For years, I’ve used a planner to keep myself on track with preparedness. All those little tasks you forget, like checking and changing batteries, can be remembered when you schedule it. As well, important dates can be noted, appointments, and all the other stuff of life. I like to make my planner colorful with gel pens, stickers, and other fun stuff, but it’s certainly not essential. Here are a few of the ways a planner helps me to be better prepared. Scheduling tasks I sit down at the beginning of the year and write down a few tasks that I want to make sure I remember. Some examples are: Checking the batteries in my preps Replacing batteries in my smoke detector and carbon monoxide alarm Rotating the foods in my pantry Ordering specific things that require replacement (filters for the air conditioner, refrigerator water filter, etc.) Scheduling a spring and fall inventory check I don’t make it overwhelming. I set out to accomplish 3-4 preparedness and home maintenance tasks every month. If you divide your important jobs up over the year, then it’s far less overwhelming. Keeping notes Something else that has made a big difference for me is keeping notes each month. I write down successes and failures, as well as what I’ve accomplished. It can really help in the future when deciding which preps are essential and which ones really weren’t necessary. As well, there’s a good feeling about not just giving myself a “to-do” list but also a “done” list. I like to keep gardening notes in my planner too, to help me remember what worked well and what did not. When did I plant those green beans outside to produce a huge harvest? Did I plant basil twice last summer? Was there a seed or process I used that didn’t work well at all for me? I also like to keep track of sales. You’ll find that there are monthly trends of the things you’ll find on sale, as well as when certain foods are in season for a good stock-up. This can help you allocate your preparedness budget to get the most bang for your hard-earned buck. Master lists I use some of the pages at the back of my planner for “master lists.” These are tasks that need to be done and purchases that need to be made that can’t be handled immediately. Whether the constraints are physical or financial, you forget about little things you need sometimes if you don’t write them down. I have a master list for food, gear, and tasks.  You can sort nearly everything into one of those categories. Inventories A couple of times per year, I like to do an inventory check of my food supplies. In the spring, I check all my home-canned and dehydrated goods, and any root veggies I have in cool storage. I make a meal plan that will help me to use up these goods before they are replaced with the summer’s bounty. This isn’t wiping out all my preps – I still have other foods that get replenished year-round, such as grains and freeze-dried foods. In the late fall, I organize my summer canning and preserved foods so that I’ll know where to find what I need. I also check dates on my store-bought canned goods and dried goods to see how urgently they need to be used, and I meal plan accordingly. How to keep organized, just for preppers I have years’ worth of these planners put neatly on a shelf. Sometimes I refer back to them so that I can make certain I recall a certain event properly. Other times, I want to check on something that did or did not work out well for me. I love having a tangible look at the things I’ve accomplished and the preps I have acquired over the years. It gives me a sense of satisfaction and groundedness to have these records. You can use any kind of day-planner for this, but I wanted to create a product just for preppers to help you plan your preparedness tasks and goals. I created The Prepper’s Planner and Almanac for this very purpose. (Before anyone gets outraged and says, “This is just a sales pitch!” it’s not. You can use whatever format you like. I am just working on something that will make it easier, and you are welcome to grab it or not.) The first planner is a printable – I wanted to see what you guys found useful and not useful before I commit it to book form. I’m going to release one of these per quarter, and after this first one, they’ll also be in the format of hardcover books you can purchase. The first quarter is ready to go straight to your printer. Please, please let me know your thoughts on this product after you’ve used it so I can create the best physical product possible for you for Quarter 2. You can go here to grab your Quarter 1 planner and be involved in helping with the production of the next one! I really look forward to hearing your thoughts! Do you keep a preparedness planner? Do you keep a planner or journal dedicated to your preps? Do you think it would help you to be better organized if you did? Do you have a different way of maintaining your preps? I’d love to hear all your tips. Let’s discuss it in the comments section!   The post How a Planner Helps Me Maintain My Preps appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Is This Time Different? British Muslim Grooming Gangs Are Hot Topic Again

BrrRRrrRrrrace yourself, Floridians.

The origins of the object remains uncertain.

