lol @ American law enforcement

[Wumbologist]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

[Gallstones]

Most people are murdered by someone they know, usually a significant other or family member.

I kind of thought most people weren't murdered at all....

Ahem............

[egbert]

Most people are murdered by someone they know, usually a significant other or family member.

I kind of thought most people weren't murdered at all....

Ahem............

I kinda thought your truism was kinda funny....you're annoyed by that?????

[egbert]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

Well, if you are a survivalist, and have a tough, determined attitude, you probably do have a better chance than average of surviving a societal breakdown. But, a lot depends on factors outside your control. How many Japanese, confident of their own survival skills, succumbed to the earthquake and tsunami?
I survived because my parents lived on a farm during WWII - many in the cities, like Amsterdam, starved to death. Pure luck of circumstance.
So, don't be too confident - there are forces much bigger than your ego.

[MrJonno]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

Well, if you are a survivalist, and have a tough, determined attitude, you probably do have a better chance than average of surviving a societal breakdown. But, a lot depends on factors outside your control. How many Japanese, confident of their own survival skills, succumbed to the earthquake and tsunami?
I survived because my parents lived on a farm during WWII - many in the cities, like Amsterdam, starved to death. Pure luck of circumstance.
So, don't be too confident - there are forces much bigger than your ego.

Most people live in cities these days and the nearest they get to grass never mind crops is when they smoke it, supermarkets grow beef on their shelves remember. And when those people in the cities get hungry they start heading out to rural areas and everyone dies there as well

[Svartalf]

They were either very drunk or very stupid then. They'd have walked up US Route 301 from Main Street right past the IHOP, which is big, brightly lit and impossible to miss. Then walk another mile and a half, making several turns into a dimly lit, obvious ghetto.

You couldn't miss that IHOP if you were blind, deaf and dumb.

You personally know the area of the murders?

I know that I have managed to get myself somewhat lost walking in unknown US hoods, fortunately, it was daylight, and Beverly Hills close to Century City, so nothing bad ever came close to happening... but it still took me time to get my whereabouts sorted so I could get to point B

[MrJonno]

The idea that 2 men can't walk safeish after dark anywhere is just not part of British 'common sense'. Thats not to say you shouldnt be aware of local differences when you go abroad but not doing so means you have been foolish but does not mean you are a complete moron.

Firm believer that there is no such thing as common sense it implies common experiences and these are rarely universal

[Wumbologist]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

Well, if you are a survivalist, and have a tough, determined attitude, you probably do have a better chance than average of surviving a societal breakdown. But, a lot depends on factors outside your control. How many Japanese, confident of their own survival skills, succumbed to the earthquake and tsunami?
I survived because my parents lived on a farm during WWII - many in the cities, like Amsterdam, starved to death. Pure luck of circumstance.
So, don't be too confident - there are forces much bigger than your ego.

Of course, there are always things beyond my control. But it's always good to be able to manage the things within my control well.

[MrJonno]

Of course, there are always things beyond my control. But it's always good to be able to manage the things within my control well.

You have more ability to shape the government via voting than you have in controlling anything else when it comes to natural or non-natural disasters

[Coito ergo sum]

They probably were going to buy drugs.

I took a look at their route from the Gator Bar to where they were found. It doesn't make sense that they were going to the IHOP.

[Svartalf]

victim blaming much?

[Coito ergo sum]

How do you figure?

[Seth]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

Well, if you are a survivalist, and have a tough, determined attitude, you probably do have a better chance than average of surviving a societal breakdown. But, a lot depends on factors outside your control. How many Japanese, confident of their own survival skills, succumbed to the earthquake and tsunami?
I survived because my parents lived on a farm during WWII - many in the cities, like Amsterdam, starved to death. Pure luck of circumstance.
So, don't be too confident - there are forces much bigger than your ego.

Sometimes you die. So what? Preparedness is about maximizing your chances, not guaranteeing anything. People who are prepared and who take the time to build survival skill sets not only have a better chance at surviving, they live better, more productive lives because they understand that life isn't fair, nobody owes them anything, and in the end nobody is obliged to come to their rescue, so they must do it themselves. This helps keep them out of the dependency mindset that will kill people like you if anything goes wrong.

