Friday, November 30, 2012

How Zoo Polar Bears Playing In Birthday Present Snow Affects You

These two polar bears are the oldest ones that have ever lived in an official zoo. They were given 10 tons of snow in their cage as a birthday present, along with frozen fish. The pictures show the polar bears enjoying their treats.

The sea ice that many polar bears live on and have for their territories is disappearing because of climate change. This and other climate change problems are likely to cause polar bears to become extinct within a couple of decades.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/polar-bears-chilly-birthday-surprise-194746103--abc-news-topstories.html

Many other kinds of wildlife are also becoming extinct due to climate change pressures on them and the environment they need to survive. 

Humans are more resilient than many species of wildlife, but we are also dependent on the earth and its environment to live. We are trading short term pleasures and comforts for our continued existence. 

We are giving our lives for the latest and biggest TV and car. The phrase, "to die for", is becoming literal. 

Hurricanes are getting bigger because of climate change. Hurricanes are killing more and more people. Climate change will cause storms to get much bigger than they are now and kill many more people.

We can stop making climate change worse by changing how we live every day. Most of us have much more than we need. If we give up some of those extras we are giving ourselves a chance to live longer. 

If we give ourselves that chance to live longer we can also have a chance to be more comfortable during those extra years. It is a lot like dessert. We can choose between eating it all at once or spreading it out so we have some later.

The things we are saving for us to have later are more important than dessert. They are things like having enough to eat and being able to stay warm in our homes, or even having homes or not starving to death. We need to save some of that for later. Maybe we can even have a few other creatures besides humans, like polar bears, if we save enough for later.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Develop Expertise In A Survival Skill For Barter

Even if you do not believe in any kind of TEOTAWKI  or WTSHTF events  happening in your lifetime you may be starting to see how you could end up in a disaster that will last for an extended period of time. Examples of this could be a hurricane or earthquake.

Destruction can be so extensive that it will require a long time for things to return to normal in your area. That can mean you will have to deal with chaos for a while.

Preparedness for long term disasters is different than for short term disasters. Long term preparedness requires more planning and a different way of thinking and looking at your planning.

Supplies, infrastructure to get more supplies in, and financial structure can all be in short supply for a long time. This means that if you are ready for a barter economy in your disaster area, you and your loved ones will be better off than if you are not prepared for a barter economy. 

You can plan to have extra essential supplies to barter during a long term disaster, but they will eventually come to an end and might not be replaceable. Having a skill to produce items that others will want or need during a disaster could be more helpful to you than having a finite amount of extra supplies to barter.

Some of the skills that you already have may be useful for barter. Part of your disaster planning could be taking a look at the skills that you and your loved ones already have. 

If you and your loved ones do not have any skills that might be good for barter in a long term disaster, you can pick a skill and develop it. 

Survivalists and preppers have many views on what kinds of skills might be good for barter. This blog post does not begin to have enough space to go into detail about what kind of skill you should develop for your own use and for barter during a long term disaster. 

Medical care is a skill that is always in demand during disasters and should include alternative medicine. If you know the herbs in your area and are well stocked and know how to get more, you can barter those skills and take care of your needs and those of loved ones.

That is just an example to get you started. You can look at your own likes and dislikes for what skill you might like to develop. If you think a certain skill might be helpful during a disaster, others will probably need the same thing.

If you can not afford to go to school or pay to learn a survival skill for barter, then look on the internet. You can learn almost anything you really want to learn on the internet for free. I already wrote a post on the use of search engines for preparedness. That can include preparedness by learning a new skill. You can look on the internet and learn that new skill.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Heavyweight Countries Throwing Their Weight Around

Once upon a time in a city long ago and far away, I was on a city bus. The bus stopped and two very large persons boarded the bus. They had to have weighed close to a ton (29.1667 grams) between them, or possibly more.

They both sat on the same side of the bus and took up about three seats each. The bus leaned precariously in their direction and rocked alarmingly as it drove away from the bus stop.

When I think of China, it sometimes reminds me of the bus incident I just described. 

China is such a heavyweight that when it sits down or moves, it can make the world tilt in its direction, just like a very large person on a bus.

Yes, I know, that is the pot calling the kettle black, since I live in the USA. The USA rocks the bus a lot too. That doesn't mean that the world isn't affected by either heavyweight rocking the bus.

The world is somewhat used to the USA rocking the bus or the planet. China doing this is something different in a lot of areas. 

One way that China has rocked the planet recently was particularly interesting to me because of personal experiences. I used to live and work on a farm that raised pigs in a factory style environment. China recently acted on a desire to have food security for its people in the area of pork. 

Lots of countries have strategic oil reserves. China just set up a strategic pork reserve. Here is the link to the story about it:
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/07/china-strategic-pork-reserve/

Lest you engage in unseemly levity on such a serious subject, this has real and serious international consequences. This is not that different from serious international consequences stemming from American consumption of MacDonalds burgers, but it is easier to see because it is comparatively sudden.

The amount of meat that China has in its strategic pork reserve is 200,000 pounds of frozen pork. Since China's pork consumption has doubled in the last twenty years, this is a reasonable and wise precaution, from a preparedness standpoint.

Since pork prices have skyrocketed recently, the Chinese government is going to try to hold down prices by releasing meat from its strategic pork reserves.

China's great increase in pork consumption has rocked the planet since it takes a lot of feed for all of those pigs. Here is a quote about it:
" In 2010 alone, China imported 50 million tons of soybeans, which makes up over half of soy’s global market while China’s corn imports make up one-third of the growth in world corn trade."

Even if you are a vegetarian, like me, China's pork consumption will affect you because of the above quote. People can eat that soy and corn. A lot more people can eat if they eat the soy and corn than if the soy and corn are fed to pigs and then the pigs are eaten.

The same thing happens when Americans eat burgers, from beef that eat food that people could eat. I don't think everyone has to be vegetarian because I am, but if people eat less meat, fewer people might be hungry. 

Eating a lot of meat can be fattening. Too much meat consumption is not healthy for an individual and neither is it for the planet. Big countries need to quit throwing their weight around and rocking the planet.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Is the UN Trying to Take Over the Internet? (Reprint)


The following article is posted exactly as published from the following site:
http://www.privatewifi.com/is-the-un-trying-to-take-over-the-internet/
  
I found the information in this article very disturbing, since I value the freedom of the internet. I expect my readers do as well, so I am posting it for you to read as well. 

The author has suggestions which I will highlight with a red color to make it easy for you to see and decide whether you wish to act on his suggestions.