Scientists believe that a special chemical reaction that creates oxygen can be seen in the upper layers of Mars’ atmosphere. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China have discovered a new way to create oxygen in the carbon dioxide-rich atmospheres of other planets. This challenges assumptions about how to search for extraterrestrial life on other planets. The new study shows a way to create oxygen in planetary atmospheres that was not always thought to be viable, writes Space. Before Earth’s oxygen (O2) levels spiked about 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria in the oceans began producing oxygen through photosynthesis, our planet’s atmosphere was dominated by carbon dioxide (CO2) with a small amount of O2. Scientists believe that this oxygen was not produced by living organisms. This research shows a new mechanism for the appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere not only of Earth but also of other worlds with CO2-filled atmospheres. Scientists say they have discovered a new way to create oxygen from carbon dioxide using a chemical reaction between helium ions (He+) and CO2. Most helium ions are formed when alpha particles in the solar wind interact with molecules in the upper atmosphere. When these ions react with carbon dioxide, it can create molecular oxygen, or O2. Scientists believe this reaction could be seen in the upper atmosphere of Mars, which is rich in carbon dioxide. Scientists were able to discover a new way to create molecular oxygen using experiments in which CO2 and He+ were crossed in a special setup under controlled conditions. Scientists were able to gain a complete understanding of the chemical reaction that leads to the formation of oxygen from the two above-mentioned components. Scientists have long studied atmospheric oxygen on other planets, which may indicate the presence of extraterrestrial life. After all, most of the oxygen on Earth is created by living organisms. Now, research shows that large amounts of oxygen in planetary atmospheres may not be created by living organisms. So if similar oxygen-creating mechanisms operate on other planets with carbon dioxide-rich atmospheres, oxygen could exist there even in the absence of extraterrestrial life. Scientists now plan to conduct observations of the atmospheres of other worlds outside the solar system to confirm their findings. The post New Oxygen-Creation Mechanism Redefines Alien Life Search appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Point and laugh at The Hollywood Reporter. After four years of Team Biden pressuring Big Tech to crush dissent on social media, not to mention Team Biden pressuring the news media to crush any word of Biden’s mental decline, they’re going to warn the world about Donald Trump and censorship. The silly headline on this silly article is “Trump’s Media Censorship Arsenal Is Growing.” Beware, says the subhead: “A new roadmap for the president-elect and his advisors to chill free speech has surfaced as he targets networks critical of him.” Nowhere in this 1,000-word joke does young Berkeley-educated writer Winston Cho mention Biden or his team’s tawdry record of censorship and “chilling” negative reporting in any way, shape, or form. Journalists on the Left hypocritically clothe themselves in the mantle of democracy and free speech while they tolerate the crudest censorship and political pressure being brought to serve the most powerful Democrats. Then consider the hilarious notion that Donald Trump is going to turn the anti-Trump media into a harmless yarn basket full of toothless kittens. Network evening-news coverage of Donald Trump has been routinely and relentlessly 90 percent negative in every study we’ve done at NewsBusters. But the left seems terrified that Trump might be able to pressure the media into making it what? 70 percent negative? At one point in the last campaign, Kamala Harris was drawing 100 percent positive evening-news coverage on ABC. So of course, Cho’s panic began with ABC settling with Trump rather than letting us see all the internal George Stephanopoulos emails. We can’t have the slightest fraction of a chance that ABC News and Stephanopoulos would somehow transform into a slightly more moderate network. It continued with the notion that Trump would cause this Supreme Court to revisit the New York Times vs. Sullivan ruling, which makes it nearly impossible for public figures to sue malicious and/or corrupt media outlets. “The specter of Trump toppling a pillar of First Amendment jurisprudence has emerged as one of several weapons in his censorship arsenal,” wrote Cho. Democracy and journalism somehow survived before the New York Times won over the Supreme Court in 1964.   Then there’s the unintentionally hilarious worry from journalists that Trump shouldn’t be using “lawfare” to make their lives difficult and expensive. Oh really? And what do they think they’ve been relentlessly promoting and weaponizing all these Trump years? The lawfare shoe was delightful….on the other foot. Third, there’s the worry that Trump’s arsenal includes “Loyalists serving as heads of regulatory agencies who can steer networks away from coverage critical of him and his administration.” FCC chair Brendan Carr is making noise about reviewing TV news coverage, so “long-term incentives to stay out of Trump’s crosshairs by toning down adversarial coverage persist.” These people are terrified at the prospect of “toning down adversarial coverage.” Perhaps they would witness less use of words like “fascist” and “end of democracy.” Maybe Trump will merely be described as “oafish” and “stupid.” Cho is appalled that Stephanopoulos can’t claim repeatedly that Trump is a rapist. Mediaite founder Dan Abrams recently admitted “there is a level of Trump derangement syndrome among some that they are completely incapable of giving him credit for anything.” Any encouraging word about Trump is “normalizing” him. The abnormal people here are the anti-Trump ranters who can’t seem to fathom that every president tries – sometimes gently, sometimes roughly -- to “tone down adversarial coverage.” These haters just can’t be honest enough to confess they don’t object to Democrats like Biden censoring critical narratives and pressuring reporters to avoid negativity and repeat Democrat happy talk. 

