Category Archives: Survivalism

Learning Objectives

These cow and pig examples remind us that material and nonmaterial cultures often make sense only in the context of a given society. If that is true, then it is important for outsiders to become familiar with other societies and to appreciate their cultural differences. These differences are often referred to as cultural diversity. Cultural diversity also occurs within a single society, where subcultures and countercultures can both exist.

Saving Dogs and Cats in South Korea

Sometimes citizens can make a difference. Dog ownership has recently been increasing in South Korea, a nation in which dogs have traditionally been preferred more as a source of food than as pets. Two individuals who can claim credit for the more humane treatment of dogs there are Kyenan Kum and Haesun Park, two women who founded the Korea Animal Protection and Education Society (KAPES; http://www.koreananimals.org/index.htm) in 2007.

The mission of KAPES is to educate South Koreans about the humane treatment of dogs and cats and to promote compassionate treatment of these pets. Kyenan Kum had previously founded the International Aid for Korean Animals (IAKA) organization in 1997, to achieve the same goals. During the next 10 years, IAKA advocated for the more humane treatment of pets and publicized their plight to other nations to help bring international pressure to bear on South Korea. In 2007, IAKAs efforts proved successful when the Korean government strengthened its Animal Protection Law. With stronger legal protections for pets in place, Kum and Park decided it was now time to focus on convincing the public that pets should be treated humanely, and they founded KAPES to achieve this goal. In December 2008, Park received an award from the Ministry of Agriculture for her efforts, which have included the holding of animal protection festivals and advocating for government funding for animal shelters.

It is not easy to confront a deeply embedded cultural practice as Kyenan Kum and Haesun Park have done. Their example offers inspiration to Americans and other citizens who also dedicate their lives to various kinds of social reforms.

The Amish in the United States are a subculture that shuns electricity and many other modern conveniences.

Shinya Suzuki Amish CC BY-ND 2.0.

A subculture refers to a group that shares the central values and beliefs of the larger culture but still retains certain values, beliefs, and norms that make it distinct from the larger culture. A good example of a U.S. subculture is the Amish, who live primarily in central Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio and shun electricity and other modern conveniences, including cars, tractors, and telephones. Their way of life is increasingly threatened by the expansion of non-Amish businesses and residences into Amish territory (Rifkin, 2009). Since the 1970s, development has cost Lancaster County, Pennsylvaniawhere many Amish livethousands of acres of farming land. Some Amish families have moved to other states or left farming to start small businesses, where some do use cell phones and computers. Despite these concessions to modern development, for the most part the Amish live the way they always have. Most still do not drive cars or even ride bikes. The case of the Amish dramatically illustrates the persistence of an old-fashioned subculture and its uneasy fit with the larger, dominant culture.

A counterculture is a group whose values and beliefs directly oppose those of the larger culture and even reject it. Perhaps the most discussed example of a counterculture is the so-called youth counterculture of the 1960s, often referred to as the hippies but also comprising many other young people who did not fit the tuned-out image of the hippies and instead were politically engaged against U.S. government policy in Vietnam and elsewhere (Roszak, 1969). A contemporary example of a U.S. counterculture is the survivalists, whose extreme antigovernment views and hoarding of weapons fit them into the counterculture category (Mitchell, 2002).

The fact of cultural diversity raises some important but difficult questions of cultural relativism and ethnocentrism. Cultural relativism refers to the belief that we should not judge any culture as superior or inferior to another culture. In this view, all cultures have their benefits and disadvantages, and we should not automatically assume that our own culture is better and their culture is worse. Ethnocentrism, the opposite view, refers to the tendency to judge another culture by the standards of our own and to the belief that our own culture is indeed superior to another culture. When we think of cow worship in India, it is easy to be amused by it and even to make fun of it. That is why anthropologist Marvin Harriss analysis was so important, because it suggests that cow worship is in fact very important for the Indian way of life.

Some scholars think cultural relativism is an absolute, that we should never judge another cultures beliefs and practices as inferior to our own. Other scholars think cultural relativism makes sense up to a point, but that there are some practices that should be condemned, even if they are an important part of another culture, because they violate the most basic standards of humanity. For example, a common practice in areas of India and Pakistan is dowry deaths, where a husband and his relatives murder the husbands wife because her family has not provided the dowry they promised when the couple got married (Kethineni & Srinivasan, 2009). Often they burn the wife in her kitchen with cooking oil or gasoline and make it look like an accident. The number of such dowry deaths is estimated to be at least several hundred every year and perhaps as many as several thousand. Should we practice cultural relativism and not disapprove of dowry deaths? Or is it fair to condemn this practice, even if it is one that many people in those nations accept?

Dowry deaths are relatively common in certain parts of India and Pakistan. Should we practice cultural relativism and not disapprove of dowry deaths? Or is it fair to condemn this practice, even if it is one that many people in these nations accept?

Because dowry death is so horrible, you might be sure we should not practice cultural relativism for this example. However, other cultural practices such as cow worship might sound odd to you but are not harmful, and you would probably agree we should accept these practices on their own terms. Other practices lie between these two extremes. Consider the eating of dog meat, which was mentioned in the Learning From Other Societies box. In China, South Korea, and other parts of Asia, dog meat is considered a delicacy, and people sometimes kill dogs to eat them (Dunlop, 2008). As one observer provocatively asked about eating dog meat, For a Westerner, eating it can feel a little strange, but is it morally different from eating, say, pork? The dogs brought to table in China are not peoples pets, but are raised as food, like pigs. And pigs, of course, are also intelligent and friendly (Dunlop, 2008). Should we accept the practice of eating dog meat on its own terms? Is it any worse than eating pork or slaughtering cattle in order to eat beef? If an Asian immigrant killed and ate a dog in the United States, should that person be arrested for engaging in a practice the person grew up with? Cultural relativism and ethnocentrism certainly raise difficult issues in todays increasingly globalized world.

Dunlop, F. (2008, August 4). Its too hot for dog on the menu. The New York Times, p. A19.

Kethineni, S., & Srinivasan, M. (2009). Police handling of domestic violence cases in Tamil Nadu, India. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25, 202213.

Mitchell, R. G., Jr. (2002). Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and chaos in modern times. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Rifkin, G. (2009, January 8). The Amish flock from farms to small businesses. The New York Times, p. B3.

Roszak, T. (1969). The making of a counterculture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Excerpt from:

3.3 Cultural Diversity Sociology - University of Minnesota

Living out in the wilderness and surviving off of the land probably isnt most peoples idea of a good time. However, for survivalist Donny Dust, that scenario is everything he dreams of. For years, Donny has enjoyed exploring the outdoors and living off of basic necessities. Oddly enough, Donnys decision to live his life somewhat off the grid has resulted in him becoming a part of the entertainment industry. Donny is one of the stars of the new USA series Mud, Sweat and Beards. During the show, Donny and his co-star, Ray Livingston, use their survival skills to turn remote locations into functioning places to live. Keep reading to learn 10 things you didnt know about Donny Dust.

Donny Dust is originally from Colorado which is the place he still considers his home base. With lots of natural scenery, Colorado is a great place to explore the outdoors. Unfortunately, we werent able to find lots of information about his upbringing or his personal life.

Donny is a proud veteran of the United States Marine Corp and his time in the military helped foster his love for survivalism. During an interview with The Ultimate Predator, Donny said, I served 12 years of active duty in the United States Marine CorpsThe Corps, and more importantly the Marines around me during my time in the service, fostered my pursuits into survival and bushcraft. While serving, I attended several survival courses in numerous locations, to include high deserts; deep, remote jungles; mountainous peaks; completely waterlogged swamps; and open seas/waters.

Donny isnt just passionate about making the most of his survival skills, but he is also passionate about helping and educating others. He has s survival school in Colorado called Paleo Tracks Survival. According to the schools website, Paleo Tracks Survival School is a Wilderness Self-Reliance School located in beautiful Colorado that teaches people from different walks of life the essential and necessary skills to survive and thrive in any situation. People travel from all over the world to study under Donny.

Just because Donny is a reality TV star doesnt mean that he loves putting his entire life on display. He is actually a pretty private person and he hasnt shared much information about his personal life. Instead, he prefers to keep all of the attention centered around his brand.

Donnys survival skills have created lots of opportunities for him, and one of them has been the chance to do several public speaking gigs. He has gotten to travel to all kinds of places to spread information on his way of life and his talks have empowered and inspired countless people.

Seeing Donny on Mud, Sweat and Beards may be the first time many people are introduced to him. However, this isnt his first time doing a TV show. He was a contestant on the History Channel series Alone, but he had to leave the competition early after suffering a heart attack.