Is the UN Trying to Take Over the Internet?




Is the United Nations trying to take over the Internet? The short answer is yes, they are.

This is not getting as much press as PIPA and SOPA, yet it’s urgent that people understand what is at stake: nothing less than the freedom of an open and unregulated Internet. In a few weeks, it may be too late.

So what can you do about this? You can let other people know about it.

But before you think this is a far-out political screed about how the UN is going to impose sharia law in the United States, you need to know more about a UN agency called the International Telecommunications Union, or ITU.

The ITU has been around for 150 years, when they started out establishing telegraph standards for the world. Since that time, they have become the main international agency coordinating telephone and radio interconnection standards, and officially became a part of the UN in 1947.

They never played any role in regulating the Internet. That is, until now. And what they are proposing, and we say this with no hyperbole, could fundamentally change the Internet as we know it.

The World Conference on International Telecommunications

In a few weeks, 193 member nations and hundreds of private members will meet in Dubai for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT).

At this conference, they will vote on whether to adopt changes to the International Telecommunications Regulations, which are laws governing how countries regulate their communication systems.

The alarming part of all this is that some member nations and private members (read: representative from telecommunication giants who stand to benefit enormously if these regulations pass) have begun to lobby for giving the ITU a vast expansion of regulatory powers, including new taxes and mandatory censorship technologies (only they call them “security measures”).

Some of these proposals claim to be for combating malware and spam, but they are obviously aimed at allowing countries to censor websites they don’t want published. These proposals would allow governments to shut down the Internet if they believe it is interfering in the internal affairs of the state or that information of a sensitive nature might be leaked.

But what’s worse, all of this is being done in secret, so no one really knows which nations or members are making these proposals and who can be held accountable.

Why You Should Care

Certain UN countries such as China, Russia, and Iran are hoping to use the ITU to censor Internet content. Telecommunication companies want to use the ITU to find new ways to tax Internet content.

For those of who want to preserve an open and free Internet and believe in net neutrality, these new measures proposed by the ITU would be a disaster. Up until now, the Internet has been a beacon of self-governance. What the ITU is proposing would change all of that.

One of the proposals being considered would in effect tax popular websites, such as Google and Facebook, for reaching non-U.S. Internet users. Many think that if this tax goes into effect, these websites will simply refuse to service non-U.S. customers instead of paying the tax.

This proposal seems to be a clear attempt to get revenue from successful online service providers for already very profitable telecom companies. Others believe that if these proposals pass, religious and political websites will be shut down.

 Is the UN Trying to Take Over the Internet?

Posted on Monday, November 26th, 2012 by Kent Lawson

This article is brought to you by PRIVATE WiFi, a personal VPN software that encrypts your data in public wireless hotspots. Using our easy software prevents identity thieves from hacking into your emails, online banking, social media accounts, and other personal information. To sign up for a FREE three-day trial, visit privatewifi.com.

We welcome you to post/reprint this article, as written, giving credit to the author and linking back to www.private-i.com.

I found this article because I was interested in protecting my security and privacy when using wi fi in public. The article sounds important to me. I do not know if what they have to say is true or the whole truth or not. I do think it is important to put it out there and let you see it while I check into it further.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Keeping Poisons Out Of Your Diet

I believe that staying healthy is important to being prepared for emergencies. You will have greater difficulties coping with emergencies if you are not healthy. During an emergency medical care can be very difficult to get. It is hard to work on preparedness if you are sick. Knowing how to stay well is a very good preparedness skill and knowing how to care for yourself and others with minor illness is another preparedness skill.

I think a lot of your health is affected by your diet. Good health is dependent on good nutrition. Just eating a balanced diet is not enough any more. We have to think about extras like GMOs and pesticides. 

I have already posted about GMOs. There are four GMO foods that are most common. They are: Soy, Corn, Cotton, and Canola. They make oil out of the last three and all four end up in a lot of food that are not necessarily labelled to let you know the GMOs are in them.

I found a list of foods to avoid because of having a lot of pesticides on them. I also found a list of foods that are relatively free from pesticides. I made a small print list of all of these foods, both good and bad ones, to carry in my wallet for shopping. I thought readers might like the list as well:


Wallet-sized list of good and bad foods for GMO's and pesticides.

Here is a link to the article about the dirty foods loaded with pesticides and the relatively clean foods:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods

The list of the Dirty Dozen Foods changes from year to year. This is due to different growing conditions that cause growers to use more pesticides or not. If the weather is especially wet, for example, more fungicides will be sprayed. If the crop is hit by a large infestation of a particular insect, the food will be sprayed for that.

There is another site that lists the pesticides that have been tested as being on a particular food. It is more specific than the Dirty Dozen list. This can be helpful if you want to avoid specific types of contaminants on your foods. It also lists the way the type of contaminant affects you. One that I find particularly edifying is neurotoxins. I believe that those would be especially likely to encourage autoimmune diseases and Alzheimers and Dementia.

Here is a quote from the site:

Learn More: ADHD & pesticide residues

"A new study out of Harvard shows that even tiny, allowable amounts of a common pesticide class can have dramatic effects on brain chemistry. Organophosphate insecticides (OP’s) are among the most widely used pesticides in the U.S. & have long been known to be particularly toxic for children. This is the first study to examine their effects across a representative population with average levels of exposure. Finding: Kids with above-average pesticide exposures are 2x as likely to have ADHD."

Here is the link:
http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/index.jsp

You can also search the site by pesticides that you particularly wish to avoid, or the types of by products that the pesticides break down into. These can be very toxic and have different effects than the original pesticides.

I cannot afford to eat only organic foods. This information is especially useful to those of us who are forced to eat non organic foods. We can avoid the worst culprits this way.

I hate to tell you this, if you don't already know, but there is another problem that we are dealing with. Organic foods can be contaminated by pesticides too. Some of this can be airborne or come from dust or water. 

This is one reason why I have ambitions of living out in the Alaskan Bush and growing as much of my own food as possible. I would like to avoid all pesticides. I think I have a better chance of doing it that way.

If you live in or near a large city, even if you grow everything you eat, you are getting pesticides. It is tough to avoid all that nasty stuff. I hope my wallet list will help you to stay healthier.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Holidays For Preparedness

For readers who are not familiar with the United States, this should be published on our Thanksgiving holiday. (I published my soy article instead.) Turkey is the most common main dish for the Thanksgiving meal.

