Electromagnetic Pulse

There is a whole class of individuals in the United States who refer to themselves as “preppers.” They are preparing for major catastrophic events that will bring our civilization to its knees. They do this by storing a food supply, learning how to actually grow food, having a means to purify water, having a “bug-out bag” of necessary supplies in case they have to leave where they reside, developing anti-home invasion strategies in the event that the hunger-driven mob tries to break into their dwelling to get at their supplies, and generally training how to survive based solely on their own skills and devices.

There are many scenarios that preppers are afraid of, but one in particular keeps surfacing. It is the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that has the potential to utterly destroy our entire power grid, and make every device with a computer chip inoperable (think your phone, your car, and all those household appliances). As a result of this total shutdown of our electronic world, a massive EMP would virtually eliminate food distribution as well as end the availability of clean tap water.

The EMP has the potential to destroy our entire power grid because it can cause a complete destruction of the transformers that our power grid currently depends on to operate, and these transformers are complex machinery that are difficult and very expensive to replace, particularly if there is no power.

An EMP can happen one of two ways. There can be such a massive solar flare that the the Sun causes an EMP on unprotected earth. There is some evidence that this actually happened to a certain degree in the 19th century when, in all likelihood, it was such a Sun-induced EMP that disrupted a good deal of the telegraph system. The other possibility is a large nuclear blast high in the atmosphere over the United States. That also, theoretically, could generate a massive EMP that could take down our entire power grid.

So you would have millions of people in cities without any food or potable water and with no clue how to grow food or find and purify water. Just imagine the immediate and unavoidable mayhem that would lead to. The preppers already have and are actively preparing for it.

People have varying opinions about survivalists like the preppers. Some concede that to take the actions preppers are taking is prudent, while others believe that the preppers are loonies and what they fear can’t possibly happen. But the trouble with the preppers are loonies argument is that an EMP can happen — it does seem feasible.

However, my issue concerning an EMP event is this: if we know in advance that the transformers upon which our entire electronic civilization is dependent are vulnerable to an EMP, why don’t we focus on developing some kind of technology that would shield them? You would think we would make every conceivably effort to protect these vital pieces of technology if they are truly the essential underpinning of our entire way of life. Ditto all the computer chips we put into everything.

EMP

EMP Facts

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Depression

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Death and the Afterlife

Is there an afterlife? Religious people always think so, and how you are treated in the afterlife is based on how well you behaved while alive, so for them there is even a kind of morality involved in death — good people are rewarded, while bad people pay a dear price — for an eternity no less. Fine.

I know we can’t peek beyond the grave, but let’s just think about what is undeniable about death. For one thing, you won’t have the 5 senses you have now to interface with whatever the reality is after death. You won’t be able to see anything because you won’t have eyes; you won’t be able to smell anything because you won’t have a nose — in fact, all 5 senses are not going to be available to you. Another thing that is certainly missing is the brain. You won’t be able to think any thoughts because you won’t have a brain anymore to think them.

So exactly how is such an afterlife existence supposed to work with the 5 senses and your brain missing? Just try to imagine that — that’s not so simple. When I do, I come up with zero, that is, I can’t imagine any kind of existence without the 5 senses or a brain. You might say something like it’s like you are lying in bed in the middle of the night, and you close your eyes and see pitch blackness. But that isn’t believable either because without eyes, you wouldn’t see blackness — you wouldn’t see, period.

Frankly, an afterlife is ridiculous from the get go because it is simply not practical. And that you would be rewarded or punished in the afterlife based on your behavior while alive — please!

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Vanish

Henry's Views

Generations come and go —
The only permanence the flow.

Little waves lap upon the shore;
They thrive a moment and are no more.

Your time on earth a blink —
Even your memory long extinct.

So how to live the issue
When life itself mere tissue?

All Poetry — Henry Barnard

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Thirsty

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Manhattan, A Photographer’s Journey by Henry Barnard

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Bread and Circuses

Two thousand years ago, Juvenal characterized Roman society as needing only two things — bread and circuses. For bread, there was the grain dole to all Roman citizens, and for circuses, the gladiator in the Coliseum and the chariot race in Circus Maximus (there were four teams to root for, identified by the colors of their jerseys, white, red, green, and blue). American society isn’t all that different. For food, we have our food stamps and welfare programs, and for circuses, we have televised professional sports where everyone has a home team to root for. Has anything really changed? Juvenal would be right at home in modern America.

“Bread and Circuses”

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The First Eye

Henry's Views

Light from the sun created the first eye.
Millions, perhaps billions, of years ago,
A creature evolved a light sensitive set of cells,
And so emerged from sightlessness.

This creature had an advantage over its blind competitors,
Which led to the breeding of offspring with the same mutation.
So it was the lit world became visible.
Let there be light also meant seeing the light,
Not just groping in the dark.

So, now, millions, perhaps billions, of years later,
Many creatures are endowed with highly evolved eyes —
Eyes that, furthermore, can see deep into the universe with telescopes
Or deep into the once invisible, microscopic world with microscopes.

Our vision has become transcendent over time,
One of the great achievements of the species on Earth,
Having evolved from a brutish, dark world
Where there was light, but no sight.

All Poetry — Henry Barnard

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Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway

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Flatulence

As reported in a highly respected and very impartial liberal newspaper, the Democrats are now demanding yet another supplemental investigation by the FBI based on the reference to flatulence in Kavanaugh’s high-school yearbook. The Dems want to know just how much Kavanaugh farted as a teenager, and demand that the FBI investigate every known acquaintance, friend, and teacher to get a complete picture of this very unfortunate and disturbing inclination when Kavanaugh was a young man 35 years ago. The Dems feel that excessive flatulence are grounds for turning down Kavanaugh’s bid for the Supreme Court in order to protect the odor of that august body, not to mention the sensibilities of the current justices.

In a followup report by the liberal newspaper, it was revealed that, as a young man, Kavanaugh was partial to eating the flatulence-inducing Golubtsy — so there may be a Russian connection here as well. Democrats call for further investigation of this Russian angle, for why would Kavanaugh actually want to eat Glubtsy unless the Russians had something on him? The Democrats are eager to prosecute anyone who sold Kavanaugh Golubtsy so that they can convict them on every conceivable crime imaginable and then make them flip on the nominee — that’s American justice. The Democrats also want the Justice Department to ignore attorney/client privilege and subpoena all the records between Kavanaugh and his private attorney so that these records can be used against the nominee — still more American justice.

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