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  1. #2031
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Here it is: An effective plan to convince your loved ones to prepare

    David Nash
    June 22nd, 2012
    Shepherd School
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    Read by 7,348 people

    This article was originally published by David Nash of Shepherd School at The Survival Mom web site.


    Any person who has begun to seriously prepare has had to make compromises between current wants and future needs, how much to spend on preparations, and how many people to stock supplies for. If you’re married, you need to have a spouse that shares your concerns or you’re going to fight over every #10 can the mailman delivers. I don’t need to go into detail on how much you should store, how to store it, or what makes the cut on your List of Lists. The purpose of this article is to help communicate the need to prepare with those in your family that you want to help without alienating them or downgrading your own preparedness plans.
    I am a professional firearms instructor and am also employed full time as an emergency management planner. Due to my job, my hobbies, and my personal beliefs, my former mother-in-law delighted in trying to insult me by calling me “Sgt. Tackleberry”. She was unreachable, and I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to convince her of the importance in prepping. She would rather buy timeshares of vacation property than spend money on a basic 72 hour kit. That works for her, and I cannot judge her, but she would not be invited to,“come live with me if it ever did happen,” as she believed.

    Other members of my family have thought my preparations were a, “phase”, or some harmless idiosyncrasy. Those family members did not have a negative view of my preparations. They mostly looked at my preparations with amusement. They tolerated my teenage experiments with wild foods or earthquake kits. As I have grown older and they have seen things on the horizon that will personally impact them, they have begun to ask me for my opinion on coming winter storms or whether they should buy gold or guns.
    It’s like being a firearm instructor and people asking you which gun to buy. If you do your homework and build credibility, people respect you more. If you take the long view and work diligently. these members of your family might be “converted” with patience and work. While I cannot assume responsibility for them and make them prepare for disasters, I can be a role model and sounding board to help them understand the issues at play so they can build a plan that works for them.
    If the world as we know it collapses, it’s not only about survival. Once your survival needs are met, you’re going to have to rebuild and continue with your life. Having your loved ones with you makes that a lot easier. The problem is that each person I add to my retreat lowers my safety margin IF MY SUPPLY AMOUNTS REMAIN FIXED, but if those people I add to my retreat bring their own supplies, it dramatically increases my safety margin. To me it is definitely worth it to help your family prepare.
    I have a few precepts that I use when dealing with family or friends on this subject.


    1. My first precept of dealing with family is not to preach. My preparations are based on my needs and the things that I believe are important. Each person has their own priorities, and preaching that you are right and they are wrong only pushes them away from the direction you need them to go.
    2. My second is never to prepare for a particular event. I am sure there is still a lot of rotting food out there that was bought in bulk specifically for Y2K, and some of those that bought it are convinced it was a waste of money. I tell my family that my food storage can be used for Y2K, Armageddon, TEOTWAWKI, Pandemic Flu, Nuclear Winter, Job loss, or when I just don’t feel like cooking. By having an all-hazards approach and building capability and skills rather than building for specific events, my planning work gets more bang for the buck. The first time I read of the “Deep Larder” was an “ah-ha!” moment for me, and changing my terminology has worked well in changing the response I get from my close loved ones.
    3. My last precept of helping my loved ones see the need to prepare is to foster an appropriate mindset instead of concentrating on gear acquisition. I could buy my mom a Springfield Armory M-14 and 10,000 rounds of match ammo, but it would be much more effective to get her to go with me to the range a couple times and practice with a .22. This would likely foster a desire to shoot, andthen I could help her choose a firearm that fits her needs and desires.

    Whenever the family conversation gets around to disaster preparation I bring up concepts like:

    • “Buying car insurance is considered a responsible action, but you don’t have any tangible benefit from buying it, if you never get into an accident.”
    • “With having a deep larder, even if zombies never attack, I still have the food.”
    • Or as Dave Grossman has said, “You never hear of elementary schools burning down but they all have fire extinguishers.”
    • My favorite is, “Noah built the Ark BEFORE the flood”.

    I try to break everything down into manageable bites rather than cram it in and have them tune me out.

    The best case scenario is that your loved ones will see the need to prepare for themselves and begin planning and preparing on their own, therefore augmenting your plan. You cannot out-argue someone into adopting your position. As Dale Carnegie said, “Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.” What has worked for me is a quiet and consistent approach.

    I love my family and want what is best for them. The best way I know to do that is to help them become more aware of the need to prepare. My goal is to foster a sense of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, and to help mentor them through the beginning steps of basic preparedness.

    Think about how overwhelming it was when you first began to prepare. There is a LOT to learn and even more skills and equipment to acquire. We know that we cannot stock everything needed or prepare too much. The process of preparing is every bit as important as the items you acquire.

    Researching and prioritizing is mental prep work so that when a large disaster occurs we are not comatose with emotional overload. If I coddle my loved ones and try to remove their responsibility to prepare by doing it for them, then I am doing them a disservice. When hard times come, they may not be emotionally ready to deal with the collapse. What’s worse is that making them dependent on my charity would cause strain on otherwise healthy family relationships. Because of this, I feel it is worth supreme effort to work with my loved ones to prepare so that we can grow together in adversity and make our family bonds stronger.
    This year I had my breakthrough. My parents asked me what they could do to prepare. We had a very long discussion and came away with a workable plan. At the time of our discussion their location was more favorable for a long-term retreat than my own, and they are going to provide the location and storage space for most of my preps. We both win in the end. Shortly after that discussion our town had an unusually long cold spell. In the days before it we talked more about our short term plans and communication protocols and procedures. While we did not have to evacuate to my parents, it was nice having all the details ironed out in the event we had to.