Apologies for not publishing on time today. I am having trouble with the automatic scheduler. I don't usually believe it because it so seldom works, but last night it assured me that it published and I made the mistake of believing it. Sorry.

That doesn't work out for vegetarians like me. Some vegetarians buy or make a fake turkey called a, "tofurkey". Fake meat is unapealling to me, so I skip that too. I have different things to eat for the holiday. One that I have liked was vegetarian hot dogs with home made buns and home made mustard with tarragon in it. I have also had squash soup served in a scooped out squash half with creme' fraiche and peanut sauce.

One of my side dishes that I often make is, "Confetti Rice". I cook the most colorful combination of vegetables that I can find and mix it with rice. I add spicy brown sauce and usually include pineapple. Asians from all different countries like it and often tell me that their mother used to make it. I thought I invented it, "Who knew?"

Confetti Rice is a way to make almost any Asians happy for a special occasion. They often ask for the recipe and get tearful thinking about how Mom used to make it. This seems to include other ethnic groups like Pacific Islanders and some Africans and Europeans as well. It is nice to be able to make people happy with your cooking.

I used to make a cake for holidays as well, but may discontinue this since I have health problems that make eating it not such a good idea. I like to make a nice moist cake with fruit in it. I often top it with fruit slices and do a pour on fruity syrup sort of thing instead of frosting, that lets the fruit show.

I already posted my holiday cream puffs. Sometimes I do those for more than one holiday, but most often make the cream puffs around New Years. You can leave out the sweeteners and fill the shells with a main dish or side dish, as well as using them for a dessert. Egg substitutes do not work with these puff shells. You have to use real eggs. I have had years where this dish was the only time I used eggs during the entire year.

I ate a lot more eggs during the time I had my own chickens. I knew what they ate and that they were cared for well. That helped out with my health and ethical concerns for the chickens.

A dish that I often make is done with rye and it comes out bright pink in color. It has a nice tangy sweet taste. I got that recipe from the Rodale Press Basic Natural Foods Cookbook. You put the rye in a thermos with hot water overnight and that cooks it.

That book is out of print, but if enough people ask, they will probably reprint it. They already did that once when I got a lot of other people to ask them. The book is ideal for preparedness. It has nice tables for different cooking methods for foods. There is one for vegetables, one for grains, meats, etc. It has handy parts for each type of food that explain in depth about traditional healthy ways to cook those foods. 

The cakes that I usually make come from another favorite cookbook, "Make-A-Mix Cookbook". This one is also a good prepper cookbook. You can make and store your own convenience foods with this cookbook. It is pretty comprehensive. 

If you like it, you can take a look at the recipes and get the hang of how they are done, then start winging it and making your own recipe mixes. If you and your family have a favorite dish, for example, you can make a mix for that specific dish and cut down preparation time for making it. This makes it easier to, "Store what you eat and eat what you store". An extra benefit is that holiday cooking can be made much easier with this method.

Non-GMO Soy For Preparedness

Soybeans and things made from it like soymilk and tofu, are very good nutrition. Soybeans can also be grown in a lot of parts of the world. I believe they can be good for preparedness.

I just made my first batch of soy milk and dried the solids strained out of the milk, called, "okara". I put the okara on a couple of baking sheets in my oven on low temp until it was quite dry. I left it in the warm oven after I turned it off, over night. That was to make really sure it was dry. It could get spoiled otherwise.

The next day I ran it through the food processor until it was smooth. It has a mild cheese flavor. Once it is like this, you can store it as a dried food, no fridge or freezer necessary. It will last longer if you keep it dry and cool.

I am going to try sprinkling it on salads and baked potatoes. I suspect one can make a fake macaroni and cheese dish with it. 

Okara is very high protein and good nutrition. That, along with the ease of storing it when dried, makes it an excellent preparedness food.

I used the soy milk to make a fruit smoothie this time, but next batch is going to be tofu. The smoothie had a banana, soy milk, coconut milk and pineapple in it. It was very good. 

The can of coconut milk was quite a bit smaller than the crushed pineapple, which was about 15 or 20 ounces. The proportions do not seem to make much difference. 

I ran it through a food processor, which required a lot of small batches for liquids. It would have been easier to put it in a blender, but a food processor is what I have right now. My blender died.

I used several containers to put the processed smoothie into while I was doing the small batches. I mixed the batches after I ground them up so that the ingredients would be evenly distributed. 

I think I will try making a smoothie using a mortar and pestle, since I eventually want to live off grid (off of the electrical system). I think I will probably chop the banana up quite a bit before I start and I may grate the pineapple.

When I try the mortar and pestle smoothie, I will let you know how it comes out. 

I'm posting about what I'm eating tomorrow for Thanksgiving. I already have some of the recipes posted, in case you want to make anything that requires shopping before the stores are closed. Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

A New Recipe For Taking Diatomaceous Earth

I have made a new recipe for taking diatomaceous earth for humans. I believe it is better than the old one because it works better.

I think it works better because it is able to reach the parasites better. The recipe includes lemon. You can probably use other acidic liquids like other citrus and vinegar. I know people who drink raw cider vinegar in water daily. If you already do that, you could add diatomaceous earth or take diatomaceous earth right after you take the vinegar.

I think the acids clear away mucous from your digestive tract and expose the parasites inside you more to the effects of the diatomaceous earth. 

The recipe for taking diatomaceous earth can not be exact, so you will have to tinker with it a little to get it to your liking. Lemon and honey vary a lot in strength, so the taste will be different all the time.

I have done it two ways. One way is healthier, but more time consuming and a little more work. I think that can be overcome a little by making up enough to last for a few days and keeping it in the refrigerator.

The less healthy way is very fast and easy, and it should be possible to make it slightly healthier by making up your own drink mix. I only put two things in it besides water. I use food grade diatomaceous earth and lemon drink mix. It has white sugar in it, which is not very healthy. It does taste good, however and is very fast and easy to make. :-p

The brand I use is called, "Country Time Lemonade". It is pink lemonade. I happen to like pink lemonade and like to look at the color as I drink it. I don't always feel like being a sensible adult. So there!

I use warm water to make this diatomaceous earth mix because I like warm lemonade and the ingredients seem to mix better in warm water and you don't have to keep stirring it quite as much as you drink to keep the diatomaceous earth from settling on the bottom.

Here are the proportions: 

1 drinking glass of warm water, 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of lemon drink mix and 1 slightly rounded teaspoon of diatomaceous earth. 

Wait a few minutes after drinking it to give it time to work, before you eat or drink anything except water.

