The Latest on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s departure from Vietnam (all times local): 12:50 p.m. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has boarded his private train at the Vietnam-China border, ending a trip that saw a summit breakdown with President Donald Trump.
An Afghan official says Taliban fighters have attacked a corps of security forces in their camp in southern Helmand province, killing at least 23.
The U.S. state of Nevada’s higher education system is partnering with its counterpart in the Mexican state of Tamaulipa (tah-mow-LEE’-pahs).
Republican and Democratic legislators in Georgia are trying to block good-government legislation that would help Georgia voters learn the number of criminal illegal aliens in their state.
The World Bridge Federation says the world’s No. 1 bridge player has been suspended after failing a drug test.
Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,
When it hits the fan…I mean REALLY hits the fan in a permanent kind of way, the most likely outcome is death.
That’s not pretty, and I’m well aware of it. I always try to be positive and optimistic, because for me, preparedness is the ultimate act of optimism, but sometimes we have to look at the numbers and face some things that are pretty terrifying. The first reality check is that some research says that only 3 million Americans are preppers. That means that 315 million Americans are not preppers. Some experts predict that within 30 days of the power going out, 50% of Americans will be dead. Within a year, an astounding 90% of the population will be dead.
Do you want to survive such a scenario? Do you want your children to survive? When you read this information, you have to realize that it’s very unlikely that you and your family would live through a grid failure of a year or more unless you are proactive and develop a preparedness plan that takes all of these causes of death into consideration.
So here are the cold hard facts. One of these is the way that you are most likely to die when the SHTF, particularly in the event of a long-term grid failure. The good news is, now that you know this, you can take steps to prevent your untimely demise.
You die of thirst or waterborne illness. Most people have a case of water bottles kicking around, and perhaps a 5 gallon jug for the water cooler. What they don’t have is a gallon a day per person for a long-term emergency. Most people also don’t own a gravity fed, no-power necessary water filtration device with spare parts and extra filters. Most people do not have the skills and knowledge necessary to purify their water without these devices either. Waterborne illness is the number one cause of death after a natural disaster. If just one person handles water and waste incorrectly, this can cause an epidemic of such deadly illnesses as Hepatitis A, viral gastroenteritis, cholera, Shigellosis, typhoid, Diphtheria and polio. The other worry is dehydration. It only takes 3 days for a person to die of thirst. Learn more about the importance of water preparedness HERE. If you’d like information on water preparedness in a print version, check out my book on the subject.
You die from fantasy-world planning. So many preppers have poorly thought out plans for survival. They think they’ll “live off the land” and hunt, forage, and farm their way through the apocalypse, but they’ve never milked a goat or planted the contents of their seed banks. They don’t understand that gardens and crops can fail for innumerable reasons. They think they’re still in the same physical condition that they were 25 years ago and overestimate their ability to perform physical labor, like chopping wood for the fire. There are hundreds of bad strategies that will get preppers killed (in fact, here are 12 of them), and mostly it boils down to one crucial fact: it’s all a fantasy. They’ve never done ANY of the things that they think they will do for survival, or if they have done them, it was decades ago, when they were younger, fitter, and more resilient. I can tell you right now, if we had to live off of the contents of this year’s drought-stricken, deer-and-gopher-raided garden, we’d last about a week, enjoying salsa by the jarful, but little else.
You freeze to death. Depending on where you live, you may freeze to death when the power goes out. When temperatures plummet, people will become desperate to get warm, and this will lead to other modes of death such as carbon monoxide poison from improperly vented heat sources and house fires when people use fireplaces or wood stoves that have not been maintained for years. Learn about staying warm during a winter power outage HERE and begin to develop a plan that will keep your family cozy during a long-term scenario.
You starve to death. Most people only have enough food to see them through until the next grocery trip. Most people go to the grocery store more than once per week. In urban centers, it’s customary to buy your food fresh from the market each day. If disaster strikes and you only have a few days’ worth of food, you are going to be one of those people standing in line for hours, begging FEMA for a bottle of water and an MRE to split amongst your family. Even worse, in an extremely widespread disaster, FEMA won’t be coming at all, and you’ll be on your own, left with only what you have in your home…before it spoils and if you can figure out a way to cook it with no power. Food poisoning, starvation, and malnutrition will be common causes of death. Learn about building a pantry on a budget HERE. To start yourself out with a speedy supply, go HERE for a variety of high quality, non-GMO kits.
You have an accident involving major trauma. This is something that is difficult to prevent – that’s why they call it an accident. To up your chances of survival, always where the proper protective gear, such as safety goggles and gloves. Secondly, spend some time learning to deal with medical situations. Many communities offer free First Aid courses to get you started. Stock up on books that provide information for times when medical care is not available (this one is the very best in my opinion), and have advanced supplies on hand to deal with injuries.
