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Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 12, 2022 Posted 3 days ago

Iraq has been struggling through some 120+ degree heat and power grid shutdowns. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/iraq-broils-in-dangerous-120-degree-heat-as-power-grid-shuts-down/

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 05, 2022 Posted 1 week ago

I didn’t know that most of those vaccines wore off over time. It’s definitely been longer than most of those immunity duration times since I’ve gotten my childhood shots. When I asked my doctor recently, they said I am all good and don’t need any more right now. But now I’m thinking that it might be good to order a titer blood test to check my immunity against some of those diseases I am more likely to get and see if I need a booster.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 29, 2022 Posted 2 weeks ago

I can just tell from the news articles this week that a lot of research and organization has gone into this compilation. Thank you Carlotta Susanna for the great work you do. That Saudi Arabia line community looks very interesting and would be something I would like to live in. Not having to need a car and I can walk to all the amenities that I need within 5 minutes? That sounds amazing. My first thought when seeing this though was how would it affect animals? There probably aren’t too many there in the middle of the desert, but do they have to travel 10 miles in either direction to get on the other side of the wall? Hopefully they have some holes along the way that allows for them to travel through.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 22, 2022 Posted 3 weeks ago

I have some more uplifting solar panel articles that I saw this week. Delaware will give free solar panels to low-income residents – Energy costs are a higher percentage of low income family’s income and helping offset that means that they can more quickly save and increase their ability to buy more nutritious food, more reliable car, and more. It probably will make their homes more resilient to outages and reduce demand on the grid. Solar panel saves Arkansas school enough for teachers get up to $15K in raises – By installing solar they save $600,000 a year. This leads to better retention, higher morale, and the ability to recruit quality educators in a small town that might not have as many opportunities.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 19, 2022 Posted 4 weeks ago

I totally forgot about the Queen’s guard! They must have been really struggling through that hot streak. Sorry if it’s dark humor, this heat wave is nothing to laugh about, but I hope each guard has their own fuzzy hat. Wouldn’t want to start your shift and have to put on the sweaty hat from the last guy who’s been out in the 100+ degree weather all day.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

That makes so much sense. I never knew about the fracked oil and how there is no such thing as US oil independence. If I was a leader of this country, I would realize this and recognize that although our money is very appealing and is a strong source of constant oil, that it isn’t full-proof and one day the world might all agree to not give the US any more oil for whatever reason. In that case we need to work on becoming more energy sufficient with renewables like sun and wind. Those are solutions that can’t be stopped or taken away. There are seriously so many things to think about though and it’s easy for me to just type “make more solar panels” without knowledge of how things truly work. Let’s just say I’m grateful that I’m not in charge.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

That article on a possible insurgency was interesting. It says that there isn’t going to be a north vs south type of civil war like the last one the US had, but instead extremist groups will target infrastructure and civilians using domestic terror and guerrilla warfare. All the more need to prepare if roads get blocked, water treatment plants get infected, or power companies have to shut down. Hope it doesn’t come down to that.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

In a previous news roundup, it was said that they were going to get rid of the federal tax on gasoline to help prices out for a while. Maybe that also has something to do with lowering prices?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

Can I share some news I saw this week that might relate? The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is getting a three digit speed dial number of 988 starting tomorrow. Currently you have to call 1800-273-8255 but hopefully this speed dial number will be a quick number that people can memorize like 911 for the police and get help sooner. And while many places up north are experiencing record highs, down south in Australia they are in the middle of their winter and it seems like some of the houses there are not built for such cold temperatures. Australian homes are so cold that some are falling below the WHO’s recommended ‘safe’ temperature

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 12, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

The first section talks about how food prices are falling. Has anyone noticed a drop at the grocery store yet?

