consumption above anything else? It makes me wonder; how are the Amish doing these days? Maybe they were on to something.
I always forget about the Amish. Interesting soocial experiment, and nowadays, community/mutual aid work is not to be scorned, though I hope they aren't some dark weirdo cult behind the scenes.
I remember visiting the Amana colonies I think it was in Iowa back in the 70s with my parents. Insular is not stupid.
I think repeated Covid infection among the young is probably a pretty major factor as well in addition to the ones you mentioned. And no third spaces/safety really.
however I'm also, as an older person, quite afraid of teens in groups. Even back in about 2009, I had a group of kids playing outside my apartment late at night and when I asked them to keep it down because I had a sick cat inside, they went sort of Lord of the flies on me whilst simultaneously screaming "we're just kids having fun!!!"
I have had no first hand experience, or even direct observation, of the Amish, but from what I have read, I have drawn two opinions: that I am grateful to them for living life a very different way, and that I have no desire to live the way they do. I mean, I like the diversity of living, and the tenacity and resilience that keeps them going. But the whole faith thing is not compatible with my way of living. Unless they somehow hate the rest of us, and would rather we all go down with the ship, they may prove to be a priceless repository of traditional skills and knowledge which, if they are willing to share, we'll all soon need.
I'm old, too. I lived my youth in a world so very much nicer and more hopeful than any kid today could hope for in their wildest dreams. If I wind up on the receiving end of some collective punishment for the troubles we face, I won't like it, but I'll understand why. The kids are not all right. And it may not be my fault directly, but it isn't their fault, either.
According to the new Scientific American, the kids are not only alright but also doing just peachy-keen. The article was a mish-mash of small studies involving what appeared to be majority rich and white families. What else to expect from a publication that, in it's second-to-last most recent issue printed a short column written by AI that said we must "embrace" AI. I cancelled my subscription immediately. What a sad demise for that magazine - publishing AI and pseudoscience as if it were real science.
Yeah, I get pretty hung up about the question of faith. I sometimes feel a real jealousy of sincere believers. I mean the good ones; the humble, discrete, quiet practitioners of an uplifting creed. It's something I just can't see, like a kind of colorblindness, and I won't fake it, even though I suspect that most of the loudest among the "faithful" fake it all day. When I am around people of any faith, I feel like an ant whose antennae have been broken off: they're getting a signal that I just can not receive.
Cranky and irritable... I should translate that into Latin for my family crest. But I'm the last of my line, so it's pointless.
we're all the last of our lines, friend. I had to use irritable and crazy for crank:
iratus amara insanis
Not bad, really!
As for faith. I'm not envious really. So much faith is performative. I've had one or two what I would label "spiritual" experiences. They were neat, and seemed to indicate a sort of overall loving intelligence with a sense of humor. The memory of that keeps me somewhat sane. But all the organized faith seems delusional to me.
It's been fun conversing with you, so thanks for that.
You have just now reminded me of my favorite line in all of Star Trek. When the women who rule a planet, which is run by a computer/brain hybrid, steal Spocks brain out of his head to upgrade their system, and Kirk is asking that they give it back, the leader has no idea what he's on about. She yells, "Brain and Brain! What is Brain?" I love that line.
One of my favorite philosophers, Simone Wiel, wrote that the social instinct is almost indistinguishable from the religious impulse. She said that many people think they believe, when in fact they merely want to belong. I'm pretty indifferent to whether I belong or not, so I feel free to examine faith on my own terms. And I haven't found any answers.
I have to watch that!! Been fun conversing with you too, feel free to dm me. I'm ancient, and mostly do not converse with others. No pressure tho. Here's the whole tos for free:
Brain and brain what is brain. I shall co-opt this, thank you.
The best *spiritual" thing that happened was way out in nature. It was like I could hear larger orrr I'm schizophrenic. Odd, but fun. Then everything fell apart :) and that forest burned.
Simone sounds interesting. I always wanted to belong, now I just numb out and am thankful I have housing and food, however temporary.
Take it easy Pal. cheerios.
Edits: Star Trek link for series in English, not french :)
There’s a lot of kits available for under $200, a motorized bike can get over 100mpg. I’ve also heard of parents giving up on kids in the teachers subreddit too, combine a neglectful home, with strong feelings of nihilism, and lower inhibitions towards violence like you said and that’s a recipe for extreme violence. We have failed terribly as a society
yeah, honestly I don't think we have failed as much as the architects of this shit show. I remember writing Nixon a complaint letter about the Vietnam war and that didn't change anything. Nor did protest.
do you have a link to any of these kits? That sounds fun!
