I have small dogs one of which has trouble with stairs. So I have a ramp attached to the stairs on which they can run up and down as needed.

This morning I let them out to do their morning business. They hit the ramp and had quite a surprised look on their faces when they hit the glare ice and slid all the way down. They went ahead and took care of business then tried to come back in out of the cold.

I wish I had taken the opportunity to grab my phone and video them trying to get up the ramp. Walking failed so they backed up and ran at it which also failed. So they backed WAY up and hit it a a full out run… The best they could do was make it about half way running as hard as they could while slipping on the ice.

After they tried a couple times I went ahead and carried them up the stairs to the deck so they could run inside where they ran back to a small space heater blowing warm air that we turn on for them for a while on cold mornings.

And we’ll be staying inside most of the day as well. No snow but glare ice covering everything.

I put food out for a local crow flock on a flat feeder raised up where squirrels can’t get to it. Even the crows were having a hard time. They landed on the feeder then slid right across it until they hit the raised edge. They quickly learned to land ON the raised edge and walk slowly towards the food in the middle.

The Librarian

I hope everyone is dug in and ready for the Winter Storm that has the media in such a state of panic and frenzy. When I was young we used to call this “Weather” and looked forward to snow days from school and getting to go play in the snow then sit down later with hot chocolate and movies on TV (when they still made movies worth watching).

Nowadays I’m all for staying inside and letting others play in that crap. Nowadays to the media it’s the latest “OMG! YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” story.

Here in Coastal NC we’re just a tad below the storm path. Even a hundred miles or so north they’re looking at snow and ice. I guess this close the Gulf Stream the Ocean can tell the land storm to bugger off and get it’s way. Most we’re looking at here is some cold and maybe some rain tomorrow.

But a lot of you are well north in the path of it. So stay warm and inside and let the kids play in the snow.

On another note the nice silicon hard drive sleeves I’ve used for many years and which I use on the hard drive copies of the library are getting REALLY hard to find. I ordered some more hard drives today and after a serious search found a few people selling some of them so I was able to order enough from two of them. They used to be all over Amazon and Ebay but perhaps the Chinese manufacturer decided to make something else instead. So looks like I’m going to have to start looking for an alternative.

And no I’m not looking seriously at small portable drives. Far too many of them come with a nice case but a seriously low quality hard drive. I actually ran across a few that came with used drives in a new case. I’ve cracked open the case on some of the really cheap ones and the drives were so poorly soldered to a cheap interface that a hard thump would break them. Beauty really IS on skin deep in the case of a lot of electronics. So I’ll stick to name brand, new drives thank you.

Stay Warm.

The Librarian

Second Post today.

I got 39 new books added to the Brewing and Distilling Category.

Mixed collection of stuff… historical, technical, how-to and various others.

They will show up in the Last 30 Days Page or in the Category Page if you sort by date and the ZIP file in that category has been updated.

The Librarian

I’ve written about Disease in the past and how it could easily devastate, if not completely destroy, a community trying to rebuild and having to conserve energy and cut corners as much as possible out of sheer necessity.

Disease prevention AIN’T one of the corners that can be cut. Ward’s article is about the increasingly spread of pretty serious diseases even in modern cities where the infrastructure is still relatively intact. Even California with it’s homeless, Illegal Alien invasion, feces filled streets, poverty and crime out of control still dos have an intact Medical, Law Enforcement, Electricity/Water/Sewage and Sanitation Department intact.

And yet even these technologically advanced cites are falling prey to disease. That’s a phenomenon relatively new. In years prior to a decade or so ago that simply didn’t happen. That’s because their Sanitation rules were enforced fairly stringently because the people doing so KNEW that a failure on their part could result in….oh…rampant outbreaks of disease.

So the enforcement of Disease Prevention, Sewage Control, Vermin Control, Water Purification, Garbage Disposal, Cleanliness, Soap, Laundry and the entire panoply of Sanitation is NOT an option if you want to survive.

If this can happen in “Modern” cities imagine what it could do to a small community living at a much lower technological level and with essentially ZERO Medical Infrastructure.

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/01/15/the-downfall-of-americas-cities-plague-plague-and-more-plague-n2198186

The Librarian

I read this story this morning about San Francisco handing out booze to alcoholics on the street along with plenty of other freebies and laughed at first since I assumed it was Satire from the Babylon Bee.

I would say I was “shocked” when I realized it was NOT satire but an actual News Story but I won’t. That’s because it was not shocking at all or even that surprising. I’m kind of leaning these days towards believing that an EMP that destroys the grid and thus Western Civilization is not our primary concern. If an EMP hits it will simply be the final blows in the destruction we are already doing.

The Librarian

p.s. Have some new books to add to the Brewing Category. I’ll try to get them added before the weekend.

