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here are essentially two ways to heal a wound: 1) Primary intent: bringing the wound edges together via bandage, suture, or glue. 2) Secondary intent: allowing the wound to heal “as is” when primary intent is not indicated (such as a very contaminated, dirty wound with multiple deep entry points). It’s important to close a wound by primary intent for several reasons: 1) Hemostasis (stopping bleeding): because if you lacerated a vessel with your injury, you will need to ligate it somehow. Granted, if you lacerate a major artery, you will just need to apply pressure because ligating it may...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Four large earthquakes struck around the Pacific Rim Wednesday with one setting a record, as the most powerful strike-slip quake ever recorded. Geologists have nicknamed the Pacific Rim the “ring of fire” because of frequent volcanic and seismic activity. The rash of earthquakes sent shock waves of concern across the globe. Two giant quakes struck in Indonesia, one measuring a magnitude of 8.6. People were seen running in fear. Closer to Southern California, two more earthquakes hit — a 6.5 in Mexico, where buildings rocked and shook, and a 5.9 off the Oregon coast. Local scientists...

From a very young age there are so many things that we prepare for in life. We prepare for our first day of school by shopping for “school clothes” and supplies. We prepare for exams by studying information so that when tested the knowledge can be recalled. We prepare for dates by putting on our best clothes and putting our best foot forward. We prepare for job interviews. We prepare for buying our first home. We prepare for health issues. We prepare for a wedding…a child…a car accident…a shower…dinner…the list goes on and on. The truth of the matter is...

<p>In a creative move meant to draw attention to how to deal with more likely emergencies, last May the Centers for Disease Control posted tips for how to successfully survive a zombie invasion. The timing was perfect: apocalypse discussion was already popular since an End Times pastor had announced the world would end on May 21, and a more realistic danger, hurricane season, was starting on June 1.</p>

The Fallacy Of Bugging Out – Are You Prepared To Be A Refugee? Survival Acres April 19th, 2012 www.SurvivalAcres.com This article has been generously contributed by Survival Acres – Sustainable Living & Common Sense. Many websites, blogs and forums have covered the topic of bugging out in excruciating detail, all under the assumption that this will be a necessary escape plan for many of us when the proverbial shit hits the fan. This notion is predicated upon the belief that escape and evasion, necessary for your immediate survival will be a (likely) event that you must plan and prepare for...

I have to say, this is my most hated and loathed 5 word sentence. Anyone who has the temerity to take control of their future though, aka practices self-reliance, has heard these words, or a derivative thereof way too many times. “When things get rough, I’m coming to YOUR house!” “Why do I need to prepare for anything? I’ll just go to my parents house?” “If the world comes to an end, I’ll just get my gun and find me a Mormon.” I gotta tell you, I even hate hearing these things when they are said in jest. To me...

A report prepared for legislators and business leaders by the American Trucking Associations highlights just how critical our just-in-time inventory and delivery systems are, and assesses the impact on the general population in the event of an emergency or incident of national significance that disrupts the truck transportation systems which are responsible for carrying some ten billion tons of commodities and supplies across the United States each year. A shut down of truck operations as a result of elevated threat levels, terrorist attacks, or pandemics would, according to the report, have “a swift and devastating impact on the food, healthcare,...

As smart grid metering systems expand across the developed world, many are starting to ask whether the threats posed by the new devices, which officials promise will save energy and reduce end user utility costs, outweigh their benefits. In addition to documented health concerns resulting from radiation emissions and no cost savings being apparent, opponents of the technology argue that smart meters are violative of basic privacy rights and give the government yet another digital node of unfettered access to monitor and control personal electricity consumption. Now, an alarming new documentary suggests that security problems with the inter-connected and seemingly...

Many people nowadays are quite aware that the world they live in is going to the toilet. Aside from the geophysical part that “seems” to be going haywire and could be nothing other than the planet’s cycles, there are plenty of manmade catastrophes that loom on the horizon. Never has the planet had as many people as now and the more people there are the more competition there is for resources. More countries seek nuclear devices than ever before and with advancements in technology this is a much easier process than anytime before. Biological and chemical weapons are also much...