    Disaster preparedness is not a fad or a short term race to buy a lot of cool gear. It’s a lifestyle choice, and one that has a lot of benefits. However, it comes the necessity of taking off the rose colored glasses. Not everyone is ready to do this, but if you want to set an example and truly influence others, you must understand what you do is much louder than what you say.

    David Nash is the owner of the Shepherd School and the author of Understanding the USE of Handguns for Self-Defense , a great book for new shooters, people who are thinking about becoming a new shooter, or just about anyone that wants to know about handguns in a no-nonsense, professional, but entertaining and non-stressful way.

    Image Credit: K. Kendall, ChalonHandmade, LivingOS, US Army Africa

    Here it is: An effective plan to convince your loved ones to prepare
    Last edited by AirborneSapper7; 06-22-2012 at 08:24 PM.
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  2. #2032
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Surviving The Apocalypse... In A Lifeboat




    Submitted by Tyler Durden on 06/21/2012 18:53 -0400





    No, this has nothing to do with uber ultra-rehypothecation, fractional reserve banking gone terminally nuts, gold being allowed to rise above $2000, or a second tier Keynesian economist in charge of the Fed's plunge protection team. For the doomsday prepper who has everything, WIRED magazine introduces the water-ready modular bunker (called STATIM pods). Designed to make sure you get through the first wave when the next big Tsunami hits, the 'inland lifeboats' are eerily reminiscent of the Movie '2012' or perhaps 'Waterworld'.


    As the seas rise and cities fall, imagine a community of these built and arranged in new flood zones, perhaps for scientists seeking to learn about new littoral urban ecosystems or salvagers prospecting for the remaining treasures of a lost civilization. Every night, the tribe would return to their STATIM homes, sleeping soundly with the confident knowledge that when the next flood happens, everyone will be all right.
    Brace for the Apocalypse! Surviving the worst in an inland lifeboat


    Because the STATIM pods are modular, you can customize them for your particular nightmare scenario.

    First things first. Before worrying about food storage or access to clean water during a major disaster, you need to make sure you get through the first wave safely. But never fear: When the next big tsunami hits, a water-ready modular bunker called the STATIM pod aims to float you above the flooding.
    Invented by Miguel Serrano, President at Brahman Industries, the STATIM (Storm, Tornado And Tsunami Interconnected Modules) pods are designed to withstand the awesome power of tsunamis, while giving survivors a fighting chance in the aftermath.
    Brahman Industries calls the pods “inland lifeboats.” The reason: they’re buoyant and self-righting, so when the floods come, they will bob to the surface. They’re also low-tech, easy to maintain, and easy to construct, which means there’s a possibility for wide deployment. The company’s plan is to install and anchor them in flood-prone areas so when the alarm bells ring, those most at risk can rush to the safety of the pods. Inside, up to 50 people can cling to secure seating arrangements.

    It's the end of the world, but this guy is feeling fine.

    The biggest issue with rescue-shelter design is always cost. We already know how to make structures that can withstand natural disasters; it’s just incredibly expensive. The key to keeping costs down is using concrete, a cheap and well-understood building material. “We’re addressing a high-priority need with a low tech approach,” says Serrano. When STATIM reaches scale, Serrano aims to offer the 50-person pod at around $1,800 a head.
    The tubular hull is made from a series of pre-cast concrete modules. The modules can be created at local factories, shipped separately, and then aligned and winched together on site to create a watertight seal. “Everyone knows how to do this,” says Serrano. According to the company, the assembly process for the pre-cast parts requires about the same amount of knowledge as installing a drain system.

    A STATIM pod waits to be assembled.

    The pod continues to serve the people inside long after the first wave of disaster. “After Katrina, they spent three weeks just rescuing people with helicopters,” Serrano says. Because the pods are buoyant and equipped with communications devices, rescuers will be able to easily meet up with the pods to tow them away. A boat or helicopter can transport 50 people at a time to safety.
    And because the parts are modular, the pods are customizable. By including different segments equipped with all kinds of survival gear, your personal STATIM pod can be modded to your anticipated needs.
    The next step, says Serrano, is creating pods that house critical infrastructure. The company has proposed a variation on STATIM called the Genset, which houses working generators. Having survivable power sources would have prevented the Fukushima meltdown, Serrano says, by providing power to the nuclear plant’s critical systems after the tsunami. Other variations include pods with desalination facilities and a version of the pod that can withstand an EMP blast, ensuring that critical electronics would survive a nuclear strike.

    The eerily calm diagrammatic disaster illustration. Not pictured: STATIM occupants bracing before nature's fury.

    While the intention of the STATIM system is that they be temporary shelters, let’s indulge ourselves in a little bit of design fiction for a moment. What about the pod’s potential to facilitate long-term living in environmentally extreme places?


    As the seas rise and cities fall, imagine a community of these built and arranged in new flood zones, perhaps for scientists seeking to learn about new littoral urban ecosystems or salvagers prospecting for the remaining treasures of a lost civilization. Every night, the tribe would return to their STATIM homes, sleeping soundly with the confident knowledge that when the next flood happens, everyone will be all right.

