SurvivalOutpost.com

Freak Weather & Global Weirding!

2011-06-17T11:26:00.004-05:00

According to the Weather Channel, current Fire Weather Conditions in the southwest, "include continued low dew point values, record or near-record heat and powerful winds. Wind Gusts around the now infamous Wallow Fire will approach 50 or even 60 mph on Saturday and Sunday. Extensive safety precautions must be in place as these vicious winds will create life-threatening conditions for all personnel waging a fight against these fires." They go on to note that ferocious winds will continue to pummel the southwest for several days, creating epic wildfire hazards that can easily wipe out entire neighborhoods. For a sobering look at the wildfires that are raging across the southwest, see this incredible real-time graphic.

All the while, Texas and many western states are experiencing their worst drought ever, with no rain in sight."It's a dust bowl," notes one frustrated Texas Rancher. "The ground has looked fire-burned since April, and the animals have not seen green grass since March." Many ranches are simply giving up and sending their herds to the market.

Meanwhile, much of the mid-west is under water, while the Missouri River is experiencing its worst flood in recorded history, with no relief in sight. All this while entire communities try to rebuild their lives after an epic and horrifying tornado season. And the rains keep falling...the storms keep building...and records keep falling.

And on the west coast, we are just now beginning to see the effects of the Japan earthquake and resultant nuclear disaster. Indeed, according to the CDC, west coast cities have recently witnessed a dramatic rise in infant mortality, increasing by 35% since the Fukushima nuclear meltdown and resultant toxic plume, which has steadily blanketed Pacific Northwest and western states.

"The recent CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report indicates that eight cities in the northwest U.S. (Boise ID, Seattle WA, Portland OR, plus the northern California cities of Santa Cruz, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Berkeley) reported the following data on deaths among those younger than one year of age:

* 4 weeks ending March 19, 2011 – 37 deaths (avg. 9.25 per week)
* 10 weeks ending May 28, 2011 – 125 deaths (avg.12.50 per week)

This amounts to an increase of 35% (the total for the entire U.S. rose about 2.3%), and is statistically significant. Of further significance is that those dates include the four weeks before and the ten weeks after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster."

Nobody really knows what the long-term effects of the Fukushima disaster will be...but one thing is for sure: it is not starting off well.

Indeed, everywhere you look nowadays it appears as if nature is on a rampage, breaking records and leaving millions of dollars of damage in its wake. And it's not just America, it's planet wide. The Guardian recently published a Must Read article titled, "Warning, Extreme Weather Ahead; Tornado's, wildfires, droughts and floods were once seen as freak conditions. But the environmental disasters now striking the world are shocking signs of global weirding". First coined by Thomas Friedman, "Global Weirding" attempts to explain the bizarre and unpredictable fits of our increasingly tempestuous and seemingly angry new normal...one that is market by climate extremes. As the Guardian notes, "Wherever you look, the climate appears to be in overdrive, with stronger weather patterns gripping large areas for longer and events veering between extremes."

And our personal experiences would certainly agree with this assessment. Just look outside...

So what do we do? I'll let NASA answer that question for you. The director of NASA, arguably one of America's most progressive and influential agencies, recently released a mass email and video to all NASA staff urging them to develop a personal preparedness plan. See for yourself here.

Perhaps we should all heed NASAs advice.

Stay Safe. Stay Informed.

The Best Tornado Insurance Money Can Buy?

2011-05-30T11:14:00.005-05:00

It appears as if 2011 will go down in the history books as one of the worst years in recorded history for tornadoes and tornado related fatalities...a pretty grim and unnerving accomplishment. Indeed, one can't help but to wince when confronted with this year's horrifying statistics: more that 1300 tornadoes so far this year when the annual average hovers around 1200, and we still have 7 months to go; with Joplin numbers still mounting, this year has already topped 500 fatalities, and according to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, 2011 currently ranks as the seventh worst year for tornado deaths since record keeping began; and finally, 2011 set a new record for the month of April, with a whopping 875 recorded tornadoes ripping throughout the mid-western states in one month!

As we watch the coverage of the aftermath of the Joplin tornado and some of the chilling videos that have been published on the Internet, one can't help but to be completely awed, and terrified by the power of nature. How do you hide from a category F5 tornado with a base over a mile wide and wind speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour? Is it even possible to hide from a freak of nature that literally rips houses of their foundations and, according the the Fujita Scale description, "...carries houses considerable distances to disintegrate; automobile sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 meters; trees debarked; steel re-enforced concrete structures badly damaged"?? While there may be no place like home Dorothy...most homes are not built to withstand the unbelievable onslaught of a category 5 blow, and as this year's ugly stats demonstrate, these twisters are making a deadly comeback. So where do we hide?

Enter Jarrell Storm Shelters.

Some of you may remember Jarrell, Texas. In 1997, the small town of Jarrell experienced an F5 tornado that literally wiped one of its subdivisions off the map, every single home was destroyed and 29 people lost their lives. It was a deadly wake up call to many Texans, and many lives were lost in the process. But one small business has decided to make a difference. Jarrell Storm shelters, based in Jarrell, Texas, has learned from their hard experience and is giving people peace of mind in these uncertain times, and according to Adam Richter, business is booming. "We are putting in a shelter a day, sometimes more," Adam notes.

In an effort to show our customers just what is involved in building a storm shelter that can withstand the pressures of an F5 tornado, (and to give them a life-saving alternative to hiding in a closet or bathtub with pillows over their heads), SurvivalOutpost.com hired Jarrell Storm Shelters to install a 6-by-8 foot, steel reinforced, in-ground shelter, one that is rated by the Texas Tech University Wind Science and Engineering Research Center to withstand a category 5 twister.

Whatever notion you may have about the complexities of installing a storm shelter, it is likely that you are wrong. In 3 and a half hours, Adam and his crew had completely installed the shelter, buried 5.5 feet underground and covered with earthen berms to channel the wind over the top of the structure. Total cost -- $3300.00. And while this may seem expensive to some of you, given the grim statistics of this year's tornado activity, it may well be the best money you ever spent. According to Adam, there are numerous alternatives to make the financial burden less onerous too. In fact, many communities are creating cooperatives to share the expense over several households, and building storm shelters to protect several families. Even home owner's associations (and according to Adam, some developers) are getting with the program by building community in-ground concrete structures as places of refuge to escape the wrath of our increasingly tempestuous Mother Nature.

Bottom line: in today's uncertain world, perhaps the time has come to think differently about Storm Insurance and look for opportunities that are outside the underwriter's office, and in the ground out back.

For more information on Jarrell Storm Shelters, see Storm Shelters.

Be safe.

Judgement Day Tomorrow? On A Saturday??

2011-05-20T16:03:00.001-05:00

Apparently tomorrow, May 21, 2011, is the date of the long awaited Rapture, the event that marks the beginning of the Biblical End of Times which culminates, we are told, in global destruction; at least according to Harold Camping, a self-proclaimed biblical scholar. Camping is just one of many emerging Prophets of Doom that are claiming the sky is falling. Should we believe them?

Why Didn't God Pick A Monday?

While visiting with one of our customers on the phone recently, it was brought to my attention that there is an emerging awareness among certain Christian groups that the End of The World - as in Judgment Day - is nigh. "You don't say?" was my incredulous response. "For real, and one scholar even predicts the very date it will happen, May 21, 2011."

So let me get this straight, the world is going to end tomorrow? On a Saturday?
What about my summer trip to the coast?

Our customer was referring to Harold Camping, a civil engineer cum biblical scholar (self proclaimed) that, ostensibly, has created a mathematical system for interpreting biblical prophecy. His latest finding? The world will end on May 21, 2011. Shocker!

I don't suppose it matters that this very same biblical scholar has already failed on one end-of-world prediction, September 6, 1994. After his entire congregation dressed up in Sunday garb and held an all-night vigil for the End To Come, I can only imagine the consternation they felt when the clock ticked to September 7 and they were still there, all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Oops.

Camping's reply: It must have been a mathematical error. Now, we are led to believe, he has the arithmetic figured out, and surprisingly enough, people believe him...again.

But Camping is not the only soothsayer making the news nowadays. Nostradamus seems to be making a strong come back, and Lawrence E. Joseph, among others, is predicting some exciting end-of-world scenarios for 2012. We have Terrance McKenna's timewave zero, a mathematical interpretation of the I Ching which predicts the end of time in 2012 (Terrance had this epiphany while under the influence of psychedelic drugs), and even the Mayans themselves, we are led to believe, foretold that the end of the 13th Baktun of the Long Count Calendar would be met with cataclysm by fire. In 2012 of course.

But my favorite oracle of all - and the winner of the fortune telling Snipe Hunt - is the Webbots. If you haven't heard of the Webbots, don't worry, you have not missed much, at least not in terms of accurate predictions; but that doesn't mean people don't believe in it, sometimes fervently. Essentially, the Webbot is a computer algorithm (or bot program) that searches the Internet for key words and then makes future predictions based on what it discovers. The idea is that the Internet serves as a instrument of precognition...a collective mind which has predictive elements. The concept of the Webbot is actually quite cool with the exception that it doesn't work. At all. But that doesn't stop the inventors of the Webbot from making repeated fanatical predictions about the future -- such as Thermonuclear War in November of 2010 (Oops) -- that continually come up wrong. Dreadfully wrong. But, strangely enough, people keep believing in them.

All this fortune telling mumbo-jumbo would be funny if it wasn't so incredibly dangerous. Why? Because narratives of doomsday create a spirit of helplessness and hopelessness, which in turn can manifest in deviant behaviors such as violence, selfishness, futility and nihilism. If the world is going to end soon, quite frankly, who gives a damn about anything? And if people don't give a damn about anything, the very fabric of society is subject to unravel because the social constructs that hold us all together -- such as laws governing human interaction and behavior -- suddenly have no meaning. A person who doesn't give a damn is a dangerous person. Millions of people that don't give a damn is tantamount to, well, the end of the world.

Frankly, I don't want to know what a world without rules would look like. But if these so-called prophets of doom don't stop ballyhooing about The End and start working on something constructive, we may find out, and soon.

So don't allow yourself to be seduced by the Masters of Doom. They may mean well, but if history is a good indicator, they will all be wrong.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.

America's Tornado Disaster: It's Beginning To Look Like War!

2011-05-01T16:07:00.007-05:00

The recent tornado(s), and the resultant devastation that ripped through parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, and seven other southern states, has been labeled the worst natural disaster to hit the United States since Hurricane Katrina. Watch the video of the mile-wide, F5 twister that leveled Tuscaloosa Alabama and you can see why. Entire neighborhoods were obliterated, cars flung like rag dolls or stomped right into the ground, houses lifted and flung off their foundations, and lives destroyed. It has been reported that this one tornado packed winds in excess of 260 miles per hour -- a massive swirling rampage of Mother Nature devouring all in its path. This mighty tornado traveled more than 300 miles before it blew itself out, destroying all in its path and much that was not. When the storms had passed, hundreds were dead, thousands injured, and millions of dollars in damage were left in the wake. The most common comment from the survivors: "It looks like a war zone. Just unbelievable."

Unbelievable indeed...and it does look like war, one that we are seemingly powerless to fight. And it appears as if it is getting worse.

Thomas Freedman, in his seminal work Hot, Flat and Crowded, argues that a warming world reveals itself through amplifications of normal weather patterns. Areas prone to drought will have longer and more severe dry spells...areas prone floods will have more severe rain events...areas prone to snow will see longer and harsher winters...and areas prone to tornadoes will see a dramatic increase in the frequency and severity of these freaks of nature.

Talk about hitting the nail on the head...

No matter what you think about the Global Warming debate, any thinking person has to admit that our world is changing in some fundamental and alarming ways. As a blogger, I can remember writing just last year about the terrible tornadoes of 2010, and here we are one year later and those storms dim in comparison to the rampage of 2011. I wrote last winter about the so-called epic cold of 2010, only to have it eclipsed by the monstrous winter snows of 2011, (and it is still snowing in the northern states as I write this blog, May 1, 2011). I also remember writing about the Texas drought of 2009, and here we are two years later and Texas is experiencing its worst drought in more than 100 years, with no relief in sight, (2009 seems like a summer vacation compared to the emerging bake of 2011, and much of the state is afire as a result).

And all around us, the world appears to be unraveling, with the scale and frequency of earthquakes on the rise, radioactive poison riding the jet stream and circling the planet, riots and revolution spreading like an infectious disease and an emerging realization that the global economy is hanging by its fingernails.

When will the madness stop? Nobody knows. But if you look to the unrelenting march in both scale and frequency of these events over time, you have to make a startling conclusion: not any time soon. Each year does appear to be worse than the previous, and 2011 has a real attitude.

Bummer.

I recently read a pseudo-scientific article about the possibility that time is speeding up -- the pace, rate, and scale of events both human and natural, and even time itself, are increasing exponentially, growing one upon the other. Whether the author's thesis is sound or not, his claim strikes an intuitive resonance, as it does appear as if we live in exponential times. Technological advancement, population growth, natural and man-made events (from war to hurricanes), all appear to be on some strange and destructive rocket ride.

Nobody knows where it will end, but one thing we can all agree to...its beginning to look like war. Unbelievable.

What can we do? Prepare.

The Winds Of Spring...Just Won't STOP!

2011-04-23T09:00:00.004-05:00

Texas has always been windy in Spring, but this year's blow just won't stop, and everybody is talking about it. Why? Because it is IN OUR FACES constantly, and there is no escaping it. The sustained 25 mph gusts, with regular surges to 40 mph, slams doors in your face before you can walk through them, snatches trash and paper bags out of your hands and launches them into oblivion, makes 18-wheelers sway like flagpoles, yanks plants right out of the ground, and evaporates water like a kid drinking a Slurpee. You can't even water your grass without the wind sucking away the spray. This has been going on since mid-February, and there appears to be no break in sight.

These winds remind me of my childhood, of brothers penning me to the ground and thumping my chest until I screamed uncle...a steady thump, thump, thump that at first is funny, then annoying, then painful, and finally all you can think about.

UNCLE!

It doesn't help that the state is suffering its worst drought in 100 years, setting the stage for the perfect storm -- firestorm that is. Water-starved vegetation and strong winds make a dangerous combination, especially in the presence of low humidity and high temperatures, which we have. And in our modern world of combustion-everything, it is inevitable that we are going to see an ignition, and when we do -- which we did -- watch out. Now you know why Governor Rick Perry recently asked President Obama to declare 252 Texas Counties a Major Disaster. Indeed, the state is burning away, with more than 1.5 million acres burned, hundreds of homes destroyed, and two firefighters killed.

Meanwhile, the fires still burn.

Obviously, our epic winds are fanning the flames, and as of this writing, there appears to be no rain in sight. In fact, in a move that can only be taken seriously in the state of Texas, Governor Perry recently proclaimed a three day period for 'Days Of Prayer For Rain In The State'. I'm serious. Interestingly, just after his proclamation, the 20% chance for storms that we were under was reduced to zero. Guess the Gods have a different plan for the Lone Star State.

As if to communicate that nobody will be spared the wrath of the weather Gods, on Sunday, April 17, the City of Austin (my home town) experienced one of its worst wildfires in recorded history, destroying 10 homes and damaging twice that before firefighters could contain the blaze. The devastation was surreal -- some scene out of The Road or something -- with nothing but slabs, chimney stacks, and charred earth to mark the path of the firestorm.

And the winds keep on blowing.

Before you write all this off as an anomaly, you should know that scientists now agree that the world is getting windier, much windier in fact. According to oceanographers at the Australian National University in Canberra, we have seen a steady increase in top wind speeds over the earth in the past 23 years; in fact, the most extreme winds are now blowing more that 10% faster than in the past. The suspect is global warming, but that can't be proven. But it doesn't really need to be, because all you have to do is go outside to confirm the claim (don't wear a hat). Their prognosis is quite sobering too.... Expect storms and hurricanes of increasing intensity as the world continues to get windier.

So it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that at the same time Texas has been burning to the ground, the American Midwest and Eastern seaboard have been getting pummelled by tornadoes and storms of unbelievable intensity. Indeed, while I write this blog, the St. Louis airport stands closed for business due to damage from a tornadic cell.

Are all these events related? We can only speculate. But it does appear as if the world is becoming a much more rowdy place to live. Best to be prepared.

