Wooo hoo! I'm doin' the happy dance, here! After almost 2 years of regularly reading this site, I finally had something pertinent to post. Well, I probably learned it here, first, but I feel like a big kid at the campfire, anyway! I'm dancin'!

Cjoi:
Enjoy your dance,and keep your ear to the ground, there is a lot to learn on this forum. Most of us don't post all the time either, we read and we ask questions and we also learn new trick and ideas. Welcome to the camp fire.

I think you might be referring to this: http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?area=usa&lang=eng

If I may, exactly how do you find such a map useful?

I followed the global incident map a few days before it dawned on me that it was more trouble to me than it was worth in bandwidth.

The problem is that it too often recorded 'incidents' before anyone knows anything. I saw a few cases of events that showed up and later turned out to be non-events.

Even the incidents that proved real enough often turned out to be far less significant than the map initially suggested. The seismic reports were anachronistic. They failed to effective differentiate the relative risk of tremors.

And when they were all that, even when I was semi-actively monitoring the site, keeping it on-screen but minimized, the alert showed up after a considerable delay. Too much of a delay to help me avoid anything.

The events that were most likely to directly effect me were far better reported, more accurately and in a more timely manner, in the local media.

The one really effective use for this sort of map, IMHO, is to further cultivate an overly sensitive alarmist streak and latent paranoia.

Is it raining yet LOL

Art-in-Fl
"If I may, exactly how do you find such a map useful?"

I use the map for the general goings on around the world. Patterns,frequency,type and groups.

"The one really effective use for this sort of map, IMHO, is to further cultivate an overly sensitive alarmist streak and latent paranoia. "

contray to your belief, It is only reasonable to know what is going on around you before it lands in your lap. After 30 years in the fire service I am far from an alarmist.

I posted this one a while ago. It specifically monitors infectious disease outbreaks.

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1000

LED - Thanks for the link.

From a first examination that just might be useful. A site that focuses on credible reports and trends put together by people knowledgeable enough in the field to avoid alarmist rumors, unsubstantiated cases, and to maintain perspective as to probable risk.

IMHO the internet is awash with rumors and conspiracy theories, hypotheses really. So many people running at the sight of their own shadows while well substantiated threats get little, if any, press. The difference is between raw data, much of it useless illusion or badly distorted, and processed information which has been fact-checked, confirmed and placed in the context of risk and probability.

Of course knowing about a potential, or quite real, risk doesn't necessarily mean you can do anything about it.

I once met a guy who claimed that just a few light-years away there is a black hole projecting an enormously strong beam of radiation. This beam is presently bombarding a galaxy and, assuming there might be life in that galaxy, effectively sterilizing that galaxy. He claims the beam is wobbling and will shift toward us some time in the near future. A few years later, just enough time for the beam to travel the distance, this beam will erase all life in our galaxy.

Hearing this I was a bit shocked. Then it dawned on me that if this came to pass there is absolutely nothing I could do. My, our, number would be up. There isn't enough shielding on this planet, not even the entire planet itself, to shield us. Humans are at least twenty years away from getting to Mars so fleeing the solar system, much less the galaxy, is out of the question. If the cosmic ray gun is aimed at us the best we can do is die as well as we can manage.

There are real, present, immediate risks out there that we can do something about. Like driving; I drive safely, wear my seatbelt, have a well repaired vehicle, and I don't drive needlessly or during high-risk times. Or health; I try to eat well, get exercise and get examined regularly. Or disasters; I maintain stocks of supplies, materials and tool that might help or see me through the most common disasters in this area. I have acquired skills sets and knowledge that might help.

But, in the end, a lot of it is not up to me. Hearing the noise of approaching danger is not the same as being prepared for it. Particularly when the noise doesn't tell you form it will take. The devil is in the details. Nor is being prepared for what you think is coming any guarantee that you will survive. So far there are no commercially available devices, no skill set, no disposition or attitude, that can compensate for rotten luck. A million dollars in supplies and goodies stuffed into a super-duper shelter and you can still get hit by a bus crossing a street. Life is out there. It will kill you. Nobody get out of here alive.

I do what I can, as best as I can, then, like everyone else, I take my seat on the ride and get to see how it shakes out.

Staying glued to a map that announces and celebrates every rumor and bit of discord and hardship is overwhelming and depressing. I see no benefit to knowing about 'every sparrow that falls from a tree'. When the important events show themselves everyone who is not asleep, or numbed by information overload, will know about it.