The Blackout Thread

So there was this TV program on in the UK on Monday (Channel 4) called "Blackout". And as the name suggests it was about a nationwide, week long power outage in the UK caused by a cyber attack.

I think the portrayal of the public's reaction in this event is quite accurate (Although its never happened before) and the program in my opinion was intriguing.

It followed a number of different people all filming with their phones or cameras during the week.

There was a single parent with her child and a stranger offering a ride to get them to the woman's mother in a different city. 2 young men stuck away from home after a drinking session out of town with no trains running. A family at home with a small amount of prepared food and items for such an event. A brother and sister in hospital after a car accident, the brother in a coma.

throughout the program between the footage from the different people it shows mass rioting and idiots looting flat screen TVs and other valuables.

Here is the advert trailer for the program.



Me and my girlfriend watched this and had different opinions on some of the scenes. Particularly the family at home with supplies. I said to her that the US are currently disputing gun laws and that I thought everyone should be allowed a gun for protection. She thinks nobody has the right to take another mans life...which I couldn't really argue with but I tried explaining a situation where I would use one.

Later on in the show the family's home was broken into, their food and generator were stolen and the dad was beaten up. I told my girlfriend that is when I would use a gun and their right to life disappears the second they break into someone elses house. She still disagreed. I told her if someone broke into our house at night I wouldn't even waste time finding out what they were doing and I wouldn't feel bad if I killed them. Of course I cant be sure as its never happened to me but that was the feeling I got when I watched this.

We also disagreed on a scene where the woman with her child were blocked by police from entering Sheffield to get to the Grandmother. My opinion was that its best not to travel in the first place if you are prepared enough to stay at home but if you need to reach family members then nobody should be able to stop you going anywhere. Even if its for your protection it is your choice and a risk you should decide whether to take or not.

My girlfriend thinks the police are just doing their jobs and people shouldn't be so harsh on them.

It was a very thought provoking show and although me and my girlfriend had different opinions on some situations. We both agreed keeping a stock of food, water, lighters and other equipment is important and if this happened we would stay off the roads.

I would recommend downloading this if you are outside of the UK or getting it on Catch Up if you are in the UK.

And for anyone who has seen it what are your thoughts and opinions.

yeah with one of the meteor hit New england back there this "Blackout" can mean anything..
but stay sharp friend!!

S&F Tq for the Information..

reply to post by Silicis n Volvo


Self defense doesn't make sense to some people that have never had a family member raped and killed in front of them while a knife is being held to their neck. Maybe they just watched too many princess movies as a kid, maybe they only see the good in humanity which is a good thing...for normal peaceful life. But the world doesn't always stay peaceful and the elites work so hard to bring death, division and oppression. How many Americans have experienced being hungry for 2 days and all they got is a gun. Bad combo.

I had once read about a major sun flare headed towards earth. I called my brother and told him about it that very night because it was the last thing i was reading about. The next day the power went out in San Diego for about a day. I wondered if some guy in Yuma really made that happen like the media told us.

When the power went out i was sitting at a AAA in Encinitas (33rd parallel). Well the lights went out, computers went down in an instant. All the traffic lights were reset and the roads were all backed up because every light turned into a four way stop sign. It took a long time just to get 2 miles north.

I'd say 7 out of 10 people were using the event to get to know the neighbors, break out alcohol, party etc.. I always said there would be a San Diego baby boom exactly 9 months later. Nobody seemed that worried. Those 2 or 3 people out of 10 that did care, they were buying up as much as they could at the grocery store and it was going dry real quick. The only water left was the water in the baby section and it was almost totally gone.

I had a sick feeling the whole thing was some sick test to gauge how the southwest responds to a power outage. I grade most people a D+ just like our power grid infrastructure is graded D+ and that is generous.

I noticed a lot of cars were already abandoned around the gas stations! They had gotten to the gas stations and gas pumps run off electricity. You'd think they would have generators and pump at a premium but NO. No electricity no gas. No gas means tens of thousands of big rigs won't be bringing food or supplies.

People take power for granted. With power you can heat water and people in apartments don't always have wood to burn. Do you know how demoralizing it is to not have warm water for a while? Do you know how many people live 2 or 3 days from not having toilet paper?
Diabetes medicine? You want to talk about zombies? Just imagine millions of people on anti depressants coming down from years of medication at the same time. Wow. Think about all the poopy butts without TP. All the people in apartments who don't even own a bucket or have extra trash bags.

But if you can generate power you run stuff. You can refill batteries for food, water, ammo, shelter, etc...
You can trade power for TP, lighters, alcohol, medicine...or whats left of it.

My idea is this. There are going to be millions of abandoned cars everywhere in a blackout. I mean just a few hours and there were already people leaving their cars by the road, just imagine no gas for a week.

If you could streamline the process of pulling alternators and batteries and putting them in series...Linking up bikes, horses, cows, whatever needs exercise. Figure out how to run alternators on different gears so you can put a different gear on depending on whats cranking it. Hook um up to bikes, row machines, homemade windmills, manual hand cranks, etc.. There are gonna be a lot of males without work and they are going to need a little exercise to calm the nerves. Horses need exercise and ranch help won't be around in some cases. There has gotta be some pretty cool things you can do with parts from these cars. Just an idea. People with butane are probably going to run out. Generators will be useless for most because there will be no gas. Knowing how to convert generators to run off vegetable grease. Electrolysis.

People will want power for their cell phones so that they can play games and use apps to pass time. Cell phones can run on private com networks they dont have to run on only your carriers network. Solar powered wifi wi/max repeaters. Analog to digital. Digital to analog. digital to digital.

