Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami threatens Pacific - Yahoo! News

Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami threatens Pacific - Yahoo! News: "A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe."

Storm rakes East; more than 1 million in the dark

Storm rakes East; more than 1 million in the dark: "More than a million people have lost power from Maine to Pennsylvania"

Nasty weather, hopefully they prepared enough to get through a a few days of this.

You have to give big kudos to the power crews going out in that stuff making it better.

Though I have to say it would be a good idea to have some independent power generating capability for just such occasions.

Choosing between CFL and LED lightbulbs

All lightbulbs have limitations. Incandescent bulbs are cheap but wasteful of energy. CFL bulbs are energy efficient but are loaded with toxic mercury, and LEDs are very energy efficient but are more directional.

When we moved into this apartment about 2 and a half years ago, I put in mostly CFLs to try and save some on the electric bills. The ones in the bathroom are all dead now. The ones in lamps did not last long at all due to being knocked over by an active child. The ones in the ceiling fan are still going strong, but it is dry there and not much shock. CFL bulbs also don't work so well outside in the cold. They start off dim and it takes minutes for them to reach full brightness.

So I've learned that CFLs don't like wet or cold or shock.

LED bulbs are still pretty expensive but since they are a semiconductor Moore's Law applies and they should become cheaper pretty quickly. They also use way less power then even CFLs and are shock resistant, that is why lots of flashlights have gone over to LEDs. Also LCD TV's and monitors are going to LED backlights for less energy and longer life.
LEDs are directional light sources, that makes them great for flashlights, spotlights, recessed can fixtures and gooseneck style lamps. Unfortunately, that makes them not so good for general illumination. There are some LED bulbs that put lots of LEDs pointing in lots of different directions to pull off general illumination but they are pretty expensive because of all those LEDs. I've also seen some with diffusers to try to do the same thing but I haven't tried one of those yet.

In conclusion, CFL bulbs are good for general illumination but LEDs are better for outdoors, moist and directional lighting situations.

Building a List of Backup Plans.

Making Ripples: post-corporate adventures in Floyd County Virginia: Our search for firewood in Floyd County: "Even the best laid plans can go awry and this year gives us a painful example of that. We had laid in a larger supply of firewood this year than ever before but the continuing cold weather has caused us to burn it all with more freezing weather ahead of us."

That is the issue. How much do you prepare for?

There are all kinds of constraints on how much you can prepare for: money, space, time, and so on. That is just real life.

But one of the most important things is to go through the process of planning what to do; implement you can do and keep the other plans around so you can go back to them and implement them if necessary.

Keep a disaster plan notebook.

If you are watching the news or one of those disaster documentaries spend a second to write down what the disaster was and how it might impact your home, work, school and city. Jot down a couple of notes about how you would respond. And if you believe you need a key piece of equipment or knowledge write that down too and add it to your shopping list.

You'll want to go through that notebook from time to time and flesh out those response plans. Usually the first thing that pops into your mind for a disaster response is the same thing that everyone else is going to think of too. Spend a little time thinking of a different, less obvious way to survive.

For example, when a big storm is coming most people run to the supermarkets and they end up stripped of bottled water, milk, bread, batteries, &etc. I've noticed that my local home improvement stores tend to have pallets of water and energy drinks. My local office stores tend to have bulk boxes of snack foods, not great but better then nothing. So there are options out there, if you take the time to notice them.

Creating your own disaster response plan notebook allows you the time to notice useful things before things get bad.

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark | AccreditedOnlineColleges.org: "It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran teacher or a newbie just now taking college courses — finding new ways to get students engaged in the classroom is always a great thing."

Cool video site.

The Layered Approach to Readiness

One of the big problems of getting ready is just how overwhelming it can be to get all that stuff together. 

And that's true, trying to buy this stuff in a lump sum would be extraordinarily expensive. But you have some level of most of these things in your home already. A quick home inventory will tell you where you are. 

And these are only suggestions and should be modified or at least evaluated on your circumstances.

For me right now in an apartment, the best I can do on the subject of water is what I call Better in the chart. We've just added a backpacking water purifier that will last for about 500 liters. It is really good since it is small and lightweight. That is the best we can do right now. But we can dream big for later.

Kind	Good	Better	Best	Ultimate
Water	3-14 days stored	15-30 days stored + small purifier	Long term water purification system	Utility independent water source: spring, well, river, lake, rainwater cachement
Food	3-14 days stored	3-12 months stored	Small garden  + canning supplies + hunting supplies	Permaculture garden or farm
Shelter	House or apartment	Tent or camper	RV or family’s house	Secondary residence
Energy	Candles, Flashlights, Batteries, UPS, Outdoor Grill	Camp stove, Oil lamps, Car inverter	Generator and fuel.	grid independent alternative energy system (wind, solar, microhydro, &etc.)
Financial	Emergency fund	No Credit Card Debt	No debt but Mortgage	Debt Free
Communications	AM/FM Radio	Weather radio + FRS/GPRS/MURS 2-ways radios	shortwave radio + CB or Amateur 2-way handheld radios	Amateur Radio with alternative power
Medical Training	Basic First Aid	Advanced First Aid	EMT, Nurse	Doctor

There are other things that I haven't included. Defense is a big one. For some people a baseball bat, mase or Taser might be best given the limitations of their jurisdictions. Other people think a handgun is best and others still an arsenal of one of every calibre rifle with 10,000 rounds of ammunition is best. So you'll have to use your best judgement on that subject.

Then there is a lot of other skills and equipment like car repair, woodworking, metalworking, and so on.

Know what's happening

EveryBlock — A news feed for your block

Knowing what is happening is really important sometimes and this site looks like it could be really useful if you city is on it. Mine isn't so I use the local news sites to do the same thing.