Doomsday Castle?

I have long been an advocate of what I refer to as Medieval Survivalism. By that, I mean that if possible survival should be carried out as a member of a community defending a stronghold, rather than simply as a single family or small group trying to achieve the impossible task of remaining hidden somewhere off in the woods. Lying low is the option most talked about in Prepper circles, but from a logical standpoint I can't see that being anything other than a short-term solution in a true grid-down societal collapse scenario. No matter how remote your little cabin in the woods happens to be, someone is eventually going to find it. And, especially in a world where a producing garden and off-grid infrastructure such as electricity might be worth more than gold, you will find yourself quickly left with no other choice but to either kill anyone who stumbles across your property or risk them coming back with friends to overrun your little paradise. Beyond that, the typical "staying out of sight" MO of most in the Survivalism subculture will only be feasible for those willing to live a true nomadic existence, living permanently out of a rucksack or bug-out bag and moving frequently. Don't get me wrong, human beings lived that way for quite a long span of our history, but it's not for me by any stretch of the imagination.

So, you can imagine how intrigued I was to see a show called "Doomsday Castle" on Netflix recently. Well, needless to say, I watched it and I have some opinions I would like to share. First off, the family featured in the show are "End Times" Preppers, an ex-military father and 5 of his 10 adult children. Basically, he has called them together to help him complete the castle that he started to build in the Carolina mountains back in 1999. The focus of his Prepping is in case of the future threat of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from a solar flare or errant nuclear detonation and the resulting societal calamity that would ensue soon afterward. Anyway, the following are my observations:

 1.) The mode they have chosen to attempt survival is not feasible for a single family, in my opinion, and I say that after having done extensive research on both medieval as well as modern warfare. In medieval times, the general rule of thumb is that you could defend a structure like the one this family is building as long as the attacking force did not outnumber the defenders by a ratio of more than 10 to 1. That being said, you can only look at it that way if there are enough defenders to man every tower and bastion, leaving nothing open for an attacking force to slip through. It doesn't matter how tall or thick your walls are, they can simply be climbed over if not defended properly. The six adults featured in this program should, by medieval logic, be able to repel up to 60 attackers, but it's more complicated than that.

Six fighters is not enough to cover every section of the walls, and battle requires support personnel as well as defenders. Someone has to be available to carry and reload ammo, carry water to weary defenders, and to replace anyone who is injured or simply too tired to continue. You also need a floating reserve force that can be thrown against any section of the wall that seems to be faltering under heavy attack. It is, quite simply, too much for a single family to handle.

In order for a family or small group to make something like that work, it must be done on a much smaller scale, such as a tower house or bastle house.

 2.) Any part of your structure that you are going to have the nerve to refer to as a "fortified bunker" cannot have a windows that face outside your protective walls. It simply doesn't work that way. Adding the roll-up metal door made things a bit more secure, but that as well as the windows themselves were a completely unnecessary construction expenditure that actually served to make the entire structure even less secure. Looking at the walls from the outside, it's also obvious that large areas have been left for big picture windows to be installed. Such things were part of the construction of the original castles centuries ago, but only because they were typically surrounded by another protective curtain wall. You didn't have to worry about an attacker getting close to the actual structure where the owners of the castle lived (which was referred to as the Castle Keep, by the way), until after the outer walls had already fallen, at which point it was all academic anyway and you would typically either surrender or settle in for a siege. 

These people are actually building a Castle Keep, not a castle. There should be no large windows facing the outside world. If they wanted that type of architecture, they should have built a structure with a central courtyard in the center and allowed windows opening on to that space. If I were attacking this place with even a halfway competent force under my command, it would fall in less than one hour. It isn't a stronghold at all.

 3.) The drawbridge construction conducted in the first episode was also a joke. It was only barely ballistics-resistant and was built so shoddily that you could see it bending under its own weight as they tried to raise it. It needed a more substantial framing structure and a pulley system that featured 3 stout chains, not just 2.

Needless to say, I was disappointed by what I saw in this program. Perhaps if I had realized ahead of time that it is essentially a spinoff of "Doomsday Preppers," I might not have gotten my hopes up. Despite all of this, however, I still believe the philosophy of Medieval Survivalism is a worthy one to explore. It just needs to be done correctly.

What are your thoughts?




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Even If the World As We Know It Ends, I'm Still Keeping My Smart Phone – Here's Why

I can imagine that my inbox will probably be flooded with those of you who disagree with me, but even if we find ourselves in the middle of an all-out TEOTWAWKI societal collapse scenario, I'm still not throwing away my smart phone. There are those of us in the Prepper / Survivalist subculture who are hell-bent on preparing for a life where we are thrown back to 17th century technology, but unless every electronic component around gets fried in some sort of solar geomagnetic storm, I can still find value in this amazing little piece of technology.

Obviously, I have to have a way to keep the battery charged for at least limited use, but my plans have never been to abandon electricity completely. Even someone without a lot of money can afford a small solar energy setup. A few hundred dollars more (no more than $2000, depending on your amperage needs) and you've got yourself a bank of deep-cycle batteries and even a small wind turbine. I've also spent a lot of time researching the possibility of a Micro-(Pico-) Hydroelectric setup. My emergency preparedness plans have always included a small alternate energy system like the one I am describing here that will allow for the charging of small electronics, such as two-way radios, rechargeable batteries, and any kind of rechargeable LED lanterns, etc. A smart phone falls nicely in that same category.

For that matter, you could charge it in your vehicle even in a complete blackout. My advice, however, would be to practice proper noise disciple in the event of the civil unrest that would likely accompany an extended darkening of the power grid.