Donnys survival skills and reality TV experience arent the only things he has to be proud of. He is also a published author. In 2018, Donny released a book titled Scavenger: A Primal Approach To Lifestyle Change which detailed his life as a survivalist and also touched on how he overcame his nearly fatal heart attack.

As someone who enjoys living off the land, most people probably wouldnt expect Donny to be a big social media user. However, he is actually quite active on social media and he has built a very large following. On Instagram alone, he now has 235,000 followers. That number will probably increase as Mud, Sweat and Beards popularity grows.

Donnys love for the outdoors isnt something that he discovered later in life; its always been a part of who he is. He told The Ultimate Predator, Ive always been involved in the outdoors, living a little bit wilder and more free than most. As a young boy I was always outside, fishing, hiking, building shelters, and exploring the world around me. My pursuits were wild and still are today.

As mentioned before, Donny isnt the kind of person who likes to go into lots of detail about his personal life. However, we do know that he is a husband and father. He has two sons, but there isnt any information about them as Donnys wife and children have avoided the spotlight.

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10 Things You Didn't Know about Donny Dust - TVOvermind

There are so many different hobbies you can try. For those who like a bit of danger, you can try dangerous and extreme hobbies. Want to earn some cash on the side? Try these money-making hobbies. Or maybe you just want to get outdoors and try something new? Whatever tickles your fancy, there is a hobby for you. This also goes for those who want to give some creative hobbies a go.

These activities are great for those of you who want to stimulate the right-hand side of your brain. They allow you to indulge in your creative side while still doing something fun that will bring you pleasure. Whether you enjoy drawing, photography, or making t-shirts, these are the 40 best creative hobbies you can have a crack at this year.

One of the easiest yet hardest creative hobbies is writing. The hardest part is actually sitting down to write, but once you get started you will find the words spilling onto the page. There are so many things you can write about. You can start a short story or that novel you have always wanted to write. Begin a journal and record what is happening in your life. Write poetry or reviews of your favorite films and albums. The options are endless. You can even turn this into a side hustle if you start freelancing.

For some, cooking brings lots of joy. If you enjoy whipping up a feast in the kitchen, it may be something you want to take up as a creative hobby. Start cooking new and different foods. Try out recipes you wouldnt normally and start mixing things up by changing the original instructions. Cooking allows you to express yourself through food. The best thing is you are left with a tasty meal or treat at the end of it to enjoy.

You might not be the next Jackson Pollock, but painting is another creative hobby that allows you to express yourself in. an artistic manner. Similar to writing, painting allows you to create anything you want. Paint a self-portrait or a nearby landscape. Try and get your pet to stay still and paint a picture of them. If you like what you have painted you can whack it in a frame and hang it up on your lounge room wall and show it off to your friends.

I know, not the manliest hobby in the world, but knitting is both relaxing and practical. There is something calming about sitting down and listening to the sound of the knitting needles clicking together. You can whip yourself up a warm jumper for winter or create a scarf in the colors of your favorite sports team. Its also the type of hobby you can do while listening to music or watching TV, as long as you are confident in your abilities. You dont want to be missing a thread and ruining your creation.

All you need for this creative activity is a pen or pencil, a piece of paper, and your vivid imagination. Drawing is a great way to get onto paper wild ideas and images you might have. You can also draw something familiar, but the crazier the better. If you want, add some color and use colored pens or pencils.

This is a hobby for those who like to craft things with their bare hands. Sit at the pottery wheel and get your Ghost on. While your early creations might not be the best, the more you practice the better they will get. You can craft an entirely new set of cutlery or maybe a range of mugs? Pottery, like many of the hobbies on this list, is not only creative but results in a practical end product that you can actually use in the real world, which is a nice bonus.

Thats right, playing a video game classifies as a creative hobby (at least to me). You need to use both sides of your brain while playing games, whether its a shooter like Call of Duty or a driving simulation like Gran Turismo. Video games stimulate your senses and help improve your reflexes. They are also just super fun to play and a great way to spend your free time.

Enjoy creating and editing images or visuals? Graphic design is the hobby for you. While the equipment isnt cheap (you need a decent computer of some sort), graphic design allows you a lot of creative freedom. There are many different processes involved, from design to editing to shading and coloring. It can also be applied to so many disciplines and is the kind of hobby whereby if you get good at it, it could become a viable career.

With the advancement of camera phones, photography has never been easier to get into. If you start to take it seriously you will no doubt want to invest in a decent camera and lens, but for beginners, start shooting on your phone. Get out into nature and take some wildlife shots. Walk around your town or city and snap away. Start to learn about lighting and editing and youll be a pro in no time.

Like knitting, you might see this hobby as a threat to your manhood. Dont. Embroidery is another relaxing hobby that is super simple. It is basically using a needle and thread to create an image on a piece of fabric. That could be a picture of a house or an animal or a slogan or quote. It is a very easy hobby to get a hang of and one that you can enjoy while chilling at home.

Candle making is a fun hobby you can enjoy with your partner. Its a great way to bond together while making something creative. It is a relatively simple and cheap process that doesnt involve a lot of work but can get messy. Melt down some wax, choose your fragrance, add a wick, and Bobs your uncle. Make them in bulk and start selling them to friends and family or at markets to make some extra dollars.

A favorite hobby of man men is woodworking. Escape to the man shed, crack open a beer, and start whittling away on a piece of wood. You dont have to be making small ornaments either. Woodworking is anything to do with wood, so you could be building a cabinet or crafting a table.

Created by designer Ryder Carroll, a bullet journal is a way of organizing your life in a single notebook. Bullet journaling involves jotting down your schedule or ideas that come to you. Instead of standard blank or lined pages, a bullet journal has sections for different things: a weekly or monthly calendar, daily dos, an area to record your goals, etc. It is a great way to keep your life in order while having a bit of fun.

House plants are all the rage these days. Instead of just placing a few green ferns in your apartment, build your own terrarium. These small creations are like having your own little world in a container. All you need is some soil, a few small plants, and any other objects you want to include. This is one of those unique hobbies that isnt for everyone but will appeal to all green thumbs.

Live out your rock and roll fantasies from the comfort of home. Being able to play an instrument is a skill many of us would have liked to have learned as a youngster. Just because you dont rock out like you used to doesnt mean you cant take up an instrument. Get lessons from a music teacher or follow one of the hundreds of free tutorials online. You might not be the next Jimi Hendrix, but you are sure to have a blast learning an instrument.

Love watches? Always wanted to know how they are created? Watchmaking is the hobby for you! The art of horology is something that has been passed down by generations of watchmakers, and while it isnt an easy hobby, it is rewarding. There are numerous kits available to create your own watch that vary in price and design. While building your watch you will understand what goes into the design and the craft and have a better appreciation of the craft.

Trying to solve a puzzle is a great way to get your brain ticking over. There are plenty of different puzzles you can tackle too. It could be a standard 500 piece jigsaw or maybe a book of puzzles with word games and brain teasers. While this might seem more like a hobby suited to those wanting to improve their mind, many of these activities are still quite creative and allow a bit of fun while problem solving.

Here is a great hobby your partner will also benefit from. Learn to dance so you can take your lady out and surprise her with your fluency in the Tango. Even if you have two left feet, dancing isnt as hard to pick up as it seems. If the more advanced steps are out of your league, just learn the basics so you can at least stay in time with the music. Trust me, your partner will love it.

If learning an instrument is too hard, open your laptop and start crafting some electronic beats. Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is all the rage these days, and with the number of programs available, it has never been easier to conjure your own dance track. There are countless free samples on the Internet you can use to help build the ultimate banger. Get enough songs and you can host your own mini-rave for your friends or even start producing songs for local talent. Next thing you know youll be headlining Electronic Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas.

We should all really be able to speak more than one language, so there is no time like the present to start. Being able to speak another language can be beneficial for so many reasons. It can help with your career or just be a great skill to have when traveling overseas. There are so many languages you can learn and it will really depend on why you want to take one up. Spanish, German, and Mandarin are three of the most popular due to the number of people that speak them around the world.

This ancient Japanese pastime is great for those who want an inexpensive creative pursuit. All you need is some paper and instructions on what you are making and you are good to go. Origami involves folding paper to make shapes and objects. The name itself means paper folding, so you know what you are getting yourself into. Color paper is often used to add some fun to the equation. One of the most famous origami motifs is the unicorn seen in the classic 80s sci-fi flick Blade Runner.

Take up sculpturing and make a bust of yourself or your partner. You dont need a lot of materials, just a lump of clay or some paper mache and away you go. You can really sculpt whatever takes your fancy, although be prepared for your first few tries to not really hit the mark. It will take a lot of practice before you start carving statues like Michelangelos David.

