Douglas Adams 3

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat. Life is a level of complexity that almost lies outside our vision; it is so far beyond anything we have any means of understanding that we just think of it as a different class of object, a different class of matter; 'life', something that had a mysterious essence about it, was God given, and that's the only explanation we had. The bombshell comes in 1859 when Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species. It takes a long time before we really get to grips with this and begin to understand it, because not only does it seem incredible and thoroughly demeaning to us, but it's yet another shock to our system to discover that not only are we not the centre of the Universe and we're not made by anything, but we started out as some kind of slime and got to where we are via being a monkey. It just doesn't read well.

-Douglas Adams

Resource List from Workshop: Escaping Ground Zero

Resource List

• Genus Rex (Our Page): www.genusrex.com (This list is reprinted here)

• National Emergency Response System: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/ners-eng.aspx
• Wildfires of Note: http://webmaps.gov.bc.ca/imf5/imf.jsp?site=pub_fireinfo
• Wildfire Management Branch: http://bcwildfire.ca/Situation/
• All Current BC Wildfires: http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/Fires.asp
• One Second After: The Official Website: http://www.onesecondafter.com/
• EMP Commision: http://www.empcommission.org/
• Jeff Rubin Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/wikileaks-reveals-imminent-saudi-oil-peak/article1908385/
• Jeff Rubin Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/is-nature-trying-to-tell-us-something/article1951546/
• GetPrepared.ca: http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/index-eng.aspx
• Disaster Response Routes: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/popular-topics/driver_info/route-info/disroute/disaster_response_routes.htm
• Vancouver Disaster Response Routes: http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/popular-topics/driver_info/route-info/disroute/disaster_response_maps.htm
• The Effects of Radiation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kiev-UkrainianNationalChernobylMuseum_15.jpg
• Details of the Fukushima Power Plant Evacuations: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/16/fukushima-workers-evacuate-radiation-spikes
• Hurrican Gustav and Evacuation: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20080830/news/808300290
• Evacuations in New Orleans: http://www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2008/08/11_million_people_evacuate_sou.html
• Southwestern China Evacuations: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/30/china.earthquake/
• Evacuation in the Czech Republic: http://www.nato.int/eadrcc/floods_czech_republic/report_2002_111.pdf
• Refusal to Evacuate: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4835186
• Refusal to Evacuate Continued: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4834156
• The Magic Marker Strategy: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/opinion/06tierney.html?ei=5090&en=9673a9d11f3210a0&ex=1283659200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
• Simulations of Panic: http://angel.elte.hu/~panic/
• The Internaional Emergency Management Society: http://www.tiems.org/
• EU on Influenza: http://ec.europa.eu/health-eu/health_problems/avian_influenza/index_en.htm
• Pandemic Flu: http://pandemicflu.gov/
• Influenza Research Database: http://www.fludb.org/brc/homeExtraPage.do?decorator=influenza&extraPage=separate
• The Pacific Ring of Fire- Earthquake and Volcano Zone: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire.svg
• The WTO Protests in Seattle, Zombie Outbreaks in the Pacific Northwest: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WTO_protests_in_Seattle_November_30_1999.jpg
• Tectonic Plat map: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plates_tect2_en.svg
• New Orleans after Katrina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KatrinaNewOrleansFlooded_edit2.jpg
• WHO Pandemic Phases: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/WHO_pandemic_phases.png
• The World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/en/
• Past Pandemics: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4381924.stm
• Geoscape Vancouver: http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/vancouver/earth_e.php
• Neil Strauss, Bug Out Bag: http://www.neilstrauss.com/fliesian/bugout.html
• More Neil Strauss Information: http://www.neilstrauss.com/fliesian/proceed.html
• Gear Patrol's Bug Out Bag: http://gearpatrol.com/blog/2009/05/04/bug-out-bag-aka-ultimate-survival-kit/
• Survival Blog: http://www.survivalblog.com/

Douglas Adams 2

There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be, but we have done various things over intellectual history to slowly correct some of our misapprehensions.

-Douglas Adams

Dougals Adams

Imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, "This is an interesting world I find myself in - an interesting hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!" This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for. We all know that at some point in the future the Universe will come to an end and at some other point, considerably in advance from that but still not immediately pressing, the sun will explode. We feel there's plenty of time to worry about that, but on the other hand that's a very dangerous thing to say.

-Douglas Adams

Jeff Rubin

I hear that it isn't a good idea to read too much from authors you already agree with. Which means that I've been cheating in my reading, because I've been reading Jeff Rubin. Jeff Rubin writes, primarily, about oil and energy issues, and believes that times are getting more difficult with regards to this.

Have a read...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/where-will-china-find-the-oil-to-power-its-economy/article2010203/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/only-recessions-can-deliver-obamas-energy-targets/article1971285/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/is-nature-trying-to-tell-us-something/article1951546/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/is-the-house-of-saud-next/article1933633/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/wikileaks-reveals-imminent-saudi-oil-peak/article1908385/