Jairo sent us a heads up: "Hey Urban man, Just thought you'd find this interesting, an article on Solar Storms. Stay safe, stay prepared!"
UrbanMan replies: Thanks Jairo. We would be remiss if we didn't mention it here on UrbanSurvivalSkills.com especially before this coming weekend as we are supposed to see the strongest solar storm since 2005. Although I don't remember that one hampering us much. Apparently some commercial airlines had to re-route some planned flights that were flying to close to the North Pole where the stronger aspects of the solar storms were projecting.
The solar storm according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center should not affect much, other than possibly disrupting some communications. The radiation threat could be a concern for those of us who have abnormally higher levels of radiation due to our jobs or past exposure. I think this will be much ado about nothing. This is what mb.com is saying about the coming solar storm:
The sun is bombarding Earth with radiation from the biggest solar storm in more than six years with more to come from the fast-moving eruption.
The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. EST Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Colorado.
The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-traveling airplanes, said space weather center physicist Doug Biesecker.
Radiation from Sunday’s flare arrived at Earth an hour later and will likely continue through Wednesday. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA’s storm scale – severe and extreme – Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May, 2005.
The radiation – in the form of protons – came flying out of the sun at 93 million miles per hour.
“The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don’t get rid of them like that,” Biesecker said. That’s why the effects will stick around for a couple days.
NASA’s flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare’s expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation, spokesman Rob Navias said.
A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University.
First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons.
Then, finally the coronal mass ejection – that’s the plasma from the sun itself – hits. Usually that travels at about 1 or 2 million miles per hour, but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 4 million miles per hour, Biesecker said.
It’s the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights further south.
But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Europe Collapse is Imminent
The warning signs are all around us. All we have to do is open up our eyes and look at them. Almost every single day there are more prominent voices in the financial world telling us that a massive economic crisis is coming and that we need to prepare for the worst. On Wednesday, it was the World Bank itself that issued a very chilling warning. In an absolutely startling report, the World Bank revised GDP growth estimates for 2012 downward very sharply, warned that Europe could be on the verge of a devastating financial crisis, and declared that the rest of the world better “prepare for the worst.” You would expect to hear this kind of thing on The Economic Collapse Blog, but this is not the kind of language that you would normally expect to hear from the stuffed suits at the World Bank. Obviously things have gotten bad enough that nobody is even really trying to deny it anymore. Andrew Burns, the lead author of the report, said that if the sovereign debt crisis gets even worse we could be looking at an economic crisis that could be even worse than the last one: “An escalation of the crisis would spare no-one. Developed- and developing-country growth rates could fall by as much or more than in 2008/09.” Burns also stated that the “importance of contingency planning cannot be stressed enough.” In other words, Burns is saying that it is time to prepare for the worst. So are you ready?
UrbanMan's comments: If you are reading this then you are probably one of the few who don't need to be told about the importance of preparing for the collapse....you already are preparing to the extent you can. Or are you?
But of course it isn’t just the World Bank that is warning about these things. The chorus of voices that is warning about the next great financial crisis just seems to grow by the day.
Some of these voices were profiled in a Bloomberg article the other day entitled “Apocalypse How? Dire ’12 Forecasts“.
click here to review this Bloomberg article.
The most critical of these voices is Michael Panzner of Financial Armageddon, who said: “The fundamental outlook is even worse now than it was a few weeks ago, given (the lack of positive) developments in Europe and growing evidence that the economies of major countries around the world are deteriorating fast.”
When this crisis is over, all sorts of people are going to be running around claiming that they predicted it. But it does not take a genius to see what is coming. All you have to do is open up your eyes and look at the flashing red warning signs.
So what should we all be looking for next?
March 20th is a key date to keep your eye on. That is the day when Greece will either makes its 14.5 billion euro bond payment or it will default. Greece does not have a prayer of making that payment without help. If Greece can convince the EU and the IMF to release the next scheduled bailout payment and if Greece can reach a satisfactory deal with private bondholders, then the coming Greek default might be “orderly”. But if something goes wrong, the coming Greek default might be quite “disorderly”.
At this point, almost everyone in the financial world is anticipating a Greek default of one form or another. Edward Parker, the managing director for Fitch’s sovereign and supranational group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, recently declared that a Greek default is inevitable. In Greece, 20 percent of all retail stores have already shut down. The unemployment rate for those under the age of 24 is now at 39 percent. Large numbers of Greeks are trying to get themselves and their money out of the country while they still can.
Greece is not the only declining economy in Europe by a long shot. Italy has a much larger economy, and if Italy totally collapses it will be an absolute nightmare for the entire globe. Right now, the Bank of Italy is forecasting a significant recession for the Italian economy in 2012.
Only this time the U.S. is in a much weaker position. The U.S. debt problem has gotten much worse since the last crisis.
During 2008, our national debt crossed the 10 trillion dollar mark. Less than 4 years later, we have crossed the 15 trillion dollar mark. So what are we going to do the next time large numbers of banks fail and unemployment skyrockets? Where are we going to get the money to bail out all of those banks and to take care of all of those newly unemployed people?
Some people say that socialism is the answer, but the truth is that we are already a socialist welfare state. If you can believe it, nearly half of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of financial benefits from the U.S. government.
During the next great crisis, the number of people that are dependent on the government will go even higher. If you don’t want to end up dependent on the government, you should heed the warning signs and you should use this time to prepare for the hard times that are coming. When even the World Bank tells us to hope for the best but to prepare for the worst, you know that it is late in the game.
UrbanMan's comments: Newt Gingrich took some shots from Liberals when he referred to Predient Obama as the Food Stamp President,......but this is essentially true if you consider people on food stamps has risen by 25% in the past couple of years. What's going to happen when the U.S. Government checks bounce for 150 million people in the U.S?
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Request for More on Bugging In
UrbanMan replies: Jay, the primary reason I started this site was for Urban and Suburban dwellers who would, for the most part and for whatever reason, stay put during a collapse. Having said that, no matter how secure your site is, you ALWAYS plan for a Bug Out.
Temporary Patrol Bases, semi-permanent operational bases and permanent forward bases all have a planned and hasty evacuation protocol. This necessarily means packing load lists, individual and group responsibilities, routes, link up or rally points, maybe caches implanted to support a Bug Out, and a destination to a temporary or permanent safe site.
I fully realized that more many reasons people and families will not be able to Bug Out, but will have to hunker down. This could be because of caring for infirm or elderly family members, outside situation too dangerous to attempt movement, or simply having no place to go. I believe a person can mitigate, not eliminate, but reduce these risks and should have a Bug Out plan in case staying in place, even if intended for the duration, is too dangerous.
I have written many times about common, low cost preps. About the use and selection of common types of sporting firearms for protection and security as opposed to a unrealistic arming with the latest high dollar, custom semi-automatic copies of military assault weapons.
Staying in place most assuredly requires a survival team. In fact, my plan is to stay in place in my near-Urban environment, relying on my current survival team of eight families, not counting the local neighbors who are in various stages of preparation. I have a phone alert roster system, for some of my neighbors can call me or others if they need assistance, which can be to change a tire to respond to prowlers. I have several neighbors who now garden for vegetables based on me giving them some of my produce and talking to them about the advantages of growing our own crops. Several of them have stocked pantry foods, have a water service deliver so they have water on hand for several weeks, and, I have taken two of my neighbors shooting and helped them pick out guns for self defense.
If you are planning on Bugging In, you cannot do it alone. You have to have an organized effort, maximizing and leveraging people's resources and skills.
Hope this convinces you to come back and visit this site from time to time. Prepare well.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
OPSEC Alert - Firearms Owner Identification and Targeting
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