LEGO isnt just for kids. Many adults build and collect LEGO and it is another enjoyable creative hobby. You can follow the instructions or build your own creations. There are many modern LEGO sets that are aimed at adults that contain thousands of pieces and all manner of moving parts. Some of the most notable LEGO sets recently include the Titanic and the AT-AT from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. This is also the ideal hobby to enjoy with your kids as you can get them thinking creatively from a young age.

Got something you want to share with the world? Start your own YouTube channel and get the word out. You can pretty much put anything on YouTube. Start your own cooking show. Review the latest films and albums released. Record yourself unboxing a new pair of sneakers. There is sure to be an audience out there. If your subscriber list starts growing and you find yourself getting more views, you might even earn a little coin.

Yes, you can build your own robot from home. This creative outlet allows you to craft a mechanical construction that could be for fun or world domination. While it will take you a while to master all the skills involved, the end result is sure to impress. There are plenty of YouTube videos about how to build a robot if you need help, or jump online and grab a starter kit.

This might not seem creative, but you do need to come up with interesting ways to unlock things, so I think it counts. This is an unusual hobby that a lot of people actually enjoy. It tests your brain as you try and work out how to pick a lock using limited tools. There are plenty of lock picking kits you can buy online with all the equipment you need so you can start picking locks.

My dad gardens as a form of stress relief, but it can also be a great creative outlet. Tending to your garden gets you outdoors and amongst the fresh air. You can prune overhanging branches or mow the lawn. Put a creative spin on the design of your garden. Change things up. Grow a veggie patch or build a feature ornament that stands out.

While favorites like Monopoly and Scrabble are great, the world of board games is much more extensive these days. There are hundreds of different games that not only test your brain but also your creative side. Many of these adult-themed board games require you to think outside the box and come up with creative ways to get the win. There really is nothing better than spending a rainy night in with a bottle of wine playing some board games with your friends.

If you want a creative hobby that will take you a while to complete, rebuild a car or motorcycle from scratch. All you need is a body and you can start using your motor skills to restore the vehicle. Obviously, if you arent that knowledgeable about cars you might need some help, but this is a fantastic creative pursuit that will be super rewarding when you finally finish. Unlike some of the hobbies on this list, you can actually use the end product. Instead of having a drawing you can hang up or a completed LEGO set to gaze upon, you can actually drive your car or motorcycle and show it off to the world.

Instead of painting on a canvas or drawing on paper, digital art is where you create things using a computer. It is often done on a tablet where you can use various programs to create whatever you like. Draw a portrait of your friend. Add effects to a photograph you have taken. Edit a famous artwork with your own creative touches.

Need a new bag or some type of harness? Leatherworking is a great way to make something you need while learning a new skill. While you will probably need to practice a little before you start crafting top-quality wallets and the like, leatherwork is an interesting hobby that can be done from home. It can be a bit pricey to start but is sure to provide hours of enjoyment.

You can make lots of things screen printing, but the most fun is creating your own t-shirts. All you need is a screen, some ink, a design, a t-shirt, and you are good to go. While relatively easy, your best bet is to take a short screen printing course to learn the basics. Then you can start making your own t-shirts from home. This is also a quick way to make an extra buck. If your tees are good, you can sell them to friends or at your local thrift market.

This artistic hobby covers a lot of territory. You could make a model plane or automobile, or construct a model of a famous building. Then there are model trains, where you build an entire world for the train to exist in. Head to your local hobby store and youll see the selection of models available is massive. Choose something you are into and get cracking!

Similar to photography, this artistic hobby can be done using your phone. You can film anything and everything and edit it into a short movie. Time-lapse videos are a great way to start, as are videos of nature. If you have always wanted to make a film, rope in some friends and shoot a short film. Upload and share with the world. You never know where it might lead.

This is a creative hobby generally reserved for people who are involved with Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). The Dungeon Master is responsible for creating the world the players inhabit. This is something many people also do for fun without being involved with D&D. Let your imagination loose and come up with your own world, writing down its history, geography, economy, and social constructs. It might trigger a great idea for a novel or short story and get you writing more.

If you enjoy messing around with video content, learning how to animate might be right up your alley. This could be anything from a comic strip to a stop motion mini-movie. There are plenty of free programs online you can download to help sharpen your skills. You could have the next South Park on your hands.

Love performing? Then acting could be for you. Taking up acting doesnt mean you are going to end up a Hollywood heartthrob, but it is a great creative outlet for those who love film and the art of acting. You might end up doing some theatre shows or forming your own troupe and performing locally.

You might not think trying to fend for yourself in the middle of nowhere is creative, but it requires you to think about solving problems in different ways. Survivalism is all about learning how to survive in the wilderness without modern gadgets and equipment. It is creative in that you need to come up with solutions that arent always practical or considered normal. It is a great test of your inventiveness and you will soon find out how you would fare if the world came to a sudden halt.

Some men like to use their hands and get physical around the house, so take up a DIY project. This could be anything from installing a new shelf to building a shed out the back of your house. The process of designing something and then building it is quite fulfilling.

Who doesnt love a good magic trick? Entertain your friends and family with some sleight of hand by learning some magic tricks. All you need is a pack of cards and a few YouTube videos showing you how to perform certain tricks. If you really want to dive in, head to a magic shop and pick up some props to help with your ticks. You could be the next Harry Houdini or David Copperfield.

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The 40 Best Creative Hobbies You Can Try - Next Luxury

Preppers aka survivalists had been readying themselves for such a disaster for years, or even decades.

Cast your mind back to March 2020. For most of us, that month was defined by fear, uncertainty, frantic Google searches for Covid-19, and anxious surveys of our toilet paper supplies. For a rare few though, there was another emotion in the mix: Validation.

Preppers aka survivalists had been readying themselves for such a disaster for years, or in some cases, decades. They didnt need to panic-buy milk. They already had it freeze-dried or knew how to make their own. One subset of preppers, prepper moms, was arguably the most well-equipped for the arrival of the pandemic. Elite homemakers, already experts in self-sufficiency and quarantining, were primed when Covid reared its ugly head. But who exactly are they? How did they prepare themselves so thoroughly? And how did they wind up navigating the last two years? We delved into this fascinating subculture and spoke to one of its most celebrated figureheads, The Survival Mom, to get some answers.

As is the case for most phenomena that rise to notoriety online, there isnt a 100 percent solid consensus but there are strong common threads. Like traditional survivalists, prepper moms are proactively readying themselves and their household for major emergencies be that a natural disaster, extreme political upheaval, or a pandemic. The difference is that while old-school survivalists often focus on protection against threats from the outside, prepper moms tend to frame their approach more in terms of alternative homemaking and self-sufficiency.

Mira Ptacin, an author and self-avowed prepper, described the difference between prepper moms and traditional preppers to the New York Times as she managed the tricky first phase of the pandemic. Instead of embracing my inner Mad Max, I could channel my own mother and grandmother, and a bit of Survival Mom, to be a nurturing, resourceful, and resilient homemaker ready for anything, she wrote. If Mad Max is the yang of prep the masculine, overt energy then I wanted to tap into the yin of prep, the earthy, feminine energy.

Ptacin took her inspiration from The Survival Mom aka, Lisa Bedford. Ptacin sensed Bedfords take on survival was a far cry from that of the male prepping community,much of whose focus appeared to be on prepping in case of civil unrest, which Ptacin sensed to be code for brown and Black people. Lisa on the other hand focuses on another type of prepping: Ultimate homemaking and community resilience.

As Covid cases rose around the U.S. at the start of 2020, prepper moms watched warily to see whether the general public might take heed of their example. A blog posted on The Survival Mom (last updated in mid-March 2020) offers some solid advice.

My preparedness plan for a pandemic is simple, it says. I want to have the ability to close my doors and not go into public places for up to six months. (Four to six months is how long the experts believe it will take to create and deliver a vaccine to the public.)

There were a few other useful nuggets albeit ones predicated on the assumption that people have space to spare. Stock up on medication and hospital supplies for your family, it advises, and understand how to create and maintain a sick room in your home. In the end though, most of the controversy was centered around supplies.

In a video titled WHAT TO KEEP IN A PREPPER PANTRY which has nearly 380,000 views Frugal Fit Mom says shes been training my entire life for situations like the pandemic and offers her tips for food staples to have on-hand in case of emergency. While shes fully capable of getting into the nutritional weeds (she notes that while brown rice is more nutritious, white rice has a longer shelf life), she can be comfortingly realistic, asking, What makes more sense than pasta and sauce?

