Feb. 26, 2010 -- I was just able to get back online and see how many of you had rushed to my aid. More than $1,500 came in through Paypal alone and I am deeply touched. Thanks to my new friend and colleague, Paul Mineau, I am just loading software into a new computer. Thank you all so much. For most of you these donations are just a way of sustaining a worthy and useful service.
Those who have followed me for a while understand that for several years now, both I and Jenna have been giving away for free a lot of what we used to get paid for at FTW. (I can hear Jenna yelling, "What do you mean we?") It has required a lot of uncompensated effort, almost all from Jenna. I am in the process of forming a new company, Collapsenetwork, Inc. (Collapsenet) -- It's ironic that the only way to function in this dying paradigm is to become a corporation. But Collapsenet will be a closely-held C-Corp and I will always control more than 50% of the shares. Collapsenet's shares will never be traded publicly. We will accept a very limited number of investors when I get the OK to do that. We have a cracker jack CFO who cracks a mean whip too, and she will take care of our money as a paradigm dies, and as great uncertainty begins on the way into a new and undefined one. You'll meet her and others when we hopefully show you something in three weeks or sooner. We're going to try and change the way money works a little in the process. This is evolution.
Collapsenet will be vastly more efficient than all the work done on this page, two now very active Facebook pages, and from my personal email. It will also feature something new: me coming to you in live video with analysis, and commentary as events continue to unfold. That's right, you're going to be seeing a lot of me on a regular basis. (I'll brush my teeth.) I want to get Jenna up live too to tell us what's happening in New York and to offer her own eloquence and wisdom. (This is the first she's heard of it BTW.) I'm sure you'll see many faces you've come to know and love and you'll meet some cool people too.
This blog and all its archives will become a part of Collapsenet behind a subscriber-only wall that will eventually include many things. Collapsnet's ambition is to become a national and global clearinghouse for information on how collapse is unfolding, imminent dangers, emerging solutions, social networking, and eventually resource referrals to training and suppliers. Those services that we recommend will eventually be ranked by Collapsenet on various scales. We'll start simple to get it up and we'll add these other services as fast as we can. There are some kick-ass minds behind this... Hold your questions please. We're designing this lifeboat as we build it and it's very exciting.
But right now there's only one question on everybody's mind... WTF is going on?! -- That's where we start. I remember a great scene from Mel Gibson's "We Were Soldiers". In the middle of a battle, with all hell breaking loose, the battalion commander just stands up straight, unarmed, and starts walking around looking, almost oblivious to a furious 360 firefight. That's Collapsenet's primary mission, to understand and decipher the field. About half of the predictions I made in the movie "Collapse" have already come true. And I think we all know that we have it figured better than anyone out there... anyone who's talking anyway. The world is watching us and now we have to lead.
Pirated versions of "Collapse" have been downloaded more than a million times now all over the world... a million times. That explains why I'm still broke and have no income even as Collapse is having a global impact. Had I and the rest of the crew been paid for those views I would be forming Collapsenet from pocket change. I just love the pirates who email me and say, "Hey man, you're a great hero. I just downloaded (stole) your movie and it changed my life!" -- Gee thanks. -- But I have been paid with a new and vigorous worldwide network of friends, some of them very accomplished people in key locations. I intend to put that network to good use in Collapsenet. We can save lives together. So there is a payback for all of us... even me.
More importantly, Collapsnet will be set up to adapt rapidly to changing circumstances. It will be scalable. It will also feature the equivalent of iReports from people all over the world. I am now receiving a torrent of information that Collapsenet will be able to sort, analyze and track; and there will be significant investment in analytics. Tapping into and using this energy and knowledge may save millions of lives. We can all see that.
Collapsenet will be a fee-based service. I'm guessing $10 a month or $100 a year. That's because we're going to have several full time staffers and a very sophisticated Internet setup to receive and upload critical information with live video and audio feeds. Please don't hammer poor Jenna with questions. She's reading this as you are and she sure ain't no geek. But I can make this promise... in public. For your years of unbelievably dedicated and selfless service, Jenna you are going to get paid. I need you. We all need you. We all love you.
I can pretty much guarantee that a few long time blog loyalists will get free lifetime subscriptions.
We have so little time now. And I can't adequately say how grateful I am to have you guys. Just keep watching the blog for announcements. We're putting this together fast and it will not be perfect at first. There is no time to waste. The most important thing is to get me uplinked so that we can all start to process information faster and more effectively. You mapmakers are going to be needed and Collapsenet is going to give you some juice and maybe help you with your own lifeboats.
I'm going to go listen to the New White Trash song "Avalanche and Earthquake" now for inspiration... and I just ordered a pizza. I'm taking the night off. Thank you.
MCR
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Well, so we had our much-awaited "snow hurricane" today. (The difference between that and a run-of-the-mill blizzard remains elusive.) For a while, 't was all a-blur with white dust amidst actual flakes. But on the whole, no big whoop as some tv character or other used to say. Shops open, everyone stepping over awkward mounds and sloshing through twelve-foot-wide puddles. The days when the street ploughs used to clear it all up within hours to the tune of $1 million an inch have receded to a blip on the radar screen of history.
But school kids got the day off as did.....wait for it.... Chase Manhattan. In their infinite mystery and majesty, the banks that I either tried to get in or breezed by on the bus were Not At Home.
Funny day to go fishing.
JO
