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Category: guest post – nick

Sat. April 28, 2018 – GDPR Compliance

I’m getting an early start today. I’ve got one daughter at a special Girls run downtown, and the other has her normal softball game early this am. Currently 59F and damp, but due to get warm and dry later.

RickH, our site admin and all around go to guy has prepared the following about the changes driven by the European privacy act. Much like the ROHS directives, no force of law in the US, but companies are complying anyway as a way to sell into the EU, and because it’s easier to do one version of a product. No one wants to be the test case, so we surrender a bit more of our sovereignty one regulation at a time. Privacy is a good thing, but like most regulations, I expect the unexpected consequences of this rule will be very different from what was desired. In any case, here is Rick’s take on the subject and what it means for us here…. nick

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It’s sunny/cloudy/rainy this morning in my little corner of the Olympic Peninsula across from “Mutiny Bay”. (It depends on when Nick publishes this post. I just wanted to start, as per custom, by a weather report).

I’ve put this in a comment Thursday evening (25 Apr 2018), but thought I would put it here so it is visible to all…and to allow comments.

There is a new ‘data privacy’ law from the ‘nice’ folks in EU, called GDPR, that will apply to everyone on this site. It requires web sites to notify you if any potentially personal information (like your name/email in comments, or for analytics, or cookies) are stored on the site. Compliance is required by 28 May 2018, and has hefty fines that can be levied.

GDPR applies to any site that collects info, even if hosted in non-EU countries. Since this site uses analytics, and collects your name/email if you comment, the site has to comply with the policy. And we do have visitors (and commenters) from EU countries.

So, you might see some changes come up as I try various ways to comply with the policy. There may be a ‘ok’ box before you see (any) content, and the comment and contact forms will have an additional checkbox to acknowledge that it is OK to store your personal information. You’ve probably seen them on other sites; the ‘we use cookies, okie dokie?’ messages.

In addition, there must be a way to allow people to ‘un-allow’ their personal information. Still figuring this out – there’s all sorts of advice on the googles, and some of it is wrong. I think there will be a process to allow you to remove your user profile, and then that will delete your personal information. But you will still need to consent to the use of cookies, since we use those for analytics. And you will have to re-enter user/email on comment forms.

So, changes afoot here. But we have to comply, even though we are not EU-based. We have EU commenters here. And I suspect that there will be “GDPR Trolls’ that will be looking for (and suing) sites that are not compliant.

I’m testing the tools on one of my test sites, but will also be installing the tools here….and on all the other sites I manage. Enabling all required aspects of GDPR compliance will protect the owners (Barbara) – and admins (Nick and me) – of this site  from massive fines and legal issues.

This needs to be done if you have any web site, especially if you allow comments, or gather ‘analytics’ data, or send visitor data to a third party (like Google Analytics). Even if your site and hosting is US-based. Any visit by a EU

You are welcome to add your comments below, as always. But thought I would alert you to why the changes are being done.

I wrote something on my “SecurityDawg” blog about it here, including how I will be implementing it in a way that will be easy to install on all the sites I own/manage/admin.

Read the comments: 53 Comments

Tues. April 24, 2018 – another day another dollar….

56F, cool and sunny. Looks like it’s gonna be an awesome day to be outside.

[RBT always started with a weather report, and so I do, for continuity and as a measure of the passage of the seasons]

I’m committed to doing some work at our rec association today so I may/will be AFK most of the day.

[RBT usually updated what he was working on]

” Swedish Activist: “Everyone’s Afraid To Be Branded A Racist”

“I always say to my Christian friends, ‘What do you think, what will happen to you if Islam becomes dominant here?'” — Mona Walter.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-23/swedish-activist-everyones-afraid-be-branded-racist

[RBT often commented about a headline that caught his eye, esp. on prepping, decline of the west, muslim invasion, or terrorism.]

I could go on in this format, but I hope I’ve made a point. If not, here’s where I get out the whip and poor dead Trigger gets a beating…

====

Yesterday late in the thread bgrigg made a comment that I think opens up a couple of interesting points.

