The Wireless Emergency Alert System

A bit of an update on the last post...

During the storms we had a couple days ago, I noticed my cell phone (and everyone else's cell phones) would go off occasionally with emergency warnings.  I thought it was a bit odd as while I do get some updates which I specifically signed up for (Nixle, CNN breaking news, etc), these messages seemed to come from out of the blue.  A day later, our local newspaper ran a story about these alerts.  Seems they come from a newish system called the Wireless Emergency Alert System.  Read more about it here.  Mystery solved.

It's Monsoon Season in the Desert

While living in the desert means we may only get six days of rain a year, all of the rain seems to come at once.  This has been the case over the past few days.  Wind, rain, thunder, lightening...all made an appearance over the past few days and in some areas (fortunately not where we live) that led to flash floods.  Here's some precautions to take when in the desert during monsoon season (aka summer):

• If it is raining, try to stay indoors.  Floods can form very quickly.  You may be walking down a dry street one minute and see a river of water coming at you the next.
• If it is raining, try not to drive in low-lying areas and certainly don't drive on flooded streets (you don't know if the street below the water has been washed away or not).
• Don't play in the wash!  Each season the washes fill up with water and look like fun places to play.  Each season people drown from playing or swimming in the wash because the fast moving water sweeps them down the channel and drowns them under the debris.  Sad.
• Pay attention to the news.  If there is rain predicted, you can guarantee it will be a big deal on the news (not so much in Seattle, but in the desert it is a whole different story).  There will be newscasts warning about potential flooding and a weather alert will flash across your regular TV programs to alert you as well.
• Something new:  this is the first time I have received an unsolicited weather-alert on my cell phone (see photo above) and it seemed like the alert was pinged off of the local towers because everyone in the poker room a couple days ago received the same alert.
• Prepare your home for a storm just like you would do anywhere else.  If you know it will be windy and stormy, bring in (or tie down) the lawn furniture, lawn ornaments, deck chairs, garbage cans, etc. so they won't fly down the road.
• Cut down dead or dying trees before storm season begins.  Some people didn't do this.
• If the weatherman says there will be a storm, postpone your outdoor activities (like hiking or golf).  Lightening is nothing to mess with.
• If you live in an area that is prone to flooding, take precautions ahead of time (like sandbagging, finding out where the closest shelter is that you can evacuate to, having your BOB ready to go at a moment's notice, etc).
• These storms can also cut your electricity for either a short or long time; prepare accordingly.
• Unplug your sensitive appliances (like TVs and computers) during an electrical storm.

These are basic, common sense rules which can often be forgotten in the middle of an exciting storm.  Yes, the water looks pretty, but yes, the force of less than a foot of fast moving water can knock you off your feet and carry you away.  Ditto for your car.

10 Things You Should Know

Everyone once in a while I think to myself "I wonder if my readers know this?"  Here's a list of things you should know:

1. More on Michael Hastings (the conspiracy continues).  
2. Does your city/town/county/state have any useful discounts for you?  A bit of Googling around saves me the cost of most of my annual vehicle registration fees just by taking advantage of this program.  Your area may have similar discounts (for veterans, seniors, low income, et al).
3. I posted this link on the Daily Insight links page but it is so important that I am posting it here as well.  Tldr; don't let a lack of money stop you from doing amazing things (like reaching your goals, setting off on an adventure, etc).
4. When you are buying things, always: search for discounts or coupons on the item, compare prices, check the discount bins, do price matching (example here), see if the product can be found at the Goodwill first (or online at Freecycle, Craigslist, etc).
5. I have the cheapest cell phone plan of anyone I know.  It's the $30 plan from TMobile at Walmart.  Needless to say, I don't talk on the phone much but do send a massive amount of texts and use the internet quite a bit as well.
6. Do you know about Kayak Explore?  I use this site to find super cheap fares to various places that we travel to (note that we often hop from place to place so I find a cheap fare, check the dates, then go on Travelocity and look up the one way fare on the sale date and can often get pretty cheap fares to our destinations.
7. This has absolutely nothing to do with preparedness except maybe the idea that you are only as old as you think you are and you need to "use it or lose it" and this woman obviously uses it quite often.
8. In a couple weeks you will find me here.
9. As I've pointed out before, the police are tracking you.  Here's how.
10. Where you won't find me is here (although I did give it a shot).