Federal law enforcement agencies responding to reports of two pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, were guilty of “egregious safety and security failures” for not securing the crime scenes and allowing the House speaker and vice president-elect to come within feet of one of the devices, a U.S. House of Representatives investigation concludes. An interim joint report of the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight did not address some major topics, however, including how CCTV security cameras were turned away from one crime scene and whether the pipe bombs could have been planted on Jan. 6 — not Jan. 5, as the FBI has long maintained. The report showed that the FBI amassed 105 million data points in the case — including on the gray-hooded person thought to have planted the bombs on Jan. 5 — yet has not identified the person or made any arrests four years later. Just as the House report was released, the FBI published new information on the alleged pipe bomber, along with a slightly longer video showing an individual sitting on a bench near the Democratic National Committee building. The video is black and white with the same low frame rate as previous videos released by the FBI. “The FBI and its law enforcement partners had interviewed approximately 1,000 individuals, visited more than 1,200 residences and businesses, assessed more than 500 tips, and collected more than 39,000 video files,” the report said. “Furthermore, as of April 2021, the FBI had compiled thirty different datasets from multiple sources, including hardware stores, shoe vendors, and cell carrier companies, and had collected over 105,000,000 data points.” A motive has not been determined, but a major effect of the bombs was to occupy police at a critical time, the report said. “The discovery of both pipe bombs, which had been laying outside for more than 16 hours, occurred within minutes of Congress’s vote to certify the 2020 presidential election and resulted in federal law enforcement diverting considerable resources away from the United States Capitol,” the report said. “As a result, while law enforcement responded to the pipe bombs, protesters breached security perimeters at the Capitol and entered the building.” 'Somebody’s not doing their job.' The law enforcement miscues began hours before the bombs were discovered behind the Capitol Hill Club near the Republican National Committee building and on the side of the Democratic National Committee building, the report said. “On January 6, 2021, the actions of federal law enforcement before, during, and after the discovery of the pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC constituted a series of egregious safety and security failures,” the report said. The U.S. Secret Service failed to conduct a proper search of the DNC property, with agents and bomb-sniffing dogs operating in close proximity to the pipe bomb, which was in plain view under a park bench near the building, the report said. This failure allowed Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ motorcade to enter the DNC garage just before 11:30 a.m., feet from the pipe bomb. After discovery of the pipe bomb next to the Democratic National Committee building on Jan. 6, 2021, agents milled about near the bomb and pedestrians were allowed to walk right through the blast zone. U.S. Capitol Police CCTV Failure to secure the scene and establish a safe perimeter later allowed the motorcade of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to pass near the DNC building after Pelosi was evacuated from the Capitol. “After the discovery of the pipe bomb, law enforcement failed to immediately secure and maintain a perimeter around the pipe bomb located on a pedestrian walkway outside the DNC,” the report said. “As a result, civilians and law enforcement officers routinely breached the perimeter and came within close proximity — in some cases within feet — of the viable device.” 'More than ten different USSS agents and two canine units passed within close proximity of the pipe bomb.' Federal law enforcement “risked the safety and security of protectees during the evacuation from the Capitol,” the report said. “Despite repeated attempts to notify law enforcement stationed along the perimeter, numerous civilians, law enforcement officers, congressional leadership, and even trains passed by the pipe bombs, needlessly risking human life.” The Secret Service’s decision not to employ proper bomb-detection resources was in part to blame for failure to detect the bomb, the report said. “The USSS’s failure to identify the pipe bomb outside the DNC prior to Vice President-elect Harris’s arrival constituted a serious security failure,” the report said. “Caused in part by the USSS’s decision to not utilize critical explosive detection capabilities, more than ten different USSS agents and two canine units passed within close proximity of the pipe bomb, yet failed to identify the device, resulting in Vice President-elect Harris passing within feet of the pipe bomb.” According to federal law enforcement standards, the preferred evacuation distance from a pipe bomb is more than 1,200 feet.U.S. House of Representatives report Secret Service personnel told investigators from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General that “a USSS officer should have been stationed outside of the DNC throughout the morning. Without an officer posted along the sidewalks or streets, the DNC was ultimately unsecured, allowing pedestrians to pass by the unidentified pipe bomb throughout the