Since with a second edition there is hardly any excuse for getting things wrong, I have spent what seemed like an inordinate amount editing and finding and fixing errors. And yet, when I opened the newly arrived book I immediately stumbled on a slight imperfection: in it, I suggest that Osama Bin Laden CIA code name would turn out to be "Elvis," but now it turns out that it was "Geronimo" (or his stunt double) who, if you believe the news, was recently killed and dumped in the ocean by a death squad composed of some trained seals. My bad: I should have known that the CIA, being a politically correct organization, would never pick a code name that might be offensive to white people! The world can seem infinitely mysterious; it's all a matter of just how gullible you are.
I am sure that the text contains a few other tiny glitches of this sort, but, in all, the fist edition has stood the test of time. The new edition goes beyond it, putting the unfolding collapse into more of a context. Among other things, it provides a new perspective on how Peak Oil is likely to unfold, and it describes viable collapse-era business management and product development strategies. I am happy that the publisher has decided to keep this book alive for a couple more years, as I hope you will be.
23 comments:
Target "Geronimo" is aquired; and then lost.
Looking forward to (re)reading it!
Yes, the bin Laden assassination sounds pretty weird, and has a bad smell about it. Just like some unexplained things about 9/11. But you ask some reasonable questions and you're immediately labeled a "conspiracy theorist" (ie. kook) and dismissed.
Ah well. It's all a magic show.
i know the seals were trained, but how do they hold guns in their flippers?
Dmitry, love the blog and book. Though I'm a bit disappointed you're buying some of the conspiracy stuff - the DNA test was not faster than physically possible - it's well within today's technology to do such tests in a few hours. (I think people get confused because the commercial labs usually won't get it done faster than a week or so, but that's not a technological limitation but a bureaucratic one.)
I am looking forward to 2.0 very much and have it on pre-order with NSP. The personal experiences that you recounted in 1.0 I found to be very enlightening and very touching, from using vodka and blue jeans as currency, to the babas selling vegetables on card tables at the side of the road. We can learn so much from other peoples solutions to an economic and personal crisis.We all have keep as many options open as possible,such as the psychiatrist that started importing shampoo. I hope that there are personal stories 2.0 and look forward to this update
Draft,
See the latest post on,
http://www.collapsenet.com/free-resources/collapsenet-public-access/item/828-ghosts-of-september-11th
specifically, the section that begins with,
"I have run one of the world's largest and most productive DNA genotyping facilities..."
Your link to 'todays technologies'
just connects to the front page of a biotech. company. Is there something more you would like to add here?
Seems simple enough to establish whether or not this is possible. Half a day seems pretty quick to me.
What one should ask is when and where was the original sample of Osama bin Laden's DNA collected for the database of DNA samples against which the recent comparison was done. Perhaps from Tim Osman
As an early and appreciative reader of Post-Soviet Lessons For a Post-Industrial America on From The Wilderness (waiting for each of the second and third parts to appear on line) I intend to read the "improved" book.
Didn't a former president have a code name of Elvis?
Terrorist or not, it seems kinda weird that the US removed his body from the site and buried it at sea. I presume this is spoils of the victor but not as interesting as decapitation and putting the skull on a stick.
Native Americans have loudly complained about the use of Geronimo's name as code for OBL. My suggestion for an appropriate code name would be Walter Demara--doesn't have the same ring to it though, does it?
Hi Dmitri, any chance that we get this on kindle?
Thanks for not wasting too much time wrangling with the absurd. Not sure many people had a chance to even wonder what was happening behind the media orgy this week. Looking forward to the book 2.0
Up on deck a coffin slides into the sea. Meanwhile, down below, cook is looking round the freezer for that 200 pounds of ribs he was sure was "right there yesterday, dammit".
The privilege of whiteness never ceases to disappoint me.
On the one hand, the U.S. picking "Geronimo" shows that despite the rhetoric, this is what the government still feels about us Native People.
On the other hand, both Geronimo and bin Laden both had a preternatural gift for evading the U.S. troops for a long time.
It's human and normal to celebrate the defeat of an enemy. But I would just remind the sloganeers and such who claim to follow the Bible to remember:
Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
or the LORD will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from them
Proverbs 24:17-20
Cheapest UK and EU I've been able to find is here at £8.49 (Free shipping):
http://www.thehut.com/books/reinventing-collapse/10383362.html
ClubOrlov,
My name is Bill Hawthorne and I am a political blogger. Just had a question about your blog and couldn’t find an email—please get back to me as soon as you can (barbaraobrien(at)maacenter.org)
Thanks,
Bill
The point about Geronimo and his legendary elusiveness may very well on target. It may have been intended as a compliment; but that would require a lot of subtlety and fair-mindedness.
All the Federales say, could have had him any day, only let him go so long out of ? I suppose...