    As an area becomes picked over, helicopter scouts are dispatched to the horizon to find new fields of discovery. When a suitable destination is discovered, the helicopters return, towing the community to their coordinates. In this way, the group slowly makes their way along America’s flooded coastline, passing by long lost levies and through once thriving port towns. Thanks to an accompanying desalination pod, the group can remain operational away from freshwater for a long, long time.
    Back in the present, Brahmin’s disaster-related design pulled in seed funding earlier this year. Serrano says that they anticipate the first demonstration units will be available in early 2014. In the meantime, keep watching the horizon.

    An exploded view shows how the modules of a STATIM pod are assembled.

    Images courtesy of Brahman Industries.

    Surviving The Apocalypse... In A Lifeboat | ZeroHedge


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  3. #2033
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    120 Powerful Pieces Of Advice For Prepper's



    Our world is becoming increasingly unstable, and millions of Americans are feverishly preparing for what they consider to be "the end of the world as we know it". In fact, it is estimated that there are now approximately 3 million "preppers" in the United States. But for people that have never done much prepping before, getting started can be both confusing and intimidating. In fact, I get more questions about prepping than anything else. People are constantly asking me how they can prepare for the difficult times that are coming. Well, in this article I have compiled 120 powerful pieces of advice for preppers. No two situations are exactly the same, and almost every prepper approaches preparation differently, but there are some basic principles that apply to almost everyone. And without a doubt, a lot of people that are not preparing now are going to regret it in the years ahead. The global financial system is falling apart, the United States and Europe are absolutely drowning in debt, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are becoming more frequent, signs of social decay are everywhere and war could erupt in the Middle East at any time. Actually, it is absolutely amazing that there are so many people out there that still believe that "prepping" is not necessary.


    When people ask me what they can do to prepare, there is usually one tip that I give above everything else. It is not very "sexy", but it is absolutely foundational.
    During the last recession, millions of people lost their jobs, and because a lot of them had no financial cushion, many of them also lost their homes.
    For the next couple of years, my number one tip is to build up an emergency fund. If you are a prepper and you are living month to month, then you are in a very vulnerable position.
    What is going to happen to all of your preparations if something goes wrong and you suddenly lose your home to foreclosure?
    I recommend that everyone have an emergency fund that will be able to cover all bills and expenses for at least six months.
    Yes, cash is continually losing value. But during any economic downturn it is absolutely essential that you be able to continue to pay your bills. Having a cash reserve is the smart thing to do.
    So what else can people do to start prepping for the tough times that are on the horizon?
    In a previous article, I explained that a good place to start is by focusing on the five basics....
    1) Food
    2) Water
    3) Shelter
    4) Energy
    5) Self-Defense
    If you have those five areas totally covered you will be in pretty good shape.
    The following are some more things to consider as you are prepping....
    *Do not post pictures of money or gold or your preps on Facebook. If you do, you might get some unwelcome visitors to your home.
    *Make sure that your preparations are not against the law. If you have any doubt about this, make sure that you do not go on national television and tell all of America what you are doing.
    *In the event of a major disaster, there will likely be hordes of "non-preppers" running around looking to take away the things that all of the preppers have been storing up. This is something that you will need to be prepared for.
    *The following are 6 excellent privacy tips for preppers that come from an article by an anonymous author that was recently posted on theintelhub.com....
    1. Trust no one that you do not personally know. Even the little old lady down the road will rat on you if she is hungry when the SHTF.
    2. Keep your prepping to yourself. Again, do not tell anyone you are prepping. If they know you have stores of food, where do you think they will think of first when the SHTF? Oh and don’t forget, the Department of Homeland Security thinks people with stockpiles of food and weapons as potential domestic terrorist.
    3. Don’t share any prepping articles on Facebook or other social media. Don’t draw attention to yourself by posting prepping articles or discussing the topic on the website. You may think you are educating your friends, but in reality you are just letting them know of your actions and plans.
    4. Make sure boxes are not labeled with the company name if your order emergency supplies. Most companies will publish this in their ordering information. You don’t want to tip off the UPS driver that you just received a year’s worth of freeze dried food.
    5. Do not tell anyone what you are up to. You don’t know how hard it is for me not to tell people I meet that I was almost on the National Geographic TV show. That would be a disaster.
    6. Be alert to what others are saying. I was sitting in my dental hygienist chair a week ago and she told me about another customer that was storing food. She thought he might be prepping and she said if it ever got bad, she knew where to find some food. I just acknowledged the statement and let it rest.
    *In one article that I did about preparation, I listed 10 things that you can start doing right now to get yourself into a better position for the chaos that is coming....
    1 - Get Out Of Debt
    2 - Find New Sources Of Income
    3 - Reduce Your Expenses
    4 - Learn To Grow Your Own Food
    5 - Make Sure You Have A Reliable Water Supply
    6 - Buy Land
    7 - Get Off The Grid
    8 - Store Non-Perishable Supplies
    9 - Develop Stronger Relationships
    10 - Get Educated And Stay Flexible
    *Would moving to another area of the country be the best choice for you and your family? In an article entitled "What Is The Best Place To Live In The United States To Prepare For The Coming Economic Collapse?" I detailed some of the pros and cons for living in various areas of the country.
    *In a recent article posted on shtfplan.com, Norse Prepper shared 11 questions that all preppers should be asking themselves....
    1. What am I preparing for?
    2. Am I going to bug in or bug out?

    3. Can I defend my family, property and preps?

    4. Do I have enough to feed my family until order is restored?

    5. How will I heat my home?

    6. How will I keep clean?

    7. How will I provide light and electricity?
    8. How will I keep up on information and communicate with the outside world?
    9. What do I have to offer others?

