5 tips for surviving an economic disaster

OK, so this guy’s five tips really boil down to “have important stuff and keep it safe.” Having plenty of important stuff is important for dealing with serious stuff. Gotcha.

But as a survivor of an economic crisis and witness to others of late he makes one strong point: have cash money. Make it rain.

Hyperinflation is one possible result of economic meltdown, but it’s not necessarily the result, and even after it starts, having a supply of cash on-hand is a good idea. Cash, even in an economic disaster, has value for a time.

If you don’t have twenty minutes to listen to the guy ramble, the types important stuff to have in case of serious stuff are pretty straight-forward and can be classified as a couple of things:

• Have safe stuff: high ground, shelter, layered security, and safes for your important stuff,
• Have important stuff: money, money alternatives, water, food, ammo, etc.

That’s pretty much it. His suggested money alternatives are get an offshore bank account and get some precious metal currency. There are still limits to gold and silver, but if you have that, cash, and stuff to barter with, well, you won’t die.

Also, be wary of any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. After the collapse, they go evil.

Japan deploys ballistic missiles amid North Korean launch fears

tl;dr just like Missile Command, baby

@IBN Live:

Amid rising tensions over speculations of North Korea conducting missile tests, Japan has rolled out its ballistic missile defence system on Monday. Aerial footage shot by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed launchers equipped with Patriot surface-to-air missiles deployed at three bases on the Japanese mainland, one – on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Japan has refused to comment on the deployments, saying it does not want to reveal operational details to North Korea or alarm the public. Japan has taken similar measures before previous North Korean launches. It has never actually tried to shoot down a North Korean missile and was not expected to try to do so unless there was a clear threat to Japanese territory.

North Korea is believed to have moved ballistic missiles to its east coast, possibly in preparation for a test launch. That has further raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid threats by North Korea and large-scale war games involving US and South Korean troops.

N.Korea ‘Planning Fresh Missile Test Soon’

tl;dr you got missile test in my underground nuke! You got underground nuke in my missile test!

@Chosunilbo:

North Korea notified foreign diplomats from several countries of its plan to launch a missile over Japan toward the Pacific Ocean around Wednesday, the Sankei Shimbun reported citing informed sources.

The North on Friday urged foreign embassies to evacuate their missions in Pyongyang, saying it cannot guarantee the safety of staff.

South Korea believes the North may test a Mudusan-type missile with a range of 3,000 to 4,000 km as early as Tuesday, given that communication on the east coast has been on the increase.

Meteor detonates over Russia, or This is why we need NASA

“After the flash, nothing happened for about three minutes. Then we rushed outdoors The door was made of glass, a shock wave made it hit us,” said Yekaterina Melikhova.

…

Later Friday, an asteroid known as the 2012 DA14 as due to come within 17,100 miles of Earth at 2:24 p.m. ET, a record close-approach for an asteroid this size.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the incident showed the need for leading world powers to develop a system to intercept objects falling from space.

“At the moment, neither we nor the Americans have such technologies” to shoot down meteors or asteroids, he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

We don’t have a way to stop planet-killers (although 2012 DB14 isn’t). Not that people don’t have good ideas, but most—if not all, still the most viable solutions—we can’t put into motion. We don’t have a heavy-lift space platform, because we retired the Shuttle.

And even still, the Shuttle wasn’t the most powerful, that title is still held by the Saturn rocket. The preeminent vehicle mankind has ever endeavored was the Saturn, which was designed with slide rulers.

A while back I read “Space Chronicles” by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an interesting albeit somewhat repetitive collection of essays. Tyson makes four very strong arguments for why people should be willing to give a latte’s worth of money a year to NASA and why NASA needs to build a new heavy-lift platform.

• We need to go to Mars. With people. If we ever expect to understand life, answer the question, “How did we get here?” it’ll be on Mars,
• You can thank NASA for pretty much everything. All your Walkmans and airplanes and microwave ovens can trace a near-direct lineage to the space program, and if we want new science, we need to spend money on it
• If an asteroid is out to get us, we can’t do jack about it. Russia is keenly aware of this today,
• A fourth point I can’t ever remember. It was a while back, I read the book right when it came out.

Anyway, shit got real today, this is a stark reminder of how fragile things are. Hug a loved one today, we all got lucky for the trillionth time.

Mars Rover Spots Metallic ‘Arm’ Sticking Out Of A Rock

tl;dr we welcome our Martian overlords

That thing I was telling you about, it’s in the teddy suit.

@HuffPo:

You may remember the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover currently drilling rocks on the Red Planet already found strange shiny things and what was labelled a ‘Martian Flower’.

But if anything, this is even weirder.

An image posted by Nasa on 30 January and taken with the right Mastcam on Curiosity shows what appears to be a 0.5cm metal spoke protruding out of a rock.

The strange sight – which looks a bit like a robotic arm – was noticed by imaging editor Elisabetta Bonora from Italy.

Whatever it is looks shiny, casts a shadow on the rock below and looks different to the rock it emerges from.

How to prepare for a bacon shortage

Don’t worry, it’s not going to be that bad.