Survival Tips For The Sane ;-P

Boy everyone seems to have survival tips these days! Many are prepping for the end of the world even!
Many others see this as nuts going nuts about where to hide their nuts! I say that most of the extreme stuff on both ends of the spectrum is just plain nutty as always! That said however, I also have a refreshing positive flip of the coin and view of all this prepping going on.

Accidents and Mother Nature happen all the time and often I have learned that the people involved were unprepared for it. So I see that getting people aware of everyday emergencies and natural problems is very beneficial when taken in manageable doses and with a balanced approach. You know me, I like balance! Personally I have survived both the 1980 Mount St. Helen's eruption in Washington State and 2005's Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Both times showed me what a little self preparedness would do for people and what overdoing it and stressing about it can do as well.

A Personal example here: Mt. St. Helen's showed me that even the best laid plans of Emergency Operations Center personnel and tons of federal "Emergency Prep" money can be thwarted by the simplest of events. As it happened, Mount St. Helen's blew up on a Sunday afternoon. The manager with the only set of keys to enable the expertly designed Emergency Broadcast System ended up getting stuck in jammed traffic on the way to activate the EBS to prevent the jam in the first place. Lack of an immediate EBS warning actually caused everyone to panic as they did not know what to do when the scary grey snow began to fall on them. Initially, they did as instructed and waited until the EBS system told them what to do “in case of an actual emergency". Except this time there was no EBS alert and everyone panicked thinking the worst had happened! (Ooops, insert sickening laugh here) Billions of cold war EBS bucks were blown that day by a simple single key! This was because for "safety concerns" the automatic EBS switching gear was locked in a vault so that no one could play with the system and scare the masses for no real reason. Trouble was that weekend of the event, the EOC guys gave the only key to the vault to a manager that lived on the outskirts of town! So again as you see, the best laid and best paid for emergency plans went up in a cloud of grey ash in the middle of gridlock traffic they where designed to prevent! So don't bet on the government or emergency services immediately saving you're life, They'll be busy saving their own!

So what does all this mean and what can you take away from my babble here? Well I like a take the approach of Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action. I have described this mantra on the blog as it relates to computers, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say, a "Little" self planning goes a very long way. Time and again it has been shown that those who remained cool calm and collected survived even the worst disasters even when these survivors had no training or supplies at the ready to handle the problems at hand. They simply dealt with it with reasoned and appropriate action!

Wikipedia has a great example of  when the Fit real did hit the shan and only some very fast but reasoned and cool thinking kept anyone out of  296 souls alive! Read here about United Arilines Flight 232

The big thing to take away here, is that survivors reasoned and thought about their situation and then took the appropriate action to solve there immediate endangering situation as best they could. Due to flight or fight biology however, this can be much harder than most people expect and has caused even the most seasoned pro grief and trouble at times. So this is something to also be mindful of.

So what to do and how to prepare? I find that reasoned action or taking the road of balanced study, planning and stock piling of only the necessities for near term use wins the day. Using this approach, I find covers 99% of emergencies that any of us will face with minimal costs while setting ourselves up to best survive the 1% outliers that really can not be planned for anyway. A great example of this balanced approach is again Mt. St. Helen's. That Sunday evening and Monday Morning as the ash rained down on everything, Breathing normally suddenly became a big issue! 3M masks suddenly became a hot commodity and supplies ran dangerously low! Did everyone panic and off themselves! Noooooo, Most families went to the garage and got "Dads" wood working supply out! Problem solved and most everyone breathed easy the entire time! Some did panic, but they were a vast minority of unprepared apartment dwellers who relied on automated services and even they were taken care of when the EOC finally got up and running.  

So again I do not judge anyone’s plans, but I do say be vigilant of the surrounding natural emergency potentials. Then take simple stock of what's somewhat predictable to happen to you. I live in New Orleans, as an example, so I need to be vigilant for events like floods, hurricanes, power outages, Tornado's ect… and pause about possible earthquakes once in a while. I need to reason that I need to be very prepared to evacuate the city between May and November if a hurricane is projected to be in the Gulf of Mexico shortly. I need to reason that all the other emergencies can happen to varying degrees and what I would do and what I really need in case they did. I then need to take the appropriate actions (and I find this key) for these reasoned emergencies. I keep important records in something weather resistant and ready to go. If there is a storm in the Gulf, I get an evac bag ready if I happen to need it. I keep a well stocked first aid kit in my car with an MRE handy.