I have my own moral code that is based on what I think is important, and I follow that more than any rule, law, or policy. I take pride that anyone that wants to know how I will react to a situation (speaking of moral situations not tactical) can normally guess my answer if they understand my basic precepts:

How will we get around in the post-apocalypse? One of the irritating things about many post-apocalyptic movies in TV shows is that everyone drives everywhere, with little thought about alternative modes of transportation. But how will we get around after armageddon? We weigh the post-apocalyptic transit options. Hopefully, down the line, we'd see groups of people teaming up to bring back trains, but in terms of personal transit in the immediate post-apocalypse, here are a few options: Cars: Ah, the noble car, transit mode of choice in far too many post-apocalyptic fictions. For some people, cars might be a logical...

Weekly Prepper's Ping. Time to share you buys, projects, and general information you like to share with fellow preppers.

Could you really survive the apocalypse by eating freeze-dried food? Is it really a good idea to store freeze dried food for a long-term survival situation? It may be an attractive proposition for the survivalist in you, but you probably didn't bargain on what exactly the process of freeze drying involves — and its price. HOW TO CARRY A TON OF FOOD ON YOUR BACK The process of freeze drying plays with the properties of water within food. When freeze drying, a cooked portion of food is flash frozen under a vacuum. At low pressure, all but 2-5% of the...

From the society’s wealthiest and most powerful class to rural off-the-grid types, people are preparing for the worst, and sparing no expense on elaborate underground shelters, buying years’ worth of non-perishable foods and stockpiling fuel and ammunition. Some have embraced the term “preppers,” although precisely what they are preparing for varies. “We realized that we were totally unprepared should something happen,” said Jack Jobe, who was prompted to prep for a natural disaster after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Jobe, who will be featured on an upcoming episode of the NatGeo’s “Doomsday Preppers,” has invested about $3,000 in a safe...

While watching Doomsday Preppers last week, I observed one major difference in the various plans, and that was if the plan included access to land and water. Its one thing to stockpile 2 – 3 years of canned goods, food in mylar bags, freeze dried food, have a rainwater collection system, small backyard garden,,,,. Its another thing to have access to several acres of land, able to have chickens, a nice sized garden for a variety of fresh veggies, various types of fruit trees, access to fresh running water and access to land to hunt on. Maybe even have access...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The largest solar flare in five years is racing toward Earth, threatening to unleash a torrent of charged particles that could disrupt power grids, GPS and airplane flights. The sun erupted Tuesday evening, and the effects should start smacking Earth around 7 a.m. EST Thursday, according to forecasters at the federal government's Space Weather Prediction Center.

We are really happy how many people participated in our survey. Over 1800 of you have answered the questions and I have spent the last few nights to whip all the responses into a presentable form. This is done now and I think it gives everyone a good idea what is on most people’s mind, why people prepare, what they prepare for and where you are standing compared to others.

Looking at survival survey results it seems a lot of people have to see where they put their money. Into preps or have to spend it on things for everyday living. I know how this feels and live like that the last decades. After war I left city with two plastic bags full of random belongings. No documents and nothing else. I was refugee. But lucky that I was able to stay with family on countryside. I never really thought, ok now I prepare or anything. I simply wanted to have all sorts of things I did not have during...

We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable, and the potential for an event that could cause “sudden change” to the U.S. economy is greater than ever. There are dozens of potentially massive threats that could easily push the U.S. economy over the edge during the next 12 months. A war in the Middle East, a financial collapse in Europe, a major derivatives crisis or a horrific natural disaster could all change our economic situation very rapidly. Most of the time I write about the long-term economic trends that are slowly but surely ripping the U.S. economy to...

Via: On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events Key Points Probability of a Carrington event occurring over next decade is ~12% Space physics datasets often display a power-law distribution Power-law distribution can be exploited to predict extreme events By virtue of their rarity, extreme space weather events, such as the Carrington event of 1859, are difficult to study, their rates of occurrence are difficult to estimate, and prediction of a specific future event is virtually impossible. Additionally, events may be extreme relative to one parameter but normal relative to others. In this study, we analyze several measures...