As shop shelves emptied fast in March and April 2020, lots of people pointed a finger at preppers, and blamed their hoarding tendencies for the food shortage that followed. Preppers were quick to protest that such behavior is far removed from what they do explaining that by their very nature, they were ready for the pandemic long beforehand.

I call this the nonsensical hoarding phase, Ben Hansen, the chief of media for PrepperCon, told the New York Times. Its when people say, Weve got a hurricane coming and the power might be out, so they start stocking up the essentials.

In her August 2020 video A WARNING TO ALL YOU NON-PREPPERS OUT THERE! Prepper Princess addresses the claim that preppers were hoarding food. So you thought it would be ok to blame preppers for the food shortage? Let me set the record straight, she says, associating the issue with non-preppers who got scared and adding that real preppers were already well-stocked.

For some firsthand insight on prepping over the last two years and how the pandemic has shifted some preppers definitions of sensible precautions, KCM spoke to Lisa Bedford, aka, The Survival Mom. Bedford shares why she became a prepper in the first place and how this unique period in history has further shaped her outlook.

KCM: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

LB: We live in Texas, about 35 minutes outside of Houston. My kids are now 20 and 22, but when we began prepping 12 years ago, they were 8 and 10. My husband works in the energy sector.

When did you become interested in the prepper lifestyle?

Between2008 and 2010, when the country experienced a severe recession. My first reaction was the desire to be proactive and mitigate any effects on our family. In Phoenix, other than intense heat, there are rarely any natural disasters, so my prepping was odd and out of place to family and friends. Very few of them saw the need to have on hand any more groceries than necessary. When I asked a friend if she had ever thought of stocking up on a few extra weeks worth of food, her response was, Now why would I want to do that?

By far, most survival and prepping websites were geared toward men. I gleaned a lot of information, but eventually had a lot of unanswered questions. Knowing the number of yards at which our home would be safe from rifle fire wasnt nearly as important to me as knowing what to pack in an emergency kit in case we ever had to evacuate.

My research led to writing about it, which led to my blog, teaching live classes, developing online courses, my book Survival Mom: How to Prepare Your Family for Everyday Disasters and Worst-Case Scenarios and a survival-training membership site for women.

Theres a fascinating post about pandemic preparedness on your site which says that ideally, youd like to have the ability to close my doors and not go into public places for up to six months. Was that what you did in the end?

That article wasnt written by me, and that wasnt my own response when Covid arrived in the U.S. back in early 2020. In fact, we were outside as much as possible, knowing the importance of Vitamin D and maintaining strong and healthy bodies. We rode our bikes for miles every week, ate nutritious foods, and got plenty of rest. By the end of 2020, we were healthier than we were at the beginning of that year.

I reviewed the typical symptoms of Covid and made sure we had OTC drugs to deal with cough, congestion, body aches, etc. I had toilet paper on hand, but we stocked up on additional TP as much as we could. I also hadnt kept up with our supply of dog and cat food, so as the weeks went by, I made sure we always had an extra couple of bags because there were times when our particular brands werent in stock.

Your advice is directed predominantly at moms why is that?

This is very general, but more often than not, a mans focus on prepping is on protecting the home and family and providing for the family. So the emphasis is on things like firearms and home security. Again, generally speaking, most women and moms will want to know, How do I feed my family in an emergency? How do we do laundry in a power outage? How do I stock up on things like diapers and baby formula?

Since I began this journey as a mom with younger children, those were among my own questions.

A well-prepared home and family will have all those bases covered: security systems, home/personal safety, food storage, power outage preps, seasonal preps, etc. Ideally, a family works as a team, with even younger kids involved with things like gardening, canning, and other practical skills.

Did you notice any changes in attitude from people, as a result of the pandemic?

My goal was always to provide sane, commonsense advice based on the best information available from trusted experts. As it turned out, those experts were not the ones on TV every night. But, yes, people who followed my advice have told me they were prepared for the pandemic.

Has your attitude to survivalism changed in any way as a result of the pandemic? Is there anything youre doing differently?

We had Covid twice, and we all survived. My 80-year-old parents had Covid once or twice, and they recovered. I personally do not know anyone who died from Covid. What I learned is the importance of filtering out alarming headlines and nonstop fear-mongering. Those things lead us to make poor decisions, which is something everyone, especially prepper-minded people, should beware of. Fear leads people to do things they would never otherwise do.

Right now, inflation and food and supply shortages present a far greater threat to the average family. For example, the price of gasoline increased by 30 cents in my town in one week. Todays trip to Aldi was nearly $90 for not even half a cart of food and household supplies.

Families and individuals need to focus on how these two crises inflation and shortages affect their everyday lives and plan accordingly.

Suppose someone has been stocking up on food, household supplies, hygiene products, and has been developing smart skills like cooking from scratch and cooking a meal without electricity. In that case, they have the foundation for surviving prices that are beginning to look like low-end hyperinflation.

Its not too late to prep, but beware of taking your easy life for granted. Everything is the same until one day it isnt. One lesson I hope people have learned is that anything can happen, and life can change in a moment. Family relationships and friendships are some of the most important things to cultivate right now. Being prepared is more than spending a lot of money on stuff: Its also building a supportive and trustworthy community.

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How Prepper Moms Tackled The Pandemic | KCM - Katie Couric Media

Climate change impacts all species on the planet in one way another, and now a group of researchers at the University of Liverpool have turned their sights towards a study on how different ant populations are impacted by and respond to a changing climate.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/frank60

Ants are one of the most prevalent insects on the planet, in both number and biomass, found on every continent, except for Antarctica, playing a key role in their environment.

While ants contribute to important ecological processes such as turning and aerating soil to allow water and oxygen to access the roots of plants, their reaction to a changing climate is, for the most part, unknown.

The University of Liverpool researchers have conducted a review of the existing academic literature and studies published, which largely related to the response of ants towards temperature changes.

Publishing their own findings and response in the journal Global Change Biology, the team address how eusociality could allow ants to adapt to, or even tolerate, climate change in ways that lone or isolated organisms cannot while identifying central geographic and phylogenetic hotspots of climate vulnerability and resistance.

How climate change affects ant populations and the wider impact this will have on the ecosystem is not particularly well understood. This study sheds new light on this issue. Ants are the most dominant insect in almost all ecosystems and play key roles in many ecosystem processes so any changes to their abundance and loss of some species will therefore have cascading consequences through the ecosystem.

Kate Parr, Ecologist, a University of Liverpool

Eusociality typically refers to the highest level of sociality organization. Eusocial species usually demonstrate the following characteristics: cooperativebroodcare (including care of offspring from other individuals), multiple generations within a colony of adults, and labor division into reproductive and non-reproductive groups.

Ants are extremely social insects that live in complex, organized colonies that vary in size, with a large body of non-reproductive worker ants typically serving a system that supports a smaller number of reproductive ants. There are those species that move further beneath the surface of the earth to reach lower temperatures to reproduce, while other colonies prefer warmer climes.

As solitary species must commit to a mode of survivalism in which they build their own nests, forage for food, lay eggs, etc., ant colonies do each of these tasks simultaneously, for example, in series-parallel.

It is this eusocial nature that may, in fact, allow ants to better adapt to climate change when compared to other solitary species.

Our research highlights those species and regions at risk from climate change but also those that may be capable of adapting to it. However, further research is needed in particular to better understand how ants respond to altered precipitation, CO2, or UV regimes and how this affects the wider ecosystem.

Kate Parr, Ecologist, a University of Liverpool

The team was able to determine that those species living in more tropical environments, especially in canopy/rainforest habitats, would be vulnerable to a changing climate and rising global temperatures. The team identified that future research and work should focus on these regions to better understand the impact and response of ant communities.

Minimal impacts are expected for those species that demonstrate the capacity to take advantage of their eusocial behavior to avoid increased temperatures for significant parts of their developmental and foraging activities. There could even be some benefit for some species, yet it is not known how ants will adjust to changes in precipitation, CO2 or UV regimes.

Furthermore, how various climatic changes will branch out through the complex food chain and intricate mutualistic networks of which ants are a key component are generally unknown, but the researchers expect that they could have a significantly profound influence on both ant colonies and the wider ecosystem.

As ants are ectothermic - they do not generate their own internal heat - they are reliable on and vulnerable to outside temperatures and climate change.

Therefore, the University of Liverpool researchers also suggest further investigations into the wider impact and contributions the eusociality of different ant species make to their surrounding habitat and ecosystem.

