IMO, your Mom is right. Not because your younger son is as tall as your older, but rather simply because they are both boys. ;) My brother is four years older than me and has *always* been much larger. That didn't keep us from fighting constantly! (That's quite surprising, given what a sweet, adorable baby brother I always was! :D) We've always noticed that our kids have paired up to have a sparring partner: DS19|DD16, DS11|DS9, DD7|DS7. We were quite concerned about this when we had number 7, DS4. Fortunately, he manages to find a partner in battle on a regular basis! :D

I've also wanted to do this. I'm a computer geek, but it's not a trivial task, since the user must have write access to the history area in order to create it in the first place. DS has, for years, had a plug-in for Firefox that automatically clears history, which is somewhat suspicious. (Beyond that, we have not had reason for concern other than his being a teenage boy. :001_rolleyes:) He's in college now, so he needs to make his own good decisions. Still, I would like to have this for the younger ones. My thinking is perhaps there is a way to create a system process that can copy new additions to history over to a controlled space so that the user cannot access them. Does such a thing exist, or should I ask my son to write one? :D

I'd be happy if they would simply FLUSH the toilet in order to "clean" it. :glare:

There is NO WAY this option is cheaper. The question is then which special interest groups this really serves: 1) California's computer and software industries certainly would appreciate the revenue. 2) Firms which license learning software will benefit. 3) Publishers of text books will benefit since I'm sure they will reduce their costs more than they will reduce their prices. 4) Anyone who wants to have an easier path to "update" what is being taught to children will benefit from this trend. ('nuff said.) Unfortunately, of the interest groups that I can imagine possibly benefiting from this change, I do not find either students or taxpayers. It's pretty sad...

I grew up here and I don't recall a wetter spring than this one. It's great for the garden!

Unfortunately, well over 90% (my educated guess) of the economists in the world have been indoctrinated in Keynesian economics, which is based on the writing of John Maynard Keynes. I don't have much positive to say about Keynes or his teaching, but I will make one observation: the predictions of Keynesian economists typically equate to "The economy will be better one year from now than it is today." As such, they have been consistently wrong for the past four years. Any economic model that is incapable of predicting downturns in the economy is seriously flawed, IMO. BTW, all of us educated in the public school system in America have been indoctrinated in Keynesian economics. We also get bombarded by this stuff whenever we turn on any economic news on the TV (unless Ron Paul happens to be the interviewee!). For those of you who want to be able to predict future trends in economics, I strongly recommend that you consider the Austrian economic model of Ludwig von Mises. Interestingly, I was introduced to this economic model through our homeschooling efforts! Some years ago, MomsintheGarden purchased a book entitled Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury to teach our gradeschool-level children basic economics. This is an outstanding primer on Austrian economics. I also enjoyed some of his other "Uncle Eric" books, such as Ancient Rome and How It Affects You Today. You can learn the more technical aspects of Austrian economics by visiting The Ludwig von Mises Institute. Personally I find that predictions from the Austrian camp tend to be much more accurate and forward-looking than those of the Keynesian economists. As such, I tend to ignore the prognostications of Keynesians and seek out predictions by the Austrians. YMMV.

Many have asked for me to provide references for statements that I have put forth. I may do that on occasion, but in this thread I have been speaking from my beliefs, based on research over the past decade on this subject. Instead, I will offer some links to websites from which I have gathered much of my information. Disclaimer: MomsintheGarden (AKA DW) finds much of the material in the links below to be disturbing to her. She is a worrier by nature and the discussion of extremely negative future scenarios is too much fodder for her somewhat-pessimistic imagination. Please consider yourself forewarned that the links below will not be comprised solely of the happy talk that many may be used to in the mainstream media. Disclaimer 2: Many (All?) of the sites linked below are not run by Christians and contain statements from non-Christian viewpoints. If you are a Christian, you may occasionally find comments that you will find offensive. I know I do. However, for the most part, the discussions included are technical and do not consist of worldview-bashing. Disclaimer 3: I am not affiliated with ANY of the sites linked below. I merely consider them to be the most accurate sources of information and prognostication that I have found. My Favorites: Life After the Oil Crash: This blog is focused on the issues of the economic collapse that is predicted as a result of the peak in oil production. The link above is a decent primer on Peak Oil. My favorite part of the site, however, is the daily links to news on this subject. The list of links contains a brief snippet and very little other commentary. Five years ago, these links were to other blogs and many quite obscure. These days, most of his links are to MSM, yesterday's contains LA Times, Globe and Mail, NY Times, USA Today, etc. This site also sells a LOT of books on preparedness, for those that are looking for books. The books are found on the left sidebar of every page on the site. Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: This is an outstanding blog to help make sense of the worldwide economy. Basically, Mike Shedlock (Mish) links to articles and information in the MSM and criticises it from the prospective of the Austrian economics model. It is an enjoyable read and his predictions are incredibly accurate. Mish is prolific: expect to see 2 to 3 new articles on this site daily, even on weekends! Patrick.net: Everything you ever wanted to know about the real estate crash. Daily links to real-estate-related news. Other Sites Worth Noting: (I do not read any of the sites below regularly, at least not anymore.) The Oil Drum: This site is the best source of technical information about Peak Oil that I have found. Many, many oil industry experts frequent this site. Charles Hugh Smith Weblog: Charles Hugh Smith writes a daily essay on various matters, most of which I find quite interesting and compelling. He has them all archived and linked in the left sidebar. I find it quite amazing that he can speak so clearly on such a broad range of topics. I suspect many on this forum will enjoy his writings. Still, some of his conclusions are quite disturbing. Ludwig von Mises Institute: This website is devoted to Austrian economics. My DS frequents this site. Financial Sense: This website contains editorials from many financial writers covering a variety of topics. I believe many of the writers are from the school of Austrian economics, but I am not sure. Enjoy!