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 05, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

In response to the medical debt article, first off… “41% of US adults have health care debt” That is insane to me! Car debt, house debt, credit card debt, medical debt, the list goes on and on… There are some good tips in the article such as to be familiar with your coverage and out-of-pocket costs. But with the tip to check whether the specifics of your care are covered… the problem I keep running into is I’m at a doctors office and they ask if I want such and such test ran. I ask them if it is covered by my insurance and most of the time their response is “We won’t know until we run it through insurance and try and bill them” okay… That doesn’t help. So I either don’t get it done or I do it and it may or may not be covered. And when I’ve tried calling into my insurance before to ask about a procedure they even have said that they don’t know how much will be covered. I will try to learn more about my insurance though and be as well educated about it as I can. It is a good article and guide and I will be bookmarking it for study this week.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 28, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

That is mind blowing to me. Also very sad to see that those insurance scammers who think they aren’t hurting everyone because “they are only taking money from a large corporation who has more money than they know what to do with” are actually hurting the good people like yourself who no longer have options.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 28, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

So sorry to hear about that. I hope you can get your money back. Is a possible solution here to go with a larger company like State Farm or Geico over the smaller insurance companies that might be more at risk of closing up shop? I’m all for supporting the cheaper and newer insurance companies and hate how big some of these larger organizations can get because once you get so big then they really distance themselves from the customer and at times don’t give you the best customer service. But the alternative is more risk of them not being there for you in your time of need because they have gone under.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 21, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Glad you were safe and didn’t panic. Sometimes those hard lessons need to be learned to cement in us what we should do.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jun 17, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

My main takeaway from this news roundup is to prepare for extreme heat, and electricity and water shutoff. I like the rain collection recommendation, it will be nice to have that backup source of water in case your city water gets shut off.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jun 10, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news, but inflation just unexpectedly accelerated to a 40 year high (since 1981) of 8.6%. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-10/us-inflation-unexpectedly-accelerates-to-40-year-high-of-8-6

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 06, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

It’s funny how much I’ve come to look forward to these news roundups. I thought about it multiple times yesterday and was excited to wake up and read them today. My personal inflation rate, using the calculator you provided, is 7.9%. That has got to be a scary situation for countries like Moldova and North Macedonia that rely 100% on Russian gas. It’s like if you needed a lifesaving medicine and it’s only available in one place. If they shut down you are in big trouble.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, May 27, 2022 Posted 3 months ago

Thank you for the news! Hope you enjoy a break for Memorial Day, you deserve it! I’ve never heard of a flash drought before. There sure are a lot of possible disasters out there isn’t there?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, May 13, 2022 Posted May 13, 2022

I’ve been seeing similar homemade formula recipes circling the various prepping facebook prepping groups and to be honest, doing that would make me nervous. First off, there doesn’t seem to be much nutrition in that, and second what Carlotta mentioned in the news roundup, it could lead to life-threatening infections. I wouldn’t want to risk the safety of my child. The tips on how to obtain formula are safer and ones I would consider first. Another tip I saw on Facebook is to go to Amazon.ca (Canada site) as they supposedly have formula available. I don’t know how that all works out, how the money exchange works, or if they can get it to someone living in the states, but it’s worth a shot to check it out if other options don’t work out.

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, May 10, 2022 Posted May 10, 2022

That’s a good tip to look out for winter clothing sales going on now. And to go through and charge up my battery packs.

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Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 12, 2022 Posted 3 days ago

Iraq has been struggling through some 120+ degree heat and power grid shutdowns. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/iraq-broils-in-dangerous-120-degree-heat-as-power-grid-shuts-down/

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Aug 05, 2022 Posted 1 week ago

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Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

In a previous news roundup, it was said that they were going to get rid of the federal tax on gasoline to help prices out for a while. Maybe that also has something to do with lowering prices?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jul 15, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 12, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

The first section talks about how food prices are falling. Has anyone noticed a drop at the grocery store yet?

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jul 05, 2022 Posted 1 month ago

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 28, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 21, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Glad you were safe and didn’t panic. Sometimes those hard lessons need to be learned to cement in us what we should do.

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, Jun 17, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

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Reply to: News roundup for Tue, Jun 06, 2022 Posted 2 months ago

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, May 27, 2022 Posted 3 months ago

Thank you for the news! Hope you enjoy a break for Memorial Day, you deserve it! I’ve never heard of a flash drought before. There sure are a lot of possible disasters out there isn’t there?

Reply to: News roundup for Fri, May 13, 2022 Posted May 13, 2022

Reply to: News roundup for Tue, May 10, 2022 Posted May 10, 2022

That’s a good tip to look out for winter clothing sales going on now. And to go through and charge up my battery packs.