Currently, I carry a Samsung Galaxy S4 (the same kind pictured above, except black for tactical reasons) and I intend to upgrade to the S6 model when it becomes available next spring. I like it, because it is a fairly versatile piece of equipment: big-screen, fast processor, comes in models with either 8 or 16 GB of memory onboard, and – best of all – that memory can be expanded pretty much limitlessly as the phone accepts up to 64 GB MicroSD cards. If you manage to actually fill up an entire microSD card, all you have to do is pop it out and put a new one in, storing the full one somewhere where you will still have access to it for later. That's a fair bit of computing power and a lot of storage for something you can carry in your pocket.

But what use would I have for such a thing in the midst of a societal collapse? Well, obviously, you couldn't use it as a phone or even to send text messages once the infrastructure for the cellular network is no longer running, but there are many other uses that I believe make this – or some other smart phone models and tablets – a rather powerful part of your survival gear. As I've mentioned already, it isn't bulky like an actual computer or even a laptop. It is exceedingly easy to carry in your pocket, even in a "bug-out" situation where you are moving quickly. And, it provides you with a lot of space upon which to save PDFs and documents pertaining to emergency preparedness and survival training with a decent-sized screen that will make it easier to read them. You don't need all of that stuff in a binder, except as a backup. Keeping your smart phone means it all remains at your fingertips at all times.

Other possible uses that I can envision include the fact that it has a built-in calculator as well as a built-in system that allows you to make notes of things, so that you don't forget them. If you were to find yourself away from your retreat on a scouting or foraging mission and made note of something important, you could quickly type out details on the phone, rather than having to depend on your own memory. And, for that matter, the built-in camera on the phone would allow you to save pictures, so that you could actually show people what you saw as opposed to only being able to describe it to them.

The handset also has a built in Gyro and magnetic sensor for use with compass apps. No idea how this would work once the phone had no service, but it doesn't appear to be using GPS. As I said, there is a Gyro and magnetic sensor built into the phone that have to be calibrated, so it might even be able to act as a backup to your compass in a pinch. I calibrated mine and it is giving the same exact reading as the one on the dashboard of my car, but how close that is to being accurate I'm not sure. I doubt that I would depend on it as my primary means of judging direction, but it could be a backup like I said. Redundancy is always important.

On a sentimental note, being able to save family moments like pictures and videos will be just as important for morale as those things are in this day and age. We won't be living in a world where people can post things to social media for you to see them and you won't be able to look back through your own posted photos and videos to relive precious moments or have physical pictures developed to save in bulky, difficult to carry albums. Keeping your phone, even in the midst of the hardships, could be very useful, and things that you save on the microSD cards would remain safe for a very long time – possibly indefinitely as long as you keep them dry.

So, those are some of the reasons why I won't be throwing my phone out the window the moment TSHTF. Rather, I'll be holding onto it as a useful tool. The only way I can see myself dumping mine would be in the event of an operational and tyrannical government by which I was trying to avoid being tracked. Otherwise, I won't be letting it go. Even in the event that it breaks, there should be plenty of new ones available for foraging as well as tons of the microSD cards. What do you all think?

7 Realistic Instances of SHTF Moments: Reasons to Prepare

There are a lot of people out there who poke fun at those of us who prepare for the worst case scenario. Although many of us can take it to obsessive compulsive behaviors, what is the problem with preparing for various situations that require survival to the extent of its meaning? Although a zombie apocalypse may not happen and being attacked by aliens is a remote possibility, there are many situations in which being prepared can save the lives of yourself and your family.

1. Earthquakes - While scientists continuously try to predict the nature of earthquakes, we are still a long way off from knowing when and where a quake will happen. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster is prime example of how nature can knock us down a peg. The quake shook Japan and then launched a tidal wave that consumed a great portion of the island and it happened without warning.

2. Volcanoes - There are tell-tale signs of volcano eruptions that can give us a bit of a warning before they erupt. However, Mt. Saint Helens didn't give much of a warning when the mountain disintegrated the top of its peak in 1980. One of the most feared of today is the inevitable eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera.

3. Solar Flares - The Sun sends great plumes of radiation out into space on a regular basis. If one of these larger eruptions was sent our way, it could knock out a great deal of our means for generating power and communication. As the telegraph lines were disrupted in the 1800s, imagine how an EM blast like that would affect our satellite system today.

4. Tornadoes - Every year, tornado alley experiences various tornadoes that usually wind up wiping out a small town. In some cases, these magnificent swirling vortexes take a portion of larger cities and reduce it to rubble. Even areas that were previously thought to not experience tornadoes have been affected at some point.

5. Hurricanes - Some of the most deadly of storms, hurricanes can devastate a large portion of landmass from the sheer winds they produce. Storms of this nature can leave an long lasting recuperation by the populace such as seen with Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

6. Man Made - Never underestimate the greed and incompetence of some humans. The aftermath of the explosion that rocked Texas just north of Waco in 2013 left a great deal of damage. Apartments were blasted to pieces from nothing more than the shock wave of the detonation.

7. Extraterrestrial - No, this isn't about an alien race coming down to take our resources. However, space is a shooting gallery of asteroids and meteors. In past years, humans have witnessed close calls by these massive rocks and just one landing in the right place can cause great devastation. While most of these burn up in the atmosphere, a larger and denser meteor could hit the Earth with more power than the most destructive bomb we have.

