How Will the Swiss Francs Change Impact You ?

               

       The Swiss have long had a sensible yet alternative view of life and their place in the world.  They take mandatory military service seriously, and in a continent in which almost no one else values guns, they train all their able bodied citizens who keep those weapons for national defense after their service is over.  Swiss disaster preparedness is legendary.

                    Financial security is also a part of preparedness.  In September, 2011, the Swiss who have retained the use of their own franc, pegged its value to the euro.  This means that they fixed its value at 1.2 francs per one euro.  This was supposed to result in some measure of stability for both currencies, which of course is important because it stabilizes trade, markets, and eventually jobs.
                     In the past few years, without going off on a verbose tangent, as is so often my inclination, the euro has had some difficulties.  A number of European nations have suffered financial instability and have required assistance and buy outs of their problems. This has caused fluctuations and concerns for euro stability.  
                    The Swiss are great bankers, and yesterday they announced that they were going to "unhook" the Swiss franc from the euro because longer term linkage to it would be unsustainable. This was quite a surprise. The first result is that the franc surged to being worth 30% more than it had been.   This is going to have some negative effects in the marketplace even worldwide.   For the Swiss, their goods are going to become more expensive for other nations. This will decrease exports and it may cost them jobs, even though they may be more secure in the long term.  For everyone else, Swiss watches, chocolates, technology and anything else are going to become more expensive. Any Swiss francs you are holding are likely to become worth more. The euro may fall as a result of this change.

                     Some of the results of this change cannot be foreseen. There will be unexpected market volatility.   Already, a brokerage house in New Zealand announced this morning that it was going out of business, the result of losing "all of its assets" as a result of this currency change.   With the price of oil descending, jobs being lost, Russian financial losses, and other signs of world economic instability, there is no way to fully assess the unintended consequences of the Swiss move.  We can expect market volatility across the board for some time.

                     If you read this and think you will remain untouched, let me remind you that there are a number of drug companies in Switzerland.  Some of the drugs they make are not made by any other companies in the world. Some of the research they do is not being duplicated anywhere else.  For some, an increase in the price of Swiss goods will be a problem and it may not be felt for some time.

                      My conclusion is that you should continue to save a cash cushion in your own currency.  We are all connected to one another financially in both ways which benefit us, and ways which make us all vulnerable.  You should consider amassing some gold or silver if this is possible for you.  You should stockpile long term food for interruptions in supply or for periods of inflation. You should assemble an excellent first aid kit and you should address any known medical or dental issues in advance of an emergency.  You should take reasonable measured steps to prepare for reasonable emergencies and disasters in your region.  The financially uncertain ride for most of us will continue for some time.

Building LED Soda Bottle Lights

               

Illac Diaz with a bottle bulb  (Picture: yp.scmp.com )

   The lights in the post below are excellent for the type of construction I have mentioned, and work very well during daylight.   However, most of us need light when the sun goes down.  In addition, LED soda bottle lights may be able to be modified and used for different types of construction.  In addition, these lights may be used for barns, animal housing, and emergency shelters following disasters.
                    I generally prefer step-by-step directions with photographs which I can post here, but Illac Diaz, the founder of Liters of Light made a video himself which explains the construction and implementation of LED bottle lights quite well.

           Illac Diaz and Liters of Light's Directions for LED Bottle Light Construction and Use

The Construction of Solar Bottle Lights

                    

 

  I have no idea what a social entrepreneur really is, but if this is what they do, then the world needs more of them.  Illac Diaz is just such a person. He is the founder of Liters of Light  After completing his own university degree, he set out to help thousands of Filipino families who are living in substandard housing following the terrible storms and tsunamis of the past few years.  In a number of coastal housing settlements in the Phillipines, there is no electricity and no light by which to make food for the evening meal or do homework afterward.  This is Illac's simple and brilliant way of addressing the problem.

                   This method works on metal roofing both corrugated or otherwise. It can also work on outbuildings, barns, or for growing sheds.  Multiple bottles bring a great deal of daylight light into a structure.


Building a Solar Bottle Bulb

*PET soda bottle
*Galvanized Iron (GI) sheet
*Rubber sealant
*Bleach
*Filtered Water

Step 1: Cut approximately 9 x 10 inches of GI sheet (corrugated or flat)

 

 

 

Step 2: At the center of the GI sheet, draw 2 circles

 

 cut out the center circle, carefully.

