Go to the source: Survive the Worst

Can you imagine what would happen if virologists were secretly working to create a worst case scenario in regards to the Influenza Virus? How dangerous do you think it would be if they successfully combined the Swine Flu with the Bird Flu strain in order to “see what would happen?”

While the Swine Flu is extremely contagious and can be spread with a sneeze or a handshake its bark appears to worse than its bite. Fortunately, in the grand scheme of things, it is a relatively  mild form of the flu. Compared to most of its more damaging cousins, it only kills a small fraction of the people that get infected.

The Bird Flu, however, typically kills 60% of the people who contract the virus. Thankfully it does not spread from person to person very easily.

A hybridized Flu, on the other hand, is a dramatic departure from the status quo we all are used to. If it were at all possible for the genetic traits of the Swine Flu to merge with those of the Bird Flu the population could be reduced by up to 50%. Theoretically this scenario is completely plausible and could be a recipe for disaster. Scientists are using all of their collective brain power to find out what would happen in this nightmare scenario. We would be facing a tsunami of a flu season, should our “best and brightest,” ever pull off their incredible experiment.

According to Dr. Robert G. Webster, a world renown Influenza researcher who is often referred to as the Flu Hunter, society has about a 50/50 chance that the bird flu will mutate into a virus that easily passes from human to human. Those odds are enough to make Dr. Webster prepare for the worst, “I personally believe it will happen and make personal preparations.” His idea of preparations? A three month supply of food and water, just in case. From his perspective a mutated bird flu virus could result in the deaths of 50% of our population.

Not every scientist agrees with Dr. Webster about those odds but they all agree that if a mutation occurs and transmission becomes possible between us humans, the virus will quickly spread across the planet like wildfire. According to Dr. Anne Moscona, a researcher at New York Cornell Medial Center, the mutant virus, once its able to spread via human to human transmissions we will have lost the ability to contain it. Don’t forget to check out the video of Dr. Webster at the bottom of this post.
 

Article Source:
Expert Warns of Swine Flu-Bird Flu Mix
Renowned Bird Flu Expert Warns: Be Prepared

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

I just came back from our annual family vacation at the beach. We spent a week relaxing in the sun at Myrtle Beach . While I am not much of a sport fisherman I do drop a line in the drink every once in a while in order to keep my skills fresh. I am a firm believer in the saying, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” With that said, I learned something new, from a complete stranger, that I never even had a clue about. My curiosity and the kindness of a stranger opened me up to yet another technique for keeping my family fed, when and if the need arises.

While walking along the beach we noticed little holes in the sand and every time a wave washed ashore, something under the sand was pushing out the water that entered its little hole. In our ignorance, we thought it was a sand crab. Later we stumbled upon a man who was using a homemade sand pump to extract those mystery critters.

Turns out they were Ghost Shrimp. Ghost Shrimp, or Yabby’s in Australia, have been used for years by fishermen as they are relatively easy to acquire. In addition they make some great bait. Check out the video below that explains how you can make your own Yabby Pump.

Once you have your pump made then you can hit the beach and start pumping yabbies for a simple, free source of bait. The video below explains the technique.

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

Modern Day Iraq offers us a unique glimpse at what would occur during a TEOTWAWKI scenario. As we all know Iraq was the scene of a massive war aimed at completely replacing the government of Saddam Hussein. Many of its keys infrastructure was destroyed during the shock and awe campaign that marked the beginning of the war. Many Iraqis, concerned with the struggle of day to day living were unable to care for their family pets. As a result, Iraq, especially Baghdad is overran with packs of stray dogs.

In a span of three months, teams of veterinarians and police shooters have killed over 58,000 stray dogs. They estimate the stray population to be as high as 1.25 million in Baghdad alone.These dogs are not the cute and cuddly lap dogs that many of you are used to seeing. This dogs have formed packs and are hunting everything that moves, including children. Unfortunately, they are instinctively awesome hunters and several children have been killed by these dogs.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, the US currently has 77.5 million dogs being housed as pets.  To date Animal shelters across the country are noticing an increase in pet surrenders and abandonment due largely to the fact that many are losing their homes to foreclosure and find that they are unable to take their dogs with them.

In a true end of the world scenario, you should expect the unthinking masses to turn their best friends loose under the mistaken philosophy that their family pet will at least have a fighting chance at life on their own. This failed logic will results in hundreds of thousands of wild packs, ranging from 40 to 100 dogs each, roaming the countryside, hunting for their next meal. Realize, that if you are not careful, you could very well end up on the menu! Dogs are smart, sneaky hunters that often use deception to lure their prey into an ambush. Even if your armed you may not be able to defend yourself against some of the larger packs.

