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What's New at SurvivalRing
By Richard A. Fleetwood - April 2, 2005
Site Additions...August 2003
Yes...finally...another big update has finally come to SurvivalRing. You'll note the LAST update to this WHAT'S NEW page was 18 months ago. That doesn't mean there weren't any updates to the site...just THIS page. So, I offer my sincere apologies,for many of you may have checked here first to see if anything got updated. Most updates the past many months have been mentioned on the home page, which is how most folks come to this site. In the future, all updates I add to the site, will be referenced on THIS page, before I add the text to the home page. I'll try to be brief to save you time, and just list the highlights of what new functions and tools have come online, and a tiny overview of where the SurvivalRing, as a website, is headed.
NEW sections that have come online with this major site update are a full functioned NEWS BRIEF section, with news feeds and headlines from around the world on topics of interest that at least 90% of our visitors should be able to gather data on THEIR favorite preparedness area. This section will grow in the next few months, but a great starting point exists now. Visit and book mark SurvivalRing News Bureau for the latest headlines on my most requested topics.
For those of you looking for tools for preparedness, I have added a FOOD STORAGE CALCULATOR page for you to plan your food storage needs. Simply go to SurvivalRing Food Storage Calculator and enter the number of family members in your clan, and you can see all one screen the basic needs for a years worth of food storage for YOUR family.
Another BIG section, is brand new for SurvivalRing. As a budding webmaster, I spent months looking for tools, help, books, software, and more to learn more about how to have a quality, useful, and easily understandable website. I had the ideas for content, layout, and so forth, but the rest ( the hard stuff ) I had to learn the hard way, by trial and error....a LOT of trial and error. I decided long ago, that since I wanted to help folks in as many ways as possible, I would add a section that would help future webmasters learn how to bring THEIR words, ideas, thoughts, and content from the real world into the virtual world of the net.
Site Additions...January 21, 2002
If you've visited this page recently, you will know that I have not been updating it like I have many OTHER pages on this site. The homepage has been updated a dozen times since this page, and many events have happened since last update here, including the events of 09.11.01. The need for preparedness for individuals and families has NEVER been greater, and the work I have put into the site since Day One have shown that NO ONE can know just exactly what the future has in store for any of us.
Therefore, some of the NEW items added to the SurvivalRing site have had a LOT to do with CURRENT events, and POSSIBLE threats. SurvivalRing has always been about preparing for the future by studying the past. Natural hazards will always exist, and will cause more death and harm than any terrorist incident ever could. They happen much more frequently and cover much wider areas that just can not be mitigated completely sometimes.
But, as September 11th showed, NO PLACE is absolutely safe from a terrorist or terrorist organization with enough time, money, and gall to create an incident in ANY place they choose.
Thanks to folks around the country, and in a couple of cases, around the world, I have amassed a HUGE set of NEW files in the areas of civil defense and nuclear/biological/chemical preparedness. I uploaded the NBC prep files many weeks ago, but just about an hour ago, got the links page to them UPDATED with full descriptions and abstracts of what they are all about. Go to NBC Prep Downloads to read about them and download them to your system.
Also, Civil Defense Now! is the single BEST resource now.....IN THE WORLD....for original civil defense documents, articles, phamplets, booklets...and BOOKS. I am scanning in full FEMA reports...some as big as 300 pages, in the next several months, to put on this site. The biggest so far is FEMA's book, Risks and Hazards-State by State, at 135 pages. It is complete, and at about 12.8 megabytes, is fairly acceptable for a FULL COLOR book, in very readable format. While it IS finished, I have tried uploading it several dozen times. Seem to be having some kind of server errors, and keep getting BROKEN SOCKET errors, after 60-90 percent of the file has uploaded. Will keep trying until I get it on site for you guys...until then, I am going to be working on many OTHER things.
I have civil defense docs from over a dozen different nations now, and will be getting ALL OF THEM online, too. It is simply amazing that in this advanced time of instantaneous internet communications WORLDWIDE, as well as a time of increased THREAT from terror organizations, weather phenomena, and manmade accidents, that OUR nation, the good old US of A, does NOT have the best, most wide ranging, completely automated, and thoroughly understood and easily used civil defense databases in all of human history.