Parr, C. and Bishop, T., (2022) The response of ants to climate change.Global Change Biology, [online] Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16140

News. (2022)Social nature of ants provides protection from climate change - University of Liverpool News. [online] Available at: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2022/03/11/social-nature-of-ants-provides-protection-from-climate-change/

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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How the Eusocial Nature of Ants Influences Their Response to Climate Change - AZoCleantech

The cache of weapons seized. Photo via RCMP.

Two of four men charged for allegedly plotting to kill cops if they disrupted a trucker border blockade have connections to a shitposting far-right group.

The men were part of a smaller, more extreme group that allegedly formed within the larger anti-vaccine mandate freedom convoy protest that shut down the U.S.-Canada border in the small town of Coutts, Alberta. Police said intelligence sources indicated there was a small organized groupthat had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition.

The group was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade," the RCMP said in a press release.

As first reported by the Globe and Mail, a tactical police squad descended upon two campers and a mobile home in Coutts early Monday morning. They arrested 11 people and seized 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition, and high-capacity magazines.

The dangerous criminal activity occurring away from the TV camera and social media posts was real and it was organized, said RCMP Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki. It could have been deadly for citizens, protestors, and officers.

Three of the 11 chargedChris Carbert, 44, Christopher Lysak, 48, Jerry Morin, 40, and Anthony Olienick, 39face conspiracy to commit murder charges. The othersUrsula Allred, 22, Luke Berk, 62, Evan Colenutt, 23, Johnson Law, 39, Justin Martin, 22, Eastin Oler, 22, Joanne Person, 62, and Janx Zaremba, 18all face charges of possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose and mischief over $5,000.

At least two of the three men charged with conspiracy to commit murder are linked to a little-known online community of far-right anti-government trolls, say experts, and evidence linking two of the men directly to the community can be found online.

Police have posted an image featuring the weapons and gear they seized. In the image, you can see plate carriers contained several patches, an infidel patch thats popular in the anti-Islam community, and a simple patch with a white line scrawled across it. This symbol corresponds to the online community of Diagalonits named for the idea that they would slash Canada and the states diagonally and the western side could be their new separated home.

While the idea is more or less a meme, a very real community around it has formed regional groups. The groups members are encouraged to network offline and build offline communities who meet up and teach each other skills in survivalism, firearms, and more. VICE World News has viewed chapters for this all over the country, several of which have held meetups. The regional chats set up in Alberta were recently deleted.

The group is centered on a far-right anti-government ideology, not unlike the Boogaloo Bois. Also, like the Boogaloo Bois, the group loves to shitpost, meme, and trollthey ironically call themselves bigots. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CANH) has reported on the community for a long time and reports many members of the group are antisemitic and connected to the extreme right. Not everyone in the group could be seen as hardcore anti-government, but there are elements active within the group.

The community is extremely conspiratorial, regurgitating and spreading not only the theories of its own content creators but also a variety of new and well-worn fantasies about globalist plots, COVID and vaccine misinformation, and Jewish-controlled media and government, CAHN journalist Peter Smith told VICE. There has been a consistent violent tone to many of the streams, and the phrase gun or ropereferencing a solution to dealing with traitorshas become a motto of sorts within the community.

RCMP did not answer questions sent to them about this community but has said they are investigating ties to larger extremist groups.

Jeremy MacKenzie, a veteran whos become a popular vlogger in Canadas far-right, is the de facto leader of the group. Both MacKenzie and the community seized upon the freedom convoy protests. He told his audience this is our last shot and told his followers to be on their best behaviour. MacKenzie and his vlogging cohorts became known after a video of one of them saying they hoped the trucker convoy would become Canadas Jan 6 was released.

Since the arrests, MacKenzie has tried to distance himself from the group. MacKenzie did not respond to a detailed list of questions from VICE World News.

Those still active within the group are treating the arrests like a false-flag event that was set up by the RCMP.

Total false flag, wrote one member. They weren't even part of the convoy.

Several pieces of evidence show the two mens connection to the group. Perhaps most importantly is a photo that shows MacKenzie next to Christopher Lysak, one of the men charged with conspiracy to commit murder. The photo, which was provided to VICE World News by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, shows Lysak and MacKenzie drinking beers and smiling at the camera.

The Instagram page where it was posted features the name Chris Lysak, and has been linked to several Facebook hunting pages run out of his hometown of Lethbridge which tagged Lysak and his family directly. The Instagram also corresponds to a Telegram user who was active in the Diagalon sphere, under the username Sly Fox. It appears that Lysak was a moderator for the Albertan Diagalon group and was sharing information about Coutts with the group.

A Facebook page belonging to Chris Carbert, also from Lethbridge, has also posted screenshots that were taken from Diagalon chats. Carbert, who is also one of the men charged with conspiracy to commit murder, posted an image from inside Smugglers Saloon in Coutts (the protest headquarters) and pleaded with his online friends for support and help.

We need to remember that this isn't only for Canada and our families but for the whole world. I don't know about you, but I have never been so proud to be Canadian, he wrote. In other posts, he indicated he was ready to die for his beliefs.

The organizer of the protest in Coutts told the CBC that the larger protest had been infiltrated by an extreme element. The names of the accused can be seen written on a large flag hanging in Smugglers Saloon. The blockade has since ended.

In streams and posts following these arrests, MacKenzie, who was in Ottawa during this time, has denied knowing the men, said anyone could have bought the patches, threatened to sue people, and implied this was a false-flag event.

In a livestream posted shortly after the arrests, a paranoid and despondent MacKenzie said, There has been some community-associated paraphernalia confiscated. He told his audience that the situation is really bad right now and its difficult to navigate this and talk about it in a way that doesnt completely fuck myself cause of legal reasons.

At the end of the stream posted around the time of arrests, he acknowledges knowing the accused.

Please guys, if youre the praying type, please in your thoughts, keep the boys in Alberta. They got arrested, we haven't heard from them, and we dont know whats going on. There are some rumours they're getting fucking charged with some heavy shit.

I dont know what is happening there. I know as much as you do, but I know theyre not bad guys, I know theyre not bad people. We got to have each other's back.

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Freedom Convoy Suspects Charged With Plan to Kill Cops Linked to Anti-Government Group - VICE

An alleged member of a neo-Nazi terror cell has told a court he first entered right-wing politics as a Donald Trump supporter.

Samuel Whibley, 29, is charged with disseminating terrorist publications and encouraging terrorism using the encrypted Telegram messaging app.

Sheffield Crown Court heard he set up a channel and linked chat where neo-Nazi propaganda and bomb manuals were shared.

Prosecutors allege the groups were about finding the ways and means to copy those responsible for the worst extreme right-wing atrocities, and another of the members is accused of trying to make explosives and a 3D-printed gun.

Giving evidence at the trial, Mr Whibley denied being a neo-Nazi or wanting to encourage terror attacks.

While being questioned by a defence barrister, he said he did not have an interest in politics before he started studying for a forestry degree at Bangor University in 2019.

Mr Whibley told the jury he made a new group of friends, including an American student called Noah.

I started off at the lower end of right-wing politics, I was a Trump supporter from the beginning in 2016, he added.

Noah was very republican and an ardent supporter of Trump he introduced me to right-wing memes, he would send them to me.

Mr Whibley said that as time went on he started looking at more right-wing material, then downloaded Telegram in autumn 2020.

He told jurors that he initially joined groups dedicated to survivalism and prepping, because he had been involved in doomsday prepping for a number of years.

I found my way into some right-leaning groups, most of which were based in the US and followed the kind of activity going on around the changeover from the Trump to Biden administration, the defendant said.

He described following the build-up to the Capitol riot in January 2021, saying it felt like it was going to be some kind of end-of-the-world event.

The Oaken Hearth Telegram channel was used by the defendants to recruit neo-Nazis and share terrorist material

(Telegram)

Mr Whibley said he found the riot quite frightening while watching footage of it, and that it brought out a sense of paranoia.

The previous day, he had set up the Oaken Hearth Telegram Channel, which was described on the app as a public house and gathering place for British white nationalists.

The channels logo incorporated a black sun symbol, which the court heard was linked to Nazism, but Mr Whibley said he chose it because it was aesthetic and linked to a love of nature.

The defendant told jurors he originally intended the channel to be for preppers and survivalists but decided that to increase following numbers he needed to attract right-wing preppers.

The court was shown numerous racist memes and posts by Mr Whibley, including some talking about murdering n*****s and ethnic cleansing.

He denied holding those views himself and said he was caught up in the group mentality and trying to fit in.

The defendant said he was not trying to encourage terrorism with violent posts, and that they were nonsense or meant as a sick joke.

Mr Whibley admitted sharing a post that urged those who are capable of action to work together but claimed to have copied and pasted the text from elsewhere, rather than writing it himself.

