Survival Scenario: What to do During a Pandemic

Survival Scenario: What to do During a Pandemic   

Larry Brilliant asserted, during in TED talk, that a pandemic is not only likely, it is probable.  He said that he had done a study with top epidemiologists. In that study, 90% of them said they thought there would be a pandemic within their children's or grandchildren's lifetimes, where: 

• 1 billion people would get sick
• 165 million would die
• There would be a global recession and depression
• and there would be $1-3 trillion cost to the economy

There are many reasons this situation is likely:

• Population has exploded:  More to get infected; more to spread the infection.

• More and more, people are moving towards cities.  There people are finding work in cities and conviences.  Not only does this create a breeding ground for disease, it also facilitates the rapid spread of any sickness.   

• The amount of time it takes to travel around the world has been greatly reduced while the availbility to travel has dramatically increased.  This above, everything, is the main reason this scenario could be a reality.  

                       

              

              

What do you do during a pandemic?

• Do not go to public areas
• Since public areas are the places you will most likely contract the disease, it is best to stay away from them.  Pick odd times to commute to and from work; don't hang out in public restaurants, stores, or community centers; avoid the gym at all costs; do your shopping late at night or early in the morning when few people are shopping.
•  Wear a breathing masks
• About 81% of flu patients have been shown to transmit disease in the air and wearing a mask will reduce your susceptibility to airborne diseases.  It will also protect your face if you try to rub your nose and mouth.  It will also be a constant reminded of the disease, which might make it the best reason to wear it.  People will tend to keep their distance from someone if they have a face mask, thinking that you are sick, which will in turn prevent you from becoming sick.  Don't use the same mask twice and be careful when you dispose of them.  
•  Use something in between your hands and doorknobs
• Doorknobs have been shown to be one of the main contributes to the spread of disease.  Basically, if anyone has touched it before, they could have left germs behind. So, anything, really, that people touch should be avoid: i.e., handrails, elevator buttons, coffee cubs, etc.
•  Wash and sterilize your hands often
•  Wear eye protection
•  Stay inside if possible
•  Create a quarantine room if someone wants to come inside: If the pandemic becomes increasingly more dangerous, it will become more important to build a quarantine room.  Here are some basic steps.
•    Seal room off with tape and tarps
•  Don’t let the person enter the main home for a period of time (depends on the sickness, but usually between 24 and 48 hours).
•  Strip person down and spray them down
•  Get rid of clothes
• Block the major windows and doors
• Treat anyone from the outside as if they are sick: do not approach them without protective gear; wash the protective give after it has been used; and make sure you remove the protective gear before you enter your home.  
• Assume anything that has been exposed to someone who has been into the public has germs on it and that it will need to be sterilized.   

Review for One Second After

Review for One Second After

The Good: This novel is well thought out and executed.  It deals with the aftermath of an EMP attack on the United States.  It does an excellent job showing how society would fall apart--slow at first, and then exponentially.  The author does a great job illustrating the devastating effects of this type of an attack in a powerful and memorable way.  The conflict slowly builds as people realize their predicament of the their resources.  

The Bad: The characters are flat, dull, and boring.  There are only a few times where the characters seem to connect with the reader, such as the time that the girl dies, but by and large, it is difficult to feel anything for these people.  There are some great ideas presented in this book, but there are a lot concepts that don't seem realistic. For example, after two or three months of the event, the towns people are already beginning to starve, and then they end up going an entire year after that.  

The other thing I also did not care for is the conflict with the Posy.  The Posse does not show up until really late in the book and the villainous rabble are pretty static bad guys (ie, there is nothing special about them).  We don't get to see any of the psychology behind this villain or his Posse.  The main conflict also turns into hardly any conflict at all.  The author glazes over the action and does a half-hearted attempt at explaining to the reader how the battle took place.  The triage after the battle is, I thought, well done, however.  I was disappointed at how this interesting plot point was just casually thrown in and then tossed aside.  

The last thing that I could not stand was that the author constantly was quoting from other movies, books, or music to make some emotional point.  It was like he was saying that as the writer he could not come up with a way to explain it but that this certain part of this movie could.  

Overall: 8

Characters: 4

Plot: 8

How to Build 880 Gallon Water Storage in a Small Space

How to Build 880 Gallon Water Storage in a Small Space

The first step is to come up with a design.  As you can see from the picture, I made wood pillar between each tank of water.  Using formulas online I found to figure out the strength I would need (see the following website: https://www.cecalc.com/WoodDesign/WoodTension.aspx) I was able to find out how much I would need to support my load.  A gallon of water weighs about 8 lbs and each of my blue barrels has 55 gallons (8 X 55 = 440 lbs per barrel).  My design holds 16 barrels (16 X 440 = 7040).  I decided to be safe, I would make sure my design could hold 10,000 lbs.

Once I had the basic design finished, I reinforced each pillar with an additional 2x4 and added woold panels to each side.  I then anchored the entire platform to the wall on two points--the wall is an outside wall made out of concrete. 

To make sure the barrels did not roll around, I cut barrel shapes into the supporting beam of the water barrels.

This picture below shoes the reinforced pillars.

This is the completed structure with 16 full barrels.

 This project cost me around 400 dollars and only a day to build.  It was a simple, fun project and does not take that much space.  