While it may be greatly pessimistic to prepare for the best and expect the worst, this line of reasoning could keep yourself and your family safe and secure. Never underestimate the incompetence of some people or the power of Mother Nature. No matter how humans try to predict and keep safe from catastrophes, chaos will always find a way to intervene within our lives. It is better to face the situation prepared than to be caught with your guard down.


Author Bio:
This post is contributed by Linda Bailey from housekeeping.org. She is a Texas-based writer who loves to write on the topics of housekeeping, green living, home décor, and more. She welcomes your comments which can be sent to b.lindahousekeeping@gmail.com.

BOOK REVIEW: "Dark Road" by David C. Waldron

Our most recent book review in the Doomer Fiction genre will be examining "Dark Road" by David C. Waldron (Kindle edition).  This is the second installment in the "Dark Grid" series of novels; you might recall, I reviewed the first book in the series here on the blog last week.

In this installment, we continue to follow the happenings at the Natchez Trace State Park camp-turned community as well as the travels of a family, desperately attempting to make their way to that beacon of safety and civilization. 

The novel picks-up just a few weeks after the events of "Dark Grid", and we meet the Clarks, members of the same neighborhood that was originally home to the group of survivors from the earlier novel before they chose to "bug-out."  The Clarks, to their great sorrow, missed that chance, and have since suffered a great personal loss as the conditions within the community continue to deteriorate.  Clues found within one of the houses abandoned by the earlier group lead them to set out for Natchez Trace to join them.

Meanwhile at Promised Land (the designation for the Natchez Trace community), things begin to move from survival toward a return to civilization, complete with a local election and the passage of laws by the consent of the people.  Still, the dark days are not yet over as a serious threat from outside begins to loom over the burgeoning community -- one that promises far more action in future installments.

For my money, this installment was actually better than the first.  It serves to provide the reader a glimpse of the civilization that may eventually emerge from the crisis in addition to the story of the Clark family, showing us (always better than telling) just how bad things have deteriorated in the world at-large outside the umbrella of military protection.  I am truly looking forward to later volumes in this series.

BOOK REVIEW: "Dark Grid" by David C. Waldron

This week, I have chosen to review the novel "Dark Grid" by David C. Waldron (Kindle edition).  As has become a staple of modern-day Doomer Fiction these days, this one is about the collapse of the power grid, which brings with it the collapse of society as a whole.  Pretty standard for the EMP Disaster sub-genre with the exception that, in this one, the EMP effect comes as the result of a solar geomagnetic storm as opposed to an attack by a rogue element exploding a nuclear warhead in the atmosphere.

The kicker?  The authorities knew the event was coming and even had a plan in place to save the grid by implementing a controlled shut-down... they just did what huge, overreaching bureaucracies always do: they screwed-up.

Enter a group of would-be survivors, neighbors who decide early on to bug-out of an uncomfortable and tenuous position in a suburb of Nashville that they have eyes clear enough to recognize as not being the kind of place one wants to be when long-term survival is the goal.  Their plan is, basically, to rough it on an extended camping trip deep inside a secluded part of a state park, but amendments are soon made when they hook-up with the Tennessee National Guard detachment based at the Nashville Armory.

If you follow the links above, you'll see that this title is only rated 3 stars after 140+ customer reviews on Amazon, but don't let that dissuade you.  This is not the best Doomer Fiction you'll ever read, but I would be perfectly comfortable endorsing it as above-average quality reading, especially in our limited genre.  Check it out!

Watch next week for my review of the sequel "Dark Road" by David C. Waldron (Kindle edition).

A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single Moment

A Massive Electromagnetic Pulse Could Collapse The Economy In A Single Moment: What would you do if all the lights went out and they never came back on? That is a question that the new NBC series "Revolution" asks, but most people have no idea that a similar thing could happen in real life at any moment. A single gigantic electromagnetic pulse over the central United States could potentially fry most of the electronics from coast to coast if it was powerful enough. This could occur in a couple of different ways. If a powerful nuclear weapon was exploded at a high enough altitude, it could produce an electromagnetic pulse powerful enough to knock out electronics all over the country. Alternatively, a massive solar storm could potentially cause a similar phenomenon to happen just about anywhere on the planet without much warning. Of course not all EMP events are created equal. An electromagnetic pulse can range from a minor inconvenience to a civilization-killing event. It just depends on how powerful it is. But in the worst case scenario, we could be facing a situation where our electrical grids have been fried, there is no heat for our homes, our computers don't work, the Internet does not work, our cell phones do not work, there are no more banking records, nobody can use credit cards anymore, hospitals are unable to function, nobody can pump gas, and supermarkets cannot operate because there is no power and no refrigeration. Basically, we would witness the complete and total collapse of the economy. According to a government commission that looked into these things, approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population would die from starvation, disease and societal chaos within one year of a massive EMP attack. It would be a disaster unlike anything we have ever seen before in U.S. history...

[Be sure to follow the link above to read the full article as always]

See also: BOOK REVIEW: "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen

When Will Our Luck Run Out?

With the way things are in the world today, most folks probably don't feel all that lucky.  As a species, however, we really have caught a few breaks.  It may seem strange to think of it that way, but even some of the worst things that have befallen us as a species have actually been lucky... not with respect to *WHAT* occurred, but *WHEN* it happened. 

In this article, I will present a collection of disasters that have befallen us in our collective past, the effects of which would be far, far worse if they were to occur now.  By no means is this list all inclusive; rather, it is only a sampling of examples.

While reading, you should also take a moment to mull over the question: when will our luck run out?