I won't go into details, but I will say the patent that I currently have pending is ALMOST UNREADABLE TO ME. I am the inventor, so you would think I would be able to understand the patent application. Hardly! Once the lawyers turn your idea into something other lawyers can understand, it becomes quite foreign to an engineer. There's a lot about the process that I find frustrating. I can recommend a patent attorney, if you would like. If nothing else, he can explain his fees and the process to you. Reg P.S. My apologies to all the lawyers out there...even if you do this type of obfuscation ON PURPOSE! ;)

To me, this forum does not seem overly diverse in terms of GENDER! :glare:

Apology accepted. I, too, apologize, as I seem to have this effect on people sometimes. Just ask MomsintheGarden! My intent was not to upset anyone with this thread. :001_smile: I didn't think so. I certainly don't have a problem with that. Me, too. So, Jorsay, how ARE you preparing for the Greater Depression? :D

Surprisingly, nor do I with my neighbors. :D But perhaps what is more surprising is the conversations that I HAVE had with several of my neighbors over the past month or so (all paraphrased): Me: My employer has cut my pay 25% and also our staff 25%. Neighbor 1: My employer has cut my pay 20%, but we don't go in on Fridays. My wife is upset because they cut her pay 20% but she still has to work every day. Neighbor 2: My employer has reduced my workweek to 4 days and they are considering moving us to 3 days. I think we have all agreed that we are not about to make any large purchase such as a house or a car. No one's destitute, only "concerned". Again, this closely matches some of the accounts of the Great Depression which I have read.

No. There are several fallacies in your statements:- The assumption that the existing wells continue to produce the same amount of oil as you add new ones is false. In fact, in today's world, it is necessary to continuously drill new wells in order just to keep the production level from falling. - Drilling new wells does not necessarily equate to adding new flows of oil. As you drill more wells in an oil field, the production rate of ALL the wells in the field is reduced. At some point adding more wells does not lead to more overall oil flow. Please note that Saudi Arabia has been ramping up drilling over the past couple of years by a factor of 5 IIRC and they have NOT been able to increase production. Other states in the Persian Gulf are now on their endless decline. - Drilling wells where there is no oil does not improve the situation. The simple fact is that there IS an end to the number of wells you can drill. I consider myself to be an expert in energy technology and pretty well versed in Austrian economics. I consider the Keynesian economics discussed on MSM to be a fraudulent model designed by the Federal Reserve Bank to defraud us all of our hard-earned money. Nothing else. As one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, wrote in 1809: "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered" I am not an oil industry insider, so what I have learned has been from extensive study of peak oil over the past 10 years. If you really want to learn about this issue, you can learn about it at a site entitled The Oil Drum. IMO, this site is *extremely* technical. I have always found it somewhat challenging to understand many of the concepts covered there. However, since you are technical, you might like it. There are some tutorials on the subject to be found there. Also, they have an excellent list of links to other websites along the bottom left column of the site. These sites cover the full spectrum of issues that are related to oil depletion. Finally, I will say that the concept of "Peak Oil" is a very strange one. Most people, like both you and me, find it to be an incredible concept when they first hear about it. But it is a simple fact that relates to the depletion of *any* finite resource. I wish you well with your approach to what the future will bring. I've noticed that EVERYONE in this thread brings a different viewpoint to this subject, not just you and me. For instance, I have never read or seen any of the references provided here by others before today. Thanks to all for providing these! Peace.