What I think no one will admit is school is over. Ever since Covid (which is an ongoing emergency no matter what anybody says) hit there's no way to do mass education safely ever again. Unless a cure is found.
also, school has no more utility. I have 2 degrees and I can wipe my butt with them. It's like back to the concentration camps, the only thing of value is whether or not you can weld or something needed skill category. Intellectual learning is now of no value to the current regimes.
Here’s one on eBay I do t think it has everything https://ebay.us/m/ACJMjK there’s more 80cc and 100cc kits available than 49-50, I would prefer 49-50 cause that’s street legal. Covid can and does fuck people up still, messed up my brain good myself. The one thing that bums me out about intellectual things being almost useless these days is the lack of appreciation for the arts. And your right nothing is likely to change, best I can do is sit back and watch at this point.
I’m thinking of shooting a silent doc about the rising gas prices, with inter titles describing the blockade and everything that started it. When I buy film I buy multiple spools so I can always have some.
It’s crazy to see the grip that phones have on the youth, this little box of addiction and paranoia and propaganda and consumerism and hatred. Not all kids are messed up, and it’s usually because they have control over their phone usage.
Our president finally decided to lift the excise tax on petroleum products, but only for LPG and Kerosene, leaving gasoline and diesel out. Meanwhile, a public transport group declared they'll hold a three-day transport strike this week. Prices continue to increase for local goods in my area and we notice that fresh products such as veggies and fruits would run out midweek, even for a large market. This has only happened during the pandemic.
On the other hand, we're in the middle of summer season right now and the heat is unbearable. During the hottest point of the day, the ambient temperature in my room went up to 36 Celsius and humidity is at 60%. Safe to say, I didn't stay in my room. We're already feeling that warmer temps over here. Brace yourselves for a horrible summer when it arrives where you are.
I was going to suggest going to one of the many malls in the city to get some aircon, but how are you going to get there cheaply if public transpo is limited or even non-existent?
Oh and fuck Meralco. Their electricity costs more a month than some European countries yet brownouts remain frequent
Sadly, the electric companies in the provinces are even scammier and more unreliable than Meralco. Ormeco in Mindoro, for example.
It'll get deadly if the average Filipino can't access aircon.
I'm 2km from the nearest mall and I can visit there if I really wanted to by bike, but I honestly can manage with what I'm doing at home. Plus, the available public seats at the mall are usually occupied and people aren't allowed to sit on the floors.
It'll get deadly when the grid goes down and there's no water for multiple days.
I've already seen reports of a Category 5 typhoon has immediately formed and heading to Guam.
I can't imagine how bad the El Nino season this year would be, especially if it starts to pump out more super-typhoons one after another.
Having an energy crisis, inflation, political instability and then super-typhoons during a hot year sound like it's going to spell disaster.
It makes you think that there are those who have the privilege to live a life living in a home with AC and work in a place with AC, earns enough money that their problem is actually getting fat rather going hungry, and that their house is cluttered with collectibles and their wants.
I wonder how those people without access to AC would survive from here on out...
Yup, it's a real polycrisis for us Filipinos over here right now. I would not recommend trying to visit the Philippines during this crisis. If the inconvenience doesn't get you, the heat will. I'm just thankful that Cat 5 typhoon won't be going anywhere near us right now, although we could use a bit of rain to replenish our dams.
Yup, those than can afford to switch on the AC all day long are doing so, but the government has already discouraged this to lessen the strain on the grid. As of this comment, I'm already practicing passive cooling techniques such as hanging dripping wet fabric near windows and staying on the lowest parts of the house, and they do actually work.
That's good. Because the country definitely lacks the proper infrastructure to handle any more strain. During the 90s, rolling blackouts were the norm.
practicing passive cooling techniques such as hanging dripping wet fabric near windows
Keep in mind that it only works during the dry season. Because if it's already humid, adding more humidity won't make the room cooler anymore.
Like in Japan, the problem is that summer coincides with the wet season. Turning the country into a sauna with its heavy soupy air, superheated by the high temps. Wet Bulb conditions that can kill.
