Pencilnoob

I don't think society across the whole planet will collapse, short of a nuclear war in which case gold won't help one bit

Much more likely that certain areas will experience famine, war, disease, and reduced access to medicine.

Really the best bet is to be able to be mobile if an area has a significant decline you can move to where it's better

Same, I've blocked every single news and politics and it's bustling

It all started with that smile... that damned smile

I can second these and add

• yoga
• guided meditation videos
• breathing exercises
• long walks with a heavy pack

Walking, and add a weighted vest or backpack. Start light, like 5lb/2.5kg for a week or two, then increase by that much a week until you get to 40% of your body weight in a few months.

I find that 30lb/15kg is a great place to stop though, much more feels pretty rough.

Then just walk around. You can listen to music, podcasts, nature, bird sounds.

Do that 45 a day and you'll be significantly healthier in a few months.

It really is the dream

I live in a tiny NE college town where that happens but for breakfast at a dive coffeeshop. It's loud, packed, the food and coffee are meh, but every single day I can walk in there and see 5-10 locals eating breakfast and shooting the breeze. There's cliques who always sit together, and social butterflies who pick a different group every morning. A bottomless mug of coffee is $3, so folks will just come and hang out from like 8-11am. It's great fun.

There's a brewery next door that's often busy at night but generally it's a quiet town so folks are home chilling after dinner.

We leave them there and if it's damaged call a tow truck to come pick it up. If it's not damaged we'll maybe drive it out of the way or see if a patient's family member can come pick it up. Sometimes the cops will just have it towed anyway since it can't just stay on the road.

Keep in mind most firefighters in the USA are volunteers who just drive to the station when there's a fire - not paid professionals.

My station just hired our first full time paramedics, we have a few part time paid firefighter+EMTs, and some volunteer firefighter+EMTs.

While we're not getting that many fire calls, the few we get are pretty bad. Like, would burn down a neighborhood bad, because everything is now made from fast burning plastics. Sofas, carpets, house paint, siding, roofs, furniture, and clothes are all pretty much petroleum based. And will burn extremely hot and fast when it catches, spreading to all the surrounding exposure buildings.

My buddy works at Underwriters Laboratories and was saying they just did a burn test that showed the typical house today will catch neighboring houses on fire just from the infrared radiation through their windows. Even if the neighboring houses are soaking wet, the insides can still catch fire through the windows.

So we're in a jam - we hardly ever have real house fires, but they are extremely dangerous and will burn the whole town down if we don't get there asap.

Not to mention all the car crashes, hazmat spills, EMS lift assists. I'm sure there's a way we can improve the situation, but I honestly don't know what it would look like. The US is a huge place that's very spread out, I don't think we're ever going to fully go away from volunteer firefighters, as much as I think it would be more efficient.

Long story short, if you're able to lift a 30lb box overhead, the volunteer fire service is desperate in most places. Volunteerism is down like 90% from it's peak. But most fire stations are entirely volunteer. So there's a very real need for more folks to pitch in. I'm happy to chat with anyone who is curious and wants to get into it. I highly recommend it, it's done wonders for my personal life.

Firefox on Android is pretty good and you can still install an ad blocker.

I second this, a monitor is useful in so many more ways! It turns your phone into a whole computer. If you use Android, you can install a terminal and be able to do all kinds of cool stuff on it.

I put a computer monitor with an HDMI to usb C adapter in my kitchen so I can plug in my phone and put on MST3K while cooking.

It's also useful because you can use it as an external monitor for another computer.

If it's small you might try printing the files on archival paper with archival ink. Then you can put copies in multiple safe deposit boxes. Also you could bury copies rolled up in plastic water bottles. I think those are unlikely to degrade anytime soon. Or glass bottles with plastic lids.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Capacity_Color_Barcode