2011: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

2011-04-15T13:54:00.009-05:00

It is a sad but true maxim that sweeping change almost always follows on the heels of disaster. The historical record is replete with examples of this truism. Think about it for a moment... It took massive damage from earthquakes for the west coast to realize that it had to regulate the design and construction of buildings to withstand the geophysical forces of nature. Modern fire protection designs and regulations all have a disturbing history in blood -- devastating events that taught us in a graphic and unsettling way that we need to take action to prevent similar events from happening again. Seat belt laws are in place precisely because of the staggering number of lives that were destroyed by automobile accidents. History-altering wars have begun, and are still being waged, because of sudden and dramatic shock-and-awe events. And even in our personal lives, it frequently takes horrible surprises, such as an unexpected heart attack, to shock us into purposeful action.

It's almost as if we humans are wired for the mundane...some bizarre DNA glitch that pre-programs us to expect (demand?) that tomorrow will look just like today, which we assume, should look pretty much like yesterday. Apparently, we are programmed for incrementalism, and it takes the big black swan -- that unforeseen, unpredictable, low-frequency-high-consequence event -- to get our attention. We earthlings need to be swept off our feet, have the air knocked out of our lungs, and generally get the crap beat out of us before we sit up, take note and change our perspectives about the world around us.

Enter 2011.

We have already written about the strange and goose-bump-raising dramatic increase in bizarre and extreme events that 2011 entrained in its wake. From bird and fish kills to global revolutions to the Japan tsunami and pending nuclear catastrophe, this year has slammed into the collective psyche like a runaway freight train, destroying lives in its path and shattering preconceptions of our happy Gomer Pyle notions of 'normal'. (Suddenly a Steven King novel seems to be a more apropos metaphor for our changing times.) And because of these events, people are starting to wake up, and they are taking action.

Clearly, the world is changing. And the good news: it appears as if we are too...

Since the Japan earthquake, worldwide interest in Emergency Preparedness Supplies, Freeze Dried Food, and Survival Kits has literally shot off the charts, wiping out entire warehouses and sending production plants into round-the-clock shifts to keep apace with the demand, which we are not doing I'm sorry to report. Delays in shipping of Freeze Dried Foods and MRE's is 4-6 weeks, and for some suppliers, 3-6 months. The demand for emergency supplies is overwhelming, and as of this writing, 5 weeks after the Japan earthquake, it is continuing unabated. And while the delays are a drag, it is a clear sign that people are getting prepared.

Clearly, people are waking up and recognizing that preparing for an unforeseen and unpredictable future in these challenging times is a reasonable action. And while we can all agree that it is a sad state of affairs that requires us to become 'Preppers', it is nevertheless, the world that we live in.

Be hopeful...but be prepared.

Fukushima Meltdown Eminent?

2011-04-06T10:18:00.018-05:00

It is difficult to stay abreast of the ever-changing circumstances at the Japanese Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant as the crisis continues to evolve daily. While there is an abundance of unqualified voices giving opinions on this evolving disaster, and the Internet is abuzz with various gloomy scenarios on the consequences of the event, the very complexity of the science involved alone makes it difficult for a reasonable person to determine what is really going on and how serious it may actually be, and whether or not we should be concerned. Making sense of the noise circulating around this evolving disaster makes it increasingly difficult to understand what is happening, and it doesn't help that for some strange reason the Main Stream Media appears to have backed away from giving this evolving story the attention it deserves.

One the one hand we have public officials telling us that America is not at risk from radioactive plumes, and on the other we have evidence that the very same officials (Environmental Protection Agency no less) are rewriting the definition of acceptable levels of radioactive contamination, in response to increasing levels of radioactive exposure! We read that food, water and milk have been contaminated in Japan, and yet Japanese officials are encouraging countries to continue to import food products from the beleaguered nation, with the happy-face assurance that the food is fine. We both hear and see evidence of massive dumping of radioactive effluence into the Pacific Ocean, and yet we are reassured that the ocean is large enough to disperse the toxic goo and render it harmless (even though the radioactive dumping will likely last months if not years). And most recently, we have learned that there is evidence that the plant is now leaking Plutonium -- one of science's most toxic substances, a single particle of which is lethal -- but again, we are told that there is no need to be alarmed, yet.

It is that 'yet' that concerns me. As you read and watch the interviews and reporting on this emerging nightmare, you cannot help but to notice that there is always a subtle ellipsis that follows reassurances of safety, the embedded dot...dot...dot...that leaves room for catastrophe.

We will be fine, so long as...

So far, radiation levels are acceptable and represent no eminent health risk...

The ocean should be able to neutralize the radioactive effluence...

And so on...

And while the need to remain calm, rational and optimistic regarding the Fukushima nuclear reactor(s) is completely understandable, one can't help but to wonder if there is a much more sobering potential reality that we are not being told...the other side of the ellipsis that is being purposefully omitted from the public narrative, if you will.

The delicate balance between informing the public and alarming the public has been a tightrope that public officials have tripped and stumbled over for many years, and let's face it, that can't be an easy job. However, for years it has been inculcated into our very psyche (programmed??) that radiation is harmful, and yet now that it is in the air, ground, water and food, we are being told not to worry. The seeming contradiction here is both unnerving and conterintuitive, which would suggest that there is much more to this story.

To help SurvivalOutpost.com readers better understand the 'what if' behind the ellipsis, here are some articles for your review:

EPA To Raise Limits For Radiation Exposure A trenchant satire and critique of official obfuscation and mis-information regarding the Fukushima Reactor event. A MUST read!

Closing Ranks A compelling video by Fairewinds and Associates exposing the official doublespeak regarding the Fukushima disaster; notable quote from video, "Clearly we are witnessing the worst disaster in modern history."

Dreaded News Plutonium Leaking And Spreading An excellent ABC piece discussing the danger of plutonium exposure.

Rainwater In California Measured 181 Times The Acceptable Limit For Drinking Water Berkeley test of drinking water reveals some sobering levels of radiation.

Fukushima Nuclear Disaster End Of Week Three A comprehensive look at where this crisis has been and where it may go.

Growing Worries About The US Economy

2011-03-31T14:13:00.005-05:00

We recently posted an article titled Economic Collapse Redux which has drawn a lot of attention and seen widespread circulation on the Internet. It appears as if many people across the country are just as concerned about the economy as we are. Interestingly, the timing of our article was coincident with the release of an on-line video that has taken the country and world by storm. Titled, The End Of America by Porter Stansberry, this video is - in our opinion - a well made and fiercely intelligent expose' of our current economic plight in America, with some pretty dark and dystopian thoughts about where we are headed as a country. In fact, the video has drawn such widespread attention - and controversy - that according to Alex Jones of Infowars.com the MSM has banned paid advertising to promote it.

Fear the days when the networks willingly turn down paid advertising!

And while we definitely are not in the business of giving financial advice at SurvivalOutpost.com, we are recommending that all our friends and customers take one hour out of their busy day and lives to review this compelling video. Whether you agree or not with the author's perspective and prognosis, the content of the video alone is instructive and his arguments are evocative. This is a must see.

You can see the video here.

Remember: you should prepare for an economic crisis in the same way that you would prepare for any emergency, 1) long term storage of Food & Water (including water filtration capabilities), 2) six months of personal hygiene & medication/first aid, 3) a diverse collection of survival tools such as lights, batteries, knives, stoves, fuel, etc., 5) personal protection and self defense devices (whatever form you are comfortable with), 6) a community network of like minded friends and family, and 7) a bug-out plan and mobile survival kit should you need to make a quick exit.

As always, we are prepared to help you prepare for the future at SurvivalOutpost.com.

Be Safe. Stay Informed. Be Prepared.

Japan Earthquake: Can We Predict The Unpredictable?

2011-03-25T09:40:00.005-05:00

Generally, it is our philosophy at SurvivalOutpost.com to stay out of the prediction business, to steer clear of radicalism and fanaticism, and to shun notions of conspiracy and intrigue. We believe that the world will unfold in unpredictable and mysterious ways and that attempts to predict future events, and/or to assign blame or responsibility for life's tumultuous ride, ultimately makes one look both foolish and wrong; indeed, the very act of predicting the future can alter that which is being predicted, making the effort meaningless as well as a waste of precious time and energy. Likewise, while it is arguable that there exist hidden agendas, secret mysteries, and powerful forces that are at work in our lives and world today (and it is seductive and fun to think about such things), trying to figure them out and attribute 'blame' or 'responsibility' to any one group is equally as futile as predicting the future.

Sometimes Shit really does just happen, and there is no clear reason and no clear logic for why. It's just the world we live in.

Take the Japan earthquake for example. Japan is the third largest economy in the world and it was brought to its knees by a devastating act of nature, crippling its economy, destroying vast tracts of infrastructure, shattering lives and families, and, quite likely, poisoning the region with a toxic radioactive stew. A thinking person would predict that this horrible event would result in a severe shock to the global markets, similar to the contraction that followed the events of September 11, 2001 -- Japan is the THIRD largest economy in the world after all. But, here we are two weeks later...and the Dow Jones Industrial just keeps going up, and the Nikkei rebounds. That was not predictable. And on March 12th, while we were watching the mind-boggling videos of nature run amok in northern Japan, had you told me that the markets would continue to surge forward in their unrelenting pursuit of false profits, I would have laughed in your face. Surely an event of this scale will rock the global economy...

Nope. At least not according to Wall Street.

And while it is seductive to blame the counter-intuitive moves of the markets on Wall Street racketeering and investment bank machinations, (after all, the so-called 'fundamentals' of the economy apparently aren't so 'fundamental' any more), can you really prove that? Isn't it equally as possible that humans make irrational decisions in the face of unpredictable events, and the aggregate of those irrational decisions make for some pretty wild realities? Isn't it equally possible that investment bankers aren't really inherently evil, but are doing what all of us would do given the chance -- make a profit? As long as the system allows (encourages?) them to continue to do what they are doing, so long as it is profitable, do you blame them for doing it? Is it really possible to predict anything so long as humans are involved given that we are all imperfect co-creators of our own collective reality?

I think not...

So here is a summary maxim for you to live by: Predictions Are Always Wrong. Period.

But, Preparing for an uncertain future is Always Right.

If we have learned anything from our journey in this world, it should be that while the future is unpredictable and uncertain, we can still take steps to prepare for it. How? By recognizing that our world reveals patterns, probabilities and synchronicities in its wild ride, and that each of these tells us a compelling story (sometimes the story is screaming in our face, but we are too busy watching American Idol to hear it). Furthermore, we have the historical record to guide us in our journey.

So consider this:

There is a pattern emerging in the Middle East.

There is a pattern emerging in the global economies (debt!).

There is a pattern emerging in the Pacific Ring of Fire.

There is a pattern emerging in American Politics and its system of governance.

There is a pattern emerging in the world's geopolitical arena.

There is a pattern emerging in the world's weather and climate.

There is a pattern emerging in the precious metals markets.

There is a pattern emerging in the Main Stream Media.

There is a pattern emerging in space.

None of these patterns are new in the global experience, and they all have a rich and exciting history in the world's historical narrative. Perhaps you should research them? And as you do, ask yourself an honest question: What should a reasonable person do to prepare?

A World In Crisis: Welcome To The Future

2011-03-18T08:21:00.005-05:00

Trying to remain abreast of the dramatic events and trends that are shaping our world today is like driving through a Texas hail storm -- a constant beating of blinding ice, with occasional stones hitting so hard they virtually take your breath away. Indeed, as one reflects on the past 12-15 months alone, you can not help but to be awed by the staggering number of incredible and devastating events that have slammed into our world and reality...the catastrophic blitzkrieg of our emerging new normal.

Think about it for just a moment... Since January 2010, we have witnessed a devastating earthquake in Haiti, destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands and leveling an entire city; we watched in horror as the Gulf of Mexico was poisoned with millions of gallons of oil, and subsequently fertilized with toxic Corexit, a disaster that is still revealing itself in mysterious and frightening ways; then Chili in South America was rattled with an 8.8 shake, sending tsunamis rolling and dropping buildings to their foundations; Russia began to burn, charring vast tracks of croplands affecting food prices across the world; we observed a staggering increase in the release of methane gas (a potent greenhouse gas) from the permafrost into the planet's atmosphere, causing a destructive feedback loop of warming-melting-methane release-do-over; we have seen a sobering and somewhat frightening increase in reliable sightings of strange and unidentified flying orbs and other mysterious and unexplainable objects all over the planet; then a wide swath of Australia was inundated with flood waters; suddenly, millions of fish began to die unexpectedly while birds fell from the sky; the America mid-west started to shake, causing many to wonder if the New Madrid fault was waking up; Millions of disillusioned and disenfranchised people decided to rise up and challenge the status quo through revolution and revolt; Christchurch was leveled; Japan was brought to its knees by an earthquake and resultant tsunami of biblical proportions; radiation clouds are in the air heading eastward with the jet stream; our global financial system is buried in insurmountable debt and hangs on by a thread; 2012 rapidly approaches accompanied by a wide array of apocalyptic predictions; and finally, as I sit down to write this short article, the Internet is a-buzz with predictions that the American west coast is seeing signs of an impending earthquake.

Tired yet? And while that might be a long sentence, you should know that it is a short list, and doesn't even begin to tell the whole story..

As I think about our world today, I am reminded of Alvin Toffler's best selling 1970's book, Future Shock. While his book is somewhat dated, his thesis remains apropos. Toffler argued that our world and society is changing so rapidly, and the pace of change is accelerating so quickly, that it will result in a new reality where change and uncertainty are the only remaining constants, which, suggests Toffler, will leave people 'shattered and disoriented'.

"...millions of psychologically normal people will experience an abrupt collision with the future. Affluent, educated citizens of the world’s richest and most technically advanced nations, they will fall victim to tomorrow’s most menacing malady: the disease of change. Unable to keep up with the supercharged pace of change, brought to the edge of breakdown by incessant demands to adapt to novelty, many will plunge into future shock. For them the future will have arrived too soon." (Toffler, 1970)

And while Toffler was speaking to technological change, his thesis is still quite relevant as it relates to our rapidly changing global reality. The pace and scale of catastrophic and epic events around the world today -- both human as well as natural -- has left many people numb...let's call it a 21st Century version of Future Shock. Or, if you want, you can call it crisis fatigue...but however you want to name it, this appears to be the new normal and it will be hard to escape the consequences of our incessantly changing rapid-fire world.

So what do we do about this new reality? Well, as any Texan knows, the only sure way to safely weather a hail storm is to get under a bridge and wait it out...assuming there is room. And if there isn't any room under the bridge, you need to plan to take a beating.

Unfortunately, there appears to be fewer and fewer places to hide from the ravages of our rapidly changing world. You had better get prepared...

Welcome to the Future.

Japan Earthquake; Finding Patterns In Nature's Fits

2011-03-12T09:24:00.006-06:00

Pray for the people of earth, because Mother Nature is angry, and her wrath has no equal.

As we watch the videos of unspeakable devastation caused by Japan's recent record-breaking 8.9 earthquake and the resultant massive tsunami that raged over entire villages sucking up houses, factories, cars, trees and people in a swirling lahar-like mess, one can't help but to think of the Apocalypse. Even though most of us do not have a clear idea of what 'apocalypse' really is -- some vague notion of the end of the world as we know it -- I'm pretty sure the images of Japan will fit the bill, and I'm absolutely certain that the poor people that were washed away in the raging torrent of hydraulic flow thought that the world had come to an end. What a dreadful fate. God bless them.

Of course we have seen these images before. America has an obsession with doom and frequently mainlines this strange addiction through blockbuster movies. 2012-like special effects of entire cities falling into the oceans, massive fissures swallowing up neighborhoods, buildings swaying to and fro are standard fare. And we walk away from these movies full of popcorn and goo -- entertained as it were -- confident that such mind-boggling devastation is not really possible...special effects on steroids and Hollywood producers on Red Bull.

Well, unfortunately, Hollywood has just been one-upped by Mother Nature, and the images of real-life devastation are horrifying and surreal. Nothing is more frightening than the real thing...

It's natural when confronted with such epic events to ask a simple question, "What is going on here?" Its hard-wired into the human DNA to seek out patterns in life, to identify the cause-effect relationship between the things that we observe around us and within us. We humans want to know Why things are happening, what causes the often strange phenomena that constitutes our reality. And this natural inquisitiveness has served us quite well over the years, and indeed is the reason why we have advanced to such pillars of technology and science. Our desire to know what is going on around us is to our credit, and we should continue to ask important questions about life and the world around us, especially when they involve the things that can ruin our day, such as a major earthquake.

