i thought it was time :) Does anyone thnk it might be worthwhile to have an email distribution list maybe for those of us on this thread? We do have particular concerns, and i worry about being without support from my wiki friends if there are distruptions to service. Obviously if all goes down thast just too bad, but if web servers fall over we could still communicate via email. Thoughts??
I’ve been thinking the same thing Woodstock. I’m not mad about Yahoo groups after getting my screen name in print in the local paper - quoting from a post to that group. But hey, the same could happen here too couldn’t it, so if that’s easiest then count me in :-)
Rather than everyone putting their addresses on here…where trolls can get them: I volunteer to be 1st and will keep a list updated and sent to anyone who wants to be included. My address is sandi at inetix dot com dot au. (spelt out to avoid address crawler software)
You should have an email from me now Woodstock :-)
Woodstock:
Yet another excellent thought! You are great.
Probably unnoticed by any on this thread, but I have both posted a “Profile” and also encouraged others to do the same. On left sidebar, at the very top, is a Search Window. Just type in ‘profiles’ and then scroll down to the names posting. Click on ‘Nikolai’ (for example) and Bob’s your uncle! (Though he hasn’t posted)
BUT, open as I am in my Author Name and my Profile, I do have defensive reservations of personal privacy now, of lack of time for more communications, and like so many, vague anxieties about a future situation that could be very dire indeed.
I would like to save your email address, Woodstock, and if/when things start to go to pieces then contact you.
You and I know each other’s suburbs and more, if you have saved the info I shared with you long ago… I agree with you and trust you and the others, but would like a little more time to think this through.
I understand your reservations Nikolai, that’s why I’m a bit wary of a Yahoo or Google Group. Hopefully we can come up with a solution that you will be comfortable with.
I also understand Nikolai. Keeping my address will allow me to add you if needed, and saves you any concerns before time.
i can of course also create a blind list if that would help Nikolai?
That’s why I think a mailing list might be a good idea Woodstock - then only one of us (you) would know all of the email addresses. The rest of us would send/receive mail to a list address.
i agree. as long as folk are comfortable with me having that info. Husband is an alpha geek and we have a pretty secure setup here though. But of course that is only my word for it. I could be the spammer from hell!!
I have finally extended my 12 week preps to hopefully 18 weeks and now have neither space nor finances available for more of this enterprise.
I also find I am satisfied in myself. Indeed, if I NEED 18 weeks of supplies, there will be no one left alive when I come out of my cave… Then I must surely perish!
Concentration on this wiki, daily, has cut across other things I also value: exercise, intention to learn a little guitar strumming, review of a language I once knew a little of… I don’t want to become obsessive, even if I should!
Just sharing. I’ll be around from time to time—and when/if the stuff hits the fan, again daily!
Cheers!
Well, there’s something in the WA media today - apparently a forum held at Curtin University last night. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1631888.htm
Thanks Azi - at last! they are talking public education - we are still so far behind the NZ, UK and US re this
no news is good news?? (i hope!)
Where have all the NZers and aussies gone?? Do i need to change my deoderant??
bumped
Woodstock,
Your deoderant works fine.
I’ve only been dropping in occasionally of late. I too wondered where everyone has gone. Is no-one in Australia worried about this thing? Am I paranoid?
The lack of news has me worried…I’ve begun rereading “The Monster at our Door” just to keep my anxiety levels up.
On another note, I think your idea of the distribution list is a great one. My email address is prepperaustralis at hotmail dot com.
thanks prepper..i’ve added you to the disaster distribution list. servers that are overlaoded may still be able to cope with email even if web services are restricted is my thinking. I also just finished The Monster at the Door” …scary stuff!!! At least there are a few of us in Oz that will be left if TSHTF ;)
Thanks Woodstock.
bump
Interesting read in the Syd Morn Herald website today a very general article about the importance of handwashing re getting the flu.
Could this be the slow trickle not to panic Australians? or just a coincidence? remember there has been very little in our media compared to the rest of the west. world
i think some of the apathy is because of the reporting that Australia escaped the 1918 epidemic. Thats just not true. We did escape some of the horrors, but certainly weren’t left alone by the virus.
I see - interesting point thanks W
Of course NZ was hit hard in 1918 - perhaps that’s why they’re gearing up so much for this one ;-)
was it Azi? i thought they copped about the same as us? No?
I read that NZ allowed an infected boat to land because it had some ranking politicians (can’t remember which country they were from) and this set off a major wave in NZ. Of course I don’t have the reference to it anymore, but a couple of NZ pals agreed that was the story.
oops - that was me!