The healthier version is a little more trouble to make, but I believe it also can taste better. I use a small amount of lemon juice, about half a teaspoon of stevia powder that has inert ingredients in it to make it bulkier. They make it so you can use the same amount of the stevia powder as you would sugar. If you are using straight stevia, it will be a very tiny amount that will be the same sweetness as sugar.

I use a couple of drops of honey in addition to the stevia powder. That is because I don't like the taste of straight stevia. The diatomaceous earth is also a slightly rounded teaspoon. I don't use a measuring spoon, but a tableware spoon.

You could easily use only honey or other sweeteners to balance the sourness of the lemon. I use warm water in this version of a diatomaceous drink as well. 

There is no good reason for adding a drop of food coloring, but I put a little red food coloring in mine. You don't need to do this at all. 

If you want maximum benefit from your diatomaceous earth drink, you should probably wait at least twenty minutes before eating or drinking anything else except water. 

People often seem to get to my blog from a search engine and don't look around much. That means I am going to have to say again, in this post: Don't even take diatomaceous earth unless you have a constipation remedy ready. Unless you ordinarily have a diet that is very high in fiber, diatomaceous earth will make you constipated.

When I give diatomaceous earth to my cats, I get out their petromalt. I wait twenty minutes after they take the diatomaceous earth and dose them with petromalt. That way they don't get constipated.

I use diatomaceous earth to keep insects out of my grains that I have stored. I have only recently begun to eat grains stored this way. The diatomaceous earth treated grain is just beginning to be part of my diet. I am still eating store made pastas and other foods made from grain.  

As I gradually replace store grains with my own from storage that is treated with diatomaceous earth, I expect to get enough diatomaceous earth in my diet to stop needing to take it separately. 

I don't know how long this process will take. I don't know how to make pasta very efficiently yet and still use mostly store pasta now.

I have begun treating my cat's food with diatomaceous earth for storage. They are now eating enough diatomaceous earth in their dry cat food that I don't believe it is necessary to dose them to kill parasites. If you decide to do this as well,  you need to give your pets extra fiber in their diet and watch them closely for signs of constipation.

Most cats like some kinds of vegetables or fruits. They are all different in their preferences. You will have to experiment to see what your cats like. Most cats like corn on the cob. You can leave a little on the cob when you eat it and offer it to your cat. It is a lot of fun to watch them eat it. I have had some that would growl and swat at anything or anyone that came near them when they were eating their corn on the cob.

You will probably have to help them learn to eat it to get them started. Some of the ways that I have used were:

Taking one kernel off the cob and squashing it between my fingers and putting it in their mouth or holding it out to them on the palm of my hand.

Poking a hole in a kernel off of the cob and letting some of the liquid inside start to come out and putting it in their mouth or holding it out to them on the palm of my hand.

The last one is the way I usually do it now. I make my cats sit up and beg for it. They usually get excited about anything they have to beg for and want to eat it, so I don't have to do anything else to get them to try it. This is a big advantage of teaching your cats to sit up and beg.

Both of my cats also like to eat peas. I just give them frozen peas that are  thawed out. I have started taking a few frozen peas out when I get up in the morning and putting them near the coffee pot while it is heating. I put the peas in warm water most of the time so they will be softer. My cats like them better that way. By the time their canned cat food is ready to serve them, the peas are unfrozen. I put about a teaspoon full on each cat's dish with the canned cat food. 

Both of my cats also like green beans. Only one of them likes yogurt with bits of peaches in it. The other likes canned black olives. One of them likes an occasional bit of leaf lettuce from my salads. Both of them like the oats I make for my breakfast, but not every day.

I feed my cats oat grass that I grow for them. During the winter it can be harder to keep them a steady supply, so I supplement with fruits and vegetables more.

One of my cats smells peas cooking even when in a sound sleep. As soon as he smells them he comes running and yells for his kitten tax. The other one prefers to be served in bed. He is 23 years old, so he is entitled to the extra service.

My cats eat a lot of other fruits and vegetables and cats' preferences really vary, so you will have to experiment to see what your cats like. It is a good idea to familiarize yourself with foods that are harmful to cats before you feed them people food. Chocolate, for example, is very bad for them.

When I used to eat ice cream, I stopped getting chocolate ice cream, because I couldn't share it with my older cat who loves ice cream. I couldn't bear his sad looks when I ate chocolate ice cream and didn't give him any. Chocolate was my favorite too. 

I eat sorbet now because it has no cholesterol. Peach is my favorite of the kinds from the store. My ice-cream-loving-cat eats a little sorbet, but does not like it as much as peach yogurt or peach ice cream. He likes it better if I mix it with a little plain yogurt. 

When I make my own sorbet, it has a high fiber content, but the kind from the store may not. It is probably not a good idea to depend on fiber in the store kind. 

I know some people who stir their diatomaceous earth into a glass of water and drink it that way. I really dislike it that way. That is why I made up recipes to drink diatomaceous earth. I probably would not take it otherwise. It may be healthier to drink it with only water, but putting other stuff in it to make it drinkable is better than not taking it. 

The healthy version of this new recipe for diatomaceous earth is much less expensive than the drink mix. You need more ingredients on hand and it takes more time to make. You will have to try different things and see what works best for you.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Real Parasites

One of the things that I heard the spooks talking about when I worked for them was a "black budget". By this, they meant money intended for other purposes that they took for their own use. 

I think that other people should know about this. The number of spooks that this country supports is really huge. So is the black budget that provides most of their funding. The USA is like an animal with so many parasites that they are killing us. That is why you get $500.00 toilet seats. The Pentagon is not that incompetent. That expensive toilet seat is just a way of getting more money into the black budget.

One of the ways the spooks get "cooperation" and silence on all of this is through blackmail and bribery. Yes. I know. Big surprise. The surprise is how bad it is. Our government can barely function because of this problem.

That is why politicians make all those promises and they go out the window once they are elected. They get blackmailed into doing what the spooks want instead of what they promised and actually intended to do.

The extent of what the spooks do to get information for this blackmail is mind boggling. I was in shock for years as I kept finding out more and more about what our spooks will and are doing to get blackmail information.

People often say, "I have nothing to hide. What does it matter if they spy on me?" They can take the most innocent information and put you in prison and throw away the key, or torture and kill you. They can blackmail people you really need to be honest.

This is our military, our judges, our politicians and the county clerk in charge of voter registration, and counting the votes. There are lots more than that. They can blackmail your doctor and your lawyer. 