So it was with an incredible amount of confusion that I watched three so-called scientific experts on cable news last night systematically debunk patterned-reasoning for the causative agents of the devastating earthquake in Japan...as nonsense. Indeed, one USGS expert even went so far as to tell the people of the world that there is no pattern to the strange increase in epic events around the world and to, essentially, shut up and stop worrying about it. Live with it, would be a good summary of his opinion; (or die with it, depending upon where you live). Subsequently, another expert -- a popular astrophysicist -- characterized the recent concern about the upcoming SuperMoon conjunction of March 19 and its potential effect on the earth as pure nonsense, (a special alignment of the earth, sun and moon that a lot of thinking people are becoming increasingly concerned about). He then proceeded to tell us how the moon affects the ebb and flow of the earth's tides, but it doesn't affect the earth itself, and could not have contributed to the devastating Japan earthquake.

Really? The moon can affect the tides but not the earth, in spite of the compelling historical correlations between SuperMoon alignments of the past and severe geophysical and meteorological events on the earth (including, I might add, the 2005 Indoneisian tsunami)? This, is nonsense? I suppose it would be equally nonsensical to claim that the sun's recent solar storm activity, including an X-class flare just days prior to the Japan event, could have contributed to this disaster...even though there is ample evidence that solar activity affects our world in dangerous ways.

Indeed, to dismiss any idea as pure nonsense is either arrogance, or a dodge, and definitely not in the spirit of intellectual curiosity. And remember, whenever somebody categorically dismisses an idea as nonsense, that should be a clear and compelling call to action to investigate it further (especially when the debunker is a paid MSM 'expert').

Trust your own instincts... Something is going on in, under and around our world and universe. It's almost as if the events of September 11, 2001 tipped some galactic scale and ushered in an era of the extreme, and now we are having to learn how to live in this new reality. Epic events, both natural and human, do appear to be on a dramatic rise in both scale and frequency. There are likely numerous reasons for why this is happening, from global warming to solar activity to an increasing awareness of life's unfair disparities, to geoengineering, and yes, even to SuperMoon conjunctions. We may never know the Truth behind what is happening in our world today.

But I do know this: if we quit asking questions about our world and why it might be changing around us, and accept the MSM party line as doctrine, we are likely sentencing ourselves to become victims of the rapid changes that are happening around us. I would rather be prepared, and will keep thinking for myself in spite of claims of foolishness.

Keep thinking. Keep asking questions. Keep looking for patterns. Trust your instincts.

Be Prepared.

Economic Collapse Redux

2011-03-06T08:30:00.007-06:00

Gallup recently released their monthly unemployment report and it appears as if we are continuing our slow but steady increase in joblessness throughout America. According to Gallup, unemployment was up to 10.3% at the end of February, 2011, a slight increase from January's high of 9.8 percent. What's more, underemployment surged to just under 20% and the percentage of part-time workers who want full time work worsened considerably since the beginning of 2011. These trends are corroborated by ShadowStats.com, a website dedicated to evaluating government economic reporting and revealing the biases and flaws (lies?) in their computational methodologies. According to ShadowStats, the real unemployment rate in America is just under 25%.

That's right, one in four persons in the US is out of work, has given up on finding work, or is underemployed. If you have spent anytime at all in the industrial states of north America, or the central-state counties of California, you realize very quickly that these statistics may themselves be under reported.

So it was with a fair amount of confusion and downright whiplash that I received a CNN Newsflash on my iPhone yesterday morning making the exciting claim that "Unemployment is down in the United States and jobs are up for February." Rejoice my friends...we are out of the woods, claims CNN.

WTF?

Corporate control and manipulation of the Mainstream Media aside, I find it increasingly baffling to hear pundits and so-called experts make the repeated claims that the United States has pulled out of the recession and is back on the road to recovery. Such claims not only defy our own experiences, but they are downright insulting to a thinking person. Do they believe we are that credulous? And while I completely understand that the economy is as much psychological as rational -- an argument widely used to justify false reporting of economic indicators in order to 'convince' consumers that all is well and motivate them into spending again, a self-fulfilling prophecy as it were -- I still think we should man-up and have the courage to call a kettle a kettle when we see it. The economy is not getting better, its getting worse and any thinking person that is willing to take ten minutes a day to do some basic research will realize, quite disturbingly, that those green shoots people keep talking about are poisonous thistles.

We need to stop believing what the paid pundits are telling us and start using our own eyes. The view may shock you. Here are just a few things you will see (and by no means an exhaustive list of indicators you should be aware of)...

1) The price of oil is going back up and we are feeling the pinch at the gas stations. As of Friday, March 4, the price of oil was above $104 dollars, the highest its been since September of 2008. And depending upon what happens in the Middle East, the price of oil could hit record highs, rocking the global economy as people lose what discretionary dollars they have remaining (because they are spending it on gas) and stop all non-essential consumption (re: spending). When people stop spending, the economy contracts. We saw this in 2008 and we will likely see it again. The difference is this time we are already in a recession; When the economy contracts in the midst of an existing recession, things get really bad.

2) The price of food is going up...way up, and you are feeling the squeeze at the grocery store. Corn, wheat, soybean, cotton, sugar and many other staples of agriculture (and life) have witnessed staggering increases in price in the last 12 months, in many cases doubling and even tripling in value. To those of us with a little money, these price increases are simply more insult to injury, and will diminish our capacity to consume other goods (contracting the economy even worse); to the 3.2 billion people across the planet that live on the equivalent of less than $2 dollars a day, these price hikes will be devastating. Remember, desperate people (read: hungry people) do desperate things. Enter revolution.

Don't forget that the typical meal you eat in the US travels on average 2000 miles to get to you, plus requires tremendous amounts of fuel to plant, fertilize, harvest, produce and ship. High oil plus high food prices will create a self-perpetuating feedback loop of increases on top of increases, and will likely spell economic disaster.

3) The United States Federal Debt, if you include unfunded liabilities -- promissory notes that you are committed to paying in the future, such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. -- is currently in the tens of trillions of dollars, and depending upon who is doing the analysis, could top the 100 trillion mark in a matter of years. That's right -- 100 trillion. In light of this staggering and mind boggling figure, it's downright laughable to watch Congress as they currently bicker over the so-called Republican deficit reduction plan because no amount of reduction in current spending can ever hope to make an impact on the national debt. Indeed, every citizen of the United States could be taxed 100% of income and we wouldn't make a dent on the debt. The cost to service the interest on the debt alone represents a huge chunk of the GNP...a bad sign and according to one Harvard History Professor, an indicator that US economic hegemony is a thing of the past. In fact, I think his word was "Collapse."

[This short list only addresses those trends that hit close to home. A more thorough and sobering examination into our current economy would also have to explore Quantitative Easing and the Fed's monetary policy of print, print, print; the emergence of an American Plutocracy and corporate cartelism; stagnant American wages and the off shoring of American manufacturing jobs; the crumbling housing market; the devaluation of the dollar and its slow demise as the world's reserve currency; manipulation of the precious metals market; Wall Street racketeering and the emergence of so-called Quants as the darlings of the age of exploitation; and more. But we'll save those for another day...]

There is a simple maxim that comes to mind as one reflects on these data: That which can't go on forever, won't.

An ever-increasing debt assumes an ever-increasing economy; you have to have an expanding economy to continue to support an expanding debt. You Have To. Unfortunately, by almost any standard, our economy is shrinking (or at best stagnating), in spite of CNN's happy face prognostications.

So here is the bitter pill that eventually all of us will have to swallow: The combination of a shrinking economy and explosive debt is catastrophe. Period. We are talking about an Economic Collapse of epic proportions. When will this happen? Nobody knows...but chance favors the prepared mind...

Bottoms up.

Don't Be Scared. Be Prepared.

You Know 'Prepping' Has Hit Mainstream When Your Mom Starts Buying Supplies!

2011-02-26T10:09:00.007-06:00

I don't know if the term "Prepping" is complimentary or pejorative, but I do know that my Mom now qualifies for the label. Like so many people that buy Emergency Preparedness Supplies, my Mother, who is an Arkansan, is becoming increasingly rattled by the escalating pace of events across the country and the world. Culminating in a recent Bible Study group among friends where the topic of the day was Middle East unrest, (events that many thoughtful people perceive as biblical in scale), somebody apparently said, "Should we be getting prepared?" To which my Mom referenced SurvivalOutpost.com. Interestingly, the leader of the group is a regular reader of our blog.

Later that day my Mom was calling for advice on what she should do to be prepared for our increasingly unpredictable world and uncertain future. This change of heart represents a full circle for my Mom.

It's funny to watch how people react to the notion of 'Prepping' (the term given to the act of storing supplies in the event of an emergency, whether man made or natural). When Brian and I first decided to launch SurvivalOutpost.com, our family and friends, not to mention our professional associates, were incredulous at best, downright scornful at worst. Perhaps part of the reason for the raised eyebrows over our business decision is that prepping has had such a bad rap over the years. Prior to September 11, 2001, people who stored supplies for an unpredictable event were perceived as fringe -- camo-clad anarchists living in the woods waiting for society to unravel. It doesn't help that some of these very same anarchists proved themselves to be quite unbalanced. Hence, prepping became regrettably associated with the fanatical.

Then buildings began to fall down in New York City; an entire coastline was devastated by a category 5 hurricane, leveling a historic American city; the United States became mired in intractable and seemingly unending wars; the economy was brought to it's knees by wild-eyed and selfish Wall Street racketeering, sending the entire planet reeling into an epic recession; weird and unpredictable weather events started slamming across the planet sending flood waters over entire continents; biblical droughts; epic snows; mind numbing heat; a shifting, rocking and rolling earth, leveling whole cities and creating waves that defy imagination; massive and unexplained animal deaths across the planet; bizarre increases in credible sighting of unexplained aerial phenomena; and then, of course, there are the Mayans and a whole host of predictive traditions that suggest we are living in extraordinary times, times of great turmoil and upheaval.

Suddenly, thinking people are beginning to wonder if prepping isn't such a bad idea after all.

Like my Mom, as I watch people slowly accept the validity and reasonableness of 'Prepping' I am reminded of Authur Schopenhauer's famous quote regarding truth. Schopenhauer said that all truths go through three stages, first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident. I think this principle applies rather appropriately to 'Prepping'. At first it is ridiculed as fringe. Then it is laughed at as silly, fanatical, nonsense, a waste of money. Finally, people start calling for advice. And while we can all agree that it is a sad state of affairs that require us to plan for the worst, while hoping for the best, it is, nevertheless, the world that we live in. It is real.

Preparing for an uncertain future is not fringe at all, it is smart.

Welcome to the world of the real.

Solar Storms Are On The Rise In 2011

2011-02-21T14:09:00.006-06:00

After a prolonged period of minimal activity, it appears as if our Sun has woken up, and with a vengeance. During the three day period between February 13-15th, the sun experienced a series of solar storms culminating in an X-class solar flare - the strongest kind - and an earth directed Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), which is a massive blast of solar wind, plasma and magnetic fields. Spectacular on their own account, solar flares, which are typically (but not always) associated with sun spot activity, can leap huge distances off the surface of the sun and engulf areas of space that are several times the size of planet earth. They are truly awe-inspiring events. When accompanied by an earth directed CME, however, such tempestuous behavior can rapidly ruin your day.

Turbulent solar activity is not a new thing, of course. For as long as our bright star has been up there, scientists agree that it has experienced recurring cycles of minimal and maximum activity. Like Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, apparently our sun suffers a perennial split personality, one that reveals itself (generally) on an 11-year cycle, commonly referred to as the 'Sunspot Cycle'. During a 'Solar Minimum' the sun is quiet and experiences little solar activity; during a maximum, however, things get really interesting with massive solar storms, sunspot clusters and, yes, Coronal Mass Ejections. Our recent solar maximum, due to peak sometime in late 2012 (there is that year again) or early 2013, is predicted by many experts to be one of the most active in recorded history. This should concern you.

The National Academy of Sciences released a report in 2008 titled Severe Space Weather Events: Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. In the preliminary abstract, the authors waste no time in getting your attention,

"Because of the interconnectedness of critical infrastructures in modern society, the impacts of severe space weather events can go beyond disruption of existing technical systems and lead to short-term as well as long-term collateral socioeconomic disruptions. Electrical power is modern society's cornerstone technology, the technology on which virtually all other infrastructures and services depend. Collateral effects of [a major space weather event] would likely include, for example, disruption of the transportation, communication, banking and finance systems, and government services; the breakdown of the distribution of potable water owing to pump failure and the loss of perishable foods and medications because of lack of refrigeration."

Sounds pretty bad. How is this possible?

Without getting bogged down in the physics, essentially, when massive amounts of energized plasma are ejected in an earthbound trajectory from a Coronal Mass Ejection, it slams into the earth's magnetosphere, creating a geomagnetic storm which can severely disrupt telecommunications, satellite technology and even fry electrical grids across the planet. The stronger the CME, the greater the potential for geomagnetic disturbances on the ground. This is not idle speculation; such events have already occurred. In 1989, two relatively minor earth-directed solar events brought the Hydro-Quebec electrical utility to is knees, resulting in a complete shut-down. Millions of people lost power. And those were minor events.

To throw insult upon injury, according to some researchers, the earth's protective magnetic field -- our shield from solar storms -- is currently in a weakened state. And depending on the relationship between the earth and the sun's magnetic fields and the interplay between these two forces at the time of a major CME event, we could potentially experience a 'shields down' scenario during a solar storm event; and in fact such a scenario is predicted to happen right about when our current solar cycle is predicted to peak -- 2012 [See Lawrence E. Joseph, Aftermath, pp.35-42].

So, here is your scenario: Massive solar storms from one of the worst solar maximums in recorded history, with earth directed CME's blasting through a weakened magnetic shield resulting in global infrastructure shut down taking months, if not years to reset.

Now you know why so many scientists are concerned, and why you should be prepared.

Stay tuned, the Sun is ramping up for the show of a lifetime. I hear the view from earth is pretty good. Seats are still available...but the question is -- are you ready for the show?

Here Comes The Sun.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.

New Madrid Fault Spurs Fears in Mid-West

2011-02-12T07:38:00.003-06:00

Recently, we have seen a dramatic increase in sales of SurvivalOutpost.com products to customers in the Midwest. The reason for this increase in sales would seem intuitive -- Midwestern states have been getting routinely hammered by the epic winter snows of 2011; and indeed, this is partially the case. However, after interviewing a handful of our customers from the Midwest, we made a new and rather sobering discovery -- many of these customers are becoming increasingly worried about the New Madrid Seismic Zone, and they are planning for the worst (while hoping for the best).

When most people in the United States think of Seismic Zones, they generally think of California. With the San Andreas Fault slicing more than 800 miles through California - a massive fissure separating the North Atlantic and Pacific plates - and a history of attention-grabbing tremors to remind us of it's volatility, California generally wins the prize as the earthquake high-risk zone De jure. But it may surprise you to learn that there is another active seismic zone in the United States, one that is responsible for this country's four largest earthquakes ever, with magnitudes exceeding 8.0, and it isn't on the west coast.

It's in the Midwest.

Specifically, this active region, called the New Madrid Fault, lurks under a four-state area including Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky, but has the potential to affect a region that is far greater. In fact, in a cluster of earthquakes that began in December of 1811 and continued into February 1812, referred to as the 1811-1812 earthquake series and one of the worst in this country's history, the New Madrid Fault shook so hard that church bells on the east coast started ringing. People as far away as New York City and Boston could feel the rumbling. One tremor, located almost exactly under the spot where Memphis is found today, shook so hard the river appeared to flow upstream. As Wiki states,

"The future location of Memphis, Tennessee was shaken at Mercalli level nine intensity. Local uplifts of the ground and water waves moving upstream gave the illusion that the river was flowing upstream. At New Madrid, trees were knocked down and riverbanks collapsed. This event shook windows and furniture in Washington, D.C., rang bells in Richmond, Virginia, sloshed well water and shook houses in Charleston, South Carolina, and knocked plaster off of houses in Columbia, South Carolina. In Jefferson, Indiana, furniture moved and in Lebanon, Ohio, residents fled their homes."

A similar earthquake today would be devastating, and would likely result in thousands of deaths, billions of dollars of damage to structures and critical infrastructure, and the displacement of millions of people. Indeed, it would be an earthquake event of biblical proportions. Which is why, of course, people that live in this region of the country are becoming increasingly concerned.

It doesn't help that recent unexplained fish and bird deaths have pockmarked the same region, which has sparked wild and fanciful, and in some cases outlandish speculation as to what might be really going on. From HAARP testing (ludicrous), to a 2012 pole shift (nonsense), to biblical End Times geophysical volatility (very unlikely), the wild-eyed conspiratorial musings about the New Madrid fault zone would be downright hilarious were it not for one small exception...and that exception is that it appears as if FEMA is planning for this very event.

