Froth-free For Thee

We Have Gone Over 'Dictatoritis' A Lot

Sufficiently that I can put it to bed as a subject, until or unless I dig out a few Medieval or Early Modern autocrats to castigate.  I bet China would be an interesting case study circa 1000 AD.  So, we are bubble-free today, hence the title.

     ANYWAY onto a much lighter topic.  Okay, okay, not much lighter.  Okay, okay, an equally grim topic.  Happy now?  For we are back to Conrad's annotations of, and critiques also, of the 'How Not To Die' Youtube vlog's 'Everything Zombie Movies Get Wrong About Survival'.  Art!

Their logo

     For one thing, skulls do not come equipped with eyeballs.  Then again, I am a hair-splitting pedant of the very finest brand.

     ANYWAY onto their second trope, which is -

LOOTING SUPERMARKETS FIRST

Art!

From 'Greenland'

     They confidently assert that your local supermarket may be the first choice to obtain supplies but will - a bit of a downer - 'get you killed'.  Since their advice crosses all sorts of apocalypse boundaries, I have used a still from 'Greenland', where the imminent disaster is an inbound comet, not the undead.  

     HTND quote the statistic that a single supermarket typically serves between 10,000 to 50,000 customers per week WITHOUT QUOTING A SOURCE THE BAD LADS, so I did a bit of Google-fu and they're in the right cricket-ground.  From 13,500 to potentially 70,000 for the very large stores.  Art!

     Well, they tried.  Based on UNSOURCED 'disaster recovery models', HTND blithely assert that a supermarket will be stripped clean within 48 to 72 hours of The Apocalypse arriving, which other Commenters found a bit rosy-tinted.

small pointer: covid times showed that the 48 to 72 hours is a veeeeery optimistic view

yeah exactly more like 6-12 hours at max

     ANYWAY AGAIN all those shoppers have the same idea - LOOT IT! and once again a lack of sources, instead a generic problem list of hurricanes - not a concern here in Perfidious Albion, thanks very much - blackouts and supply chain collapses.  Art!

     One problem that HTND get right is that all these people concentrated in one place will cause a commotion, especially if they get into fights with each other over the last tin of Chef Boyardee Hot Dog Dinner*.  Then, once inside the supermarket, room to manoeuvre is highly restricted and avoiding the zeds becomes highly problematic.  Supermarkets, entirely reasonably, are not designed to be zombie-proof.  Art!

     Conrad can also think of a rather grimmer scenario playing out after those 72 hours are up, since the people who live closest to the supermarket will have had the best opportunity to loot the best supplies.  Ergo, bandits late to the scene might well trawl the neighbourhood for local houses to loot.  Just a typical cheery thought.      There are alternatives to supermarkets that pose less risk of other looters and less zed risk, too, which HNTD are to be congratulated for listing.  Hardware stores, pharmacies and veterinary clinics and wholesale warehouses are, they claim WHERE IS THE SOURCE? between 60% to 70% less likely to be stripped bare, and they cite 'The Walking Dead' as moving to such locations to source supplies.  Feed stores, by which I take it they mean feed for livestock, are a source of bulk calories, without the vlog going into exactly what they mean by 'bulk calories'.  Allow me.  Art!

     None of which is fit for human consumption, unless you like severe food-poisoning unto death.  'Bulk calories for horses', shall we say.  Veterinary clinics would have anti-biotics, hardware stores would have weapons and construction materials.       One venue they omit is one Conrad is particularly aware of: supermarket distribution centres.  Where do you think the supplies in your local Tesco or Walmart come from?  A central distribution point that supplies all the marts in a particular region; think of an aircraft hangar with chiller cabinets and freezers.  Art!

     That's a Sainsbo's Central Distribution Centre, and you can see how freakishly huge the site is.  Not only that, they tend to be located way out in the middle of nowhere so as to be equidistant from as many supermarkets as possible, hence their remoteness means far fewer looters or zeds.  Only reallllly viable as long as you have a vehicle and usable fuel.
     Hmmm, didn't think we'd get a whole Intro out of that single subject, yet we did.  Don't worry, there are 8 other headings to work through.  I bet you can hardly wait.

Progress Report

I like to keep you informed.  I am now up to Episode 25 of 'The Great War', meaning there's this one and Episode 26 before we're done and I get back ninety minutes at a time.  Art!

     That's the tally of photographs taken, days ago as we're now probably over 300 of them.  43 pages of A4 notes, although not all are complete, so perhaps only really 35 in toto.

     The problem is, what to do with all these notes and pictures?  They constitute about a solid week's worth of whole blogs by themselves, which might be too dry a theme to sustain.  The other prospect is doing them one Episode at a time, larded with the photo screenshots.  Not putting them on BOOJUM! at all?  Unthinkable!  Art?

Inclement For Some

We have mentioned that most excellent of OSINT compilers and mappers, 'Clement Molin', previously, as he continues to map out the conflict in Ukraine and is used as a touchstone resource by other vloggers, including 'Jake Broe'.  Jake put up a few maps that Clement had compiled, and the result is, as punned above, inclement for the orcs of Mordorvia.  Art!

     Here's the preceding article Jake was talking about; 'Magyar's Birds' and their utterly relentless drone campaign across Krim and the occupied territories, with the total number of energy targets they've hit of late - 315 as per the counter, 21 in the last 3 days.  Art!

     Jake states that there are 220 sub-stations identified as being hit and destroyed by Clem, and I'll take his word for it.  Winter in Krim and the occupied territories is going to be miserable for the occupiers, and any remaining locals.  Art!

     The white dots are gas infrastructure - actual gas as in 'Gazprom' and not the incorrect South Canadian usage of the word instead of the correct English 'petrol' - and the red dots are petrochemical infrastructure, which have been paid a visit by Angry Kozaky Birds.  Which has led to a return to enormous queues for petrol allllll across Mordorvia.  Art!

     The wisest commentators assume that the vanishing of queues in mid-July was due to the release of an emergency reserve stock of petrol, which has now run out, and the long, long lines of cars are back - everywhere.  Including Barad-Duh, which Putinpot tries to shield from the war's effects if at all possible, so things are bad and if this continues he might be shown footage that he can then bloviate about.

Eyes Bigger Than Stomach

Meaning one can fill a plate with too much food, since the eyes don't have to accommodate it but the stomach does.  To what am I referring?  Art!

     

     With hand for scale.  Yes, here's Jimmi from 'Flavour Trip' cooking up a huge pan of food for himself and Amii, whom is on the petite side and surely not capable of eating half of that dish?  Plus there's another large plate of stuff off to one side, implying that there shall be even more to eat in a few minutes.

Finally -

I shall post later of the Plans from Sunday that came to fruition, but here is another Thief Of Time that Col put forward that I have to check out as otherwise it would be rude - 

     Conrad is a positive tyro when it comes to planes, so we shall see.

*  If such exists.  Hang on -

Chef Boyardee never made an official canned product called "Hot Dog Dinner," but people often mix this up with SpaghettiOs with Franks (made by Campbell's) or nostalgic homemade "struggle meals" combining canned pasta and sliced hot dogs.