You get murdered when raiders or looters come to steal your stuff. Remember the 315 million unprepared Americans? They’re going to be hungry. And the hungrier and more desperate people become, the more dangerous the world is going to be. It’s imperative that you be prepared to defend your home and family from them. If you’re one of those people who says, “I don’t want to live in a world where I have to shoot someone because they’re hungry” you just might get your wish. Because they won’t have a problem shooting you. This is one of the major reasons that preppers must be armed. The danger isn’t just from mobs of strangers. If you tend to talk too much, your friends, extended family, and neighbors just might be the ones to kill you for your supplies.
You get sick. Without our normal standards of cleanliness and the access to medical care, the likelihood of getting sick increases. Without the access to medical care, the likelihood of that sickness spiraling out of control is exponentially greater. Learn how to treat and manage sickness naturally so that you can get a handle on an illness before it kills you. This book is a fantastic reference, written with the prepper in mind.
You get an infection. A silly little cut or splinter that we take for granted now could be a death sentence after the SHTF. With the possibility that your hygiene standards may drop and that you’ll be getting a lot dirtier doing physical labor, infection is fairly likely. It’s vital to immediately treat even the most trivial-seeming wound. For treating a wound, I can’t recommend this spray enough. I have used it on all sorts of animal infections that I thought would prove fatal, with 100% positive results. Because of this, we use it on our own wounds as soon as possible, too. That may not always be enough to prevent an infection however, so having the right antibiotics on hand could mean the difference between life and death. (Check out this antibiotic primer by Joe Alton of Dr. Bones fame) Many veterinary antibiotics are identical to those made for humans. You can find them on Amazon and add them to your stockpile.
You die because you are fat and/or out of shape. If the Zombies approached and you found yourself outnumbered, are you fit enough to run away? What if you had to bug out across the mountains? Would your heart hold up to the steep climb? Would your knees hold up to the descent? What if you add a 50 pound backpack? Now is the time to get yourself in shape. Most Americans lead fairly sedentary lives, sitting down to a desk all day for work. It’s not something you can fix overnight, so now is the time to increase your fitness. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for the family members who will have to wait for you while you huff and puff. They’ll be killed when you slow them down. The road to fitness can start easily. If you can walk, you can improve your fitness level dramatically. This article discusses how to start out slowly and then build up your endurance and this PDF book will help you to reach a healthy body weight.
You die when you daily medication runs out. This one is tougher to prevent. You can extend life expectancy by stockpiling medication but if the crisis outlasts your supply, there is a limit to what you can do. Who can forget the heartbreaking story of the diabetic girl in the book One Second After? Don’t underestimate the difficulty for some of going without psychiatric drugs. Depending on the drug, withdrawal can be horrific, particularly if they have not been able to slowly wean themselves off. Some conditions,when untreated, can cause the sufferer to lose touch with reality and suffer a psychotic break, making them dangerous to themselves and others. Depending on the medication you require, there are sometimes natural alternatives and dietary tweaks that can help. Some existing conditions can be managed better now through lifestyle changes, which will increase your chances for survival later. For example, if you suffer from Type 2 Diabetes and are significantly overweight, improving your diet and losing weight now can reduce your dependence on daily medication in many cases. Keep in mind that some medications are okay after the expiration dates, while others can be deadly. (Learn more about pharmaceutical expiration dates HERE.) Learn everything you can about your medical condition and figure out a plan ahead of time.
Now that you know how you’ll die, you can take the necessary steps to prevent it. Almost every cause of death mentioned here is entirely preventable.
What will save you when an epic disaster strikes is what you do now to prepare for it. Make education and good health your mission now and you’ll not only survive the SHTF, you’ll thrive against the odds.
The Latest on the tensions between India and Pakistan (all times local): 10 a.m.
A megastructure featuring the world’s tallest sky bridge has been erected in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing.
Designed by the world’s most renowned and prolific architects, Moshe Safdie, Raffles City Chongqing complex measures 1.12-million-square-meters and consists of eight towers and a large connecting sky bridge, which is called a “horizontal skyscraper.”
The 250-meter-long sky bridge – which is basically a horizontal “skyscraper” resting on the to of several traditional skyscrapers – dubbed Crystal, if made vertical, would be the height of the Eiffel Tower. The sky bridge is composed of 3,000 glass panels and 5,000 aluminum panels.
When open, it will have an observatory wing, sky gardens, an infinity pool, and shopping district. At night, the sky bridge transforms into a large light beam, illuminating the sky into a heavenly light show.
The Raffles City Chongqing complex will feature a 230,000-square-meter shopping mall, 1,400 residential apartments, an upscale hotel, and 160,000 square meters of office space.
The eighth and final skyscraper of the $3.8 billion project was completed earlier this month. This novel piece of engineering resides at the heart of Chongqing, facing the intersection of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers.
Developer CapitaLand, one of China’s biggest real estate development firms, announced the ribbon-cutting ceremony is expected to take place in the second half of 2019.
According to Lucas Loh, deputy CEO and CIO of CapitaLand China, exotic perennial plants are being imported from around the country to “enliven the sky bridge,” which will feature one of the tallest observation decks in Western China.