Like most of the other modern conspiracies, there is always so much BS commingling with actual facts, finding even a fair approximation of verifiable truth is a herculean task. But in this and 911 as in so many others, having even my darkest suspicions confirmed would not substantially alter my general world-view on politics, economics, and human psychology. So I stick with what I know, and try to focus on the self-evident catastrophes that are unfolding all around us.
"The point about Geronimo and his legendary elusiveness may very well on target. It may have been intended as a compliment; but that would require a lot of subtlety and fair-mindedness."
No, actually it would require a historical context in which European and North American leaders didn't rob, rape, illegally dispossess and kill Native Americans for 400 years.
I think its funny how all of you are getting sucked into this 'Osama death' distraction. You're not gullible for believing Osama died, for which the case is ambiguous, but for caring about this issue at all. If there was a marker for those who will not be prepared for collapse, it is those who think spending time worrying about whether 'we' got 'him'.
What I find interesting about this "Osama's dead! No he isn't!" debate isn't the facts of the matter. It's that so many people -- not just on Kollapsnik's blog, either -- do not agree on what the truth is on all sorts of things. How does a civilzation continue when so many people believe in different "realities"?
Whether it's 911 Truth, Obama's birth certificate, global warming, ballot fraud to elect George Bush, the JFK assassination, Alien Lizard Overlords secretly ruling the Earth... So many competing narratives out there. It's only natural for any thinking person to be skeptical, given the lies that have been told about so many things.
But organized society depends on a certain amount of trust. You have to believe it's milk you're drinking, not melamine, and that the money that someone just handed you was not just printed on a machine in their garage. If EVERYTHING is suspect, and every fact must be independently verified before being accepted, things grind to a halt. How far are we from that point?
My wife's a Truther, and she doesn't believe that Osama was killed in the way that's being publicized. She points out that "who knows if the alleged wives of Osama bin Laden are real, or CIA plants?" The suspicion she has is making her miserable.
What that approach boils down to is solipsism. "I don't believe anything unless I experience it myself." Or rather, "I believe what I choose to believe, no matter what's being said." It leads to a kind of free-floating paranoia about everything, except what a person chooses not to be paranoid about. It's not an easy way to live.
Myself, I'm a LIHOP (realPresident Cheney knew something was up before 9/11 so he "Let It Happen On Purpose" so he could start the Iraq war he really wanted) rather than a MIHOP ("Made It Happen On Purpose"). I still have questions about Building 7. As for Osama's "death," I choose to believe the official story, that a terrorist originally created by the CIA and sheltered under the wing of Pakistan's ISI was ferreted out by a U.S. kill squad. I can be persuaded by more convincing evidence.
But ultimately, I don't spend a lot of time obsessing over these things. The events in question are way above my level to control, no matter what the truth is. I have a limited ability to play on a field that was designed by others. That's my focus.
I just wonder how the overwhelming cynicism and disbelief amongst the intelligentsia of America, and probably the entire world, is going to play out. In the final days of the Soviet Union, was the distrust of everything this strong? If nothing is true, then anything might be true, and that's no way to keep things going.
The timing of Bin Laden's supposed death was just as suspicious to me as the fact that there is no hard evidence and the Pakistani government says it wishes to blow up the compound so it doesn't become a shrine.
The real reason the US has suddenly demonized Khaddafy and are trying to kill him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn__tMbhQHU&feature=youtu.be
Now that our boys have whacked the top dog, we should all be patient and never question the government's interventions and let the boys do their job.
I am guessing that this "treasure trove" of evidence that bin Laden is supposedly stupid enough to have laying around will implicate Khaddafy and/or any other country or leader who tries to diversify the petro dollar and gain some independence from the elites who have been controlling the show for so long now.
I am betting Obama is trying to manufacture consent for sending ground forces into Libya, as he ran as the "peace candidate" who promised us "change we can believe in". Chalk that one up with the world's greatest lies as we witness the last acts of a desperate empire in decline and doomed to collapse sooner than most think.
I will also bet Obama never apologies to the Appache for yet another despicable act on people who had much more reverence and respect for the land than this cancer that came from europe and killed everything in the process.
I am ordering Collapse 2.0 now. Meanwhile, he is an independent view of this Osama fairytale. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta2_P7JZ9qs&feature=share
I still say they are manufacturing consent and paving the way for ground forces as the last ditch effort of an empire in decline, true acts of desperation require desperate measures to keep the game going. Osama's head on a platter would give them the excuse they need to "liberate" oil exporting countries who do not do what they are told. I knew when Khaddafy suddenly had to go that he must have done something to threaten the US petro dollar and the central banks. Thus, "humanitarian" missions, with a generous dose of cruise missile and bombs ala Uncle Sam.
I was always under the impression the president had to get approval from Congress before going to war. Meet the new boss? Obama is no different than that son of a Bush before him. Voting, writing your congress asshole, are all gestures in futility. If voting really made a difference, they'd make it illegal.
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