If  you have nothing to hide, then they can make something up when they blackmail your doctor, lawyer and accountant. They like blackmailing judges. Innocence won't protect you. Innocence, probably makes you an easier target for them. 

They have a tactic that they use constantly because it works so well for them. They have a lot of timeshare apartments and condominiums in desirable locations like Hawaii or Acapulco. They have those places really wired up. Everything you do in them is recorded from every angle.

They give people great deals or even free use of those places. Most people jump at the chance. 

The spooks have a lot of male and female prostitutes working for them. They have an especially large number of under 18-year-olds, or who look very young without makeup. 

Once you are in one of the fancy timeshares the spooks make sure you are drunk or drugged and have one of their young prostitutes go back to the timeshare with you. The prostitute will have sex with you. It will be recorded.

The spooks wait until you wake up or even get back home before they present you with the incriminating evidence that you have just been recorded committing statutory rape. Now you belong to them for the rest of your life.

The spooks own most of our judges and politicians. There are not many people that they can not manage to control without any further effort.
Just because you have not been blackmailed so far does not mean the bad guys (1%) do not have something ready to use on you. They probably do.

The spooks have an unbelievable eavesdropping system. Every form of telecommunications is accessible and probably under constant surveillance by them. They do this by using super computers. They have programs that monitor everything. 

The programs are incredibly sophisticated. The spooks can set the programs to flag certain key words, names and phrases. They can also set them to recognize voices. If they want to, they can record every conversation you ever have on any phone you pick up and start talking on. It does not matter whether it is a cell phone, or land line or if it is in your name or not. They can do this to most of the phones in the entire world. 

I almost left out something important. You don't even have to talk on a phone for the spooks to hear and record your conversations. If there is a phone in the room with you, they can listen. They can do this even with the phone turned off, and the battery removed, on the newer phones.

They can do the same with the internet. They can get every email you send, every chat room or forum you use. They can record every keystroke you make. Literally. Their programs are that sophisticated, and big. They have that much memory storage available that they can do this to everyone in the world.

A few years ago we passed the point where our spooks had enough memory storage available to store twenty files on every person in the United States. We have passed that for everyone in the world and they are still going.

This post is long enough. 






Monday, November 19, 2012

Climate Change Humor

I notice occasionally that there are still people out there who are denying that climate change is in progress. I hope that hurricane Sandy makes a dent in a few of those hard heads.

Here is a funny video that is about climate change. It is easy to watch, but has some good information in it that you need to know if you are a recent or potential newbie to accepting climate change. If not it is just funny.

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/todays-weather-report-weather-girl-goes-rogue


I live in the Arctic area. This area has climate change happening faster than anywhere else on earth. A lot of glaciers are melting and will soon be gone in the Arctic area. There is much less sea ice every year. That means that polar bears that used to have territory out there are now crowded up against land based polar bears and they are have territory problems. 

Polar bears have very large territories for each bear. The extra territorial crowding caused by sea ice melting and taking away lots of polar bear territory has forced some polar bears to move further and further south than they ever have before. 

Polar bears have begun mating with Grizzly bears because of the southern moves. The hybrid bears are called, "Grolars". They are mostly white with some brown or very pale brown or ivory colored with some brown.

Grolars were first discovered by hunters who shot them. They are still rare, but we can expect more of them. This is because there is less sea ice every year and more polar bears are forced to crowd ashore.

Melting sea ice is also more hazardous for polar bears. They are stranded too far out at sea more often now. If the polar bears are too far out when the ice melts around them they can not swim to land before they drown. Polar Bears have been spotting swimming out where it is too far for them to get to land.

Lots of people like Polar Bears. The babies are especially cute and adorable looking. Even more people are not very interested in Polar Bears. Even if you are not interested in Polar Bears they are still important to you.

The reason why the problems of Polar Bears are important to all of us is because they show us how climate change can hurt humans.

Climate change causes lots more problems than big storms in New York, or New Jersey. One of these is weather changes in the whole world.

Climate for most of the earth is affected or even made by what happens in the Arctic. Weather people used to call the Arctic, "the weather factory". 

Two easy to understand ways that the Arctic creates weather in areas far from the Arctic are streams of moving water in the oceans called, "El Nino", and "La Nina". 

These two streams of moving water in our oceans can determine the weather for the next year over large areas of the world. They can mean the difference between good weather and bad; storms and drought or nice weather that is good for crops.

Since everyone has to eat, good weather for growing our food is important to us all. When we have droughts over such a large part of the United States as this year, food prices will go up a lot all over the world. 

Even people who can afford food when the prices go up, don't like paying higher prices. Other people can not pay higher prices and they starve or fight other people to try to get food. That means more wars. Wars have a nasty way of spreading. Even if you are not fighting over food, you can end up in a war, or someone you care about can end up fighting.

People are like dominoes, you bump one and lots more can fall down. Climate change bumps a lot of people.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Warnings And Pet Care Tips From Diatomaceous Earth Use

I just got a couple of huge vet bills for my 23-year-old cat. It may have been due partially to him eating dry cat food stored with diatomaceous earth mixed in with it. The worst part was probably because I did not watch him carefully enough.

Older cats can end up getting sick because of being dehydrated very easily. I have done a lot of extra things to make sure all my cats get plenty of water, especially the older ones. I have resorted to using an eyedropper and making them drink, if they won't do it on their own. Most of them became resigned to it and would willingly lap from the eyedropper when I brought it out for them.

I always watch my cats' litter boxes to make sure they are eliminating enough, both liquid and solid wastes. If they get low on the solid, they get petromalt and vegetables they like. If they are not passing enough urine, they get the eyedropper. 

I bought them a fountain a few years ago and both of them began happily lapping away at it, so I thought my worries about them getting enough water were over. I still kind of watched their litter box, but clearly did not pay enough attention. 

If you do not have pets, you still need to know about information in this post. If a little diatomaceous earth in dry cat food is enough to encourage constipation in a cat, it could do that in a human. I already told you this repeatedly on this blog, but now I am telling you to be careful to watch out for this problem and take preventives as a matter of  course.

The preventive I decided on for my cats, besides the fountain, are is more water they have to drink.

I did this by increasing the amount of canned cat food they get daily, and adding water to their canned cat food. I am making this a permanent change to their diet.

I am going to make changes in my own diet to accommodate the use of diatomaceous earth for my storage food. I put diatomaceous earth in my bulk grains. So far I only have it in flour, oats and part of my whole grains. I am not getting the full amount that will eventually be my regular diet. 