Cut the 1 cm difference radially, making strips and bend upwards, perpendicular to the GI sheet

 

 

Using sandpaper, scratch the surface around the upper third portion of the soda bottle where the GI sheet will be placed, to allow the rubber sealant to stick better

 

 

Insert the bottle into the GI sheet until the upper third. Apply rubber sealant on the strips above and around the area below. Wait to dry

 

 

 

Fill the soda bottle with filtered water and ~10 mL (2 capfuls) of bleach. Cover with its original cap

 

Cut a hole on the roof, similar to the bottle circumference

 

 

 See more detail and installation instructions at:

 http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-SOLAR-BOTTLE-BULB/

 

Even modest donations sent to this organization can help people living in darkness, as Illac himself works to put this, and other inexpensive lighting means in the homes of those who have endured significant disasters:

 http://aliteroflight.org/

 

With Compassion and Solidarity for France

          

        In view of the two additional hostage crises  related to the terrorist attack in Paris earlier in the week, I would like to tell our readers in France that we stand in solidarity with them.  We send condolences to them and to those who were directly affected by these terrorist attacks.

              Following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, America traded a number of its freedoms in exchange for imaginary enhancement of safety, by way of The Patriot Act.   Please, don't allow your leaders to make the same mistake.   France should remain as free a society as is possible.    No society can ever be completely safe, and the promise of a completely safe society is simply illusory.

Have No Illusions....We Should Be At A Higher Level of Alert

      

This is the actual car of the three men who stormed the offices killing employees, and then exchanging fire with police prior to leaving.     (Photo: www.mirror.co.uk )

         Just before lunchtime, Paris time,  three men wearing black hoods stormed into the  offices of a French newspaper with automatic weapons and potentially a rocket launcher, and proceeded to mow down the employees and principles of the business during an editorial meeting. There have been at leave twelve deaths  and many additional injuries. Two Paris policemen who were guarding the newspaper have also been killed.  Four people are in critical condition.  The death toll is likely to rise as some of the injured people are likely not to survive. Witnesses say that when the three gunmen had completed their task, they shouted something amounting to "The Prophet Has Been Avenged."    The newspaper was Charlie Hebdo, which is well known for its satirical treatment of many things, the most recently of which was a satirical treatment of Muslim extremism and jihad.   Francois Hollande, the French president,  has raised the terror alert in France to the highest possible level. A diligent manhunt for the perpetrators is under way.

              Here in the US, our president has Muslim friends to lunch.  He frequently states that "We are not at war with Islam".   We might not be, but extremist Muslims, ISIS, ISIL or whatever they wish to be called this week, are at war to the death with the western world, the Christian world, and anyone else who might call attention to their own insanity.   When will our leaders understand and accept that extremist Muslims are as big a threat to Europe and the Americas as Hitler was ?

            Until then, as an individual family in the United States, Europe, or wherever you are, be on alert.  I wonder if the offices of Mad Magazine have security ?      Make plans for your own defense.  Stay ahead on foods and medications.  Understand that we are under attack, along with our entire way of life.  If your region permits, get a concealed weapon.  Your own life could depend upon it.

             We send our most sincere condolences to the people of France and particularly the families of those attacked in this terrorist act.  Those who died became martyrs in the continuing fight for free speech in a world where such speech continues to be modified and limited.



UPDATE:   The original French news reports of this matter indicated that there were three perpetrators. Now, most news outlets are quoting that most witnesses saw two.   Still, our information above was correct when it was posted.

Pearls of Wisdom: Self Defense: Pearl One

          

Our best weapon in self defense is, and always is, our brain.

    With less time available to the internet, and to blogging in general, I have needed to focus my posts a little better.  This begins an episodic series which I believe will run for some time with regard to practical and psychological aspects of self defense.  When I say self defense, I am extending this to mean self defense as it applies to your family also.

                     When the shooter at Virginia Tech killed and injured so many, some mistakenly said that "he just snapped".    When employees come in to the office where they have just lost a job and fire a weapon on those who still have one, the news crews will often say, "He just snapped".   Yet, there really is no such thing.   If we were to thoroughly investigate the interviews with family, neighbors, acquaintances, co-workers, teachers etc. and guaranteed them anonymity,  we would learn that almost all of the people who took egregious homicidal actions showed erratic behavior or signs of overt mental illness, often for many years prior to such an event.  Some of them had attempted treatment, but many had not.

                      In point of fact, truly "warningless" attacks on companies, and on individuals are quite rare.   Most people with some form of mental illness have indicated that they are disgruntled, and many have actually threatened others, and yet those of us with a "normal" mindset are more comfortable discounting the warnings.   Most of us with a healthy normal mindset have our attention taken each day by a variety of professional relationships and activities.  We don't think much about those who are angry with us.  We move through life just getting everything done, and hoping for enough time to have fulfilling interactions with our families..  However, many of the mentally ill people who fixate on corporations, smaller companies or individuals whom they mistakenly believe have caused their difficulties, don't have as much going on.  This leaves room for mental energy to be focused on the obsession of those who, in their minds, "deserve to be taught a lesson".   Healthy people don't see this because life keeps them busy, and obsessive people of this type, see little else.  They become enmeshed with a system of disordered thinking which allows them to blame their object of blame for everything from the weather to inflation, or their most recent parking ticket.  Since they tend not to share their thinking with others as much as others do, there isn't anyone to call attention to how disordered their thinking might be. There are no reality checks, which are so frequent for you and I who are involved in a professional or personal networks of some type.