In late January 2011, FEMA distributed a series of RFIs (Request For Information)to potential vendors to provide food, blankets, fuel and other resources in the event of a New Madrid earthquake. The language in the request is sobering, "The purpose of this Request for Information is to identify sources of supply for meals in support of disaster relief efforts based on a catastrophic disaster event within the New Madrid Fault System for a survivor population of 7M to be utilized for the sustainment of life during a 10-day period of operations." FEMA is essentially soliciting a vendor (or vendors) to provide in excess of 14 million meals for a New Madrid event. That's right -- 14 million.

Conspiracy theories aside, the timing of these requests are strangely coincident with the widespread bird and fish kill in the region, which, not surprisingly, has caused this thing to go viral. And even a rational mind and critical thinker has to stop and meditate on the timing of these requests. You can read more about the FEMA requests, here, or simply Google it yourself.

Please keep in mind, FEMA is paid to look for potential risks and then take appropriate steps to mitigate associated hazards. Preparing for the low-probability, high-consequence event is what they do (or at least what they should be doing). So, taking steps to prepare for a New Madrid event seems both logical and responsible.

But the question nevertheless begs...why now? What changed in 2011 to cause FEMA to suddenly take the New Madrid seriously, given that the hazard has been there for hundreds of years?

And that gnawing uncertainty appears to be motivating a lot of people into action.

Whether there is anything to the timing or not, it is always best to be prepared.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.

UFO's Are Making A Comeback

2011-02-07T16:34:00.006-06:00

In early February, my wife and I were in Vail Colorao for our annual ski trip. As luck would have it, we timed our trip to coincide perfectly with the epic cold blast which knocked half of the United States to its knees, causing record snowfalls and electric brownouts and blackouts in a multi-state area. Double-digit negative temperatures actually closed schools and businesses in Colorado, not due to snow, but to the severe windchill attendant to negative 30 degrees (actual temperature). Even if they wanted to, school buses in the Denver area couldn't have shuttled youngsters to class because the extreme cold changed the viscosity of the fuel in the tanks, causing the vehicles to preform erratically. People were informed to stay at home and stay warm, (let's hope they had their survival kits in place!).

Most skiers simply stared at their unused equipment. I counted six skiers on the entire mountain that day. I wasn't one of them.

In an effort to salvage the day, we decided to take a drive up the pass and visit family for lunch. After an enjoyable afternoon, as we were making our lazy way back to the mountain, I happened to notice a vividly brilliant star looming just above a ridge line to the south of I-70. It was around five in the afternoon and the sun was just dropping below the mountains. I pointed to the star and mentioned to my wife that the stars were out early this evening. She looked up, stared for a while, and then replied, "I think that's a plane reflecting the sunlight."

We both looked for a while and then suddenly a second bright object appeared above and somewhat behind the first; a few seconds later a third appeared to the lower right of the first, creating what looked like an Obtuse triangle.

"Well," I said, "it appears as if we now have three airplanes, and they came out of nowhere. What say you now?" I challenged my wife. "You drive, I'll watch," was her terse reply. In violation of my orders, I watched along with her, and was stunned to observe the triangle of orbs suddenly rotate in a clockwise motion, reorienting the initial orb (my star) to the top, and then slowly descend below the ridge line, in what appeared to be perfect formation. A truly bizarre sight.

"Um...did you see that?" Was my wife's hushed inquiry. "See what?" I demurred...

"Stop it! Did you see that??!"

Of course I did, and I had no logical explanation for it. We sat there in awed silence both wanting to say what we were too embarrassed to admit -- did we just see a UFO?

UFOs have had a bad rap over the past 50 years or so. Initially, when UFOs first hit the mainstream shortly after the Second World War, culminating in the infamous Roswell incident, they were not considered taboo at all -- more mystery than madness. But over the years, either by design or default, claims of UFO sightings have been met with increasing levels of disdain and distrust. Perhaps this is because so many claims of UFO sightings are either easily explained or quickly recognized as fraud. It could also be because a lot of the claimants are, well, less than credible.

But what is sad, and begs thoughtful consideration, is that there remains a compelling minority of UFO observations that defy all explanation...and these claims are on the rise. Indeed, 2011 rang in with a host of bizarre and unexplainable UFO sightings which occurred all over the world, culminating in the most recent video (from multiple angles) of a supposed UFO hovering over Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Late 2010 closed with hundreds of observations of UFOs over Manhattan, and South America & China appear to be hot spots for unexplained aerial phenomena. What's particularly interesting, and why I decided to write a blog about UFOs (my recent Colorado experience notwithstanding), is that during the February 6 Superbowl between the Packers and Steelers, there were no less than 5 (yes, FIVE) movie trailers for upcoming Human vs. Alien blockbusters. All in 2011. You have to scratch your head over that one...

ET appears to be making a strong comeback, both in reality and in entertainment; and the question begs - why? (I love ET movies as much as the next guy, but five in one year...advertised during the Superbowl? What happened to the three little frogs!?)

Leslie Kean, investigative journalist-cum UFO apologist, recently published a compelling and comprehensive examination into the true mystery of the UFO phenomenon, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, And Government Officials Go On The Record. Her book will rock even the most cynical, and demands an honest appreciation for what has become vilified as the mindless musings of the mad proletariat. By bringing forward credible witnesses to the UFO question, she forces the conversation on what is really happening up there, who knows about it, and why isn't the public informed on it. Kean successfully demystifies a subject that has been systematically ridiculed and discredited over the years, and brings to light the true mystery (and exciting possibilities) behind Unidentified Flying Objects.

Supported by the likes of Kean, Jim Marrs, a phalanx of scientists from the Exopolitics Institute, objective websites such as latest-UFO-sightings.net, and the fascinating immediacy and interconnectedness of the Internet, it appears as if the UFO phenomenon is rapidly approaching a tipping point. Indeed, the world renown Global Competitiveness Forum, a convention of the world's top business, academic and political leaders, recently met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and discussed, among other topics, the 'business implications of extraterrestrial life and technologies.'

For real.

And before you write all this off as fanciful musings, consider what some of the world's top minds have had to say about the UFO dilemma, here.

But my favorite quote of all, and the best place to end this short blog, is from President Ronald Reagan during a United Nations address. The President said,

"I think about how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And I ask you, does not this threat already exist?"

Now there is something to think about, and apparently Hollywood wants you to do just that...

Don't ever forget that a prepared mind is an open mind.

Cold Blast Reminds Us Of The Importance Of The 10 Essentials of Winter Survival!

2011-02-04T10:57:00.005-06:00

With severe cold breaking records across the country (negative 30 degrees at Vail Colorado on February 4!), it is a good idea to refresh our memories on the 10 Essentials for winter weather survival.

1) Clothing & warmth. You should always have fleece or pile socks, pants, shirts, jackets and hats in your car. A fleece blanket and goose down jacket and sleeping bag will ensure your comfort should you be stranded for any length of time without power or assistance. Remember, climbers live for days in negative degree temperature through some of the worst conditions - in tents - simply because they have the right clothing.

2) Freeze Dried food. You should have three days worth of food storage in your vehicle during the winter. Store MRE's or other dehydrated foods and power bars to stave off the hunger in the event of a prolonged stay in your car.

3) Water and/or water filtration capability. When you are surrounded by snow, you are surrounded by water, assuming you have a means to melt and purify the water. Water purifiers and purification tablets are a must for the climber, and you should have both in your car emergency kit. Remember, the human body can last weeks without food, but only a matter of days without water.

4) Knife, lighter, duct tape, utility tool and string. The simplest tools are always the ones that are the most missed in an emergency. Remember Cast Away with Tom Hanks? A simple knife and lighter would have changed his circumstances considerably and you should have both in your car at all times. Also, duck tape in an emergency is a must, you can manufacture any number of inventions with a little duct tape.

5) Communication. Your cell phone is vital. Make sure you have the means to recharge your phone with a crank device in the event you are without battery power. If you can't communicate with the outside world, you are really on your own.

6) Heat and stove. Your car emergency kit should include a camp stove and fuel for melting water and cooking food. A warm meal or drink soothes the soul in a long winter emergency, and will provide an indirect source of heat to boot. (Remember that a camp stove emits dangerous carbon monoxide, so you should only use one in a well-ventilated space. Open the car windows or cook outside when you use one.)

7) GPS. If you don't know where you are...you are truly lost. A good GPS unit will give you a sense of direction, but more importantly, it will give you a position for rescue. A portable GPS unit is a great addition to your car emergency kit.

8) Light. You should always carry a crank operated light and/or lantern for those unforeseen emergencies. Flash lights are good, but they rely on batteries that run out of power. Crank operated lights and snap lights for those long dark knights are the best companion you can buy in a winter emergency.

9) Hygiene & first aid. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Sanitation wipe for those wilderness privy's and cleaning needs are a must, and there is nothing better than brushing your teeth with real toothpaste after a long day in the wilderness. Basic cleaning soaps, gloves, lotion, essential medications (Benadryl, Tylenol, etc.), and basic first aid tools should be key ingredients in your safety kit.

10) Survival Book. There are many out there and I recommend you research them. Find your favorite and make sure you keep it in your car emergency kit. You never know, one day you may need to make fire from sticks...without a how-to guide, you may never see the glow or warmth of fire.

It's all about preparedness. Remember, when the time for action is upon you, the time for preparation is gone.

The Age of Rage

2011-01-29T10:03:00.006-06:00

It is clear that technological innovation has tipped the world into a new realm of social organization. While some have argued that social media such as Twiter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are inherently anti-social given that the majority of people sit in front of their computers or cell phones alone as they use these tools, all one has to do is look to Egypt to discover that this argument has been proven wrong. Woefully wrong. The protests and rioting in Egypt and the Middle East have become a profound and awe inspiring demonstration of the true capacity of social media to serve as a tool of mobilization and organization.

Censorship and propaganda, the primary tools that governments use to control the masses, have been rendered obsolete by the social expediency of the Internet; and I think we can all agree that this is a good thing. However, what is most fascinating about what is going on in Egypt, and what makes a thinking person scratch his head in bewilderment, is that in the world of social media, apparently revolution no longer requires a leader, nor does it appear to even require a clearly articulated cause.

Ostensibly, the formula for revolution in the modern age is the simple combination of thousands of angry people with a social tool for collective venting...one that can be used to organize and mobilize.

Enter social media.

Please understand, this short blog is not a critique of social media, nor is it a critique of the good people of Egypt, quite the contrary. Rather, this is an open-minded reflection on what appears to be an emerging phenomenon of the 21st Century, i.e., flash mobbing on a grand scale, powered by social media. Remember that a flash mob is, by definition, still just a mob, the concept of which has its roots in the Latin phrase 'mobile vulgus,' meaning 'fickle commoners'. And by 'fickle' one has to assume that the so-called commoners within a mob do not know what they want.

I am struck by how apropos this appears to be viz. Egypt's current unrest. It is with increasing confusion that I watch the talking heads and pundits attempt to project a purpose onto the protests and riots (almost always an American purpose), but I have yet to see an article, story or interview of an Egyptian declaring what is going on, and why. Getting rid of Mubarak is one thing, but then the obvious question begs -- what next? The apparent lack of a central figure or a clearly defined goal behind the violence is, well, unsettling; and conspiracy theories aside, it forces one to ask what is really going on...

One thing is for sure, in the world of social media, mobs can emerge out of nowhere, anywhere, at any time, for any reason. And there are a LOT of angry people out there.

It's best to be prepared.

Some articles on the Egypt unrest for your review:

Egypt's Warning: Are You Listening?

Egypt's Day of Reckoning

Mubarak Tells Defiant Egyptian's That Government Will Resign

Egypt Protests Escalate

Brzezinski's Feared Global Awakening Has Arrived

Weekly Food For Thought

2011-01-22T07:58:00.004-06:00

There has been a lot of speculation of late that the freakish weather we are experiencing across the world may lead to a repeat performance of the 2008 food crisis, which resulted in higher food prices, rioting and social unrest in more than 30 countries. As one author states, "The world is treading on dangerous ground. Market forces are in place for another global food crisis, and, as the wheels keep turning, it will become harder for these to be put in reverse."

Global rioting over food should not come as a surprise to anyone that has studied basic sociology. As Maslow taught us, food and water are primacy -- take them away or make them too expensive and you suddenly have a world of anxious people who can think of only one thing -- food. In fact, food holds such a place of honor in our social construct that many of our most ancient traditions, such as celebrating Easter, for example, are really celebrations of earthly cycles that will result in the abundance of...you guessed it, food. Easter follows the Spring equinox and recognizes the northern hemisphere's departure from winter and emergence into spring, the season of fertility, growth and abundance. Not surprisingly, Easter is celebrated with Feasts. (Come back to read our next blog titled, "It's All About Food.")

Bottom line, hungry people are unpredictable people. And given that most of us are already on tight budgets, rising food prices is something that we should be thinking about and preparing for.

Here is some Food For Thought on this important topic:

Steep Oil Prices,Food Shortages Will Likely Spark Deadly Riots This Year

7 Reasons Food Shortages Will Become a Global Crisis

On The Verge Of A Global Food Crisis

Nowhere To Hide From Rising Food Prices

Next Shock Will Be High Food Prices

Price Shocks, Food Shortages And Global Economic Riots in 2011?

Doomsday Predictions -- A Fool's Errand

2011-01-18T06:43:00.012-06:00

While visiting with one of our customers on the phone recently, it was brought to my attention that there is an emerging awareness among certain Christian groups that the End of The World - as in Judgment Day - is nigh. "You don't say," was my incredulous response. "For real, and one scholar even predicts the very date it will happen, May 21, 2011."

So let me get this straight, we only have 4 months left? What about my summer trip to the Caymans?

Our customer was referring to Harold Camping, a civil engineer cum biblical scholar (self proclaimed) that, ostensibly, has created a mathematical system for interpreting biblical prophecy. His latest finding? The world will end on May 21, 2011. Shocker!

I don't suppose it matters that this very same biblical scholar has already failed on one end-of-world prediction, September 6, 1994. After his entire congregation dressed up in Sunday garb and held an all-night vigil for the End To Come, I can only imagine the consternation they felt when the clock ticked to September 7 and they were all still there, all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Oops.

Camping's reply: It must have been a mathematical error. Now, we are led to believe, he has the arithmetic figured out, and surprisingly enough, people believe him...again. How encouraging.

But Camping is not the only soothsayer making the news nowadays. Nostradamus seems to be making a strong come back, and Lawrence E. Joseph, among others, is predicting some exciting end-of-world scenarios for 2012. We have Terrance McKenna's timewave zero, a mathematical interpretation of the I Ching which predicts the end of time in 2012 (Terrance had this epiphany while under the influence of psychedelic drugs), and even the Mayans themselves, we are led to believe, foretold that the end of the 13th Baktun of the Long Count Calendar would be met with cataclysm by fire. In 2012 of course.

But my favorite oracle of all - and the winner of the fortune telling Snipe Hunt - is the Webbots. If you haven't heard of the Webbots, don't worry, you have not missed much, at least not in terms of accurate predictions; but that doesn't mean people don't believe in it, sometimes fervently. Essentially, the Webbot is a computer algorithm (or bot program) that searches the Internet for key words and then makes future predictions based on what it discovers. The idea is that the Internet serves as a instrument of precognition...a collective mind which has predictive elements. The concept of the Webbot is actually quite cool with the exception that it doesn't work. At all. But that doesn't stop the inventors of the Webbot from making repeated fanatical predictions about the future -- such as Thermonuclear War in November of 2010(Oops) -- that continually come up wrong. Dreadfully wrong. But, strangely enough, people keep believing in them.

All this fortune telling mumbo-jumbo would be funny if it wasn't so incredibly dangerous. Why? Because narratives of doomsday create a spirit of helplessness and hopelessness, which in turn can manifest in deviant behaviors such as violence, selfishness, futility and nihilism. If the world is going to end soon, quite frankly, who gives a damn about anything? And if people don't give a damn about anything, the very fabric of society is subject to unravel because the social constructs that hold us all together -- such as laws governing human interaction and behavior -- suddenly have no meaning. A person who doesn't give a damn is a dangerous person. Millions of people that don't give a damn is tantamount to, well, the end of the world.

Frankly, I don't want to know what a world without rules would look like. But if these so-called prophets of doom don't stop ballyhooing about The End and start working on something constructive, we may find out, and soon.

So don't allow yourself to be seduced by the Masters of Doom. They may mean well, but if history is a good indicator, they will all be wrong.

Stay safe. Stay informed. Be prepared.

S.O. Weekly Food For Thought

2011-01-14T07:25:00.007-06:00

As most of you know, our philosophy at SurvivalOutpost.com is to balance reason with readiness. In these uncertain times, it is easy to become fearful and confused; from birds falling out of the sky to predictions of a dollar collapse and hyperinflation...from narratives of apocalypse to wildly unpredictable and extreme weather events, our times seem to be increasingly defined by notions of calamity, both real and imagined.

