That's interesting...

Those are the words that are spoken, rather than "Eureka", when a discovery is made.

I think I've found a relatively easy way to produce Ether.

Easy as in: doesn't take rare materials, doesn't use up chemicals, doesn't take obscenely complex equipment. In short, could be do-able, with a little bit of work, PSHTF.

Ether, as in Diethyl Ether, as in one of the early general anaesthetics. As in - if you don't think that they're essential, I invite you to have an appendectomy, or any significant operation, without anything to dull the pain.

It still needs a solid catalyst, but that should be readily available in quantity at the moment. I have to look up a few details, but it's a promising process.

I've been wanting to find a way to do it and, lo-and-behold in my personal library, I had a textbook which covered exactly the reaction I wanted to know about, and gives a couple of options. The important thing is that the process uses a solid catalyst - something that doesn't get used up during the reaction, or get poisoned (and no longer able to be used), and is easily reused. One process I had seen depended on sulfuric acid - not something I would want to have to deal with PSHTF.

The question is - how easy is it to do? I rather think that if I can do it in any reasonable quantity - even if it's tiny amounts... Well, I know it would be more in need than any amount of gold.

Convenience

Part of me really wants to see the lights to go out - to have electricity to several cities out for several days, ideally a few weeks. I suspect that most people, if they did adjust, would do so poorly.

People would struggle when they find that they can't use a vacuum cleaner, or a dishwasher... or suddenly discover that to wash clothes, they have to do so manually - no more set and forget. Drying clothes becomes a matter of hoping for a warm enough day, or hoping that they'll dry in front of a fire place if you have one - and the wood.

The twentieth century was notable for the labour-saving devices that were introduced, and the social upheavals caused by such introductions.

What would happen if they were suddenly taken away? I don't deny that I use them, and haven't made any substitutes anywhere as much as I would like.... Zeer pots are on my list, amongst many other things...

Forget Peak Oil, Peak Fresh Water, Plagues, CMEs...

The other day, I learnt something that has unsettled me more than anything else...

60 years.

That's how much topsoil the world has left, at current usage. Not allowing for population growth, climate change, anything else.

Sixty years that we can keep our level of industrial agriculture, and still be able to feed people.

Never mind humans have wiped out 50% of vertebrate life in the past 40 years, that fisheries around the world are in crisis.

Topsoil is what gives us food. Yes, hydroponics and aquaponics have promise, but how quickly could we adjust? Could we go on?

It won't be a sudden stop, just we'll notice the decline more. We'll squabble, then fight, over the few bits of arable land left...

Then... what?

And yet, we still insist on building suburbs. We still think people are weird for growing food in their gardens, rather than lawn. We stop the rain from getting into the ground, we flush it out to sea via the drains.

We do everything we can to make ourselves extinct.

Full of words and music, and signifying nothing.

One aspect of all of this has me... concerned.

OpSec.

Operational Security. AKA not making yourself stand out as a target.

There are the police/government/military/etc. - those with legal authority behind them who, because they are suspicious of people doing anything other than pulling their weight as consumers, want to take you away and have you prove you aren't doing anything suspicious. Part of the problem is confirmation bias - they suspect you, therefore you're doing something suspicious, otherwise they wouldn't suspect you.

The other side of the coin is the would-be raider - get an idea of who has what, and how easily it would be to take it  - because getting ready to steal it from someone else is easier than getting yourself prepared.


On a lighter note, I learnt last night that a plant that I was given, and have in a pot, that I assumed was Just-Another Typical Garden Plant has several uses. The leaves of cordylines can be used in craft, and the species I think I have can be harvested for sugar... I have a feeling that the process for doing so is rather involved, but I've resolved to actually cultivate it now.