Posted on 03/10/2015 3:32:34 PM PDT by Kartographer
Awareness comes in many forms. Awareness of one’s surroundings, including physical, situational, and political, is perhaps what is taught most in many survivalist courses and books. These are critical to dealing with threats, both minor and major. What is often missed in teaching awareness is how we will emotionally react to these threats. We are so lucky in 2015 in the U.S. to have relatively significant means by which to live and prosper. Compared to most countries, our ability to eat, sleep, find resources, and thrive is very easy, even for people at lower income levels. So, I ask these questions to you: What part of your life will be most affected if the power grid fails? What will you miss most about your life should a nuclear accident occur? Is it the Internet? Is it your favorite burger? These are small questions, and they may not seem important relative to whether you have sufficient iodine tablets for water purification, but this leads me to the most important aspect of awareness– self-awareness.
(Excerpt) Read more at survivalblog.com ...
Look around the plane when the flight attendents are giving safety instructions, hardly anyone is listening. I would wager that 5 mins later half the passengers on any given flight couldn't remember half of what they were told and have no idea where the emergency exits are.
Selco covers this in this article many times people just can not except that a breakdown is occurring even as they watch it happening before their eyes. Why don’t they realize it? It’s caused by a condition called ‘Normalcy Bias’ a mental state people enter when facing a disaster.
It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of governments to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.
A good article on ‘Normalcy Bias’ is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/normalcy-bias/
Preppares’ PING!!
A good article on ‘Normalcy Bias’ is on our own ChocChipCookies Blog The Survival Mom:
http://thesurvivalmom.com/normalcy-bias/
I don’t know their politics; however, these original urban homesteaders are inspiring!
I plan on turning our front yard into a potager this summer, while continuing biointensive in the back yard. The more I practice, the better I will be if TSHTF.
I heard a new definition of a Zombie
Someone that their EBT cards ran out.
Normalcy bias, even our founding fathers recognized
it in the Declaration of Independence.
Bump!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11990150
Quote -
The ability to control water-borne diseases is critical for soldiers, hikers, and others who may need to drink directly from an outdoor source. Water-borne protozoan parasites that are specifically of concern are Giardia and Cryptosporidium because of their resistance to halogen disinfection.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of iodine tablets against Giardia and Cryptosporidium under general- and worst-case water conditions that might be found in the field. Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts were exposed to iodine according to manufacturer's instructions (two tablets/L = 13-18 mg/L for 20 minutes).
This dose inactivated 3-log10 of Giardia in general-case water and pH 9. In worst-case water, however, only about 35% of cysts were inactivated at pH 5. Fifty minutes were required to achieve a 3-log10 reduction at pH 5. Cryptosporidium oocysts were more difficult to inactivate. Only 10% were inactivated after a 20-minute exposure to iodine according to manufacturer's instructions; even after 240 minutes of exposure to iodine only 66-81% oocysts were inactivated.
These data strongly suggest that iodine disinfection is not effective in inactivating Cryptosporidium oocysts in water. Because this organism is common in all surface waters, it is recommended that another method of treatment be used before ingestion.
End quote
Might want to look at storing some bleach (short term) or calcium hypochlorate (look in the pool supply section) -- having extra fuel to boil water with is always a good idea.
Actually, electing the right kind of candidates IS how we turn the country around, so what are you talking about?
On the iodine tablets so very true! I goofed and should have pointed this out myself. My own plan Berkey Filter (Kayden portable for a backup) with an and calcium hypochlorate.
You’ve got to be careful with those pool chemicals...some contain algaecides and other toxins. Also, storing that stuff can be quite a challenge (you don’t want to store it near food, and it can cause metal containers to corrode).
Why the addition of the calcium hypochlorate? The Berkey should filter out anything nasty in the water that could make you sick. Is it just for storage?
Sitting in my CERT class discussing psychology of disasters. Interesting.
1. Have a back-up plan.
2. I can pretreat very large volumes of water for cleaning, baths, etc.
3. And the base you can make from calcium hypochlorate is a good sanatizer.
Supposedly, we just did that. And yet, it looks like business as usual.
SSDD.
Gotcha. I was taking it as you thinking you needed it in addition to the Berkey filtered water. Be aware that chlorine added to water that has organics in it will create trihalomethane (carcinogen) in the water.
Probably.
Problem is, there isn't the *right kind* of candidate around to elect any more.
Some, or a few, are not always enough in such a large country.
Don’t forget the brain-eating amoeba. I wouldn’t dare drink outside water in Louisiana for that reason.
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