I suspect that many don’t appreciate just how dependent we are on the internet and how difficult “managing” will be. For example, it’s unlikely that your letter would get to the US without the logistical systems that currently get it there. Most of the pre-internet processes and systems (in the original sense of the word) no longer exist and would be impossible to recreate, especially at speed.
Sure, we could all cope without Facebook and so on but we would be losing contact with distant friends and relatives for quite some time. Basically the internet is now the backbone for modern life and we’d be in serious trouble without it.
I must admit that during my enforced 4 day absence from the internet left me rather confused, but at least I found that I got out and about a lot faster than normal.
I’d be quite happy if we lost the internet. This is as close to social media I ever get. My old friends still send cards and letters. My kids do wotsapp to my wife and don’t bother with me because I’m not on it and never will be.
The key would be that it went down for everyone, then services would have to be accessed as they were before.
The same goes for flying. I’ve only been on one short flight for work to CI in over 10 years because the ferry was off in January a few years ago. Flying really, really, is destructive but no one seems to care.
We are filling up our time with www. I’m on it now to distract myself from arthritis in my hip while I’m giving it a rest, otherwise I’d be up and running, or at least doing something useful
I suspect that you really, really wouldn’t after a very short time.
The services don’t exist as they were before and the people aren’t there to provide them so, no, what you suggest is impossible within any reasonable timeframe.
Don’t confuse the www with the internet as the latter is so much more and we’re utterly dependent on it for much of our daily life.
For goodness sake - if you do try that make sure it is not connected to the grid - the reason solar inverters shut down when grid power disappears is for the safety of anyone working on the network. The last thing they need to find is some numpty back feeding into the grid because they defeated the safety mechanisms.
Off grid without back feed and with grid top as necessary for the battery is the safe way to play those games.
Exactly so.
With something as “simple” as landline phones: are there still the copper wire and mechanical exchanges?
Agreed
The mantra “the polluter pays” is exempted in air travel. Avtur is zero taxed.
Jet release their pollution high up and some sources say that is more damaging than equivalent pollution further down in the atmosphere.
Fully aware of that ..and I know where the main trip is … My real concern is which invertor ..the one in the PV panel or the one in the power station would assert control. I am content that the purity and harmonic content of the power station voltage will not cause a problem .. but which becomes master or slave is not clear. The old rules which worked with rotating machines are no longer applicable
In the normal situation ..( like now ), the mains Grid forces it’s frequency and phase and the inverter in the solar controller complies ..but raises it’s voltage a tiny bit higher than the grid ,so that current from the controller flows by preference into local loads . The grid and output from the convertor are in parallel . .and when the current demand is too high, it’s voltage droops and the Grid supplies the remainder.
Were there a power failure , the first thing is that a DC current protection relay drops out and disconnects the PV panels as it needs 220 v AC to remain closed . ..This is a fireman’s protection …So the Grid (or the power station ) is both an input and an output … In a normal nightfall, when the solar input has dropped below 20Watts , the convertor gracefully switches off ,but these relays are energised . At sunrise the convertor generally makes a few attempts to start up ..audible as clicks before getting a sufficiently stable PV current . In the case of a power failure ..digger on load cable .. the relays drop out and when power is restored they automatically re-engage.
I don’t think you realise I have archaic back -up for most things I do.
My most important activity is woodwork and I have hand tools for everything bar planking trees and know how to use them, as well as power tools.
I have a sizeable library for all my practical and intellectual interests.
I built my 10m yacht almost entirely by hand and still use paper charts.
In France I am offgrid and only use a tablet, which is a fairly recent acquisition. The mobile phone signal is bad here and the internet I use is often inaccessible, I can only use the phone by going into the middle of one of my fields. I’d trade a better access to the dog and bone for the internet.
Re access to services. Yes, it would take time to restore old-style services, but I wouldn’t shed any tears for the new ones.
I have a 50kva 6354 Perkins generator for 3 phase from 1970 which can run on fuel oil and has no modern electrics. Also an old Landrover. Domestic electrics are solar powered but I’ve managed quite well without for over 10 years.
As far as I’m concerned the digital age has enslaved people and the free donation of data to the technofeudalists will finish most humans off eventually.
I’ve already completed my allotted biblical span and am very grateful I was born when I was, in Nottingham home of Ned Ludd any many Chartist rebels also
I have 2 daughters in Australia, 2 sons in law and one and a bit tiny grandchildren - and going other than by aeroplane, while possible, isn’t really practical.
I simply refuse to fly, my son in Bangkok has often invited me but my only agreeable way of transport would be overland or by ship. I have done both before, but not quite that far, and as I consider driving 15 kms long distance these days that rules out the first. The 2nd I would be up for and I believe it was possible for cargo ships to carry a few passengers. No luxury, just a cabin and meals at the Captain’s table, but a nice gentle way to travel and, of course, cheaper. However, such ships do not normally carry doctors and the dreaded insurance companies take an understandably dim view of the risks posed by octogenarians, and beyond. So that’s it, here for eternity, but I love it.
I’ve had a Logosol chainsaw planking mill for 30 years, but it’s not a hand tool. Today I am cutting a 2" elm board I planked and kiln dried in Guernsey over 30 years ago, when there was still a sawmill in Guernsey. The sawmiller Henry still spoke the Norman patois with his son. That was the first time I heard it. I rode up there to the sawmill in the high parishes on my pushbike and Henry and his father-in-law were putting steel tyres on cartwheels the old feller had made for Sark. They asked me to help with dousing the wood fire around the wheel circle as they dropped on the tyres. Neither of them knew me from Adam. Then they offered me a cup of tea afterwards. That was the way it was there in those days. The old feller lived next door, and in the lean-to you could see the elm coffin he had made for himself and which he was duly buried in. Henry died last year aged 92. The sawmill was sold over 20 years ago when he retired. That was the end of traditional sawmilling in Guernsey. No mobile phones then of course, people actually spoke to each other and showed some interest in who you were.
Just listening to a France Culture programme on what would it be like if Albert Camus were in charge of government.
I’ve got an alaskan saw mill which I bought about 15 years ago when I lived in La Creuse and had my own forest. It got a fair bit of use together with my big chainsaw producing oak and Douglas boards. I brought it with me to Normandy but its had no use. I still occasionally use the beast though.
I find it a bit dusty to use now, though I employ a powered air mask for such tasks.
Much as I tried I never really mastered filing the ripping chains (as opposed to crosscuts). I used to drop them in at the dealers but it’s wasteful of chains to regrind all the time.
I once got asked to resaw 2 reclaimed monstrous French oak beams for a farmhouse restoration (thatched and all) on a site top of the cliffs of Guernsey. They were about 7 or 8 m long and about 35 x 45 deep from memory. I had to rip 50mm off the tops so they could insert them under the floor joists. There were a lot of guys on site and they manhandled the monsters onto the Logosol frame, mostly resting on blocks because of the weight. The mill is only 5m long so had to be repositioned for the last 3m cut. The oak was in theory denailed and like iron. The main problem was the shakes (open splits) which unavoidably were contaminated with soil and grit. The first one went well, I took a plank straight off the top of it in one piece. The second one was an absolute swine, I went through 6 chains to get down it and was on the last chain when I struggled to push the chainsaw over the last metre. Good payday though…
