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It's an interesting read; well written, plausible and scary.
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Being a little serious:
It is a pity that those completely crazy extreme-preppers have given any kind of reasonable preparation for eventualities a really bad name. I would like to be able to live a reasonably "normal" life even if the electricity blacks out, the water supply stops, the food stores are not restocked for a period of time, and oil supplies are stopped.
My friends and colleagues have seen TV programs about preppers, and concluded that any sort of preparation indicates that you are a nutty-prepper-wannabe. I could possibly buy 12 tomato cans, but if I am caught buying 24 cans at a time, I will be ridiculed as The Great Prepper for weeks to come.
So I keep it low that my house can be heated by wood, propane, solar collectors, electricity (when available, I use a heat pump), ... Water heating is done by solar heat in summer, or propane, or electricity if everything else fails. I just bought a new kitchen stove split into an electrical (induction) heater half and a propane part. (Here in Norway, very few people have anything but electrical, with the possible exception of a camping cooker.) For light, I will keep a few on-grid florescent tubes to provide a basic light level, but all point lights (including ceiling lamps) will be run from a couple 12VDC battery banks, charged by PV panels (and if insufficient at winter time, from the grid). The battery bank also can run my Internet inteface (the ISP has, in their end of the fiber, battery power for 12 hours of operation, after that they must switch to diesel generators), as well as for phone/PC charging. I have got a small power generator that can deliver enogh power for my freezer and fridge, but I keep a reasonably-sized store of vegetables, canned and dried food. Like my old mother did when I was a boy...
If everything goes out at the same time (electricity, water, oil supply, ...) I can keep going for a few days before it affects me significantly. I can do without any one of them for a week. Not for months, but it gives me sufficient time to establish other solutions.
I think this is common sense; my friends and colleagues do not. "We haven't had any power outage lasting more than an hour for years!" and "If there is a shortage of food supplies, of course the authorities must find solutions for the entire society", "Your investments will never pay back", "What a waste of nothing happens!" (yet, they do use biking helmets, have fire insurance, and loads of security devices in their cars that will never show their real purpose).
I am certainly not panicing. Even though we (in Norway, that is) are far more electricity oriented than most other countries, power blackouts are among the easier problems to handle, replace by alternatives. I am far more worried about the water supply disappearing: We can stock a few bottles of drinking water, but for cooking, body/clothes cleaning etc. the problems will come fast and will be difficult to overcome. I can handle it for a few days; after a week, when all the bottled pure water has been drunk, I can continue drinking Coke, but I can't wash my face in Coke...
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I wouldn't say it's common sense, since it's not commonly done. It's certainly not a bad idea, or an irrational one.
Preppers do take the form of "build a nuclear bunker and stock up years worth of baked beans". Some people make it an obsession, so the term "prepper" tends to be used similarly to "conspiriacy theorist" now.
It's a large solar flare that'll kill all the plants. The heavy-duty transformers will blow and need replacing. Multiply that by most the side of the Earth getting overwhelmed and you're not looking at power back anytime soon.
I just have a little UPS that'll keep my compy running for an hour. Enough to save docs and check the internet. Not enough space to get a generator or whatnot. I wonder how those living in caravans will cope...
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I think that after a solar flare of such intensity that it kills all plants, you are not likely to have any worries. I do not feel resposible for whatever life remains when we are gone. I do not plan for that.
We do have power blackouts. Sometimes, running water is unavailable for anything from a few hours (work on the water distribution system) to a few days up or to a few weeks in extreme cases (infections/pollution of the water that has made its way past the filtering system). Every now and then we have extreme price variations - in the extremely cold winter of 2010, electricity prices rose by a factor of 15 for a short period (and by a factor of 4-6 for longer periods), which was really bad for families having no other heating alternatives. Sometimes, we have these waves of panic when stores are empties of some product because literally everybody tries to stock up on some product due to rumors of a possibly shortage; thereby they create a really bad shortage 
Being prepared for such situations is a question of convenience, not of survival. For some selected threats, in extreme cases it could help you survive, but that is not the main goal. The main goal is to get a hot meal every day, get a shower every day, keep the living room temperature at a reasonable level, having enough light that you can read do manual tasks. When the crisis is over, life returns to normal. That's what distiguishes me from preppers: I expect to return to a normal life within days or weeks, or months in the worst case. I just want to reduce the negative effects of that temporary crisis.
I always considered "common sense" what most reasonable men would consider reasonable to do - not that they necessarily do it themselves, but what they might have done in a similar situation. In Norwegial, a common term is "sunt bondevett", literally "sound farmer's wit" or what a sober and calm farmer would have suggested.
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I believe Sortacore was referring to "kill all the power plants", not the green stuff.