"The Black Death" Pandemic of the Mid-14th Century

Recent DNA analysis tells us that this disease was caused by a strain of the same bacteria that causes Bubonic Plague, though it was a vastly different bug back then.  We can only work from estimates, but educated scholars place the number of dead at or around 100 million people -- a number nearly representative of 1 out of every 3 people living in the United States today.

Back then, in Europe, this represented between 30%-60% of the population of the entire continent.  In America today, that would mean between 93-187 million dead.

Also, this disease struck at a point in our history when few people ever traveled more than a few miles outside of their own village.  The same pandemic today would touch every part of the world.  Based on the above estimates of the casualties in Europe, if this same bug had struck us now instead of 660-some odd years ago, it would have the potential to kill between 2-4 billion people.

Of course, many would be saved by better hygiene practices and antiviral drugs unknown to us in the mid-14th century, but do not put all your faith in modern medicine.  It takes months (at best) to develop vaccines.  Meanwhile, the carrying-capacity of the world's healthcare systems as well as supplies of drugs would soon run out.  People would be turned away from hospitals and, effectively, sent home to die.

Even projecting a conservative estimate could likely yield over a billion dead.  Society would come to a crashing halt, due to workers dying and rampant absenteeism among those who are too afraid of infection to risk going to work.  Food deliveries will cease to be made.  Utilities will fail.  Many first-responders will stay home to protect their own families from the anarchy that will soon ensue.

The Carrington Solar Superstorm Event of 1859

In the 11-year cycle of activity of our Sun, there are peaks and lulls, known as the solar maximum and the solar minimum.  During the peak activity of the solar maximum, it is normal for astronomers to observe what look like magnetic cyclones of plasma material dancing across the Sun's surface.  Sometimes, these become particularly powerful and burst outward, hurling solar plasma materials into space and toward Earth.  Most are essentially harmless... but not always.

In September 1859, a British astronomer named Carrington witnessed a particularly large one of these eruptions, known as coronal mass ejections (CME) erupt on the Sun's surface.  It took only 17 hours to reach Earth and when it did it resulted in unbelievable aurora events, not just at the poles, but all over.  In the Rocky Mountains, the sky became so bright that gold miners woke-up and started fixing breakfast, thinking it was morning.  As beautiful as I'm sure this was to behold, the effects also had a dark side.

The peak of technology at that time was the telegraph system, and the geomagnetic storm played havoc with it.  Equipment was fried, sparks flew causing fires, and some telegraph operators who were unlucky enough to be touching their equipment were actually physically shocked.  Tons of damage was done, but, luckily, the world did not need such things for the necessities of life to continue uninterrupted.

If the same kind of event were to occur today, however, with our complicated, fragile, and utterly-interconnected system, it would represent an utter disaster.  Theories regarding the effects are often debated with different ideas about the level of damage, but nobody really knows for sure what would happen. 

Worldwide communications would either be severely interrupted or wiped-out completely; the entire GPS system could be fried forever; lots of electronics could be adversely affected, some fried outright; newer model automobiles, with all of their complicated electronics, might either stall suddenly (causing lots of accidents) or never run again; ditto with airplanes (which might simply fall out of the sky). 

Worst of all would be if the huge transformers that tie together our rickety, fragile, thrown-together and woefully overtaxed and outdated power grid were to be fried by the geomagnetic storm.  These are huge, there are few of them held in reserve, and it typically takes several months to build new ones with civilization still functioning.  If they get hit at once (or even a large percentage of them do), then the electricity may go out and not come back on for months or even years.

The best novel I've ever read that details what a real-life electromagnetic pulse would do to modern society is "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen (Kindle edition).  You can read my review of that novel here.  Be advised: the novel portrays an electromagnetic pulse caused by a high-altitude nuclear burst over the United States, but the effects of a solar superstorm would be similar and maybe even worse.

The 1918 Spanish H1N1 Influenza Pandemic

As with the "Black Death" plague nearly 600 years before it, the so-called "Spanish Flu" was devastating.  It killed between 50-150 million people.  In today's numbers, that would rise to between 150-450 million people.  That is the equivalent of one-half to one-and-a-half entire United States populations dead, and that estimate too only actually reflects an inflation of the numbers as they compare to today's increased total population.

It does not, however, account for the ubiquitous worldwide, high-speed travel that is possible today.  In 1918, traveling overseas involved weeks-long voyages by ship.  Now, someone who is carrying a virus and is contagious may show up at an airport, not even yet aware that they are sick.  Everyone in the enclosed airport terminal, and especially those traveling with them for hours in a flying metal tube and breathing each others recycled air, have now been exposed.  Then, they land at another enclosed airport terminal packed with thousands of people, exposing all of them as well as carrying the disease to another continent.  And all of it took only a few hours, during which the carrier may not even be showing symptoms, depending on the nature of future mutations of the disease.

Imagine the damage that could occur before we even realize we're in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.

A really great novel that details what might happen in a real-life influenza pandemic is "The Jakarta Pandemic" by Steven Konkoly (Kindle edition).  You can read my review of that novel here.

So, there you have a few examples of cataclysms from yesteryear that would cause far more suffering and be far harder for us to overcome as a species if they were to occur tomorrow.

We truly have been a lucky species.  Of course, life is ultimately dictated by the same truths that rule Las Vegas Casinos; no matter how hot a lucky streak you're on, that luck eventually runs out.  Period.

With the further understanding that the events spoken of above are cyclical in nature, it is not a matter of *IF* something similar will happen to us again, but rather *WHEN*.

Think about this: In late February 2012, Wired quoted a report originally published in Space Weather by the senior scientist (a space physicist) in charge of a leading private science firm with ties to NASA, who estimates that there is a 1 in 8 chance of us experiencing a solar storm event of a similar magnitude as the Carrington Event before 2020.