“After six years of construction using state of the art engineering technologies, we are proud to present in Raffles City Chongqing an iconic architectural form resembling a powerful sail surging forward on the historic Chaotianmen site,” Loh said in a statement.
Check out the video below by CapitaLand China that shows the evolution of the build.
Officials say two siblings and their mother have been killed in cross-border shelling between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in disputed Kashmir.
Authored by Irfan Ahmed Khan via Hackernoon.com,
Artificial Intelligence has become a hot topic in tech circles. It has not only changed our lives, but it has also disrupted every industry you can think of. Despite all this, people have different perception about it. Some might consider it as a bad thing because they are told that it will take your job away from you in near future. On the other hand, AI advocates continue to think of AI as an enabler which will reduce your burden and make your life easy by automating things.
Whether you like AI or not, if you are interested in what AI has in store for the future, then you are at the right place. In this article, we will look at some of the biggest AI trends that will dominate in 2019.
Unlike other technologies and software tools, AI depend heavily on specialized processors. To meet the complex demands of AI, chip manufacturers will create specialized chips capable of running AI enabled applications.
Even tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon will spend more money on these specialized chips. These chips would be used for specialized purposes involving AI such as natural language processing, computer vision and speech recognition.
2019 will be the year when we will see convergence of different technologies with AI. IoT will join hands with AI on edge computing layer. Industrial IoT will harness the power of AI for root cause analysis, performing predictive maintenance of machinery and detect issues automatically.
We will see the rise of Distributed AI in 2019. Intelligence would be decentralized and will be located closer to the assets and devices that are carrying out routine checks. Highly sophisticated machine learning models that is powered by neural networks will be optimized to run on edge.
One of the biggest trend that will dominate the AI industry in 2019 would be automated machine learning (AutoML). With automated learning capabilities, developers will be able to tinker with machine learning models and create new machine learning models that are ready to handle future AI challenges.
AutoML will find the middle ground between cognitive APIs and custom machine learning platforms. The biggest advantage of automated machine learning would be that it offers developers the customization options they demand without forcing them to go through the complicated workflow. When you combine data with portability, AutoML can give you the flexibility you wont find with other AI technologies.
When AI is applied to how we develop applications, it will transform the way we used to manage the infrastructure. DevOps will be replaced by AIOps and it will enable your IT department staff to conduct precise root cause analysis.
Additionally, it will make it easy for you to find useful insights and patterns from huge data set in no time. Large scale enterprises and cloud vendors will benefit from the convergence of DevOps with AI.
One of the biggest challenges that AI developers will face when developing neural network models will be to select the best framework. With dozens of AI tools available in the market, choosing the best AI tool might not be as easy as it used to be.
The lack of integration and compatibility among different neural network toolkits is hampering AI adoption. Tech giants such as Microsoft and Facebook are already working on developing an Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX). This will let developers reuse neural network models across multiple frameworks.
The demand for specialized systems will grow exponentially in 2019. Organization have limited data at their disposal but what they want is specialized data.
This will force businesses to acquire tools that can help them generate high quality AI data internally. The focus will shift from quantity of data to quality of data in 2019. This will lay the foundation for AI that could work in real world situations. Companies will look towards specialized AI solution providers who have access to key data sources and could help them make sense out of their unstructured data.
Even though, Artificial Intelligence have transformed every industry you can think of but there is still shortage of talent who have AI skills in abundance. Pat Calhoun, CEO of Espressive said, “Most organizations want to embrace AI as part of their digital transformation but do not have the developers, AI experts, and linguists to develop their own or to even train the engines of pre-built solutions to deliver on the promise.”
Rahul Kashyap, CEO of Awake Security added, “With so many ‘AI-powered’ solutions available to address a myriad of business concerns, it’s time enterprises get smarter about what’s happening within the ‘black box’ of their AI solutions.” He continues, “The way in which Artificial Intelligence algorithms are trained, structured, or informed can lead to significant differences in output. The right equation for one company won’t be the right equation for another.”
Just like a coin which has two sides, AI also has a positive side and a negative side to it. IT security professionals will use AI to detect malicious activities quickly. You can be able to reduce false positives by 90% with the help of AI driven response and machine learning algorithms.
AI will land into wrong hands and cyber criminals with malicious designs will abuse it to fulfill their motives. With automation, armies of cyber attackers can launch lethal attacks with greater success. This will force enterprises to fight fire with fire and invest in AI powered security solutions capable of protecting them from such AI driven attacks.
In 2019, AI will be everywhere. From web applications to health care systems, airline to hotel booking systems and beyond, we will see shades of AI everywhere and it will be at the forefront of digital transformation.
Dr. Tung Bui, Chairman of IT department and professor at University of Hawaii said, “Unlike most of the predictions and discussions about how autonomous vehicles and robots will eventually affect the job market — this is true but will take time due to institutional, political, and social reasons — I contend that the biggest trend in AI will be an acceleration in the digital transformation, making existing business systems smarter.”
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