From this site http://library.christchurch.org.nz/kids/nzdisasters/influenzaepidemic.asp
“One of the troop ships returning to New Zealand was the Niagara, which arrived in Auckland on 12 October, 1918, carrying the Prime Minister, William Massey, and the Minister of Finance, Joseph Ward, who had been in Europe.”
typical damn politicians ;)
Looking out for the torrents for that movie btw…should be up tomorrow i reckon
Drifter is browsing, but I have just edited my Profile to give an email contact address. I opened this new one, on Hotmail, just exclusively for panflu-5–1 use, so in quiet times I may not be too reliable about checking it regularly!
All the best to all. I am enjoying my relative holiday.
Bad news is, on inventory, I discover my preps are 16, not 18 weeks… :-(
this is the budget for BF: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19082210-26780,00.html
Nikolai: i will add you to the emergency email list. This wont be used unless TSHTF and web access becomes difficult.
Woodstock—06:29
Thanks for post on the budget. Interesting. I quote report:
“Defences against avian influenza will receive an extra $44.2 million over three years to improve quarantine measures, support research and develop vaccination strategies. The funding, a key plank of this year’s agriculture budget, will be used to station more quarantine officers at air and sea ports, and improve early detection measures for the virus through the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service.”
Incredible! That, over three years, is just on fifteen million dollars per year, nationwide. Seventy-five CENTS per capita per year.
Think I’ll cut short my ‘holiday’ and get back to prepping!
yeah i know its paltry (no pun intended!) but better than nothing i guess. Glad you’re back from your holiday. Have missed seeing you here!!
Woodstock:
Thanks for all you do—you are the mainstay of this thread!
what a sweetie you are Nikolai! Note to all: will post the 1st site i manage to get where we can get that movie screening in the US tonight. I can probably burn cd’s if anyone doesnt have the ability to download it themselves. Just email me at the above address or let me know here.
Thanks Woodstock - I’m looking forward to watching the movie!
I just spotted that article about the budget too, should have known one of you would beat me :-)
Nikolai - you have been missed! Sorry about your 16 weeks, but hey, you’re ahead of many many others. I think my main shortfall (my target is still 3 months/12 weeks) is in snack foods. And dog biscuits :-)
i need more scotch and cigarettes ;)
no sign of a site to see this movie as yet. Anyone else have any luck?
I’m hopeful it will show up later on satellite tv…though that is likely to be so long that it’s a race between my seeing it and H5N1 seeing me!
ah you are back Nik that was a short holiday but nice to have you back here again I would also love to see the US BF movie/documentary - it will be interesting to see if the panic sets in after it is shown in the US.
Woodstock says “i need more scotch and cigarettes ;) “
Wow, you and I have alot in common! I decided stocking those two items would just lead to immediate depletion - they’re on my ‘last minute’ list. Figure there may be time for a last run to tbe bottle shop :-D
actually…i had scotch. but i have to keep testing it to make sure its fresh…then it kind of evaporates
Oooo yes, it’s got to be “fresh” scotch :-)
I find that batteries keep evaporating too, but apparently I have alot of gadgets *shrugs*
Need a trip away? Melbourne is having a very comprehensive Pandemic Flu Conference
check out the link
http://www.iir.com.au/conferences/confdetail.html?conf_code=L1268&cat_code=health&detail=L1268.html
I’m a little ashamed of this, but frankly I find myself very, very tempted toward smugness and complacency, as I follow the posts of acute anxieties in the US about their social order breaking down, riots and looting and shootings.
We each need all and any comfort we can get, under these huge pressures, but we Kiwis and Aussies don’t want to fall into the trap of seeing the biblical ‘speck in our brother’s eye, but not the sharp stick in our own’ to paraphrase!
What I mean is, do I find myself perhaps leaning too far from worrying about possible dangerous reactions of my neighbours and even about derelictions on the part of health care workers and people in electricity and water supply?
Any guidance, reaction to that idea? Are we going to see neat queues and orderly rationing, if supplies are short?
Nikolai: i understand what you mean. Please to anyone from outside of australia and new zealand…no offence is meant by the following comments: I think we will escape a good deal of the violence so many in the US seem to fear if only for the reason that the general populace is not armed. Yes, we have our own enclaves of troublesome individuals as witnessed in Cronulla last summer, but we do not have the highly individualistic culture that the US has. We anzacs appear to have more of a “hive” mentality in times of trouble. Maybe it comes from being rejects originally from the wider culture…here in Oz anyway. I do think that we will see the same aggro if we get rationing and i dont see australians at least, waiting quietly in orderly queues. NZ (where i lived for 20 odd years) may be like that, though i would not like to think what the gangs there may come up with. They still seem a very dangerous lot. Again, no offence is intended or judgements passed on other societies in my comments. Its just the way i see it. People in the US must be comfortable with their gun laws or they’d change them. I, however am comfortable with ours, and happy to live with them here.