That, ladies and gentlemen, should terrify us all.

Is this when and how our luck is to run out?

If so, will you survive?

Guest Post: Surviving a Potential Solar Flare EMP

Humanity has become so dependent on technology that we often can't imagine our lives without our favorite sources of entertainment, appliances, air conditioning and a whole variety of other things we are so in love with. I remember talking to a friend of mine while we were having a nice piece of cake a few years ago, long before all that talk about solar flares came up. I asked her a question: “What if, hypothetically the entire power grid on the planet fails – cars, computers, electricity in general. What if it fails and then the system never kicks back up again leaving us stuck with dead lines and nothing but piles of useless junk around us. What would you do to survive?”. Her answer was something that simply made me laugh my head off: “Oh God... I have no idea! I won't be able to get my salary from the bank since my card won't work...”.

Do you see what I mean? A lot of people are so in love with modern technologies that their minds can't even process what a total system collapse would mean. I'm not really saying we should panic, but keeping this hypothetical scenario in our heads and mentally and even physically preparing for it is not really a bad idea at all. The first thing we need to remember is that there will be no grid, no government capable of communicating on anything but a local level. There will be riots, bloodshed, chaos and all sorts of insanity once everyone realizes the laws will only be enforced on a local level. Knowing how to defend yourself is only part of the deal, knowing how to survive without power and the comforts of modern civilization is a lot more important than that. People can be reasoned with, but nature can't be appeased through diplomacy or sacrifices. Nature is ruthless and impartial and we must abide by its rules.

For that reason you have to abandon all thoughts about post-19th century technology, assuming the potential EMP doesn't have adverse effects on our nervous systems. There are technologies out there which use electromagnetism as a non-lethal weapon such as the Active Denial System and their effects are not nice at all. Depending on the magnitude of the potential solar flare you might need to construct your own Faraday cage to protect yourself from the emission – this will provide short or long-term protection from adverse electromagnetic forces, but that is still only part of what we're talking about.

Learn to live off the land without the use of modern technologies and do your best to acquire as much knowledge as possible on how to live in the simplest way possible:

1. Have a healthy supply of lamp oil and candles that will last for a while. There are tutorials in books and online on how you can make your own candles. Remember that and find out more about alternate light sources that don't rely on electricity.

2. Water supplies will quickly turn nasty when the pumps operating them and purifying them are knocked offline. Consider finding places where a fresh water supply would be present via a mechanical pump or simply a non-stagnant pool of water.

3. Cooking without electricity will be possible for a while by still utilizing the many fuels available in civilized regions, however they will be the target for looting everywhere. Make sure you find a region where a source of fuel will be easily obtainable, both for cooking and heating during the winter seasons.

4. Food storage will quickly become a serious problem so make sure you have a decent supply of salted or dried meat as this will last for a long time. Fruits and vegetables can be canned, dried or stored for later. If you are lucky enough to live on a farm then you'll be much better off than anyone in the cities.

5. Hygiene will be a problem. If you live in the cities, you should quickly leave them as the sewage system pumps and water supply for tall buildings will fail making the place reek like hell. The simpler the solution, the better the end result.

6. Learn crafts of all kinds if possible. These skills will be a lot more valuable to anyone out there, making you an asset to any group of people and this will give you leverage and something to trade with if things get ugly.

If a solar flare of the feared magnitude occurs you should look for shelter as quickly as possible. There will most likely not be any visual recognition apart from auroras in the sky as what happened in Texas in 1989 on a much smaller scale, so keep your eyes open for other signs. Biological effects of EM radiation may include drowsiness, physical pain such as headaches, nausea, vertigo and difficulty breathing. It is doubtful a solar storm would be that powerful, however knowing and identifying the effects of a powerful electromagnetic pulse is a good way to know what to expect if it happens.

Whatever the case if something does occur in this situation or any disaster known to man do your best to keep a cool head by thinking about the situation logically in a problem-solving fashion. Consider this – if something like this does happen it will be a new beginning for humanity and it will nearly wipe the slate clean, making new developments possible. A whole new world will be born from such a disaster that will be absolutely different from what we live in today.

Author Bio:

Anthony is a an expert in the field of energy and green living. His tips can help you to move to an energy efficient home.

Solar Flares Getting Stronger

The sun's solar flares keep on getting stronger - with latest hot spot the size of 15 Earths strung together | Mail Online: The sun is a tempestuous mistress - and her outbursts are becoming more and more violent as the weeks go on.


NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spotted the summer's first 'X' solar flare on Friday - a huge outburst from the sun right at the top of the scale.


This came on the back of 12 'M' flares in just six days, with a M6.1 flare knocking out radio signals across the planet on Thursday - hinting at the destruction the sun could reign on our technology if Earth takes a full blast across its blow...

If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do?

If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do?: Sometimes we all get a little reminder of just how completely and totally dependent we are on the power grid. Massive thunderstorms that ripped through Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia left millions without power... The "super derecho" storm that pounded the Washington D.C. area on Friday night with hurricane-force winds is being called unprecedented. But the truth is that there are other events that could happen that would be far more damaging to our power grid. For example, a substantial EMP burst over a major U.S. city would fry virtually all of the electronics in the city and take the power grid in the area down indefinitely. A gigantic EMP burst over the entire country (caused by a massive solar storm or a very large nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere) could theoretically take down the entire national power grid. Just try to imagine a world where nobody has any electricity, nobody can pump gas, nobody can use their credit cards or get any more money, where most vehicles won't start, where nobody has the Internet, where all cell phones are dead and where nobody can heat or cool their homes. That is how serious an EMP burst could potentially be. We are talking about an event that could be millions of times worse than 9/11.