morning.” Frustration from the Capitol Police dispatcher was evident as dozens of pedestrians and vehicles were continually allowed to travel directly past the DNC pipe bomb, the report said. “This is the last time I’m going to ask this request,” one dispatcher said. “We need the unit in front of the Fairchild [building] at South Capitol and E to go one block south. They are in line of sight of this package. Additionally, whoever is in that K-9 vehicle parked on the east curb of South Capitol needs to move ASAP. No more vehicles need to be responding north on South Capitol past the package.” Similar failures occurred in maintaining a safe perimeter at the RNC, the report said. “Sir, I have people walking down First Street right in front of the Republican Club,” a dispatcher broadcast at 1:25 p.m. “Somebody’s not doing their job.” Diversion of resources While the FBI has failed over four years to establish a solid motive for the pipe bomber, one major effect of the devices is clear, the report said. The discovery of the pipe bombs at 12:43 and 1:05 p.m. drew significant police resources away from the U.S. Capitol and helped enable the swarming of the Capitol grounds by protesters, the report said. A civilian walks just feet from the U.S. Capitol Police bomb robot near the DNC on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. House of Representatives “The refusal of top FBI officials to acknowledge even the most self-evident aspects of the pipe bomb investigation nearly four years after they were planted is striking,” the report said. “The significance of the pipe bombs to how the events of January 6 unfolded cannot be overstated. The evidence suggests that the pipe bomber diverted significant law enforcement attention and resources away from the Capitol at the exact time they were needed most.” The report questioned how the FBI could fail to crack the case after amassing huge datasets on possible suspects and persons of interest. It questioned how the bombs could have detonated on 60-minute egg timers. “According to an FBI bomb technician who agreed to speak to committee staff on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, the FBI’s use of the term ‘viable’ is a deviation from the standard descriptions used by bomb technicians,” the report said. “Traditionally, bomb technicians deliberately avoid using vague language, choosing instead to refer to a bomb as a ‘device’ if it would ‘function as designed’ or as a ‘hoax,’” the report said. “In the case of the pipe bombs, it is unclear why the FBI insists on using a vague, non-standard description.” Former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin, who worked on the pipe-bomb investigation, has told Blaze News the devices were not live bombs, based on a briefing his team received while doing surveillance work on the case. The FBI developed lists of people who might have purchased the type of black powder found inside the pipe bombs, the report said. It tracked down lists of people who purchased similar egg timers. It probed lists of people who purchased Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes like the ones worn by the suspected bomber. Pedestrians and Secret Service agents mill about near the allegedly live pipe bomb near the DNC headquarters just 5 minutes after its discovery on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. House of Representatives “Most notably, the FBI identified a person of interest who owned a pair of Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers and who worked ‘in the area of the crime.’ In response to this lead, the case team conducted a ‘deep dive’ into this person of interest in an effort to establish ‘independent corroboration’ of this individual’s whereabouts on January 5.” The bureau received enhanced video of the suspect’s backpack, but despite contacting 18 possible manufacturers, “the FBI had received ‘no positive responses’ from any of the manufacturers,” the report said. “Despite the FBI’s extensive efforts, including identifying hundreds of purchases and transactions of the suspect’s shoes, the FBI has yet to identify the suspect,” the report said. Topics not covered The report did not address how several of the Capitol Police CCTV security cameras that cover the DNC building were turned away from the scene on Jan. 6, preventing investigators from determining more fully who accessed the area around the park bench. A CCTV camera that showed the nearby bomb-squad staging area suddenly turned away from that scene just as a Capitol Police bomb robot was dispatched to the DNC building, according to Blaze News review of video footage. The report also didn’t deal with security video footage from DNC cameras that overlook the park bench area. That footage could have determined definitively who planted the DNC device: either the gray-hooded suspect or a federal officer who was seen entering a dead zone between cameras just after 12:50 p.m. on Jan. 6. A senior congressional source told Blaze News that Homeland Security OIG investigators were able to view about 40 minutes of DNC security video from the night of Jan. 5, and they came away convinced that the sweatshirt-wearing individual placed the bomb. Still, the blind spot in camera coverage and the turned-away CCTV cameras on Jan. 6 are troubling, the source said. It’s not clear whether the investigation into the pipe bombs will continue in the 119th U.S. Congress that will be sworn in on Jan. 3. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl was originally scheduled to take place in New Orleans on New Year's Day; however, the city was rocked in the early hours by an apparent Islamic terrorist attack. Now-deceased terror suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, allegedly drove a rented truck through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, claiming the lives of at least 15 victims. Police were ultimately able to neutralize the driver, who was reportedly found with a "remote detonator" for explosives discovered in the French Quarter. The Sugar Bowl was finally held on Thursday and attended by roughly 57,000 defiant football fans. While the day's big winners were the American spirit, which jihadists have repeatedly proven unable to dampen, and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who crushed the Georgia Bulldogs with the help of a 98-yard kick return, the big loser appears to have been the game's title sponsor, Allstate. During the game, Allstate ran a promotional video wherein the company's president and CEO Tom Wilson used the New Orleans massacre as an opportunity to lecture Americans — including those who just lost loved ones as the result of an imported ideology — about "divisiveness." The video, which was swiftly met with widespread contempt and ridicule, prompted some critics to take a closer look at the kind of corporate culture that would have informed the decision to make such a statement at such a time. "Welcome to the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Wednesday, tragedy struck the New Orleans community. Our prayers are with the victims and the families," said Wilson. "We also need to be stronger together by overcoming an addiction to divisiveness and negativity." Wilson invited football fans to help his company "amplify the positive, increase trust, and accept people's imperfections and differences. Together, we win." 'To normal people this sounds like Allstate giving cover to an ISIS terrorist.' BlazeTV host Steve Deace tweeted, "Still can't believe a venerable American company like Allstate sent its CEO on national television to lecture victims of terrorism about divisiveness. It's like a @TheBabylonBee parody of woke corporatism comes to life." Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote, "This is crazy by Allstate. Maybe — and hear me out here — we should all agree that terrorism will not be tolerated in the United States." "Wtf is wrong with this guy," wrote Elon Musk. Sean Davis, co-founder of the Federalist, noted, "Time to cancel Allstate. Do you really want an insurance company that talks about murder and terrorism this way?" Numerous commentators online shared a 2016 tweet from the late comedian Norm Macdonald where he wrote, "What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?" Robby Starbuck, a normalcy advocate who has campaigned against the corporate embrace of DEI, wrote, "Only major companies somehow get this out of touch with society. To normal people this sounds like Allstate giving cover to an ISIS terrorist as if he wouldn't have killed those people if we all accepted his backwards ideology. This is the definition of suicidal empathy." Libs of TikTok and other critics highlighted the company's woke policies in an apparent effort to figure out whether Wilson's statement was an aberration or par for the course, demonstrating it to have clearly been the latter. The company notes on its website that DEI "is a core value at Allstate." Wilson is a signatory of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge — the aim of which is to "rally the business community to advance diversity & inclusion within the workplace by working collectively across organizations and sectors." Extra to maximizing "diversity," Wilson and other signatories pledged to "address honestly and head-on the concerns and needs of our diverse employees and increase equity for all, including Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, LGBTQ, disabled, veterans and women." In its 2023 annual report, Allstate boasted about employing fewer white men on its management team, stating, "Inclusive Diversity and Equity is core to success and while more progress is needed, Allstate continues to lead. In the U.S., 56% of the management team and 48% of the company's officers identify as female or BIPOC, both of which increased from the prior year." Allstate's racial obsession is manifest also in its voting roadmap concerning directors, where the presence of white men is the measure against which progress is apparently marked. Under the section in the annual report on board governance, Allstate notes, "Diversity, including race, gender, ethnicity and culture, are also important factors in consideration of Board composition." The company has also secured a perfect score in recent years with the radical LGBT activist group Human Rights Campaign, in part by providing multiple LGBT training elements, including an "intersectionality training"; providing sex-change guidelines and at least one inclusion policy for cross-dressing employees; having either an LGBT employee resource group or non-straight diversity council; and engaging in LGBT activism. Facing incredible backlash, the company told Fox News Digital, "To be clear, Allstate CEO Tom Wilson unequivocally condemns this heinous act of terrorism and violence in all forms. We stand with the families of the victims, their loved ones and the community of New Orleans. The reference to overcoming divisiveness and negativity reflects a broader commitment to fostering trust and positivity in communities across the nation." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!