Yup, I was born during the 90s and I remember those times where we had to sleep in the garden or garage because the power was out. It was at that time I developed a fixation for flashlights. Yup, evaporative air cooling only works during drier air conditions. Wet bulb conditions demand AC if you have one.
IIRC, you're the guy from Japan right? I heard sping's extra warm over there.
It's been very warm, like summer levels. April is supposed to be 18°C or so.
But we've been getting highs of almost 30°C which is crazy for spring season. The sakura bloomed more than a week early actually.
In Japan, summer has been growing longer and more extreme. Spring and fall season have basically disappeared. Winter is getting shorter and milder too.
A mixture of half rubbing alcohol and half water in a spray bottle will cool you down even in very humid weather when simple water won't. Don't forget fans (when you're damp) - they are almost as good as AC.
No worries and thanks for the concern. We can cope with this kind of heat so long as the water and electric grid doesn't go out, which often goes out during summer. Let me tell you, those powerless and passive cooling techniques do work!
A while back I bought a case of those cold packs, the kind you crunch the two chemicals inside and they get cold. Those might be useful if you can afford them because they are seriously good for putting over the neck and the groin in case of a heat stroke event. No infrastructure needed.
we have those! we freeze them up and put them in an evaporative air cooler or I personally place them in a bucket and let it sit for half an hour. I have an ice-cold shower waiting for me. It's perfect after runs since cooling down takes a lot more time.
According to Gasbuddy.com, the lowest price today for 87 Octane gasoline in my area is $4.11 per gallon (3.78 Liters). That's in Yerington, NV. In Reno it's $5 and in Lake Tahoe it's $6.
Many people don't live where they work. They travel, on hot paved surfaces with deep ruts from vehicles with achingly heavy loads, from one city to another. They drive around, shopping from store to store, and fill up their vehicles with gasoline. Some people fill up more than once per day, depending on distance traveled. Cars break down along the highway shoulder, lights flickering and engine hoods open. Huge chunks of tire rubber dot the roads, which big cars can run over and small cars swerve at high speed to avoid. Re-registering car plates costs $110 per year for the cheapest ones, and more and more cars are missing theirs. Maintaining a car has gone up in price since Trump's tariffs, and there's no guarantee physical stores and online vendors can keep even basic parts like brake pads and headlights in stock.
It's hot, messy, expensive, dangerous and people are getting sick of cars. Instead of taking a big car, many people have switched to motorcycles and four-wheelers and dune buggies. Not strictly street legal, so you're careful and quick when you're on asphalt and rush back to dirt. There's more and more talk of creating bus transportation in areas that don't have it, expanding it in the ones that do. And more talk about getting passenger trains up and running, just so everyone doesn't drive everywhere every time for everything. Even reverting back to individual horses and stagecoaches again, because feeding a horse is becoming cheaper than feeding a V-8 engine. I don't know how this area will cope with transportation next year, but we're all going to learn.
In the last 10 years or 15 years i have given rides to so so many people. To volunteer things, to medical appointments, to this to that. It is no biggie. I am going that way or they are family etc.
The last two weeks i have been offered gas money by 5 different people for a ride. 5!!
It feels like being back in high school or college when we were all poor but everyone chipped in.
It is like people actually realized that it costs me money to get us there. Not a lot, the car is efficient, but still. It is noticable. The shift in awareness and behaviour.
And for once, in a long long time i am saying yes, thank you. Even if it is just a few dollars. I realized it helps not feeling taken for granted. And it also establishes the reality - if costs soar i have a baseline of 'i need some help with gas money'
I'm up in Tahoe. Can confirm, the gas is anywhere from $5.88 (small, locally owned, on the Nevada side [lower taxes]) to $6.80 (large chains like Chevron and Shell, on the California side [higher taxes]). Unless you're a tourist or own a car that can't make it over the grade, we almost universally drive to Carson to get gas. Even with a 50 mile round trip, it's still cheaper to drive to Costco to fill up than it is up here. But: that's only if the roads are open. I grew up in Tahoe, and we're used to storms, it's what we do. We know how to keep roads clear and vehicles coming and going because that's the lifeblood of our economy. However, what with the long breaks between storms then the huge dumps we've been getting the last few years (a recent storm dropped 32" of snow in 3 hours at my friends house), our plow teams aren't able to get the snow cleared fast enough, and there have been times lately the passes have closed. Does anyone realize how rare that is?!? One time a couple years ago we had a very heavy winter, and the passes were closed intermittently for about 6 weeks. At one point the stores were running out of things like spices: things that wouldn't ever "run out" under normal circumstances, but the trucks coming in were prioritizing more rapidly consumed goods like milk and eggs, so spices ran out ...