    10. How will I fight off boredom?
    11. How do I pay for all of this?

    You can read the entire article right here.
    *In the years ahead food might cost a whole lot more than it does right now. Your food dollars are never going to go farther than they do right now.
    *Many people do not realize this, but you can grow herbs that have tremendous healing properties in your own garden.
    *In a recent article, I detailed some of the things that you will want to consider in the event of a major economic collapse....
    #1 Food Shortages Can Actually Happen
    #2 Medicine Is One Of The First Things That Becomes Scarce During An Economic Collapse
    #3 When An Economy Collapses, So Might The Power Grid
    #4 During An Economic Collapse You Cannot Even Take Water For Granted
    #5 During An Economic Crisis Your Credit Cards And Debit Cards May Stop Working
    #6 Crime, Rioting And Looting Become Commonplace During An Economic Collapse
    #7 During A Financial Meltdown Many Average Citizens Will Start Bartering
    #8 Suicides Spike During An Economic Collapse
    #9 Your Currency May Rapidly Lose Value During An Economic Crisis
    #10 When Things Hit The Fan The Government Will Not Save You
    *You need to have a plan for what you will do if a massive wildfire comes sweeping through your area. This is especially true if you live in the western half of the United States.
    *In a previous article entitled "20 Things You Will Need To Survive When The Economy Collapses And The Next Great Depression Begins", I made a list of 20 things that you will need when you are not able to rely on Wal-Mart or the grocery store any longer....
    #1) Storable Food
    #2) Clean Water
    #3) Shelter
    #4) Warm Clothing
    #5) An Axe
    #6) Lighters Or Matches
    #7) Hiking Boots Or Comfortable Shoes
    # A Flashlight And/Or Lantern
    #9) A Radio
    #10) Communication Equipment
    #11) A Swiss Army Knife
    #12) Personal Hygiene Items
    #13) A First Aid Kit And Other Medical Supplies
    #14) Extra Gasoline (But Be Very Careful How You Store It)
    #15) A Sewing Kit
    #16) Self-Defense Equipment
    #17) A Compass
    #1 A Hiking Backpack
    #19) A Community
    #20) A Backup Plan
    *In the comments following that article, my readers suggested a number of additional items to add to that list....
    1. A K-Bar Fighting Knife
    2. Salt
    3. Extra Batteries
    4. Medicine
    5. A Camp Stove
    6. Propane
    7. Pet Food
    8. Heirloom Seeds
    9. Tools
    10. An LED Headlamp
    11. Candles
    12. Clorox
    13. Calcium Hypochlorite
    14. Ziplock Bags
    15. Maps Of Your Area
    16. inoculars
    17. Sleeping Bags
    18. Rifle For Hunting
    19. Extra Socks
    20. Gloves
    21. Gold And Silver Coins For Bartering
    *There are more preppers out there than you might think. Don't be afraid to reach out and make new friends.
    *In a recent article, Brandon Smith shared some of the factors to consider when choosing a location for a survival retreat....
    1. Property Placement
    2. Community Network
    3. Defensibility
    4. Water Availability
    5. Food Production
    6. Proximity To National Forest
    7. Secondary Retreat Locations
    You can read the rest of that article right here.
    *Almost everyone can grow a survival garden. Even if you only have an apartment, you can still grow a few things on your balcony.
    *Don't underestimate the impact a major transportation disruption could have on our daily lives.
    *You would be surprised what you can actually do with limited resources. For example, there is one family that is actually producing 6000 pounds of produce a year on just 1/10th of an acre right in the middle of Pasadena, California.
    *Survival Mom once shared the top ten survival tips that nobody wants to talk about....
    1. Duct taping your windows will not save you from radiation poisoning.
    2. You may have to dig a latrine (more than one time).
    3. You may not receive any government benefits or payment from your place of employment during a disaster.
    4. It is possible that you may be sick or in the hospital during a disaster.
    5. Your pets may not survive.
    6. It is likely that your cell phone will not work.
    7. No one is coming to help you.
    8. Insurance doesn’t cover everything, if there is an insurance company left.
    9. There will not be enough food and water for everyone.
    10. If it is the end of the world, the previous nine tips will not matter!!!
    *An EMP burst caused by a high altitude nuke or by a major solar event could fry most of your electronics. What are you going to do if that happens?
    *Spending a million dollars on a "survival condo" in an abandoned missile silo in Kansas is probably not a very efficient use of your limited resources.
    *Off Grid Survival recently posted a list of four powerful traits that most survivors have in common....
    1. Survivors stay Calm in the face of Danger
    2. Survivalists are Experts at Improvisation
    3. Survivors are D.I.Y Experts
    4. Survivors are Great Leaders
    *You can always learn more. Organizations such as The American Preppers Network enable preppers to network and learn from one another.
    *During the difficult times that are coming, in addition to physical preparation it is going to be absolutely crucial to be both mentally and spiritually tough.
    Many have accused me of being a "doom and gloomer", but I don't see anything negative about being prepared.
    In fact, having a plan can give you a tremendous amount of hope. There will be a lot of people out there that will be tremendously blessed in the midst of the chaos that is coming. Victory often goes to those who are most prepared.
    But if you choose simply to have blind faith in the system and you choose to stick your head in the sand, you might find that "ignorance is bliss" for a little while but when the stuff hits the fan it is going to be incredibly painful for you.
    Previous generations understood that it was wise to store up supplies in the good years in order to make things easier in the lean years.
    Unfortunately, most people these days have never been through truly hard times so they have no idea what they are like.
    Just because the world has enjoyed a tremendous amount of prosperity for the last several decades does not mean that things will always be this way.
    Wake up, take a look at the storm on the horizon and get prepared while you still can.
    If you choose not to prepare now, you will regret it later.


