I should probably just go ahead and give the book to Old Hag
The end of the contest to win a copy of Kevin Shay's The End As I Know It is almost here and the field is still wide open. The current score leader has only 4 out of 10.
Of course, if you find it easier to just buy a copy of the book, that's certainly OK with me. Promotion is the whole point of the contest, after all. And of course it's even easier to bookmark Kevin's site, particularly the on this day pre-Y2K page, which reprints real posts from 1998-2000 bulletin boards. Here's a typical one.
Can any sound thinking person ignore this issue? What good are itsy bitsy “we’re compliant” stories in the face of an oil supply that is about to belly up? Are we to think the power companies can generally feed the grid what it demands if the oil supply is interrupted or reduced? Are we to think that itsy bitsy, teeny weeny Wall Street computers, or Federal Reserve bank computers can operate more than a few days or weeks without central power? Who the hell are we kidding, anyway?
By the way, I'm asking myself the same question about this contest.