It is a sad note that a simple, average guy like me with a few useful skills, a penchant for research, some pure luck, and some halfway decent communications skills, doing everything out of my pocket, while barely eeking out a living to feed, clothe, and shelter my little family, has created an idea and made it happen with nothing more than MY hard work...and it is MORE than the most powerful nation and government the world has ever seen, has done yet. Sure, FEMA has lots of useful data on tornadoes, hurricanes, and lightning...but absolutely NOTHING online regarding nuclear war skills, nuclear terrorism preparedness, and fallout shelter.
Yes, they HAD documents, created over the years and NOW NO LONGER AVAILABLE THRU THEM. No, they were NEVER online. My goal in life now is to FIND them, DIGITIZE them, and SHARE them. Hence, the site you see now. Help if you can, whenever you can, however you can...to help this project grow. It WILL have long term consquences for the world whenever the NEXT terrorist incident occurs...here on US soil, or overseas on someone elses watch.
Spend some time checking out ALL of SurvivalRing...every single thing...every single page...every single file. Should take you a few months...come back when done and there will be a LOT more to go thru.
Until then, thanks to ALL of you for your support.
Richard
Site Additions...May 13, 2001
I know....only been a few days since I last added here...but some cool NEW features are now online and just waiting for YOU to take advantage of. Here is the SHORT list:
- New RINGLINK program...sign up YOUR website, or create your OWN ring...and it's all hosted on THIS website now.
SurvivalRing TOP 100 Survival Sites.
Updated and awesome stuff in the new Civil Defense Now! section.
Several new articles to read.
The ability to host YOUR articles, if you don't have a website, but have something to share with the world.
- New feedback functions, new NUCLEAR SURVIVAL section, new maps, and much more.
Many more new things to come, all for you, and all to help enhance your preparedness quotient. Keep watching the homepage for new features, and new news on anything coming to SurvivalRing.
Richard
Site Additions...May 9, 2001
Hello again, and welcome to SurvivalRing's NEW state of the art format. Brand new navigation, a plethora of new files and articles, and the foundation of a HUGE new expansion into my Civil Defense system.
Many new survival and preparedness information files are now online, including a complete mirror of Bruce Beach's NUCLEAR SURVIVAL website. Full maps of nuclear targets state by state for the entire U.S. can be found there.
I do apologize for the POPUP banners and windows that cover the site pages when you log on. These are a function of using a free site space provider and the onpage automatically displayed banners screw up the page formating. Simply MINIMIZING the POPUP windows will get them out of your way for the time being. As no income is coming in from the website, I can only provide the site this way, until a webspace donor can offer services that will get rid of the banners.
Unfortunately, an ill-timed emergency doesn't allow me to get as much as I wanted done with THIS update, but plenty of stuff IS here for you. Start at the homepage and you will see the good stuff, the drop down navigation, and several new features. More to come, and stay tuned. Read the THINGS FALL APART file for my current situation and you'll know I am working as hard as I can to get everything caught up.
Thanks, and drop me a line.
Richard Fleetwood
Founder - SurvivalRing
Site Additions...July 4th, 2000
Happy 225th Birthday, AMERICA!!
I hope everyone has had a good summer so far. Y2k, 5/5/2000, and several stormy days have come and gone so far this year, and we are ALL still here. Things in my little corner of the world are going 1000mph at times lately, with big things afoot. I have just finished the latest edition of the SURVIVALRING newsletter, and you can now read it online here. As always, it is later than I wanted it to be, but it is huge, and well worth a short afternoon to read thru it. Yes, it is pretty big. So big, I had to convert over to a full blown text editor to finish it, as I ran out of editing space using my email software....it just couldn't fit all the text into the editing buffer. Ah well....at least I had alternatives.
The webring is getting a new members still, though not nearly as fast as we were. We do have a lot of dead links to clean up and several folks have volunteered to help me get it cleaned up. As I suspected, most of the Y2k sites went dead or inactive shortly after the new year, and these will be the majority of sites we lose in the cleanup. No big deal...there will always be one shot wonders in the world...internet sites, songs, books, and the proverbial 15 minutes of fame that some will always get.
One of the biggest additions is not quite ready yet, but will be a HUGE new area of SurvivalRing. Civil Defense NOW!, a site idea I have been working on for a long time now, will be a SUBSITE of SurvivalRing. I have thousands of hardcopy pages in books, booklets, brochures, reports, manuals, and much more...all having to do with Civil Preparedness. It is all government produced, non-classified, and PUBLIC DOMAIN. What better place to make this information available than one of the leading preparedness sites on the web? The webpage templates are done, the new area is completely mapped out, and many, many things are scanned in and just about ready. This area will be access from the MAIN SurvivalRing homepage, with linkage from the NORMAL left side and bottom page navigation areas.