Well, this Yank is going to jump in again. One of my favorite books was Robert Hughes’s “Fatal Shore”. We are more alike than you think. We have “rogue genes” and when push comes to shove I think you guys will be up there with us, only with fewer guns. And I would just as soon take my chances with “an equalizer” instead of a samauri sword.
But that being said, if I was not attached to this place, your country is where I would want to be.
On that we will have to agree to disagree MM :) I’m as commited to my position as i’m sure you are to yours. Patriotism is a good thing as long as we dont argue about it yes?! Or force our opinions on one another. I’m sure that we both think we are citizens of the greatest nation on earth and thast as it should be.
ps: in case you havent already figured it out…i’m an old hippy. Still have a poster on the wall that says “What if they threw a war and nobody came?”
Woodstock: You guys have a friendly, breezy thread. Cheers, I am drinking a glass of S.E. Australian wine, my evening pleasure.
try Oyster Bay Merlot 2004 if u can get NZ wines there…its the best Red Flu Juice i know of :)
Medical Maven – at 19:12
Have to agree with MM, to those Australians that think we will act like well behaved boys and girls I say one thing - Cronulla!
Woodstock: Thanks for the tip. I generally don’t drink bottles over 15 dollars U.S.A., but for a very special 25 dollar delight try this one. Everyone who has tried it has gone after the dregs. Rosemount GSM, the 2003 is out. It is a varietal-Grenache/Syrah/Mourvedre. The first time I uncorked one at a party I drank a little over half of the bottle, a definite flu-fighter or at least a hell of a good way to exit.
surely u dont think the average oustralian would behave like those knobends in Cronulla??? I dont think we are saintly here at all…just cant see rioting etc. I dont think i’ve ever heard of looting here.. must have happened but i dont recall it.
While I agree that most Australian’s won’t do the Cronulla thing, I think we’re exceptionally ill-equipped to deal with those of us that do go that way in a bad situation.
I include myself in the above too. I don’t have (or want) a gun, but I know there are really a good number of people in Australia that do and really, it’s all going to go their way if this goes bad…
The “knobheads” x ??? are exactly the sort that would cause social dispruption in the event of H2H. Looting occurred after Larry last month and I believe we have a history of civil disobedience going back to the Rum Rebellion. Riots…..Redfern, Cronulla, Newcastle and more.
I’ll just sit here and hope my rose coloured glasses stay on for the duration i think :)
Degree and Frequency—those are the keys to comparing disorder in Australia and the USA. Our ‘big to us’ Cronulla riots were so trivial by US standards that they wouldn’t have received a mere mention in neighbouring cities. OUR media, seeing them through Aussie eyes,used culturally appropriate shock language and the Americans, hearing those words, interpreted them in their own terms, effectively magnifying them out of orders!
Like overseas reports of ‘Sydney ringed by fire!’ some years ago when small fires were spotted around here and there and reports I read in Japan suggested everyone well might perish!
Similarly, most Australians would probably guestimate the population of New Orleans as ‘a few million’ before the storm. The genuine devastation we saw on tv was edited—few or no undamaged houses were filmed. And the then population of N O was on the order of HALF a million. That was NOT N Y C that was ravaged…
No point, except relativity of cultures and their languages..
<Kitchen time, Nikolai. Keep strength us for…?>
Woodstock:
I, myself, like your poster and am an even older hippie and cheer your saying
“ps: in case you havent already figured it out…i’m an old hippy. Still have a poster on the wall that says “What if they threw a war and nobody came?””
I do NOT like the poster “What if they threw a PANDEMIC and nobody LEFT?”
stocked up on scotch again. Now i just hope it doesnt keep evaporating like the last lot. Also my father tells me 12 year old scotch is best drunk fresh and i’d hate it to go over ;)
Perhaps Cronulla was a beat up, but then think how many shooting incidents by bikie gangs go almost completely unreported?
Good luck with the scotch Woodstock, I now have a long (long) weekend ahead (5 days off - yay!) I might stock up too :-)
i think its time to move on to no 10..
Huh? Downing Street? I don’t follow… <g>
Hiya folks..Ive got a foot in both camps..Aussie born and NZ is my home so I feel right comfy in here. Will try to pop in regular so you get to know me a bit. I like the idea of community support for each other should we need it; but be safe, we dont know who we are talking to really do we.
cheers and long may the pandemic remain uncombined!
Artisticsoul: Welcome! I was born in Oz…spent 24 years in nz and came home again 7 years ago. I also feel like a bit of a hybrid!
Old thread - Closed to increase Forum speed.