Questionaire for a paper Im writing

[NorthernRaider]

Do you have sensible medical skills
Do you have gardening skills for food production
Do you know how to improvise purifying water
Do you have emergency supplies on hand
Do you have emergency tools on hand
Do you study current affairs
Do you live in a high crime area
How much food do you keep at home
What are the risks in your area
Do you know how to do a risk assessment
Can you fix a car, ride a bike, ride a horse, use a kayak, cook a meal over and open fire.

Those sorts of questions would probably be more valid.

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And of course " Do you have a contingency plan in place for dealing with a disaster or crisis?"

[Carnebwen]

Answer yes to more than 3 and end up on a watch list As a right wing anti government Christian extremist / soverign citizen that the American media keep telling us are the biggest threat ever.

[Grumpy Grandpa]

Valkren - thank you for explaining however, I have only recently started to think about preparedness for anything, even local powercuts! I don't think therefore, that my responses will be of any use to you. Still...

1 yes
2 yes
3 no
4 no
5 no
6 no
7 no
8 no
9 no, n/a, yes
10 yes
11 yes
12 25%
13 as & when required
14 no

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(18 June 2013, 12:51)Carnebwen Wrote: Answer yes to more than 3 and end up on a watch list As a right wing anti government Christian extremist / soverign citizen that the American media keep telling us are the biggest threat ever.

I've got a can opener and sunscreen and I know what a solar storm is - so I wind up on a watch list?

[NorthernRaider]

The more paranoid you get the more THEY like to watch you !!

[Mortblanc]

For some of you that have not been prepping for very long, or only belong to one forum, I would like to clue you in.

About once each year this list, proposed as research for a paper, circulates across the prepper sites in the internet. It is on two other sites I visit right now and this is not the first time I have seen the list. I had not anticipated its circulation in GB!

Consider what is asked and what is not asked. Although no single question is excessively intrusive the total of the implied trend offers more than the sum of the parts.

If you have this, and if you have that and if you have the other what are the chances you have the item/items not being directly asked about? It is simple mathematical and logical deduction.

3+2+?=7

If you have buckets and if you have unscented bleach and if you have a hand cranked radio the chances that you also have XYZ hidden away increases to the point of probable cause.

Now this may just be some academic gathering data for research, but it is an ongoing survey that has repeated for several years, which may indicate some university in engaged in a long term project or the same professor assigns the same paper over and over again for his own research. (Many undergrads do not realize they are used to gather data and do the foot work for their profs, who latter write books and make big bucks using their research.)

However, in the U.S. the possession of the total list and the items the list infers but does not directly ask about, borders on achieving a ranking on the terrorist watch.

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Yes acquiring supplies and the strategic placement of those supplies is on that list of suspicious activities.

[Jonas]

Montblanc, if I'm not on some watch list by now, then the US government is far more inept than even I would ever have believed!

The hell of it is, it probably is that inept!

[Mortblanc]

It is not inept in this particular area and has not been since the 1960s.

Military intelligence is gathered until there is a time to use the information, it does not have to be used as gathered.

http://publicintelligence.net/naval-secu...gar-grove/

Ever tried to use your Cell phone in this part of W/VA? All cell transmissions in this area are blocked. They patrol the roads and give tickets to homeowners that have microwave ovens there too! They have the capacity to monitor and record every cell phone transmission in the U.S. and most of Europe. In 2001 the operational command was transferred to the NSA. Yep, the same guys that are on the hotseat right now.

[Tarrel]

Just read the article that Valkren linked to. Now I see where the questions arose from. Interesting that the article focuses on what is likely to happen when the grid goes down, but seems to completely ignore the other effects of a solar storm (I.e. EMP-type effects).

I think this is the big unknown factor with solar storms. There seems to be a general consensus that the power grid is vulnerable to a (possibly prolonged) failure due to transformer damage, but there seems to be a big assumption that a large storm would knock out many smaller circuits, such as car ECUs, etc. Not sure if we know this for a fact, or whether we are just extrapolating from what we know (or think we know) about the EMP effects of a nuclear detonation.

I guess the essence of prepping is "better safe than sorry". It's not really too big a hardship to keep a small radio in a metal box, just in case.

Seeing as the article is written from a US perspective, it would be interesting to compare the vulnerabilities to grid-failure either side of the Atlantic. My gut feel is there a strengths and weaknesses on both sides. For example, in general, folks in the US seem to be more dependent on electricity to perform basic functions inside the home. However, I suspect that more people in the UK are dependent on a pumped mains water supply compared to the US, where private boreholes seem to be more common.

[Valkren]

@Skean,

See I wouldn't have been able to think of any questions, I do like going camping with my friends on the peaks when I get the time but that's all the wilderness stuff I do :/.
@NorthernRaider,
That, that is a whole lot better than my list... Just looking at it makes me think if everything does go badly I'd have to hibernate clinging onto my valuables (but my paws aren't big enough to hold them all ;. and wading it out.
@ Tarrel,
Indeed, however I think that would be more related to how spread out the nodes in which the electricity can run through are more spread out making a blackout far more likely than here in UK. Also using the storm that hit Quebec a while back as an example the most prominent of the effects was the blackout, and how much it took to repair it; albeit most of Quebec sits on a sort of rock shielding so most of the electricity had nowhere else to go. Also about the circuit I'm assuming your talking about the gridlocks? That's more to do with traffic light being non-operational. Correct me if there's something I've missed in that article.

[Tarrel]

No, not just the infrastructure like traffic lights. There is a point of view that a severe geomagnetic storm would fry delicate, stand-alone circuits in things such as PC's, radios, car ignition systems, etc. These would be rendered inoperative until the damaged circuits were replaced or repaired. They don't have to be connected to the grid in order to be damaged. The general prevention reinserted to this is to put such circuits (or spares thereof) in a "Faraday Cage", essentially a closed metal box. The name comes from Faraday's law; "The net charge inside a charged body is zero".

AIUI, this is an accepted effect of a nuclear blast (presumably researched during nuclear tests?), but it remains pretty much an unknown in the case of a severe geomagnetic storm, since we haven't experienced anything of sufficient magnitude since the Carrington Event (1857?).

Having said that, years ago I worked in a major car manufacturer's technical department. They had a vexing problem with one of their models. There was a particular stretch of road in the Midlands where that particular model would just stop in the middle of the road. It was one with an early form of Electronic Engine Management. They eventually traced the problem to a misaligned microwave communications dish, that was over spilling its signal onto the highway!