The first is ‘tone’. When I read it, I thought it was so over the top that it must be sarcasm and regretted that the internet hasn’t produced a widespread \\sarc tag or font. Upon re-reading I think it was sincere. Still seems out of proportion to me, but people are affected by things we don’t know about and in ways that don’t look rational from outside. I admit that I had to scroll back up to see what the joke was. I’m still not certain if it was the ‘ban white vans’ comment or my South Park ‘aaannnnd it’s Muslims’ meme.

If it was the van, well, after the mooslim mass murders in Europe, there were serious calls to ban white vans. Which is idiotic on its face, but our culture has been so degraded that people WILL NOT blame the actor (when it’s certain actors ie. muslims, blacks, illegal alien invaders) and so must blame the THING. For some of us in the gun rights blogosphere this is old hat, and we mock it reflexively. If it was the “rayciss” part of the comment, well, that triggers reflexive mocking now too. Far too many people have been screeching about racism in this country WHEN WE’D ELECTED A HALF BLACK BASTARD (literally- born to an unwed mother) TO THE MOST POWERFUL POSITION IN THE COUNTRY AND POSSIBLY THE WORLD. Pretty hard to cry about your lack of opportunity when someone who shares the supposed cause of your misfortune proves out the aphorism that anyone in this country can grow up to be President.

More likely that bgrigg was objecting to my South Park based meme though. All I can say about that is — it sure looks like sudden jhihadi syndrome from where I’m sitting. Attacks like this are nearly ALWAYS mooslim murder. To deny this is to deny reality. Even the Basque separatist ETA terrorists are apologizing these days. I mean, srsly, WHITE RENTAL VAN! Sidewalk in busy downtown! The only thing missing is him screaming Aloha Snackbar as the cops slam him to the pavement. Watching the video, I think he expected to be shot and killed by the cops, but forgot that he’s in Canada, not the US.

FWIW, there are plenty of examples of EXACTLY how RBT felt about pisslamic murderers to be found here, and I was hoping to make a point without the vitriol. Because frankly, I’m worn out. No, I don’t care much about the people in Toronto beyond the general loss of my fellow human beings who just wanted to live their lives. I feel anger at the murderer, and it is un-leavened by any sort of sympathy or understanding, especially if it turns out to be SJS. I am SADDENED but not SURPRISED that almost the first thing the Mayor of Toronto said was to reassure those listening that the city values its DIVERSITY. As noted above, there are certain people that you can NEVER blame for their actions, and the mayor is getting ready for the (inevitable) #Not all muslims statement…

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And so we circle around back to ‘tone’. bgriggs says “This place has gone downhill fast.” THIS bothers and worries me.

JimL observes:

“I believe I have noticed a shift here. RBT set the tone and steadied the site. We followed Bob’s interests with his daily posts.

Nick sets a different tone. More prepping, more of what Nick does daily. There is also an almost daily summary of what’s going on in the world that supports the proposition that we should prep. Definitely more TEOTWAWKI than RBT’s posts. “

…which gave me pause…

because I don’t really want to change the tone! I re-read old RBT posts at random as a ‘gut check’ and I’ve tried to stay within the framework he established over the years. Of course, I read his posts and comments thru MY filters, and you all have different filters, so we probably do remember different things.

What I remember (and shapes my efforts here) is during the run up to the move to Sparta and after, Bob started focusing much more on prepping. Part of that was his work on the book, part was his planning for a different future after the move. Prepping is part of my life and provides a framework for much of what I do, and most of my previous contributions here were prepping related, so I’ve continued to emphasize prepping.

Bob would also comment almost daily on his work on the science kits, shipping, writing effort, or how sales were doing for the month/year. Since I also work from home, I’ve continued posting about my work, but of course I’m selling on ebay (and the bit of other work I do) and not making science kits so the content is different. I think it’s important that everyone have some alternative stream of income, and a ‘home based business’ provides that. Hence the ongoing coverage of my efforts, provided as encouragement toward everyone doing something to take control of their work life.