    120 Powerful Pieces Of Advice For Preppers
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  4. #2034
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Sunday, June 24, 2:54 am



    Fear not: Emergency agencies train for zombie apocalypse

    15 hrs ago

    related links





    While the CDC keeps nervously assuring the country zombies don't exist, the emergency agencies of Bangor, Maine, are officially training for a zombie apocalypse.

    Bangor, which coincidentally is home to Stephen King, could possibly be letting its morbid imagination run wild.

    Or maybe this is just a fun simulation that allows first responders to brush up on their basics in dealing with potentially pandemic outbreaks (such as SARS or H1N1) while mingling with role-playing actors gussied up in fake blood. Or, you know, maybe it's time we all took a hint from the headlines and started putting together our zombie-proof snow-plow-cum-school-bus rigs and practicing our head shots.

    Better safe than sorry.

    Fear not: Emergency agencies train for the zombie apocalypse
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  5. #2035
    Senior Member AirborneSapper7's Avatar
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    Emergency Meals When The Power Goes Out

    June 25, 2012 by Peggy Layton

    PHOTOS.COM
    A reliable camp stove is one way to prepare meals if the power goes down.

    What we learn from our parents and grandparents from yesterday helps us to be more prepared for today as well as the future. Learning the old-fashioned skills of the past is very important: skills like chopping wood, building fires, using kerosene lamps, gardening, preserving or bottling food, root cellaring for the winter months, fishing, raising and butchering cattle, pigs and chickens.
    Our grandparents knew how to preserve their meat by smoking, bottling or drying it. Our ancestors knew how to survive off the land. It was a necessary skill and everyone did it.
    Back then, everyone had family farms with chickens. Every morning they gathered the fresh eggs and milked the cow or goat so they could make breakfast. They knew how to bottle meat and turn it into strips of dried jerky for the winter months. Food and water storage was a necessity, and most of the daily activities centered around staying warm and gathering enough food to make meals to feed the family. Many times the older children had the task of gathering and chopping wood, keeping the fire and wood-burning stove going, lighting the kerosene lanterns and helping with the younger children.
    What Would We Do Without Electricity?
    I do product research for my business. I own every gadget and product I can find that will make life easier in an emergency situation. I use them and evaluate them and pass this knowledge on to my readers.
    If the power grid goes down I will be using these items along with many of the skills passed down from my grandparents. We need to think ahead and have items on hand that we can use in our daily lives that do not require electricity. These include a non-electric can opener, a hand-cranked food processor, a hand-cranked wheat grinder or grain mill, an old-fashioned egg beater or wire whisk, a solar oven, a non-electric food dehydrator, and cast iron Dutch ovens. We will need hand tools and gardening equipment, bicycles and ways to get around.
    What would we do if the power went out for a week or two? We would not be able to get gas because the pumps run on electricity. The grocery stores would not be able to sell products because the computers wouldn’t work. We would all be greatly inconvenienced. It would be overwhelming and very stressful.
    It is a good idea to have alternative cooking methods such as camping stoves, with propane or white gas. Any recipe calling for food to be cooked on a stovetop can easily be cooked on a camp stove, in a pot, pan or on the griddle. Backyard grills are also great as a backup when the power goes out. Be sure to store enough fuel for at least 2 weeks.
    In my previous articles I have listed many of the other items that are necessary for being prepared. I am listing a few of my favorite products. They are available on the web and in most sporting goods stores
    A Solar Sun Oven is a great way to bake and it uses the power of the sun. You can bake anything in the sun oven that you can bake in a conventional oven. It comes with a dark enamel pot with a lid and is similar to a roasting pan. You place your pot of food in the oven and point the oven toward the sun. It heats up to 375 F quickly and cooks your meal without electricity. There is a cookbook that you can purchase with recipes designed for the sun oven.
    Dehydrated And Freeze-dried Foods
    Food and water storage is very important in an emergency situation. The types of foods that you will not have access to include fresh produce, breads, meats and dairy products. You will need to have canned meats on hand to make meals that contain protein. You will need bread-making ingredients and the skills to make your own bread. The meals you make in an emergency will be much different than what you are used to cooking.
    Dried food will store much longer than wet-pack canned food. I suggest that you store a wide variety of freeze-dried and dehydrated foods. I recommend storing individual gallon-sized cans of dehydrated fruits, vegetables and dried dairy products. A variety of grains, such as wheat, oats and rice, as well as beans and legumes are great storage items because they last a long time on the shelf. They only require water and simple heat to prepare.
    Pre-made Meals (Just Add Water)
    In an emergency situation we will need simple meals that are easy to prepare yet nutritious. I like to store meals that are already pre-made and dehydrated or freeze-dried and contain all the ingredients. These are so simple to make because you just add water and cook for 15 minutes and the meal is done. The pre-made meals that I have been storing are called Go-Foods. These are so-named because they are ideal for families that are busy, on-the-go and need fast, easy and nutritious meals. When choosing meals to store, keep in mind that they need to be packaged for long-term storage. GoFoods have a shelf life of 15 years. These meals can be rotated and used for everyday cooking as well. This helps prevent the food from expiring and getting thrown away, which is a waste of money.
    I research all the different food storage companies and their products and I am in the business of helping people become self-sufficient. I have now found a program that I am very impressed with. You can set up a monthly auto-ship to receive a box of food per month to store away so that over a year’s period of time you will have a one-year supply of emergency food. This company has new concepts in storable foods that are delicious, nutritious, affordable and convenient for daily use as well as for storing for up to 15 years.
    GoFoods pre-made meals are dehydrated from premium-grade fresh raw foods.
    They have no genetically modified food items (GMOs). The food has no hydrogenated oil or monosodium glutamate (MSG). And it is not imported from countries using illegal fertilizers and insecticides. Just click here to learn more.
    The meals ready to cook include soups like cheddar broccoli, Italian chicken, vegetable beef, tortilla soup, corn chowder, minestrone, chicken noodle, chili and potato cheddar. Entrées and other baking items include chicken pasta alfredo, cheesy chicken rice casserole, Santa Fe fiesta rice, creamy Tuscan pasta with sundried tomatoes, beef stroganoff, au gratin potatoes, instant seasoned potatoes, pancake mix, corn muffin mix, cornmeal dumplings, granola, powdered milk, wheat bread mix and buttermilk biscuit mix.
    Each package of food is ready to go with everything except the water. It only takes 15-20 minutes to cook and the meals are delicious. The packages feed two to four people and come packed in Mylar® bags for long-term storage of up to 15 years. The cooking instructions are on each package. The company offers samples of their meals for people to try before they buy. All they ask is that you pay the shipping.
    If The Power Goes Out
    If the power goes out it is always a good idea to have several flashlights around. I keep one in all my vehicles as well as my home. I love thesolar-powered hybrid flashlight that recharges itself in any kind of light. It can be recharged each day by exposing it to sunlight or indoor lighting. It has a very bright light with 120 lumens of power and is waterproof. It floats, is non-breakable and works in extreme hot or cold temperatures. You never need to purchase batteries and it holds a single charge for three years before it needs to be recharged again by simply exposing it to sunlight. It is the best solar powered flashlight I have found so far.
    Being prepared for whatever life’s emergencies might bring means, not only storing prepping items, but also having the skills to use them. Knowledge and skills will help us to be more emotionally balanced as well. If you are prepared you will not panic.
    –Peggy Layton

