Hmmm.... From the article:  "In spite of the fact that I was really mesmerized by this coincidence in time, in retrospect it turned out it probably doesn't have anything to do - that is the Steamboat eruption is probably totally independent from this other observation,"

and then we have Gibb's Rule 39:  "There is no such thing as coincidence."

When in Yellowstone always remember Rule 9!

The scientists at Yellowstone aren't worried, which means WE should be.  The Yellowstone Super Volcano is 640,000 years into a 600,000 year cycle of eruptions, which means it is about 40,000 years overdue.  Here is a map of the potential danger zone.  Naturally, all of us outside the major zones will have to deal with volcanic winter for a few years.

It could be stable for another 100,000 years or....

The Set-up:

1. John L. Casey -NASA climatologist is saying we are in a 30 year descent into cold.

2. Yellowstone Super Volcano due to erupt, which will take Casey's cold snap to the freezer (Ice Age).

The Plan:

1. Save money for extended trip to Cancun.

  a. Even though that is where the last big comet/meteor hit, which destroyed everything, hitting twice there is way remote a possibility.

  b. Good seaport at Cancun, and lots of modern conveniences, including FedEx & UPS.

2. Wander around the jungle, and find an, as yet undiscovered Mayan village.

3. Clear the jungle from it, grow tobacco, and roll my own cigars until Yellowstone erupts.

4. Climate changes there will cause a deciduous forest to replace the rainforest - good fire wood to cook on.

5.  All I need is for some of you iKC members with machetes to help me clear my "doomsday" spot in Maya land.  Hey, the stone houses are already built.

6. The perks are, weekends in Cancun until Yellowstone blows.

Now that is indeed the perfect plan!

Here is mine.  But a small piece of land at the top of a mountain in Georgia.  Go solar for everything I can and wood for heat.  My biggest footprint will be the internet because I cannot do without iKC

Hahahaha.  Perfect, Jan.

Similarly, the Cancun seaport/FedEx/UPS is for importing solar panels to run my computer.  I agree, iKC is a MUST.

How are you guys going to keep the satellites in place to keep the 'net up?

My plan, is think locally, improvise, adapt, overcome, survive.  Admittedly it has a few gaps but what it lacks in details it makes up for in flexibility!  LOL 

I'm letting Comcast/Xfinity, et al worry about the satellites.  It's their business so they will be motivated to keep em up there.  Course, their client base will get smaller, but all little towns out west where Yellowstone will wreak havoc are on DISH or HughesNet anyway.  As for me, the Mexican drug lords will keep whatever cable company provider there is down there "motivated" to insure uninterrupted service.

I'm just moving to Australia.  Seems safer there.

Jeez, Data.  Australia has the worst of the worst insects and snakes.  Well, Kangaroo leather is supposed to be good for boots and strops, but I don't know if you can eat em.  The Aussies didn't do well during the last Ice Age.  The worst part is that knives are hard to come by there.  However, they make the Conquerer Camping trailer:

Howard, don't forget  http://www.downunderknives.com/

Thanks, Tobias.

I like it.  I sent an email to them inquiring where a dealer in the USA could be found.  I also put it on FaceBook.

Clint Checkout World Knives.  worldknives.com.   They carry Down Under and many other non-American knife brands.

Looks cozy.

WOW Igor,   took me a moment to find the translate to English (on the right folks) but WOW!  This is a trip I would love to take, the island sounds fascinating and a great place to learn 

Ziet er goed uit 

ik zie dat jullie een mooi programma hebben.

Eens kijken of ik een keer tijd heb.

(google translator says 

Looks good from I see that you have a nice program. Let's see if I have a time period.)

Sure would like to know if he made it.  they say this winter will be colder than normal, not so much snowier than normal but colder.  Anyone doing anything special to be prepared.  I dont want higher heating bills so I am having a wood stove installed

Jan, get those emergency space blankets that EMTs use and sew then into your drapes between the lining and fabric.  They'll help retain heat but will also help in summer to keep heat out.

Right now were about -10F and there is very little transfer from any of our windows although we did use the heavier true Space Blanket as the liner.

Miss Jan, I just installed a wood burning stove in my camp. Burning fire wood is a great way to stay warm. If you don't have a log splitter you can rent one for the week end for a good price. We pick the splitter up on Friday afternoon and bring it back on Monday mourning and we are only charged for one day of rent.  