No more lone wolf take a few with me s***, as much as we love it isnt good enough. Work in teams and cause utter mayhem when you strike, said the post.

Alice Wyllie looks at projections featuring details of some of the illustration plates during the press view for Audubon's Birds of America exhibition at the National Museum Of Scotland, Edinburgh

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Alleged member of neo-Nazi terror cell says he entered right-wing politics as a Donald Trump supporter - The Independent

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Sometimes at second hand books stores I find myself with an armful of books, thinking These will come in handy if If the internet goes away, if there is no more electricity, if there arent grocery stories anymore. I cling to the books, push the nightmare scenarios out of my head and make for the cashier.

I think I can mark the beginning of this strange coping mechanism with Donald Trump taking the highest office in the United States. I managed my discomfort and dismay my anger and fear by collecting books that helped me feel in control. I couldnt control who was in the White House or how the world saw the United States, but I could grow a garden, raise chickens and dig a root cellar. True confessions: I expanded my garden and added six delightful feathered friends, but I havent dug a root cellar yet. I do know just where to look when it is time: Helen Nearings Simple Food for the Good Life: An Alternative Cook Book has a whole section on root cellars for beets and apples and potatoes.

The books store a kind of knowledge I am not quite ready to absorb. Between The Peoples Cookbook, What Cooks in Connecticut and The Tuna Cookbook, I will be able to make pumpkin and watermelon rinds palatable, catch and cook locusts, crickets and termites and prepare canned tuna more than 100 ways.

It wasnt until I was standing in line at the used bookstore with a $1 copy of How to Build a Covert, Off the Grid Safe House Away from the Prying Eyes of the Government that I saw my behavior clearly. I have been seeking to assuage my anxiety about everything from rising fascism to rising sea levels, peaks in the cost of fuel and the persistence of the pandemic by buying books. Not reading the books, mind you just buying them. They stack up like the MREs a doomsday prepper might stock their bunker with. I find their pages full of still unlearned lessons comforting.

I imagine the sirens that signal a meltdown at the nuclear power plant down the road, or the storm surge pelting the house, while I frantically cram Tom Browns Field Guide to City and Suburban Survival into my bag beside the Complete Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. Seriously, I bought those two books on the same day. The Worst Case book instructs you on how to survive an alligator attack and a plummeting elevator. Meanwhile, the three Foxfire books I have (theres 14 in the series) share lore and skills from the people of Appalachia, including entries on butter churning, making moonshine, foraging for mushrooms and dressing hogs. So maybe those would be better to bring!

Call it an insurance policy, bibliotherapy or perhaps futile self-delusion, but its a lot cheaper than buying into the Survival Condo, which is built inside a decommissioned missile silo in Kansas.

Survivalist and educator Tom Brown notes that to our ancestors, every day was an uncertain struggle. Survival was a way of life. Today our instincts are dulled and our survival knowledge has trailed off like the vapors from a steam engine. Most of us have traded our natural heritage for comfort and convenience. My ancestors would have no problem trapping, killing and dressing a squirrel and by dress, I dont mean putting it into cute little outfits and snapping pictures for Instagram. I mean separate the fur, skin and bones from the meat and get it ready for eating. I look at the squirrels in our yard fat from raiding our compost pile and eating the chickens food and wonder if I could really do it. If push comes to shove, will I be able to see my neighborhood squirrels as a food source?

We cant survive alone, or only with our immediate families, no matter how many skills and resources we possess. We have to figure out how to live together and take care of one another.

Instead of if, I should be saying when push comes to shove, because Doomsday is already here for lots of people. Many of us are insulated from the worst of it by wealth, skin color, nationality or geography, but it is still here. I dont have to look far to see a horrific string of calamities that many people have not survived. There are the hellscapes of California and Colorado, where fires destroyed millions of acres and killed dozens of people. Theres the much less sweeping but horrific Bronx apartment fire that killed 17 people. The February 2021 cold snap in Texas killed more than 200 people, destroyed infrastructure and crops and left millions in the dark and cold for weeks. Just under a year later, a thin dusting of snow after a rain storm shut down one of the busiest highways in the country, stranding tens of thousands of people for more than 24 hours.

These are all different crises, far apart in time and geography. But, to me, they add up to fearfulness and a sense of foreboding. Futurist Alex Steffen defines discontinuity as the shock that comes with recognizing that you are unprepared for what has already happened. Yikes. Whether in a yurt on a fiery hillside in California, a condo in Houston, or a clunky Toyota miles from an exit on I-95 in Virginia, I am not prepared. Nor am I prepared for much else that is already happening to my fellow humans around this country and around the world.

Of course, it is not enough to have these books, or even read them all, or even read them all and begin to implement their many practical lessons. As I consider the stack of books in my front room, I wonder what are my actual survival skills? I make a list on a piece of paper:

I pay attention. I am not squeamish and have a high gross out threshold. I can grow food. I can dumpster dive and eat garbage. I can withstand discomfort and prepare for heat and cold. I can facilitate a meeting and help a group come to consensus. I can wait, I am patient. I am empathetic. I have fasted for periods of a week or 10 days, so I understand that my body can continue to function with little or no food. I can walk long distances and have run half marathons, so I have a sense that I can travel by foot.

It doesnt seem like a very good list. There are a lot of holes here. I cant speak another language. I dont have a skill like engineering, chemistry or medicine. I dont know how to trap and kill a wild animal or prepare it for eating. Really, all Ive got is common sense, care for others and a rudimentary sense of how natural systems work.

I cant really prepare for the apocalypse or completely prevent it, but we can integrate the reality of these changes into our lived realities by resisting despair and being generous, and by building resilience and solidarity

But maybe thats enough, now that I think about it. We cant survive alone, or only with our immediate families, no matter how many skills and resources we possess. We have to figure out how to live together and take care of one another. Basic stuff, no matter where we are. So, my small survival skill set can be stacked alongside yours and theirs, and Ill build mine up (leaving squirrel slaughtering until the very end), while weaving a tighter web of mutual aid and community concern. With all of this, I can now count Rob Hoskinss From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want as part of my survival shelf, alongside everything by Octavia Butler and Ursula LeGuin.

There is a strong tendency within survivalism to separate from a society that is failing, or has failed. Mountaintop retreats, private islands, repurposed bunkers and the billionaire space race are all about securing a future for the very very few.

Im not interested in retreat. Im interested in resistance that also creates resilience and restoration, and I am not alone in that. All over the world while working to hold nation-states and corporations to account for environmental pollution and destruction groups are building systems of care, repair and resiliency that resist the despair and nihilism that can seep (or slosh or tsunami) into the work.

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The zombies, aliens, invaders, ice storms, killing rain, computer viruses, real viruses these nightmare images are in my head all the time and have probably fueled my book bingeing more than anything else. The terror-as-entertainment driven business aggravates in me a very real helplessness and despair, which easily turns into paralyzing apathy and vigorous nihilism. I never emerge from a Walking Dead bender feeling empowered or equipped for the post-apocalypse. Heck, I dont even feel ready for tomorrow.

But the truth is, the apocalypse isnt coming all at once, in a tidal wave or a new strain of disease. It wont be cinematic, and there wont be a soundtrack or a last minute techo-fix. We are living in an age of change climate change, economic change, political change. These constant micro and macro upheavals are random, nonlinear and in flux. They are also persistent, plottable and pervasive.

I cant really prepare for it or completely prevent it, but we can integrate the reality of these changes into our lived realities by resisting despair and being generous, and by building resilience and solidarity. All of that feels like a huge privilege. I dont want to prepare for the end of the world. I want to prepare for tomorrow, and I dont want to do it alone. I want to do it with you, my family, our community and a few more people who know a little bit more than me about how things work. Tomorrow is definitely coming and that is all we really know about it.

Continued here:

If doomsday prepping has taught me anything, it's that we can't survive alone - Waging Nonviolence

At 54 years of age, martial artist, sitcom actor, comedian, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pundit, psychedelics advocate and eat-what-you-kill moose hunter Joe Rogan finds himself the biggest podcaster in the world - and an increasingly divisive figure.

The Joe Rogan Experience, a meandering discussion show interrogating conspiracy theories and blending libertarian political chat with celebrity interviews, was named Spotifys most-heard podcast of 2021, a little over a year after the host signed an exclusive $100m (82m) deal with the audio streaming giant.

Leaked data acquired by Business Insider last summer revealed that the podcast accounted for 4.5 per cent of all shows heard on the platform during its debut month of September 2020, cornering 14.9m hours of total global listening time.