    Emergency Meals When The Power Goes Out : Personal Liberty Alerts=

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    Product Selection Guidelines For Preppers

    June 14, 2012 by Austin Fletcher


    When, in the course of “human events,” it becomes evident that the “junk” has hit the fan, your medical, bug-out, vehicle and home kits need to work well and last through whatever life may throw at you.

    The process of weeding out the “fluff” to get down to the meat and bones of a good product you can bet your life on (and your family’s lives) can be annoying at best and detrimental to your survival at worst. In an effort to show you some basic solutions to the challenge of selecting such important components of preparedness kits, Category Five has developed these helpful guidelines.

    Length, Width, Height: Start With The Basics
    Making sure you have room for items in your home, vehicle or bug-out bag will save you both time and money. You would be surprised how many of your “favorite” bug-out tools won’t actually fit into your bug-out bag. You may spend a lot of time making sure you’ve considered every other guideline (below), but if it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t ship.

    Capacity: How Much Can It Hold?
    Make sure it can contain what you want to put into it (or carry on it) as well as ensuring that the capacity measures up to your specific needs.

    Adults need more water than kids do; men need more food than women do. Not carrying enough of something is almost as useless as not carrying it at all.

    Weight: A Much-Underestimated Category
    This can make or break every step of a journey. Make sure an item is necessary. If not, leave it behind.

    Construction: Because They Truly Do Not Make Things Like They Used To
    Take your time to research the quality of what you’re purchasing. Customer reviews of just about any product can be found online. Pay attention to what customers are saying, but be aware of false reviews and fake review sites that are nothing but marketing engines for the product manufacturers.

    Price: A Deterrent For Many People To Preparing In The First Place
    Hand in hand with quality construction, you often get what you pay for.

    There may be some amazing deals where there is a world of difference between two products of the same price, yet don’t fool yourself into thinking you can build a great kit for $20. Spend twice as much up front for something that will last, or buy four of the same thing over and over because they keep breaking. In the end, spending more can save you money.

    Shelf Life: Father Time Is Not Always On Your Side
    A cousin to quality construction, shelf life is specifically reserved for perishable items (i.e., food, medicine, chemicals). The bottom line: Make sure it will be around when you need it. Have a plan that accounts for rotation. If possible, spend more for a better product like freeze-dried versus dehydrated foods.

    Value: What Is Included?
    With so many preparedness retailers available, you can often get a great package deal. However, don’t neglect the other guidelines and allow yourself to get sold a package of junk. Are you getting the best bang for your buck or double the trouble?

    Utility: Does It Multitask For You?
    As Alton Brown from the Food Network would say: “No unitaskers!” Always purchase something that can be used for things other than what you bought it for. Multitasking helps with system redundancy as well as weight reduction.

    Check out www.CategoryFive.org for some great videos and ideas, or simply surf the Internet to help get your creative juices flowing.

    Having these basic questions answered at checkout will help ensure you do not have buyer’s remorse and will give you peace of mind that you have a quality product you can depend on when you need it most.

    –Christopher Teasdale and Austin Fletcher

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    Preparing A Bug-Out Bag For Kids

    June 18, 2012 by Tim Young

    PHOTOS.COM
    The freeze-dried items in Cup Noodles® are a great introduction to stored foods.

