Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

spaceweatherlive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 418 posts

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#151

Post by skyfaller »

internetwanker wrote: post #108
komali2 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practice makes perfect. Highly recommend finding your local food not bombs cohort or visiting one in a nearby city and then starting your own back home. Community resiliency is a natural instinct it seems. Rebecca solnit's "paradise built in hell" is a fascinating read on the subject.

Now I’ve volunteered with a local FNB group so I’m not trying to be mean but… What would a group that gets cheap and or throwaway groceries and feeds homeless do in a Fit-Hits-The-Shan or End-of-World scenario? You’d have to hope some heavily agricultural minded types would be friendly to you and your labor potential.

The "end of the world" could be a local phenomenon. I like my headcanon that in Mad Max it's just Australia that's fucked, the rest of the world is fine.

If there are functional societies elsewhere in the world, then help in the form of food could be on its way. The question is, will it be distributed efficiently to the people who need it? Something like Food Not Bombs could respond quite effectively to such a situation.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#152

Post by DemocracyFTW2 »

ghostly_s wrote: post #123
fl0ki wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 8 pounds per gallon It never occurred to me that people needed this spelled out, but I guess it's simpler in most of the world where 1L = 1kg.

I don't think you can blame inch-pounds for this one- even though we rationally know it is heavier than most materials we don't "think of" water as heavy because modern society gives us the luxury of seldom having to handle more than a thirty minute or so supply of it at once.

then again, anyone with a garden or balcony that has to be watered with a watering can can [sic] attest to how heavy a little bit of water is. If you have a small 100m² garden and it rains a modest 1mm (per m² that is) that's 1L/m² equivalent to 1kg/m² or 100kg total mass of water. When it has rained 1mm people call it "three drops of rain" and they will have to water their plants anyway. That's already 10 cans @ 10L each to lug around.

The other kind of people who know about the weight of waters are people with campers / trailers and people with fish tanks in their apartments. The maximum allowable size for a fish tank in the middle of the room is not that much.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#153

Post by Marsymars »

Syzygies wrote: post #89
Marsymars wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or with an adapter hose you can connect a standard propane tank. If you get the right connector bits, you can use propane with either a dual-burner Coleman-like stove, or with a minimal Jetboil-like backpacking stove.

With a different adapter one can refill camping canisters from a standard propane tank. One "usually" gets away with refilling empty canisters, but these aren't legal for transport in an automobile. Presumably with reason, as in the odds aren't as good as skydiving. I recommend the DOT approved: Flame King Refillable 1LB Empty Propane Cylinder Tank https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MM3GCVO/ It offers some nuanced…

Yeah I looked into those, but in practice it seemed easier to just get a 5lb propane tank for camping that I get refilled at the same place I fill my 20lb tanks. (Plus I'm not clear about the legality of the Flame King ones in Canada, with the result that there aren't any reputable sellers.)

If I really need to go light I'm carrying isobutane canisters or using an alcohol stove.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#154

Post by chdnr »

blindriver wrote: post #150

Is there any danger of people flying in planes during this time? Will there be any radiation exposure?

Boeing: "When you fly our planes, you agree that Coronal Mass Ejections may occur at any time and we are not liable for sudden door losses"

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#155

Post by Johnny555 »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #126
pennomi wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Backpacking water filters aren’t all that expensive and work fine with most water sources. Wouldn’t produce enough to shower in but certainly enough that you could survive in a disaster.

I wouldn't think backpacking water filters would help much in for getting water from rivers / ponds in an urban/suburban environment? They'd take care of particulate matter and microbes but I doubt they'd do much for chemical contaminants.