Jury Duty

At the beginning of the week, I got called for jury duty.  I've been called for jury duty about a half dozen times over the course of my life but never actually sat on a jury (including the last time back in Washington state.  When the judge said "will you follow the law when deciding your verdict as I tell it to you?" I had to disagree.  Apparently the judge didn't like my comment about jury nullification.  Funny, but I was never called for jury duty again in the state after I had a fairly lively discussion with the judge about the merits and legality of jury nullification but I digress...).
So fast forward to a few weeks ago when I got my jury duty summons.  My first thought was "ugh".  I think everyone's first thought is "ugh".  Of course I have no reason to try to get out of it.  I'm retired and have all the time in the world so I went ahead and showed up.  I can't blame those who really make an effort to get out of jury duty, especially if they will lose money because they need to miss work to attend (years ago the going rate was $11 per day for jurors pay, this week it was $40 per day after your second day of service which still can have a huge (negative) financial impact on most people who would lose money if they didn't work).
So I showed up for my civic duty, accepted that they wouldn't pay me enough to even make me get out of bed when I was working, decided to keep my mouth shut about jury nullification, and also decided that I should have a positive attitude about the experience (I mean, if I was in need of a jury, I wouldn't want ten pissed off people sitting in court thinking about what bills they weren't going to be able to pay because they were there instead of at work).
The process was glacial as usual.  Come in, sign up, watch a video, and wait.  And wait.  And wait.  A couple hours later the group of 60+ people were dismissed.  Just like that, we had done our service and wouldn't be called for another couple of years.  This was probably one of the best outcomes of jury duty--show up then be done.  Much harder is being on a sequestered jury or being on a criminal trail jury where the evidence includes things such as rape victims, sexually abused children, or people who were horrifically murdered.  Being on a high profile case (a la Zimmerman/Martin) can't be a cakewalk either.

The bottom line is that jury duty is a civic duty and if you look at it in the right light, it can also be a privilege.  In many countries, the people have no say in how a legal decision is made and everyone tends to suffer in those circumstances, the innocent and the guilty (I met one mayor of a small town in a third world country whose answer to the drug problem was to kill users and dealers alike.  The rich could get off--corruption was, of course, a thing there--and the poor, whether guilty or innocent--usually ended up dead and buried in the local mountains).  Of course I am still in favor of jury nullification...

Beat the Heat

Now that we have lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years, seeing temperatures over a hundred degrees has become routine.  However, for much of the rest of the country that is now suffering under a heat wave that is covering a fairly good piece of real estate in the northeast, high heat coupled with high humidity can be deadly.  Here's some tips for beating the heat:

• Go where it is cool (indoors if you have air conditioning, shopping malls or the library if you don't).  Keeping cool is, obviously, the best way to beat the heat.
• If you don't have central air (most houses in the Northeast don't), consider getting a window air conditioner and keeping only one room in your home cool where everyone can hang out (obviously it is better to buy this unit on sale, at the end of the season, and not at the height of the heat wave when prices are jacked up and/or they are sold out).
• If you normally sleep on the second floor, consider sleeping the the basement where it is cooler.
• Portable fans are a good go-to for basic cooling.  Fans blowing air over a tub of ice is even better.
• Do all of your outdoor activities in the early morning or the evening.  In cases where the temperature never really "goes down", consider suspending outdoor activities until the heat wave breaks.
• Stay hydrated.  It's easy to forget to drink extra water when the temperature rises but staying hydrated is the best way to ward off dehydration (and its symptoms which can range from nausea and dizziness to coma and death).
• Break out your first aid manual and refresh your memory on how to treat sunburn, dehydration, and heat stroke (obviously in life threatening cases, call 911 and skip the self-help).
• Check on elderly friends and neighbors (the ill and elderly often have difficulty regulating their body temperature and can more easily suffer heat maladies.  They also may not have the money/ability to set up their home to beat the heat).
• Know where cooling shelters are located.  You may not need them but in the event of a power outage which kills your AC, you may need to seek shelter away from home.
• If you do need to be outside during the heat of the day remember to dress appropriately (long pants, long sleeve shirt, a hat, 30+ SPF sunscreen lotion, a bandanna that you can soak in water and put over your head or around your neck, etc).
• Better yet, if you usually work outside, ask your boss if you can start really early (4am or so) and finish early so you can avoid being outside during the hottest part of the day.
• Head for the hills.  Cities are hot.  All of that concrete radiates heat and the temperatures can rise dramatically.  If you have the option of heading out for a few days, setting up camp near a river of stream in the cool mountains may be just the thing.
• Make sure your car is in good working order.  Fuel your car when it is cool.  Check the air in your tires. Make sure your tires are in good condition (every year in Las Vegas stories of blown out tires  due to poor condition mixed with super hot roadways and the ensuing fatality accident make the news).  In addition, keep extra bottled water in your car and if your car looks like it wants to overheat, pull over and let it cool off before proceeding.
• Carry an umbrella.  It's unusual in the US but in many hot countries people carry their own shade--an umbrella.
• Make sure you have cash on hand, a small stockpile of food, a stockpile of bottled water...basically all of the things you need to survive should the electricity go out (which it often does when everyone has their AC cranked up for days at a time thus overloading the electrical grid).
• Make sure your pets have plenty of water and access to shade or an area to cool off.
• NEVER leave anyone in the car, even if just for a few minutes.  This includes the kids, the pets, and grandma.  Temperatures in a closed car can spike quickly and cause death in minutes.
• Open the shades in your home in the morning and air out your house.  As soon as temps rise, close up your house like a tomb in order to keep the heat out.
• Don't use appliances that will heat up your house.  This includes the oven, the clothes dryer, and even the TV (which can put off a great deal of heat).
• Eat cooling foods--watermelon, cold sandwiches, salads, etc.