Congratulations! :thumbup:

I don't dispute that fact. (Sorry, I didn't see it in there the first time.) The more important fact here is that the USGS believes the MAXIMUM rate at which the oil can be extracted from the Rockies is 3 million barrels per day. The world consumes 86 million barrels of oil per day. The US consumes 21 million barrels of oil each day. It seems the mountains of the West may go the way of the mountains of West Virginia. Very sad... The issue at hand is that we will never be able to extract more oil each day than we currently do. The impact of this inability to increase oil production on the world economy is what worries me the most. One other pertinent fact in this discussion is that worldwide oil discoveries PEAKED in the 1960s. Discoveries have dropped off since that time. History has shown that the peak in discoveries is always followed by a peak in production a few decades later. We've been consuming more oil than we've been discovering for a decade or so already.

At 4.3 billion barrels that's enough oil to run the world for 50 days or the US for 200 days.

MomsintheGarden has instructed me that it would be inappropriate to respond to this comment at this time. :D

Whew! I have successfully negotiated through the confusing plural time of my development into a female bee! :D Thanks to all for your well wishes! (Hopefully you have not regretted it, yet!) Reg

To be blunt, I think the whole notion of a "hydrogen economy" is a smokescreen by the government. Why? Hydrogen is not a *source* of energy, but rather is only a carrier. Hydrogen is more like a battery than it is like oil. (Actually, oil is also a carrier of energy. The difference is that energy is already stored in the oil. Hydrogen, OTOH, does not exist in our environment in a form where we can extract energy from it. Instead, we must first PUT energy into the process to create usable hydrogen. The one exception is the reforming of hydrogen from fossil fuels. In my mind, why not just burn the fossil fuels directly.) Yes, hydrogen will likely be the automotive fuel of the future, but this fact does NOT negate the fact that we do not have enough ENERGY to grow our economy. IMO, we should be heavily investing in energy efficiency, solar and wind technologies instead of shoveling so much into the automotive and financial behemoths.

Might I recommend a nice striped necktie? :D

Your father sounds like a very wise man. My father also was a wise man. Unfortunately, I'm pretty hard-headed (perhaps it's obvious ;)) and wanted nothing to do with the farming lifestyle my father had built so I went off to school and did other things. But eventually the Lord has brought me back to near where I was raised. My family and I are building our own little farm, of sorts. Please do not take this critically, since it is not directed toward you: I cannot tell you how many Christians have said to me, we are not preparing, but rather we will trust God. To me, this places God into the category of welfare provider. If Noah had "trusted God" in this manner, then I suppose we would not be having this conversation today! Me too. Thanks for the link! There are tons of websites (primarily blogs) that cover the fraud that is the worldwide financial system. Let's just say I don't recommend getting your financial advice from Jim Cramer or Ben Bernanke! :D Thanks, Tracy! You've reminded me of the fact that we are about to get chickens again. DW was whitewashing the inside of the coop just yesterday evening. I would like to have more outbuildings, but those are expensive! It's very tough to decide whether to continue to try to build our investments or to spend some of it on more capital improvement projects. Do you recommend any sites for herbal medicine? I've had several relatives and acquaintances approach me on this subject withing the last couple of months. I must say that I have no idea how to prepare for such a possibility and I don't have confidence one way or another whether it may happen in my lifetime. As such, we're just letting that one go. Basically, we have always used a sort of triage method for decided priorities for preparation: - If something is beyond what we are capable of preparing for, we must leave those in the Lord's hands. Some examples include World War, massive electrical outages, roving armed marauders, roving Congressmen armed with $10T bailouts for crooked bankers, etc. - Preparations that benefit us both in good times and in bad are done first. Some examples include getting rid of debt and moving to land where we can live more sustainably. These preparations are done in the framework of planning which will eventually include disaster preparedness. - After the preparations above are done, then we move on to preparing for disaster situations. The priorities for these preparations increase or decrease depending on our best guess as to the immediacy of the need. Right now I would say we are sitting at DEFCON 4! :001_unsure: Agreed. I feel clearly called to this. It's been a good thing all around. We've eliminated so many sources of stress in our life by gradually getting more prepared for a rainy day. We are not so different from our grandparents' generation, except they were much better at many of the things we are doing. I have read these predictions, etc. This one is remaining in the Lord's hands. One preparation you will not read in my list is the stockpiling of guns and ammo. (I understand there is a LOT of that going on right now.) We have never owned guns. I grew up with guns in the house and I recall sneaking in and looking at them as a child. I guess I don't think I could forgive myself if someone in the house was shot by a firearm. Whenever we have needed a firearm around here, we have borrowed from neighbors. No argument from me. Still, I feel better preparing than not preparing, since it is something I CAN control. For whatever reason, I have a hard time getting worked up over gobal warming. Call me Pollyanna! :D While we always planned to move back to this area where I grew up, Y2K moved up the timetable. The software was fixed in time. It's interesting: For some people, like me, Y2K was the wake-up call to see how pitifully unprepared we are to handle any type of disruption in the financial, water, energy or food systems. For others, Y2K was proof that you should never prepare for massive disaster situations. I promise: I won't ask you to bail me out if I'm wrong about where the economy is headed. Yes, we have some silver dimes around. I must say that the dimes are one of the financial preparations that I'm not thrilled about. Why? It seems these things are IMPOSSIBLE to sell. The spread between bid and ask is ridiculous. Thanks to all for the ideas about preparations! I'm interested to hear more thoughts! Finally, I apologize to those who simply find this subject depressing. I didn't post this to alarm people, as I consider the state of the economy to be pretty common knowledge. I am aware that many people think the economy is recovering, but I just don't see it. There is simply too much greed, debt and fraud at all levels: personal, corporate and government. In any case, if this subject is too distressing for you, please do not continue to read this thread. Best regards,