Areas covered in CIVIL DEFENSE NOW! will be Shelters, Standards, Plans, Maps, Skills, Organizations, Links, Images, Videos, Book Lists, and more. A DOWNLOAD area will have free items for you to share and use....and currently over 41 megabytes of files are ALREADY online. A new EMAIL list called PULLING THRU, based on the book by DEAN ING will come online in this new area, and the LIBRARY ARCHIVES will have COMPLETE CD docs scanned in and readable online. I have spent hundreds of dollars the past year buying original, collectable government documents JUST FOR this project. My finds will be your treasures too, I hope.
Last but not least, I have big news about my personal life. I will be moving from Central Alabama to Wyoming in less than 10 weeks, starting a new career, and living some of my most long term dreams. My two oldest kids are already there, and will be coming back home to help us move. Some things may change in my online world, as I may have to change internet service providers, which will screw up some links if I loose my AOL account, where my oldest pages are located and have been for years. I'll do my best to avoid disruptions. Read the NEWSLETTER for the full story.
Thanks for your support and long term interests in SurvivalRing. It is much appreciated.
Richard
Site Additions...January 2, 2000
As you know from reading the above, I have *NOT* been goofing off lately, gathering winter storage, stockpiling ammo, or anything of the kind. I always *KNEW* there would be life, AND SurvivalRing, after Y2k came and went. Therefore, I was doing background work and infrastructure upgrading behind the scenes. As always, I believe the ability to COMMUNICATE should come first on the internet, and the additions below add SEVERAL new features in this area.
Years ago, in the mid 80's, I ran a BBS. Guess what? I am again! Check out the SurvivalRing UltraBoard BBS system. This is strictly an internet BBS system, but the near future MAY bring a dialup BBS for anyone so inclined to want to visit OFF the internet. I have the SOFTWARE, and if and when I decide to do it, you will be the first to know, but until then, make FULL USE of my UltraBBS.
Next, we have the SurvivalRing Classifieds, which is offered as a tool for site visitors to buy and sell PREPAREDNESS related items. Keep it simple please, and bad guys will be rooted out if need be.
Now, for those with sites who don't know anything about html, or don't want to join the ring, you can use the SurvivalRing Free-for-all Links section to post your site to. I prefer family oriented sites, and WILL delete those who are out of line, but will allow as much as possible. No Trash Please.
Looking for friends, groups, or local acquaintances to prepare, study, or train with? Check out the SurvivalRing Personals webpage. It is NOT for illegal or immoral purposes, so please don't abuse it this way.
Finally, a HEADS-UP on what seems to be the MOST USED area of SurvivalRing...the Email Lists . If you aren't signed up, than please join the SurvivalRing topica Elist. Also, you can read ALL my website elist ARCHIVES from this page. Any new email lists I add will appear on this page so keep it handy. Again, understand these new areas are for YOU...to increase your knowledge, understanding, or imagination, and I want them to be used as such, as most of you have. Bad things that occur within these areas, as is inevitable, will be deleted and edited out as much as neccessary. Overt abuse by several will cause removal of functions. Treat them as if they were you're own....since they are.
Upcoming Events...
As the old year passes on, and the dawning of a new era brightens in the eastern sky, there is NO LIMIT to what you and I can do to create a much better world around us. Open your hearts to helping others. Take advantage of learning opportunities to expand your knowledge and skill base. Help others who are down and out when the chance arises. Keep to good things and avoid the bad. Love one another.
We are all in this thing together, and as a team we can get a LOT farther in our goals. Look for interesting things to come to SurvivalRing this year....completion of the NEW site I have started here, filling the missing pages, and new and powerful information on BEING PREPARED for STUFF....things that are ALWAYS going to happen... storms, accidents, evil people.
I take this opportunity now to offer to you my thanks for your support as the SurvivalRing Webring and Website have grown to magnificent proportions. I see only continued growth, outstanding opportunities, and a inredible chance to continue creating something wonderful...for all of mankind, not just our little corner of the world.
Remember the Motto of SurvivalRing:
"Study Yesterday...Prepare Today...Live Tomorrow."
Do it. Live it. Be it. Only YOU can do it for yourself. I, and my friends, will help where we can.
