Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, “I am prepared for the worst, but hope for the best” (Quotery.com). Some people falsely believe that being prepared is the sort of thing that is only reserved for fear mongerers and doomsday enthusiasts. However, being prepared does not mean that you want the worst to happen. On the contrary, it means that, although you hope for the best, you are simply ready for anything that might come your way. In the same way that you get insurance in case your health declines, it is important to take out your own “insurance policy” for every area in your life. This might include food storage, home repairs, budgeting, or any number of tasks.
Large-Scale Disasters
The most common motivator for people when it comes to preparedness is the type of disaster that gains international attention. Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, and all manner of natural disasters have a habit of igniting the prepping spark in many people. Such occurrences are often unpredictable and can leave hundreds of people without homes or even, sadly, their loved ones. However, even those on the outskirts of a disaster can suffer dire consequences. At the very least, they may be trapped in their homes for days on end, perhaps without power or water. This is where your emergency food and water comes in handy.
Smaller Catastrophes
However, although these are the ones which gain the most attention, natural disasters are not the only, and certainly not the most common, reason for needing to keep certain emergency items in your home. You might not have considered it before, but a sudden job loss could come from nowhere and make it extremely difficult to feed yourself and your family.
Building on a decade of success in making satellite data available to users for disaster response, the International Charter ‘Space and Major Disasters’ has opened its doors even wider and is now providing universal access to the Charter during natural emergencies – a move that was initiated when the UK was leading the Charter in 2011.
Any country, regardless of whether they are a Charter member, is now able to draw upon the data provided by this international network of satellites.
This new principal of free universal access means the Charter will play an even bigger role in helping countries respond effectively to emergencies and will ultimately help save more lives.
Satellite images can make a tremendous difference in the immediate aftermath of an emergency, providing invaluable and immediate satellite images during times of crisis. Without the Charter it could be many days before a satellite is able to provide the images needed by civil protection authorities during a disaster.
By using the Charter they have access to a vast range of satellite resources and can assess the extent of damage or decide where to target their resources. Radar images can see through fire or smoke, and other sensors can even monitor the spread of pollution.
The Charter is a great example of the enormous benefits space can bring to our everyday lives. Since it was set up in 1999, it has helped in more than 300 disasters for more than 100 countries. Events where the constellation has played an important role during the past decade include the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (2005), the Asian Tsunami (2004) and the UK floods of 2007, amongst others.
English: Activation cycle of International Charter on Space and Major Disasters Polski: Cykl aktywacji Międzynarodowej Karty Przestrzeni Kosmicznej i Kataklizmów (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Uniquely, the UK is a member of the Charter on a public-private basis that makes best use of the available government and commercial expertise. The UK Space Agency holds a seat on the Charter’s Board, providing policy direction and examining ways to improve Charter performance in future.
The UK’s DMC International Imaging Ltd (DMCii) operates the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC), a currently five-strong commercial satellite constellation specifically designed to respond to disasters. DMCii provides the UK operational contribution to the Charter as a member of the Charter’s Executive Secretariat.
Chris Hedges, Truthdig Op-Ed: “We are, and have long been, the primary engine for radicalism in the Middle East. The greatest favor we can do for democracy activists in Iran, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf and the states that dot North Africa, is to withdraw our troops from the region and begin to speak to Iranians and the rest of the Muslim world in the civilized language of diplomacy, respect and mutual interests.”
Nomi Prins, Op-Ed: “All these dots and lines project a gamed world, where it is not sweat or merit that propels people forward, but connections and power and pedigree. That’s why there’s an Occupy Movement. As I wrote on behalf of the compelling book, ‘The economic elite vs. the People,’ ‘Occupy Wall Street has coalesced across towns, cities, and countries.”
Henry A. Giroux | The Scorched-Earth Politics of America’s Four Fundamentalisms
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: “Americans seem confident in the mythical notion that the United States is a free nation dedicated to reproducing the principles of equality, justice and democracy. What has been ignored in this delusional view is the growing rise of an expanded national security state since 2001 and an attack on individual rights that suggests that the United States has more in common with authoritarian regimes like China and Cuba ‘than anyone may like to admit.'”
