Public

This short primer was provided by PeakProsperity.com member Dogs_In_A_Pile in the comments to our ongoing post covering the developments in Japan. We are featuring it here given the many questions readers are asking on this topic and the importance at this time of clearly understanding risks we do (and don't) face. It is based on his expertise developed during his military service on nuclear-powered submarines. 

Radiation and contamination are used interchangeably and they are not the same thing, nor are treatment methods.  You can receive radiation exposure and not need any contamination control, and you can become contaminated and not need treatment for exposure to radiation.  NOTE – I am not saying that if you get contaminated you won't receive any radiation exposure, because you will.  What I am saying is that you may be contaminated with such a low level of contaminated particles that there will be no need for radiation exposure treatments.  The difference is both subtle and vast. 

Here is a quick primer on contamination control measures.

Aaron submitted this post prior to the recent disaster in Japan. As we are now being educated in real-time as to the value of developing preparedness in advance of calamity, the guidance below becomes even more relevant. This article complements Aaron's earlier "Practical Survival Skills 101" posts on fire, water, and shelter.

Preface: What is an emergency? 

There is an awful lot of academic banter in which we try to “identify” emergencies before they happen. Pedantic issues are categorized and specifics are assigned to them as potential resolutions. This is not a “flawed” approach, but it’s endemic in the American mindset, which is obsessed with micromanagement.

In order to distance ourselves from the details, which are too stochastic and specific, we can generally state that an emergency is a shortage of resources.

Resources can be defined as:

Given its simple elegance in addressing a question frequently asked on this site, this post has been elevated from the forums section. It has been updated by site members rhare and travlin since its first appearance (the original post can be read here).

I've been working on a way to get across to friends and family how bad the economic situation has become. I find one of the biggest problems is that when numbers are in the billions and trillions they are very hard to imagine, and people get this glazed/deer in the headlights look. So I decided to try to scale the numbers in a way that can be more easily visualized. 

Below is an updated version, with many thanks to members of PeakProsperity.com community who suggested changes/corrections, and particularly to Travlin for rewording much of the message to make it a better story. Hopefully this version will help convince others of the serious nature of the US fiscal outlook. 

My Troubled Relative 

I need your advice. I have a relativewho is in financial trouble. He makes $50,000 a year, but he spent $74,591 last year, and his prospects of making $50,000 this year look kind of bad. There's a good chance he will get a pay cut.