Q: Why Toilet Paper? A: All Of The Above

loo

For the first time ever we can use the words “perfect storm” in relation to toilet paper. In many countries people are hoarding toilet tissue, and in some cases fighting over or stealing it. It is a great indicator of how some people will act if they are actually starving.

Everyone is asking why, and there are many theories. And I’m going to say they are all correct, and that is the reason.

Non-perishable. As a prepper I know it makes sense to hoard any non-perishable items I know will be used one day. 100 years ago everybody knew this, and deep down I guess we all still do these days.

Affordable. 

Supply Chain. The pattern of purchasing toilet rolls is highly stable and predictable. And that means there is no incentive to keep extra supplies stored. Manufacturers have always produced this product at a steady rate. It doesn’t take much panic buying for shelves to be empty. This also means that shelves should be full again in a week or two. Overflowing even.

Sheeple. A good friend of mine, who is incredibly charitable and would give her last food to someone, stocked up on loo rolls. Her reason was purely because everyone else was. Total herd mentality and no other reason.

Empowerment. Toilet paper represents our control over something dirty, which we associate with disease. This isn’t crazy, as a major health advance was sewers and flushable toilets. So psychologists tell us this is a natural reaction to the coronavirus.

So there are 5 reasons why the shelves are empty, which means it isn’t a surprise at all, in retrospect.

Someone recently asked me why I hoard water. I said, because I can. You cannot predict every SHTF situation, so prepare in every direction you can, no need to qualify the hoarding of anything long-lasting that you will use anyway.

Three months of food and water is the minimum. There is every possibility this pandemic will have you choosing to be at home, even if you are not sick. Things can, and have, got ugly in unpredictable ways and this is just the beginning outside of China.

 

How to Profit from Coronavirus

corona

Preppers tend to not have much money, so any way to profit from a disaster (without harming others, obviously) is a plus.

There are good and bad sides to all of these. I am not recommending them, just pointing out these are worth considering as examples of how to profit.

TRAVEL

Without a doubt, the cost of travelling has dropped dramatically. The best example is cruises (don’t, seriously), however flights and hotels are also significantly cheaper.

Places where the virus has struck hardest will be cheapest. Not only now but in the future. Wuhan will certainly have a subconscious negatively for many years to come, even if the virus has dissipated.

A great example is Air Asia X who are offering Malaysians a year of unlimited travel within Australia and Asia, for just over $100 USD. Get in quick Malaysians!

Local travel is certainly going to be cheaper to some degree.

If you were going to travel in the next year anyway, it is cheaper to book now. Book as far ahead as suits your needs and is still cheap.

This is especially suitable for people who are more adventurous and not around crowds so much. And people who are extra careful with hygiene and risk awareness.

WORK

You may be required to work from home. In the rush to do this, in many instances your bosses will be unable to judge how well you are performing, or how much work you actually do. That’s a good opportunity for a side gig.

INVESTMENT

This is where it gets interesting. I bought some gold a few months back, when it just felt nothing terrible had happened for a while.

Without a doubt, some stocks have been oversold in the last week. To decide which they are, think about how quickly they can rebound to normal activity. Travel is a good one, but the lingering fear is hard to estimate. Anything to do with goods production in China is excellent. Without a doubt the supply chain will resume, even if it means sacrificing health for economy. And defensive stocks are named for a good reason – you just need to time the end of the coronavirus fears well, as these shares will regain ground quickly. Food stocks are down 10% – I guarantee we will still eat.

Aside from products that revolve around isolation (Zoom, Netflix – up slightly while Wall Street plummeted, knitting patterns), most stocks that have risen rapidly won’t rise much more. A great example is manufacturers of hand sanitisers. Pretty soon we will have as much of that as we need.

Are Pyramids Made From Concrete?

concrete

Nobody has solved how the great pyramid of Giza was built. The most commonly accepted theory involves ramps. This is pretty much the only way the giant blocks of stone could have been lifted so high in those days. Unfortunately there is zero evidence that the ramps ever existed, and they would’ve used more materials that the pyramid itself.