A spokesperson for the service said The Joe Rogan Experience had been its number one podcast every month since and that its audience had only grown in the interim - and the show was already a huge hit beforehand, its bullet-headed host claiming a whopping 190m downloads per month during an interview with Aubrey Marcus in April 2019.

The calibre of Rogans guests is a central reason for the pods popularity, welcoming everyone from a famously-stoned Elon Musk to Kanye West, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lance Armstrong, Mike Tyson, Jack Dorsey, Dave Chapelle, Kevin Hart, Miley Cyrus, Matthew McConaughey and Edward Snowden.

Whether he is in conversation with renegade scholars about astrophysics, ancient civilisations, drugs, survivalism or scientology, joshing with raconteur friends like Uncle Joey Diaz or Duncan Trussell or, more controversially, hearing out right-wing denizens of the intellectual dark web like Alex Jones, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos, Rogan offers everybody an equal opportunity to state their case without being shouted down, for better or worse.

That is no small gesture in a tangled American media ecosystem so often defined by poisonous hostility and confrontation in post-Trump 2022.

But The Joe Rogan Experiences transfer to Spotify has coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and seen the broadcaster entertain even more dubious and potentially harmful propositions than usual.

Most recently, a New Years Eve episode in which his guest Dr Robert Malone likened contemporary American society to that of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and espoused the theory that mass formation psychosis was leading people to accept Covid-19 vaccines without question was taken down by YouTube but is still live on Spotify.

That has prompted 270 scientists and members of the medical community to write an open letter to the company saying that Rogan allowing Malones claims to pass unchecked could damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals.

The letter continues: This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform.

The Independent has contacted Spotify for comment.

This is hardly the first time Rogan has courted controversy during the Covid era.

He caused a major storm in April last year when he suggested on air that healthy young people do not need to get a vaccine, earning him a rebuke from Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to US president Joe Biden, and forcing him to backtrack and insist: Im not an anti-vax person.

Im not a doctor, he continued. Im a f***ing moron and Im a cage fighting commentator whos a dirty stand-up comedian. We just told you Im drunk most of the time and I do testosterone and I smoke a lot of weed. But Im not a respected source of information even for me!

While that disclaimer largely shrugged off responsibility for his considerable influence, Rogan did, to his credit, subsequently invite Dr Rhonda Patrick back onto the show to explicitly debunk prevalent vaccine-denier falsehoods.

I really appreciate that Joe is willing to have conversations with people with whom he disagrees and that hes respectful in his discussions. Its refreshing! one YouTube commenter wrote beneath a clip of their exchange, as clear an insight into his appeal as you could wish for.

Rogan has since raised eyebrows by suggesting that ID cards containing proof of vaccination status take America one step closer to dictatorship and by announcing that he had taken ivermectin, a deworming medicine also used to treat livestock, when he himself contracted Covid in September, subsequently attacking CNNs chief medical correspondent Dr Sanjay Gupta over the networks coverage of his actions.

Joe Rogan confronts Sanjay Gupta over CNN 'lies'

The ivermectin spat even earned him a telling off from celebrated shock jock Howard Stern, the provocative American radio host and perhaps Rogans most obvious forerunner.

Recent appearances by Dr Peter McCullough and the aforementioned Dr Malone, two men with a track-record of pushing improbable theories concerning the pandemic and its origins, have raised further questions about how Rogan wields his power, given the immense popularity of his show.

The host has come a long way since he first launched The Joe Rogan Experience with friend Brian Redban way back on Christmas Eve 2009.

He was born in Newark, New Jersey, in August 1967 and is of Italian-Irish stock, his parents separating when he was a child and Rogan subsequently relocating with his mother first to San Francisco, California, then to Gainesville, Florida, and finally to suburban Boston, Massachusetts, as a teenager.

Speaking to Rolling Stones Erik Hedegaard in 2015, Rogan remembered his policeman father as a very violent, very scary guy, who, the host contends, would have turned his son into a psychopath had he continued to play a role in raising him, hence the adult Rogans decision never to seek to re-establish contact.

The podcaster describes suffering from an unshakeable sense of alienation as a youth, despite never wanting for friends, and took up first karate and then taekwondo after a humiliating encounter with a bully in high school, which prompted him to vow never to be unable to defend himself again.

I was terrified of being a loser, he told Rolling Stone. Superterrified of being someone who people just go, Oh, look at that f***ing loser. You know? I was always thinking that the other kids were going to turn on me at any moment. I was weird. I just f***ing drifted.

By the time he retired from competitive martial arts at 21 for a brief stint at Boston University, Rogan had won the US Open Championship taekwondo tournament as a lightweight and been full-contact state champion for four consecutive years, also instructing others in the discipline.

Persuaded by friends to try his hand at stand-up comedy, Rogan took to the stage at the notorious Stitches club in Boston in 1988, enjoyed it and commenced a career as a comic, taking inspiration from the likes of Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks and Sam Kinnison, betraying a taste for convention-baiting even then.

His brash, incredulous, wild-eyed stage persona, tackling subjects from Bigfoot to self-satisfied vegans and the inherent weirdness of attempting to enact the role of human being on a vast rock hurtling through infinity, is a world away from the relaxed manner he adopts during his podcast recordings, sat back in a Cypress Hill T-shirt against a brick wall bearing pictures of Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix.

Taking odd jobs to make ends meet - delivering newspapers, working as a chauffeur for a private eye who had forfeited his driving licence - Rogan eventually moved to New York City and then Los Angeles in the early 1990s in order to fully commit to a career at the mic, attracting notice with a set on MTVs Half-Hour Comedy Hour.

That led to him winning the lead in the nine-episode Fox baseball sitcom Hardball in 1994 and, in turn, a regular role in NBCs NewsRadio between 1995-1999, on which he replaced Ray Romano and befriended the tragic but great sketch comic Phil Hartman, who would later be murdered by the wife whom Rogan says he advised his friend to leave.

His passion for martial arts made him a natural for UFC punditry - although he initially resisted the industrys overtures, preferring to watch the bouts from the stands in peace - before eventually taking a job as a backstage interviewer in 1997 and moving on to become a colour commentator, where his flare for verbal invention made him an instant hit.

Joe Rogan serving as a ring announcer at a UFC bout in Las Vegas, Nevada, last summer

(Getty)

Thereafter, he set up his own blog at the turn of the millennium, Joe.Rogan.net, foreseeing the potential of the web as a forum for mass communication, andpresented the gross out game show Fear Factor on NBC between 2001 and 2006.

Retraining his focus on stand-up, Rogan went viral in 2007 when a video of him confronting fellow comic Carlos Mencia at The Comedy Store in Hollywood over a stolen joke began to circulate, an incident that saw him banned from the venue and dropped by his agents but which won respect from his fellow professionals.

Then came the podcast, with Rogan again proving himself to be ahead of the curve by daring to try something new and embarking on what would become the defining project of his eccentric and itinerant career.

Thirteen years on, there are more than 1,760 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience out there, with three more landing every week, each one commonly more than two hours in length, rendering it near-impossible to become a completist - or even find an entry point for the uninitiated.

The hosts curiosity about his guests often oddball positions is never less than sincere and he does not usually allow nonsense to go unchallenged, frequently getting into heated debates with interviewees, memorably sparring with jiu jitsu flat-earther Eddie Bravo, for instance, or with Candace Owens over a flip remark she made about not believing in climate change.

However, the Dr Malone affair suggests he does not always go far enough.

Writing about that episode, The Independent columnist Noah Berlatsky took the broadcaster to task for abusing the misplaced trust he enjoys from his fans, saying: Rogans audience is a mix of people who distrust establishment media, people who distrust the left, and people who seek out alternative, scientifically unproven health advice. Not surprisingly, this is a perfect stew for disinformation about a public health crisis that has been intensely politicised by reactionaries.

Before the pandemic, Devin Gordon of The Atlantic also sought to pin down the essence of Rogans appeal, particularly among men, and defined his principal audience as: Guys who get barbed-wire tattoos and fill their fridge with Monster energy drinks and pre-ordered their tickets to see Hobbs & Shaw.

Making a point of sampling the mushroom coffee and other supplements Rogan advertises on his show, Gordon is reasonably sympathetic and writes: The hard truth for some of Rogans critics in the media is that he is much better at captivating audiences than most of us, because he has the patience and the generosity to let his interviews be an experience rather than an inquisition.

He is a tireless optimist, Gordon argues, as well as driven, inexhaustible, and an honest-to-goodness autodidact but carries the fatal weakness of showing too much compassion for bad actors.

The democratic value of making his considerable platform available to the likes of such pseudo-intellectual provocateurs-for-pay and division-stokers as Jones, Peterson, Shapiro, Yiannopoulos and Owens is not a given, even if his intentions are honourable.

