John Griogair Bell - Arlecchino Malbenvolio

Reminds me of the safari-tafl game …

Roundaboutâ„¢ is easy to learn and simple to play, yet it is filled with many strategic possibilities for those who enjoy a more challenging game. And with three and four players, the fun builds when opponents choose between going it alone or forming alliances with each other.

Played on a round board, players advance their game pieces in opposite directions using Roundabout’s innovative offensive and defensive maneuvers. The first player to remove all of his or her pieces from the board is the winner!

Via playroundabout.com

Via Synergic Earth News, “A Book Review of The Long Emergency“:

“The reality that our society is currently refusing to face, Kunstler says, is that time is just about up for industrial civilization as we have known it. Kunstler’s thesis is straightforward: Malthus was right, but cheap oil has postponed the day of reckoning, creating a century-long ‘artificial bubble of plenitude’ and generating a host of intractable problems partly or entirely related to our prolonged energy spending spree.”

The review then goes on to point out that the last chapter suggests some areas will fare better in the aftermath. One area is the Pacific Northwest. That’s the eponymous Ecotopia.

Just what happened to all the months and even years of preparation for disasters in the wake of 9/11?

If the systems aren’t in place for NOLA, to get food, water, medical into the places that need it on the coast, just what is it that we’ve been preparing for?

If there was no preparation for disasters on a scale like this, admittedly huge, then they only prepared for small ones. If they can’t respond quickly, then they weren’t prepared to respond quickly.

Local govts have service agreements with surrounding areas, so that if something big happens, they already have in place agreements to aid the delivery and use of wide-ranged resources. Olympia has this kind of arrangement with the surrounding cities. So, if something happens in one city, it is already set up for the other city to provide equipment and resources.

And yet, there’s Canada, wanting to help, but not being let in. The PM of Canada is having to pick up a phone and call the US President, AND NOT GETTING A RESPONSE FOR DAYS, to offer help and ask why the Canadian offers of help are not being allowed in.

So, was there no agreement already in place, no procedure in place ALREADY? There was not only no one prepared to say, “Yes, please implement the plan,” but there WAS NO FREAKIN’ PLAN.

How prepared are we, really? If, after years of thinking and preparing, we aren’t prepared at all for something that comes without warning, no, strike that: SOMETHING THAT COMES WITH WARNING. We can’t respond to a crisis about which we knew?

Now that I think about it: Why were not resources lined up and put on alert BEFORE the crisis?

Not only are we not prepared, but there’s no mechanisms for being on alert, apparently.

So, just how prepared are we really?

And, now, one might think to wonder … isn’t it unfortunate that the National Guard isn’t. That is, they aren’t even here … but being used somewhere else, for a military mission.

And, now, one might think to wonder … don’t the helicopters and guard that appear in the background of every press conference HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO WITH THEIR TIME?

And, now, one might think to wonder … if this had been a terrorist attack, of some kind, if there’s no plan, no one to implement the plan, and the national guard is either somewhere else entirely, or being used as backdrops to press conferences … just how prepared are we really?