Brain-eating amoebas kill 10 in Pakistan

A waterborne, brain-destroying species of amoeba has killed 10 people in Karachi, Pakistan, this year, prompting local water officials to increase the amount of chlorine in the city’s water supply and advise residents to use sterilized water when performing a Muslim ritual which involves cleansing the nostrils.

This brain eating amoeba is typically found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers, and hot springs. It is also found in soil, near warm-water discharges of industrial plants, and unchlorinated swimming pools. There is no evidence of this organism living in ocean water.
It can invade and attack the human nervous system. Although this occurs rarely^, such an infection nearly always results in the death of the victim. The case death rate is estimated at 98%

This is yet another reminder of the importance of having a clean supply of water in your survival pack.

You can read more at


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naegleria_fowleri

or

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/10/brain-eating-amoebas-kill-10-in-pakistan/

The flip of earth's magnetic field is overdue

It has happened before - the geological record suggests the magnetic field has reversed every 250,000 years, meaning that, with the last event 800,000 years ago, another would seem to be overdue.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Lost+migration+flip+earth+magnetic+field+overdue/7342153/story.html#ixzz28WXRXMVz

Zombie Bees Spreading to Various Parts of N. America

Zombie Bees in British Columbia Canada! And Washington State, California, Oregon and N. Dakota.....


“Zombie bees” are infected with a parasitic fly that causes them to fly erratically at night until they die.
They have recently been confirmed in Seattle, and earlier in Oregon and South Dakota. Browning may have made one of the first unconfirmed sightings in B.C.

The condition was first discovered by San Francisco State University biologist John Hafernik in 2008. The bees are infected when an adult female fly injects eggs into the bee’s body. When they hatch into maggots, the bee is eaten from the inside.


Continue reading about the spread of Zombie Bees in British Columbia

Read about Zombie Bees spreading in Washington State

And Zombie Bees Spread to California

Check out the website, zombeewatch.org. There are instructions for collecting the bees and watching for the signs of infection.

Where next? Do you agree that strange things are happening in the world? Time to prepare for the worst but hope for the best in my opinion.

How Much Water Do You Need & How Fast Can You Get It?

An adult needs between 3 to 5 litres of water (2 to 3 quarts) each day to survive. It's a good idea to plan on 1 gallon per person (2.3 Litres) daily. This allows for extreme heat or physical labour conditions when you need more water.

We save 1 gallon orange juice containers, wash them out well with hot soapy water, then fill with cold tap water. Since we live in a very cold climate in winter we can't store them outside so we can't keep as many as we'd like.

Right now we have 26 1-gal. jugs filled with water, and more empty clean ones hanging in the barn, ready for use. So that gives my wife and I 13 days of water.






Three Weeks of Water in Orange Juice Containers & 5-Gallon Jugs

On top of that my wife has filled 4 5-gal plastic water jugs (the kind you buy at Wal-Mart or when you are buying water at a water depot) and we store those in a closet. Those larger bottles give us 20 gallons, enough for another 10 days. So we have 23 days of water for each of us.

Why do we bother filling those big jugs? Well, they still take up room even empty. Yes we could put them in the barn or garage but they would likely have mice or squirrels running on top of them. That means we'd want to disinfect them before we filled them.

It Takes Four Minutes & One Person to Fill One Empty Jug

Also we tried a little experiment this morning. The jugs won't fit under our taps in any sink or bathtub. So one adult has to stand there and hold the bottle at an angle while it fills in the tub, or hold the spray nozzle at the kitchen sink to fill one.

And each bottle took us 4 minutes to fill. If we wanted to fill 4 empty 5-gal bottles it's going to take 16 minutes and tie up one adult! We might not have that much time or we might have other urgent tasks that need doing.

So we fill them ahead of time and store them in a closet. You can see that we actually have room for 4 big jugs and about 5 or 6 smaller orange juice containers in this one closet. It's not a big deal to give up that little bit of space to be prepared.

If you're wondering where the rest of our filled orange juice containers are, my wife puts them on shelves in a basement room which is cool and dark. We have a closet in the basement that we could use too if we want to have more handy.

It Can Happen Anywhere - Are YOU Prepared?

A telecommunications failure in the Yukon has pushed many communications services in the territory right off the grid. It started with a power outage in Whitehorse on Wednesday night.

When the lights came back on about four hours later, telecommunication circuits began to crumble, cutting off phone, cellular phone, Internet and other services within Whitehorse and as far away as Yellowknife, NWT, and Fort Nelson, B.C.

