WWW.RIDESIDE.NET

Posted by pchippy on 2008-05-02 20:24:29 +0000

A total wacko. (Mr. 2012, I mean, not mr. mister.) On the other hand, I do believe that we all ought to be buying up old farmsteads and moving out to the countryside. The earth's poles will almost certainly not shift in 2012, but at least we'll be eating homegrown tomatoes and asparagus. Bring the knowledge economy back to the land, that's what I say. Rural clusters of smart, socially conscious people writing software, baking bread, and tinkering with hydropower systems on the brook out back.

Posted by TheFullCleveland on 2008-05-02 20:34:19 +0000

It would be cooler if it were 12/21/2112.

Posted by tgl on 2008-05-02 21:35:30 +0000

Dam!

Posted by pchippy on 2008-05-02 21:53:58 +0000

Yup. Swimming, hydropower, skating in winter, trout for the fisheaters, irrigation for the pumpkin patch...

Posted by tgl on 2008-05-02 22:16:35 +0000

That reminds me, I've misplaced my GIANT PUMPKIN seeds.

Posted by ConorClockwise on 2008-05-03 04:45:26 +0000

The Castle is still a decent idea. Ah, Stockport...

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-05-03 12:32:49 +0000

My "aunt" (Mum's BFF) totally belives this. And is friends with Sai Baba. And belongs to the Swiss UFO-spotters' club. No joke.

Posted by mahatma chani on 2008-05-03 16:24:20 +0000

Where do I sign up for membership to the Swiss UFO-spotter's club?

Posted by tgl on 2008-05-03 17:50:44 +0000

I hear they're picky.

Posted by pamsterdam on 2008-05-03 17:52:50 +0000

I'm guessing Zurich, but I'll check with Aunt Katie - maybe they have an online sign-up. You might have to brush up on your German...

Posted by Miriam on 2008-05-04 15:12:09 +0000

I'm starting in Nashville for now...just watched how to do "lasagna gardening" this morning on PBS. Excited to try it in the back yard. Seems like a great idea, and will work on my hillside yard so I don't dig and cause erosion. Any and all visitors are welcome to help with the gardening or with the fruits (and veggies) of my labors! My seed tomatoes are starting to come up, lettuces and arugula are tasty (if small for the time being), and the herbs are very flavorful. I weeded for 2 hours yesterdays and look forward to more (and mowing today). Yard work is totally satisfying!

Posted by mr. mister on 2008-05-04 18:56:05 +0000

They say Vermont is the best place to have a green existence according to some travel magazine I was reading. Those snowboarders do like to write software so maybe there is hope yet.

Posted by pchippy on 2008-05-04 21:44:34 +0000

I'm very proud of you, Miriam. With your climate, you could probably do pretty well with melons, peanuts, peppers, and eggplants, too. We had an eggplant plant in the garden last summer, but though it flowered many times, it never set a fruit. It also never grew more than about three leaves. Our collards, on the other hand, gave us greens from July through September.

Posted by pchippy on 2008-05-04 21:47:07 +0000

Yes, northeastern Vermont is one of the regions I've had my eye on for a while. Much of Maine is pretty idyllic, too.

Posted by pchippy on 2008-10-23 23:55:12 +0000

OK, so the Stockport colony may not be an option any more, and in any case it was a bit of a fixer-upper, but I've found a replacement for it, in northeast Vermont. Only 1.8 acres, unfortunately, but for $169,000 for a 22-room 240-year-old building with 11 bedrooms and 5 baths, seemingly in pretty good shape, it's a bargain. It's located in the fertile upper Connecticut River valley, easily reached by I-91, just half an hour's drive from Dartmouth College. Almost 6,000 square feet.

Posted by tgl on 2008-10-24 00:05:57 +0000

There's always hope!

Posted by pchippy on 2009-03-20 15:20:25 +0000

I still don't think the poles are going to shift--or even that the earth's magnetic field will reverse itself in 2012, but there does seem to be a small but significant risk of a geomagnetic catastrophe that year--one that, in the worst-case scenarios, could result in major and long-term societal disruption. See here and here for the relevant NASA explanations. A few choice excerpts: potential for large-scale blackouts...potential for permanent damage that could lead to extraordinarily long restoration times....potential for long-duration catastrophic impacts to the power grid and its users....potable water distribution affected within several hours; perishable foods and medications lost in about 12-24 hours; and immediate or eventual loss of heating/air conditioning, sewage disposal, phone service, transportation, fuel resupply, and so on....[T]he effects on these interdependent infrastructures could persist for multiple years.... Incidentally, the guy who did that study based his hypothetical severe geomagnetic storm on the great storm of May 1921. That storm, in turn, was only two thirds the strength of the great storm of 1859, which is the most powerful on record. The only reason neither of those storms had catastrophic effects was because they occurred before the development of a high-technology-based interconnected power grid and communications network. (As it was, the 1859 storm apparently ignited fires in telegraph offices.) Apparently the best-guess prediction for the strength of the upcoming solar maximum is that it will the strongest in the past fifty years. You might think to yourself that that's a good thing--that it means there won't be any events comparable to 1921 or 1859. But that's far from certain. The prediction is for the strength of solar activity as a whole for the next few years, not for the intensity of individual events. There's a strong element of randomness (or at least unpredictability) to individual storms, just as the strength of individual hurricanes can't be deduced from the predictions for a strong or weak hurricane season. Here's hoping the big one doesn't come our way.