Excerpts from Jim Lord's Westergaard site:

What would you expect to see at a Year 2000 conference put on by the World Future Society (WFS)? Gray-haired old think-tank guys with pipes? Intense, frizzy-haired youngsters with coke-bottle glasses and palm-top computers? (In my day, slide rules.) This attendee wasn't sure but it sure sounded interesting.http://y2ktimebomb.com/Tip/Lord/lord9901.htm

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On the second day, Dr. Harrison Fox, Professional Staff, U.S House of Representatives, subcommittee on Government Management, Information and Technology (Rep. Steven Horn's subcommittee) gave what many considered the most sobering session of the conference.

Dr. Fox indicated that:

By this time next year, the panic factor will be in full force and rationing will be in effect.

Of great concern are DOD, FAA (them pesky guys again) healthcare and state and local governments (especially water systems).

Within DOD, nuclear weapons management and logistics systems were cited as most critical.

Three of the five oil refineries in Venezuela (which provides some seventeen percent of the oil supply in the United States) will not be compliant in time and will have to be shut down. These and other problems "will lead to disruptions" in the flow of oil.

Medicare will "fail massively."

The State Department is still in the "Quill and Scroll" age.

Unsatisfactory performance in dealing with Y2K is indicative of the poor management systems and practices in use in the federal government.

A comprehensive national level strategy is still needed.

Everyone needs to prepare for Y2K and they need to start now.

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Read the entire article at http://y2ktimebomb.com/Tip/Lord/lord9901.htm

MoVe Immediate

-- MVI (vtoc@aol.com), January 03, 1999

Answers

The solution to Y2K is community. You can dress it up in all kinds of academic psychobabble but the message is still plain. As Pogo might have put it,

"We have found the answer and it is us."

http:// y2ktimebomb.com/Tip/Lord/lord9901.htm

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 03, 1999.

I guess I'm glad to find I'm a "y2k leader". VERY few of the 450,000 members of my "community" seem interested if "following" anybody. My reason for posting: What are your thoughts about the specs.((# people, area(sq. mi.), etc)) for a "community Y2K preparedness effort" ? BTW, I hope the 450K in my present "community" don't try to "follow me" to my "place in the hills". They might spread out to Ed Yourdon's house 70 miles away

-- Harp;d Eudaly (heudaly@home.com), January 03, 1999.

Thanks, MVI for the heads up. This is an exceptionally good piece with some bits I'd never heard before. (Venezuela? sheesh!)

Required reading IMHO. And thanks for the hotlink, Diane.

-- Lewis (aslanshow@yahoo.com), January 03, 1999.

Re: How many people per acre for planned communities.

Garrett Hardin and Bill Mollison have written extensively about carrying capacity. A big city library would have several of their books. I think Garrett was the one that coined the phrase "phantom acres". Those acres being the ones that are farmed (for food), forested (for watershed preservation and production of clean water), or pastured (for meat). Each NYC resident "uses" about 9 phantom acres. This does not include products from foreign countries: mandarin oranges, sugar, coffee, tea, pinapple, chocolate.

Chocolate? Eee gads! I use about 3 phantom acres just for that all by myself!

Anyway, caryying capacity is directly related to temperature (It takes a lot more acres in cold environments because you need more substantial houses and fuel. And of course rainfall and soil fertility plays a big part too. Texans talk about 20-30 acres per cow, midwesterners talk about 2 cows per acre...

Then there is just plain old living space. Some of us our happier if we are not looking at another persons house and stuff.

Hope this is helpful. also check out http://www.ic.org/ Berry

-- Berry (Berrypicking@yahoo.com), January 03, 1999.