Because 911 service is unavailable in Whitehorse, additional officers have been put on the streets so citizens can flag them down to report problems.

Yes it's the Yukon but don't think for a moment this can't happen to you. Are you prepared?

Do you have food and water stored? Medicines? Do you have a plan - either bug-out or bug-in? Does everyone in your family know what to do in an emergency situation? Take a look at the blog topics on the right and start reading if you want to be prepared for any crisis situation

Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/20/yukon-power-outage-forces-territory-off-the-grid/

Is a volcano a threat to you

Many people on earth worry about volcanos. However they tend to be people who live near a known active volcano. In reality we all need to be concerned with the possibility of our lives being disrupted by a volcanic event even if we live in places that have no volcanoes. Last year's eruption in Iceland was a tiny event in the middle of nowhere yet it shut down air traffic in Europe for days.

Read more at

http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/09/atlantis-volcano/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49037141/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Make sure you're prepared!

Ever Wanted to Zombify Yourself?

Zombies by Byron Rempel. Image used here with his permission

Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Byron Rempel of IDrawZombies.com can turn a photograph of you (or anyone else) into a zombie portrait.

Rempel was featured last week in Undead and Loving It in The National Post for his project 1000 Zombies.

For every minimum donation of $10.00 he will create a zombie of your choice. You get a high resolution scan of your zombie to keep, and you can pretty much do anything with it except make money from it. So you can put the image on a t-shirt for yourself or as a gift, but you can't sell t-shirts with the image.

You can fund a zombie by making a paypal payment to idrawzombies@hotmail.com  Check his  1000 Zombies page for full instructions and details. I just ordered some zombified paintings of family members earlier today and am looking forward to seeing what Byron does with the photos I sent.

Just think of the possibilities - frame your image and hang it on your wall, put it on a t-shirt, have a zombie mug made for your significant other, get a book bag printed with the image and more.  And what a great opportunity to be one of the horde without actually being undead.

So check out Byron and his zombies on his website.  Join the horde! You can also  find Byron on his Google+ page.

Growing Food: Gardening in Small Spaces

Ya gotta think outside the box! If you live in an apartment or in a small house in a big city with very little lawn or garden space, you can still grow food to dehydrate or preserve for emergencies.

Just check out this photo on the left. My wife grows all her herbs on our back deck but we've never branched out into growing tomatoes or zucchini or other plants there. We have an unused front porch too where no one ever sits! This photo has me thinking more creatively too. Guess what I'm going to be trying next spring?

For those with too much direct sun on the patio I've been advised that 4 bamboo stake/poles and a few yards of muslin will make a nice sunshade - lets light through, doesn't let the hot sun scorch the plants.

Easy Ways to Save & Store Water for Emergency Survival

This is a 3.78L (almost 4 quarts) jug that used to contain orange juice. Every time I finish one, I wash it well and fill it with tap water. Then I add it to my water storage for emergencies.

An adult needs between 3 to 5 L of water daily to survive. This jug has enough water to keep me alive for one day.

This is one of the best ways to make sure you have enough water in an emergency.

Below you can see enough water to keep one adult alive for 5 days (5 jugs).

Yes they take up room, but they can go on shelves in a closet, on the floor of a closet, in a basement room, or if you don't have snow and freezing temperatures, you can store them in a garage or barn or even on your porch.

I'm experimenting this winter with filling some 3/4 full (to allow for expansion) and putting them in my barn.

Last winter I tried using the disposable containers you can buy for water coolers but they cracked. I think I might try the tougher non-disposable ones this year.

We have other stores of water too. My wife keeps 4 of the water cooler jugs filled and in a closet. We also have several trays of bottle water and try to never let them get below two extras in the house at all times.

But the orange juice containers are so handy we have about 35 filled and stored now, plus about 2 dozen empty ones strung on a bungie cord in the barn. We can quickly fill those if we have warning of a disaster possibility. And we're adding more every week each time we finish a jug of juice.

Are You Prepared for Isaac or Other Emergencies?

As Tropical Storm Isaac approaches Louisiana, I spotted this in the newspapers

Gulf residents started stocking up on supplies and securing their homes. In New Orleans, which sits below sea level, long lines formed at some gas stations and in Gulfport, Mississippi, people crowded supermarkets to buy bottled water and canned food.

Long lines at gas stations.
People rushing to stores to buy food and water.

Will this be you? Or do you have at least 3 months of food and water stockpiled? Do you have an emergency bug-in plan in place? Do you have a bug-out plan and bug-out bag ready to go?

I hope you are prepared. Don't get caught up in the panic that can take place when disaster strikes.