Wednesday, September 2, 2009

The Colony

How'd I miss this new reality TV show? Might have something to do with not watching TV. From the Colony website:

What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter?

The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.

With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.

Experts from the fields of homeland security, engineering and psychology have helped design the world of The Colony to reflect elements from both real-life disasters and models of what the future could look like after a global viral outbreak.

Over the course of the 10-week experiment, the Colonists must work together to build the necessities of survival, such as a water-filtration system, a battery bank that powered their electricity, a solar cooker, a shower system and a greenhouse – and even some niceties (a coffee maker!).

Tune in Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT to see who thrives and who fails to survive.


I'll have to check this out...

Knife, pig

Another little tidbit to keep us warm. Xavier Rosset kept himself alive for 300 days on an isolated tropical island with nothing but a knife and a machete. By the end, it sounds like he might have even been a bit bored. That gives me hope that life will not be impossibly hard without all our modern conveniences.

Man survives 300 days with knife, pig via Neatorama