As I remember it, Bob was less likely to pull more than one ‘current event’ per day, or link to headlines. OFD was much more likely to do so in a comment. Since OFD is recovering (and I owe an update on Project OFD), and not commenting here, I’ve been more likely to put links in the actual post, although I am aware of it, and USUALLY will save the linkfest and political commentary for the comments (I think). And yeah, I know that I’m linking to a tabloid and doom pron. Over the last several years I’ve distilled my ‘daily reads’ down quite a bit. I’ve found that between the Daily Mail, zerohedge, and gateway pundit, almost everything will come up there. Each has its own editorial slant and obsessions, but together they provide a better ‘heads up’ to what is going on in the world than a dozen other sources. If I’ve double checked or looked for an alternative point of view, I try to link that so it’s not Daily Mail and “peachy posteriors” or “ample assets” all day long…………….

And then there is ‘home life’ for lack of a better term. I don’t have a [hyper]active border collie to provide ‘blog fodder’ so you guys are going to get more ‘family’ stuff from me. I DO have 2 young kids, who are very active and that probably gives my posts and comments a different ‘feel’ than pet anecdotes. WRT other interests, I only post here about a subset of my life. I DO have at least one other hobby that I don’t post about at all. I’m trying to not overshare (and perhaps ironically) or inject TOO much of my own personality!

So thank you bgriggs for giving me a chance to look at this. I don’t want the ‘tone’ to change much. I liked coming here before, and am trying mightily to keep this a place where everyone who wants to continue coming by will find something worth coming for.

===

ok, some ‘meta’ stuff….

I remember what seemed like years of Bob posting that ‘there probably won’t be much posting’ and then continuing to post at pretty much the same rate and level 🙂 At one point, I was even going to do a search and poke at him about it. I also remember all those long months when he and Barbara were dealing with aging parents. I kept coming back, despite the pain, because I know I’ll have to go thru that eventually, and having someone else scout the territory ahead is a great help.

Daily blogging is HARD. Doesn’t seem like it would be, but it is surprisingly difficult some days. On those days, just flipping on the lights, unlocking the door, and setting out a bowl of snacks is about all you can do. Grabbing a quick headline or a garden/prep update is the easy path. And some days it’s just “here’s an open thread” which is the equivalent of tossing the keys to the door to the first patron to show up as you head the other way.

It is probably inevitable that there is a change in ‘tone’ as more of me comes out. It feels very different now (to me, internally) than it did when I was just a ‘caretaker’ while Bob was sick. There is a stronger sense of responsibility with the ‘legacy’ than there was when Bob could come back and ‘set me straight.’ YOU guys will have to set me straight when needed.

Even more meta- watching the numbers, attendance here has stayed pretty constant. The graph of number of visitors is a pretty straight line, with the visits varying a bit. This is gratifying, and I take it as indication that I’m doing my job, and that people are still coming by and hanging out. Incidentally, it’s roughly 2x visitors to number of registered commenters, so we still get some lurkers (HI!) The top ten posts are separated by only a couple of hundred views, and span from 2013 to just a bit ago, with about half being since Bob got sick.

And even more meta- I’ve noticed a bit of a change in my ‘style’ with more word play, and even the occasional pun (which is NOT AT ALL like me!) Bob would be poking me for my fondness for commas, which is much in evidence in the post above.

And lastly, finally, and just a tiny bit defensively, I’ll give the last word to Bob. In June of 2016 he asked OFD and me if we would be interested in guest posting. I was flattered and a bit intimidated. He was very encouraging, and had this to say:

“Post away. Anything you wish: personal observations, links to news
sites, prepping information, ham radio stuff, advice about how to get
started scavenging at yard/estate sales, etc. In fact, you may want to
go back and pull out some of your earlier comments and turn them into
posts. It’s a lot easier to do that with admin access.

Looking forward to your and OFD’s first posts.”

nick

(yeah I miss him too)

Read the comments: 105 Comments

Mon. April 9, 2018 – the future of work?

55F and drizzle today, grey and dreary.

Some discussion late yesterday about the future, education, and work.

My wife still thinks college is a good idea, and we’re funding appropriately to allow both kids to go if they want to. I am pretty sure it’s a waste of time and money outside of a few narrow fields, mainly STEM and the Arts. (Not gonna use the trendy “STEAM” moniker, as what is left?) Further, it’s a lefty PC hellhole on most campuses, where political indoctrination dominates every aspect of life.