Richard Fleetwood
Founder - SurvivalRing
January 2000
August 24, 1999
Hi all, I've been making headway on getting the rest of SurvivalRing all finished up...just a few more pages left to write, and an update of the FULL and SHORT members lists...finally. While these two lists are pretty much duplicated effort, they do allow simple link browsing of ring sites, so I will keep them as part of the new site setup. Also, I have been receiving some complaints from ring visitors who have had problems getting orders filled that were paid for months ago. I have completely deleted three sites from the ring for JUST THIS REASON, and will do so whenever no answer is made to an inquiry from me.
A new page for the SurvivalRing is the Civil Defense Books page. I have been working on gathering MANY, many books that pertain to this subject, and can offer a very good price on the copies I have, including Nuclear War Survival Skills. Take a peek at http://www.survivalring.org/civildefensebooks.htm and let me know what you are interested in. I will be adding many more titles to this page in the next few weeks.
With this new site layout I have gotten very little feedback from the world as to its usuability, and would appreciate any comments from the members of the ring, or simply site visitors. I look forward to hearing from you. Until next time, be careful out there!
Richard
July 6, 1999
Well, after a few l-o-n-g months, it's here. The NEWLY redesigned, updated, and EXPANDED SurvivalRing website. What's new? Well, a better question would be "what's not?". New look, new graphics, a whole boatload of new original material and content, new membership options for site owners and email only, and a new club called the SurvivalRing Association on Yahoo. Oh yes, and we are fast approaching 700 member websites as I speak..er, I mean type. Someone (and a very good friend at that!) once told me that this webring could become unwieldly and unusable as more more and more sites joined. The only thing that would have kept this from happening would be if we had a search engine JUST for the webring, so visitors could look up sites on JUST the topics they wished. Well, we do now....Search SurvivalRing is here, working great, and a grand addition to this site, and will help MANY people find exactly what they are looking for if its part of the ring.
The SurvivalRing Association Yahoo Club gives this site some neat new capabilities, including chat, message base, a member roster for those who want to interact with others in real time, photo albums for uploading images and ideas, links that club members want to pass around, and a calendar for keeping track of it all. SurvivalRing updates, queue work, and planned chats will all be posted on the calendar in the club section.
Already a full blown member of SurvivalRing? Need to do some work on your site description, email address, or change your contact info? Visit SurvivalRing Site Management and log in using your site id and your password, and then you can modify and update to your hearts content. You can even remove yourself from the webring if you feel the need to for personal reasons. Keeping your site info fresh, up-to-date, and complete will help NEW visitors find you when they do searches in the system for specific topics. Make SURE your keywords are as succinct and concise as possible regarding YOUR site.
You should also notice that BANNER Advertising is now awailable for those who have asked for it...and its CHEAP, too. It's a request I got from many folks, and the system is now set up to help ANYONE who may want to take advantage of an audience of people just CRYING for preparedness info and products.
The Navigation Info page gives you all the info you need to learn the many DIFFERENT ways you can navigate THRU the SurvivalRing webring. There's more to this ring then just NEXT SITE. Maybe there's a way you haven't tried yet?
Supporting something you appreciate is always good, helping whatever it is you like to grow, prosper, and spread to more people to increase and share ALL our knowledge. Learn new and different ways how you can help us, by reading the Supporting Us page at your earliest convenience.
Want to know more about who's BEHIND SurvivalRing? Drop over to our Your Hosts page to learn more about the founder of this webring/ website/ project, as well as some other folks helping the ring to grow, and why they do what they do. Learn more about what is keeping this phenomena growing like a mushroom cloud. Catch a glimpse of their mug shots to see if they are your neighbors, cousins, or friends, or maybe your worst nightmare (ok, well, maybe not the last one). Maybe one day you'll recognize them walking down your street, thru the mall, down the trail, or racing towards bugout central. Hopefully, it won't be thru a "scope" of any kind.... ;)
Now, after much mention the past few months of the SurvivalRING of HONOR , we have our first recipient, and a well deserved one at that, Bruce Beach. Jump over to the Ring of Honor page to learn more about him, his projects, his goals, and his life's work. Do YOU know him? You might...at least drop him a line and say hi and congrats.
