Doomsday Preppers

[Future]

Not that it wouldn't get here but that the US could deal with it to a greater extent.

Well my idea of a plague would be something that can't be cured...you get it, youre dead.

It'd be kind of like a natural forest fire, wouldn't stop until it burns itself out.

 

[Hoofbite]

They have a guy prepping for a large quake that tears the western part of the US apart.

Here's an idea. MOVE!

 

[Hoofbite]

Well my idea of a plague would be something that can't be cured...you get it, youre dead.

It'd be kind of like a natural forest fire, wouldn't stop until it burns itself out.

So how does it stop?

Something incurable would likely take more than 50%.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Gentlemen, I suggest you research the Spanish flu epidemic around WW1. That thing was nasty. I think the only parts of the world not exposed to it were some Pacific Islands in Indonesia and Micronesia. There was a huge deal about it a few years ago when SARS was in the news. Researchers found, and dug up, a few Alaskan indigenous people's graves who had it. Found how the lung tissue was affect and why it was so deadly at the time.

End result, that epidemic was an incredibly weak H1N1 bug compared to the modern strains of influenza.

My little theory on the next world pandemic. It'll happen around Xmas or another major holiday when there's ton of air travel. It'll have a fairly long early infection period whereby the person who's infected will only have a few headaches, feel achy, but be good enough to go to work and infect everyone around them.

College kids returning to school after Xmas break will be able to inoculate millions with the new virus. There's about 17 million college students in the US.

The incubation period/early infection will allow air travelers to spread it from continent to continent. The fact they're traveling during Xmas will push them to visit their relatives anyway, and get a little Thera-Flu to get them through the trip.

The bug doesn't even need to be that tough to exist outside of the host for any amount of appreciable time. It does need to be able to jump back and forth between species though. Birds of course are the worst case scenario, but your pet cat/dog would be a second worst case. If it hits domesticated felines, and then jumps to a tertiary vector, you'll never quarantine it.

Nevermind. Ignore everything I wrote. I'm keeping it as a secondary plot line for a future novel. All copyrights and privileged reserved by author.

I hate using wiki, but here's a note on the H1N1 of the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

 

[Hoofbite]

Gentlemen, I suggest you research the Spanish flu epidemic around WW1. That thing was nasty. I think the only parts of the world not exposed to it were some Pacific Islands in Indonesia and Micronesia. There was a huge deal about it a few years ago when SARS was in the news. Researchers found, and dug up, a few Alaskan indigenous people's graves who had it. Found how the lung tissue was affect and why it was so deadly at the time.

End result, that epidemic was an incredibly weak H1N1 bug compared to the modern strains of influenza.

My little theory on the next world pandemic. It'll happen around Xmas or another major holiday when there's ton of air travel. It'll have a fairly long early infection period whereby the person who's infected will only have a few headaches, feel achy, but be good enough to go to work and infect everyone around them.

College kids returning to school after Xmas break will be able to inoculate millions with the new virus. There's about 17 million college students in the US.

The incubation period/early infection will allow air travelers to spread it from continent to continent. The fact they're traveling during Xmas will push them to visit their relatives anyway, and get a little Thera-Flu to get them through the trip.

The bug doesn't even need to be that tough to exist outside of the host for any amount of appreciable time. It does need to be able to jump back and forth between species though. Birds of course are the worst case scenario, but your pet cat/dog would be a second worst case. If it hits domesticated felines, and then jumps to a tertiary vector, you'll never quarantine it.

Nevermind. Ignore everything I wrote. I'm keeping it as a secondary plot line for a future novel. All copyrights and privileged reserved by author.

I hate using wiki, but here's a note on the H1N1 of the day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic

:laugh2:

 

[SaltwaterServr]

A couple of the nastier bugs out there, ready to go nuts 12 Monkeys style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_hemorrhagic_fever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassa_fever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean-Congo_hemorrhagic_fever

 

[Hoofbite]

A couple of the nastier bugs out there, ready to go nuts 12 Monkeys style.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_hemorrhagic_fever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassa_fever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean-Congo_hemorrhagic_fever

There's a Carlin bit about how people are basically afraid of germs.

He talks about how there will be a virus to come along and wipe people out because they over-sanitize things and don't keep their immune systems in top notch shape.

When I was a little boy in New York City in the nineteen-forties, we swam in the Hudson river. And it was filled with raw sewage! OK? We swam in raw sewage, you know, to cool off.

 

[cowboy_ron]

This guy converted a truck to run off of fire wood!

That's just awesome.

He can hook it up to a generator power his "compound" with wood.

Meanwhile, his partner might just be crazy.

Trip wires in the woods, mandatory special arms training for all the compound members.

If I had to pick a guy to go off and shoot up a building, this is the type of guy I would pick.

Yea, those guys could sustain for awhile

 

[burmafrd]

This guy converted a truck to run off of fire wood!

That's just awesome.

He can hook it up to a generator power his "compound" with wood.

Meanwhile, his partner might just be crazy.

Trip wires in the woods, mandatory special arms training for all the compound members.

If I had to pick a guy to go off and shoot up a building, this is the type of guy I would pick.

actually it is a smart thing to do to make sure that all those say over the age of 15 or so can handle fire arms and fight if necessary.