Given the interconnectivity of the Internet, it is arguable that our world has not changed so much as has our awareness of the what is going on in the world around us. Twenty years ago, most of us would not have known that there were strange and coincident fish and bird deaths across the planet as we rang in the year 2011. It may still have occurred, we just wouldn't have known about it, and that lack of knowledge would have prevented us from drawing dark and ominous conclusions about the synchronicity of the events. So it is possible that our times aren't defined by the extreme at all, rather our access to vast amounts of unedited information about the world has increased so dramatically that our brains can't handle the information overload, and thus we call it 'extreme'.

Maybe. But people we talk to all agree that 'something just doesn't feel right' nowadays. We have a hard time defining it, but there is an undercurrent of uncertainty about the future that is palpable. Apocalypse is in the air.

Recognizing that a prepared mind is an open mind, it is thus important that we remain objective and positive about the world we live in, while simultaneously seeking out information and opinions that challenge our world view. The world may indeed be changing in fundamental ways, but to prepare for it, you must become aware of it. Hence our weekly Food For Thought Links. Enjoy.

Aflockalypse Now. Much has been written about the recent bird and fish deaths across the world. Here are three articles that explore this strange phenomena.

Timeline of Recent Mysterious Bird And Fish Deaths

Animal Death Mystery

What In The World Is Causing Aflockalypse 2011?

2011 Predictions. I'm not big on predictions, and in fact consider most futurists to be frauds (my next blog is titled, Predicting the Future -- A Fool's Game), but it is always interesting to read what they are saying. Here are a few links to get the juices flowing.

Doomsday Predictions Gain Ground

Trends Research Institute

What Kind Of Mood Are The American People In As We Enter 2011

Weird Weather. Freak weather appears to be the new normal...

Freezing Temps Worldwide May Lead To Food Shortages

Hottest Year In History Ends In Freak Climate Disasters

Australia Floods

Extreme Weather Across The World Underscores The Importance of Emergency Preparedness

The Apocalypse Meme Has Tipped

2011-01-09T09:02:00.009-06:00

Having come from the Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi generation, I rarely watch Saturday Night Live nowadays. It just doesn't seem funny to me anymore...the skits seem vapid and the crowds listless. Very ho-hum. Perhaps the show hasn't changed so much as I have? Maybe...but then again, how can you ever expect to compete with the Samurai Chef!?

So it was with low expectations that I tuned into SNL last night, having been teased into watching by play-off game promos mentioning that Jim Carrey was going to be the host. Jim is funny, right? Perhaps, but his introductory remarks were somewhat less than upbeat, and strangely out-of-place for a show dedicated to humor.

"Welcome to the first show of the last year of our existence!" Said Jim, followed by an uncertain and jittery laugh, like when somebody says something stupid at the dinner table and everybody giggles in discomfort. Jim then went on to talk about the Flockalypse, rivers of blood, burning corpses and the earth 'opening up,' all as signs of the apocalypse.

Jim concludes his strange and dark repartee with a disturbing final remark, "So let's celebrate this year together, let's make it count, because frankly, its all we got." The crowd was deathly silent -- as in zero laughter -- an uncomfortable, very pregnant pause that Jim allowed, as if to say, Let it sink in folks... I'm sure they were all scratching their heads and thinking, WTF?

See for yourself, SNL 2011 Jim Carrey.

This, I presume, is supposed to be funny?

Interestingly, just this past week I came across an article about actor Ashton Kutcher, recently featured on the cover of Men's Fitness, who is pumping iron and buffing up -- getting fit, as it were -- not for an upcoming movie, but rather as a survival tool in the coming apocalypse (seriously, have a look).

While I certainly don't look to Hollywood or its agents for cues to successful living, I do find the public assertions of both Jim and Ashton to be a profound, and somewhat disturbing, indication that the apocalypse meme has tipped in public discourse. What used to be relegated to the dark halls and blogs of the tin foil hatters and conspiracy theorists is today mainstream.

Doom is apparently becoming fashionable.

According to Wikipedia, a meme "acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices which can be transmitted from one mind to another by writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena." Memes essentially define, and in many ways shape, our collective psyche. Some would characterize our collection of memes as the 'Zeitgeist' -- the 'spirit of the times.'

It is unsettling that the spirit of our times is increasingly associated with the apocalypse and narratives of doom. And it literally raises the hairs on the back of our necks when reasonable people begin talking about the apocalypse in public forums (such as SNL) that, heretofore, would have given short shrift to such musings, or at least publicly ridiculed them as fringe and radical.

Interestingly, Ashton is not being labeled or characterized as a nut-job, nor ostensibly is Jim Carrey.

And that, I think, is the most worrisome fact of all.

When apocalypse becomes acceptable, indeed even fashionable, one has to wonder if the horsemen are not far behind...

2012...Is History Repeating Itself?

2011-01-06T18:48:00.003-06:00

About a year ago I published an article titled '2102, Nostradamus, Mayan Calendar, Oh My!' The article was a light-hearted look at the year 2012 and some of its inauspicious predictions. Quite surprisingly, that article has been picked up and published on hundreds of websites and blogs over the past 12 months and I continually receive email from readers and webmasters around the world urging me to write more about this rapidly approaching year (it has also been plagiarized to the point of absurdity). While the interest in my 2012 article is both encouraging and flattering, I think the success of the piece really suggests two simple realities:

1) As with all good doomsday scenarios, the year 2012 does possess enough legitimacy to elevate it beyond the realm of fanatical musings, which is giving it momentum and mystery, and,

2) people have a fascination with narratives related to doom and catastrophe, and the internet has become the vehicle which has moved this fascination into a full-blown obsession. Let's look at each in turn.

Legitimacy:

Among other associations both absurd and reasonable, the year 2012 is increasingly associated with changes in the Sun and cycles of celestial bodies. Indeed, the Mayan calendar (from which 2012 musings owe their origins) is principally a measurement of celestial and natural cycles. The ancient Maya believed that all of life is essentially cyclical, and that time itself is cyclical. Think about it, the days (night and day), the seasons, the years, and so on, all have their roots in cyclical movements: the earth cycles around its axis creating the days, while the moon cycles around the earth creating the months, while both simultaneously cycle around the sun creating the years, and so on. The human body follows natural cycles as well: human gestation is cyclical and even life follows a cyclical formula: birth, growth, maturity, decay, death, and over again...ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Time and reality are essentially cycles within cycles, believed they Maya, and their calendar reflects this cyclical metaphysic.

However, we contemporary thinkers have been programmed to believe that time and reality flow linearly - yesterday before today, and today before tomorrow, etc. - and our orientation to life reflects this cognitive programming. While a linear orientation to time is useful and it certainly helps us to manage our busy lives, it is arguable that the Mayan's were closer to the truth: time is essentially cyclical...and it repeats itself. Ever heard the saying that a broken clock is still correct two times a day?

What does this have to do with the Sun and the year 2012? This will take some explanation...

The sun is our source of life, the alpha and the omega. Without the sun, life could not exist, period; so it is quite logical that primitive cultures created a mythology to worship this great source of life. Indeed, the sun is the source of untold miracles: it walks on water (reflection), turns water to wine (sunrise), cures the sick (fever), raises the dead (spring re-growth), travels with 12 companions (the 12 signs of the zodiac, and the source of your horoscope), and even holds a place of honor in our cognitive construct of the week (Sunday, the day of rest). In fact, most religious holidays are really milestones of sun worship. Christmas is in honor of the sun's rebirth after the December milestone of the winter solstice is reached; Easter and the Passover recognize the sun's 'passing over' the mid-point in its rise past the spring equinox and the beginning of the harvest season (a big deal in primitive times), and so on.

And like all celestial bodies, the sun - our source of life and the object of both adoration and fear - follows a pattern of cycles within cycles. The ancient Maya knew this, and we are just now learning it.

The sun is currently pulling out of a cycle of minimal activity and ramping up towards what many argue will be a solar event of biblical proportions. Without getting too technical, the sun follows a generally predictable pattern of solar activity represented by sunspots; these cycles are referred to as solar minimums and solar maximums and flux on an 11-year cycle (there is that number again...). A solar minimum is a time when there is little or no sunspot activity; conversely, a maximum is a time of tremendous sunspot activity. Interestingly, the next solar maximum is predicted to peak in the latter part of the year 2102, strangely corresponding to the Mayan long count calendar cycle ending date of 12/21/2012, a Great Year that the Mayan's believed would end in a cataclysm of fire. This maximum, argue many, will be one of the most spectacular on record.

What is particularly interesting, and somewhat disturbing, is that our sun is also pulling out of a period of prolonged inactivity - a minimum that has both scholars and thoughtful observers mystified. Could this be the calm before the storm? And if so, what will that storm look like and how will it impact life on earth? Does the strange confluence of all these cycles (and I have not mentioned several other cycles that end in the year 2012) suggest that the earth is on the cusp of a solar event of unimaginable proportions? It is well documented in the scientific literature that sunspot activity affects the earth in unpredictable ways... Are we in store for a season of unprecedented geophysical, geothermal and meteorological unpredictability? All ancient traditions, both oral and written, have stories of a great cataclysm by water (such as Noah's flood); are these traditions really semi-coded warnings to later generations to be on the lookout for the Sun's next coming? Should we be worried that the last Mayan Long Count Cycle ending was marked by a great flood and the 2012 cycle ending is supposed to mark change by fire?

Finally, is it mere coincidence that there is a bizarre increase in blockbuster movies about world-wide disaster related to solar events, (The Book of Eli, 2012, The Knowing, The Road, etc.)? Should we be worried?

2) Obsession with Doom:

It is arguable that the internet has become the pillar of manifest gloominess, and has kicked the amplitude of our strange fixation with doom by an order of magnitude. Indeed, this mania has become so profound in our interconnected world that we have been compelled to create a word to characterize the people who share this collective obsession: Doomers.

And let's face it, 'Dooming' is addictive. Like internet porn, its presence is everywhere and it is hard to avoid. Not surprisingly, 2012 is emerging as the doomsday narrative of choice, the pierce de resistance of End-of-World scenarios. This is not surprising really; the allure of 2012 is a combination of both its scale and diversity, as numerous traditions and mythologies point to this year as a significant milestone, as well as a growing collective notion that 'something is just not right'. 2012 is coming at a perfect time in the evolution of our species as almost everybody agrees that we are living through a time of great challenge and change. Previous predictions of doom were just that - predictions of doom based on beliefs or probabilistic models (such as nuclear annialation or Y2K). 2012, however, is not just about apocalypse or catastrophe, it's about the world purging itself. 2012 represents the ultimate come-uppins from Mother Nature, and, strangely enough, many people see this as a good thing, or at least a just-deserved. Like the mythology of the great flood as the wrath of a vengeful God purging the world of evil, many believe that we have yet again come full circle, or should I say cycle. Hence, the growing popularity of 2012 as a year of great change, purification and turmoil.

Beliefs in dates and doom are not new, of course, and they have been around for as long as people have roamed the earth. Seemingly, like sex, our love of extermination is hardwired into our very DNA. In my short lifetime alone (I'm in my 40's) I have had the pleasure of living quite comfortably through multiple predictions of catastrophe, from Y2K (what a letdown!), to nuclear holocaust...from 88 reasons Why in 88 (the widely-believed prediction of the rapture in 1988), to Hail-Bop and the much awaited return of our parent alien species; indeed, the list goes on and on. Not surprisingly, all of these predictions have one thing in common, and it's the obvious - they were all wrong. Laughably wrong. But that didn't keep people from believing in them, sometimes fanatically.

But today's obsession with apocalypse and 2012 is different. Why? Because today we have the means and the technology to proselytize our fears to a broad audience and in the process stir a global pot of emotional stew into a collective mania. Today, any idiot (or scholar for that matter) can post a well-made but completely made up U-Tube documentary on the arrival of Planet X (in 2012) and arouse the fears of millions. Prior to our interconnected world, dates of doom and devastation were confined to the groups that promoted them or to the creative tools employed to market them, but rarely were they as widespread as they are today, and with the exception of Y2K, they were never global. And that, I submit, is what makes the 2012 phenomenon so scary and why we should be taking it seriously.

But here is a fact that I want you to meditate upon: you are still here. Let me state that again, and I want you to read it slowly: I -- Am -- Still -- Here! The very fact that I am writing to you today about dates and doom should scream a very clear and compelling truth to all of you who are worried about 2012: the odds are in your favor!

One day there actually will be a global cataclysm, that's a statistical certainty. But to assume it will happen in your lifetime is pure ego, and the likelihood that it will occur in 2012 is less related to Mayan mythology, and more to a collective (and dim-witted) wishful thinking. So is history repeating itself? Yes I'm afraid it is...but not the history of catastrophe. Rather the history of human gullibility and predictability. We are 2012, and to the extent that we choose to believe it represents doomsday, will we be underequipped to handle the very real possibility that the world may be cycling through very real changes, changes that are survivable if we will just stop fussing over doom and start balancing reason with readiness.

Our Blog is Back!

2011-01-04T08:18:00.003-06:00

Greetings SurvivalOutpost.com Friends & Customers:

After a one-year Sabbatical, we are bringing our Survival Blog back on line. We appreciate all the notes and emails from our loyal customers asking us to begin blogging again, and we apologize for the brief hiatus. But we are back now and are planning on bringing you a revised and refreshing resource for information related to the world we live in, with thoughts and opinions splashed in along the way.

Our philosophy for the revised blog is to present a wide variety of information on trends that appear to be influencing our lives and our reality, and to offer these with an open mind, open heart and open eyes. Some of what we present by way of links or blogs may seem a bit strange or non sequitur, at least as it relates to personal preparedness; but we have come to believe that a lot of what appears to be going on around us today is itself a bit strange, whether it is a dramatic increase in reliable sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena (UFO's), to thoughts on the eventual collapse of the US dollar and hyper-inflation...the world around us appears to be changing, (or perhaps we are just becoming more aware?). Regardless, a prepared mind is an open mind, and our mission is to help you prepare for the unforeseen, even if it means stretching your comfort zone a bit.

As many of you know, Brian and I (much to the amusement of our friends) founded SurvivalOutpost.com due to concerns over the year 2012. Both of us agreed that reasonable people should be reasonably prepared for the unforeseen, even if all the 2012 hype is simply, well, hype. But nonsense or not, people across the globe are becoming increasingly aware of the 2012 phenomena, and with this awareness is a growing concern that perhaps there really is something to this date/year. What if some of the predictions are actually true? What if they aren't, but nevertheless, billions of people want them to be true...does that make a difference? Thus, much of what we write about and link to in this revised blog will be related to the year 2012...in an effort to help you make up your mind about this emerging phenomena.

Finally, every Friday I will be posting links to recommended reading...articles that I have found in my own research that are informative, interesting, and relevant. In my effort to remain current on trends and events that are shaping our world and lives, I have discovered a wealth of thoughtful reflections and research on a wide array of topics, and I will be sharing the most compelling of these with our readers every week as food for thought.

As always, we welcome and encourage your feedback as we begin to rebuild our blog into a useful resource for our customers and friends. Stay tuned...more soon.

Stay Safe. Safe Informed. Be Prepared.

Winter Survival! 10 Essentials You Should Never Leave Home Without.

2010-01-11T19:42:00.005-06:00

As I sit down to write this short article, it is 23 degrees outside in Austin, Texas, with an overnight low forecasted to hit a record-breaking 15 degrees; the television is humming in the background with non-stop chatter about the winter blast that is sweeping the central and eastern United States and trapping hundreds of motorists in white-out conditions, and there are reports of unseasonably cold weather from around the globe. So far more than a dozen deaths have been attributed to the harsh cold of what will no doubt go down as one of the most frigid winters in record. And we are only two weeks into the official winter of 2010…

As a mountain climber and outdoor enthusiast, I have learned over the years that while harsh winter weather is not something to be feared, it is definitely something to be respected. History has taught us that even the best weather forecasts are destined to be wrong, and that old’ Mr. Murphy and his law that if anything can go wrong – it will – is alive and well in the complex world of weather prediction. It is for this reason that seasoned climbers follow a simple rule: plan for the worst and hope for the best. In fact, if you study climbing accidents and fatalities (something I did for many years), you will almost invariably discover that the climber(s) in question failed to follow this simple rule. Not giving adequate respect to Mother Nature and her penchant for sudden fits of fury can get you into a whirlwind of trouble. Quite literally.