Make a Secret Door in you House for less than $300 Dollars

Make a Secret Door in you House for less than $300 Dollars

NORMAL LOOKING PANTRY THAT IS TUCKED UNDER STAIRWELL

 PUSH BACK ON SHELF TO REVEAL A SECRET ROOM

 TUCKED UNDER STAIRS YOU'VE GOT A FEW TOYS

BASIC DESIGN

The shelves should fit snug in the given area, but not so tight so they are not rubbing up against the wall when they are being opened and closed.  I left about a quarter of an inch on either side.  The rest of the design of the shelf unit is pretty standard.

To help guide the direction of the shelf unit, I used standard pulleys and a quarter inch metal rods (see the top of the picture).  They helped carry some of the weight and keep the shelving on track.

To hold the majority of the weight, I used piano dolley wheels (any heavy duty wheels will work).  I also made a metal track out of some scrap metal to keep the wheels on track.  I then had to balance the weight between the pulleys and the wheels.  It took a little time, but one I finished, I figured my weight distribution was about 80% on the wheels and 20% on the pulleys.    

 THIS IS THE QUARTER INCH IRON RODS AND PULLEYS

The whole project was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be.  Once I had the pulley/iron rod system figured out, it was not that difficult at all.  The whole project cost me just under $300 dollars.  This is only phase one of this project.  I also plan on putting up  molding around the edges of the shelf to make it appear seamless.  That should not be too difficult, but I have saved that for another day.      

Review for the unabridged version of The Stand

First, the good.  Stephen King is a good writer, and the characterizations in the novel are well done.  He creates a dynamic host of characters that are unforgettable.  Each one has their own passions, drives, motivations, appetites, and back story.  The natural disaster is a disease that spreads throughout the world, effectively killing off the vast majority of the population.  The set for the release of the disease as well as the spread of destruction is also well done.  King has a tremendous talent at making the event seem realistic and powerful.  If the story would have ended there, it would be a very memorable book.  

But then the weird stuff starts happening.  Everyone starts seeing visions, a mystical bad guy appears, there is a good women who holds some strange power.  The apocalyptic scenario takes a step into the mystical and magical.  Actually, it is more than a step it's a complete change in direction.  Suddenly, the plot shifts into something that is so fantastical it makes Lord of the Rings seem plausible.

I know that King does with a lot of his novels, but for this particular one, the realism would have been so much better than the fantastical.  If he would have continued on with the same tone, cadence, and realism he had in the beginning, it would have been a fantastic novel.

Ratings (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest)

Overall: 5
Well Written:  10
Plot: 10 In the beginning
          2 By the end
Characters:  8
 

Review for Lights Out

Review for Lights Out

First, the good.  The novel picks up on what sort of vehicles would be operable in an EMP.  The author goes into interesting detail, but not overbearing, on why some vehicles would work, and why others would not.  He even mentions specific years, makes, and models.  I found this interesting.  The other idea about this novel that I enjoyed is the coming together of a community to survive a disaster.  

As everyone else that has reviewed the book, I would like to add my criticism to the hundreds of voices before: this book is very poorly written.  The only thing that could make it more juvenile is if it was written in crayon.  The characters are flat and absent of description.  Besides their names, I the characters seemed to have the same, static personalities.  The main character has several flashes of anger and then suddenly calms down and apologizes--like some bipolar emotionally unstable individual.  It's weird, to say the least.  They are so flat that it is hard to take anything they say in dialogue serious.

I did not find the story predictable, but I did find it border line unrealistic.  The novel does seem to get better as it moves along, as the author gets into a rhythm, but even then I didn't care about the characters, their situation, or anything else in the novel.  I enjoyed the book in the sense that this subject matter is something I interested in, and it is fun to step into a scenario that one did not consider before, but if it wasn't for that, there is no way I could trudge through this novel.    

How to Create a Windmill Blade

BLADES

VC blades are an excellent, quick, light, cheap and very easy. So how do you make them? 

Choose the right size.

First you need to go through the usual "how big do you need them". Once you have decided the length you need to go and get your pvc pipe. It goes without saying you need to buy the same length as the blades. What size is governed by a bit of common sense. But incase you are not sensible, your pipe should be about 1/5 as thick as it is long. eg if you have 50 cm blades the pvc pipe should have a diameter of 10 cm. One length of pvc pipe can can make four blades.

So now you should have bought your pvc pipe and carted it back home. 

Quarter the pvc pipe.

First of all we want to quarter the pipe. Now drawing straight line and measuring on round surfaces is hard, so the best method is to get a large sheet of paper. If you wrap the sheet tightly around the pipe you get a straight line round the pipe. If you line one edge of the paper with this line you can get straight lines going down the pipe. With the paper wrapped round the pipe you can mark the circumference. Then you can fold the paper in half and mark half way round the pipe. Then in half again and get quarters of the pipes. With these methods you should be able to draw good straight lines all over the pipe dividing it lengthways into quarters. Now run your saw down the pipe to cut it in half. Like so.

And then again into quarters.

Shape each quarter

Now for each of our four quarters we want to do two things
1) Cut out a rectangle from the base about 5 cms in, so we can easily attach it to whatever we want to. Before you do the cut, drill a hole in the corner to improve the structural integrity of the material. Once the hole is drilled cut the rectangles out being careful not to cut past the hole.
2) Cut from the high tip of the base to the point.

All Done

Then we are all done. We have four blades ready to use.