The one thing I do like about going away to college is the break with your old life, and starting an independent life on your own. However, I think that it no longer works that way for the majority of students.

Several folks here have expressed the idea that they wouldn’t encourage a young person to enter their field (computer programming, management, support). My engineering trade mags say that most engineers WOULD encourage someone to enter, but that field takes a mindset (and mind) that most people don’t have. Many pundits suggest training in work that requires physical presence at a specific place (the traditional trades) as a way to future proof yourself. Others suggest caring fields (which pay like cr@p, and you have to deal with literal cr@p) but again, to do well in those fields requires a particular mindset.

I’ve subscribed to a “portfolio” approach since I first heard about it, mainly that work should be like an investment portfolio. Some high demand (risk) but high reward, some high satisfaction, but low reward (volunteer work). The key idea is that you move between different types of work in your portfolio at different points in your life. thus, I’ve had work that paid very well but required constant travel. I’ve had work that paid poorly but was very satisfying. I’ve moved thru each without a lot of angst mainly because I see them as different types of work in my ‘portfolio’ and recognize that none of them are permanent.

So, what does the hive mind think? Keeping in mind that the pendulum swings, the wheel turns, etc, and in 10 years the college situation might be different (neo-Victorian?) Also remember there are smaller colleges now that are not so lefty, although they tend to be religious.

Where will the work be and where will it not be? What will be required to get that work?

nick

Read the comments: 56 Comments

Mon. April 2, 2018 – some thoughts on preparedness, and life

70F and 97%RH, sure to dry up as the sun warms the day…..

I read this article and was struck by how many of the things match my own ideas (although not put the same way) and by how different it is from most “prepper” articles. I usually just skim his articles as they are long and have a different focus than I do. This one is worth the read, I think, particularly in light of RBT’s experience.

I too liked to read Greer’s Archdruid Report, with the same caveats. I think there is a middle ground that he ignores or misses entirely, but there are lots of things to think about in the article.

Craftsmanship in Preparedness

“…when it comes down to brass tacks, “survival” is an impossible task. The incontrovertible truth is, “no one here gets out alive.” It doesn’t matter how much food you have stored, how many guns you have, or rounds of ammunition, or how many Israeli Battle Dressings you have stockpiled. Stuff doesn’t have nearly the effect on fate that decisions and good decision making do.

My interest isn’t in magically prolonging my personal physical existence. My interest is in passing down the values that have made my life worth living and enjoying, to my children and grandchildren-to-be, so they can pass it down in their turn.

The PROCESS, the planning, the ‘thinking through’, is the important part.

n

Read the comments: 29 Comments

Fri. Mar. 16, 2018 – what did you do to prep for LIFE?

71F, 94%RH and yep, back in Houston…

Still, it looks like a nice day outside.– EDIT — started raining 🙁

This week, instead of what you did to prep specifically, what made you what you are today? What changed you path or set you on the right path? Whether guidance, a person who helped, habits, tips and tricks, or ‘words to live by’, what do you tell a promising kid who needs just a bit of guidance?

For me it was a couple of things, and some minor things helped.

I was deep in credit card and student loan debt. I’d just realized that I’d made it thru my youth and probably WASN’T gonna die young. Suddenly I decided I’d better get myself and life in order for the long haul.

So.

I had a steady job I was good at that paid pretty well, but lots of debt. My roommate (R.N.-a great guy) told me that if I wanted to succeed, I needed to save 10% of every dollar I made. Just deposit my check, and make a 10% transfer every time. Kick start the savings by trying to get thru one pay period without cashing my check, then deposit that in savings. That way, you see yourself making progress.

The rest was simple but hard. Get rid of credit card debt. I did this legally, but the laws have changed to make it harder. If you do the math and see where you will be in ten years if you continue on, or if you take drastic action, you’ll be convinced to just do it.

Get rid of consumer and school debt. You are ruining your credit anyway (it’s probably already ruined by all your credit cards) so do it all. If you don’t pay your student loans they will eventually settle for whatever they can get. Save your cash, make them an offer. Pay them off one at a time IN FULL and at reduced totals.

