07-03-2019, 03:49 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Nov 2015
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
What happened and how long has it been? Decades could be 30 or 50 or 80 years I guess.
Also... Where there any other survivors who might have already grabbed everything that was available? Last edited by Aldric; 07-03-2019 at 04:17 AM. |
07-03-2019, 05:39 AM | #12 |
Icelandic - Approach With Caution
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Reykjavķk, Iceland
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
It kind of depends what you mean by battery life. I know that when you're photographing in cold weather you keep the batteries close to your body because they last longer there, you can even switch a depleted battery from the camera and bring it to the (body) heat and recover some charge on it.
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07-03-2019, 06:57 AM | #13 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
The majority of everything on a store shelf travels a minimum of a hundred miles (and in some cases many thousands of miles) before it gets to retail outlets. The first thing that goes in an apocalypsse will be convenient sourcing of anything that orginates over thirty to fifty miles away. The modern highway systems in North America and Europe will help immensely in the survival of older small towns.
I specified "older" small towns. Modern suburbs will lack food production, and may even lack water supplies. Suburbia will die out, and older towns (that in days past had farmlands surrounding them and were built next to water sources) will be in a position to flourish after the "population adjustment". Many major cities may become trading hubs with a fraction of their original population. But many of those cities will have paved over or used up their water supplies and be unable to grow their own food. Those cities will be depopulated. To reiterate - without the supply networks of modern civilization, communities will be dependent on their own food and water supplies.
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07-03-2019, 07:09 AM | #14 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
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Godlike supers broke the world with their abilities and vampires. It's a combination of global cooling creating a mini-ice age (about a 7 degree drop from current temps) due to messed up weather control, a vampire virus that made South and Central America very hard to deal with, and a few other things. Most buildings are intact, but runaway use of powers has made green and growing things explode in growth when the weather is right (most of the northern hemisphere has Alaska's climate basically - lots of cold, one or two months for growing stuff, etc.) so that's affected buildings. Essentially, imagine a supers fight that lasted months and you get the idea of the amount of damage that's been done to structures. Put that through a 10-year winter and you get closer. It's been at least 30 years, but no more than 35 (I still haven't quite decided yet). Quote:
How long do rubber tires last? I know they can dry rot in a year or two, but what about if safely contained elsewhere and outside of the weather.
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07-03-2019, 07:10 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
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07-03-2019, 07:47 AM | #16 | ||||||
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
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07-03-2019, 07:54 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
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07-03-2019, 08:07 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
10 years is the usual rule of thumb. UV, ozone, and humidity are bad (tire manufacturers recommend airtight plastic bags as covers to protect stored tires), as are extreme temperatures (below freezing, or over around 80F). If you can seal them and climate-control them, then they can last a very long time, but "apocalypse" suggests you won't have the climate control at least.
They also need to be stored somehow without pressure that will deform or flatten the tire -- not in big stacks (no more than 5-6 feet if stacked horizontally) or random junkyard piles, nor mounted on cars, but preferably vertically on racks. Tires that get deformed from all that weight while uninflated can crack when inflated (or worse, a bit later under driving stress). Scavenging from wrecks or a freeway full of an abandoned traffic jam is a cool scene, but realistically you wouldn't get much use from that 30 years after. |
07-03-2019, 08:14 AM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
Quote:
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07-03-2019, 09:47 AM | #20 |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Denver, CO
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Re: So What IS ruined after an Apocalypse?
One underrated problem is fuel. liquid fuels like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel go bad surprisingly quickly.
Gasoline has a stable shelf life of about 3 months. Less if it's mixed with ethanol which it usually is in the US to reduce emissions. More if it's mixed with stabilizing chemicals, but 9 months is pretty much the outside. Diesel can be stored longer, generally 6-12 months. I didn't find a ready source for jet fuel. Engines can be run on high-content alcohol, and maybe some are converted that way, but human or animal power seems more likely. Burnable material is more likely to be used for heating and calorically dense items are more likely to be used as food than distilled. But if some industry has returned, it may well be running on alcohol instead of oil. Given the overgrowth of plant matter, this may be even more practical. Particularly for cooking and heating. |
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