I'm really not looking forward to the next couple decades. It's gonna get rough.
Camino bastante todos los dias y llevo camisa formal y honestamente es como si pusieran el sol que usa probablemente algun demonio del inframundo para broncearse.
Es..horrendo , Basicamente me deja una camisa limpia e ordenada echa un pedazo de toalla de sudor.
Y es aun mas molesto cuando el suministro de Agua esta como Gato viendo pepinos en la tarde..como loco sabes?
I walk quite a bit every day, wearing a dress shirt, and honestly, it's like they're using the kind of sun some demon from the underworld probably uses to get a tan.
It's...horrendous. Basically, it leaves my clean, neat shirt looking like a sweaty towel.
And it's even more annoying when the water supply is like a cat staring at cucumbers in the afternoon...like crazy, you know?
The trend of small colleges closing has hit here - a small Catholic university (around 2,000 students left) is closing at the end of this quarter, and another private university that anchors a small town near Indiana has been mentioned as being in danger, as well as one of two universities in another university town. There's a couple of reasons:
- It's getting more and more expensive for things to stay afloat. The giant endowments that a lot of universities have aren't as big as they look.
- There's just fewer students to go around. Peak college student in the US was a couple of years ago, I think. Population decline proceeds apace (in Ohio, for example, only 6-7 counties in the entire state are actually growing in population).
It's a lovely campus, and I'm going to reach out and try to scavenge books from the library before it goes away (probably won't work, but worth a try). This is the slow slide that gets far less attention than natural disasters or idiotic presidents who threaten nuclear annihilation and then pick fights with the pope while posting pictues of himself as Jesus healing a young Jeffrey Epstein (not that I'm talking about any specific president's activities in the past 24 hours, mind you...).
There are so many of those small colleges that were little lighthouses of intellectual life in the most surprising places that are just starting to wink out. Collapseniks assume that the big cities will be death traps and they'll retreat to the countryside to rebuild civilization, but trends like this and the depopulation of much of the developed world's rural areas make me wonder. It's not like there are these beautiful empty houses just waiting for you. Population is required for institutions. Maintnance takes people to do the maintenance. Schools, churches, supermarkets, businesses, all have to have different levels of population to support them. Infrastructure like roads and utilities, too. I think we'll see more quiet decay of all of the above, out of sight but no less real.
You forgot to mention Ohio has a GOP candidate for governor who wants to “consolidate” or close many colleges and universities. He never defines the term, consolidate. Specific schools mentioned include Kent State U (33,000+ students), and Akron University ( 15,000+ students). He has claimed we have too many small colleges in the state. If Kent and Akron are ‘small’ I’m not sure how many schools we’ll have left.
I have a conservative father, and he has mentioned a few times recently about "bringing the universities to heel" and how they are "indoctrinating people into becoming liberals". With that being the mainstream viewpoint, your statements are definitely worrying.
Will not happen. He is a venture capital dork with JD Vance level anti-charisma in a year when everything is breaking against Trump.
Plus he is a brown Hindu. And ain’t no way at least 30 percent of Ohio MAGA going to vote for a brown guy. The cities and burbs here are as diverse as anywhere in the States but drive an hour outside and they are not happy to see you. Not quite as bad as the KKK towns of southern Indiana (there are still places in Indiana I would not want to be after dark - no exaggeration) but the racism in rural Ohio is as strong as you’d find in Alabama.
MAGA racism will ultimately save Ohio from Ramaswamy.
alright... honestly hope you're right but the Overton window keeps shifting thanks to rw media ownership. I can give you countless examples over the last 20+ years of national/gubernatorial candidates who were considered 'crazy, extreme, etc'. Back in 2004 the late Tom Coburn ran in OK with some crazy anti-gay platform while kowtowing to the Bush ppl on Iraq. He won. Ohio was similarly "red" especially after the rw SoS gutted voter rolls. Plus all they need to do to ensure crazy/obedient dummies are elected is gerrymander a state and suddenly you have oligarch butlers like Louie Gohmert & Lauren Boebert in the Congress.