As a rule of thumb during TEOTWAWKI you should never turn your pets loose, even if you have no means to care for them. Considering the fact that most parts of our internal infrastructure probably won’t be operational, the only decent thing to do is to put it down yourself. If you don’t have the stomach to do it yourself, find someone who does.

Also, realize that these packs of wild dogs will quickly become one of the more serious threats that you will encounter on an ever increasing basis, the longer TEOTWAWKI continues. The only solution to this threat is to kill these dogs on site whenever you encounter them. Again, this is concerning a post-TEOTWAWKI scenario where basic services like Animal shelters are no longer functioning.

While dogs are awesome companions and help alert you to potential security concerns you need to ensure that you take care of your pets. It seems like a simple concept by as the article in Iraq shows people do things without thinking of the consequences. Remember, if you choose to keep a pet its your responsibility to care for and prevent it from becoming everybody else’s problem.

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

Recently there was an active shooter scenario in Connecticut. An employee at a beer distributor was apparently being fired from his job and the management gave him the option to resign or be fired. He chose to resign and then moments later opened fire on his former co-workers, killing 8 and then took himself out moments before the Police were able to intercept him. He was able to ambush his co-workers as they apparently did not see this situation coming.

Regardless of this shooters motives it is clear that this phenomena will continue for the foreseeable future. The world is full of crazy people and the majority of these nut jobs have no problem committing some of the most heinous acts, often to people that have never done them wrong.

This tragedy never needed to happen. Too often we tolerate the bad apples and act is if their behavior can be improved with disciplinary actions. People that refuse to comply with the established workplace standards need to be replaced with those that will. There are plenty of people looking for work that will follow the rules. We need to stop tolerating those who refuse to be anything other than a pain in the ass.

In addition, people need to stop running their mouths in the workplace. I live by the golden rule. I most definitely do not like everyone I work with but I would never knowingly treat a single one of them with disrespect. There is no need for it. Some people think it makes them appear smarter, funny or insert whatever adjective that fits. The only reason I go to work is for the paycheck. If I’m off work, I don’t even spend five minutes thinking about my co-workers. With that said, I could care less about joining any one’s clique and I damn sure wouldn’t destroy another person in order to gain favor with a single one of my co-workers. I just don’t like them that much. While I personally do not believe that racism played a role in this case, I think the philosophy of the golden rule needs to become more widespread. We, as people, need to treat others, our neighbors, the same way we desire to be treated. If you want people to respect you, then you need to start showing others around you the same levels of respect you seek. IMHO, This shooter was just plain crazy and the shooting would have taken place even if everyone treated him like a saint, but I still feel this needed to be talked about.

Lastly, gun control does not work. Had any of his unsuspecting targets been armed maybe there would have been only one casualty, the shooter, instead of 3 dead and 3 wounded. If the average worker was able to whip out a piece and help nuetralize the threat, just maybe Connecticut would only have had to deal with one funeral instead of eight.

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

The Internets most prolific commenter, Anonymous, left the following suggestion-

Freeze your own Ice now!!. Get some Soda bottles and fill them leaving enough room for expansion. Fill all your empty spots in the freezer. You’ll have water and ice if needed. Plus it saves money as your freezer doesn’t have to work as hard to keep stuff cold.

RG adds, this is true and is a good point. However, you need to do this now if you are going to take this approach. Most home freezers can successfully freeze 2 – 3 lb / ft³ at once within a period of 24 hours. So a small chest freezer with a capacity of 7 cubic feet could handle at most, 21 pounds in a 24 hour period. An average gallon of water weighs 8.35 pounds, so were talking about roughly 2 1/2 gallons of water every 24 hours. Attempting to freeze any more than what the freezer can handle will cause the internal temperatures to raise to levels that may be harmful to the food inside. So, use this approach, but start now. If a big storm is coming and you don’t have time to complete the job, augment with bags of ice.

Related Posts:
Save your freezer
Threats to our Food Supply
Reality Check

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

Developing the preppers mindset can lead to over-reaction unless you are able to recognize stress for what it really. Stress is almost always bad for you. It can lead to a myriad of health problems to include trouble with your blood pressure and heart. In these unsure times of economic upheaval and political uncertainty alot of people are awakening to the reality that things just don’t seem right. This uncertainty almost always leads to stress in one form or another. Below you will find 8 steps that’ll help you overcome the strangle hold that stress can have on you.