I just ran across a website while looking for something else.  Among other things,  It talk about the dangers of burning poison ivy. (Most of the time this is done by accident.

From the site:  "The word is that you CAN get poison ivy from working with the vine in winter AND you can get it in your lungs if you burn it and breathe the smoke. Gack!"

Apparently Poison Ivy vines will get wrapped around trees  and are cut up along with the fire wood. Or campers collect the  leafless vines  in the winter and use them for kindling wood

See more at:  http://www.poison-ivy.org/index.htm 

Learned a lot that I did not know.

The burning of Poison Ivy...LOL...is very bad for those who are allergic to this plant. I am not one of those people.

OK Tobias, I am one of the folks that actually did that.  LOL, just trust me when I tell you it can be ugly.  My friend and I cleared her yard in Macon years ago and the nest day did the burn pile.  Luckily I am not allergic so it just turned into bronchitis very bad.  She on the other hand did end up with a few days in the hospital

Robert,

Thanks for the tip on the splitter!  Will be renting on a friday!

So far I have never been bothered by poison ivy or oak.  My mother was extremely allergic to poison ivy.  If us kids had been in contact with it, she would get it when she washed our clothes.

This was an interesting read.  Look at #4

This article has been contributed by Joshua Krause and was originally published atThe Daily Sheeple.

So if you want an idea of what items may be used as currency when the grid goes down, it would be wise to look into history to see what our ancestors used for bartering. These people lived their entire lives with a standard of living that was far lower than ours, and the commodities they prized were essential to their survival. If you want to call yourself “rich” after the collapse, here’s what you can look forward to accumulating.

Salt

Water often gets all the praise for being so essential to our survival, while salt gets to play second fiddle. In reality, salt is almost as important to our well-being as food and water. Nowadays salt can be had for a few dollars, but there was a time when it was worth its weight in gold, and was used as currency to pay Roman Soldiers. Not only was it valued for its health benefits, but it could be used to preserve food and cleanse wounds. Anywhere in the United States that is far away from the ocean will probably see the price of salt skyrocket after the collapse.

Fur pelts

During the Middle Ages, squirrel pelts became a common unit of exchange among the lower classes in Russia, and the Czarist government sometimes demanded their taxes be paid in pelts. In Finland the term for money (raha) used to be synonymous with “squirrel skin”, a throwback to when pelts were used as legal tender. And in the colonial New England, beaver pelts became so prized that they could be used in lieu of money.

There’s really no mystery behind this. While clothing is relatively cheap nowadays, before the industrial revolution a good jacket could set you back. And in places like Canada, New England, and Northern Europe, the clothes you wore were a matter of survival. So holding a handful of beaver pelts might as well have been a wad of cash.

Tobacco

While tobacco has likely been used for trade among Native Americans for centuries before the Europeans arrived, by the 17th century it was practically an official currency of colonial America. In modern times, it’s frequently used as currency in American prisons, and its portability and addictive nature makes tobacco a hot commodity almost anywhere in the world. After the collapse, it would be safe to assume that a pack of cigarettes will go a long way in any barter situation.

Knives

One of the strangest stories in the history of currency, involves a prince from ancient China. He was running low on funds for his army, and gave his soldiers permission to trade their knives with the local villagers for supplies. The knives became so popular among the people, that it soon became a standard form of payment for the next 400 years.

It’s easy to see why. Knives fit the profile of a good currency. They are portable, durable, and they have intrinsic value(especially for a population that is struggling to survive). It wouldn’t be surprising to see knives become a part of everyday transactions after the collapse.

The article can be read here http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/six-kinds-of-currency-that-mi...

Your correct Steve and those with wells will have the premium product more readily but have to protect it and use it sparingly.  I cant see those folks trading it off

EPA Bans wood burning stoves?  http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2014/01/29/epas-wood-burning-...

Steve said:  "I think they are way out of touch with what actually happens . Get out of Washington and vist real people who work for a living!"

Problem is real people who work for a living don't have the $$ they need to get elected/re-elected year after year.  They're just a nuisance that has to be put up with when elections run around.

Out of touch is an understatement!  

How are rural people expected to heat their homes?  The only thought they have is of the overcrowed cities that do nothing to help .

I think Tobias has the root of the issue.  Someone from that background and area has no chance of having a sustainable voice in these matters

I am very skeptical of the the climate data put out by those people.  The data collected now is more complete and probably more accurate than the old data.  So how can you compare them on the same basis?  Plus these people have an agenda.