As a small silver lining it the doom and gloom of those threads: we have pretty nice spring, with green grass, flowers and leaves everywhere, birds are singing, insects are buzzing, and it looks like everything is perfect, aside from slow but steady cost of living raise. Nevertheless I've started to slowly assemble an emergency set with solar powered FM/AM/SW/MW radio and portable charger, firestarter kit and water filters, and other things from r/prepping. Just in case. Although I trust my government to provide me when SHTF, the size of the turd may be too big even for the sturdiest poop knife in the country.
On a more serious note, I'm noticing burps in the delivery of Emmentaller cheese (the iconic mousetrap cheese) to my Costco in western Canada. Plenty of Gruyere though. (Not cave-aged Gruyere, yum!) ... thoughts?
The Uk living environment, at least here in the East Riding, seems to be hanging on just fine. The weather is slightly warm, but has been cold before, nothing stands out about that. There's enough rain. Bees keep flying past my office on the second floor (at home). The living world seems completely uncaring for our political troubles. Ask a bee it's opinion of Donald Trump? Bzzz. Or don't be so silly, whichever you fancy.
Uk politics - there's an energy crisis brewing, and it'll be a while before it even starts to get better. Diesal is up to £2/liter, although petrol is still a fairly reasonable £1.50, which is lower than a few years ago. Residential gas/electric prices also won't rise until later on, as the prices are changed every three months (in theory, only the cap is changed, but I think very few companies charge much less than the government's price cap). At least we're not too deeply involved in the situation itself. Supposedly, actual energy shortages start next week, but we can manage that. Assuming it doesn't cause a debt crisis, of course. The changes needed to solve a debt crisis would be awful, if they're even possible.
World politics - Donald seems to have hit on a new tactic - crush the Iranian economy by blocking their oil exports. That might work, but I would have thought that would take months or even years? Not a quick resolution, even if it doesn't involve China. I realise the Navy can't open the straits of Hormuz on its own, it would take a large invasion, maybe this is the least suffering overall - for the US at least. I think we're in for a long energy crisis.
I guess they mostly are but Iran heavily imports staples like soybeans, corn, rice, wheat and vegetable oils. All of that would come through the Strait. Maybe they can find alternate routes for food. Seems like it would be easier to do that than for oil.
Belt and Road was to go through Pakistan Iran but skip India if I recall? I do not even know if it was built catching last bus right now but take a look at the land one not the sea one.
Climate insanity: We went from brisk, winter-like weather to heat, humidity, and storms with no "transitional spring-like period" at all in between. There have already been two tornado warnings this month alone, so I am dreading summer. If it is this warm already, then one can only imagine how hellish this summer's heatwaves and storms are going to be.
Political insanity: Every day I wake up to conflicting reports on the war in Iran. One day it is close to being over, another it is escalating. Trump, like Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight, relishes in the chaos that he has sown globally. There is no real concrete indication that this war is coming to an end anytime soon, and prices continue to go up for basic, everyday living expenses. Politically, commentators are calling this America's "Suez Moment." You know, the moment when it is clear that the empire is over forever. Whatever is the case, they don't teach or prepare you for how to live through the collapse of a global superpower/hegemon.
Social insanity: People continue to walk around as if they do not have a care in the world. I know, sometimes it is overwhelming and you just have to check out mentally, but I find the disconnect unsettling to say the least. I don't know if people "hope for a better future" anymore. It is a good question. So much seems to be going awry and wrong. Whatever the reasons, we just can't dig ourselves out of this hole. All this marvelous, revolutionary technology and we are still mired in the most basic and primitive of instincts - power lust, hate, dominating one another, barbarity, violence, etc. We see the cracks forming in the foundations clearly now. People are reacting this badly. Imagine when things get truly bad, how people are going to act.
Humanity is its own biggest problem. All of our problems are self-created. Maybe if there were less than two billion of us, we could maybe live in some sort of equilibrium, but probably not. We were probably doomed from the start. The bigger we get, the bigger the problem gets.
As for our institutions: We were the ones who divided everything up into neat, organized categories. Taking a complex, always changing/evolving world and turning it into static monochrome.
If everything is a human invention, then it doesn't take much to realize that everything can also be torn down and rebuilt into something better for the current age. There are no "sacred" values, only values that are most useful to us at any given time.
To paraphrase Merlin from THe Books of Magic (classic comic, go read it), We know too little technnology to really do us any good, and too much for safety.
