Egypt and the internet.

[Amos_with_goats]

(An interesting side note - the average grocery store has enough stock for 1 week. ....)

After disasters like hurricanes, the tendency to 'stock up' will empty a Walmart in less then a couple hours. I have seen it... and it is not pretty.

Your other points are right on also.... We have ignored the 'carrying capacity' of land for far too long. In the most simple terms, if the living space you occupy can not catch enough rainwater, or grow enough food for you and your family then you are living on 'borrowed' capacity. Society is quite fragile indeed.

[tango]

“The steps the Mubarak government took last week to shut down Internet communications in Egypt were, and are, totally wrong. His actions were clearly designed to limit internal criticisms of his government. Our cybersecurity legislation is intended to protect the U.S. from external cyber attacks. Yet, some have suggested that our legislation would empower the President to deny U.S. citizens access to the Internet. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“We would never sign on to legislation that authorized the President, or anyone else, to shut down the Internet. Emergency or no, the exercise of such broad authority would be an affront to our Constitution.

“But our current laws do give us reason to be concerned. Most important, under current law, in the event of a cyber attack, the President’s authorities are broad and ambiguous – a recipe for encroachments on privacy and civil liberties.

“For example, in the event of a war or threat of war, the Communications Act of 1934 authorizes the President to take over or shut down wire and radio communications providers. This law is a crude sledgehammer built for another time and technology. Our bill contains a number of protections to make sure that broad authority is not used.

“First, the emergency measures in our bill apply in a precise and targeted way only to our most critical infrastructure – the networks and assets most essential to the functioning of society and the economy – to ensure they are protected from destruction. [/B] (read the rest at the link)

It has been said that nothing is certain until it has been officially denied.

[moonglow]

Just heard on the CNN they turned the internet on and some of the people in the government there are using facebook to tell the protesters to quit protesting to avoid 'blood in the street'.

I was listening to Jay Sekulow on the Christian radio station this afternoon while running around taking care of stuff for my son (he hurt his neck and has whip lash) and Jay had alot to say about this Muslim Brotherhood wanting to take over there...none of it sounds good (which I realize everyone knows) but if you want to hear what he has to say about it you can listen at his website: http://www.aclj.org/Multimedia/Archi...7-C0FA6B96B04D

God bless

[NHL Fever]

It's not that we have increased in population and become dependent on modern systems like electricity and the internet, its specifically those systems that have enabled us to reach higher population densities. If every single person instantly knew how to farm and live off the land, that would not avert disaster. There is simply is not enough land using pre-industrial tech to keep enough people alive. Millions upon millions of people in western countries would die. Even in Egypt where people arguably live every day at a lower tech level than here, its estimated that starvation will start after a few weeks of systems being down.

[RevLogos]

The solar maximum at the end of this year and going into next year may deliver exactly the kind of EMP radiation that could do that.

Hogwash all of it. The sun goes through cycles every 10-11 years. Its been recorded since the first telescopes were invented. The only thing unique about this coming cycle is that it is shaping up to be weaker than any cycle in the last 100 years. The likelihood of some massive solar storm like this is practically nill.

Also it started late and will probably peak in 2013 or 2014.

If anything the weak cycle will lead to global cooling, which may be happening.

[kistan]

Al Jazeera streaming Mubarak's Speech



http://www.youtube.com/aljazeeraenglish?feature=ticker