Hopefully this latest storm has reminded Americans about how vulnerable our power grid really is and about how close we really are to being knocked back to the late 1800s...

Letter RE: "Post-EMP Boat Escape"

Reader Anthony K. from Bellingham, WA recently emailed with an interesting question: "Our bug out location is in the San Juan Islands and the ferries will obviously be down with an emp or dangerous social conditions. We have a rubber raft with oars but will need to travel 30 or more miles over open water possibly in inclement weather. Are outboard engines operable after emp or are there alternatives? I would appreciate your input."

As someone with no boating experience, I wasn't sure if an outboard engine would suffer the same effects as a car engine during an EMP. I did a little digging, though, and I believe any small outboard engines, lawnmower engines (2 or 4-stroke) would be okay. The reason being, simplified, is that EMP only fries integrated circuits and fuses. Older engines aren't computer driven, so I think they would still run.

TEOTWAWKI: The Perfect Solar Storm

TEOTWAWKI: The perfect solar storm | GJFreePress.com: "Lately, I've been troubled by a TEOTWAWKI (The End of the World As It We Know It) nightmare: A perfect storm of terrorism that could collapse modern civilization and throw us back to the Stone Age. The terrorist is not some evil-bearded Muslim hiding in a cave, but rather the most prolific and destructive terrorist of all time: Mother Nature.

The precipitating event would be a gigantic solar flare that knocks out most of the electrical grid. That's phase one of the Apocalypse. Phase Two is so terrifying that I will not even mention it until later in this column; young children, hysterics and those with cardiac problems should stop reading now.

Here's the problem: Every so often, our sun throws a tremendous fit, spewing out a billion-ton CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) that, if aimed directly at our fair planet, would slam into the electromagnetic field, causing massive GICs (geomagnetically-induced currents) that overload electrical circuits and melt the multi-ton transformers that power our electrical grid — 350 of them on line now.

Such a massive storm occurred in 1859, known as the Carrington event. Telegraph operators were shocked (literally) and some of their offices caught fire. But today's sprawling electrical grid did not exist in 1859; it would act as a huge antenna conducting solar GICs. In 1989, a solar storm much smaller than the Carrington event disabled power across the whole province of Quebec for more than nine hours, and damaged transformers from New Jersey to Great Britain. Smaller solar storms throughout the 20th century have caused similar problems..."

Why I Advocate Preparedness (And No, It Isn't Because I Believe The End Of The World Is Around The Corner)

Anyone who has ever attempted to convince a friend or relative that they need to get prepared will, no doubt, understand exactly where I'm coming from in this article. As some of you are already aware, this blog automatically posts to my Facebook page -- my personal Facebook page, where folks who have found me as a result of reading this blog intermingle with my family and friends I've had for many years. I suppose that unusual dynamic is what ultimately inspired me to write on this subject.

By and large, my peeps are an understanding bunch. No one has ever outright told me off or ended their friendship with me over my beliefs, possibly because I don't really push them all that much. Other than my blog posts appearing on my wall and linking to the occasional media story, my Facebook page is not altogether unlike any other. Still, that is not to say that I have not gotten some grief over posting so-called "depressing" stuff all the time, but I don't hold that against them any more than I'm sure they hold it against me.

It was something that a dear friend said recently, however, that got me to thinking and set me on the path to writing this article. In short, we were talking on the phone and the conversation turned toward a friend of hers who had found me through her Facebook page and added me as a mutual friend. I've actually never met the lady, but I typically approve friend requests unless the person gives me a bad vibe. Anyway, apparently the lady had said something to my friend about deleting me because of all of the "depressing" things I post. Oh well. To each his (or her) own. But it did get me to thinking about why I believe the things I believe and what put me on this path.

First, to dispel a common misconception: I *DO NOT* believe that the end of the world is just around the corner. With all the hoopla regarding the supposed apocalypse looming in 2012, all alternative news sites and blogs seem to be getting unfairly lump together with tinfoil hat-wearing whack-jobs these days. So, for the record, let me just say that 2012 is B.S.!!!

My blog isn't about preparing for the end of the world, but rather the end of the world as we know it (a concept often described using the moniker "TEOTWAWKI"). The fact is that societies have a shelf life. Read your history, if you don't believe me: every great civilization in history has risen, flourished, slipped into decline and eventually collapsed, leading to a "dark age" or a period of anarchy and chaos until the next great civilization rises and imposes order. It is in order to survive that so-called "dark age" that I prepare. It has been theorized that all it would take for the thin veneer of polite, civilized society to utterly unravel would be for the power grid to fail, which will surely occur if we are ever again hit by a geomagnetic solar storm such as the one that hit in 1859 -- and, that we one day will be is all but a statistical certainty. Also, one should keep in mind that that is only one of the possible scenarios that could cause everything we know of to unravel before our eyes. There are many others, some of them even more worrisome.

But even if, by some unbelievable and unlikely stroke of fortune, such dire occurrences never again befall us, there are still plenty of reasons why one benefits from leading a preparedness-minded lifestyle. I'll talk about that a little more later.

