Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Proverbs 27:12
Proverbs 27:12 New Living Translation (NLT)
12 A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
World Health Organization 'Deeply Concerned' by Bird Flu Research
Some scientists have engineered a form of the deadly H5N1 virus that is easily transmissible and could cause lethal human pandemics.
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.
The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissible form capable of causing lethal human pandemics.
The work by the teams, one in The Netherlands and one in the United States, has already prompted an unprecedented censorship call from U.S. security advisers who fear that publishing details of the research could give potential attackers the know-how to make a bioterror weapon.
The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has asked two journals that want to publish the work to make only redacted versions of studies available, a request to which the journal editors and many leading scientists object.
In its first comment on the controversy, the WHO said: "While it is clear that conducting research to gain such knowledge must continue, it is also clear that certain research, and especially that which can generate more dangerous forms of the virus ... has risks."
H5N1 bird flu is extremely deadly in people who are directly exposed to it from infected birds. Since the virus was first detected in 1997, about 600 people have contracted it and more than half of them have died.
But so far it has not yet naturally mutated into a form that can pass easily from person to person, although many scientists fear this kind of mutation is likely to happen at some point and will constitute a major health threat if it does.
MUTATIONS
Flu researchers around the world have been working for many years trying to figure out which mutations would give H5N1 the ability to spread easily from one person to another, while at the same time maintaining its deadly properties.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded the two research teams to carry out research into how the virus could become more transmissible in humans, with the aim of gaining insight on how to react if the mutation occurred naturally.
The WHO said such research should be done "only after all important public health risks and benefits have been identified" and "it is certain that the necessary protections to minimize the potential for negative consequences are in place."
The agency also said it was vital that new rules on the sharing of viruses and scientific know-how were enforced to ensure those countries at most immediate risk from H5N1, mainly developing countries in Asia such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and others, would benefit from advances in research.
During the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-2010, many developing countries complained they had no life-saving antivirals or vaccines to combat the new virus, despite having made samples of the virus available to researchers and pharmaceutical companies to develop the medicines.
It is normally laboratories in wealthy developed countries that have the level of scientific expertise needed to work on complex flu viruses, while bird, or avian, flu viruses themselves often come from less well developed Asian countries.
A new Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework was agreed and adopted by all WHO member states in May 2011 to set rules for sharing flu viruses that have pandemic potential, and sharing the benefits of the expertise gained.
"WHO considers it critically important that scientists who undertake research with influenza viruses with pandemic potential samples fully abide by the new requirements," the U.N. agency said in its statement. (theatlantic.com)
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a stern warning on Friday to scientists who have engineered a highly pathogenic form of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, saying their work carries significant risks and must be tightly controlled.
The United Nations health body said it was "deeply concerned about the potential negative consequences" of work by two leading flu research teams who this month said they had found ways to make H5N1 into a easily transmissible form capable of causing lethal human pandemics.
The work by the teams, one in The Netherlands and one in the United States, has already prompted an unprecedented censorship call from U.S. security advisers who fear that publishing details of the research could give potential attackers the know-how to make a bioterror weapon.
The U.S. National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity has asked two journals that want to publish the work to make only redacted versions of studies available, a request to which the journal editors and many leading scientists object.
In its first comment on the controversy, the WHO said: "While it is clear that conducting research to gain such knowledge must continue, it is also clear that certain research, and especially that which can generate more dangerous forms of the virus ... has risks."
H5N1 bird flu is extremely deadly in people who are directly exposed to it from infected birds. Since the virus was first detected in 1997, about 600 people have contracted it and more than half of them have died.
But so far it has not yet naturally mutated into a form that can pass easily from person to person, although many scientists fear this kind of mutation is likely to happen at some point and will constitute a major health threat if it does.
MUTATIONS
Flu researchers around the world have been working for many years trying to figure out which mutations would give H5N1 the ability to spread easily from one person to another, while at the same time maintaining its deadly properties.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health funded the two research teams to carry out research into how the virus could become more transmissible in humans, with the aim of gaining insight on how to react if the mutation occurred naturally.
The WHO said such research should be done "only after all important public health risks and benefits have been identified" and "it is certain that the necessary protections to minimize the potential for negative consequences are in place."
The agency also said it was vital that new rules on the sharing of viruses and scientific know-how were enforced to ensure those countries at most immediate risk from H5N1, mainly developing countries in Asia such as Indonesia, Vietnam, and others, would benefit from advances in research.
During the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-2010, many developing countries complained they had no life-saving antivirals or vaccines to combat the new virus, despite having made samples of the virus available to researchers and pharmaceutical companies to develop the medicines.
It is normally laboratories in wealthy developed countries that have the level of scientific expertise needed to work on complex flu viruses, while bird, or avian, flu viruses themselves often come from less well developed Asian countries.
A new Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework was agreed and adopted by all WHO member states in May 2011 to set rules for sharing flu viruses that have pandemic potential, and sharing the benefits of the expertise gained.
"WHO considers it critically important that scientists who undertake research with influenza viruses with pandemic potential samples fully abide by the new requirements," the U.N. agency said in its statement. (theatlantic.com)
Friday, December 23, 2011
Buried Alive in a Snowdrift
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a Texas family from an SUV that had been buried in a snowdrift on a rural New Mexico highway for nearly two days.
State police said rescuers had to dig through 4 feet of ice and snow to free the Higgins family, whose red GMC Yukon got stuck on U.S. 56 near Springer when a blizzard moved through the area Monday.