Every winter here in Minnesota I hear at least a couple comments about how cold it is & that this serves as proof that global warming is not occurring.  Charles Sample, you have a really good point in the questionable accuracy of data from over a hundred years ago, but people putting these models into play are going to take such things into consideration.  

Individual scientists tend not to have as strong an agenda as others with stronger voices in the media, and they spend millions upon millions attempting to influence public policy (laws & other governmental regulations) -- scientists are too eager to have their projects funded to be spending money the way energy industry giants do.  

And I'm no scientist, but I know that air moves like any other fluid, which is to say that while one place may be exceptionally hot, another may be exceptionally cold -- anyone who boils water knows this.  Measurements of temperatures in two places at any one point in time does not reveal the same information that measuring the temperatures of many places multiple times over a period of time will.  

I guess when it comes down to it, I'd rather be conservative & make the safe bet as to who has the more accurate data -- scientists with verifiable methods, as opposed to big energy companies with with profit-motivated interests in the outcomes of the studies (& let's face facts, it's pointless to rely on facts provided by politicians or mainstream media).

Sorry, I hope I didn't overstep any boundaries here -- I'm new, & not interested in stepping on anyone's toes.  

But it appears there is a very odd thing that comes into play whenever we start to talk about things such as global warming / climate change.  The cause is inherently part of the discussion, because we know that if it's happening, we might be better off trying to stop it & reverse it, given the potential effects (some people say it's natural, but that's not an argument for allowing it to happen anymore than allowing forest fires to ravage settled areas when they're set by lightening, the most common cause of forest fires).  

But there's even denial that such warming is happening.  The scientific data comes into question.  The reliability of the verifiable facts comes into question.  

The same thing happened when Galileo said that Venus has phases.  No one cared about whether Venus had phases, & they did not argue about Venus having phases.  What people cared about was that if Venus had phases, that meant Venus revolved around the sun, which made it far more likely that Earth revolved around the sun & not vice versa.  It meant that we were not, in fact, the center of the universe.

And maybe that's an unsung part of the global warming debate -- whether out energy needs are more important than the needs of other creatures, or frankly the needs of many other (poor) people who will likely get the shaft when certain things end happening (e.g.:  Katrina causing flooding that exploited weaknesses in the levee systems protecting New Orleans, leaving those well off enough to get out while the poor, the elderly, the others without any other alternatives had to flounder & fend for themselves for the most part).

So this discussion is core to survival discussions overall.  It's just unfortunate that the same science that leads us to understand how to make fire & how to nourish our bodies long term & how to build reliable structures is questioned when it comes to greater science that has become tinged with political hues.

Dead_Left_Knife_Guy, is it alright if I just call you DLKG or Guy?  (And I am sorry if I stepped on your toes by asking that.)  Your whole handle is a lot to type out.  And I, like a lot of us here, can't type very well.

And no you didn't overstep any boundaries.  I like discussions like this.  The only boundaries are for keeping this a family friendly and cordial site.

I can't help being skeptical of some of this data.  I guess I am somewhat of a scientist.  I am, or was til I retired, an electrical engineer.  I had to be precise and had to have precise data.  I helped build and maintain nuclear and coal fired power plants and electrical distribution systems.  I couldn't take old data that I wasn't sure about its accuracy and use it in my calculations.

When scientists say their data shows a fraction of a degree average change over a long period of time and that proves warming or cooling, I am dubious.  There were far fewer data points at the beginning of that long period of time and probably less accurate.

I don't doubt that the temperature of the earth varies.  It obviously does.  I jokingly tell my friends when discussing global warming with them, "Thank God for global warming or we would still be in the ice age!"   And man had nothing to do with the cooling off before or the warming up after the ice age.

Another thing that makes me skeptical is that not really that long ago scientists were predicting just the opposite of global warming.  I remember the headline on the cover of I believe it was the Readers Digest, "The Coming Ice Age."  And by no means do all scientists agree that we even have global warming.  There is a prominent NASA scientist here in Huntsville AL that says no.

I think I have read where the data for the last few years actually shows a slight drop in temp.  And how many of the greater number of sensors that we have now are in cities that create their own heat islands where the city air heats up more than the surrounding country side.