But I strongly caution to not go over board, and this is where I strongly reiterate about appropriate action! As an example I ask, why haul and therefore waste the much needed gas on a five gallon jug of toothpaste during a hurricane evacuation? Some might counter that I’ll need it at the bug out location because it’ll all be gone! That is a point, but is it a valid and appropriate one? In this given question and example above, as it turned out, I went to my Uncles house which is less than a block away from a 24 hrs Wal-Mart in a perfectly safe and unaffected location with plenty of stock and 5 different flavors! So their was no appropriate reason to haul 5 gallons worth of toothpaste, and waste the expensive gas. Similarly why panic buy and haul tonnage of bottled water when I can shut the engine off at my destination, walk into my Uncles air-conditioned kitchen getting a clean glass out, get some nicely cooled water from the fridge and then plop down on a comfy couch and watch the ensuing mayhem on CNN? Oh it never happens that way and I’d be betting my life on things being OK at my bug out location some might say! Well it did happen just like that in 2005! Again sometimes taking appropriate action is not as easy as it sounds and it is something to think about. One or two big bottles for the trip are OK, but 5 cases “cause ya just never know” would have been a waste of resources and not appropriate to the actual severe and life taking emergency encountered.


Hopefully I have given you some food for some serious yet measured reasoned thought here! Now I’d like to show you a website that can help you make those reasoned appropriate actions and help you stay safe, sanely vigilant and leaving the nuts for the holiday party platters!

Read below about what you may really need to stay safe and sane in an insane and troubled world:

http://www.earthchangesmedia.com/survival/index.php

The Myth Of Privacy And Why The Boogie Man Wants You To Fly Southwest And Cleanup With Dove Moisture Body Wash!

Privacy and lack there of is a big buzz word these days, but the truth is our society has not had what most people consider privacy since the 1700’s and have not had any relevant privacy since the end of WWII.


Paradoxically and somewhat humorously however, who we think is spying on us and therefore think is developing devious evil deeds to do us in, are themselves clients of those who actually control the information and therefore our lives.

It has long been known in security circles that who ever controls information, controls the world, for the world truly is managed by the flow of information. However what has not been known until quit recently is who these data managers really are.

Most peoples thinking is still rooted in the cold war and that the boogie man is some secretive government agency like the KGB, CIA and/or Chinese equivalent that are out to do them harm.

The truth however is much stranger than fiction.

In reality when you take off the (Rubbermaid ®) rubber mask, James Bond turns out to be Pam the Palm Olive girl™. In addition, that lethal Walther PPK™ and license to kill turns out to be a powerful set of statistical number crunching algorithms, reams of behavioral psychology and Library’s full of bore you the death and very obscure corporate law.

What is worse though and truly scary when you look into it, is that although Pam is not sexy and immediately deadly like James, or as scary as the CIA or Dr. Evil plotting to kill you, she does not have to be.

Pam as it turns out styles herself as our collective mother, and since she has protected us from birth, we will do exactly what she wants us to do, on queue! In short, you have not fallen to the dark side; you have lived in it your entire life and can not even notice its influence on you.

So who is Pam, what does she want with us and what does any of this have to do with who is spying on me going to the bathroom?

In brief, Pam is the board of directors of a small collective of large transnational corporations. This group controls the populations of the globe through proxies like a big brother telling little brother to behave. Pam uses the aforementioned tools to control the masses through psychology and proxy manipulation to generally behave.

Here is a major rubbing point that most people will chafe at. In general Pam is a default that has come along as our world has evolved. In large part it is self protecting but nurturing of that protection. Therefore it does not seek to take us out like some evil plan to dominate the world. Hitler proved once and for all that, world domination (Insert evil laugh here) is a short lived fool’s errand for idiots.

Rather Pam takes a world view of things and to protect herself, nurtures the masses around her. Because of this protective world view however, bad things can happen to little Jonny! For an up to date example, if Iran nukes Tel Aviv and kills untold thousands but weans the world off of fossil fuels just in time, in the ensuing conflict, so be it. Kind of sucks for little Jonnie in Tel Aviv though.