Get right with the IRS. They will work with you, but you’ve gotta do it and stick to it.

The KEY to this was saving cash. Without that initial 10% saved, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of the rest.

That was the point my life turned around. I went from living in the moment, and changed my focus to longer term. I started saving money so I had options and flexibility.

A while later, in a different city, and a different life (made possible by having money in the bank) a good friend told me to make a 10 year plan. What did I want in ten years? How could I get it? Making the list (home of my own, debt free, money in the bank, start a family) lets you decide if you are making progress or not. It lets you judge choices. It took me FIFTEEN years, but I got there.

Finally, two minor things have helped more recently.

Break your addiction to the “Snooze” button. If you are hitting it more than once, you aren’t getting any more good sleep, and you aren’t getting up. Set it for your final awake time. GET UP and just get started on the day. Set a backup if you don’t trust the alarm or yourself. In a while, you will both start to wake up, and trust the alarm. This has made a big difference in my mornings.

The second is something I read, that was very hard to internalize but helped me a lot in my work and relationships with people in general. Indra Noori (CEO of Pepsico) said the best advice she ever got was to “assume positive intent”. In other words, assume people aren’t trying to screw you no matter what it looks like initially. Most people are not villains. Most are doing the best they can with what they have and what they know. It may screw you anyway, but that’s not usually their goal, they just want to get thru the day and go home. Changing your default assumption will change the ‘color’ of every interaction and opens up a wider range of solutions to any problems that come up. Seriously, this helped a lot.

So, what or who helped you prep for life?

n

Read the comments: 32 Comments

Fri. Feb. 23, 2018 – What did you do to prep this week?

Friday again.  If time was passing any faster, it would be going backwards….

I’ve added an OFD Project page.  It’s link is in the black bar at the top of this page.  I’ll copy relevant comments or updates there as a record of what’s going on with that.  (Edited by RickH: that page now has comments enabled, so you can post comments here to be moved, or on that page to be shown on that page. All comments, no matter what page posted, are shown in the Recent Comments list over on the right [or below this post on smaller screens].)

And I’m bringing back Bob’s “What did you do to prep this week.”   It’s always the “quiet before the storm”, well, when the storm isn’t  “on the horizon”.  With that as a given, I’ll just say, “what can’t continue, won’t.”   We’ve seen examples elsewhere, and historically even here of how quickly things can change and how bad things can get.  This is a good time to take inventory, rotate some stuff, try some stuff out, get some more stuff, connect with new people, and learn a new skill.

No one knows the future, but in the last couple of years talking about it, we’ve seen Venezuela go from “man they have trouble coming” to “mmmm, tasty zebra.”

We’ve already GOT ‘Hoovervilles’ only with more drugs and crime.  We’ve already got social influencers touting “tiny homes” and normalizing reduced expectations.  Youtube “van life” to get a window to a whole culture of nomadic homelessness and reduced expectations. We’ve got a whole generation conditioned to socialism, envy, selfishness/narcissism, casual sex and violence, and most of them have really poor prospects.  They are gonna be REALLY ANGRY and ready to lash out when they figure it all out.

So what did I get done this week?   I got the first coat of cold galvanizing on my new HF antenna mast.  The rain came back so getting that done and the antenna back up is on hold.

I cleaned up my raised beds.  I need to add manure and soil, and get my spring garden planted.   I did move some onion starts to a window box, but I don’t know if they’ll prosper.  They are pretty lame looking.   I planted some herb seeds along with the onion, but it looks like I was just feeding the squirrels.  I’ll be doing more garden stuff this week.

I bought a used metal gate from Habitat and will adapt it to close off my driveway.  Another project that needs some dry days.  For now, I’m just mounting it simply.  Eventually I’ll add a better post and an electric opener for convenience.  It will control access to my driveway and garage, and visually hide all that stuff from the street.

My work on my ‘hurricane room’ continues slowly, but progress gets made.

I’ve got a rental house as a retirement plan and income stream, and I’ve got repairs and painting to do there after the last tenants moved out.  I made some progress on cleaning and paint prep.  Wife hired a painter, which just leaves the repairs for me.  Still more fair weather tasks though.

