Author Archives: PapaSwamp
Spread of Tropical Vector borne (insects) diseases in the Gulf Coast US + a little accident at the CDC.
The spread of tropical diseases in the US is increasing…much has to do with increasing poverty in the US…especially gulf coast region. The region has never fully recovered from numerous tropical systems nor the impact of the massive Deep Water … Continue reading
Strategic Terrorism…or how to scare the crap out of people.
Nathan Mhyrvold is the former Chief Technology Officer for Microsoft and founder of Intellectual Ventures. To put it mildly, he is a fairly smart guy. Mr. Mhyrvold decided to publish a ‘little’ research paper titled Strategic Terrorism A Call to … Continue reading
Having a 72hr kit just isn’t enough…
UPDATE: At plus 6 days, conditions for many seem to be rapidly deteriorating. For all intents and purposes, Sandy was not a strong storm. It did coincide with high tide and tight pressure gradient resulting in a large storm surge … Continue reading
Thoughts on Event Level Preparedness Planning
To prepare, people should start simple and address the most common or obvious disaster that might occur in their area. Is it snowstorms, floods, hurricane, wildfire? You need to decide how to minimize impact of the disaster, then how to … Continue reading
Rule Number 1….Cardio.
One of my favorite movies is Zombieland. If you haven’t seen it, the main character has a series of rules for survival in the new zombie infested environment. His number one rule is ‘cardio’, basically the ability to out run … Continue reading
West Nile and other mosquito vector borne diseases.
Recently Texas has been in the news due to an outbreak of West Nile virus in the Dallas area. Probably one of the most underutilized (perhaps under appreciated) government scientific agencies for biological work is the USGS. For mosquito borne … Continue reading
Hurricane Season….a bit early.
Today marks the beginning of Hurricane Preparedness Week. It is quite timely since, presently, ~165 miles east of me is STS Beryl, the second named storm of the season (which doesn’t really start until June 1). The supplies kit and … Continue reading
Helpful food safety tips during and after disasters.
From the <a href=”http://paper.li/AllHandsDotNet/em”>AllHandsDotNet daily</a> (very informative!) came a great little nugget. Great page on the USDA website about food safety during and after a disaster. I especially like the information for after a flood on which foods can and … Continue reading
Review…Crovel Extreme vs Glock E-tool vs Cold Steel SF Shovel
This is sort of an apples to oranges to pears review. They are all related via the base design, which is the old US military entrenching tool. Each has similarities in that they have a shovel/digging capability, then things diverge … Continue reading
Survival Seeds…an experiment.
So I thought I would start an experiment back in September. Garden is a 4’x8′ section plus a small planter (1.5’x3′). Rainfall was below normal and the dry season has begun, but watering did occur when needed until 5 wks … Continue reading
Papa's Place 