So back to the Peeping Tom in your bathroom! Pam like all mothers does not like messy situations, kids start asking questions like where do babies come from etc… Therefore, Pam has in addition to tools mentioned earlier created some rather ingenious technologies and tools to ensure she knows what little Johnny is doing in the basement with the firecrackers and the cat! On a global scale, that is very impressive and illuminates the reasoning’s behind some of today’s news, issues and situations globally.

On the very micro level, that is where the bathroom Peeping Tom comes in. Rather than being the CIA, looking to take you away, it is PAM seeing that everything is going as planned and that you are diligently scrubbing those ears with Dove body wash so you can take that flight on Southwest in the morning.

Now here’s the kicker! Don’t believe me, I dare you! Engage the noodle and read on below and further on in the blog. Pam like all mothers hides her magic in plane sight for all to see who want to. After digging a bit you can truly see Why the Boogie Man wants you to fly Southwest and cleanup with Dove moisture body wash!

Then you can decide for yourself weather to run to Montana and buy bunker space or look at the tiny dot across from the toilet and wave saying Hi Mom!

Here are some articles that can help you on your way.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/siliconangle/2012/02/17/big-data-is-big-market-big-business/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp

Privacy, the myth and the mayhem behind it

Privacy, it’s a myth that has been propagated in western societies for population control for centuries. Don’t believe me, good!  Read, this article and illuminate your mind to the myth and see it for what it is. That being a social construct propagated to all in western society since birth as a control measure and tool. But here is the real truth behind this scary thought; this is not really a bad thing either way. We don’t really need it biologically; we’ve simply been taught from birth that we do! Look to China or India and see how lack of privacy alone is just dropping them dead in the streets by the thousands every day! What a scur... Oops bad example, they’re very much alive and well without it. Is lack of privacy impacting, of course, but utterly destructive and lethal if you don’t have it, way over hyped! By who is something you should think and reflect on! Because now for the scary part, that we don’t have any privacy is no big worry, we never really had it, and obviously we live quite well without it, Bonobos actually thrive without it. However, that we have set up our laws and social behaviors as if we did is the real scary monster in the room and it is very real! Our laws are typically stated to be a decade behind technology and the times. Therefore we have actively enforced laws on the books now that can be oh so easily manipulated to create a fear based police state. Have we pulled the trigger on this one yet, that has yet to be determined in my mind, but have we cocked the hammer! Unfortunately for western civilization the physical in your face evidence says “well beyond the shadow of a doubt!” Just watch the movie Rendition and look at the news from Britain on the reporter spying scandal threatening one of the worlds largest news producers to think of ways our laws can be manipulated.

So as I say; Vigilance, Reason and Appropriate Action folks! We don’t need to take back our government or make it into a socialist paradise as either the right or left bloviate all day on, we simply need to run it! A free people do not care if they are caught on camera using the outhouse! Having it locked and threatened with death if they use it on the other hand is where we seem to be headed. 

here is a link back to the BBC article this post is based on.

The Pros and Cons of Cloud computing

Much has been said about cloud computing, so what is it? Cloud computing is a simplistic way of saying your using someone else’s hardware and specialized licensed software from the internet to do home and business tasks. A good example is your music being stored for access on Amazon.com’s “Cloud Player” that you use with your I-phone on your way to work. You have a custom or random mix of music that you have created and stored, but you do not have it on your I-phone, you "access" it through the "Cloud". The actual data is stored at Amazon. Here is where the pros and cons come in. On the pro side small companies and those starting out have a very large and nimble tools set to work with to accomplish there office goals and needs. Budgeting and growth are easily handled whereas traditionally this could be a show stopper. Suddenly items and issues that where expensive or impossible to have become easy to use and budgeted if not totally cheap. Cloud computing is best when everything is running smoothly; you have a high speed internet connection that never drops and your power is nice and steady! Therein lays the dark side! While nimble and flexible, cloud computing is very susceptible to real world issues of being hacked by competitors or damaged due to interruptions or network traffic. Legal issues of licensing and ownership of data have also been asked but not legally defined by case law yet. So there are many pit falls small businesses and home owners need to be aware of that simply have not been explored yet. This can have an abrupt destructive effect on small or startup businesses who traditionally do not weather business interruptions well. So in short Cloud computing can be the fast track for new business owners and families who don’t have a lot of storage space to get into business or down load movies, but you must remember that this fast track is also a mine field of unknown perils! As I like to say, Vigilance, reason and appropriate action!