And I think the science has become tinged with political hues.  The government is run by politicians and a lot of the research money comes from the government.  And I am sure at least some scientists would be careful about putting out data that they think might get their funding cut off.

In my mind the debate over whether we are heating up or cooling down hasn't been definitely decided.  Which ever we are doing will continue until we switch and do the other.  And sooner or later we will.  And I don't think man can stop or change that.

All of that said I am not against protecting the environment.  I am an avid outdoors man and hunter.  I want all wildlife to be abundant.  I want clean air to breathe and clean water to drink.  But I also want to heat my house in winter and cool it in summer. (I live in Alabama.  It gets hot.)  I want to cook my food.  I need gas for my car.

I am reminded of a comic strip I once saw.  In the first frame was a hippie type fellow holding a sign that said "No Nukes."  In the next frame a woman was holding a sign that said "No Coal."  The third frame had someone with a sign that said "No Hydro."  The fourth frame was black with a speech bubble that said "What happened to the lights?"

Thanks, Steve!  And I'm really not into hateful name calling either -- it really tends to shut the discussion down & make it all about the names.  

There's a moderator on one of the knife forums that advertises itself as providing intelligent knife discussion, which it really can -- but it does not advertise the blatant bullying that this particular moderator engaged in.  I tried to complain above his head but that person was the forum owner & was impossible to reach.  So I left the forum -- because it was impossible to predict if I'd be able to engage in a civil discussion there.  

The folks here just don't seem to be into bullying, & I've had nothing but warm welcomes so far, & I've gotta say that I really appreciate that!  

Thanks, y'all, for being so nice!

What has happened is we have created artificial islands of heat known as big cities where heat sources did not exist before.  These have caused some minor disruptions of local weather patterns.  This is one reason why the city of Chicago moved its official reporting temperature from Midway to OHare Airport.  20 years ago, the temperature at Midway was always warmer than that at Midway.  Now as the urban sprawl of the city has grown even more, the temperature at Ohare is also goign up in the winter.  Yet as you get away from the city, the temperatures remain more constant.  Do you see a pattern?  It isn't so much that the global temp is rising it is a sign that our cities are getting over-crowded and more built up causing little heat islands.    And yes this does cause minor disruptions of weather patterns.

I'm not sure if that makes me a global warming alarmist or a denier. I tend to fall  in the "In the last fifty years I've heard so many theories about global warming, global cooling, nuclear winter,  steam house effect, etc, that I don't think anyone really knows what is happening and the extremists need to stop screaming at me" camp.

Being in the health science filed (not the energy science field) I can only give you an anecdotal perspective.   That perspective is Scientist also have agendas and in many cases, that agenda in academia is to do ground breaking research that turns the accepted theory on its heals.   Often, scientist will ignore data if it does not support the outcome of the grant they are working on.  They will manipulate date, change the sample size, change the survey period, etc in order to get the results they wanted or expected.  And if they can't get the results then they will use terms as inconclusive or increase the  margin of error in the study.    They do this all in the name of funding and tenure and legacy.   And one needs to remember that the pockets of Big Government are much deeper than those of Big Business.  So if the EPA wants a regulation that will force businesses to pay more taxes, they can offer grants to scientists to support that regulation.

I am for that!

I'm not sure if that makes me a global warming alarmist or a denier. I tend to fall  in the "In the last fifty years I've heard so many theories about global warming, global cooling, nuclear winter,  steam house effect, etc, that I don't think anyone really knows what is happening and the extremists need to stop screaming at me" camp.

Ladies and gentlemen.  For your amusement I present the following.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

By the way global warming is passe', it's now climate change.

ROFLMAO!

Leave it to Mark Twain to state the obvious

Has anyone tried this?

Got me curious... be right back...

Yep! Works well, but I think the key is to get the paper wrapper to burn. Kind of stinks though.

don't do it near a smoke detector!

Or how about on the carpet like the other photo!

I am sure you have heard of the egg carton, dryer lint and paraffin.  Place a quantity of dryer lint in each egg carton section.  I would say about 3/4 full each.  Then take melted paraffin and pour over the lint in each compartment to the top. Let it dry and cut apart the carton to have a dozen fire starters.

Clint I love that idea.

CHRIS!  Fantastic, I didn't have any crayons to try it with.  Thank you! (note to self, buy some crayons)

Well I have three kids in the house soooo... yeah I got crayons!