Obama blasts GOP candidates for ‘beating the drums of war’ on Iran
By Jonathan Easley – 03/06/12 01:52 PM ET
President Obama shot back at his Republican critics over accusations he has shown a lack of resolve in protecting Israel from a potentially nuclear-armed Iran, condemning their “bluster” in “beating the drums of war.”
“Those folks don’t have a lot of responsibilities,” Obama said at his first press conference since October 2011. “They’re not commander-in-chief. When I see the casualness with which some of these candidates talk about war, I’m reminded of the decisions I have to make in sending these men and women into war.”
By Jordy Yager
Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday said the Obama administration has the “clear authority” to kill U.S. citizens overseas who are believed to be a terrorist threat.
by Erik Wasson
A battle over reauthorizing the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is pitting conservative groups against big business and could lead to an insurrection against GOP leaders in the House this month.
By Alicia Mundy
Unions and conservative groups have turned the state’s battle over labor rights into a national, multimillion-dollar war that will reverberate through the presidential and congressional races this fall.
Paul Buchheit , Op-Ed: “The super-rich like to believe their own initiative and creativity have been the primary drivers of growth in technology and science and business and medicine. Some innovative business leaders deserve credit for putting the pieces together on specific initiatives. But the pieces themselves were put together over many years by thousands of less conspicuous people.”
American Airlines Union President Sees Future Without Pensions
Josh Eidelson, In These Times: “Weeks after American Airlines’ parent company AMR submitted a bankruptcy proposal to its three unions, labor and management say time is running out to reach negotiated settlements. Any unions that don’t reach deals with AMR may have their new contract terms, and the number of layoffs, set directly by a bankruptcy judge.”
Stocks closed sharply lower Tuesday, with the Dow posting its first triple-digit decline in 2012, fueled by fears over a Greek default and amid economic growth concerns.
Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham are just about as close as anyone in the U.S. Senate. They travel together, make joint media appearances and seem to sing the same song in their appeals to the American people. That song often revolves around the need for more war.
US Mercenaries admit they are Mercenaries in Syria 06-03-12
Lesley Clark, News Report: “Israel is afraid that Iran — which says its nuclear program is for domestic reasons — could reach what the Israeli Defense Minister calls a ‘zone of immunity’ where Israel would be unable to take out Iran’s nuclear program. Obama argued there is time for diplomacy, ‘backed by pressure,’ to work — a call that met with little applause.”
Michael A. Memoli, News Report: “Republican Sen. John McCain said the United States should lead a military air assault on government forces in Syria, arguing the Obama administration’s continued efforts at diplomacy and sanctions against the Assad regime is “starting to look more like a hope than strategy.”
Netanyahu Tells Obama Israel May Attack Iran Alone if Necessary
Lesley Clark and Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers: “Highlighting their different views of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, President Barack Obama insisted Monday that diplomacy still has time to halt the effort, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reasserted Israel’s right to take unilateral military action, saying the Jewish state must remain ‘the master of its fate.'”
Mike Barrett, News Report: A 2011 study published in the journal Insect Conservation and Diversity found that increasing acreage of genetically modified Roundup Ready corn and soybeans is heavily contributing to the decline in monarch butterfly populations within North America. Milkweed, a plant butterflies rely on for habitat and food, is being destroyed by the heavy use of glyphosate-based pesticides and Roundup Ready crops. Over the past 17 years, the monarch butterfly population in central Mexico has declined, reaching an all-time low in 2009-2010.
Joe Romm, Video Report: “What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. This powerful talk is for anyone who thinks the tar sands are just another source of oil — and that the only source of greenhouse gases from the tar sands come from burning gas and oil.”
Way Beyond Greenwashing: Have Corporations Captured “Big Conservation”?
