mat24a

In our greenhouse this year a wasp colony formed without anyone noticing.

But luckily the particular species in there is very peaceful and has a comparatively small colony. What is very interesting is that this species does not enclose their nest but build it in a completely exposed way. Very cool as you can always see whats going on in the nest.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldwespen#/media/Datei:Nido_d... This is a picture from wikipedia showcasing the unique nest structure.

In the christian view earthly things will never statisfy us, as what we are seeking is the infinite. So only what is infinite can statisfy us, however there is only one such thing in existence: God.

People who have not realized this or do not want to realize this will be stuck restless going from one thing to another. As St. Augustine famously put it: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."

As for practical advice I cant offer much exept that you should build an awarness of how much is given in your life. Your job, your wealth, your wife, your kids are all given to you and can be taken from you again at any moment. Especially your life is something you did not merit by your own actions at all, life was given to you and it will be taken from you without you having much of a choice in it.

Obviously I recommend finding God, but there is no set "algorithm" for finding him. For some people its enough to be convinced intellectually, for some its not. I dont know you so I dont know what you would respond to. The only general thing I could say is that you should try to keep yourself open to God.

I'm more or less a german 'prepper', but this article doesnt really tell good reasons to prep. I personally think everyone should have food and water stored for atleast 14 days(which is also something the government recommends), because natural disasters or other disasters can still hit you, even when your country is stable.

As for the stability of the country: In Germany we sadly have a very misguided energy policy. We are essentially building back more than we are building up. We are closing down or planning on closing down nuclear and coal, yet we are not even building enough renewable energy sources to cover the needed demand. Our energy storage capabilites are not enough. We dont have all the powerlines build or even planned that could transport the offshore wind park energy into the deeper mainland. We will be missing multiple gigawatthours in the future. As it seems Germany is just planning on importing the difference from countries around us. Sadly this makes not only the german grid unstable, but the whole european grid. We already had 2 close calls in the european grid this year, which luckily were resolved by the engineers. We are going closer and closer to an actual blackout, and this could cascade into larger areas of europe, since the grid is interconnected. A real blackout, and not just a temporary power out will take 10 to 14 days to resolve in optimistic calculations. If there are problems getting the grid started again this could well take longer. No power means: No running water after 1 day at best, no supermarkets, no fridges, no heating, no cooking on usual stoves, no phone calls, no internet, no fuel stations, etc. Of course no phone calls means you cant call the police, which is very practial for criminal gangs. No phone calls also means you cant call the firefighters, and if there is no running water whatsoever they will have a problem quickly as well. Streets will clog up because of accidents and cars running out of gasoline, blocking of the supply ways for hospitals. So they will also get into troube relatively fast.

I could go on but I think you get the gist of it. A blackout would be like a temporary 'collapse' because the whole modern way of living is just suddenly halted, with people not being perpared for that. Now I think this scenario would be less drastic if people were aware of the danger and prepared accordingly. If everyone has some food and water then the shortages wont be as drastic immediately.

Now I cant predict the exact date when this will happen, but I think that in the 3 years this will happen, unless we radically change our energy policy. Janurary next year will be interesting as there are some powerplants permanently going offline, which will increase the instability. You just need to have a bad day with not enough or too much wind and little sun, which is likely in the winter, and then you already have it. Add to that an increased demand though heating, light, etc, and the odds start looking worse.

Some interesting links for the topic: https://www.smard.de/en (An official realtime tracker that shows how much energy is being produced by what source)

https://www.bundesrechnungshof.de/de/veroeffentlichungen/pro... (This one is in german, but here you can see some official data on the whole grid situation and its future.)