    I think that it’s so easy to overlook the needs of children in potential crisis situations. We focus so much on what we adults need in our bug-out bags for us, but we overlook the obvious things like what our children could use in an emergency.

    As an adult, you can pack just about any kind of ration to eat. After all, we know that even though it tastes terrible, it will keep us alive and kicking. If you have kids, you know that this concept won’t go over too well with them.
    Sure, there are packaged, efficient rations that your kids could get familiar with after a couple of days and a lot of hunger. But, as a parent, you need to realize that it is also your job to make your kids as comfortable as possible when times get rough.

    I think the easiest thing to do when packing for your child is to focus on familiar flavors that your children have already gotten used to.

    Dried fruit, peanuts and chocolate are great for kids. They are rich with vitamins, protein and carbohydrates that children need to stay healthy, but they are still considered comfortable to them.

    Mixing these items together for trail mix is a good concept to play around with. Having a healthy combo mix of snacks is a great idea.

    You can also add in protein or energy supplements that taste like chocolate for your kids, making sure that they’re safe for them.

    As an avid health nut, I personally know that a lot of protein bars taste and are set up like candy bars to make them more tolerable. Using these to help fuel your children could be a great thing in a crisis. I can’t stress enough though that you make sure they are safe for them to consume first.

    Other great foods to pack for kids are dried soups and noodles. Again, these are good foods for them because they are rich in vitamins and literally the stuff kids need, but they are also familiar flavors.

    I loved picking out freeze-dried corn from Cup Noodles® as a kid. Food like that is not only good for your kids, but fun to eat. I know that a lot of you have stocked up on freeze-dried things because of their ability to last for years in storage. Your kids will love that kind of stuff.

    A good trick to prepare them for the long haul is to familiarize them with the food now. If you think about it, the freeze-dried items in Cup Noodles® are a great introduction to stored foods. If you get them to like it now, they’ll have no problems with it on the road.
    In my travels, I have also seen freeze-dried yogurt, which I loved. It tastes like astronaut ice cream, if you ever had that as a kid. It’s delicious, and it melts in your mouth. It also gives you much-needed calcium for your bones and vitamins that you wouldn’t necessarily get from other freeze-dried products. I eat this as a snack now, and I’m willing to bet that your kids would love it.

    It’s also critical that you keep children’s chewable vitamins in their bags. Kids will generally have trouble swallowing the pills that we do, and the last thing that you want is to have the children sick because of a lack of nutrients.

    Children’s vitamins come in gummy forms now and have been so popular that the companies who make them have decided to create a version for adults. Why not pack these types of vitamins for kids; it only makes sense.

    I can’t say it enough: Your goal as a parent is to make sure that your child is as comfortable as possible in the face of a crisis. No matter how much you can prepare them for the worst, they’re still children. They still want to have fun, play and eat fun things. Knowing that, you should never pack for them like you would yourself.

    Keep in mind that you want to make a bad situation better for them. So, when you pack their bug-out bag, make sure they have some comforts, rather than all utility.

    Be smarter than they think you are,

    –Tim Young
    Managing Editor, Absolute Rights

    Preparing A Bug-Out Bag For Kids : Personal Liberty Alerts
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    Study: Radiation Therapy Can Make Cancers 30x More Malignant

    Post date: Tuesday, June 26th 2012 at 10:00 am by Sayer Ji





    Following on the heels of recent revelations that x-ray mammography may be contributing to an epidemic of future radiation-induced breast cancers, in a new article titled, "Radiation Treatment Generates Therapy Resistant Cancer Stem Cells From Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells," published in the journal Cancer July 1st, 2012, researchers from the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center report that radiation treatment actually drives breast cancer cells into greater malignancy.
    The researchers found that even when radiation kills half of the tumor cells treated, the surviving cells which are resistant to treatment, known as induced breast cancer stem cells (iBCSCs), were up to 30 times more likely to form tumors than the nonirradiated breast cancer cells. In other words, the radiation treatment regresses the total population of cancer cells, generating the false appearance that the treatment is working, but actually increases the ratio of highly malignant to benign cells within that tumor, eventually leading to the iatrogenic (treatment-induced) death of the patient.
    Last month, a related study published in the journal Stem Cells titled, "Radiation-induced reprogramming of breast cells," found that ionizing radiation reprogrammed less malignant (more differentiated) breast cancer cells into iBCSCs, helping to explain why conventional treatment actually enriches the tumor population with higher levels of treatment-resistant cells. [i]
    A growing body of research now indicts conventional cancer treatment with chemotherapy and radiation as a major contributing cause of cancer patient mortality. The primary reason for this is the fact that cancer stem cells, which are almost exclusively resistant to conventional treatment, are not being targeted, but to the contrary, are encouraged to thrive when exposed to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
    In order to understand how conventional treatment drives the cancer into greater malignancy, we must first understand what cancer is….


    What Are Cancer Stem Cells, And Why Are They Resistant To Treatment?