Tuesday 6 March 2012
by: Jonathan Latham , Dollars and Sense | Report
“Imagine an international mega-deal. The global organic food industry agrees to support international agribusiness in clearing as much tropical rainforest as they want for farming. In return, agribusiness agrees to farm the now-deforested land using organic methods, and the organic industry encourages its supporters to buy the resulting timber and food under the newly devised ‘Rainforest Plus’ label. There would surely be an international outcry.”
Japan’s Illegal Environmental Impact Assessment of the Henoko Base
Sakurai Kunitoshi, The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus: “Before dawn on December 28, 2011, with the end of the year looming, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (ODB) delivered a load of cardboard boxes to the office of the Okinawa Prefectural Government. The boxes contained copies of the environmental impact statement (EIS) for a base in the Henoko district of Nago that is planned as the replacement for the US Marines Corps Air Station Futenma.”
Imperial Valley Residents Must Fight for Right to Breathe Clean Air
David Bacon, New America Media: “Today, the land surrounding the two towns is farmed in huge tracts of hundreds of acres. To make the desert productive, ranchers not only built the world’s largest irrigation canal, but also developed farming methods dependent on chemical fertilizers and strong pesticides. Even with the recent advance of some large-scale organic operations, it’s still common to drive a local highway and see a small airplane called a cropduster make circular swoops and passes over the green crops.”
One Year After Fukushima – Defining and Classifying a Disaster
One Year After Fukushima – Defining and Classifying a Disaster
This is the first in a series of articles dedicated to preserve the facts revealed about the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. This coming week will mark the first anniversary of Fukushima’s multiple meltdown nuclear disaster. There is little data on how badly contaminated the now-abandoned area of forced evacuation is in the 20-kilometer (12-mile) zone around the Fukushima plant.http://theintelhub.com/2012/03/05/one-year-after-fukushima-defining-and-classifying-a-disaster/
Misc
Alleged LulzSec hackers held in international swoop
http://www.euronews.com/ Leading members of the computer hacking group LulzSec have reportedly been arrested in the US.
Irish police say they are also holding a man in connection with the investigation.
Court documents in New York hacktivist are said to show that the group’s suspected leader, Hector Xavier Monsegur who is nicknamed Sabu, was charged last year with conspiracy in computer hacking and had pleaded guilty.
There are reports that he had been cooperating with police for a while.
He is said to have been an influential member of three hacking organizations, involved in high profile attacks on major firms including online payment companies.
Court papers say Sabu formed LulzSec last May, and operated by identifying weaknesses in potential victims’ computer systems.
LulzSec is a spin-off of the loosely organised activist group Anonymous.
Some alleged associates of the collective are already facing charges in other countries such as Britain.
CURATOR: BARRACUDA. The establishment media has characterized the leader of LulzSec ratting out his hacktivist comrades as betrayal, but the incident reveals something far more sinister – government is responsible for creating and…
Troops Used For Crowd Control At Texas Kite Festival
Uniformed troops from the Texas State Guard were used for the purposes of crowd control during the Zilker Kite Festival in Austin this past weekend, with video showing the troops ordering parents and children to board school buses at the end of the event.
Disturbing footage of the troops controlling the movement of attendees was filmed by Infowars reporters, in addition to a police helicopter circling above. However, the website of the Zilker Kite Festival attempted to downplay the Guard’s involvement as if it was completely normal.
The U.S. Strategy to Control Middle Eastern Oil: “One of the Greatest Material Prizes in World History”
…..”The following is a research sample from The People’s Book Project. It is unedited and in draft format, but is intended as an excerpt of some of the research that is going into the book. This research sample is drawn from a recently written chapter on the history of American imperialism in the Middle East and North Africa……”
WikiLeaks: Russia gave Israel Iranian system’s codes
Document by intelligence company suggests Israel, Russia contracted deal several years ago under which Israel provided Russia with codes for UAVs it sold to Georgia in exchange for Iranian aerial defense system codes
A shocking video has appeared on the Internet showing Libyan rebels torturing a group of black Africans. People with their hands bound are shown being locked in a zoo-like cage and forced to eat the old Libyan flag. ”Eat the flag, you dog. Patience you dog, patience. God is Great,” screams a voice off-camera.
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