It is for this reason that mountaineers have developed their list of 10 Essentials. Pick up any book on mountaineering or take any course on climbing and you will quickly be introduced to the 10 Essentials. Years of experience and hard luck have taught climbers that there are 10 tools that you must never leave home without – to do so will put you and your team at unnecessary risk. Likewise, if you always have the 10 essentials with you, chances are you can survive even the worst of conditions. If you are adequately prepared, you can survive almost anything.

So, how do we prepare for this harsh winter, especially if we are out in it? Ensure that you have the 10 Essentials to Survive! It doesn’t matter if you are a climber or not, the principle of preparation is universal and severe weather is everywhere. We should all be familiar with the 10 Essentials and take the necessary steps to ensure that both our homes and vehicles are equipped for survival.

Below are the 10 Essentials for winter weather survival that you should never leave home without (or stay home without), slightly modified for the non-climber.

1) Clothing & warmth. You should always have fleece or pile socks, pants, shirts, jackets and hats in your car. A fleece blanket and goose down jacket and sleeping bag will ensure your comfort should you be stranded for any length of time without power or assistance. Remember, climbers live for days in negative degree temperature through some of the worst conditions - in tents - simply because they have the right clothing.

2) Non-perishable food. You should have three days worth of food storage in your vehicle during the winter. Store MRE's or other dehydrated foods and power bars to stave off the hunger in the event of a prolonged stay in your car.

3) Water and/or water filtration capability. When you are surrounded by snow, you are surrounded by water, assuming you have a means to melt and purify the water. Water purifiers and purification tablets are a must for the climber, and you should have both in your car emergency kit. Remember, the human body can last weeks without food, but only a matter of days without water.

4) Knife, lighter, duct tape, utility tool and string. The simplest tools are always the ones that are the most missed in an emergency. Remember Cast Away with Tom Hanks? A simple knife and lighter would have changed his circumstances considerably and you should have both in your car at all times. Also, duck tape in an emergency is a must, you can manufacture any number of inventions with a little duct tape.

5) Communication. Your cell phone is vital. Make sure you have the means to recharge your phone with a crank device in the event you are without battery power. If you can't communicate with the outside world, you are really on your own.

6) Heat and stove. Your car emergency kit should include a camp stove and fuel for melting water and cooking food. A warm meal or drink soothes the soul in a long winter emergency, and will provide an indirect source of heat to boot. (Remember that a camp stove emits dangerous carbon monoxide, so you should only use one in a well-ventilated space. Open the car windows or cook outside when you use one.)

7) GPS. If you don't know where you are...you are truly lost. A good GPS unit will give you a sense of direction, but more importantly, it will give you a position for rescue. A portable GPS unit is a great addition to your car emergency kit.

8) Light. You should always carry a crank operated light and/or lantern for those unforeseen emergencies. Flash lights are good, but they rely on batteries that run out of power. Crank operated lights and snap lights for those long dark knights are the best companion you can buy in a winter emergency.

9) Hygiene & first aid. Don't forget to take care of yourself. Sanitation wipe for those wilderness privy's and cleaning needs are a must, and there is nothing better than brushing your teeth with real toothpaste after a long day in the wilderness. Basic cleaning soaps, gloves, lotion, essential medications (Benadryl, Tylenol, etc.), and basic first aid tools should be key ingredients in your safety kit.

10) Survival Book. There are many out there and I recommend you research them. Find your favorite and make sure you keep it in your car emergency kit. You never know, one day you may need to make fire from sticks...without a how-to guide, you may never see the glow or warmth of fire.

I am from Texas, so I don't usually keep all of these essentials in my car. But if I know I'm headed into cold climates, I never leave home without them. The importance of the 10 essentials was made profoundly clear to me one winter day 8 years ago when I became trapped in the worst white out snow storm I had ever experienced in the Silverton Pass in Colorado. I was in my Dodge pick-up (equipped with the 10 essentials) when a rogue storm hit the pass. I was completely blinded by the storm and had to stop my vehicle for hours on the road while snow piled up all around me. While I was nervous, I knew without a doubt that I could weather the storm because I had the 10 essentials.

It's all about preparedness. Remember, when the time for action is upon you, the time for preparation is gone.

Stay safe. Stay Informed. Be Prepared.

Kevin

A Brutal Summer is a Brutal Reminder to Be Prepared

2009-09-08T20:20:00.004-05:00

It's been some time since I posted a blog entry here at SurvivalOutpost.com. As I reflect on it, my only excuse is that it has been a busy, and in many ways a brutal summer. Summer is the time for vacation, family get-togethers, a slow-down at work (usually!) and outdoor activities. Summer is supposed to be fun, and culturally we are programmed to look forward to it.

As far as the summer of 2009 is concerned, I can't wait for it to end... In fact, as of this writing, we have only 12 more days to autumn, but whose counting.

If you have been watching the weather channel, you are probably aware that central Texas is experiencing the second worst year in recorded history for days over 100 degrees (68 days and the record is 69; I'm sure we will break the record in the next 12 days). Many of those 68 miserable days were well over 105. I particularly remember one scorching day in July when my car's outside temperature gauge registered a balmy 118 degrees! There is no escaping heat like that, and it saps you of your energy like a kid sucking on a Slurpee...one long draw and its gone. It leaves you grumpy and miserable.

To throw insult upon injury, central Texas is simultaneously experiencing its worst drought in 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland have been abandoned, left to dry & die in the scorching heat. The ground looks like its been firebombed; a scorched earth reminiscent of some sci-fi movie of a fiery doomsday. Brown is the only color we see anymore as most people have given up on trying to keep their plants and lawns alive. In fact, most cities and counties don't allow watering anymore, and those that do have strict rationing rules in place, (including steep fines of $3000 dollars for the first violation, PLUS having your water turned off if you are caught in multiple violations!). The city fountains are dry and still, silent reminders of a time that seems forever ago when we used to get rain. Restaurants don't give you water unless you ask, and even then they ask couples to share.

This summer is perhaps best represented by my swimming pool which looks like one big festering open sore. The heat has been so intense for so long that the plaster on my pool has simply disintegrated under the stress, with huge swaths of Gunite concrete showing through the open wounds. The water itself is a hot bath and serves as a fomenting pool for algae growth and bacteria. Anything but refreshing. (A good friend's entire family got Giardia from swimming in his pool this summer...not once, but twice!)

So why am I talking about this on the SurvivalOutpost.com blogsite? Well, for one, because I'm miserably tired of this summer and misery likes company. But more important than that is the sobering reminder that this summer represents:

Water is more valuable than its weight in gold and almost universally we take it for granted.

Since I always proselytise about emergency preparedness, and actually practice what I preach, I was reasonably prepared for this dreadful summer. I know how to ration water in my home by washing dishes by hand, regulating toilet flushing, using rain-water storage for irrigation, only using the faucet when necessary (pay attention to what you do when you brush your teeth!), and water treatment practices. These skills came in handy as we tried to do our part to help our city cope with its water crisis. But I wonder, what if we run out? Then what?

And before you write this off as silly speculation, understand that most scholars on global warming have already predicted what is happening in central Texas, namely that natural patterns in climate will be amplified in our warming world. So if you are prone to floods, you will have floods in greater frequency and magnitude. If you are prone to droughts, the same principle applies. How many friends and relatives of yours (from all over the world) have commented that they are experiencing strange and record-breaking weather this season?

So, what if we have, say, two more years without any significant rain plus this brain-numbing summer heat? What will central Texas look like then? The ground is already dead and dying. Crops can't be grown. Livestock are being sent to the slaughter house because there is no grass to feed on.

Is this the new normal?

And if so, what should we do to prepare?

Perhaps that is an exercise you should consider as you get settled back into your non-summer routine. I know I am. I have no choice...

Stay Safe. Stay Informed. Be Prepared.

Kevin
SurvivalOutpost.com

You Can & Should Prepare for a Potential Swine Flu Pandemic!

2009-04-29T15:32:00.003-05:00

With the Center for Disease Control warning of impending Swine flu deaths in the United States over the next several weeks, California declaring a state of emergency due to recent deaths in the Los Angeles area, President Obama requesting 1.5 billion to enhance capability for disease response and treatment, and Mexico battening down the hatches for a prolonged fight with the bug, reasonable people are becoming increasingly worried about what they should do to prepare for a potential life-threatening pandemic.

As you ask yourself what you should do to prepare for a potential swine flu emergency, please remember that a swine flu pandemic, or the outbreak of any infectious disease process, is really not that different from any other threat that we regularly face in life, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, infrastructure disruptions and the like. Simply put, people should be prepared with emergency supplies and survival equipment to weather the storm in the safety of their own homes, and these preparations should be made well in advance of an actual emergency.

Interestingly, if you study history, you learn very quickly that pre-industrial societies were much better prepared, at least psychologically, to respond to a massive disease outbreak. They knew it was simply a matter of time before one would hit, and when it did they knew what to do – get out of town if possible, and if not, self-quarantine. Today, people aren’t prepared to do either…we are glued to our televisions hoping and praying that it doesn’t hit our neighborhood. But in our interconnected world, there is no predicting where a potential contagious disease may show up.

It could be on your hands right now…

Running to the grocery store or ordering products from SurvivalOutpost.com when there is a line out the emergency room door with infected patients is not the time to take steps to be prepared for a major emergency. Remember that a pandemic is no different from any other hazard, and it is one that reasonable people can be prepared for.

In fact, there is really no excuse for not being prepared for a potential pandemic, since they give you so much lead time to be prepared and take precautions; indeed, the so-called Swine Flu (perhaps a better name would be the Mexican Flu) is all the media is talking about right now so you can’t claim that you weren’t forewarned. Moreover, experts on global warming have been predicting massive disease outbreaks for years as we increasingly discover that our warmer planet is allowing pathogens to remain virulent for longer than normal periods of time, and our interconnected planet provides the vehicle for widespread infection.

You have been forewarned. So what should you do?

In addition to the basics of personal hygiene and prevention – such as respiratory protection, regular anti-bacterial hand washing, and avoiding crowded places – SurvivalOutpost.com advises that individuals, families and businesses take reasonable precautions to store necessary emergency supplies at home in the rare, but possible, event that the bug becomes so widespread people will want to self-quarantine. Such supplies include nonperishable food storage such as Honeyville dehydrated foods, MRE’s or canned meats; hygiene & first aid supplies including surgical masks, gloves, hand sanitizing lotion and necessary medications; and basic survival equipment such as water filtration (in the event that the pandemic affects support and supply networks, which it certainly can do if the rate of spread is significant), stoves, fuel, etc.
Remember that Swine Flu and other disease pandemics should be approached like any other natural hazard, disaster or emergency, and people should be prepared with Emergency Preparedness Supplies, Emergency Food Storage, and First Aid Supplies.

Stay Safe. Stay Informed. Be Prepared.

SurvivalOutpost.com

Buying Gold in This Economy is Wise But Remember You Can't Eat It!

2009-03-31T14:15:00.006-05:00

When I think of gold, I am reminded of the cheesy 1970's and early 80's -- the day of big hair bands, platform shoes, disco dancing, and cheap salesmen with gold teeth, gold necklaces, gold bracelets, chains, ropes, and gold-inlaid plaid jackets. "Have I got a deal for you!" the salesman would say as he flashed his gold tooth and winked, both fingers pointed at you like a couple of six-shooters.

Pretty Cheesy.

I have to admit it though, cheesy or not, I was part of the gold culture (weren't you?). In fact, I still have my gold rope chain and arrowhead nugget in my dresser drawer; I know because I just spent an hour looking for it. Its funny, in today's world of bead necklaces and tattoos, grunge dressing and pants-that-are-falling-off-to-look-cool-but-just-makes-you-look-like-an-idiot fashion, nobody seems to appreciate gold anymore, at least not as an adornment. It's rare that you see somebody wearing yellow gold nowadays (and if you do, odds are they are in their 40's or better).

But Mr. T. may have been clairvoyant after all, or at least he was on to something. Why? Because even though people don't wear much gold anymore, they are certainly buying it in unprecedented amounts today.

But they aren't wearing it, they're hoarding it. This gold is for safes, not for teeth.

According to Reuters, consumer demand for gold is off the charts ("Mints coin it as consumers scramble for gold," March 31st.) "Gold coin production is being cranked up in mints around the world to satisfy customers believing the assets may be immune to the global financial crisis," note Reuters, citing that demand for the American one-ounce Golden Eagle was up 400 percent in 2008!

"The demand for gold and silver has been unprecedented," said Carla Coolman, a spokeswoman at the US Mint. And according to most experts in the field, the demand for gold, which is teasing the $1000.00 per ounce threshold, will continue to rise at hair raising levels in 2009. Most mints admit that they are struggling to keep production at a level where it can meet the ever burgeoning demand. Indeed, Gerald Celente, an iconoclast and futurist with an impressive track record of seeing into the future, is betting the farm that gold will reach $2000.00 per ounce by 2012, (see Trends Journal 2009).

Why the sudden interest, (read obsession) for gold and silver? Well, obviously people are scared; they are scared that the economy will continue to spiral downward, inflation will continue to rise and devalue the dollar (as well as their savings), banks will fail and take their money with them, and so on. People just flat don't seem to trust institutions like they once did, and they are converting their hard-earned dollars into commodities of real and enduring value -- gold and silver -- and keeping it in safekeeping. (What they intend to do with this gold should the economy really collapse has yet to be clearly defined).

While it is well beyond my expertise to give financial advice to SurvivalOutpost readers and customers, and I certainly do support any effort to invest money in commodities of real value, I do want to throw a dash of cold water onto the gold fever for a minute...

Why would I want to put the kabosh on gold and silver?

Because, quite frankly, you can't eat, nor can you drink, precious metals. You can just look at them...

As people take measures to become reasonably prepared for our uncertain future, and there are a lot of reasons why we should be taking preparation seriously (See Top 5 Trends You Can't Escape!), it is important that we think first about the emergency supplies we should have, and then think about the supplies we could have. Hedging your bets on a devaluing dollar is one thing; starving because you have no food or water stored away in a significant depression is quite another.

When I was in the fire service (21 years as a professional firefighter), we used to break complex tasks into acronyms of order, this made them easy to remember and simple to apply. For example, at a medical call, every paramedic is trained to follow the ABC's as their initial triage order: A-Airway, is it open and is the patient breathing; B-Breathing, is the patient moving air and does he need supplemental oxygen; and C- Circulation, is the blood moving and the heart working, because no amount of oxygen is going to help if the heart isn't pumping it around. It's tempting to walk up to a patient with a major fracture of the femur (the long bone of the leg and a serious injury), and immediately begin bandaging and splinting. However, if the airway is closed and the patient isn't breathing, it doesn't matter that you controlled bleeding of the leg, the patient is still going to die.

Why the fire service analogy? Because your limited financial resources should be put through the ABC's of emergency preparedness before you begin buying gold and sliver. If you don't your patient likely will not make it...but in this case, the patient is you (or your family).

Here are the ABC's of Emergency Preparedness in these extremely uncertain times and what you should be thinking about before you spend your money on gold and silver:

A: Non-perishable food supplies and water storage and treatment capabilities.

B: First Aid Kits and Hygiene Products.

C: Survival Equipment and Off-The-Grid Supplies.

(For a detailed description of the ABC's of Emergency Preparedness, see 3 Things You Can Do Right Now! )

For the price of two ounces of gold, you can purchase enough ABC's of Emergency Preparedness to equip you and a family of 4 for one year! That's one year of food, water storage and treatment capability, necessary survival equipment and off-the-grid supplies. One Year! That's a lot of insurance for the price of a coin or two...

Never forget Maslow's Hierarchy of needs: need Number One is always survival -- food, water, shelter. The human body can only last a few days without water; a few weeks without food; a few weeks without shelter; a few months without equipment and supplies.

But the human body can last a lifetime without gold or silver....

Now there is something to think about as you watch the Monex ticker.

Stay Safe. Stay Informed. Stay Prepared.

KBaum

Disaster Preparedness & Survival: Why Sanitation is So Important!

2009-02-24T15:53:00.004-06:00

If I were to ask you to identify the most significant medical breakthrough in the past 150 years, how would you answer? For most of us we immediately think of high-profile medical advances, such as the discovery of penicillin and antibiotics, or the invention of the X-ray, the realization that we are products of a basic structure called DNA, the elimination of major disease processes such as smallpox, plague, and others, or the incredible life-saving virtues of automatic de-fibrillation, transplants, and others. In fact, if you were to Google 'Nobel Prize Winning Medical Advances' you will find a host of incredible achievements, all that have improved longevity and quality of life.

And yet, none of them win the prize for being the most significant medical advancement of the past 150 years. The winner may surprise you...