Rescuers found David and Yvonne Higgins and their 5-year-old daughter Hannah clinging to each other and lethargic early Wednesday morning. The family is recovering at Miners Colfax Medical Center in Raton.
David Higgins told The Associated Press he and his wife both have pneumonia but his daughter is fine. He said he was glad to be able to talk about his ordeal because he had feared that he and his family might not be found.
"By 9 or 10 Monday night, I realized there was solid snow outside my window. I tried to shove my arm through the top of the window. I thought it can't be that deep," the 48-year-old father said. "I pushed as hard as I could. My arm went about 16 inches and there was still snow."
The family, who had left their home near League City, Texas, on Sunday for a ski trip at Angel Fire in northern New Mexico, started to hit bad weather soon after they crossed the state line into New Mexico on Monday afternoon.
They had checked road conditions. Difficult driving was reported but the road was still open. They followed a snowplow for a while, but visibility dropped to zero.
"It was white. You couldn't even see the yellow line," David said.
It was getting so bad that he had slowed to about 5 mph.
"You're thinking there are these people from Colorado and New Mexico behind us going, `Those Texas drivers, they don't know how to drive in this snow,'" he said. "Then I'm thinking to myself, `How can they drive in this?' You can't even see."
Despite having snow tires on their SUV, the snow stopped the family in their tracks. David Higgins tried backing up and then driving forward again. He made some progress but then the back end slipped around and the vehicle started to slide down an embankment.
He was able to keep the car running for a couple of hours, but when he went to get out to clear the exhaust pipe, his door was blocked.
Early on, the family could hear vehicles passing, so they tried honking the horn. That didn't work.
The Higginses had their ski gear, plenty of water to drink, sandwiches, chips and Chex mix. But as the hours passed, it seems as if they were working harder to breathe inside the buried SUV.
"We weren't sure of it, but we think we were running out of air. That was spooky," he said.
Higgins was able to reach his brother in Texas by cellphone and let him know the family's general location. The distress call was relayed to state police, which launched a search for the family Tuesday evening.
The National Guard was called out, along with state transportation workers. State highway trucks with plows and rescuers in four-wheel-drive vehicles pushed through heavy snow and drifts as high as 10 feet as teams probed the snow looking for the family's SUV.
One of the rescuers hit the hood, and the digging started.
Higgins said rescuers had to break the window to get to him and his family.
"They pulled us up and out of it," he said. "The rescuer took pictures and it looked like a rabbit hole. We were 3 to 4 feet above the vehicle."
The Higginses were among 32 vehicles state police and guardsmen rescued from the storm, but they were the only ones who police say needed medical attention.
"Tired and whooped" is how Higgins described his family after their ordeal.
They had a steady stream of visitors at the hospital Wednesday as state police officers and rescue workers came to check on them.
Higgins' parents were on their way to New Mexico on Wednesday night to help the couple. Whether they would make it home in time for Christmas was still unclear, since Higgins said his wife still wasn't feeling up to a long trip.
He was able to joke that a ski vacation was definitely out this year, but he wouldn't mind taking his family on a cross-country trip next summer – when there's no chance of it snowing. He said his daughter loves to go camping and there are plenty of places he and his wife have yet to see.
Playing games on their cellphones and watching movies on his daughter's travel DVD player helped pass the time, but Higgins admits the thought of not making it out alive started to cross his mind after a day of being buried.
"We didn't realize how deep the snow was," he said.
Higgins had a simple message for travelers this winter: Throw a case of water and a sleeping bag in the car.
"It will be there if you need it," he said. "I could see if we weren't half as prepared as we were, it could have been a worse outcome." (HuffingtonPost.com)
Evacuation Plan & Planning to Bug Out During A Emergency
Evacuation Plan & Planning to Bug Out During A Emergency (OffGridSurvival.com)
Having an emergency evacuation plan is critical in any survival situation. If the SHTF, having a plan of action will put you about 20 steps ahead of the mindless morons who spent their time watching T.V.
Your Evacuation plan should take into account the following things:Most likely emergency scenarios
Put on your thinking cap! Start to list the most likely emergency situations that can take place. Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Civil Unrest, War, Riots, Nuclear or Terror Attacks, Etc…
Sketch out some ideas of what you would do when the SHTF and put together a custom survival plan for each scenerio.
Stay or Go?
This decision can be huge; each choice has benefits and risks associated with it. Think about what things would have to happen to make you leave your home. Hint: if you waited for the government to issue mandatory evacuation orders, you waited to long.
Meet up place
When disaster hits there is a good chance that your family may not be together. Now is the time to decide on a family meeting place. Pick a place that is easy to find and make sure each member of your family can find it during an emergency.
Have multiple routes out.
Keep in mind that during a disaster most of the major highways are going to be completely clogged with people trying to get out. Plan now, and map out as many routes as possible. Use Google Maps to print out possible evacuation routes and then laminate the paper so it hold up when you need it.
Don’t forget to print out vehicle and walking routes (hiking trails, railroad tracks, side roads etc… should all be considered.)
Survival Supplies:
What items do you need to survive for 72 hours, a week, a month or even indefinitely? Put together a survival / Bug Out Bag of essential items that you will need to survive each situation.
Your bag should be designed around your family, climate and health. There is no one size fits all bag, so make sure you pack the items that you need to survive.
Where will you go?
Bugging out without a place to go isn’t a plan. Make sure you know where you are going before disaster strikes. If you don’t own land or a second house, then look for areas to camp that can sustain you and your family.
You may also want to look into investing in a bug out vehicle, a 4 season tent or a small travel trailer.
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