Archive for the 'Collapse' Category
Britain: Army on Standby for Fuel Truckers Strike
March 29th, 2012Via: Reuters: The British government laid plans on Tuesday to cope with possible fuel shortages if a strike by tanker drivers goes ahead, lining up the army to help and warning businesses and the public to make preparations. Truckers voted on Monday to take strike action that union officials said could deplete petrol stocks within […]
Radiation Inside Fukushima Reactor So High That New Machines Must Be Designed to Monitor It
March 28th, 2012Via: Washington Post: One of Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors still has fatally high radiation levels and hardly any water to cool it, according to an internal examination Tuesday that renews doubts about the plant’s stability. A tool equipped with a tiny video camera, a thermometer, a dosimeter and a water gauge was used to assess […]
China: 30 Million People Live in Caves
March 19th, 2012One for your Doomstead Ideas file folder. Via: Los Angeles Times: Like many peasants from the outskirts of Yanan, China, Ren Shouhua was born in a cave and lived there until he got a job in the city and moved into a concrete-block house. His progression made sense as he strove to improve his life. […]
Greece: Euro Free Alternative Currency Takes Off
March 18th, 2012I just helped out some people here in New Zealand recover from a bad computer virus situation. They paid me with a one year old heifer that we’re going to eat! In terms of the time I spent on the job and the tangible value of that heifer, this represent the best compensation that I […]
Three in Ten Young Adults Live with Parents, Highest Level Since 1950s
March 17th, 2012Via: Christian Science Monitor: A weak economy and high debt levels are prompting more young adults to return to the family nest, a new survey shows. Perhaps surprisingly, most are happy with their living arrangements. After graduating from Brown University in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and completing a Fulbright scholarship in […]
Texas: Two Children Found Living in Abandoned School Bus
March 15th, 2012Via: ABC / AP: The abandoned school bus had no engine and no front wheels. But there were crude curtains in the windows, an air conditioner and even bunk beds inside. So when a postal worker repeatedly ran across two unkempt children at the scene, she grew concerned and this week contacted authorities to report […]
Surreal Situation in U.S. Post Office
March 14th, 2012My dad went to his local post office to mail me some CDs that I had forgotten to pack when I left the U.S. back in 2006. He said that a bunch of other “old farts” in the post office were also sending packages to their children and grandchildren who were living overseas. He overhead […]
After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses
March 14th, 2012The Internet, and all of the data on it, could disappear in the blink of an eye. Have a nice day. Via: New York Times: After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print. Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered reference books that were once sold door-to-door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed […]
And Now… Homeless People Used as Wi-Fi Hotspots
March 12th, 2012Via: BuzzFeed: At SXSW, the annual tech startup conference in Austin, 13 homeless men are hanging around the conference center wearing white shirts that say “I’m _____, a 4G hotspot.” Each is carrying a wireless internet device, and for a PayPal donation, will provide conference-goers with internet access for as long as they want. . […]
Moody’s: Greece Has Defaulted
March 10th, 2012Via: Reuters: Moody’s Investors Service says that it considers Greece to have defaulted per Moody’s default definitions further to the conclusion of an exchange of EUR177 billion of Greece’s debt that is governed by Greek law for bonds issued by the Greek government, GDP-linked securities, European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) notes. Foreign-law bonds are eligible […]