 

[Romo2Bryant4Six]

Heck yeah man. I would then have a shot at king of the world!

Me and you both

 

[Romo2Bryant4Six]

The only thingt special I'm doing is waiting till the 23rd to do my Christmas shopping.

:laugh2:

 

[ologan]

This lady bought 4 quarters for $20!

Haha

She's prepping for hyperinflation and is looking for alternative forms of currency, collecting his 90% silver quarters.

Hahaha

She has food delivered at night to say under the radar but SHE's ON THIS SHOW!!!

These people are great. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time.

Yeah,I've thought of this,too. If I'm one of the hundreds of thousands, or even millions who watch this show, and I know that some of these folks have this compound a few miles away and they're the only ones who have food, well me and my army are going to go pay them a visit. We know where they are, because they brag about it on TV. It's either that, or we starve, so the lead starts flying.

Also, If I'm going to hoard something that will be the currency of the future in an apocalyptic world, I would probably choose something that would be a much better medium of exchange, like say.......bullets. I think most folks who hoard gold or silver will find it hard to use, in that who determines how much gold will be needed to buy that can of beans being offered. I would think something along the lines of "I'll give you two .22 bullets for that can of spam" would work just as well. JMO.

 

[Future]

So how does it stop?

Something incurable would likely take more than 50%.

Idk maybe it takes out 80% of the planet :laugh2:

Why does a forest fire stop? Eventually it just will.

 

[burmafrd]

I know a few; none of them as extreme as on the show(surprise)

Most of them are not hoarding silver or gold. Their reasoning (and I agree with it) is that if things get that bad then we are back to the bartering system and no one is going to give a damn about gold or silver.

You will trade cigarettes, drugs, booze to people (addicts will give anything for their fix)

Trade food for fuel; medicine for clothing; etc.

Morons hoarding gold and silver will find no one caring about it.

 

[Hoofbite]

I know a few; none of them as extreme as on the show(surprise)

Most of them are not hoarding silver or gold. Their reasoning (and I agree with it) is that if things get that bad then we are back to the bartering system and no one is going to give a damn about gold or silver.

You will trade cigarettes, drugs, booze to people (addicts will give anything for their fix)

Trade food for fuel; medicine for clothing; etc.

Morons hoarding gold and silver will find no one caring about it.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

I was talking to a friend and he said he'd laugh at someone who tried to trade him a silver coin for his can of beans.

 

[iceberg]

there is a difference between major disaster and the Apocalypse.

If that happens the only thing to do is put your head between your legs and kiss your butt goodbye.


IF for example in late 2008 the banking system had collapsed, things would have been ugly for at least a year or two.

Money would have been useless. even gold- you can't eat it or drink it.

That is about the maximum anyone should consider preparing for.

If the HN1 virus would go airborne and wipe out 80% of the earth's population I agree who wants to live after that?

The Nuclear Winter, etc was over hyped. Even Sagan admitted that before he croaked. But a full scale exchange would not be something you wanted to live through.

i'd be screwed twice then. i could never be that limber.

 

[cowboy_ron]

i'd be screwed twice then. i could never be that limber.

 

[cowboyeric8]

Well my idea of a plague would be something that can't be cured...you get it, youre dead.

It'd be kind of like a natural forest fire, wouldn't stop until it burns itself out.

So you are thinking of something like from Stephen King's The Stand.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

Idk maybe it takes out 80% of the planet :laugh2:

Why does a forest fire stop? Eventually it just will.

Before man got involved, there's historical evidence of forest fires on a scale we can't comprehend. They burned out when they ran out of fuel, hit natural firebreaks such as the Mississippi, a strong wind blew it back on itself, or rainfall killed it. You need to consider that when the Pilgrims were landing a squirrel could run from east Texas, across to Florida, and up into New England without ever stepping foot on the ground.

Same thing with prairie wild fires. When they burned, they burned on what we'd consider a regional/state wide scale. Huge things.

The Spanish Flu epidemic is good reading. Some people might not be as vulnerable to a certain strain if they have the antibiotics in their system from a previous exposure. Similarly, if a strain becomes grossly infectious/virulent with a high mortality rate overnight, it can also mutate out of that strain overnight.

Even the HIVirus has lost a great deal of potency over the last two decades. Still a very nasty bug, but life expectancy (I hope one of the resident physicians can verify or discredit with better data/info) once you contracted HIV back when it was first being notated as a new virus was about 3-4 years. Now it's what, 2-2.5x that with no preventative measures?

 

[MetalHead]

Yeah,I've thought of this,too. If I'm one of the hundreds of thousands, or even millions who watch this show, and I know that some of these folks have this compound a few miles away and they're the only ones who have food, well me and my army are going to go pay them a visit. We know where they are, because they brag about it on TV. It's either that, or we starve, so the lead starts flying.

Also, If I'm going to hoard something that will be the currency of the future in an apocalyptic world, I would probably choose something that would be a much better medium of exchange, like say.......bullets. I think most folks who hoard gold or silver will find it hard to use, in that who determines how much gold will be needed to buy that can of beans being offered. I would think something along the lines of "I'll give you two .22 bullets for that can of spam" would work just as well. JMO.

LOL..as if they are not preparing for you and your "army" too.

P.S.
They will not be shooting at you with .22lr rounds,they will use a take down caliber,not a mosquito bite.