10 Thoughts on the Zimmerman Verdict

There are about a million opinions on the recent verdict in the George Zimmerman-Treyvon Martin case.  I'll add my two cents:

1. When you carry a firearm, you need to act with an abundance of caution and a higher amount of restraint than someone who doesn't carry since you have the means to end someone's life and that kind of thing can't be undone.
2. Unless you are defending someone's LIFE (not property which can be replaced), 'watch and report' is what you need to do (there are some exceptions to this but in an urban area, in a non-life threatening situation, this is exactly what should be done).  Hunting down a "suspect" with a weapon is a bad idea for a number of reasons (like the multi-year legal problems you will face in the event of a poor outcome, like elevating a simple situation into a fight for your life, like having to detain a suspect when you have NO TRAINING for such a thing, etc).
3. When you carry a firearm you need the right mindset (not the "I'm even more macho now with a firearm" mindset but "the amount of responsibility I have now undertaken has quadrupled" sort of attitude).
4. When you carry a firearm you need to back that choice up with a massive amount of training.  Basic firearm handling training, the legalities of carrying a firearm training, close quarters combat training, tactical shooting training, etc.
5. When you carry a firearm, you never go looking for a fight (unless it is in your job description as in the case of military or law enforcement personnel).  If there is a fight, you have a duty to back away if at all possible.
6. At the intersection of law and justice, nothing is really clear.  Between Florida's Stand Your Ground Law and basic common sense and the types of criminal acts that could be considered in this case (really? 30 years to life or acquittal, not even reckless endangerment?), and public opinion, and--heaven forbid--the two people in this case were of different races...the whole case was a mess and there would be no good outcome.
7. This is why most "security guards", neighborhood watch folks, etc. aren't armed.  This is also the reason that agencies that do arm their folks (police departments, etc) go to great lengths to ensure proper training, have an extensive amount of policies for these matters, and have the legal wherewithal to back up their employees in the even of a negative outcome (plus a massive amount of liability insurance coverage).
8. Racism is still a thing, unfortunately.  There is no doubt in my mind that if Zimmerman would have come across a neatly dressed white teenager (picture a Mormon missionary), the outcome would have been different.  In that same vein, 49.7% of people arrested for homicide in 2011 were black (and blacks make up less than 10% of the population) so it isn't unreasonable that when looking at someone, using race as a factor in determining someone's motivations could come into play.
9. Florida's Stand Your Ground law should be revamped.  While I am all for "Castle doctrine" type laws, the slippery slope begins when anywhere you happen to be is considered your castle and you are justified in shooting anyone who appears to be a "threat".  That's pretty vague.
10. This won't be the first, or the last, of such cases, unfortunately.

Some Subreddits to Follow

These are among the sub-reddits that I check frequently for updated news and random useful information:

• Reddit Bureau of Investigation
• Everyday Carry
• Survival
• Travel
• Backpacking
• Bike Touring
• Frugal
• Guns
• Conspiracy
• You Should Know
• News
• Earth Porn
• Best of Reddit

Why You Should Know About Michael Hastings

Because (as shown time and time again) our government will run right over people who get in its way...

• Article about his death
• Was his car hacked?
• And an article from Infowars