                      In addition, people who exhibit bizarre behavior often frighten physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners or physician assistants.  They often think that the person is a little odd and might have been having a bad day.  Even psychiatrists can miss a person who is on a fast track to being homicidal. Most of us are happy enough just to have such a person out of the office. Many health care practitioners don't take the brave action needed to place someone on an evaluative psychiatric hold.   If our mental health systems were truly effective then far fewer of the attacks on schools, colleges, employers, and family members would occur.   Sadly, in the US, the newest strategy is to blame the guns and let the people who are ruled by disordered thinking run free.  The reality is that a mentally ill person can kill with rope, steak knives, hammers, tire irons, motor vehicles, or a myriad of household products added to food without the recipient's knowledge.

                      How can we as individuals avoid becoming a statistic ?    First of all, place denial aside and think about your relatives and then your friends.  Most of us know someone who has "lost all their friends" in the past few years.  Most of us know someone who lost a job and then has exhibited behaviors which made getting a new one unlikely.   Most of us know someone whose behaviors have become more extreme or bizarre, sometimes following a genuine or a perceived loss of some kind. These are all risk factors for either a suicidal or a homicidal event.  Most of us ignore these risk factors, just hoping that the person involved chooses to get help.  Most often, because their thinking is already disordered, they won't. Their paranoia will prevent them from trusting the systems in place enough in order to get help from those sources.  You may need to talk to their spouse. You may need to talk to their parent and suggest that they get some help because you have seen how unhappy they are.  Certainly, an economy off the tracks has made the stress on such individuals far worse, and it has accelerated the descent of some into madness. There are effective treatments available for many people and yet many of the sickest people have never tried them.

                    Sometimes by "doing the right thing" and noticing that your cousin, your father-in-law or best friend is having a mental health issue, you will become a target yourself.  Sadly, this does come with the territory of doing the right thing sometimes.  "No good deed goes unpunished" should be a mantra for me, and many others, yet we still must do the right thing.

                    Once we have tried to get help for those who need it, then we have to ask ourselves reasonably,  who would like to kill us if they had half a chance ?     The reality is that more people would probably like to do you harm than you realize.   People often don't hate you, for you.  They hate you because you remind them of their ex-wife, or their mother, and they hated those people with passion. Sometimes you simply fit within the box.    Sometimes your husband's ex-wife hates you because she thinks her kids share more with you than with her.   Sometimes the person you work with who was not promoted when you were, hates you.  Many women (and now men also) have been the object of the affections of an obsessive lover who was either rejected, or who never really was a love interest of ours.  Sometimes, we have to assess who has exhibited bizarre behavior and who would do us harm if the circumstances allowed this.

                    In order to prevent becoming a statistic ourselves, we need to being mental health issues to the attention of the family member who is in the best position to induce the individual in question to get help.   If this doesn't work, document everything you are seeing.  Sometimes, the police can be helpful.  Most of them know that a household that has a bevy of domestic disturbance calls down the road becomes a call for a homicide.  Many of them are willing to arrest such individuals and in essence, force a mental health intervention.  Next, you should always be in your very best physical shape. This means that you are more likely to notice someone waiting outside your place of employment. You are more likely to be able to run or fight off a known, or an unknown attacker.   Lastly, if you are located in a place in which a concealed weapons permit is permitted, consider one.   A weapon, such as a firearm is a big responsibility.  You must train in order to be comfortable with one, and to ensure that no one could ever rush you and take it from you, allowing them to use it on you.  You need to be able to keep your weapon secured at home sufficiently to avoid children or anyone else from accessing it.  You need to be competent enough to handle your weapon to avoid accidental discharges.

                 A professor I once had in college who taught me self defense once said that the most important aspect of self defense is in fact, situational awareness.  Without being paranoid, start noticing the cars and license plates which accompany you each day on your drive to work.  Notice who is around you in the grocery store.  Noticing what is normal around you will help to go a long way to helping you recognize when someone, and most importantly, when something isn't.

In Recognition of "The Book of Barkley"

This post first appeared on one of my other blogs  (Life After the Rescues) in August of 2014.  Please take a look.

      

      To those of you who have ever really loved a dog, this is a beautiful book.   It was beautifully penned by one of our readers who weaves so beautifully how a particular dog became a truly important part of her life, during its own twists and turns. The author herself is a remarkable woman.   This book is a lovely treat for yourself and a lovely gift to anyone who has ever loved a dog, and even for those who have not yet had that resounding and life changing pleasure.  I give this beautifully written book an unconditional recommendation.


The "Book of Barkley" in paperback

The "Book of Barkley" Kindle Edition


The "Book of Barkley" via  itunes


Other means will soon follow...

Barkley




Update:       This book has been recognized as one of the most promising Indie books of the season:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/l-b-johnson/book-barkley/