While Rogan does not identify as a Republican and resists political labels, he certainly shares some of the rights anxieties about the shifting role of traditional masculinity in the 21st century, recently ranting somewhat hysterically that: You can never be woke enough, thats the problem. It keeps going. It keeps going further and further and further down the line and if you get to the point where you capitulate, where you agree to all these demands, itll eventually get to straight white men are not allowed to talk.

Joe Rogan claims straight white men arent allowed to talk

Heated opposition to wokeness and cancel culture is actually a relatively conventional stance among conservative-leaning comedians, who see both phenomena as antithetical to the radical free speech most comics endorse for the sake of their livelihoods.

But is Rogan conservative-leaning? His refusal to overtly align with either side of the aisle permits him space to pursue pet issues like the above, cannabis legalisation or gun rights without being committed to any one set-menu ideology.

However, it can also look like plain indecision on his part.

He briefly endorsed Democratic outsider Tulsi Gabbard for president in 2020, before changing horses and opting for Bernie Sanders, only to ultimately cast his vote for Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen, all the while promoting baseless Trumpian lines questioning Bidens mental fitness for the Oval Office given his advanced years.

Since Bidens inauguration, he has continued to dabble, recently advising Michelle Obama to run for the Democratic nomination in 2024, despite the former first ladys stated resistance to seeking political office, and joining Gettr, a new right-wing alternative to Twitter founded by Donald Trumps former campaign manager Jason Miller, seemingly a protest against populist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greenes exile from mainstream social media.

Anti-fascist podcaster Jim Stewartson has gone so far as to brand Rogan Steve Bannons gimp, getting himself booted off Twitter temporarily for his trouble, but that is surely too reductive and unfair to the man.

Perhaps the hosts own explanation of the impact psychedelic drugs have had on shaping his psyche and singular social outlook is the real key to his character.

You know what you figure out in the middle of a trip? he asked Rolling Stone. That all these assumptions and preconceived notions of who you are, theyre all bulls***. Youre just an organism who is trying to find normalcy by repeating patterns.

Joe Rogan is not interested in even trying to be consistent because he is smart enough to know that allowing ones opinions to become set in stone means an end to personal growth, a death of sorts, and so keeps his mind open at all times, unafraid to take soundings from all quarters, always prepared to be convinced and never shutting himself off from the possibility of new horizons and new ideas, however absurd.

Learn, learn, learn, ladies and gentlemen, he tells his audience. Thats what Im getting out of this. I think its very important to continue to challenge your mind.

Which is more than fine, but perhaps a little more discrimination here and there wouldnt hurt.

Read more:

Joe Rogan: How the cage fighting commentator and dirty stand-up comedian became the king of podcasting - The Independent

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If you came of age in the late 90s, theres a good chance Neve Campbells signature chestnut bob and concerned, piercing gaze defined your formative cinematic experiences. Perhaps you saw her play a shy burn victim-turned-witch in the cult classic The Craft. Or maybe you watched, in total awe, as she kissed Denise Richards while portraying a manipulative outcast in Wild Things. And if both of those performances somehow passed you by, theres no way in hell you didnt see her star as Sidney Prescott, the ultimate final girl in Wes Cravens iconic slasher, Scream, and its sequel, Scream 2. Interestingly, all four of those movies came out within a two-year stretch, between 1996 and 1998, solidifying Campbell as one of the decades biggestand most talked-aboutstars.

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When Canadian-born Campbell was cast as Sidney Prescott, a strong and steady high schooler merely just trying to survive the wrath of a murderous Ghostface killer, she was only 22 years old, and though it was her first starring role, she never could have known that shed go on to live with the character for over 25 years, reprising her in four sequels. Scream, the fifth film and first iteration since Cravens death in 2015, premieres Jan. 14. She also had no idea that she was about to be catapulted to a level of fame so high that, within the span of a year, she would break box office records, host Saturday Night Live, and appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.

That height of fame was not something a 22-year-old really knows how to handle, she says during a Zoom conversation, conducted in late 2021 from the comfort of her childrens room, where bunk beds sit behind her. (Campbell is mother to sons Caspian, 9, and Raynor, 3, with partner JJ Feild.) I was lucky that I was working so much that I didnt get lost. I see a lot of celebrities when theyre at that height fall down the rabbit hole, whether its addictions or breakdowns. Instead of partying, Campbell says during that time she worked 15 or 16 hours a day for ten months a year filming Party of Five, the acclaimed Fox TV series that launched her career, and spent her time off appearing in movies.

Steve GranitzGetty Images

Getty Images

This will tell you how tired I was, she starts. I was in a car with my manager and my publicist and my manager said, Tell her, tell her, to my publicist. And he goes, Im really excited to tell you: I got you Rolling Stone. And I went, What? Im so tired. I dont want to do another photo shoot. I had no idea what a big deal it was to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.

Spoiler alert: She did the shootobviouslyand while the cover line read Neve Campbell: Red-Hot Party Girl, the accompanying profile and Campbells recollection of her youth are basically the opposite. To clarify, before landing Party of Five, Campbell was born and raised in Guelph, Canada, before training as a ballerina at the National Ballet School of Canada in Toronto. I was just dancing, dancing, dancingI was very disciplined and it was kind of insular, she says. She didnt pay much attention to pop culture and was definitely not a horror film buff. (The Changeling freaked her out too much.)

But landing Scream changed everything. Campbell was enamored by the hilarious meta script written by Kevin Williamson (who then went on to create the beloved teen drama Dawsons Creek), and the originality of the scaresa trademark Craven move. In hindsight, its no surprise that the 1996 film was a megahit, becoming the highest-grossing slasher film in the world until 2018. All that success, though, meant that Campbell kept getting offers to star in even more scary movies. I was never going to do another horror movie because I already made the best one, she says. Why would I downgrade?

Its a fair question. So she ditched Hollywood for a while as a way to recalibrate. Scream 3 was released in 2000 and three years later, Campbell moved to England for seven years, where she dove into the theater community. I learned a great deal about myself and craft, she says. I immersed myself in a different way that is really hard to do in the States. When she started looking for on-screen roles again, this time, the offers were different and came in the form of prestige TV: She made a memorable guest appearance on Mad Men and landed a recurring role on House of Cards. I was suddenly out of that young ingenue thing and I was seen more as a grown woman. The rules are more interesting with these roles.

Brownie HarrisParamount

Its always surprising to me to have people come up and say, Sidney Prescott changed my life.

Ride-or-die Scream fans will likely agree with Campbells assessment. Watching Sidney grow from a timid high schooler with so many boy problems into a knife (and gun)-wielding badass who mentors a younger generation of Woodsboro teens trying not to die has been a fascinating and emotional journey. Instead of just fighting for her life when Ghostface returns, shes sharing life-or-death wisdom, institutional knowledge, and escape routes that might actually work. (Check out Scream 4, which premiered in 2011 and was the first film in the franchise to show Sidney as part of the older generation, to see her experienced wits at work.) Though Campbell cant share much about the new Screams plot, she does reveal that Sidney is now a mother, which brings out a whole other level of survivalism. As a mom, the idea of anything threatening your children will be dire for her.

But Campbell did need a little convincing to come back and reprise her role, especially without Craven in charge. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the directors behind another cheeky slasher film Ready or Not, helm the film and ultimately won her over with a letter about how much Scream impacted their work and how they hoped to treat her character and the story.

Still, it took lengthy negotiations for Campbell to officially sign on. Only in the past few years have I felt confident to ask [for more money] because I used to be told, Oh you cant ask, she says. I wonder if Id been a male working on the fifth film of this franchise, if it wouldve been the same conversation in my negotiation. We got there in the end, but I feel like it would have been different if I was a man. I honestly do.

Paramount

Paramount

Reprising the role of Sidney once again means stepping back into the shoes of a woman who has had an enormous impact on viewers. Its always surprising to me to have people come up and say, Sidney Prescott changed my life. She made me feel more confident. She made me less of a victim. She made me take action, says Campbell. You dont expect that when you make a film like this, especially in this genre.

Sidney might not have that impact on people were it not for Campbells portrayal, rife with vulnerability, intelligence, and a palatable dose of humor. The character may not always make the right moves, but she is fearless and desperate to survive no matter whateven if it means killing a few baddies along the way. That soft confidence is why, when you settle in to watch a Scream film, knowing that half of the characters will be sliced and diced by the end credits, you hope that maybe, just maybe, Sidney Prescott will make it out alive.

Visit link:

Neve Campbell Is Still the Reigning Queen of 'Scream' - ELLE.com