36/ bug out borscht
cuz who wants to survive apocalypse without hot sauce?
Everyone’s getting that doomsday vibe
In high school I had limited access to the bomb shelters under the school (stage crew stored lights down there). The chemical toilets and the ‘high density’ biscuits were all there, covered with a layer of asbestos dust that would make any insurance adjuster panic. In retrospect, the idea that the neighborhood would gather under that school to survive a nuclear attack seems quaint.
Covid has driven a lot of new interest in preparedness, of course, but the major shift from the past to today is that disaster preparedness used to be the government’s job. Now, fewer people trust the government (any government) to act in their *individual* best interest in a crisis. Depending on the country, we saw governments powerless to manage covid all the way to draconian ‘weld shut the doors’ tactics.
A mate who’s based in Bali recently shared a WhatsApp group with me about the “Bali preppers community”, with tough onboarding requirements “Just for actual preppers, meaning you have secured gear, have a written plan, etc.”
But it’s not just the crazies, New Zealand is the popular location of billionaire preppers, subreddits dedicated to doomsday and more general daily preparedness are huge communities (r/tacticalmedicine is sane-ish, though I have the sense that many in the community assume they’re treating gunshot wounds).
Begs the question…
What is he preparing for? “The unknown,” he says. “Short-term, it’s storms and things of that nature, but a little bit longer-term, right now I don’t really know. There’s a lot of speculation of what could happen. I’ve kind of diversified what I do as far as precious metals, defense, food, water. I have my bugout bag, but I don’t plan on bugging out unless I absolutely have to.”
Where there is demand, there will be supply: the boom in survival food documented in this great article from Wired (via longreads)
Other shiny bits
Is the world ready to be awash in Genetic ‘scores’? Ready or not, here they come
For the past five years, GWASBot, maintained by researchers in the U.S. and Finland, has conducted roughly one new GWAS every day, publishing its results on X. On different days in August, it identified genetic variants linked to people’s ability to solve an arithmetic problem, their tendency to feel fed up, and their penchant for taking naps during the day.
Sandra M Sawatzky has made a 21st century work of art relating the saga of oil, global societal change, and energy transition through the power and beauty of 67 metres of hand embroidery. via metafilter. If you’d like this idea in book form, read the Prize
Ancient Egyptian snakebite research via Metafilter
The venomous snakes described in the Brooklyn Papyrus are diverse: 37 species are listed, of which the descriptions for 13 have been lost. Today, the area of ancient Egypt is home to far fewer species. This has led to much speculation among researchers as to which species are being described.