    Tumors are actually highly organized assemblages of cells, which are surprisingly well-coordinated for cells that are supposed to be the result of strictly random mutation. They are capable of building their own blood supply (angiogenesis), are able to defend themselves by silencing cancer-suppression genes, secreting corrosive enzymes to move freely throughout the body, alter their metabolism to live in low oxygen and acidic environments, and know how to remove their own surface-receptor proteins to escape detection by white blood cells. In a previous article titled "Is Cancer An Ancient Survival Program Unmasked?" we delved deeper into this emerging view of cancer as an evolutionary throw-back and not a byproduct of strictly random mutation.
    Because tumors are not simply the result of one or more mutated cells "going rogue" and producing exact clones of itself (multi-mutational and clonal hypotheses), but are a diverse group of cells having radically different phenotypal characteristics, chemotherapy and radiation will affect each cell type differently.
    Tumors are composed of a wide range of cells, many of which are entirely benign.
    The most deadly cell type within a tumor or blood cancer, known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), has the ability to give rise to all the cell types found within that cancer.
    They are capable of dividing by mitosis to form either two stem cells (increasing the size of the stem population), or one daughter cell that goes on to differentiate into a variety of cell types, and one daughter cell that retains stem-cell properties.
    This means CSCs are tumorigenic (tumor-forming) and should be the primary target of cancer treatment because they are capable of both initiating and sustaining cancer. They are also increasingly recognized to be the cause of relapse and metastasis following conventional treatment.
    CSCs are exceptionally resistant to conventional treatment for the following reasons

    1. CSCs account for less than 1 in 10,000 cells within a particular cancer, making them difficult to destroy without destroying the vast majority of other cells comprising the tumor.[ii]


    1. CSCs are slow to replicate, making them less likely to be destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation treatments that target cells which are more rapidly dividing.


    1. Conventional chemotherapies target differentiated and differentiating cells, which form the bulk of the tumor, but these are unable to generate new cells like the CSCs which are undifferentiated.

    The existence of CSCs explains why conventional cancer treatment has completely missed the boat when it comes to targeting the root cause of tumors. One reason for this is because existing cancer treatments have mostly been developed in animal models where the goal is to shrink a tumor. Because mice are most often used and their life spans do not exceed two years, tumor relapse is very difficult, if not impossible to study.
    The first round of chemotherapy never kills the entire tumor, but only a percentage. This phenomenon is called the fractional kill. The goal is to use repeated treatment cycles (usually six) to regress the tumor population down to zero, without killing the patient.
    What normally occurs is that the treatment selectively kills the less harmful populations of cells (daughter cells), increasing the ratio of CSCs to benign and/or less malignant cells. This is not unlike what happens when antibiotics are used to treat certain infections. The drug may wipe out 99.9% of the target bacteria, but .1% have or develop resistance to the agent, enabling the .1% to come back even stronger with time.
    The antibiotic, also, kills the other beneficial bacteria that help the body fight infection naturally, in the same way that chemotherapy kills the patient’s immune system (white blood cells and bone marrow), ultimately supporting the underlying conditions making disease recurrence more likely.
    The reality is that the chemotherapy, even though it has reduced the tumor volume, by increasing the ratio of CSCs to benign daughter cells, has actually made the cancer more malignant.
    Radiotherapy has also been shown to increase cancer stem cells in the prostate, ultimately resulting in cancer recurrence and worsened prognosis.[iii] Cancer stem cells may also explain why castration therapy often fails in prostate cancer treatment.[iv]
    Non-Toxic Natural Substances Which Target and Kill CSCs

    Natural compounds have been shown to exhibit three properties which make them suitable alternatives to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy:

    1. High margin of safety: Relative to chemotherapy agents such as 5-fluorouracil natural compounds are two orders of magnitude safer
    2. Selective Cytotoxicity: The ability to target only those cells that are cancerous and not healthy cells
    3. CSCs Targeting: The ability to target the cancer stem cells within a tumor population.

    The primary reason why these substances are not used in conventional treatment is because they are not patentable, nor profitable. Sadly, the criteria for drug selection are not safety, effectiveness, accessibility and affordability. If this were so, natural compounds would form an integral part of the standard of care in modern cancer treatment.
    Research indicates that the following compounds (along with common dietary sources) have the ability to target CSCs:

    1. Curcumin (Turmeric)


    1. Resveratrol (Red Wine; Japanese Knotweed)


    1. Quercetin (Onion)


    1. Sulforaphane (Brocolli sprouts)


    1. Parthenolide (Butterbur)


    1. Andrographalide (Andrographis)


    1. Genistein (Cultured Soy; Coffee)


    1. Piperine (Black Pepper)

    Additional research found on the GreenMedInfo.com Multidrug Resistance page indicate over 50 compounds inhibit multidrug resistance cancers in experimental models.

    [i] Radiation-induced reprogramming of breast cancer cells. Stem Cells. 2012 May ;30(5):833-44. PMID: 22489015

    [ii] Human acute myeloid leukemia is organized as a hierarchy that originates from a primitive hematopoietic cell. Nat Med. 1997 Jul ;3(7):730-7. PMID: 9212098

    [iii] Long-term recovery of irradiated prostate cancer increases cancer stem cells. Prostate. 2012 Apr 18. Epub 2012 Apr 18. PMID: 22513891

    [iv] Stem-Like Cells with Luminal Progenitor Phenotype Survive Castration in Human Prostate Cancer. Stem Cells. 2012 Mar 21. Epub 2012 Mar 21. PMID: 22438320





    Sayer Ji is the founder of GreenMedInfo.com. His writings and research have been published in the Wellbeing Journal, the Journal of Gluten Sensitivity, and have been featured on numerous websites, including Mercola.com, NaturalNews.com, Reuters.com, GaryNull.com, and Care2.com.



    Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of GreenMedInfo or its staff.

    Study: Radiation Therapy Can Make Cancers 30x More Malignant

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