The British Medical Journal recently surveyed more than 11,000 readers, mostly physicians, and asked them the exact same question we asked you: What was the most significant medical breakthrough in the past 150 years?

The winner: Sanitation.

Perhaps the Indianapolis Star said it best, "How can it be that seemingly mundane, homely sanitation -- including sewage, reliably clean water, decent housing -- could possibly earn more votes than Nobel Prise-winning advances? Because the best measure of a medical advance is not its complexity, but what it does for the length and quality of our lives."

Proper sanitation and hygiene eliminated deadly diseases such as cholera and infection, and paved the way for the creation of a large and sophisticated network of structures and infrastructures that have revolutionized our lives. Today we simply turn on the faucet or flush the commode and viola' we have water to drink and waste water to flush. Today we benefit from a public health system that stands as a constant watch dog to ensure that our sanitation, living and hygiene needs are met.

But what if I were to remove all these conveniences. No running water. No flushing toilets. No structures, institutions or infrastructure for you to rely upon for sanitation and proper hygiene. What would your life look like?

The hidden danger in natural and man-made disasters is not so much in the actual events, (which is usually what gets all the news), but in the consequences of those events. The most significant of these consequences is disruptions in sanitation and personal hygiene, consequences that transport us back to a time when lack of sanitation was a leading cause of disease and death. Don't take my opinion on it, believe the 11,000 readers of the British Medical Journal.

So, how should a reasonable person prepare for a disruption in structures and infrastructures that support our system of sanitation? Here are three things you should be thinking about to prepare for the big one should it wash up on your shores:

1) Clean water for drinking and washing. Most experts agree that the average person requires two gallons a day of water for cleaning and drinking. This includes water for washing as well as removing waste, (don't forget that most toilets require 3 gallons to flush). SurvivalOutpost.com recommends that you keep a minimum of 7 days water storage for your family, (7 days times 2 gallons times the number of people in your family). A 30-day supply is even better.

2) Emergency Preparedness Kit. Individuals, families and businesses should keep Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Survival Kits on hand that include the necessary sanitation, hygiene, and survival tools and equipment to help you maintain a safe quality of living should you be required to live 'off the grid' for an extended period of time. Most standard Disaster Survival Kits include toilets, toilet bags, antibacterial gels, sanitation wipes, soaps and other sanitation/hygiene necessities.

3) Non-perishable food. Keep in mind, a component of proper sanitation and hygiene is food that does not spoil and expose us to the risk of deadly food-borne diseases. The best foods for long-term storage and emergency preparedness are those that are 'ready to eat' and do not require refrigeration, such as dehydrated foods, military Meals Ready To Eat, canned meats, power bars, etc. As before, we recommend a minimum 7 day supply of nutritious, healthy, high protein foods in your supply.

Remember Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is almost always the best. It wasn't the incredibly complex medical advances that won the day, it was simple sanitation and hygiene, two things that are well within your control and ability to prepare for.

Stay informed. Stay prepared. Stay safe.

SurvivalOutpost.com

Supplies Vanish From Stores When Disaster Strikes

2009-02-06T12:49:00.010-06:00

Friends, family and customers frequently ask us which supplies they should purchase before a disaster or emergency strikes. The answer can vary depending on where you live and the types of emergencies you may face. In general, the twelve product categories below should be covered, although you may not need every product in all categories. For example, you may not need MREs and freeze-dried food, but having both will offer more variety.

1. Generators and Fuel (gas, diesel, propane, lighter fluid, heating oil, stove fuels)
2. Water Supplies (purifiers, filters, containers, preserver, pumps)
3. Portable Toilets (buckets, seats, toilet paper, etc.)
4. Seasoned Firewood
5. Light Generating Products (candles, flashlights, batteries, lanterns)
6. Guns, Knives, Ammo
7. Long Shelf-Life Food (MREs, Freeze-Dried, Canned, etc.)
8. Honey, Syrups, Sugars
9. Rice, Beans, Wheat / Grains
10. Vegetable Oil
11. First-Aid Supplies
12. Survival Books / Preparedness Guides

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

"Gathering Clouds & Rising Storms"

2009-01-20T14:20:00.007-06:00

Like millions of people across the planet, I watched in fascination today as President-Elect Obama was sworn in to become President-In-Fact of the United States of America. Mark the day on your calendar and write about it in your journal - January 20, 2009 - because this day marks what will become one of those "where were you when..." events that people reminisce about in future years.

And that begs the obvious question: what will that future look like?

Nobody can answer this question, of course; the only thing we can say with certainty right now is that many of us feel a certain level of anxiety about the future. Read the newspaper -- there is a lot going on in the world right now that we should be worried about.

And I think it is this deep uncertainty about the future that makes President Obama's achievement so bitter-sweet. Like a surprise 40th birthday party when you realize that you have a large group of family and friends that care about you, only to wake up the next morning to the reality that half of your life is over, Obama's presidency is overshadowed with mounting anxiety and despair about the future of this country in particular, and the world in general.

Welcome to your new job, Mr. President.

Indeed, within the first minute or so of his inaugural speech, President Obama noted that "..there are gathering clouds and rising storms...." in our future. Every one of the speakers to the day's events made reference to the incredible challenges and difficulties we must collectively face as we move into the next decade of the 21st Century. Its almost as if they were purposefully dashing cold water onto the hopes and dreams of an increasingly expectant populace.

And in fact, I would wager your dwindling salary that they were doing exactly that (assuming you have a job).

Managing expectations is a mandate in a world that is looking for a savior.

To expect one man to turn this country and world around is no more realistic, nor fair, than to blame one man for all of its ills. It took us years to get here and it will take us years to get out. While it is great to have a president that inspires us, moves us to tears, challenges us to engage, and takes on the institutions of the elite; it is something entirely different to alter the run-away inertia of a species that can't seem to live in harmony with the planet that gives them their very life, or with each other. One man can't change the primal programming of a species...

Global population has doubled in the past 40 years.
The majority of the planet lives in poverty.
Food & Water supplies are dwindling.
Global Warming is changing the weather in radical ways, threatening coastal cities.
Deforestation is killing the planet's lungs...its mechanism for breathing and cleaning the air.
Biodiversity is threatened by increasing numbers of species extinctions.
Religious fanaticism is on the rise.
And, oh yea, 2012 with all its attendant predictions is right around the corner.

This isn't gloom-mongering. Its reality, and, I might add, an incomplete list.

So, I think the coded message in today's speeches was actually fairly clear for those with ears to hear: It will likely get much worse before it gets better.

So my question to you is simple: Are you Prepared for the 'worst' part of that story? If not, perhaps you should begin preparing today.

Chance favors the prepared mind.

Kevin Baum
SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

2012, Nostradamus, End of the Mayan Long Count...Oh My!

2009-01-05T13:44:00.018-06:00

When I hear or read about 2012 and the hype, hysteria and hilarity that increasingly surrounds that ominous year, I can't help but to remember the famous and funny line uttered by the Scarecrow and Dorothy as they meander along the Yellow Brick Road in the Wizard of Oz, "Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!"

We soon find out the the Lion is cowardly, the Tin Man is rusted, and all that awaits them on their journey is a bunch of singing pigmies wearing rainbow-colored outfits. Their fear of the forest, of course, was of their own creation. And in the ending we ultimately discover it all was but a dream anyway... "And you were in it too...!"

Even though our customers frequently ask us if they should be concerned about 2012, at SurvivalOutpost.com we have conveniently skirted the issue by telling them to research the facts, read the relevant books, stay away from the obvious scams, and make up their own minds on whether they should be concerned, or not. Until now, we have not officially positioned ourselves regarding this rapidly approaching date.

Why? Because our philosophy is to balance reason with readiness, and to avoid at all costs peddling fear as a means to increase product sales. We believe that Americans are tired of being told to be afraid anyway, and are suffering their own form of crisis fatigue. Why make it worse with a bunch of 2012 propaganda?

As if we don't have enough to worry about already...

And yet, (and you knew this was coming), the year 2012 does present a strange and unique confluence of multiple predictions, events, prophecies, mythologies, and cosmologies. Indeed, it is arguable that no other time in history has seen such a bizarre merging of so many different, and wildly diverse, belief systems and predictions. From the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar to religious predictions of End Times...from the Solar Maximum and deadly Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) to the I Ching and Timewave Zero...from the so called Galactic Alignment to the Precession of the Equinoxes and the Age of Aquarius, 2012 has become the sine qua non of futurist obsessions.

Indeed, 2012 is rapidly becoming Y2K on steroids.

Even a true-blue skeptic has to stop and scratch his head and ask if there is anything to all this 2012-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it stuff. There is just too much out there on 2012 to ignore (and I bet your entire 2009 salary -- dwindling though it may be -- that the media is going to pick up on the 2012 conversation soon and elevate it by an order of magnitude, with the History Channel taking the lead).

And so, that's what I did, I stopped and asked if there was anything to all this hype and threw myself into the relevant literature and blog sphere to explore and hopefully acquire a coherent understanding of this emerging 2012 collective obsession. To date, I've read most, if not all contemporary texts on the subject, and have thoroughly explored the electronic media, with daily doses of blog sphere research.

What I discovered both amazed and confused me. And I am concerned too. Lets look at each in turn.

Amazed: Any attempt to research 2012 has to begin, and I would argue end, with the Mayan Long Count Calendar. The Mayans truly were (and are) brilliant mathematicians, astronomers, and time keepers. Their calendric system, which is based in large part on celestial observances, possesses a degree of accuracy and a depth of symbology that makes our Gregorian system seem sophomoric in comparison.

It is way too ambitious to examine their calendar in detail in this short piece, although I do encourage you to look into it (fascinating reading). But what shocked me, and what is truly amazing is that the Mayan religion and mythology, their systems for keeping time, and even their architecture & hieroglyphs, are very similar to those of other ancient civilizations (Egyptian, for example), with whom they could have had no contact.

This strange synchronicity is difficult to explain, unless you consider the one thing that each had in common -- the sky. Is it possible that multiple cultures and civilizations, separated by both distance and time, can draw the same divination and conclusions from the same celestial observances? And if so, does this lend greater credibility to their time keeping system and its inner meanings?

Fact: the Mayan long count calendar does end on the winter solstice on December 21, 2012, and it does coincide with a rare alignment of our rising sun in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and each of these occur in the time of the Precessional transfer from the age of Pisces to the age of Aquarius, an event that only happens every 26000 years. (This 'alignment' is particularly interesting when you consider that the center of the Milky Way galaxy, frequently referred to as the 'great rift' is framed by four prominent stars that form an upside down cross; so, on the winter solstice 2012 the 'sun' will be 'hung' on a 'cross' as it aligns with the center of the galaxy, each rising and setting together. Now there is some symbolism to keep you awake at night.)

What does all this mean?

Well, it depends upon who you ask. Enter Confusion.

A good friend of mine, who is a very successful Hollywood actor in day time drama, once took a trip to the orient where he was introduced to a meal called 'Jambots'. Jambots is a combination of several favorite dishes all thrown into one pot and turned into a stew. The logic is simple -- if we take all our favorite dishes and combine them, the outcome must be a supremely tasty combination. How could it not be so?

"How did it taste?" was my obvious inquiry to my good friend. "Like shit." was his sober reply.

2012 has become, in my opinion, the modern day, End-of-Times Jambots. There are so many different, but favorite religious beliefs, ancient (and poorly understood) mythologies, conspiracy theories, belief systems, fears, pseudo-scientific conclusions, and just wishful thinking, all being thrown into the 2012 boiling pot, that the true significance of this date, if there is one, has been completely lost in the stew...its been boiled away. It's as if every doom's day theory is being force-linked to this single year.

The Mayans MUST have been onto something, so...let's review Nostradamus' sutras to find a clear linkage to the date. Surely there are some biblical passages that we can link to the Mayan's wisdom and therefore declare that the rapture is imminent. Isn't there a rogue star out there (Planet X) that should make a pole-reversing, 1000-foot wave-creating fly by of the earth...and couldn't that be in 2012?? Isn't the aliens' next visit overdue, you know, the ones that seeded humanity? And finally, and my favorite, aren't we all about to transform into enlightened beings with the power of levitation and telepathy (flying could be cool).

Wondering what I'm talking about? These are all 2012 predictions. Seriously...I didn't make them up.

Jambots!

But here is why I am concerned, and why you should be prepared.

There is an ancient zen proverb that I love, and it is simple: That which you are seeking, is always seeking you. This proverb is, in my opinion, a beautiful salutation to human capability and inventiveness, and communicates that if you hold to a vision, you can make that vision a reality. How very cool.

And how very dangerous...especially if so many people, indeed MILLIONS OF THEM, are holding to the vision that the world will end in 2012. There is an emerging awareness in both the scientific and new age literature that groups of people can influence events simply through collective 'willfulness.' The phenomenon is referred to as 'collective manifestation.' Simply put, if enough people believe in a thing, whatever that thing is, they will influence the probability that that thing will likely occur.

For example, if the bible says that the Temple Mount has to fall before Christ will return, and millions believe that he will return in the age of 2012; well, then somebody has to go out there and destroy that darn Temple. Collective beliefs, especially if they are unreasonable and fanatic, foment action.

In other words, if enough people believe that 2012 = catastrophe, they can make it so.

That's disturbing...

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

So what do we do?

Let me answer this question by ending with where I began...the Wizard of Oz. Even if Dorothy's story was just a dream, she still should have been in the storm shelter before the tornado hit.

It's always best to remain prepared.

Kevin Baum
SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

"Weird Weather!"

2008-12-16T17:39:00.014-06:00

This past Sunday evening (December 14th), my wife and I enjoyed a rare, and spectacular meteor shower from our small country home in Central Texas. With the near-full moon rising in the east, the shooting stars running north to south, the temperature hovering around 50, and the coyotes hooting in the distance, it was a perfect night for watching one of nature's most enjoyable fireworks displays. Its hard to watch such a show and not be humbled by nature.

Speaking of nature....

Monday was different. It was freezing, literally -- 32 degrees and dropping. Damn cold. The dramatic and sudden change in weather was somewhat surprising, but not too terribly uncommon. You know the saying, "If you don't like Texas weather, wait a minute..." But this weather was different -- there was a bite to the cold that IS uncommon for Texas (see SNOW), and everywhere I went on Monday, people would comment, "Weird weather, hu?" I would simply reply with the obvious, "Yes, it is a bit weird."

Weird indeed.

Later that afternoon, I jumped on a plane and headed to Baltimore for a business trip. As I exited the Baltimore airport to catch my ride to Delaware, I was struck by how warm the temperature was. Baltimore is supposed to be cold in December (and Texas warm), but here it was 70 degrees and humid. As I got into my town car for the one hour ride north I commented to my driver, who is a professional golfer and friend, that it was strangely warm for Baltimore.

"Yea," he replied. "The weather has been very weird lately. Just last week we went from 20 degrees on one day to 70 degrees the next. Everybody went from parkas to golfing in 24 hours. Weird."

Weird indeed.

After a terribly uncomfortable night in my Wilmington hotel (they turn all the AC units off in the hotels during winter, because, you see, it is supposed to be COLD in Delaware in winter), I awake to a rainy, humid day. My client picked me up at the hotel and the first thing he said to me as I jumped into his car for the ride to the office... "Weird weather man. Did you bring an umbrella?" I laughed and told him that "Weird weather" was the mantra of the week, and shared my story with him.

Later that day, as I was facilitating a meeting with a group of government employees, I noticed that their attention was no longer on me. Everybody was looking past me, out the windows. I stopped talking and slowly looked outside, and to my surprise noticed that it was snowing! Huge, beautiful white snowflakes fluttering to the ground! And just yesterday I was uncomfortable because of humidity and heat. This morning it wasn't even cold...now it is snowing?

Weird weather! What is going on?

In his book, "Hot, Flat, and Crowded," Thomas Freidman characterizes my two-day experience as "Global Weirding," and attributes these seemingly wild fluctuations to global warming and the attendant changes this warming has had on climate. His argument is compelling, and is confirmed by daily experience. Not just my experience...but yours. Ask yourself how many times you or somebody around you has recently commented that the weather was acting 'weird'? Even though we struggle with the explanation, we all intuitively know that something just isn't right with the weather...its seems to be acting, well, weird.

And this is a fact. Or, perhaps an inconvenient truth... The weather is changing. Or more accurately -- global climate is changing...which is affecting the weather in weird ways. As Freidman notes in his book, "That the climate changes over time is settled science. That the climate is now changing in ways unusual against the backdrop of long-term natural variation is accepted by nearly everybody." Something is different. Whether you choose to believe that humans are the causative agent of climate change, or that this is a natural variation in global temperatures, the fact is that the world is warming up, and Carbon Dioxide levels are rising, which results in a destructive C02-Climate feedback loop.