My preferred theory is prominent enough to be detailed in Wikipedia, but not accepted by mainstream archaeologists. Limestone concrete. The concrete is created nearby, carried in liquid form up the pyramid, and poured into place. If true it is quite an easy way to build the great pyramid, and perhaps every pyramid. There is some evidence: un-natural bubbles of air found in a sample from a pyramid block.

However, in the last 14 years there hasn’t been much talk about the concrete hypothesis. Until now. At another ancient megalithic structure, on the other side of the world, concrete has been proven to be used. The study is very scientific and rigorous. Here are some quotes:

The study carried out on the monumental stones constituting the Pumapunku site in Tiahuanaco, Bolivia, proves that the stones are artificial and are not carved with unknown technology or by extraterrestrials. It is the human genius, intelligently exploiting the resources of its environment, who created these marvels.

…In November 2017, the scientists gathered samples taken in the red sandstone and andesite from the Pumapunku site. For the first time, these stones were analyzed under the electron microscope, this had never been done before! They discovered the artificial nature of the stones.

…this scientific discovery confirms local legends that say, “The stones were made with plant extracts able to soften the stone.”

 

Coronavirus: An Excuse to Get Healthy Now

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Well before 2012, I said the Mayan doomsday was unlikely to actually happen, but it was a great excuse to prepare in general.

On the same theme, it is looking increasingly likely that the coronavirus will be free to roam the world, just like the flu and common cold. A new, deadly, much more contagious version of what we are used to.

One thing we do know is that, just like the flu, most people will recover and the dead are those who are most vulnerable. Elderly or otherwise less likely to cope physically. So, with some estimates being that 50% of us will catch it (which equals 70 million dead), we need to consider that avoidance is not practical, and that surviving the illness is the key. And that means making sure we have the physical fitness to survive. If the predictions do not play out, and you end up more physically fit – that is a win.

So:

  • stop smoking or drinking alcohol
  • no party drugs
  • cardiovascular health (at least walk more)
  • eat your veggies
  • get proper sleep, at night time
  • get sunshine = vitamin D
  • eat vitamin C,  harmless but could help

 

 

Random Deselection

Every action should have an equal and opposite reaction.

So, perhaps, for every act of evolution, there is devolution.

If “selection” is random, including deselection as equally possible, is real, at least for one generation.

Survival of the fittest isn’t immediate. Essentially the unfit live for many years, never breed, and disappear from the gene pool.

For a species to evolve, more than half need to improve.

The deselected happen as much as the selected. They just cannot breed, there is no evolutionary advantage. No point multiplying negatives with negatives.

They are our loveable monsters, the worst of us in terms of evolution, but maybe the best, if we seek them out.

 

 

 

Coronavirus Dilution??

I am not an expert on pandemics, but I do feel I have a knack for patterns…

A new study published by The Lancet medical journal gives a snapshot of 99 cases of the new coronavirus observed at Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital from 1-20 January. It reveals:

  • Of the 99, 49 had been exposed to the seafood and animal market believed to be at the centre of the outbreak
  • Seventeen patients developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and 11 of them died of multiple organ failure; 31 of the 99 had been released from hospital by 25 January

So, in theory, 20% of people infected at the market died. And people who caught it from other people typically didn’t die. Beyond China we have found the only human-human transmission today, between a married couple.

It seems to me that the virus becomes less transmissible the more it spreads. It weakens.

This is a blessing.

The Difficulty of The Half-SHTF

Most preppers have some kind of absolute SHTF scenario in the back of their mind – nuclear war, super-volcano, pandemic or mega-earthquake. And they are ready to run away and hide from the world until others fix things up.

A minor disaster is much more likely.

  • A hurricane that leaves you without electricity for a month
  • A snow storm where you can’t leave your home
  • A flood

But there is another category, where you aren’t quite sure if you should run away or not, the half-SHTF:

  • A coronavirus that seems to be under control
  • A failing economy with riots, crime and unrest

How many people need to be infected before you put your plans to action? Many people will need to balance their response with the need to work, to pay the mortgage. Literally gambling that they won’t catch it, to survive economically.

How bad does civil unrest need to become? How do you measure it? Anecdotes? Personal experience? Do you retreat to your safe spot, or move overseas?

What about friends and family who choose to stay put?

Both scenarios will have a tipping point. With a pandemic, that is when people are so scared that they stop going to work in great numbers. When police and health workers stay at home. When infrastructure isn’t maintained. When supermarkets close.