1. Change your focus. When stress starts to set in, remove yourself from the offending environment for five to ten minutes. Turn off the news and/or close your web browser. Go outside and take a walk. The new setting can arouse your senses and replace your stress with more pleasing stimuli.
2. Start exercising. Physical activity can give you a feeling of control and work off your negative energy. Breathing slowly and deeply also helps prevent stress from overwhelming you.
3. Write it down. Records your thoughts about what’s bothering you and help yourself put stress into perspective. The act of writing down your concerns helps you adopt an outlook of healthy detachment.
4. Develop a sense of humor. Learn to Laugh out Loud at the bullshit as often as possible.
5. Stop everything. When you start feeling stressed, stop what you’re doing and spend just a few minutes breathing deeply.
6. Say no to what you don’t have time to do. Lowering the demands you put on yourself actually relieves stress. Sometimes saying no is necessary in taking care of yourself.
7. Take care of of the hard stuff in the morning to get them out of the way. Usually in the morning when you are fresh and rested is the best time to take care of projects that require concentration. Look at large projects as a series of steps to complete one by one.
8. Live for today. We prep in order to buy ourselves a sense of security. Learn to live in the moment. Prepare for worst but play and pray like there’s no tomorrow because you just never know.

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

I was recently listening to a presentation by one of those bureaucratic experts from the USDA. He was talking about a simple technique that could save the food in your freezer should there be a loss of power. As we all know a three or four day blackout could result in the complete loss of hundreds of dollars worth of meat.

According to this G-man (Sorry I didn’t write his name down) the single most important thing you could  do if you know a storm is approaching is to acquire enough bags of ice to completely fill your freezer up. The goal is to fill every nook and cranny possible with bagged ice. The more frozen mass you have in your freezer the longer your food will keep.

In the moments after a major storm ice becomes a hot commodity. People line up at distribution centers and wait in long lines hoping to get just one bag of ice. Absolutely no one is looking for ice before the storm hits. When the sheep go left, you go right. While they are sitting in long lines waiting for relief trucks to show up, you’ll be sitting home, chilling, (pun intended) with the knowledge that the food in your freezer is safe.

Three other helpful pointers were to cover your freezer, after its been stuffed to the gills with ice with a large sleeping bag. The bag acts as an insulator and helps keep the cool in. He recommended limiting the time you hold the freezer door open by planning ahead and packing the freezer in a way that you know exactly where everything is inside the freezer. That way you can  quickly grab what you need and close the door as quickly as possible. Lastly, he recommended placing a thermometer inside the freezer. Meat that stays below 40 degrees or has chunks of ice still in the meat is probably safe and can be refrozen. Above 40 degrees and it is suspect and should be used or discarded.

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

If you’ve been a reader of STW for at least a year you will recall that summertime causes me to become too distracted to write. I do my best to fit things in but my priority has and always will remain enjoying summer with my family. I try to focus on blogging and writing while school is in session. So for those of you that like this blog please be patient and stand-by Summer’s nearly half over and we will be back in the saddle starting in September.

As for now, I found an awesome website that is doing a tremendous job of documenting the invasion that is happening, as we speak, over our Southern Border. The talking heads can lie all they want about how we are safer than we’ve ever been. Spend just a few minutes watching the vids on this site and you should instantly become convinced that we are in a heap load of trouble- almost as if its all by design.

BTW, I am not connected to their site in anyway. I just thought it was a dramatic eye opener that had to shared.

http://borderinvasionpics.com/

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

A little levity never hurt no one….

Go to the source: Survive the Worst

The Oakland Police Department was recently involved in labor negotiations that failed. The result? 80 Police Officers have been laid off and if the residents of Oakland do not approve a new round of tax increases another 122 could be handed their pink slips in January.

One of the laid off Officers recently described  in a KTVU.com article that the mood in Oakland is one of fear and stated that the residents know that the Wolves are at the door. There have been several police involved shootings over the last few days and one in particular that I wanted to talk about.

Apparently, the Police were attempting to arrest three people who had a significant amount of crack in their car when suddenly a sniper opened fire on them from a nearby Apartment building. The sniper laid down a massive amount of cover fire and then vanished into the night. Swat teams swarmed the building but were unable to locate the shooter or the weapon. This exposes, yet again the fragile thread the keeps the status-quo in check.

Oakland is primed to get a whole lot more dangerous. Recently they released a list of crimes that they would no longer respond to and have directed its residents to fill out their own reports online. Crimes like grand theft, vandalism, burglary, etc. The troubling thing is that this scenario is set to explode in many locations across the country as the tax revenues will not be nearly enough to meet their budgetary needs. Crime is going to be a serious issue in the months ahead. Make plans now to protect your family. Move, arm yourself, install security alarms, and fortify your home. You will not be able to stop the wolves from coming near your door, but you can stop them from getting in, and take care of them if they do.

Check out this video from George4Title on the sniper attack.