Free Republic

Scientists leading the fight against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome say the next critical front will be understanding how the virus behaves in people with milder infections, who may be spreading the illness without being aware they have it. Establishing that may be critical to stopping the spread of MERS, which emerged in the Middle East in 2012 and has so far infected more than 500 patients in Saudi Arabia alone. It kills about 30 percent of those who are infected. It is becoming increasingly clear that people can be infected with MERS without developing severe respiratory disease, said Dr David...

What is a pandemic? According to Flu.gov, a pandemic is defined as a global outbreak of disease. It’s not determined by the number of deaths, but by how quickly it spreads. Do they happen? Pandemics do happen, as in three outbreaks of flu pandemic in the 20th century: Spanish flu killed $40-50 million in 1918 Asian flu in 1957 killed 2 million people 1 million deaths from Hong Kong flu in 1968 What are the chances? I don’t have a crystal ball, and there is really no way to predict when and how a pandemic can happen. Certain “tells” would...

The Producer Price Index made available by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics this morning has now confirmed those fears. Consumers are seeing an immediate impact to their wallets in the form of food price inflation and in all likelihood the trend will continue going forward. These latest numbers are serious. So much so that according to Zero Hedge, “the last time food prices spiked by this much in one month, the resulting Arab Spring wave of revolutions tumbled governments across north Africa and the middle east.”

If there is one thing that you cannot live without, it is fresh water. Just try it some time. Seriously – try to live for 24 hours without using a single drop of fresh water. You will quickly learn how indispensable it is. Unfortunately, a lot of people that are “strategically relocating” to another part of the United States are not taking the availability of fresh water seriously when making the decision about where to move. If you live in an area that receives very little precipitation and that is not close to a consistent source of fresh water, what...

Loyalty is one thing that you need to “grow”, and it needs time to grow, that is why it makes sense to have prepared your group before SHTF, it may be slow process, and you need to be sure what kind of people you have there. My SHTF experience was very bad from the perspective of what I saw when it comes to loyalty. When you have big number of unprepared folks thrown in really hard situation like war, you can see all kind of examples, mostly bad one. Yes, I saw people betraying their friends, or even families. Sometimes...

I was sent this article into this article and I agreed that it would be of interest to many of the preppers in the group. A few are pretty ingenious ideas here that could use. Hat tip to The Working Man for the heads up!

Will to kill When I wrote those 3 points about what the guy with TT gun did and why he did not shoot the other man, there needs probably (but I never know for sure) to be number 4 and that is “he did not want to kill the man”. Yes, even in life threatening situations lots of people simply would choose not to kill, even if that means death for them. I believe it is something that some people simply can not do. They are not capable of that, to take some other mans life. Maybe it looks that...

Funny question in the headline, yes? But since President Obama worries more about the threat of terrorists' improvised nuclear device going off in a major American city than anything Russia can throw at us, I was wondering if the government had deigned to share with us citizens any tips for, you know, surviving something their own intelligence points to as the likeliest unlikely Black Swan event. Well, no. And yes. No — very few people in Washington, D.C., who work for the government have any idea what they would do if a 10-kiloton nuclear device exploded at the intersection of...

Hey folks, here's the link to the interview with Lisa Bedford, author of the book "Survival Mom".

#8-16 The following are nine more statistics that come from a survey conducted by the Adelphi Center for Health Innovation. As you can see, a significant portion of the population is not even prepared for a basic emergency that would last for just a few days… 44 percent don’t have first-aid kits 48 percent lack emergency supplies 53 percent do not have a minimum three-day supply of nonperishable food and water at home 55 percent believe local authorities will come to their rescue if disaster strikes 52 percent have not designated a family meeting place if they are separated during...

The situation has become a major political issue with magistrates and the Church calling for restrain. “This is a fight to defend the most sacred, life” governor of Buenos Aires province Daniel Scioli said and called on “all political forces” to coordinate efforts in the battle against crime. Escorted by all of his cabinet ministers, Scioli held a press conference in the City of La Plata to declare a 12-month security emergency in the province which represents over 35 per cent of the electorate registry. “The emergency is the legal instrument we have to speed up the investments we need...

I kept looking at him suspiciously, because I remembered our neighbour who stated (OK he was completely drunk) that he had brilliant plan to end this siege. When we asked him how, he explained that he will shoot at the airplanes, and when they respond to that they will bomb whole area and everything will end. One of most stupid things that I ever heard. It was like shooting the man who brings you sandwich when you are hungry but desperate folks will talk lot of nonsense. “I am just thinking how funny and how far away we are to...

What if you were forced to “register” in order to buy groceries? And what if, through that registration, the food you bought could be tracked and quantities could be limited? That’s exactly the plan in Venezuela right now. The AP reports that in an effort to crack down on “hoarding” that ID cards will be issued to families. These will have to be presented before foodstuffs can be purchased.

Nearly Half Of Us Couldn't Live A Month On Our Savings Trae Bodge , RetailMeNot's The Real Deal Apr. 1, 2014, 5:56 PM April is Financial Literacy Month (and dreaded tax time), so let’s talk about your financial know-how. Are you financially prepared if you need to stop working for a few months due to a layoff or illness? Do you know how much money you have lying around? What about your kids? Are you setting them on a path to financial health? RetailMeNot recently polled more than 1,000 Americans and found that overall consumers are doing pretty well on...

To begin with, this article is neither to demean the starting prepper nor launch into my fellow bloggers and authors about their version of what being prepared for the worst case scenario might well be; even though the criticism is valid and should remind everyone of the old adage that NO ONE is totally prepared for a societal collapse. The theory that many of the Pollyanna view of the end of modern convenience then in the end civilization is that indeed, mankind would seek his brother out and be at his best working together to rebuild and save humanity and...

Now that’s theory and it does apply but as we know sometimes things just don’t work out as well. Today my wife was opening a can of chopped tomatoes and as soon as the can was pierced the contents burst out in all directions. While there was no swelling, pressure had clearly built up inside, a clear sign of decomposition. The food inside didn’t smell awfully bad, but it didn’t smell good either.

It’s Not If, But When We’ve all heard the reports and seen the tell-tale signs of the storm brewing on the horizon. As a whole, we cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand and ignore the ever-growing issue of our economic instability. Start taking steps to lead a more self-reliant lifestyle and invest into your future wellbeing. The tips provided above can help you gain a greater edge in readying yourself for the uncertain future.

Bicycles offer us a quick way to move around, and if you know what you're doing and where you are going, they can be very stealthy. They give us options for carrying gear on racks and saddle bags, or even in trailers. A good bike will carry you over a variety of terrain, whether paved or not. They are easy to maintain, can be stored in a number of locations, and can be hidden fairly easily, when need be. Most importantly, with a little skill, their maneuverability will help you dodge even the stickiest of situations. Let's suppose I have...

At least 7,000 reservists have been recalled to the colours for immediate exercises lasting between 10 and 30 days. They’re told by the Polish authorities that the call-ups are “routine”: but the men say they haven’t been asked before and they’re well aware of the growing alarm in Warsaw at President Putin’s aggression. Three weeks ago, their Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, called a press conference to warn that “the world stands on the brink of conflict, the consequences of which are not foreseen… Not everyone in Europe is aware of this situation.”

"It was alleged that the food hoarded was sufficient to maintain the family for more than a year and hence far in excess of the requirements for 30 days, the period recognized by hoover as a "reasonable one" for residents of cities."