Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I seem to recall, for instance, that it can be such a "heavy duty" procedure that ribs can be cracked as a result of having it applied.

I'd happily take a few cracked ribs, in exchange for being alive.

When you've seen a highly intelligent person you know well having spent some years being more vague & slow than "yer average person in the street" and it does seem to date from that sort of procedure having been done on them (ie rather than being dementia) then that's not good news either.

I suspect that would be more to do with the period of time you were deprived of oxygen, than the actual CPR, hence the sooner CPR is started, the better.

[Deleted User]

I was in £land earlier, and had an idea for emergency lighting, during a power cut, which I'm going to try out when it gets dark.

I bought three, 9 LED, flexible USB lights, and attached them to a 4 way USB hub.

Hung on my sideboard, and plugged into my car booster pack, I'm hoping they will produce a useful amount of light, for a long period of time.

Frugalsod

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

Two problems come to mind.

1) What if you change your mind?

2) What if the First Aider doesn't remove your shirt, before giving CPR?

3) What if they are Dyslexic?

[Deleted User]

Frugalsod wrote: »

3) What if they are Dyslexic?

4) or illiterate?

Ryanna2599

Frugalsod wrote: »

A solar flare or Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) are probably more likely than EMP depending on how stupid our politicians are.

There was a near miss of a CME only a few years ago and that would have been significant. Though it is easy to protect against. Just unplug everything from the walls, and turn everything off. In order to cause any damage there needs to be a sufficient length of cabling. While devices are plugged in that extends the cable available to induce a current in your device. Unplug it and that length of effective cable is significantly reduced. You can also put devices into earthed metal tins as a back up for really important devices.

Frugalsod thanks for providing more info on the likelihood of a solar flare. Do you know how widely affected a country or an area would be if it hit? Would it be quite localised or affect a large area?

Reading the one second after book is quite an eye opener in terms of the potential impact an EMP attack would have if employed from a high enough altitude so I'm now wondering about how a CME would affect the population.

[Deleted User]

I've read One Second After, and it's a scary prospect. :eek:

Frugalsod

Ryanna2599 wrote: »

Frugalsod thanks for providing more info on the likelihood of a solar flare. Do you know how widely affected a country or an area would be if it hit? Would it be quite localised or affect a large area?

Reading the one second after book is quite an eye opener in terms of the potential impact an EMP attack would have if employed from a high enough altitude so I'm now wondering about how a CME would affect the population.

Very simply a Coronal Mass Ejection is a huge ball of highly charged plasma. Very tenuous but very highly charged. If it hit the earth directly it could cause problems across the world. Satellites are much more vulnerable but they can be protected simply by turning them off and restarting a number of hours earlier.

Their impact is via induction, similar to the same sort of induction charger that is used to recharge electric toothbrushes. In theory if we were geared up to deal with them we could use it recharge all electrical devices in the world for a year from a single strike. Though they are less frequent than that so not really useful.

There was a big strike in Quebec in March 1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1989_geomagnetic_storm

So it could impact an area as big as the world or as small as the UK. The big advantage we have is, is that there are a number of solar observatories watching from deep space and they give us about three days warning. So can we can unplug everything when it strikes.

Frugalsod

I would like to add that there was a near miss 4 or 5 years ago. I have every device plugged into Belkin surge protectors. So I can turn everything off at once and then unplug it from the wall. So they can happen more than once in a lifetime. In fact lightning strikes also have a similar impact but on a much smaller scale.

moneyistooshorttomention

In the event of a CME - would it be the quickest/easiest method to "unplug all the electricals" to just throw the main switch on the consumer protection unit for the house (ie what used to be a fusebox)?

Harder?/impossible? if the house is so outdated that its still an old-fashioned fuse box. But, for those of us with modern-style consumer protection units instead of those fuseboxes - then wouldn't this do the trick in about 5 seconds flat? Sounds easier than running through our houses trying to think if we've pulled out every single appliance. I'd much prefer to just open the cupboard door and flick that one switch and think "Sorted"...

GreyQueen

Morning all.

I'm wondering if flipping up the switch on the consumer unit would achieve anything in terms of protecting items plugged into sockets, as they would still be connected to the wiring?

Quick Q for the electrically minded amongst us. I have my pooter (which includes a 6-speaker set) plugged into a surge protector. This is as old as the pooter (13). What's happening is that every now and again, if the pooter is on or off, the speakers make a single loud WHUMP noise.

This is happening more frequently than it used to and, apart from making me jump, I have some concerns that it might indicate a power surge not being countered by the surge strip, which might need replacing.

I'd value your thoughts.

jk0 - as the others have said, get to a GP asap, that's flipping weird and needs to be checked out.