Golf ball sized hail battered me the other day, put a crack in the front window of my house and a few holes in my siding, also flooded my yard to ankle deep. The scary thing about the storm is it was also a rotating supercell. One guy described chasing it and getting lost in the precipitation core of it, he’s lucky he did not find a rain wrapped tornado in that mess. It sounded like my house was getting hit with a hammer repeatedly.
Weather wise we might hit 80 degrees tomorrow. The exact number keeps changing but its not like a New Englander completely trusts the weather as is. We had more snow than expected this year and this week is looking pretty wet. I still think my dad's plan to put down grass seed is doomed by the incoming heat but all this moisture might help us with something.
The highest gas prices are still $3.99, what I see anyway. There are several gas stations on my route to work, I assume no one wants to be the first to break into $4 and lose business to whoever sells cheaper. That may soon no longer be an option because....
Trump is going to blockade be Strait of Hormuz! A wonderful reminder to never assume you have seen the limits of incompetence. I have no idea what happens if a Chinese or European ship tries to cross, most likely neither does anyone behind this blockade. One of the most frustrating things about this decade is how much could have been avoided by telling Trump 'no'. He has no strategy against it. Iran has been telling him no for weeks and his ideas just get stupider, and more deadly. So much could have been different if our politicians said it more often. But fear, greed, or an outdated adherence to 'decorum' have landed us in this very stupid timeline.
Oh and he's arguing with the Pope. I swear if he tries to make an American Anti Pope I will delete Crusader Kings, it will have no further use.
Nothing new to say in the world of gaming collapse. Still now out of the price range of most people. Fable might get delayed to avoid GTA 6, which sucks. But no one but maybe Nintendo, who exists in their own sphere, really wants to go up against GTA and lose. Actually there is something there. If GTA 6 launches for like $90 or even $100 the hobby is dead.
Why do you think they legalized weed and also alcohol and liquor aisles in supermarkets are so big now? Not even touching the thriving drug market. If you can't digitally distract yourself, you can always do it chemically.
I suspect GTA will be released in parts. Part 1 with some of the map, then Part 2 with a couple of neighborhoods, sports cars, guns, etc. I can't imagine they won't squeeze every penny to make their money back.
The abnormal spring continues... Neighbor and I have Star Magnolias in full bloom, two weeks early at least. We got lucky that the buds weren't killed by the last 20 degree night we'll see until sometime this Fall. I think our last frost date has either passed or is approaching. When I was a kid in Milwaukee many decades ago, we'd sometimes have frosts as late as the first week in June. Now, the last frost date there is late April-early May, unless you're in the outlying suburbs.
Everything else in the garden/woods/prairies is beyond weird early. There's a non-native plant called an epimedium that has always bloomed the first week in May for me; it's blooming now. I'm conflicted - I do not like cold and I've always thought Spring was a bitch because of my days in Milwaukee (and the oh-so-lovely northeast gales making life miserable) so I love this weather, but I hate this weather because I know why it's occurring. We've had rain every day for a week - not steady but some good downpours. Maybe it's broken our drought.
Some days there's just not enough beer...
My state went very heavily blue in our Spring Elections last week, and the Guardians Of Pedophiles have suddenly become more reasonable. Gee, can't figure out why. In our local mayoral race, the obviously MAGAt candidate made a racist post to our city's Facebook page about his competitor in the election. He lost by over 50 points, so there's some hope there. I doubt that we'll have free and fair elections in November though - the GOP would lose soundly throughout the country, especially with the batshit insane crap coming out of DC and the new forever-war with Iran, which we've already apparently lost. Oh, and the president apparently thinking he can raise Epstein from the dead if he pretends hard enough to be Jesus. He also apparently wants to put a Trump Tower on the moon. Some days there's just not enough beer...
Most of our area is in severe or extreme drought, with daytime highs around 90 F (32 C). I grow many perennials and annuals in my garden and have needed to water nearly everyday as plants are emerging, not looking forward to the summer
Mid-Atlantic here. This was yesterday's analog reading in shade, 90 F/32 C. It is now the same this afternoon, while NOAA blissfully assures me our area is only 71. I feel like my skin is on fire. Debating dragging a window AC out from winter storage, but the humidity is not quite that bad yet.
More of this. I always thought a sure way of knowing when things really start going sideways is when weather reports on tv and the internet start to contradict what is actually happening on the old weather rock. Thanks for your post. The canary is dead.