By the time that I finish my gradual diet shift to mostly or all storage foods, I will be getting a much larger dose of diatomaceous earth in my diet without specifically taking the diatomaceous earth for its own uses. I have thought that once I reach that point, I probably will be getting enough diatomaceous earth daily to stop taking it by itself.

In case it isn't already obvious, my cat became extremely constipated and had to have an enema at the vet's office. I was also given a laxative to dose him with. 

This incident with my cat was life-threatening and expensive. It also badly frightened both of us. We may not be over it yet. 

I also cut most of the hair off of his behind so that his behind looks kind of naked now. His new nickname is, "Monkey Butt". Sometimes the laxative gave him diarrhea and I couldn't keep him clean because of his baby fine fur back there. That meant his fur had to go. 

He fussed at me a lot while I was cutting off his fur. I used a pair of blunt-tipped scissors to cut his fur. I gave him lots of treats while I was cutting, so he didn't mind all that much. He just likes to gripe a lot. 

I think he was relieved that the short fur on his Monkey Butt made it easier for me to keep him clean. He is a particularly fastidious cat. 

The good things I got out of this awful experience were that I can warn readers, and I now have another set of health care ideas to make a regular part of my cats' care. They get extra water in their cat food. I hope that this will give my 23-year-old cat some more years for us to share.

Apologies for the late post. There was an internet outage.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Phun With Phones

The things that I have mentioned are nowhere near a complete list of what has been done to corrupt our country and others. I barely hit the highlights.

I am only trying to give readers a heads-up that this is happening. This is not some conspiracy theory. I have dealt with a lot of it personally. One of the things that I experienced was with my phones being tapped. 

This happened back in the 70s. That was when the phone system in the USA was dominated by the Bell Corporation. I had some very distressing experiences with my phone being tapped.

I was more upset by the phone tapping because I believed what I heard, that the USA was superior to Communist countries and others. That was partly because we enjoyed freedom from surveillance - like phone tapping.

I tried to have something done about this phone tapping and violation of my freedom. I even contacted my congressman and senators. My senator was very concerned about what I had to say. 

I was dating a spook at the time who often bragged to me about his spook work and perks from it. One of the things that he bragged about was why he and others like him liked to bug phones, etc. They could use it for collecting information that could be used for blackmail.

He said that they could eventually blackmail anyone. He mentioned that they could get any court decisions they wanted because they could blackmail the judges. He said that they could get any law passed that they wanted, because they could blackmail enough politicians to pass it. He said that they could control the most powerful man in the world, the president of the United States.

When he said the last one, I asked him if he meant that he thought he was the most powerful man in the world? He just said for me to figure it out. He looked pretty smug when he said it.

I had told my senator what the spook told me. He really didn't like the things the spook said. He talked to some other senators about it. My senator told me that the senate had decided to have a closed hearing and wanted me to testify before them. I said I would. I did it. I was not the only one testifying, though.

Pretty soon after that, they broke up the Bell Corporation for monopoly. They mentioned wiretapping as part of the wrongdoing.

I think we have the same situation now, except it is worse. Because of my experiences with having my phone tapped back then and later, I know lots of ways to tell if my phone is tapped. I am going to share some here, so you will have an idea if it is happening to you.

This one is the one that happens most often: your sound level drops on either end or both ends of your call. You have the volume turned up as far as it will go, but you have trouble hearing anyway.

You hear strange sounds on the phone during a call. Back in the 70s the most common sounds were reel-to-reel noises from recording. This can be a hum or even the speeded up noise of a tape being run backwards. I have heard this occasionally even lately. It beats me why such antiquated equipment would be used now, unless they want me to know they are recording.

The sound of relays clicking was more common during eavesdropping back in the 70s, but it still happens. Sometimes you can hear bits of conversations "bleeding" into yours. Sometimes you can hear other sounds, such as music.

Dropped calls can mean your conversation is being tapped. This is more likely if it is happening one time after another. Sometimes this is done deliberately to intimidate or annoy you.

When your conversation is tapped, it is possible for the eavesdroppers to cut in on your conversation and say something. This is usually meant to intimidate or annoy you. The eavesdroppers can also make your phone ring and speak to you or not when you answer. At times when this happened to me, I got threats, including death threats. This can be done in the middle of a conversation without the person you are trying to talk to, hearing it.

All of the noises I have mentioned can be made so loud that it is impossible for you to continue your conversation. 

It is also possible for a land line to be rigged so that your callers get a recorded message saying something that you did not put there. The message can include one that you are no longer at that number, etc. Your phone can be rendered useless by these activities.

Your records with your phone company can be messed up in various ways, causing over-billing, or other fun things, including getting your phone service cut off when you have paid your bill. The same can happen with your internet, cable and any other telecommunications you have.

During a period of intense harassment like what I have mentioned, I could not keep any phone service or internet for many months. This was long after the Bell Corporation was broken up.

I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been. You do not have to be guilty of anything to have these problems.

Before the really bad harassment started, I used to have AOL for my internet. I liked their chat rooms. Philosophy was one of my favorites. I made friends with someone who also liked the philosophy chat. 

I told him that sometimes a chat room would shut down when I entered it, so I would like another way of contacting him in case it happened. I also told him that either the chat room was closed for an extended period, or I could not get to it for a while. He was interested in seeing if the chats were monitored, as I told him they were.

He said he knew something that would get the chat room shut down right away if it was monitored. I was uneasy at his choice of subject matter to cause this, but he ignored me and started typing it into the chat room. He barely started when the chat room shut down. 

The chat room was available soon afterward, so both of us were discussing the shutdown. He said he wanted to make sure it was not a coincidence, so he   was going to do it again. I asked him not to, but he did it again. Same thing. The chat room shut down right away.

That convinced my friend, but he had to do it again anyway, just to be really sure. This time the chat room was not working for days.

Once in a while, these things still happen to me. This is since the 70s. These things can happen to you as well. It does not matter if you didn't do anything wrong, they can still happen to you.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

How To Corrupt An Entire Nation

If you read my last few posts, you know that the spook parasites who run the people who run this country can take over your life. They can take your freedom and they can even take your life.

If you have paid any attention to what is going on in the world or even the United States, you know that drones are becoming popular with all levels of government. Drones can be used to snoop on things. We are getting used to that idea. 

Drones can kill people in other countries. They can also be used to kill people in our own country. You, for instance.

Why do you need to worry about this? After all you are probably a nice solid citizen, honest, clean living, etc. 