My battle with the rats continues.  I’ll have a whole ‘lessons learned’ but the short version is- they are extremely destructive and will literally eat you out of house and home.  Jump on them hard and quickly at the first sign.   Stock up on the supplies NOW.  If, like me, you have an environmental change that ends with a rat infestation, your neighbors are likely to have one too.  Rat traps and poisons are in short supply in local stores at the moment.  Rats are smart, social, and seem to pass on their learning.  They are not trapped more than once or twice with the same technique.  They will avoid peanut butter like death itself once they know it is bait.

Ebay selling is slow for big items and ok for smaller stuff.  I’ve sold a mix of industrial controls, collectibles, housewares, and public safety gear this month.  I’ve sold old crap and new old stock to police and fire departments and to individual cops.  They are looking for bargains on ebay, so I know budgets must be tight.  Even though my sales are slow, I’m encouraging everyone to get selling on ebay or amazon.  You’ve got crap you can get rid of as a starter, and it is a decent part time income from part time work.  You WILL need the income stream at some point.

 

With that, I’ve got another day of paying work today, so will be away from the pc for a while.

What did YOU do to prep this week?

 

nick

 

Read the comments: 30 Comments

Fri. Feb. 16, 2018 -Pandemic flu preparedness

NB- after seeing how big this comment was, and recalling RBT’s instructions to me, I am promoting this comment to a Post.

On an entirely separate subject, pandemic preparedness….

https://asprtracie.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/aspr-tracie-hcc-pandemic-checklist-508.pdf

I’m looking thru the CDC’s Flu Pandemic readiness checklist for health care providers and I see a whole bunch of stuff that’s worth thinking about.  So I’m highlighting some here:

3.11 Pre-identify strategies and resources to ensure behavioral health support for staff to mitigate adverse stress and grief and loss reactions.

[translation- EMS is gonna have family and friends that die from the pandemic- try to keep them working]

3.12 Determine virtual coordination mechanisms that will enable remote engagement of senior staff to prevent exposures and maximize ability to engage in both daily and incident operations”

[translation- senior staff need to be kept out of the treatment areas to keep them alive while everyone else risks dying.]

“3.21 Develop criteria for on-scene denial of transport by EMS personnel for influenza-like illness and other patients – with or without on-line medical control – ideally regional rather than agency-based criteria and process.

[trans- figure out at what point do you stop bringing flu cases into the hospital and effectively quarantine them at home, and when you let EMS make that decision on their own.]

3.22 Develop/provide patient information sheets on homecare for influenza-like illness
including usual clinical symptoms and course, infection prevention, treatment, and when to seek additional medical care.

[trans- people are on their own at some point, figure out what point, and give them some info about what to do]

3.23 Develop/provide patient information sheets for other conditions that may be left without transport if the service volume suggests a relevant need (e.g., minor injuries).

[trans- again, you’re gonna be on your own, with minimal guidance]

3.24 Determine alternate transport resources and triggers to utilize them, e.g., private
ambulance, wheelchair, contract/courier, for hire vehicles, military assets, buses

[trans- martial law at some point, and how many NG or regular Army units will want to deploy into a Flu zone? How many will be ABLE?]

Here’s a nice one:

4.5 Determine actions that the state emergency management or public health agency is likely to take that affect health care including:

• Suspension or modification of requirements for hospitals or clinics

[when will you be able to use tents, parking lots, warehouses]

• Specific emergency orders or actions that may limit liability or expand scope of
operations (for facilities and providers, including volunteers)

• Requests for 1135 waivers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

• Crisis standards of care activation

[when will you drop normal operations and just do whatever you can without liability- ie at what point does S really HTF?]

• Issuance of clinical guidelines for care and resource allocation

[when do you start rationing and triage?]

• ‘Taking powers’ of the state relative to medical materials and staff (i.e., does the state have ability to commandeer resources under their emergency powers and does this include medical materials?)

[trans- when will they come for YOUR stuff, and do you need to give it to them. side question- where would ‘the state’ be TAKING the siezed materials????]

