Source

Futurists look beyond, and it’s not mere sci-fi

By Russell Working
Tribune staff reporter

July 29, 2005

Imagine a future in which terrorists seize an embassy and police can send in a remote-controlled insect outfitted with a microscopic video camera that reveals where the gunmen are hiding and what kind of weapons they hold.

Or a time when adventure travelers fly to the moon to spend a week at a space colony under the glittering lunar skies–in the way they now visit Antarctica or the North Slope of Alaska.

Or a U.S. constitutional convention where delegates draft a new governing document that allows the rest of the world a say in American decision-making.

Sound far-fetched? Over 1,000 futurists arriving in Chicago this week have been considering such scenarios and a host of other possibilities that some people might dismiss as wild dreams and unlikely schemes. The World Future Society–an organization of academics, consultants and planners–is gearing up for its annual conference Friday to Sunday, drawing forward thinkers from as far away as South Korea and Venezuela.

Mainstream futurists are not crystal ball gazers or mere science fiction aficionados (though a session is scheduled on “Science Fiction as the Mythology of the Future”). The future may seem unknowable to most mortals, but humans continually plan for what lies beyond the chronological horizon, futurists say. Everything from an environmental impact study to Pentagon war games are forms of future study.

Futurists tend to be consultants and academics who analyze data based on current trends, said Patrick Tucker, assistant editor of The Futurist magazine and a society spokesman. Many offer advice to and facilitate discussions within businesses seeking to anticipate events, rather than merely react to crises.

..on the National Weather Service website, with a TON of brochures and downloadable documents.

Visit them here…

Here is their list…

NOAA PA#
Publication
Aviation
96052
96076 Key to TAF and METAR Report
ASOS Guide For Pilots, htm or pdf

Boating/Marine
94058
98053
98054

NA
Safe Boating Weather Tips
Mariner’s Guide to Marine Weather Services Great Lakes
Mariner’s Guide to Marine Weather Services Coastal, Offshore and High Seas, Text only version
Marine Service Charts

…nothing major, really…no disasters or events to worry about.

What I refer to is the UPGRADE to SurvivalRing’s overall look and feel, style and presentation, and complete and total makeover.

Last time I did a MAJOR change to the site, I was driving cross country, and then wound up homeless . I did most of the redesign work in the front seat of a pickup truck, parked at truckstops across the country, with my laptop hanging off my steering wheel with a “truckers desk”. This was around the spring of 2001.

A lot has happened since then. Constant content addition, new downloadable documents, one two career changes, a return to college, and an earned college degree have been done in the timeframe we speak of.

This change to a new content management system for EVERYTHING offered on SurvivalRing means that things will load faster, be easier to find, and much easier to navigate around for everyone.

For a sneak peak of the new look, visit here…not much content yet, but you can see what the new style will be.

Over the next many weeks, the current site content will be moved to the new system, and then the old pages will become pointers to the new system. New tools for download management, ecommerce, affiliate management systems, membership management, and digital downloads are already installed, and will be integrated into this new web design.

Finally, putting my hard earned NEW web skills to work for my BIGGEST web project to date. Your feedback is MOST appreciated.

Rich

…We have REAL net access again…(doing the Ren & Stimpy HappyHappyJoyJoy dance around the room now).

We’ve been dealing with droopy DSL service the past few weeks, as the local college destruction…er, construction guys have been digging holes in the yard, drilling holes in water pipes, breaking drain pipes, and generally wreaking big-ass havoc on our little corner of campus…all to install (albeit 20 years too late) “fire suppression sprinkler systems” in our little corner of the Central Wyoming College campus, in the west apartment building complex.

Before they started destroying anything, our DSL was working fine. We paid for 768k up/down service, and were seeing average speeds of 400/500k down, and much less up. No problem…we were “right on the edge’ of service with the ISP provider.

Then, hell….

All the commotion with tractors, backhoes, hammers, chisels, etc. did SOMETHING to our phone lines (a very important part of the DSL connection), and It Started To Suck Bigtime.

We spent days on the phone with Wyoming.com, talked to 5 different techs, and switched DSL modems, cables, and routers…all to no avail.

Finally, we figured out that we COULD get Wireless Broadband here, without bolting any antennae to the outside of the building (our bedroom window faces the hilltop containing the transmitter tower). How did we find out that wireless would work here? Next door neighbor, Ben, is a techie at the ISP, and got it working in his dorm. In calling and troubleshooting the DSL problems, he suggested the wireless option. I am very glad he did.