A Carrington level event would most likely do it. Last one of these was in the middle of the 19th century so another one of these is <b>not</b> out of the range of likely possibilities. There was a similar magnitude event in 2012, luckily for us it missed hitting the Earth.
<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110302-solar-flares-sun-storms-earth-danger-carrington-event-science/">What If the Biggest Solar Storm on Record Happened Today?</a>[<a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110302-solar-flares-sun-storms-earth-danger-carrington-event-science/" target="_blank" title="New Window">^</a>]
- Edit - Added the all important "not"
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This gave me a good laugh
Of course it refers to power plants. My mind was at those crazy preppers who make plans for surviving underground even after a nuclear war, so I misread it completely.
Like first time I read on the cover of a vinyl record who was playing lead guitar: I was thinking of the heavy beats of the bass guitar, thinking that "lead guitar" was meant as a joking name for the bass guitar (as well as a joke on steel guitar).
Another asocciation: I heard missionaries having problems making natives adopt their Christian respect for living creatures: Their language has one word for "dead" applying to humans, a completely different word for "no longer working", whether referring to a machine or an animal; they both could stop working. In their conceptual world, there is no philosophical difference between a machine stopping and an animal stopping; humans is a completely different matter. We have extended it in the other direction: We make even a power station into something living, which, as a consequence, also can die. For a generation or more we have had burial grounds for our pet animals - maybe we in the future will se burial grounds for our smartphones and iPods.
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That's the problem with this silly English language. It's all (mostly) context based. For one not in the know, "Lead guitar" could mean the heaviest guitar. Then, it may sound like it has lead in it.
As you mention in the last paragraph, there are some languages that have different words for different events, items, feelings, or thoughts. Even in Greek, there are at least 5 different words that express different types of love. In English, we must understand the context that a word is used to understand its meaning.
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When you live in a place where you can get snowed in, have a road washed out or regularly get news reports with headlines like: "Fire Storm/Ice Storm (insert year here)" or "Storm of the Century" and the resulting power outages because of the weather conditions, it IS common sense to stock up on things. Septic tanks and wells are awesome during times like this. You can almost have some normality during everyone's craziness.
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It's been a rough few weeks:
memorial service for an 18 year old that had CP
memorial service for a co-worker who passed suddenly
a service I couldn't get to for a former co-worker
another service tomorrow for a co-worker, but I'll be travelling
So, heard this on the radio:
grief after a loss is an expression of love you weren't able to show.
Yeah.. that's about how I feel right now.
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![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Tim Carmichael wrote: grief after a loss is an expression of love you weren't able to show.
and of love you can no longer show.
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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And then - BANG - one asteroid and nothing left to do on tuesday.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
modified 13-Jun-17 4:07am.
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Yay! Even more time for selfies!
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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...is my cable connection consistently goes down above, say, 85F.
I guess that's what I get for living in rural NY and Mid-Hudson cable. 
Currently using my phone as a hot-spot, fortunately I upgraded my plan a couple months ago, lowered my phone bill by $40/mo AND got an extra 3GB of data. ![Jig | [Dance]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/jig.gif)
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Come on out to Phoenix... 
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Come on out to Phoenix...
I don't think the coax reaches that far. 
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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Marc Clifton wrote: ..is my cable connection consistently goes down above, say, 85F.
That sounds like the normal range for the operating temperature of consumer electronics. Do you have one of the little boxes installed in a hot place, like in direct sunlight or under the roof?
If yes, you coud thaw the little camera I have under the helicopter. I had been flying in the last snow about three months ago. The temperatures were below 0C and the camera 'froze', first producing only garbage and then nothing at all. It's just the temperature range for cheap electronics (like 0C - 75C, without looking at the data sheets).
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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CDP1802 wrote: (like 0C - 75C
75C = 167F ? I wish!
Usually, operating ranges are 40-90F, or, very roughly 5-35C ?
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Let's look what we find in Wikipedia[^]:
Quote:
Commercial: 0 ° to 70 °C
Industrial: -40 ° to 85 °C
Military: -55 ° to 125 °C
That's about what I remembered from the datasheet from my old CDP1802 CPU, which was military grade because it was used a lot in space and also in aircraft.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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I was just considering the "operating range" on most consumer electronics (rather than individual parts). I agree with how high a temp individual components will find tolerable.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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ICs can heat up quite a bit on their own already and if the device is exposed to direct sunlight or placed in a hot environment (like under the roof of the house) it may heat up enough to fail.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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The worst thing about that temperature is that it's F 
But seriously, 95F isn't THAT hot?
At a former job we once had to place a computer in a cold store at -25C/-13F.
Someone built a special isolated casing to keep it from cooling off.
We never had problems with the computer, I'd hate to operate it though 
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