Without allowing this article to devolve into one completely devoted to that horrific event, I will tell you that the true catalyst that made me understand the importance of personal and family preparedness was Hurricane Katrina. I was absolutely riveted and appalled, and it definitely woke me up to the dangers of complacency and what comes of people leaving their very survival solely in the hands of a bureaucratic behemoth like the federal government. It wasn't as though no one wanted to help; the government was simply incapable of doing so in an efficient and timely manner and it cost lives. The lucky ones were left to fester for days among rotting bodies with precious little food and water, waiting for help that seemed never to arrive; while the more unfortunate fell victim to roving gangs intent on rape and violence. Never could a person ask for a better example of what happens in a large-scale crisis when it seems as though there is no end in sight: some people become butchers, others the meat -- and all suffer universally.

It was, likewise, a very good lesson in what to expect from the government in such a situation. It took them what seemed like an endless string of days to get their act together and get a few trucks of water to arguably the largest building in the entire city (not exactly a difficult target to aim for), yet little time seems to have been wasted in deploying armed personnel from private security firms to forcibly remove people from their own property, confiscate supplies and firearms from law-abiding private citizens (in direct violation of their constitutional rights) and generally cause a ruckus and make a bad situation even worse. There were even reports of people who didn't want to leave their homes, because they weren't being allowed to take their pets with them... so these thugs just shot their pets dead right there in front of them. It's a good thing that I wasn't there. Most likely, I would have misbehaved and someone would've had to have shot me dead too.

Watching all of that play out live on CNN and reading even more detailed stuff about it in the following months (much of it eyewitness accounts reporting things that were not allowed to be broadcast over mainstream media), I made a vow to myself that I would never end up like one of those unfortunate people, and that is a vow I intend to keep.

However, even were I not worried about such things, I would still maintain that a prepared lifestyle is a worthwhile endeavor.

In today's economy, with people losing their jobs left and right and unable to find work, who would not benefit from having a few months worth of food and other necessities socked-away in a pantry or attic?

It seems like every winter there are more and more reports of people being stranded in their cars by blizzards. They are typically either rescued after several harrowing days of not knowing if they'd survive, or they decide that they have no choice but to try to walk and find help themselves, losing their lives as a result. How much easier to you think their plights may have been to endure had they had the foresight to keep a $30-$40 emergency survival kit in their car at all times?

How many perish every year in earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters for want of such cheaply and easily-obtained supplies?

So you see, it isn't all about preaching of the end of the world and prognosticating doom. Emergency preparedness and survival training to help one endure future threats should be thought of in the same way one thinks of homeowners and car insurance. You don't pay that monthly premium in the expectation that your house is going to burn down or you are going to wreck your car; you pay it so that, in case one of those eventualities comes to pass, you won't be left twisting in the wind.

The lifestyle and mindset that I advocate is truly no different.


Some letters I received in response to this can be read here.

Getting Prepared for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack or Severe Solar Storm

Getting Prepared for an Electromagnetic Pulse Attack or Severe Solar Storm | (◣_◢) NEWSBAD.COM: "... We now live in a world that is so completely immersed in advanced technology that we depend upon it for our very survival. Most of the actions that we depend upon for our everyday activities -- from flipping a switch to make the lights come on to obtaining all of our food supplies at a nearby supermarket -- are things that any individual from a century ago would consider magic.

Very few people in industrialized countries do work that is not directly assisted by electronic computers, although that computerized assistance is often quite invisible to the average person. Few people think about things such as the fact that whenever we buy some food item at a supermarket (and many others are buying the same item), the next time we go to that same supermarket, they still have about the same supplies that they had before. There are invisible infrastructures all around us that are made up of advanced technology. Most of us just take the magic for granted.

Few people stop to consider what would happen if, in an instant, the magic went away. If our advanced technology were suddenly and completely destroyed, how would we manage to survive? A nuclear EMP could make the magic go away. I hope it never happens, and I don't think that it is at all inevitable. It makes no sense, however, to be blind to the danger. It is both much less likely to happen -- and also less likely to have a catastrophic impact -- if, both as a civilization and as individuals, we are prepared for an attack on our advanced technology. A nuclear EMP would be a seemingly magical attack upon our advanced technology, the technological infrastructure upon which our lives depend.

Among all of the kinds of electromagnetic disturbances that can occur, though, it is important to keep things in perspective. It is possible that a nuclear EMP may never happen where you live. On the other hand, a severe solar storm that will destroy most of the world's power grids appears nearly inevitable at this point. Protection against the damage of a severe solar storm could be done easily and rather inexpensively by the electrical utilities; however it is not being done, and there is no sign that it will be done. A severe solar storm poses little threat to electronics, but would take down the most important power grids in the world for..."

NASA's Solar Shield to Protect Power Grids From Sun Storms

NASA's Solar Shield to Protect Power Grids From Sun Storms | Space.com: "NASA has devised a new tool in the battle against massive eruptions from the sun: an early warning system to protect electrical grids on Earth from extremely powerful solar storms.

The new project, called Solar Shield, is designed to predict the severity of powerful sun storms at specific locations on Earth to help power companies plan responses and limit the potential damage to their equipment...

... The sun is currently going through a more active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle. It has been emerging from a prolonged lull in activity and is expected to hit the peak of the current cycle in 2013.

When the magnetic field associated with a CME encounters the Earth?s magnetic field, the two merge and an enormous amount of energy is transferred to the geomagnetosphere. This resulting current can affect astronauts or satellites in space, as well as commercial power grids.

If the CME is strong enough, the grids can become overburdened or damaged. The resulting blackout could last anywhere from hours to months, depending on the amount of damage sustained...

... The predictions from NASA's Solar Shield could potentially help avoid the worst of the damage, researchers said..."