Power outages are not fun. It makes you realize that societies that don't have power are always being made fun of by the West. But guess what? When the power goes out being dependent on power and electricity is a MAJOR WEAKNESS like we've yet to fully see.

I'm just ranting but it was fun, thanks for reading. Whats your complimentary ideas?

Silicis n Volvo

Later on in the show the family's home was broken into, their food and generator were stolen and the dad was beaten up. I told my girlfriend that is when I would use a gun and their right to life disappears the second they break into someone elses house. She still disagreed. I told her if someone broke into our house at night I wouldn't even waste time finding out what they were doing and I wouldn't feel bad if I killed them.

I think your problem with that is if you had a gun, you can bet the gang of people breaking into your house would all have guns too. And how likely do you think you are to win a shoot-out with half a dozen armed thugs who are much more prepared for violence than you are, plus who are wide awake and alert while you've just woken up because you can hear people breaking in?

Your gun hasn't made you safer, it's just made you significantly more likely to get shot and killed.

reply to post by Silicis n Volvo


One of my Uncles used to keep a few hundred quid, some black hash, Embassy Regals,
keys(to God knows what) ,some papers, and a hatchet behind some bricks in the corner
of his mates flat somewhere in London. God knows what he hid in Scotland.

I guess it is instinctual, as members of my family have hidden objects
near Rosslyn Chapel for Centuries.

That is, before we moved to The States there about 1850 or so.

According to the books... Live Long and Prosper, Wilmanimal

Painterz

Silicis n Volvo

Later on in the show the family's home was broken into, their food and generator were stolen and the dad was beaten up. I told my girlfriend that is when I would use a gun and their right to life disappears the second they break into someone elses house. She still disagreed. I told her if someone broke into our house at night I wouldn't even waste time finding out what they were doing and I wouldn't feel bad if I killed them.

I think your problem with that is if you had a gun, you can bet the gang of people breaking into your house would all have guns too. And how likely do you think you are to win a shoot-out with half a dozen armed thugs who are much more prepared for violence than you are, plus who are wide awake and alert while you've just woken up because you can hear people breaking in?

Your gun hasn't made you safer, it's just made you significantly more likely to get shot and killed.

I disagree.

someone comes into your house with a gun...if you dont have one you could stand back and let them take everything...fight back and get shot for definate...but if you had a gun...you could fight back with a much better chance of winning and either killing them or scaring them away. it is your house afterall you know it better than they do.

guns make you safer..period

reply to post by StopThaZionistWorldOrder


About the TP thing. I've been (slowly) prepping for a while now, buying a little extra this or that on most trips to the store. My go-to item for over a year has been TP. Almost every trip to the store includes grabbing a little TP (the good stuff or the cheap stuff -- lots of the cheap stuff -- depending on that day's budget) even if I'm just running in for some milk or something. Family laughs but I got quite a stash of the stuff. If I don't have to share, I probably have at least 6 or 7 months worth right now.

I'm also a bit paranoid about water. Drought continues here and our pond is dried up. I have to run water from the house everyday to keep the animals watered. Several weeks ago I started saving every heavy duty plastic and glass bottle that I emptied. I fill them with water from our well. I have a cabinet full and the oven too (it doesn't work, I live in an old RV). Had to use my ice chest the other day and discovered several bottles of stored water that I'd forgotten I put into it. Although we are on well water, without power our main well becomes useless. We do have a well with a manual pitcher pump but I'm still a bit paranoid about that going dry if it's all we had available for all our water needs.

I'm with you on the car salvage. I'm not quite mechanically knowledgeable enough yet to figure out the alternator stuff but I've thought about just how much you could salvage from abandoned vehicles for use in a very long-term power outage situation.

Reading this thread reminds me that I need to gather up gas cans to fill and have on hand at least for short outages. Have a generator but without fuel it's just a heavy lump of metal.

This is a great thing to get people to think about. Every region feels the effects of any blackout in its own ways. Making sure that your basic needs are always on hand helps to keep something so simple from becoming a disaster, at least in the short term. I kind of enjoy the longer, 1 to 2 day, ones that we get. The family comes together in one room with no electronics or other electric distractions. We play games and munch on snacks and enjoy the wood stove.

Living in a region prone to horrible weather and sub freezing temperatures for months at a time has caused me to make sure that I always have water, easily prepared food, first aid, firewood, extra fuel, hand crank lanterns and flashlights, candles and so on and so forth. There is more on that list since I prefer to start winter with the ability to make it all the way through without outside assistance. I also believe in protection, if we have the ability to keep our family safe, why wouldn't we. A gun can be an invaluable tool, but so can a dog, they are pretty good about letting you know if someone is around your home.

There are also many layers to any preparedness plan. I have a freeze proof hand pump for my well in case of a long term outage, but I would first use my stored gallons from my kitchen and move on the the 70 gallons stored in barrels before I would even think about installing the hand pump. The same goes for food resources. Naturally you would use the perishable in your fridge, then your freezer before you would start working on stored cases of beans.

Anyone with any kind of specialized health needs would want to have as many of those supplies on hand as possible, just in case. You can also rotate medicines just as easily as food, always use the oldest first and you are stocked with a viable supply as well.

People survived for millennia without electricity, and rather well too. We just have to change our mindset about the situation. Most of us won't die without the Internet, our apps or our TV. Some good books and a few board games can help with the boredom. The largest concern would be people with health issues who may need refrigeration for meds or any kind of life support device. How many of us know if our neighbors fall into such a category? A little humanity can also go a very long way in any kind of situation.

reply to post by AhsoVaniva


In crisis TP is so valualbe, such a good form of trade...