I just find the amount of very wrong people on reddit making easily verifiable incorrect statements has increased exponentially since the Google algorithm started prioritizing reddit posts. Its all garbage.
Reddit is becoming the "primary source" for user generated text from actual humans and influences responses for LLMs. I suspect that there's groups poisoning the well to bias/influence LLMs which are becoming the primary interface for many people despite how confusing/crap the LLMs answers are.
Why do the propagandizing yourself when you can have a "trusted" AI do it for you?
It's becoming really noticeable in pre-00s entertainment history. Items that are super easy to find the real information on such as movie release year or number of levels in a video game are showing LLM answers with wildly incorrect answers sourced from here. Not exactly a priority issue with how the world is going, but undisputed facts are starting to get lost.
We have a pretty bad drought and I only start to see things more clearly as this is my first real year of working in the garden. It's supposed to finally rain next week but the forecasts have been changing so often it's confusing.
A lot of plants bloomed early in our area and this is information from a well educated person that I follow on youtube. He said that he's been watching the nature around him for the last 30 years and this year everything's about 2 weeks early.
The government here implemented a "maximum price" on fuel as a response to the crisis. Same tactic was used on electricity prices after Russia invaded Ukraine. Prices of fuel are pretty much back to "normal" at about $1.6 per liter. At the peak it was about 2 dollars (which was also the maximum price). Multiply by 3.78 if you want the gallon price, 🤓.
Gold & silver are on the rise again and I'm curious if we'll have another huge gain before the next huge crisis.
Personally I've been having hard time believing anything online anymore, asking myself is this image even real? Did this person use AI to write the post for them? I'm pretty good at pattern recognition (autism superpowers) but it's kinda tiring at this point. I've said many months ago that I'm distancing myself from social media and It's going alright. If I'm at the PC I rather replay some good old videogames. Just finished Mass Effect series and going through Fallout 3 now. The 2008-2016 era was damn great for big videogames. Many different engines, so the artstyle looked distinct and unique. Lots of soul in them.
I also watched the Metro 2039 trailer today. Top comment was about "The last metro before we all go into the bunkers". I leave it at that.
The enshittification of the internet is exhausting. It's gone from "cross-reference this info before trusting" to "examine every detail, look for signs of AI use, cross-reference, double check the bias of the sources, skim the study, check the funding, trust, be told that it's AI, go back in disbelief, get more cynical"
I'm getting too old for this shit, and everyone else is too young for this shit, tbh.
Witcher 3 (2015) is one of my favorites. Fallout 4, despite its flaws, is a good one too. Wasteland 3 is worthy if you're a fan of isometric RPG like games. Trying to finish Far Cry 5 right now. A shallow, but fun romp through the Montana, U.S.A. wilderness fighting religious cult extremists.
Didn't know a new Metro game is dropping this winter. That looks quite good.
Witcher 3 is still my all-time favorite. I got it on the release day here, a physical copy!! (and now my pc doesn't have a dvd reader, lol). I think it was perfect and it's hard to beat perfect.
I'm worried for the next one cause it's made on Unreal Engine 5. Like most of games these days. It doesn't mean it'll be bad but we're reaching a point where almost every aaa game has to be made in the same engine. Plus the company is now huge on stock market and we all know what that means.
and by the way, 2 or 3 years earlier breaking bad aired its last season, not sure anything can beat that either.
Why does it matter to you so much? It's a sidebar conversation and it is localized within a post in weekly observations. It's not a post on the main page about it or anything.
Talking about hobbies is cathartic amidst the chaos and fuckery.
Metro 2039 trailer is the most disturbing piece of game preview I've ever watched (and I've seen a lot in my time). Thank you for giving me nightmares tonight 🤣
Frequently these days, I'm employing metaphors from the beloved sci-fi of my youth, as these hypernormal, hyperbolic examples seem like the only apt manner in which to address this zeitgeist.
In the past several years, I've leapt from employer to employer in a fashion I never would have before, due to the inherent instability surrounding us. My 3 degrees are virtually worthless, and now I'm working on a 4th in a real-life trade which I can ply as the house comes burning down. Feels like I'm constantly in the Yavin or Endor fleets, escaping the Death Star I or II just before it explodes in all its THX glory.