• Promulgation or enforcement of legal obligations of medical staff to provide care

[trans- when will they come for YOU, and what if anything can you do about it?? this is where preppers worry about ‘being on a list’ of EMS or First Aid trained, or CERT, etc, can they force you to provide medical aid? what if you are licensed?]

And these are grim:

4.38 Develop a plan for implementing a supplemental facility security/controlled access plan (which may be phased) particularly during the peak pandemic weeks to assure controlled campus ingress and egress and monitoring.

4.39 Provide patients and staff with information about stress responses, resilience, and available professional mental health resources. Develop staff monitoring for those exposed to high levels of cumulative stress or specific severe stressors (death of coworker, etc.).

4.40 Consider ways to maintain staff resilience and morale when congregate gatherings and close physical contact are discouraged. This may need to include memorial services for staff members.

4.41 Determine if the fatality management plan is sufficient for an increased volume of decedents at the facility

 

 

There’s lots more and it’s worth looking at. After all, this is what CDC thinks your local health care providers need to consider and plan for WRT flu pandemic.

-EMS not transporting sick people
-facilities and services shut down or reaching capacity and rationing of other treatment
-local authorities SEIZING medical supplies
-local authorities FORCING med staff to work
-deaths among EMS, facility staff, and care providers
-physically securing the treatment areas
-giving priority to staff family and pets
-using the military to provide transportation, reserve medical services, and security
-too many dead people to deal with normally

nick

(the link came to me in the weekly newsletter I get for EM and first responders)

Read the comments: 9 Comments

Fri. Feb. 16, 2019 Friday, again. Wow.

I’m tellin’ ya, time is flyin’ by….

70F and 99%RH. Moisture condensing on concrete deck and floor, and anything metal or solid in the garage. Can anyone say “less than ideal storage conditions?”

I did make a great dessert last night from “middle” term storage. I’ve found that the fruit cups from costco will discolor and the fruit gets mushy after the expiration date. This is pretty typical, “color and texture might change but contents remain healthy and safe” is true for cans as well. I’ve mentioned here before that when I notice that a case is aging out, I make fruit cobbler.

So last night, a delicious mango cobbler was made, and half was consumed after dinner. The mango tastes pretty much like peaches after canning. I used prepackaged cobbler mix. It couldn’t be much easier- melt butter, pour in mix with milk, dump in 4 fruit cups. Bake. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Kids asked for seconds. Success!

Managing your stores probably deserves a whole post, but the short story is — use what you have too much of. In other words, if we’ve eaten fewer eggs than normal, I will make something to eat that requires more eggs, like French Toast (Freedom Toast!). That’s a good way to use up some bread too. Or fruit desserts to use aging fruit cups that don’t LOOK attractive, but are still delicious. Think about baking, or pre-cooking meat and freezing. Pies are a way to make fruit last a few more days. Juice fruits and freeze the juice…

Anyway, I’m toying with the idea of a “use less week.” The idea is that you probably use more than needed during these times of prosperity, and would use less if times were tough, so why not try it now??

Some easy examples: toothpaste. Most people probably learned to put a stripe of toothpaste the whole length of the toothbrush. I find that less than half of that is sufficient to fill my mouth with foamy cleaning action. I’ve completely internalized this change.

Shampoo. The bottle usually says how much to use, but do you just pour some in your hand? Bigger than a ‘quarter’? I’ll bet half will give the same sudsing action. If not, just “lather rinse repeat” like the bottle says. Nothing to lose.

Hand soap, hand sanitizer. The dispensers kick out way more than needed.

Eggs. I love eggs. I now only buy the Large size though. Simple change from the Extra Large I grew up with and just kept buying. They are cheaper too. And I’m finding that one is enough for breakfast when I habitually ate two.

Toilet paper. I’d bet that most of us just use this the way we learned as kids. I did. Having kids to teach, and someone else’s butt to wipe, made me rethink both technique and amount. Not something to skimp on, but if you knew the supply was limited, would you be more careful and use less? TP is a very bulky item to store as preps, and not something you want to run out of.

Laundry and dish soap. Do you just dump some in? When was the last time you read the bottle or looked at the different marks on the measuring cup?

Ketchup or dipping condiments. Just dump a big squirt on the plate? Why not put half as much and then squirt more if needed?