With an economic disaster, at some point, police might become overwhelmed, which means an instant increase in disorder.

Both scenarios offer the possibility of lock-down, where you are unable to leave the city.

The answer is easy for some. Already live in a rural, safe location. Already have years of supplies. Have a job you can do online, and have a skill that is needed in the real world, as a backup. But that is rare and lucky. Most of us will have to make decisions.

 

 

How Bad Can Coronavirus Get?

I’m keeping a close eye on this, personally, as this is one of the two most likely reasons for the SHTF, where survivalist tactics can mean life instead of death. The other is a solar super-storm.

Much is unknown about the virus, but the worst case scenario is quite easy to predict – and plan for.

  • The number of cases in China will rapidly accelerate. This is because the virus appears to be must easier to spread that other viruses, and has a longer incubation period, up to 2-3 weeks. The latest estimates are each infected person will infect 2.6 others. That is like rabbits breeding…
  • I can’t do the math, but 100K people infected and 5,000 dead in China is easily possible when it peaks. It could continue being a problem in China for many months
  • China will become completely isolated from the rest of the world. Nobody in, and nobody out. It will start with a smaller country banning all Chinese flights, with bigger countries following suit a few days after
  • Other countries will quarantine all January arrivals from China. If they don’t, it will spread.
  • The random nature of the spread of a virus means that a handful of non-Asian cities will be hard hit and need to take drastic measures.
  • Citizens of those cities might panic. Definitely expect food to disappear from supermarkets
  • Many workers in those cities will decide to stay at home, until the threat disappears. This could have unexpected consequences, for industries where minimum staff numbers are needed. For example, public transport and health care.

How Fake News Evolves

1. With each rewriting of the story, subtly change the words to create new meaning
2. Use headlines that exaggerate the actual story = clickbait. The worst use a different headline in social than the actual article has.

Today Freedom’s Phoenix relayed a story from Natural News that is 6 months old and very different to reality.

The article starts with:

California orders pastors to push LGBT activism… or else – transgender tyranny to become the rule of law
The Golden State has decided to scrap the First Amendment with the passage of a new resolution that forbids religious leaders from opposing homosexuality from the pulpit.
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/274293-2020-01-03-calif-orders-pastors-to-push-lgbt-activism-or-else-transgender.htm?From=News

Pretty powerful words, and not one part of the headline or first paragraph is true.

What has actually happened is that the Californian Legislature has politely asked churches to not promote conversion therapy. This is a request, not a law. And churches can continue to oppose homosexuality if they wish.

This measure would call upon all Californians to embrace the individual and social benefits of family and community acceptance, upon religious leaders to counsel on LGBTQ matters from a place of love, compassion, and knowledge of the psychological and other harms of conversion therapy, and upon the people of California and the institutions of California with great moral influence to model equitable treatment of all people of the state.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200ACR99

Clues to Fake News:

  • Not the original source
  • On sites like Natural News that have a biased agenda
  • No links to the source, if not a reputable news agency
  • Sounds like something the MSM would have told you, if it was true
  • Has a conspiracy angle – 99.9% of conspiracy theories are misguided or made up

Jamal Khashoggi

Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident who was brutally killed at the Saudi embassy, was probably a good guy. I’m not disputing that at all.

His family, and their connections, were quite different. I’m guessing that enabled him to access the level of information he needed to be feared by the authorities…

All via Wikipedia:

  • Jamal Khashoggi was the nephew of the high-profile Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran–Contra scandal, who was estimated to have had a net worth of US$4 billion in the early 1980s.
  • Khashoggi was the first cousin of Dodi Fayed, who was dating Diana, Princess of Wales, when the two were killed in a car crash in Paris.
  • According to David Ignatius, Khashoggi was in his early 20s “a passionate member of the Muslim Brotherhood”.
  • Khashoggi was acquainted with Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and 1990s in Afghanistan while bin Laden was championing his jihad against the Soviets.
  • Khashoggi interviewed bin Laden several times, usually meeting bin Laden in Tora Bora, and once more in Sudan in 1995

Uncle Adnan seems to have been connected to the top arms and drug dealers of the world, as well as having close ties with Imelda Marcos.