All that it takes is that you have something somebody wants or are in the way of them getting it.

People have been killed for almost unbelievable things, like a pair of shoes, the change from a five dollar bill, a piece of property that was only worth something because it was where somebody wanted to put a road through, or their cute daughter, wife, or handsome son. They need a lot of prostitutes.

They can kill anyone they want to kill and get away with it. They like this idea, and some of them even like killing, just because. If you question this, just think about President Kennedy and a lot of other important people who have died.

Unimportant people are even easier.

Drones are better than guns or poison for spooks who want to kill somebody. You can't tell who is operating that drone, or where it came from. 

One of the things that our out-of-control spooks may want is your life itself. They don't play well with others. They want everything. 

You need things to stay alive. That can include fuel for you to stay warm, eat and go places. This is true even if you get your heat, and cooking power from a socket in the wall. It comes from fuel in a power plant.

If you are dead, that leaves that much more fuel for others. Lots of people being dead leaves a lot more fuel for the ones who are left.

Not all of our spooks are mean, dishonest killers. Most of them probably didn't start out that way, or even think they would get that way. Many of them are trapped in a system they can't leave. 

I almost got caught up in it, when I thought I was doing good deeds and helping humanity. It is an easy thing to happen even with good intentions.

The bad spooks don't only control our lawyers and judges. They have our police as well. They have made a planned, systematic takeover of our police. They have been working on this for years.

I knew bits and pieces of what was happening with our police before I went to Canada. I met a man there who was a criminal. He was going through a trial process and told me quite frankly that he expected to be put in prison for years.

He told me that he helped to plan how to corrupt police in Canada, the US and the rest of the world. You may wonder why he would tell me this stuff. So did I. This sort of thing happens to me a lot. I have decided that it has something to do with my spiritual gifts.

The process that the Canadian criminal told me about was not complicated. That is why it works so well. 

The bad guys grab a policeman when he is alone, doing a stakeout or paperwork in his car. They prefer to get new policemen. It works on experienced ones too, but it is even better on new ones.

They hold the policeman the few seconds it takes to inject him/her with drugs and/or alcohol. They strip the victim naked, drop them off a long way from home and leave them to make their way as best they can naked and intoxicated.

They may record this naked intoxicated condition of the victim or not. If they don't get the cooperation they want from the victim, they repeat, until cooperation is achieved.

There can be variations on the above. They use bribes to encourage more cooperation. Bribes are usually recorded for use in further blackmail, if necessary. Of course there are the special rewards like free deluxe timeshares in wonderful locations, complete with recording equipment and honey traps.

If someone persists in unwanted honesty, they can always be killed. That keeps getting easier and easier to manage.

This is what is happening to the people you depend on to keep you safe and secure.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Spook Work

Writing this post is optimistic, since I don't have the automatic post thingy on this site working and have to do it manually. Not to mention that my time will be up by the time this should be posted, according to my probable death threat. But I'm pretty optimistic for a pessimist. :-p 

I wrote this before my "time limit" passed. That doesn't necessarily let me off the hook. Writing stuff like this probably isn't helpful in that department either. 

The government people who admitted that the US agreed to kill me and others like me when we were children, said that if I talked about this stuff they would kill me. They will have to get in line, I guess.

Anyway. I am going to talk about some more stuff I am not supposed to talk about. When I worked for the government they had me convinced that I would be helping humanity and doing good things for everybody. I guess you know that even if you are supposed to be smart, you can still act stupid. I did that.

I believed those lying S*Bs. I swallowed a lot. I was so convinced, that I didn't even take any pay for the work I did for them. 

I was already working for the Post Office by the time all of this started. The people that started all the weird stuff were various kinds of spies. The way that I fed myself and paid the rent while I was doing volunteer work for the government was that they let the Post Office keep paying me a regular salary while I did work for the spies.

You are probably wondering what I did for the spies. I still don't entirely know. Part of what I do know, was a kind of spying on people in other countries. It is called remote viewing. I wasn't the only one doing remote viewing, but I was pretty good at it. I think others were usually better, though.

Another thing the spies, (I ended up calling all of them, "spooks"), wanted me to do was think for them. They wanted all sorts of thinking. At that time computers were not as versatile as they are now, so they wanted me to do things a computer could probably do now. 

They said that they needed me to think about things that were difficult to quantify for a computer. They often gave me scenarios and asked me what else would happen. They loaned me out to all sorts of government agencies and corporations that were part of the military industrial complex. 

I was often told about problems somebody was working on. Most of the time I just asked them questions about the problem and the situation. They usually seemed to find this helpful and acted excited about it. I didn't think I was really doing anything.

The spooks were always wanting to use me to kill people or blow things up. I was unenthusiastic about this. I already mentioned one of these times. That was the one about using animals. I will repeat it for the benefit of those who haven't read the other post.

Once the spooks found out that I could "talk" to animals, they wanted to use this ability, to blow things up. They wanted to put bombs on animals and then have me tell the animal to go somewhere so that they could blow something up. 

They did not intend me to let the animals know what was going to happen to them. I was very angry with them for that idea. That idea of the spooks was one of the things that made me decide that I didn't want to work for them any more.

Another big reason for not wanting to work for the spooks any more was because of nuclear weapons. They were taking it for granted that they were going to use nuclear weapons. They were not a deterrent, as was often claimed in public by government people.

I saw a map of North America on a table one time. It had that reddish purple ink that government things are stamped with a lot. The stamps on the map were all over Alaska and Canada. The stamps said, "unoccupied". I knew even then, that people lived right under some of those stamp marks on the map, and all around them.

I did not like the look of that. I was not supposed to see it. Somebody told me later that some of them wanted to kill me because I saw that map. They knew those stamped areas were occupied. 

The reason why all of this mattered is because they were going to use those "unoccupied" areas to blow up incoming missiles. Anybody there would get really nuked.

That's enough for now. 



Monday, November 12, 2012

What Is This Deal With Petraeus?

The ex-head of the CIA, General Petraeus, is an interesting hybrid, part military, part spy. Those two groups are not usually the same. They usually exist in a precarious and uneasy balance. 

Military types seem to have a peculiar straight-forward sort of innocence that reminds me of pet predators like cats and dogs. Killing is part of the package, but it is just about the business of staying alive, not even the main part.

Spies, on the other hand, play with their catch a lot more and that is what they are about. They do better if things are constantly in an uproar and there is a lot of confusion and suffering. It is just easier to get information if people are upset and vulnerable.