U.S. Official: Growing Threat From Solar Storms

News from The Associated Press - U.S. Official: Growing Threat From Solar Storms: "A senior official at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says solar storms pose a growing threat to criticial infrastructure such as satellite communications, navigation systems and electrical transmission equipment.

NOAA Assistant Secretary Kathryn Sullivan says the intensity of solar storms is expected to peak in 2013 and countries should prepare for 'potentially devastating effects.'

Solar storms release particles that can temporarily disable or permanently destroy fragile computer circuits..."

Sunspots More Active Now Than in Past 8000 Years

Sunspots more active than for 8000 years - space - 27 October 2004 - New Scientist: "The Sun has been more active in the last 70 years than it has for the previous 8000, according to an analysis of tree rings dating back 11,400 years. But researchers say its recent bout of hyperactivity does not account for the rapidly rising temperatures recorded on Earth over the last three decades.

Sunspots are surface concentrations of the star's magnetic field and the more there are, the more energy the Sun is emitting. The dark features have been observed and recorded regularly since 1610.

Scientists have tried to reconstruct previous sunspot activity using ice cores and tree rings. These contain isotopes, such as carbon-14 and beryllium-10, created when high-energy particles from deep space, called cosmic rays, slam into the atmosphere. Fewer cosmic rays reach the Earth when the Sun is very active, because the charged particles from the Sun deflect them.

Now, a team led by Sami Solanki of the Max-Planck-Institut fur Sonnensystemforschung in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, has analysed records of trees preserved in riverbeds and bogs that date back 11,400 years to produce the most precise study yet of sunspot history..."

One EMP Burst and the World Goes Dark

One EMP burst and the world goes dark - USATODAY.com: "The sky erupts. Cities darken, food spoils and homes fall silent. Civilization collapses.

End-of-the-world novel? A video game? Or could such a scenario loom in America's future?

There is talk of catastrophe ahead, depending on whom you believe, because of the threat of an electromagnetic pulse triggered by either a supersized solar storm or terrorist A-bomb, both capable of disabling the electric grid that powers modern life..."

Enormous Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) Headed for Earth

SpaceWeather.com: "On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was sunspot 1092. At about the same time, an enormous magnetic filament stretching across the sun's northern hemisphere erupted...

... The timing of these events suggest they are connected... Despite the ~400,000 km distance between them, the sunspot and filament seem to erupt together; they are probably connected by long-range magnetic fields... a shadowy shock wave (a "solar tsunami") can be seen emerging from the flare site and rippling across the northern hemisphere into the filament's eruption zone. That may have helped propel the filament into space.

In short, we have just witnessed a complex global eruption involving almost the entire Earth-facing side of the sun.

A coronal mass ejection (CME) produced by the event is heading directly for Earth... High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives on or about August 3rd..."


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NASA - Coronal Mass Ejection Headed for Earth: "... Coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) are large clouds of charged particles that are ejected from the Sun over the course of several hours and can carry up to ten billion tons (1016 grams) of plasma. They expand away from the Sun at speeds as high as a million miles an hour. A CME can make the 93-million-mile journey to Earth in just three to four days.

When a coronal mass ejection reaches Earth, it interacts with our planet’s magnetic field, potentially creating a geomagnetic storm. Solar particles stream down the field lines toward Earth’s poles and collide with atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere, resulting in spectacular auroral displays. On the evening of August 3rd/4th, skywatchers in the northern U.S. and other countries should look toward the north for the rippling dancing 'curtains' of green and red light..."


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Nasa scientists braced for 'solar tsunami' to hit earth - Telegraph: "... Scientists have warned that a really big solar eruption could destroy satellites and wreck power and communications grids around the globe if it happened today.

Nasa recently warned that Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation 'space storm'...

... It remains unclear, however, how much damage this latest eruption will cause the world’s communication tools.

Dr Lucie Green, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Surrey... said... 'It looks like the first eruption was so large that it changed the magnetic fields throughout half the Sun's visible atmosphere and provided the right conditions for the second eruption...

... 'This means we have a very good chance of seeing major and prolonged effects, such as the northern lights at low latitudes.'

A Nasa spokesman was unavailable for comment..."


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The part I don't get is there seems to be little consensus as to how serious this event might turn out to  be. This disconnectedness is evident in reading the quoted text above and then delving a little deeper with your own research. For instance, it seems to have all been set in motion by the eruption of a "C3-class solar flare," which according to this "are small with few noticeable consequences here on Earth."

Personally, I believe everything will be fine and we will experience only minor disruptions, if any at all. However, it is an intriguing preview for what might be headed our way in a few years when our newly-awakening sun reaches the climax of its current cycle.

How to Survive a Solar Storm

How to survive a solar storm: "Scientists at NASA have been warning for some time of the dangers of space weather affecting the earth, and particularly the danger of solar storms. With the sun due to reach the top of both its 22-year magnetic energy cycle and 11-year Sunspot cycle in 2013, there's real danger of magnetic energy damaging electronic equipment.

'We know it is coming but we don’t know how bad it is going to be', Dr Richard Fisher, the director of Nasa's Heliophysics division, told the Daily Telegraph, adding that preparations were similar to those in a hurricane season, where authorities knew a problem was imminent but did not know how serious it would be.

The match-up between the two cycles isn't guaranteed every 22 years, because the 11-year solar cycle is only an average, and sometimes lasts 9, or sometimes lasts 13 years. The last time it did, in 1859, it wasn't such an issue because the earth wasn't anywhere near as technologically developed. This time, however, with a mobile phone in every pocket and a PC in every home, the damage could be rather more severe..."