I’m not a big fan of gadgets and “sharpening systems” that lock you into a specific way of putting an edge on a blade. I advocate learning to free-hand an edge on a strop or a diamond stone, because once you learn that skill, it’s easily transferrable to many different kinds of sharpening media. As
Welcome to the newly revamped Key Developments, now twice weekly and with non-COVID news. Right now, it’s actually still just COVID news, but we’ll be slowly morphing it into something broader as we go. There are over 9.3 million global cases. Cases have grown by more than a million in the last week. There have
In this multi-part series, we step back from the flood of day-to-day pandemic news, and put our attention back on the big questions. This series is divided into three major parts: disease biology, therapies, and the progress of the pandemic. We’ll close by discussing the future. This is Part II, on therapies and vaccines. Read
Here in Texas, we’re still having a hard time getting reusable cloth masks of decent quality. My wife ordered some fancy-looking masks from Canada over a month ago, and they’ve yet to ship. I recently waited three weeks for some overpriced masks that fell apart on first use. Luckily, more clothing makers and brands are
If you’re like most of us at The Prepared, you’ve been on lockdown for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And, like us, you’ve probably spent the past few weeks watching friends go to bars, gyms, and the beach. Some people are even going on vacations. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are on the rise in much
COVID-19 risks are not linear. For example: Four people hanging out over dinner is not twice as dangerous as two people having dinner — it’s actually three times as dangerous. Many of us do our best to forget high school math classes, but understanding how network effects and linear, quadratic, and exponential relationships work can
The world has over 8.56 million cases. Cases have grown globally by almost a million in the last week. The US has over 2.2 million cases and has had over 120,000 deaths. The US has gained over 24,000 new cases since yesterday. The US continues to plateau at a high rate of case growth. AstraZenica
We’ve been reading a lot lately about vitamin D supplementation. Some doctors suspect vitamin D could protect against COVID-19 since vitamin D can also have a positive effect on influenza. Others have suggested that vitamin D deficiency may play a role in the excess of deaths from COVID-19 among people of color in the United
In this multi-part series, we’ll step back from the flood of day-to-day pandemic news, and put our attention back on the big questions. This series will be divided into three major parts: disease biology, therapies, and the progress of the pandemic. We’ll close by discussing the future. This first post is about disease biology. When
There are over 8.25 million global cases. There have been over 445,000 deaths around the globe. There are over 2.2 million cases in the US. There have been over 119,000 deaths in the US alone. The US, Brazil, and Russia continue to lead the world in cases. Kidney injury is happening in COVID-19 infected kids,
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, we’ve heard from a lot of folks who’ve stocked up on powdered foods. It’s a comfort to know you won’t go hungry if you can’t leave your house for a while. But how can you know if your family will eat the food you’ve been stocking up on? What if
Summary: The modern prepper community is awesome, helpful, and knowledgeable. Many of you have been asking for a discussion forum hosted on The Prepared, and now it’s here! Create your account today to claim your public display name, build your profile, and join in the convo. We’re excited to hang out with and learn from
No matter who you are and what you tend to shop for, you just about can’t click a link these days without seeing an ad for cloth face masks. Quite often, the masks look like the one in the picture above — cloth material, a plastic exhale port, and ear loops with sizers on them.
There are over 7.7 million global cases. The US has over 2.1 million cases. Cases have grown by over 25,000 in the US since yesterday, with over 700 deaths in that same period. There is a slight downtrend in daily deaths in the US. There have been nearly 427,000 deaths around the world. Worried about
My local newspaper has reported that nearly 600 businesses in the Twin Cities have been damaged in riots after the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. While it’s still too early to know exactly what the total cost will be from that example of unrest, insurance companies expect to see record losses from that
