Yellowstone supervolcano much bigger than thought. Should you worry?

According to a new study the hot molten rock beneath Yellowstone National Park is 2 ½ times larger than previously estimated, meaning the supervolcano has the potential to erupt with a force about 2,000 times the size of the Mount St. Helens.


Yellowstone has had three eruptions in the past 2.1 million years. If you look at its past history the supervolcano would seem to erupt about every 700,000 years. Give or take a few 10s of thousands of years. As the last eruption happened 640,000 years ago we are probably due for one in the next 50 or 60 thousand years. However with only three eruptions in the past 2.1 million years, basing any estimates of something possibly happening every 700,000 years or so is risky

Most experts do believe there will be another eruption, they just don't know when. However there are so many instruments and researchers monitoring the activity in Yellowstone that we would likely have at least a few weeks or possibly even years notice of a pending eruption. However some people point out that as Scientists have never witnessed the eruption of a supervolcano we don't really know if we would get any warning. It could just go off with a bang. 

So should you worry about Yellowstone? Probably not. But don't forget that Yellowstone is only one of many potential supervolcanoes in the world. Best to be prepared I always say.

Will Yellowstone erupt? Who can say.

Deadly human MERS virus infects camels

Can Camels give you MERS ?

Scientists have proved for the first time that the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus that has killed 71 people can also infect camels, strengthening suspicions the animals may be a source of the human outbreak.

Scientists say this is definitive proof that camels can be infected with MERS-CoV, but based on the current data they cannot conclude whether the humans were infected by the camels or vice versa.

Reports from China say 73-year-old woman died from a bird flu strain that has spread to people for 1st time

More Bird Flu In China

China's national disease centre confirmed the woman had been infected by the H10N8 bird flu strain. This is the first reported case of H10N8 in a human.

The World Health Organization Has called this Death “worrisome.”

 The department says the woman had severe pneumonia before dying Dec. 6. She also had direct contact with poultry.
 China's national disease centre says experts believe this is an isolated case and there's low risk of this strain infecting more people or spreading.

Apocalyptic Scale Of Philippine Typhoon Overwhelms.

Typhoon Haiyan

Typhoon Haiyan slammed the Philippines Friday, with estimated maximum sustained winds of 235 kph and gusts up to 275 kph.


With thousands dead and large parts of the country destroyed desperate people are looting malls, shops and homes of food, water and consumer goods.

Dead bloated bodies lay uncollected and uncounted in the streets and the survivors have no food, water and medicine.

A few Police guarded stores to prevent the looting but in most cases its hopeless.

We are getting reports of violence as civil order breaks down.

The federal debt ceiling and the end of the world

Flirting With Disaster

Again we are watching the Politicians in Washington take us all to the brink of a possible disaster. The United States government will soon be unable to pay all its bills -- causing what the Obama administration says will be a historic default on the federal debt. Without some action by Congress to raise the debt ceiling, the Treasury Department says default could happen any day after Oct. 17. Now I am 99% sure they will once again pull a rabbit out of the hat at the last second but you should ask yourself what if they don't?

The fact is no one can tell what the consequences would be if the United States was to default on its debt. Many so called experts have given us a variety of opinions ranging from it would not be that bad to its the end of the World.

I myself really cant say. However I don't think it would be good for most of us. So my advice is to stock up on supplies. Have some cash on hand. However cash is of little use if inflation renders it worthless. Gold would be better than cash but most of us cant afford to stockpile gold.

Think of things people would want and that could become scarce if the economy was to crash. Gasoline. Ammunition. Foods of all kinds.

BE PREPARED.

Making Light Without Electricity

This seems pretty cool. A man in Brazil figured out how to make light without electricity - and the cost is pennies.

All he did was use plastic bottles filled with water and a bit of bleach. Basically you fill a 2 Litre empty bottle with water and 2 capfuls of bleach to prevent algae. Drill a small hole in your roof, pop the bottle through, caulk the opening, stick something black over the cap (which is outside) and you're good to go. He uses black film canisters - which might be hard to get so I''m going to start collecting them now.

 Read the details and see photos at Alfredo Moser: Bottle light inventor proud to be poor

Credits: Image from BBC News Magazine

Pandemic Protection ~ What Can You Do Part 1

Are You Ready For The Flu?

I have done a number of Blog Posts about the possibility of a flu pandemic but perhaps its time to talk about what you can do to protect your self if the worst happens. To protect yourself you must have an understanding of how the flu spreads.


Influenza or the flu as most of us call it can be spread several ways. One is when an infected person sneezes mucus directly into the eyes, nose or mouth of another person. Another is the airborne route when someone inhales the droplets that contain the virus produced by an infected person coughing, sneezing or spitting. And of course the good old dirty hands that our Mothers warned us about is one of the best ways to spread the flu through hand-to-eye, hand-to-nose, or hand-to-mouth transmission, either from contaminated surfaces or from direct personal contact such as a hand-shake.