Also, most filters can filter bacteria and cysts, but can't filter out viruses. Many say viruses are not an issue in the backcountry (but I still use purifying tablets), but if you're taking water from a suburban stream during a disaster, I'd definitely want to make sure I'm not ingesting whatever viruses the guy upstream deposited when he used the stream as a toilet.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#156

Post by steve_adams_86 »

dole wrote: post #133
briffle wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart sells 5 gallon water totes for $15. that is essentially 5 days for one person. We have a few on hand (family of 4 plus dog) and every six months or so, I empty them, clean them, and re-fill them. Also, there are gravity filters that work great if you have things like creeks near you.. Berkey Filters are pretty good for filtering out contaminants, as well as 2-bag gravity filters that are really popular with b…

I'll second Berkey Filters. While a full Berkey setup may seem expensive, the filters themselves and not the housing is the important part.

You can also use the filters with alternative housings that are far cheaper if aesthetics aren’t a concern. I’ve seen people use food safe 5 gallon buckets for example. It’s much cheaper and works just as well in emergency situations. You do need to be careful about light penetration of the translucent bucket wall.

Another cool thing is that you can make (in a pinch, I wouldn’t recommend this over berkey filters) filters from the same type of bulkheads berkey uses attached to home-made ceramic filters. They work remarkably well in emergencies and are trivial to make if you’ve got clay and a hot fire. There’s definitely trial and error involved for getting perfect seals, and some advanced DIYers I’ve seen used glazing to create a more easily sealed rim which can have a plastic tube jammed into it for a friction fit, which then attaches to the inner part of the bulkhead.

Totally unnecessary if civilization is working but awesome if things go sideways and you’re out of filters. There might be better methods too, I haven’t looked into it for years.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#157

Post by blincoln »

ramses0 wrote: post #145
sillysaurusx wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The water seems like the hard part. Are there any tricks for cheap, safe hydration for a family? I guess we could just start building walls of unopened water bottles in our basement… (In my teens I saw a family friend had a bag full of food supplies. I asked someone if that was a prep bag, and they said yes. I thought they were a bit weird. Now I’ve come full circle browsing Amazon for cheap doomsday food.)

The genius move I heard of was to throw a few 5-gal jugs of water up in your attic (!!!). It's relatively shelf-stable, standardized size, and "in case of emergency" you can even use it as a gravity-flowed spout to fill smaller containers below. I've taken to trying to have a minimal set of 4 one liter steel water bottles hung in the closet (grab + go) all the time. So convenient to be able to "just grab some water"…

If one is going to do that, I'd strongly recommend putting them in some kind of basin that can hold the water if it escapes from the jugs, or sturdier containers, or both.

At least in the US, water jugs are generally very flimsy. An attic is likely to have wide temperature variations throughout the year, and leaky water jugs up there could cause some expensive damage.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#158

Post by petters »

impossiblefork wrote: post #109
shoghicp wrote: post #97

Here in Stockholm, Sweden had some power flickering and UPS triggering at home and several friend's place a few minutes ago. Shame it's going to be always bright outside tonight :(

I've seen the flickering as well, but surely it's not CME-related? After all, it's already evening.

It takes a while for a solar storm to reach earth. It travels slower than light. But I don't know what caused the flickering in Stockholm.

Re: Coronal mass ejection impact imminent, two more earth-directed CMEs

#159

Post by Johnny555 »

ryandrake wrote: post #28
voisin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best way to prep is strong community connections around you. Community is resiliency.

LOL we saw how that played out with COVID. 1/2 your "community" is going to deny the disaster and deliberately worsen it. 1/2 (with some overlap) is going to go from grocery store to grocery store buying all the necessities to resell them later. EDIT: Wow, I know HN wears rose-colored glasses when looking at the past, but come on, people. We didn't hallucinate the antimaskers, antivaxxers, and thousands of protestors…

I lived in a small condo complex during the early pandemic (~30 units, around 100 people total including kids) and COVID brought everyone together -- people sharing food/supplies (even elusive toilet paper), offering to make grocery runs for those that can't go themselves, one lady sewed enough homemade masks for everyone using her curtains.

I'd rarely met the neighbors before then, but COVID really brought everyone together.

Though I lived in a pretty liberal and well educated area, not many anti-vaxxers around where I lived.

Post reply on HN