Particulates

[MaryN]

Ooh you are a cheery lot!

[Ajax]

(27 May 2021, 01:01)Mortblanc Wrote:

(25 May 2021, 20:25)Straight Shooter Wrote: No Ajax I am not based in the USA ..........I blame MB for his clandestine influences on me ! And of course his side kick Charles ! .....you watch em pal! They will have you riding spin dryers around the backroads in no time .....I am having therapy three nights a week .....I am no longer dunkin donuts or eating fries ....but have failed miserably on my coffee intake......my americanisms and phrasing’s stem from this pairs influence and I persist in the attempt to make them love me even more ! ( they are good eggs is the truth ) . No I live at the centre of the known universe .....Gods country .....the South Wales Valleys .....where men are men ......and sheep are scared shitless .

Welsh boy Bach .....through and through !

Yes Ajax, I should suppose that CH and myself are the guilty parties in question. Actually I am having a similar problem to SS in that I have developed a tea habit that I have trouble with due to the frail intensity of American tea bags. Our tea is so weak one must use two bags to know you are drinking anything!

Due to my habit of watching UK travel videos excessively during the lockdown I have also developed a quite alarming habit of driving on the wrong side of the road. It does not bother me too much but it scares the neighbors $h!tle$$.

The thing is that CH and I are not your average urban dwelling US preppers. We are out in the deep rural areas already living in what would be a BOL for most folk. I am in the rolling hills in the north Bluegrass region, north of a place called Lexington, KY. If you dropped me anywhere between Carlisle and Inverness I would think I was on my way to the grocery down the road.

CH is farther to my east in an area called West Virginia. That area is like the Black Mountains on steroids. Similar flora and fauna but the hills are jutting up about 1800 meters. They call it ridge and valley geography. Everything is straight up and down. When I was hiking on the AT years ago the urban adventurers referred to it as "the green hell".

You will find that CH and I might disagree with some premises or statistics or scope of world events but we will not be telling you to do things our way. That will be up to your own discretions.

You can be wrong if you wish to.

Kentucky, eh? Good horses and good grass. Thankfully you are in a pretty good spot unless...I dunno...Armageddon, in which case we're all done, mate lol Best not worry too much and enjoy.
I ascribe zero blame but I'd watch that tea nonsense. I wasn't there and so I cannot say but apparently my lot are evil, white colonial types and the Queen got her green reptile claws on a lot of the planet ... and then they tried to invade an area where tea grows and allegedly the empire (wasn't that star wars?) queendom (sounds like lezzb*** pron) ... Technical difficulties ... erm the dreaded white monsters got a good bum-smack because they were all tea-soaked and the whole thing (umpire, empire or whatever) fell apart like a violently-drenched rick tea finger. A big soggy mess all round and best avoided.
Driving on the 'wrong side' of the road is never wrong providing you have the bigger truck. Pickup, ute or flat bed - I have pals in USA and Australia and it is amazing how much confusion can be caused by one single word - especially as we all speak the same language, allegedly Just a joke and no offence is intended, friend.
We are gonna go great guns when talking wild forage as you correctly state that many of our plants will be the same but may have a funky name. I'd love to hear your best wild forages and recipes.
I hope we should ALL disagree on some things. We are adults though and we can keep it civil and we can all learn something form us all, I hope.

My very best to you and your family.

[Ajax]

(27 May 2021, 04:09)CharlesHarris Wrote: Very well stated MB! Splendid assessment. I confess to being influenced by retired military and government types who have retired out here to escape the Beltway merry-go-round. I have been mellow in with maturity, but still enjoy a healthy skepticism of career government bureaucrats of the current "woke" stripe, whom I view as Bolshevik Light.

Hello CH. I think your pal may have mentioned you in a comment and so I'd just like to officially greet you and wish you and your family all the best.

I had pals who live in West Virginia, until I got got fed up with UK blockheads and deleted my entire account. Talking to some folks feels like banging my face on the wall and I cannot endure it for long. My American pals seemed to care enough about their country to keep their G***s - don't want the page to get a strike or flagged up.