Got the hardware this afternoon….plugged it all together in about 20 minutes….tweaked the IP addie in the software controls, and BOOM! We are ZOOMING back on the net…almost 1meg in d/l speed, and 500k upload speeds..MUCH better than DSL was.

I am a happy camper again…

Thank you Wireless Gods…and Wyo.com for your assistance…

NOW….if you bill be for those dialup hours I had to use to do my work, I’ll be VERY upset…

Rich

What would YOU do…if a terrorist is standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU? And you comprehend that fact after something has JUST HAPPENED?
Read this….

Original Source

‘I saw the wire and it hit me: he’s a suicide bomber’

July 23, 2005
A COMMUTER who rushed to help a Tube passenger he thought had been shot only realised when he saw wire sticking out of the man’s T-shirt that he was “staring into the eyes” of a potential suicide bomber.

Abisha Moyo, 28, a Zimbabwe-born business analyst, told the Daily Mail newspaper that he was on his mobile phone on the Tube near Shepherds Bush station in west London when he heard a noise like a pistol shot.

“I turned around and there was a man lying on the ground with his arms outstretched in a Jesus Christ position, lying on top of a medium-sized black and green rucksack, face up,” he said.

“I thought he might have been shot. I went up to him and said: ‘Are you all right mate?’ But he just ignored me and kept his eyes shut.”

The man was about 19 or 20, of mixed race, and was clean-shaven and smartly dressed, Mr Moyo said.

“The rucksack was ripped at the bottom, with some sort of muslin showing and some gooey lard coming out of it. I could see what looked like a pressurised canister or tube and there was a strong smell of vinegar,” he said.

Mr Moyo said he moved to the next carriage and the man sat up. “He looked dazed and confused and very shaken … He sat down in our carriage very briefly and then walked back again. As he did, I could see some wire sticking out of his T-shirt.

“It looked a bit like the wire for some headphones, but I could see the exposed copper at the end. It was then it hit me and I thought ‘Oh my god, he’s a suicide bomber’.”

Mr Moyo said the man abandoned his rucksack and leapt on to the tracks.

Witnesses also saw suspects at other blast sites around London.

Sofiane Mohellavi, 35, was reading his book on the train at Warren Street when the carriage filled with the stench of burning rubber.

“Suddenly, people started screaming and were walking on each others’ backs trying to get out of there,” he said. “I couldn’t move, I didn’t know what to do, whether to run or not.”

Tariq Khan was in bed with the flu when he realised the normally busy, noisy street outside his flat in Hackney had gone quiet. A friend called to tell him that a bus parked opposite his home had a bomb on board.

“It was like a scene from (the movie) 28 Days Later, when the man goes outside and everyone has gone,” Mr Khan said. “There was just the 26 bus opposite, with its hazard lights on. Nothing else at all.”

…that we may need marshmallows in Europe soon.

Rich

Shane Connor, a good friend of mine for many years now, is going to be on Coast To Coast AM, with George Noory, this wednesday night. Visit Coasttocoastam.com for more info, play times, and more.

Shane is going to be talking about the current national threats to the US, including nuclear terrorism, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, civil defense, and more.

Shane is the founder of the well respected website, KI4u.com, and has been intrumental in getting the word out to the media, and the world, about safety and longevity in dealing with radiological threats.

Please tune in and give him your support, and maybe even call in.

Rich

Update:

I listened to the entire show last nite, and for the most part it was interesting. Steve Quayle was also on the show with Shane, and did more than his share of talking, including trying to throw in a bit of conspiracy crap that included nuke terror.

What was NOT mentioned, and what I hoped Shane would get a change to, was the fact that in the nuclear testing years of this nation, we actually built real fallout shelters in nuke test zones, then lit real nukes, finding out that fallout shelters WOULD provide real protection in a real nuke disaster.

Also, while the lack of a national fallout shelter program was mentioned, what wasn’t mentioned AT ALL, was the fact that EVERY fallout shelter plan the government ever created for US Citizens, was online, and available for free from MANY websites…including, of course, mostly from SurvivalRing.

THAT was my single most important goal I relayed to Shane, and that I emailed to George Noory. NO available web resources were mentioned for the audience, only promises that with the US, nuclear terror is going to visit us, with the oft repeated “it’s not if, but when” line.

The show could have been a lot more helpful to it’s 5 to 10 million listeners, and Shane handled himself very well. But, Steve and George, AS USUAL, did NOT offer REAL solutions to help folks when the time comes to actually BE SAFE when the fallout is on the way.

How sad.

Rich