Memory Lane for "spain" and his fans IV: An article about the TB Diety

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The Yourdon article...FINALLY!

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Now I have to apologize for real! Sorry for the snafu! This article is from http://www.infoplease.com and appeared in Yahoo Full Coverage last night 12/10/99. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FAIR USE: EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY!!!

<<< Y2K Survivalists Should you be stockpiling canned food?

by Gerry Brown Send this Page to a Friend!

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The survivalist mentality in Diego Rivera's Portrait of America (1934). AT 11:59 P.M. ON DECEMBER 31, 1999, many Americans will be waiting with hands on corks for the year 2000 to arrive. Others, however, will be crouching in bomb shelters with canned food, fearing the worst.

Either way it's going to be a big night. Recent polls have shown that Americans are increasingly confident that the Y2K bug will not ruin their holiday weekend.

More and more people, however, plan to take precautions just in case the predictions of widespread service failures are right. In a poll by USA Today and the National Science Foundation, forty percent of the respondents planned to stockpile food and water.

[ Who Are The Survivalists Anyway? ]

SURVIVALISTS EXPECT A SERIOUS CALAMITY to occur on December 31. Individuals have fled urban areas and some groups have even built large shelters underground.

Ed Yourdon, a computer consultant and author of Time Bomb 2000, moved his family from New York City to rural New Mexico because he feared disaster in the Big Apple on the big day. Yourdon is the unofficial leader of the Y2K survivalists and thinks that the vast majority of people are unprepared. The author has said that if only some of the things that could go wrong do go wrong, he expects New York could resemble Beirut.

[ Y2K: Myth or Reality? ]

HOW FAR FETCHED are the doomsday scenarios? No one knows for sure.

Along with Yourdon's book, dozens of books have been written on the possibility of a Y2K calamity. Hundreds of sites offer advice on planning for the worst come Y2K. The recommendations range from the extreme to the benign: move from urban areas to a rural home, convert your liquid assets to gold and silver for bartering in a more primitive economy, and stockpile food and home heating fuel like wood and coal.

Many of these same sites predicted widespread panic in the financial markets before January 1, 2000. We are now less than a month away and there are no apparent problems in the markets. But consider the other possibility: Do you have any gold to trade?

Related Links Y2K Panic

Millennium Central

Millennium Questions

President's Council on Y2K Conversion

Ed Yourdon Site

Prepare For Y2K

[ Horseless Carriages and Jury Duty ]

IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE, a few Y2K glitches have already popped up. In Maine, owners of 2000-model cars received titles in the mail for 1900-model cars called horseless carriages (the term that the state uses for cars from 1916 and before). The titles were quickly fixed and resent. In Philadelphia, about 500 people received notices calling them in for jury duty in the year 1900.

[ A Global Issue ]

MANY SAY IT'S NOT THE U.S.A. that has to worry, it's everyone else around the world. Other nations have been slow to update their computer systems. This will in turn corrupt our computers through international markets, potentially leading to a global economic crisis and widespread civil unrest.

The Japanese government is taking no chances. They have put 96,000 troops on "millennium alert" just in case something happens on New Year's Eve.

No one can say with absolute certainty what will happen when the clock strikes midnight. The possibility of something unforeseen has definitely added more than the usual excitement to New Year's preparations. And if the only ones who make it through the potential pitfalls are the bona fide Y2K survivalists crowing "I told you so," maybe the rest of us won't want to survive the disaster anyway.

[ MILLENNIUM CENTRAL >>>

Ahhh! It worked that time...

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 11, 1999

Answers

Argh!

-- Ed Yourdon (ed@yourdon.com), December 11, 1999.

Accompanying photo:

Link

"IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE, a few Y2K glitches have already popped up". A few? Gee, great examples.

This is one of the poorest articles I've ever read. 20 days left, and this writer has added nothing of value whatsoever.

-- counting down (the@days.now), December 11, 1999.


maybe the rest of us won't want to survive the disaster anyway.

Whoever prosecuted Dr. Kevorkian--check out these clowns!

-- cgbg jr (cgbgjr@webtv.net), December 11, 1999.


Rant Mode:ON Come on now. Let's just make an incredible generalization about all the folks who read and post to these forums.

"...ON DECEMBER 31, 1999, many Americans will be waiting with hands on corks for the year 2000 to arrive. Others, however, will be crouching in bomb shelters with canned food, fearing the worst."

Okay...how many here even HAVE a bomb shelter? Oh yeah, I forgot that space that sits between the cinderblocks they built my house on IS a bomb shelter....NOT! Are you and your family planning on cowering in fear in your basement during the rollover? I seriously doubt it. We're certainly not. In fact, I bought some of the non-alcohol sparkling apple cider stuff to ring in the new year. I even bought some brightly colored noise makers for the occasion.

"Yourdon is the unofficial leader of the Y2K survivalists..."

No offense intended to Mr. Yourdon, but I've not read any of his books nor could give you an exact rundown of his beliefs. I discovered these forums AFTER I'd decided to set up a pantry and found lots of folks with some food storage information that I found/find helpful and am grateful for these forums. When I hear the term "survivalist" I imagine the whole family dressed in fatigue dress. Baby is dressed in onesies colored green, brown and gray...sigh.

"IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE, a few Y2K glitches have already popped up."

Give me a break. This may swing with those that spend their time on the internet for playing backgammon on yahoo and sitting in the Chicago Hope IRC room. Perhaps the author has spent too much time in those places and isn't aware of the DAILY problems caused by remediations to avert the y2k glitch, or the bug itself.

"And if the only ones who make it through the potential pitfalls are the bona fide Y2K survivalists crowing "I told you so,"..."

I can only speak for myself, but if we get thru the rollover with a BITR, I'll be the one dancing and singing the loudest. I can't imagine the fellow with the house left standing on a block of wiped out homes after a tornado saying, "I told you so. You should have upped your property insurance.". I have to believe that the folks that utilize these forums would NOT say, "I told you so". Perhaps I'm just naive. No perhaps about it, I do tend to be fairly clueless where mankind is concerned.

Rant Mode:OFF

Thanks guys...I feel better now.

beej

-- beej (beej@ppbbs.com), December 11, 1999.


"Take me to your leader."

-- John Koskinen (kosky@bunker.gov), December 11, 1999.

LOL... Ed!

"Yourdon.... thinks that the vast majority of people are unprepared."

Heck!... Koskinen's MADE SURE... THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE ARE UNPREPARED!

*Sheesh!*

Diane

(Stockpiling the tar and feathers for 'ole Koskey... for use... next year).



-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 11, 1999.


Very flattering Ed. It elicits that image from the ESPN commercial where one of the guys yells, "Follow me to freedom!" It's good to see balanced reporting is still alive and well.

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), December 11, 1999.

I am well aware that this article fails on several counts. It was important to post because it represented a media view of survivalists and Y2K prep folks. It never hurts to know what others are thinking.

BTW...I don't blame Ed for grimacing!

BTW #2...the goons in gas masks photo was tasteless and offensive. Probably the FEMA types modeling their spring wardrobe.

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 11, 1999.


beep beep we have come to see your leader beep beep

-- martians (intersecting@survivalists.myopia), December 11, 1999.

Ed, your shortest response ever! :)

-- ghost (fading into the@background.com), December 11, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

...if the only ones who make it through the potential pitfalls are the bona fide Y2K survivalists... maybe the rest of us won't want to survive...

They'd rather die than associate with the likes of anyone who has the gall to take care of themselves.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 11, 1999.



-- cpr (buytexas@swbell.net), September 09, 2000

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