The combination of the two is weird weather. What will be the consequence of this bizarre trend for you...for your family?

Weird weather indeed.

Kevin
SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Disaster Preparation - 30 Days In America!

2008-11-17T18:27:00.027-06:00

If you question whether we live in an age where disaster preparation has become increasingly important, all you have to do is look at the news for the past thirty days...

Since mid-October to today (November 17, 2008), America has witnessed white out snow storms in the Dakotas, resulting in prolonged power disruptions and trapping dozens of motorists overnight in their vehicles as they waited for plows and rescue [see ABC News].

Unseasonably intense thunder storms have raged through the northeast, killing 2 and leaving hundreds of homes without power. These storms put the exclamation point on what most experts agree will become the worst year in recorded history for tornadoes in North America [see CNN].

On the other side of the country, California is recording one of the worst years in history for wildfires, resulting in billions of dollars in damage and millions of acres burned. While I write this blog, more than 30,000 homes have been evacuated in southern California as people flee from the Santa Barbara fire and other flare ups. Governor Schwarzenegger even went so far as to declare that California’s changing climate has resulted in a year-round fire season, rather than the typical 2-month, late autumn season.

On November 13, 2008, more than one million Los Angelinos participated in Shake Out, a city-wide earthquake disaster drill. According to the Wall Street Journal, California is more than 150 years overdue for a massive earthquake along the southern San Andreas Fault [link]. Experts predict that this earthquake may reach 7.8 in magnitude, shake for more than two minutes, result in 2000 deaths, 50,000 injuries, 200 billion in damage, and leave millions without power for months.

Finally, and strangely, residents just outside Dallas, Texas recently reported an unsettling rumbling sound. Scientists later confirmed the sound was an extremely uncommon low-magnitude earthquake. Yes, in Texas.

This represents only a partial review of one month of hazardous events in the American experience.

Thirty days.

Hazards and natural events are cyclical, and have been around long before we humans made the scene. Most people know this. And while our real-time global media culture makes it easy to follow these cyclical events as they occur around the country and the world, even a causal observance reveals a fundamental truth – natural hazardous events, and their resultant consequences, appear to be on the rise in both scale and frequency (not to mention man-made hazards).

Explanations abound for these trends, from global warming, to greenhouse gas emissions, to regular cycles of change in the earth’s natural systems, to overpopulation, to solar and celestial effects. And while the causes of these trends are important, cause is not what I would like you to consider with this post. What I want you to think about are effects.

Even though natural hazards have been around since the beginning of time, one point needs to be made clear; today there are 7 billion people who are in the way.

Natural events are a fundamental part of the earth’s complex system of renewal and change.

This has always been the case and will continue long after we humans have left the scene. However, while we are here, these natural events become hazardous, and ultimately disastrous, principally because we get in the way.

The human population is growing exponentially, and has doubled in the last 45 years alone! As population grows, so does our inter-connectivity, as advances in population are mirrored by advances in technology. As more people are around, in harm’s way, interconnected to structures and infrastructures like never before in the history or our species, so also increases our vulnerability to disruptions.

Do the math yourself… More People + More Inter-connectivity + More Hazards = Greater Exposure and Vulnerability.

Your turn will come.

The resultant question is simple: will you be prepared?

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Creating a "Culture Of Survival"

2008-11-06T16:24:00.013-06:00

Retired Lt. General Russel L. Honroe', the Army commander in charge of post-Katrina recovery efforts, recently gave a presentation to the Appalachian Technical College in Jasper, Georgia on the need to recreate a "Culture of Survival" in America. According to General Honroe', the pandemonium in New Orleans that ensued after the hurricane can be attributed to a single, simple oversight -- a lack of preparation.

As Constance Cooper with the Ledger News reports, "According to Honoré, there has been a fundamental shift in the way Americans think about disaster preparedness since the end of the Cold War. Our nation no longer has the “culture of survival” it once did, the general said. Honoré thinks that the first step in creating a culture of preparedness will be to get Americans to ask themselves basic questions like, “‘If the power goes out, how will we get water?’”

“If the answer is ‘Call FEMA,’ that’s not the answer,” he said. Gen. Honoré thinks that citizens and government alike have abdicated their responsibility for disaster preparedness."

We agree. Just look at what happened to Houston and Galveston after Ike. Thousands of thinking, educated, well-established families and households simply did not take the storm, and its potential, seriously -- this is after they watched what happend post-Katrina! They were caught completely unprepared, and because of their lack of preparedness, spent several miserable days (and weeks in some cases) without basic essentials such as food, water, power and medicine.

Most of us tend to think, "It can't be that serious...and if it is, there will always be somebody to help." And because of this attitude, as General Honroe' notes, we have abdicated our personal responsibility to prepare...and we are caught unprepared. General Honroe' is really confirming that which we at Survival Outpost have been saying for some time, namely, that all of us have grown too dependent upon other sources, be they infrastructure, government, emergency professionals and more, to prepare for us.

Preparation is your responsibility. We need to reestablish a "Culture of Survival," as General Honroe' argues, where each family recognizes that our society has become dangerously dependent upon supply chains, technologies, and institutions to provide that which, just 100 years ago, we had to provide for ourselves. Please understand, we are not suggesting that you should not benefit from the conveniences created by modern technology and infrastructure, quite the contrary; what we are suggesting is that you should limit your dependence upon these technologies and structures, and in so doing better prepare yourself, and you family, to meet the challenges presented by the inevitable disruptions these systems will experience.

In our next Outpost Outlook newsletter, we will discuss the Top Four Reasons Why You Should Be Prepared: 1) Inter-connectivity, 2) Exponential Growth, 3) Supply & Demand, and 4) Strange Confluence of Natural Events.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

How to Purify Water

2008-10-27T16:47:00.006-05:00

There are several methods that can be used to purify water for safe drinking and/or storage. Of course, commercially available purifiers and tablets are the easiest method. SurvivalOutpost.com offers some of these products as noted below.

Using Commercially Available Products:
1. Use a water purifier such as the MSR MIOX Purifier developed in conjunction with the U.S. military, or the MSR MiniWorks EX, the best selling purifier on the market. Both are effective at removing crypto and giardia.

2. Use purifying tablets which are generally either iodine or chlorine based. SurvivalOutpost.com offers both types. Iodine tablets and chlorine tablets provide a cost effective alternative to purifier units.

When Commercial Products are Not Available:
Of course, there are many situations when people don't have the above items and need to purify water for emergencies. In those situations, the following methods can also be used:

1. Boil water (rolling boil) for at least five minutes. Transfer to a clean, sanitized container for temporary storage or dispensing.

or

2. Add eight drops or 1/8 teaspoon liquid chlorine bleach per gallon. Stir and let stand at least 30 minutes before using.

or

3. Add 20 drops of iodine (2% solution) per gallon. Stir and let stand at least 30 minutes before using. Note - iodine will not kill cryptosporidium.

The taste of purified water can also be improved by adding a pinch of salt and/or pouring it back and forth between two sanitized containers to aerate.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

MREs with SPAM!

2008-10-23T20:37:00.011-05:00

SPAM, SPAM and More SPAM!

Background

You may be aware that FEMA took over MRE production at SOPAKCO (leading manufacturer of MREs) for a period of about three weeks for hurricane Ike relief. This is why most resellers were out of stock all of September. In addition, once normal production restarted, customers experienced significant shipping delays due to the backlog of orders.

The bad news – FEMA changed the contents of the MRE’s they produced for hurricane victims, using non-military grade items such as packets of Hormel SPAM (3 year shelf life) and desserts with only a six month shelf life. In addition, the overall calorie count was reduced. This was fine for the hurricane victims needing food for immediate consumption. However, these non-military grade MREs are not acceptable for most who purchase them for long-term emergency food storage, maximum calorie content, and a 5+ year shelf life.

When the hurricane relief efforts were wrapped up and SOPAKCO resumed normal production, they made a huge mistake. They decided to use up the remaining non-military grade items by placing some in each new case produced. Dozens of pallets (thousands of meals) were distributed across the country and to customers without anyone’s knowledge of the change in items. Specifically, anyone who purchased a case with heaters received two meals out of the twelve containing SPAM as the entrée. In addition, all meals contain a cookie as the dessert with only a six month shelf life. Cases purchased without heaters do not have SPAM but all meals contain the six month cookie.

The good news – Several distributors / resellers made it clear to SOPAKCO that this is completely unacceptable. Nobody ordered SPAM! Fortunately, SOPAKCO owned up to the mistake and agreed to an immediate resolution. They want to protect their reputation as the top quality manufacturer of military grade MREs. So, here is the solution some distributors worked out between SOPAKCO and their customers:

Option 1: return your full cases of MREs for replacement cases. SOPAKCO will provide return shipping lables and arrange for pickup.

Option 2: keep your current cases and the correct replacement items will be sent to you. This includes all new desserts and two full meals per case with heaters (if you purchased a case with heaters). Personally, I think this is the best option. You bascially get two free meals and twelve desserts per case. You can use the sub-standard items or toss them. Keep in mind, there are only two SPAM meals in a case and several items in those meals are original military grade.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Why You Should Care To Prepare for Emergencies

2008-10-17T15:52:00.004-05:00

Imagine a life without the conveniences we have all come to expect from today’s modern infrastructure. Every time you flush the toilet, turn on a light, run the air conditioner, open the refrigerator, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, cook on your stove top, listen to your ipod, shop at the store, drive your car, take a shower, call your Mom, mow the lawn, or simply sit out back with a cool glass of iced tea, you are relying on an intricate and webbed structure of supply and distribution networks that make all these “small” conveniences possible. What many of us don’t consider - or even think about – is that this supply and distribution network is very interdependent, meaning that disturbances in one part of the network can send shock waves throughout the entire system, affecting hundreds of thousands of people and households in very unpredictable ways.

As an example, consider a “simple” 7-day power outage, (an increasingly common occurrence in today’s world; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/us/15galveston.html?_r=1&oref=slogin). Once the power grid is gone, so is the power to pump water, waste-water, power street lights, store lights, house lights, refrigeration, heating systems, security systems, telecommunication systems, gasoline pumps, and more. You will not be able to go to the store to buy the food, water, medication and supplies you so desperately need because the stores will be closed; those stores that are somehow able to remain open will be sold out within hours. You will not be able to drive to an unaffected location because the gasoline pumps will not be operational – all you have is what is in your tank. Your refrigerated food will spoil within hours, your sewage will back up and you will have no fans to remove the smell and the heat, or heaters to warm you from the biting cold. Ice will disappear in the warmer latitudes. You will run out of food as soon as your pantry is empty, and the only water you will have to drink, or clean with, is what you had in bottles before the outage occurred. If you have an emergency, you will not be able to call 911 because telecommunications will likely be down.

What will the next 7 days look like for you and your family?

"We had no idea how the power outage would affect us. We planned ahead, but there are so many things you don't think of, and water runs out so quickly. We had to wait in lines for water. Who would have thought that a toilet takes almost three gallons to fill just to flush! People around here would have paid any amount of money for a battery operated fan - we were miserable!" - Renee Sutherland, Hurricane Gustav Survivor

If you are not adequately prepared, it is likely that you will spend your week nervously standing in a long line of grumpy and seemingly hostile strangers, as you all wait on government aide (which may take days to arrive). If that sounds bad, then you now know what millions of unprepared people have lived through (or in some cases not), after a major disaster struck them.

Peace of mind in these uncertain times comes through reasonable readiness – a balance between personal responsibility to prepare for likely natural and man-made disasters, an acknowledgment that it could actually happen to you and your family, and an appreciation that there is a safety net out there prepared to help…but one that you will have to be prepared to wait on.

"I live in north west Pennsylvania. Inland United States. Who would have ever thought that I should be prepared for a one-week power outage from a hurricane that made landfall in Texas! Ike shot right up the country, hit us with 80 mph winds and left us totally unprepared. There was a run on Wal-Mart, and I had to rely on my neighbors to help me through the disruption. One neighbor had a generator, and he went from home to home giving each of us one hour of power to cool our food and what limited water we had left." Alita Gail - Hurricane Ike Survivor

The survival question in today’s complex and increasingly hostile world is simple: Given the potential hazards that are statistically likely to affect your area (see Here for Hazard Data), do you have the necessary supplies on hand to make it through the waiting period…to remain at home with peace of mind in the comfort and company of your family and loved ones? Or will you be waiting anxiously in a long line of strangers, hoping to make it to the front before they run out of supplies?

The choice, and decision, is yours…and why SurvivalOutpost.com is here for you.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Wildfire Evacuations

2008-10-17T15:50:00.001-05:00

A fire broke out in the Angeles National Forest early Sunday morning, causing the evacuation of more than 1200 residents and sparking what many fear will be the beginning of yet another disastrous fire season in California (see Fire). Southern California has not seen a measurable rain for more than three months, and the autumn Santa Ana winds are predicted to be strong and steady. Dry fuels and high winds are a deadly combination, and all residents that live near forested regions in high fire risk zones should take the appropriate precautions to ensure that they have a mobile readiness kit equipped with personal survival gear and supplies. Remember, survival in wildfire zones is all about evacuation and mobility, and many experts believe that wildfires will continue to increase in frequency and intensity as global warming continues to alter weather patterns (see Monitor). Know the risks in your area, keep your survival supplies in your vehicles, and obey evacuation orders without delay. Remember, once the time for action is upon you, the time for preparation has passed. Be ready before the evacuation order is issued.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Climate Change Linked to Increase in Deadly Disease

2008-10-17T15:48:00.002-05:00

The Times of London recently reported that climate change, specifically increases in temperature and moisture, is creating conditions favorable for the rapid spread of 12 deadly diseases, including Ebola, Plague, Cholera, and Red Tide (see Times). Citing the inability of animal populations to adapt to abrupt changes in climate, and the apparent increase of deadly diseases in the animal population, some scientists believe that we can expect a similar increase in human outbreaks as pathogens jump from one host species to another. While scientists are uncertain as to the specific relationship between climate change and disease outbreak, they do cite that warmer temperatures allow pathogens to stay alive longer, and thus increase their rate of spread. Of most concern to disaster/hazard preparation is how these disease processes may affect water quality and supply. Algae blooms in water supplies can "... kill people through the spread of brevetoxins, domoic acid and saxitoxins..." note the authors. It is important to remember that dwindling water quality and global shortages in water availability are emergent issues and, argue some, the single greatest threat to mankind's future survival (see The World Water Council). It is for this reason that SurvivalOutpost.com strongly recommends long-term readiness for water collection, storage, and treatment. Indeed, our lives and those of our loved ones may depend upon it one day in the not too distant future...

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Methane Gas & Climate Change

2008-10-17T15:46:00.001-05:00

A recent, and sobering, article in the UK journal Independent highlights the sudden release of methane gas - a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more potent that Carbon Dioxide - from the thawing of permafrost in the arctic seabed, (see: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-the-methane-time-bomb-938932.html). These gases are normally trapped by ice, but global warming is increasing the rate of release of these gases, creating 'plumes' or 'chimneys' of methane release into the atmosphere. Scientists fear that this sudden increase in methane into the atmosphere will create a destructive feedback loop that increases global warming, which in turn will speed the thawing of the seabed, releasing more methane, which again causes more warming, which releases more gas, and so on. Such a dramatic escalation in global temperatures could cause severe perturbations in global weather patterns, causing devastating natural disasters. As the writers of "The 11th Hour" note in their provocative documentary (one we absolutely recommend you view), global warming of this scale could cause such wide-spread destruction to high-risk areas that eco-refugees could reach the billions.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

World Tension

2008-09-24T15:38:00.003-05:00

This week brought more bad news from countries where tensions are growing. North Korea kicked out UN inspectors (sound familiar?) and stated they were restarting their plutonium enrichment process. At the same time, the president of Iran (I won't even try to spell his name) addressed the UN assembly and spat if the face (figuratively speaking) of the United States and Israel from the heart of one of our own great cities. If tensions with North Korea, Iran, and even Russia continue to escalate, we could be facing serious man-made disasters in the years ahead. Mankind has enough issues dealing with natural disasters. Sometimes I feel we are our own worst enemy.

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment

Hurricane Gustav

2008-08-30T16:06:00.004-05:00

Hurrican Gutav is now a monster category 4 hurricane. He is about to slam western Cuba packing winds up to 145 mph! It is expected to weaken somewhat before entering the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Texas and Louisiana coastline residents need to be prepared for a major impact.

Hurricanes seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity in recent years. Is this tied to global warming?

SurvivalOutpost.com Emergency Preparedness Kits and Survival Equipment