Globe Grievance: San Francisco Health Agency Gives Free Booze to Homeless Alcoholics

Just a little follow up on yesterday’s Post about the Drug problem in the U.S. and how so many enable it and essentially subsidize it rather than Treating it.

https://pjmedia.com/victoria-taft/2026/01/05/seattles-new-socialist-regime-at-city-hall-misses-the-downtown-fentanyl-folds-n4947935

The Librarian

I was happy to see Maduro of Venezuela taken down for the sake of the People of Venezuela. Hopefully (and it’s a toss up) they can now elect someone rational rather than another Socialist. Not holding my breath…

Having been in law Enforcement and earlier doing some work in Drug Treatment I have to express my thoughts on this.

As a success in the “War on Drugs”… no. Total waste or time and money. My ex-Brother in Law was a highly respect PhD Economist and led a team of Economists and Law Enforcement folks many years ago in a deep study for the Feds on the Drug Trade. One of the most important conclusions reached that was unanimous was that Drug Interdiction, seizing drugs being transported, did nothing whatsoever to hurt the Cartels, that Demand was the issue. That study was read and then dropped in a file cabinet. No political gains, votes or money in treating drug addicts.

When you seize drugs in shipment the price immediately adjusts for all other drugs and the Cartels make pretty much the SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY. At the same time the amount being seized is such a small percentage of the drugs being moved that there is not a single city in the U.S. where there is even the most minimal shortage of drugs.

Destroy one Cartel and either a new rises to take it’s place or another Cartel expands to fill the market opening. They are Businesses competing for market share and not adverse to using violence rather than advertising.

The foundation of the situation is that there is a fixed (and some say growing) DEMAND for drugs in the U.S. Just as during Prohibition when there is a Demand someone will Supply that Demand and get rich doing so especially if you have the government helping destroy your competition. Unlike other products drug shortages do NOT reduce Demand. Shortages, when they do occur, which is rare, simply drive up the price because Users WILL satisfy their Demand at ANY price.

Until the U.S. gets serious and puts some percentage of that money towards Treatment to DECREASE the Demand we will continue wasting Money and Lives in a fruitless effort to drain the sea with a teaspoon.

Tragically there are far too many who address the problem by providing drug users with food, money, clothing, housing, medical care and in some places drug paraphernalia and even drugs themselves… essentially subsidizing and enabling Drug Abuse. This is the kind of sick, twisted “compassion” that serves only to make the givers feel virtuous while dooming those they are purportedly “helping”. That’s one of the reasons the Demand is growing.

Another problem is that the “War of Drugs” is politically sexy. It makes for great TV. It makes for great movies with heroes eradicating Cartels and evil doers. Makes for great sound bites at Press Conferences. Sadly it does nothing to help the country. I’m 74 and I expect that when I die the “War on Drugs” will still be going on with the same waste of lives and money.

So Maduro’s capture will probably help Venezuela. As far as Drugs though the other Cartels are already rushing to fill the gap left by his early retirement.

The Librarian

I have had a couple discussions with several people recently about the consequences of an EMP on the world and some interesting issues arose.

In many parts of the world… Central America, South American, Asia, Africa… if a Carrington Event level EMP occurred and destroyed the Power Grid and the Industrial/Technological infrastructure a significant percentage of people in those regions would be relatively unaffected. People practicing subsistence level farming in South America or much of Africa or Asia would likely not even be aware that such an even had taken place until and unless they travelled to areas where technology and a power grid was common.

In many of what we call 3rd world countries a much larger percentage of the population knows and uses what we would call “primitive” skills than is true in say the U.S. or Europe.

In much of the world outside the major industrialized nations if you are poor you either find a way to survive or you perish. The poor of Central America survive as they do in Africa, Asia and elsewhere. They do so because there is no other option and no “safety net”.

In most of the Western, Industrialized nations the poor are “taken care of”. In the U.S. and Europe most of the poor are fed and housed and provided for in ways that to much of the world seems like Wealth. Few poor in the U.S. lack cell phones or cars or TVs or at least basic medical care.  At the same time those poor have virtually ZERO skills or knowledge that would help them survive a societal collapse. For many their “survival skills” consist of knowing how to work the “System”.

In Western Industrialized nations it is only the economically well off who have the leisure to learn “primitive” skills and they do it more as a hobby than something they have to rely on daily. Even those who choose to live “off-grid” do so with the knowledge that there is still a social “safety net” available if they fail.

Which leads to an interesting demographic consequence. In much of the 3rd world it is the poor who will survive since they already possess many of the skills and the knowledge of how to live in a non-electrical, no-technological world. In the Western Nations it is more likely to be the well off since the poor of these nations have virtually no skills or knowledge.

One of the results is that a much larger percentage of the population of 3rd world nations and regions will survive whereas in the Western, Industrialized nations the majority of the population will NOT survive due simply to lack of skills needed for even a subsistence existence.

Obviously there are exceptions and special cases. But the basic paradigm still exists and from it grow a lot of other corollary issues.

The Librarian