Hmm, this is turning into a coupon clipping, make your own soap kind of post, so I’ll end it here, but I challenge you to look at your habits, and see if you are being a ‘good steward’ of the resources you have.

nick

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Fri. Feb. 9, 2018 finally …

Well, not exactly ‘finally Friday’ as this week blazed by.

Currently 56F and overcast, with T-storms in the area forecast.

I’ve been thinking.  (smell the smoke?)

Most of the immigration rationalizing has to do with bringing in workers and ‘vigorous breeders’ to support the current populations as they age.   This is based on a crucial and WRONG idea that those imported populations WILL IN FACT support the current one.   WHY WOULD THEY?  They have little in common.  They most certainly have their OWN interests and desires.  They are from tribal and low trust societies where they feel no obligation to help anyone outside their clan.  Further, the desire to import large numbers is based on another flawed set of assumptions.  The idea that the country MUST REMAIN an IMPORTER instead of an EXPORTER and  a consumer based economy instead of a maker based economy.  The Powers that Be KNOW that the current setup is a Ponzi scheme.  The only way to keep a ponzi going is to continually bring in new <s>participants</s> suckers.  But the new suckers have NO intention of participating in the ponzi or any belief in the usefulness or desirability of the  ponzi.

Thus we know it will not work.  So…

There is no problem with a declining population if standard of living doesn’t also decline.  A smaller family can better afford nice things, vacations, education, etc. than a large family.  So too, a nation that concentrates on quality over quantity can prosper even with an overall decline in numbers.

The ponzi WILL collapse.

If you bake that into your assumptions, you should DIS-courage mass immigration.  You should focus on doing more with fewer people (which we already do with robotic factories, and machines instead of laborers.)  As (if) population declines, there will be more to go around, and standards of living will rise.  Focus on enabling technologies.  Focus on exporting.  Focus on doing well at things the unwashed masses can’t do.  There will always be unwashed masses.  They’re vigorous breeders with large families (and by the way, how is that attitude NOT racist in today’s environment?)  Focus on shifting from BEING the unwashed masses to providing goods and services TO THEM.

Then, as your population enjoys the fruits of their labor, they can start raising kids again, and slow or reverse your population decline.

 

TBTB are trapped in their mindset.  They have always seen themselves as a small exclusive elite at the top of a pyramid of lesser masses.  They think it will continue, and if the current masses are refusing to cooperate and not breeding at replacement levels, they’ll just replace them with masses that WILL.  They miss the fact that the imported masses are NOT the same as the domestic masses (who only devolved into masses relatively recently historically.)  The imported masses will have no trouble or qualms about throwing out the existing PTB, and replacing them with their OWN elites.

And while there is a certain amount of schadenfreude in the elites getting their comeuppance, unfortunately, that will wreck the place for the rest of us. We need to fight against their plan, show that it’s wrong, and based on false assumptions, and strengthen our own positions at the same time.

 

nick

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Fri. Jan. 26th, 2018 Finally Friday

It has been a long week. Busy weekend of work and family ahead too, but at least the weather should be a bit better.

53F and mostly clear in Houston today. I took a look at my citrus trees and they don’t look good. Between the cold and being covered, all the leaves are pretty much shrunken and dried. I guess I’ll see if they recover in a few more weeks. I certainly hope so. The grapefruit I got this year is delicious.

It feels like we’re wrapping up winter, and getting ready for spring. I got the last of the Christmas stuff down and put away (didn’t want to do it wet). It’s unlikely we’ll have more sub-freezing temperatures. The yard and garden are brown and a mess, but we’ll soon see what we can get started on. I might just throw down some native wildflowers in the front yard flower beds.

This definitely feels like a time of transition… both in the natural world, in society, and personally. Transitional times are tricky. They are a time when the smallest influences can lead to big changes. I think they call for conservatism, balance, a ‘centeredness’, and being prepared to move in any direction either defensively or to take advantage of opportunity.

This is a good time to take a step back from daily strife, and re-evaluate where you are, where you want to be, and your plan for getting there. If there ever was a time to position yourself to move freely in any direction, this is certainly it.

nick

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