The people who lived through the tsunami in Japan were either lucky, or they were prepared and they moved fast and knew what to do and where to go when the warning sirens went off.

And people who starved in Amsterdam died because they failed to fight, and because they were unprepared to walk out their front door and leave everything they owned in the middle of the night when the Nazis arrived. Plenty of people died of starvation in the woods and fields of Europe during the war, and many of them fought tooth and nail to survive. But at least they tried. Those who capitulated to the Nazis in hopes that life under Nazi rule would be little different that life before were sadly mistaken and were unprepared to fight for their survival.

Oh well. Too bad for them.

[Seth]

Typical city has a few days supply of food, that stops flowing and millions will begin to die in weeks. The whole point of Mad Max and other apocalyptic films is most people don't survive billions die etc. You may think you are Mel Gibson I more like 'most people' . My survival relies on a functioning government (doesnt need to a very nice just functioning)

Exactly. I can function within the society, and will outlast many others if that society breaks down.

Well, if you are a survivalist, and have a tough, determined attitude, you probably do have a better chance than average of surviving a societal breakdown. But, a lot depends on factors outside your control. How many Japanese, confident of their own survival skills, succumbed to the earthquake and tsunami?
I survived because my parents lived on a farm during WWII - many in the cities, like Amsterdam, starved to death. Pure luck of circumstance.
So, don't be too confident - there are forces much bigger than your ego.

Most people live in cities these days and the nearest they get to grass never mind crops is when they smoke it, supermarkets grow beef on their shelves remember. And when those people in the cities get hungry they start heading out to rural areas and everyone dies there as well

Not really. We in the rural areas are generally well-armed and prepared to defend ourselves, something urban residents are not accustomed to. Mostly the dependent class will sit in the cities and starve, and eat each other, because they are unprepared to face life in the wild for even a single night.

[Seth]

Of course, there are always things beyond my control. But it's always good to be able to manage the things within my control well.

You have more ability to shape the government via voting than you have in controlling anything else when it comes to natural or non-natural disasters

Complete nonsense. The individual has almost no power whatsoever to shape government. When it comes to disasters, I can control many things all by myself.

For example, just the other day, a train car passing by on the tracks that run about 100 yards from my house began leaking toxic hydrochloric acid. The train was stopped a mile or so away and an evacuation was ordered for the homes within a mile of the spill, which fortunately wasn't large. I was not in the evacuation area, but irritating fumes could be detected at my house. Now, virtually no one in the evacuated residences had any choice but to leave, and had the spill been a major one, serious health problems or even death could have been the result for people within about 800 yards of the spill. I seriously doubt that anyone in the area other than the fire department and hazmat responders were prepared for such an event.

I was. I've lived near railroad tracks before, and when I was in college in Florida, I narrowly missed being killed by a train derailment near Pensacola that ruptured six cars filled with chlorine. Fourteen people died driving along the adjacent interstate when they drove into a cloud of chlorine gas that looked like fog in the middle of the night that rolled down over the highway from the wrecked train.

I missed driving into that cloud of gas by about 10 minutes.

After that experience, and since my apartment was within 100 yards of rail line where trains blasted through town at 60 mph, I bought two full-face respirators, one for my bedroom and one for my car. I still have a respirator with an organic vapor/acid gas cartridge in my bedroom and in my car. For an investment of a little more than $200, and some minor yearly expenses to replace the cartridges, I'm prepared to save my life and escape a large number of rail-related toxic material releases.

Had that rail car full of acid gone off the rails and ruptured near my house, it's quite likely that I would have been one of the very few survivors in the immediate area because I took simple precautions based on the known and predictable hazards in my area.

Plus, I have a respirator that I can use for painting and suchlike if I need it.

THAT is what preparedness is all about. Taking reasonable precautions and educating oneself in proper response to emergencies. It's not about paranoia, it's about common sense.