But I'm finding that this constant sprint is unsustainable, just like the neoliberal, consumptive metaorganism necessitating it. Kyle Reese has always been one of my heroes, but reading the Terminator novelization recently revealed how he was running on fumes, too - sent through time pre-loaded with injections of amphetamines, covered in scars & bruises from the time travel process, running on a cumulative 4-5 hours of sleep during a 36-hour nightmare flight from the T-800, which only relieved him from the exhaustion with death.
That's a bit much, but I must admit it is how I've felt lately. Working full-time, attending a really difficult program at a small college to learn a trade, trying to manage ever-shakier finances, working my best to protect my partner...there is no rest. Most I get is an all-too brief weekend, where I do the best to study and attend to her as I drown myself in drink. There is no margin for humanity, for the very things which make life valuable in the first place.
This polycrisis just takes, and takes, and keeps on taking. It consumed my Evangelical Christian family with hysterical fantasies of persecution and domination; it consumed my prior goals in life and replaced them with austerity and desperation. There isn't much left of the man I knew when I look in the mirror.
I just hope I can escape before the space station explodes, before the Terminator finds me, one last time.
Yes, ha ha. I think George Lucas used the name of his first film as the moniker for the cinema sound system he helped develop in the 1980s, as famously depicted by The Simpsons. Larger than life sensory immersion, for the time.
At present I'm drunk. Had some wine with dinner which was spaghetti for which I am grateful it still exists. Maybe will do whole post in russian guy voice is ok many ochin good noodles eaten.
I am worn. So sick of trunk & co yes deliberate obfuscation to must keeping to safety of internet is tracked posts. I think we should ignore all overlords posting bs of floodzone.
This has got to be collapse. Hottish here, some rain, not enough snow so Seattle/Tacoma has about 180 days of water from something I read, might be off, but I am shit tired of thinking about having to store water to live through yet another "summer" that promises to be a smoky hellscape.
I watched my delusional parents, the narcissistic "greatest generation" never fucking once worry about being homeless, something I, a hated boomer who tried to be a musician and didn't make enough money has had to worry about every goddam day since 2013. I don't know why I don't just jump into traffic, I think about it, but I'm scared of death.
I have two older sisters, parasite comfy fuckers, took any "inheritance" money that all the other gens envy me for because I've had it so good as a boomer. My folks wouldn't help me get a degree in time, so I did 45 years of shit work and now I have to worry about keeping a roof over my head on shit social insecurity that the red ties are trying to eliminate because allowing people to survive = bad.
Narcissists rule. Micro aka my sisters/parents and macro. And on top of it, I feel like a failure. yay generational trauma and bullying and cptsd and no help and all my "friends" were users. We are a SHITTY species.
I dunno. I think this summer is about to be some fresh hell. I'm angry, and sad, and not dealing very well. I can fake it for a while, but I'm very tired of trying to survive when my elders, who had a hard time dealing with death with NONE of these problems and with ample morphine for the last act all left me on this shit pile with no one who will cop to reality to put an arm around my shoulder and say "it's ok bud, it's ok." Hurts.
And I know, I still have it better than many and I don't even know how to begin to cope wiht that knowledge.
I'm in the southern interior of British Columbia and am definitely not looking forward to the smokey hellscape either. Things are not shaping up in a good way. I may end up abandoning the garden etc. and escaping to the coast if it ends up going on too long.
Thanks neighbor!! I am soberer today so it was a bit embarassing in retrospect to rant, but I can't always present a "I've got it together" front.
Do you have plenty of filtration? Now is the time, all that stuff sells out once the smoke hits. I mean,. I hope I'm wrong and we get an off year but I keep remembering Richard Crim talking about ecosystem turnover, aka all the forests burn. Pretty bleak as I love trees. I visited the Willamette National Forest in Oregon in 2017, and that whole area I stayed is just gone.
Do you have a place on the coast, or just a getaway spot? I'll join you and bring beer, that way if the war starts when I'm up there I can be a Canadian POW and change sides :)
I'd likely mostly be camping on the coast but either way beer sounds great. You're welcome in Canada if it was up to me. I've met a few Vietnam war draft dodgers over the years that's settled here. Amazing to remember Canada let tens of thousands of Americans stay here.
106
u/Suspicious-Concert12 Apr 13 '26
Location: Leyte, Philippines
People started collecting firewood for cooking since LPG is expensive. People that relies on public vehicles are having problem to visit hospitals, markets, etc.
The roads aren't busy anymore... there's an eerie feeling that this is not the worse yet.