These differences usually mean that regular military are at least somewhat distrustful of spies. Military do rely on information to do their job and even have their own spies. This makes them dependent on spies to do their job well. It makes for a sort of got-to-have-them but wish-we-didn't situation.

One of the problem with using spies, is that you never know when they will turn on you. I know a lot of "loyal" spies won't like the above statement, but whether a spy intends to turn on the people who use them is not important. It is more the perception. Besides, if you are a loyal spy, admit it, most of your compatriots are not like you.

Spies essentially lie for a living. This has to engender a certain amount of distrust even in the people who depend on them. 

Not all spies are assassins and vice versa, but they hang out together a lot. If spies aren't assassins, they hire them. Thinking of this reminds me of King David of Biblical fame. He had his own spy and assassin. 

If someone became a serious problem to King David, he sent out his assassin and they were killed. 

There was not a lot of hemming and hawing about it. People who were problems became dead. I found it especially interesting that King David was not chastised for this sort of activity. That meant it was not morally wrong for him to have an assassin kill people.

Okay, now back to Petraeus. having a general in charge of spies is kind of strange. Having a general who is in charge of spies resign because of doing something that makes him vulnerable to blackmail seems kind of predictable, but what do I know?

Many of the spooks that I have known have said things along the lines of, "Everyone eventually does something they can be blackmailed over." Very few people are perfectly behaved, so I guess they are right.

The ones that spies can't blackmail are those who are honest enough to do what they think is right in spite of someone threatening to blackmail them. In that case it can achieve the same ends if that person is rendered ineffective by a scandal, or they resign. 

I think somebody was trying to blackmail Petraeus, and that is why he resigned. I believe that the 1% were trying to get Petraeus to help in their plan to kill off the majority of the human race that they consider disposable.

The following text is from the Georgia Guidestones:
The following text is some of the ideas of the 1%. 

  1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
  2. Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
  3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
  4. Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
  5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
  6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
  7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
  8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
  9. Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
  10. Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.
You will note that the population they think should be on the earth is less than the current population of  7,051,439,664. In other words, they want to kill off over seven billion of the rest of us. 

Some of the rest of it may sound good, but once you know how those are being interpreted, you probably won't like them much better than number 1. 

Petraeus would have been offered a bribe or bribes first. Not taking them, would have caused the 1% to fall back on blackmail. Even being head spook for the CIA, it is unlikely the 1% would have shared their intentions with Petraeus. They don't do that with many, but don't hide their intentions from the rest of us either. They count on us choosing to remain ignorant. 

I have not made that choice, but too many have. It is very disappointing and discouraging. I hope some of my readers will choose to give up the ignorance choice.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Resources For Disaster Survivors - Clean Water

No matter what kind of disaster you have been through some things are going to be the same. Most disasters mean that you have trouble getting in and out of the disaster area and within the disaster area. This usually means shortages of things that you need to live. 

Even if you are surrounded by water, you probably need clean, safe drinking water.  There are ways for you to clean up some of that water around you so that it will be safe to drink and use for cleaning and washing.

I am going to post some links and information about getting clean water in a disaster area.

Here is one that uses Wal Mart pitchers with Berkey filters inside. 

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/dirt-cheap-berkey-filter/
I have seen this done with two five gallon buckets stacked on top of each other. Whatever you use, needs to be food grade. In five gallon buckets that would be number 2. 

You can find this in a small triangle on the bottom of the bucket. There are other acceptable food grade numbers, but 5 gallon buckets all seem to be #2 when they are food grade.

I have a problem with using Gorilla Glue or epoxy to glue these things together in the above link. It is closed for comments or I would post it there as well. Your glue, if any, must also be food grade. 

There is also a problem with reaching all the parts of a glued together contraption for cleaning. If you want clean water, you will have to clean everything that holds that water often. That means getting into every little nook and cranny. Glued together stuff sounds harder.

I like Gorilla Glue and expoxy, but I have my suspicions about them being food grade, so I'm going to call about Gorilla Glue and see if I can figure out a way to tell about epoxy. I'll post the results here. Okay. I found the Gorilla Glue site. DO NOT USE GORILLA GLUE FOR A DRINKING WATER CONTAINER. Here is a quote from their site: "TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION
Acute Oral Toxicity LD50 rat: > 2,000 mg/kg
Acute Inhalation Toxicity LC50 rat: 490 mg/m³, aerosol, 4 h"

I think the basic directions for the Berkey filter holder are okay. I think the way to avoid glue is to use a gasket. You are the faced with the problem of finding a food safe gasket.

You could make your own gasket out of food safe plastic, or cloth. I would look in the kitchen wares department if you are already getting your containers there.

One possible gasket idea that occurred to me is microfiber towels or dish mats. I have seen microfiber dish mats that would fit across a 5 gallon bucket nicely. Another idea is roll out plastic cutting boards, or mats. It might be a problem with them wanting to curl up on you, though.

I like the microfiber dish mats the best, because microfiber is antiseptic.They could leave fuzz though. I am planning to make my own pseudo Berkey filter and will experiment and post the results. 

I would not have posted this stuff about filters without doing more work on it, but since there is an emergency, I am putting it up anyway.

There is a Katadyn filter that you have muscular people pump when you are cleaning water for a whole village. I think that might be what New Jersey and parts of New York need now. 

Whatever kind of filter you use, it will last a lot longer if you pre-filter. The more gunk you get out before it hits your fancy expensive filter, the longer that filter will last. Most kinds of clean cloth will work for a pre-filter.

There are a lot of things I have about making your own filter for a long-term emergency. They involve assembling a lot of natural materials and I don't expect there are a lot of those available in such high population centers as were worst hit from hurricane Sandy. 

If you live in a lower population density area and have access to such materials, I have already posted about some of them. They are in my earlier posts at the beginning of this year and maybe part of last year. I use tags on this blog and some of the ones for water would be emergency supplies, or disaster supplies.
That means they will come up on Google with the name of my blog and the tags.

I will find some more information on dealing with disaster aftermath and post them. I have links already to Red Cross, FEMA, NOAA and a lot of other disaster related agencies and organizations. They should come up on a Google search with my blog name and the agency you are looking for.

Here is a Katadyn filter that will work in disaster areas and it can be cleaned several times before it must be replaced. It can also be put into a water system or line. It does not have the capacity of the one I was looking for, but I will post that one when I find it.

http://www.filtersfast.com/P-Katadyn-Combi-Microfilter-Kit-8017763.asp