So lets say you wake up one morning and you turn on the news only to find that health authorities are saying they have an outbreak or possibly a pandemic starting to spread around the world. What can you do? Well the first and most obvious precaution is to simply isolate yourself and your family from others as best as possible. Hopefully you have your supplies stored and ready so you don't have to run to WalMart and face all the possibly sick people. However if you do have to go out for supplies you can take precautions to mitigate the risk. Obviously a full military biological warfare outfit would be great but if you are the kind of person who has no supplies at home you probably don't have a biological warfare outfit in your closet. However you can at least dress in a way that will help lower the risk of catching the bug. You must cover your mouth and nose and eyes. A surgical mask or even a workshop dust mask will help stop the larger droplets from infecting you. Even something like a scarf or other cloth can lower the risk but it needs to be tight to your face. Swim goggles can provide good eye protection as they are tight fitting but any kind of large glasses are better than nothing.
Gloves are extremely important. Surgical gloves may be best but rubber kitchen gloves are not bad. Again anything is better than nothing so even work gloves or driving gloves can help.

Dispose of or decontaminate your clothing. It wont do you any good if you bring the bug home on your clothing so take it off outside and don't take it in. Burn it or wash it with disinfectant. You could boil it if you have the time. And don't forget that good old sunlight will often kill the bugs so just hanging out in the hot sun for a few days will help.

Decontaminate yourself. Get a shower with lots of soap and hot water if you can but even a cold shower is better than no shower. In fact you may want to shower outside first if you can. If you have a pool or hot tub take a dip in that. All the chemicals in the water will help.

Isolate yourself from the other members of your family if you can. If its possible you should avoid contact as much as possible. Consider living in the garage or the tool shed for a week or two. If you cant do that then try to isolate your self in an extra room like the spare bedroom.

Don't let your new supplies contaminate you. Wipe them off with disinfectant before any one handles them with bare hands. If you cant wipe them of remember that the bugs cant live on the surface of them for long. So every day the supplies sit out in the open the safer they get to touch. Two or three days will kill most viruses on most surfaces but twenty days is best. If you must touch them use gloves and wash your hands after.

Isolate your family from each other. You cant tell if any one in your house may be sick so its best if you can to have as little contact with each other as possible. I know this could be hard or even impossible in a survival situation but do the best you can. Avoid hugging, kissing and hand holding. Disinfect doorhandles and any other commonly touched surfaces as much as possible. Don't share eating or drinking utensils. In other words run your house like a hospital. It wont be fun but it could save your life.

Remember that people can have the flu and be spreading it to others and yet not look sick themselves. People who contract influenza are most infective between the second and third days after infection. Children are much more infectious than adults and shed virus from just before they develop symptoms until two weeks after infection.

Contact with outsiders should be avoided. But one cant always avoid this so if you are forced to have contact then you must decontaminate and isolate yourself from your family after. Remember the virus could be spreading in the air so stay as far away from outsiders as you can. No one knows how far a virus can spread in the air outside but most experts agree that if you stay 100 feet away from others when outside your chances of being infected are low.  
 

Zombie Gear Special At Marstar

 Things have been a little bit dark and serious on here as of late with all the talk of Bird Flu and Tornado's and such. So here is something a little more fun.......

Zombie Gear Special

Now I think the shotgun would be a fantastic Zombie Destroyer I am not sure about the single action revolver. The single action is nice and simple and reliable but its just so slow to reload.

The Pandemic Perfect Storm

With Bird Flu H7N9 smoldering in China and MERS killing people in Saudi Arabia one wonders what the impact of two simultaneous pandemics would be.

 

H7N9 strain has been confirmed in 131 people and has caused 36 deaths since it was first detected. Now we have reports that three patients infected with H7N9 have developed resistance to antiviral drug treatment. According to a new study H7N9 has rapidly developed this resistance to antiviral drug treatment making treatment almost impossible. This has caused great concern among the medical community.

 

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia it is reported that three more people have died from a new respiratory virus called MERS. The World Health Organization said Saturday that it was informed of 51 confirmed cases of the new virus since September and 30 cases were fatal.

One pandemic would be bad. Two pandemics at the same time could be devastating. 

The Pandemic Perfect Storm.

H7N9

H7N9 is capable of spreading from human-to-human.

Scientists have found that the bird flu virus H7N9 is capable of spreading from human-to-human.


Ferrets experimentally infected with the new H7N9 strain passed it to other ferrets occupying the same cage, indicating the virus has the ability to spread via direct contact.

This highlights H7N9 pandemic potential.

H7N9 is on the way.