I am such a child of the eighties (as in, I grew up halfway expecting an apocalypse). Identification of edible plants and mushrooms, not to mention medicinal plants (and a fairly good start on for real medicinal as opposed to folkloric medicinal). Spinning, weaving, preparation of fibers and a fair bit on natural dyeing (hey, we will get an economy going eventually, right?) Gardening. Domestication of natural yeast, bread making starting from whole grains (and I've threshed and winnowed grains, just not a ton), how to make a wood burning oven from clay, and experience cooking in such a thing. (And a fairly good idea how to make a simple kiln, and I've worked with native clays and fire things in such a kiln, just never made one from scratch.) I've done a bit of smithing, and I was about to say I don't know enough (outside of theory) about refining ores, but if we're talking post-apocalyptic, there is likely a fair bit of metal stock to be had. Decent at fish-traps, too. Some basic masonry. Cheese and yoghurt making. Tofu making, for that matter, which is much the same thing. (And I could probably fraction of the MgCl from seawater as a coagulant.) (I also could produce alcoholic beverages from a variety of substance... though the quality might be iffy. And I know many brewers who are really good.) ...and this is getting a little ridiculous, so I'll stop with the list though it's far from complete. However?

"Not to mention someone capable of swinging a sword and lopping the heads off marauders intent on dragging off the young women and torching the village."

I suppose I no longer really count as a young woman, but I'm a martial artist and a martial arts instructor* and jian is probably my best weapon. (Though a good jian requires pretty decent metalurgy - spear might be a better place to start.) And I'm a member of a Chan Buddhist order that emphasizes studies on medicine and the natural sciences. I'd happily teach those young women (and men, and, really, anyone else who can manage not to be an asshole) but I do think the idea that after some kind of societal breakdown women will be commodities and/or victims gets a bit overplayed. (Though... bah. Birth control. Really really need birth control. And while there are many low tech things that can help a lot, few of them are both reliable and reversible.)

* Though my day job is being a neurobiologist. Yup, most biologists are nuts.

Buddha isn't a god. Buddishm isn't innately theistic (there are theistic versions of Buddhism. *shrug* Whatever.)

But... So, I'm a chan buddhist, as in, live above a meditation hall and all. I'm also a scientist (currently neurobiology, have also been a computational biochemist... and a software engineer. I guess I got tired of making decent money or something.)

Part of my practice both as a buddhist and a scientist is not believing in things. Because when I think I know what's in front of me, I blind myself to reality. (Also, it seems like a huge waste of energy. Or perhaps it's art.)

Seriously, I think it makes me a better scientist... and a better buddhist, if better has any meaning in that context.

It also assumes a fairly narrow model of god - I mean, why should god be the ultimate arbiter? Why should good or evil come into it? Why should there be only one? Religion does not begin or end with Abrahamic faiths.

(Mind you, I'm a practicing Chan Buddhist, which arguably isn't a religion at all*

* No need to believe in gods, very little** to be taken on faith. How does one define a religion? (Really, I mostly don't care, though it was an interesting discussion when we were trying to figure out our tax status.)
** There is a bit of a rabbit hole.

Wait, so it's all about an employee... and not the members of the board, and not the agitation of outside groups?

I do not think I'd feel especially comfortable to be a gay Mozilla employee right now. (Though I haven't heard that Mozilla internal culture is problematic.)

NPR (which I support) and the BBC were my primary net radio sources (and I listen to a lot of radio news) but the quality of the BBC reporting has dropped of, and gotten more conservative, pretty notably in just the last several months.

*blink* I just realized I didn't give wikipedia my annual donation. (Clicks over and fixes that.)

Thanks.

I hesitated a goodly while before reading the comments. Glad to see the most offensive stuff modded down, anyway.

Asus Transformer?

I often travel with just my phone and transformer tablet - but it doesn't work as a development platform, so if I think I might be cutting any code I need the real box. (It depends on the trip. This time I broght it along because I'm playing with some new simulations, and spending a couple of weeks away from home... and am really glad because I've been exposed to influenza a, and am quarantining myself for the day. But if I know I'm going to be doing martial arts 9.5 hours a day, usually the transformer and my phone are plenty.)

If you're going to be technical, the consensus seems to be that the use of the term pagan to mean someone who wasn't Christian post-dates the use to mean country-dweller (or civilian) - "hick" might be a reasonably colloquial rendering. ...which only underlies the point that a meaning of a word isn't absolute, but exists in a particular context. And in our current context, as "pagan" has been adopted by a group of religions as an identity term, and the intermediate sense of pagan meaning non Christians* is increasingly only used by a minority of Christians, it seems a poor choice for the general population.

* Or alternatively non-Abrahamic religions, and there is certainly a history of legal distinctions made between treatment of members of all Abrahamic religions and everyone else.

Well, I did in fact come of age in the Seattle area Pagan community, but I assure being a Chan Buddhist and being Pagan are not equivalent.

Unless you subscribe to that special version of paganism that means anyone not part of your own sect. *eyeroll*

I guess is all depends on interpretation. I put "moderately"... I live in a zendo, and change the decorations on the altar as the seasons change. So, no more in the winter than any other time.* The closest thing we have to a winter holiday is Bodhi day, the celebration of Buddha's enlightenment, on which day many of us still on pillows and stare at the wall... a little more than usual. And that was weeks ago. (Well, in our tradition. Like we really know the actual day.)

* Well, okay, often sometime in late January it becomes all asian lilies and oranges because I just can't take the winter any more.

I'm sure if you pull out a standard text on world religions you can find something to fit the bill.

The not I'm not seeing mentioned is how soon this is after they rejected shellfish from the entire US west coast - again, a not entirely uncalled for, but unusual move.

I'm not sure if this is more in response to internal unease about their own food quality problems, or a more general snub of the US - admittedly, these things are hardly exclusive.