Good stuff going on in Tx regarding carrying certain items and the rules, if you know what I mean.

Regarding your final comment , and I must be careful here, what you are suggesting may be true. There are some folks, allegedly, who might be holding information, not that this could be confirmed at this time. I did pop a thread in the scenarios tab which might illuminate some of the more recent speculations.

Hope to chat with you soon.

[Ajax]

(27 May 2021, 07:48)MaryN Wrote: Ooh you are a cheery lot!

I am very sorry. I figured the truth might be better in a prepper forum that sugar coats. If we don't know what's on, then we cannot prep, perhaps?

If it's any consolation, it might take a couple of years to get ill. Sorry if this is no comfort. It is not my intention to ruffle or hurt feelings - just sharing what Ihave researched.

Much love, Mary, friend and stay in hope.

[Pete Grey]

WTF is Ajax on about ?, is he on medication ?.

[Ajax]

(29 May 2021, 17:08)Pete Grey Wrote: WTF is Ajax on about ?, is he on medication ?.

No sir, she is not. PM 2.5 is a particulate that is being ejected by the 40 ish volcanoes that are in eruption globally, friend. In a different post I did speculate 70 or so but they are showing pre-eruption states on the widely available geo-maps. This means they are emitting smoke, vapours, and gasses, friend. That said they could still erupt soon, as we are still seeing a lot of solar activity, coupled with electro-magnetic anomalies especially concerning space/weather readings.
I did post a link. I know not everyone trusts certain information from certain sources.
SARCASM: I ALWAYS throw half the jigsaw pieces in the bin because I don't like them. I have never seen a complete picture. Yeah, I wonder why - eyeroll.

Particulates are the most harmful form of air pollution due to their ability to penetrate deep into the lungs, blood streams and brain, causing health problems including heart attacks, respiratory disease, and premature death. In 2013, a study involving 312,944 people in nine European countries revealed that there was no safe level of particulates and that for every increase of 10 μg/m3 in PM10, the lung cancer rate rose 22% [95% CI 1·03–1·45]. The smaller PM2.5 were particularly deadly, with a 18% increase in lung cancer per 5 μg/m3 ([CI 95% 0·96–1·46]) as it can penetrate deeper into the lungs. Worldwide exposure to PM2.5 contributed to 4.1 million deaths from heart disease and stroke, lung cancer, chronic lung disease, and respiratory infections in 2016. Overall, ambient particulate matter ranks as the sixth leading risk factor for premature death globally.

Prepping is awesome. Lacking in situational awareness, however, could be a problem. No news channels will EVER tell you what I will.
I honestly thought I might have found a place where the adults were allowed to share what they had research AT LAST.
I fucking stand corrected.

I can explain it to you, but I cannot understand it on your behalf.

[Pete Grey]

Why worry about things you have no control over ?. Make your plans and prep for what events you can, it may never happen.

[MaryN]

I agree with Pete Grey. We have no control over Ma Nature, so there is little point in agonising over it. We can only do what we can do, cross fingers for luck and plough on.

[CharlesHarris]

Ajax,

When I describe the BOL as having moved "outside the moderate damage radius" (from DC), I'm not kidding. I grew up an Army brat whilst my Dad was serving at the engineer proving grounds at Ft. Belvoir. During the Cuban Missile Crisis my brother, Mum and I all expected to be blasted to atoms and we prepared a bomb shelter in the cellar and stocked it suitably.

The cottage in which I now live was built in the 1970s, about 70 miles west of DC with three ridges of mountains between it and the I495 beltway around Washington, in the region called the Potomac Highlands, not far from Berkeley Springs.

As for tea, I've not had a proppa cuppa ever from a teabag. Me Sainted Mother would be appalled! I am blessed to have a regular supply of quality loose tea, send from a missionary friend I help support, who returns an ample Christmas parcel every year direct from the plantation in which it is grown in Galle.

For fellow Americans who may be reading here or others who are ignorant or simply unfamiliar, I feel obligated to tell the tea story as Mum taught us. I would appreciate any additions or correction of any errors of fact if my memory is fuzzy...