The BUGOUT Meter section is still in work, but will be a very popular place when its done. Come take a peek and see what its about, and how it might be able to help you make plans for YOUR future, by knowing what is going on around you. Understand that the purpose of THIS section is SIMPLY to share MY thoughts on what we should ALL know about. It's intent is merely to be a beacon shining a light on approaching dilemmas, with a visual idea of what I perceive to be the severity of any given area. It WILL be updated once a month...and its not just about Y2k...its about everything. This idea was created by my late friend Brett Thomas, in our work of trying to create North American Survival.
Anyone want to Volunteer? Ok, who's hiding back there behind the sofa? Seriously, does that "V" word perk up your ears, or make you slouch down in your chair when someone ELSE utters it? If it's the first one, come on over to the Volunteer your Time page, and see how YOU can help we folks doing the work on SurvivalRing, and make your mark on the preparedness world. It don't pay, but the effort you give will come back to you many times over.
Need Help Joining SurvivalRing? Some people still have problems not knowing what to do first, second, or last. This page attempts to make it as simple as possible. It's really not that hard...hundreds and hundreds have done it already...
Hints and Tips is a section I've wanted to do for quite a while now, and since the BASIC and ORIGINAL thrust of SurvivalRing was to connect up WEBSITES, this page will be a source of IDEAS and PROJECTS for budding webmeisters and junior site designers to have a few sparks dropped into their gray matter. Page and site tips, linking and connecting, servers and services, and LOTS of info on FREE stuff will all be on this page.
The Free Software page will link you directly to sources of software I'd like to recommend to all. If you like using your computer to CREATE, then there should be some software here you might like. Mostly for webmasters, graphics newbies, and file hunters, you will find links to software that *I* use, recommend, and am familiar with. Some are completely free, some are shareware, and some have time limits...but ALL let you spend time getting to know them, BEFORE making a decision whether its good enough for you or not. If its on this page, its worth looking at.
The Graphics Gallery is a graphics repository of clipart and logos that all deal with SURVIVALRING. You can grab one, several, or all and use them on YOUR site to link to SurvivalRing if you wish. Linking to Us is a page that tells you HOW and why to link, and gives you a couple of ideas.
The Press & Publicity page is entirely for the MEDIA market. You all know by now that lots of media intelligentsia have contacted me looking for interviewees for y2k preparations, and this page will tell future reporters how they can get in touch with me, and what I can help with.
Two new sections, Reviews and Articles, are also great new additions that will become archives of good, useful information for all. Reviews will be written personally by me on products, books, and items that I come across that are preparedness oriented. Fair treatment, thourough coverage, and final thoughts on each review will let all readers come out ahead. Articles will be done by me as well, with help from ANYONE ELSE with a hankering to publish essays on proper preparedness and sensible survival.
Your Thoughts is going to be a comments section specifically covering SurvivalRing, and what YOU think about it. Good, bad, or ugly, I'll post a portion of it here, if you'll take the time to actually share your thoughts about this webring with the world in an email to me. This page will be updated monthly.
The RingWear page lists some ideas on products *I* would buy, if they existed. Specifically, I speak of shirts, hats, patchs, and buttons with a SurvivalRing Logo or insignia on them. Maybe a coffee cup, mouse, pad, or hat pin? Lots od ideas....but need YOUR feedback....thus this page. If there IS more than a little interest, I'll make it happen.
The Site Design and Info page tells the world what it took (and takes) to create this entire site....programs, ideas, time, and future plans as well. Did you know all this was done/is done on an old 486SX2 50 megahertz 5 year old computer system?
Meetings is a new area, but is mainly for folks who might be in my neck of the woods sometime, specifically North Central Alabama, near Birmingham. Got a great place and time to meet for those so inclined...and I always have freebies with me when I'm out there.
Privacy is something we all cherish, and as the online world keeps sucking down our entire beings bit by bit, its good to know what different sites might use to know who YOU are. This page tells you what *I* use, or rather don't, in running this site. Learn more here...
Topics is something that I felt needed to be added to the ring system, to lay down the thin line of what WILL and WON'T be allowed in new members websites, when they apply. Basically if its preparedness oriented there is not a problem...but go near that politically incorrect or outright radical side and I'll REALLY look closely at your site and make a decision quickly about your site being good enough for the ring.....or not. The Ring is ultimately mine, both in responsibility and ownership, and therefore what I say goes. If you aren't sure whether your site is on topic or not before or during the time you apply, then read this asap.
<>Other sources
<>ALERT list
<>TRANSLATE sites
<>Y2k thoughts, scams, and news
<>Awards
<>Publishers
...and so much more ....it's here for you. |