I haven't seen that, yet. Plots of world oil production versus time are a bit unnerving. What I find more concerning as an American is the plot of oil EXPORTS versus time. These have not been flat since 2005: they have been dropping! Imagine large, industrialized, oil importing countries such as USA, China, Japan and the countries in Europe competing for an ever-shrinking pie of oil exports.

I didn't know about Dave Ramsey in 1995 when we started eliminating debt, but we did something very much like he recommends. It's nice to see those debts going down! It did take us longer than planned because we moved in the middle of the process. Once the debts are all gone, it is very easy to build up savings and investments. Good luck with your efforts!

Yeah, we decided not to go the hand-tools route. That's why we installed solar. Our grain mill plugs into the wall. I'm not big on canned goods either. We don't have a huge supply, except for the stuff my wife has canned from the garden. I don't anticipate moving. Ever. As mentioned, I'll install a wood-burning stove if need be. I also have plans for a solar-heated house that is quite unconventional. My sister is building a new house off the grid and I'm installing this system in her place. Please pray for her! :D

Huh? Truth be told, I almost didn't answer your first question, since I really didn't want to have this discussion, but rather a discussion about preparations. BTW, did you really think that someone who has made the preparations we have made wouldn't have an answer to a question regarding why? We have used about half of all the oil endowed to us on this planet. No, it cannot. That is precisely the problem we face. I wonder how many Americans know that US oil production peaked in 1971? In 1956, when Dr. H. King Hubbert predicted the US peak to be in 1970, most people thought he was crazy. His prediction for the world peak was 2000. He was off by only a few years. I agree. I'm a big proponent of solar energy! Solar, geothermal and nuclear are ways to produce electricity. Oil is used for transportation. Until we develop an electricity-based transportation system, these energy sources will not be useful to offset the drop in oil production. It's happening now. It's interesting reading first-hand accounts of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Most people just figured things would get better "next year"...until about 1933. It was then that they started to wonder if the government really could help them. I'm sorry to hear about your brother. Yeah, I moved here (back to where I grew up) in 1998 and put in the solar system in 1999. Best thing we ever did! It would have been very difficult to be self-sufficient where we had previously lived. We had started shedding our debts in 1995 and it took until about 2006 to complete the process. I told my banker in 2006 that the Greater Depression was coming and he said the economists all seemed to agree things were in great shape. So I gave him a little bit of literature on the subject and let it go. Today, he introduces me to his banker friends as the person who predicted the downturn. Fact is, while most people I know lost 50% of their investments over the past 2 years, I've been reaping outstanding gains. By far we are in the best financial shape we have ever been. But I don't consider it a sure thing to have a job even through the rest of 2009. Two things (there are others) that I think will make this depression much worse than the first one: 1) Most people don't seem to believe it can happen and 2) We are woefully unprepared to survive a big downturn compared with our grandparents' generation. We all must make our own decisions about how we will provide for our families. Everyone approaches it differently. Best of luck to you, Reg

Thanks! Yes, I saw a thread recently regarding ways to save money. Excellent! I didn't have any ideas which weren't already covered! I will look for the others.