The tea which I am blessed to be regularly gifted goes by the botanical name Camellia sinensis, which originates from Galle, Sri Lanka. It is a very fine, low-grown (under 1000 feet), broken leaf tea that produces a dark cup with a good body that is mellow and brisk. It holds up well to the addition of milk (or even Admiralty rum after the second "dog watch").

Here in the US it is commonly used as a base often adulterated to lend a hint of authenticity to otherwise abominable blended teas. In its pure form it is of the common type favored for chai in India or for your favorite breakfast teas in England. I am told on good authority by my Brit expat neighbor that it is the very same tea served in the mess on ships of the British Royal Navy.

Tea leaves need to be treated like beer, in airtight containers protected from light and heat. I transfer loose tea from its plastic shrink-wrapped 500-gram bricks into half-pint glass jars with new canning lids as soon as I receive it. A quantity of these, stacked in an airtight, gasketed M2A1 cal. .50 military ammunition can are well protected and keep fresh for many years. Indeed my Mum brought over with her to the states when she emigrated from England multiple tins saved from WW2-era rations. The last of it we used at home was still excellent during the Reagan years.

Mum was a 10:00 and 2:30 tea break person; pre-heat the earthen pot, infuse with a cozy cover, wait, then pour kind. Her version of getting off of her feet, and getting a pick-me-up. She insisted that milk, if used, be added to the cup first, before pouring the tea, so as to avoid thermal shock to the bone China.

As a young lad I was taught that Tea was Britain’s secret weapon during WW2 and one of its most visible symbols of national unity. Mum told stories of how tea was the social binding force during the London Blitz where, night after night, fires blazed from bombed buildings, and she and her neighbours huddled in the underground tunnels while air raid sirens were a daily threnody.

As all you know very well, tea was and still is powerful both symbolically and practically. Churchill is reputed to have called tea more important than ammunition. He ordered that all sailors on Royal Navy ships have unlimited tea. Its perceived value in boosting morale not just in Britain is illustrated by the Royal Air Force dropping 75,000 tea bombs in a single night over the occupied Netherlands. Each contained wooden boxes with several hundred one ounce sachets of tea from the Dutch East Indies and was marked “The Netherlands will rise again. Chins up.”

Every one of the 20 million Red Cross packages sent to Allied prisoners of war contained a quarter-pound package of Twinings.

Tea helps restore at least a semblance of calm and normality during times of turbulence and danger. Its essence is that it is warm and comforting. It also provided an egalitarian sharing space in a society of rigid class distinctions. In the air raids, local Air Raid Wardens and Auxiliaries, mostly women, served tea to anyone, forming huddles, bringing strangers together, and providing a center for medical help.

Tea also played a critical role in the British Army, with historians attributing at least part of its success in maintaining espirt and morale during the almost never-ending military campaigns, many of them small colonial policing actions. One of the keys that distinguished it from every other European fighting force was that its embedding or tea in its routines greatly reduced the reliance on alcohol to calm troops as they prepared for battle, relax them at its end and keep them sober and alert while they sat around waiting.

Coffee serves a similar function in the US armed forces, but lacks the rituals associated with tea in Britain.

[Ajax]

(29 May 2021, 18:05)Pete Grey Wrote: Why worry about things you have no control over ?. Make your plans and prep for what events you can, it may never happen.

Yes, Pete Grey, I agree. We do not and cannot control volcanic emissions. We are, Earthlings, and have made tech to help with filtering, including filtration systems and respirators. Preppers consider such eventualities, or do they not?
The main reason I posted was to try to discover if this topic was in general awareness in the prepper community.
If it is, then great. Everyone will know all about it and will be prepped for it already. I'll put my feet up and have a cuppa.
If not, why not?
This is a prepper site, no? Are you expecting MSM to tell you this stuff? Or Boris? Or any other governmental gremlin? They won't.
I posted in risks and threats, did I not? If I am to be ridiculed for all the research I've been doing for several years, then I may have the entire UK to myself yet.

I have never been bitten on the butt by a Tiger, yet I still know they exist.