The Quickstart guide for Preparedness
http://www.survivalblog.com/newbies.html


My thoughts on prioritization (establish the priority levels based on how long you can go without):

Air - 3 minutes
Water - 3 days
Food - 3 weeks

Everything else is in relation to those three with a multitude of possible scenarios.

Acquiring survival skills is an ongoing process that will last for your entire life. There is always more to learn and experience, which is part of the fun of being a survivor.

As your survival expertise grows the knowledge and abilities you gain are often useful in other areas. For example survivors prepare ahead of time, and they are experts in the art of ingenuity and inventiveness. Excellent attributes for anyone.

The possible environments and situations you could find yourself in are innumerable. Although each situation has its particular requirements for successfully surviving, in the final analysis it is mastery of five basic survival skills that are essential. Proficiency and preparedness in these 5 basic skills will give you the edge and put you on your way toward becoming a talented survivor.
http://www.survivaltopics.com/survival/the-5-basic-survival-skills/

Survival Skills & Techniques
http://www.equipped.com/srvskl.htm

"We teach people the five basic needs to include health, personal protection, sustenance, signal and recovery, and travel all tailored to arctic conditions," said Senior Airman Jess Evans, a 66th TRS Det. 1 Arctic Survival School instructor.

Students enroll in a week-long class, two days in the schoolhouse and three in the field, where they learn how to build fires, acquire food, build shelters and signal for help.
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123137563

Urban Survival Stories...
http://www.urbansurvivalstories.com/category.php?catID=12

Interesting tidbits...
http://zinelibrary.info/files/selfsuffiency.pdf

http://lifehacker.com/398153/top-10-modern-life-survival-skills

http://zinelibrary.info/files/otcc.pdf

http://zinelibrary.info/files/Shadowlive_0.pdf

http://zinelibrary.info/files/211.pdf

Cardboard food storage rotation boxes...
http://mormonfoodstorage.blogspot.com/2008/09/pantry-paragon-or-how-to-make-your-own.html

Link to the plans...
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/fsme/docs/shelfplan.pdf

Lessons learned from the Katrina experience...
http://www.frfrogspad.com/disastr.htm

http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-post-hurricane-news.html

One of my favorite reads...FerFal...
http://ferfal.blogspot.com/

Couple more..
http://www.survivalblog.com/index.html

http://www.appleseedinfo.org/index.htm

Food storage needs...only $5 shipping...
http://honeyvillegrain.com/

I built an Excel spreadsheet to use as a on hand food database - count calories as that is what will really matter if things get rough. And just for information it might not be just economical situations...

Did you know a solar flare can make your toilet stop working?
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/21jan_severespaceweather.htm?list27315

You should probably preface that article with some reading on solar cycles...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

The main periodicity in the Sun's activity is the 11-year cycle called the solar cycle. The period is not constant, but varies between about 9.5 and 12.5 years; for discussion about the periodicity determination, see Mursula and Ulich (1998). During the cycle, changes occur in the Sun's internal magnetic field and in the surface disturbance level. It has been agreed that a cycle starts from an activity minimum. The last full solar cycle (1986.8-1996.4) is labelled to be #22; the "first" one was the 1755-1766 cycle.
Solar magnetic field

At the beginning of a cycle the solar magnetic field resembles a dipole which axis is aligned with Sun's rotation axis. In this configuration the helmet streamers form a continuous belt about the Sun's equator and coronal holes are found near the poles. The situation is not very different from Earth's magnetotail geometry: closed field lines at low altitude equator, a current sheet at higher altitude equator, and open field lines at higher latitudes. During the following 5-6 years towards the maximum this nice configuration is totally destroyed, leaving the Sun, magnetically, in a disorganized state with streamers and holes scattered all over different latitudes. During the latter part of the cycle the dipole field is restored. At the beginning the dipole tilt can be large, but as the minimum epoch approaches and the dipole grows in strength, it also orients itself more with the Sun's rotation axis.

When a new dipole is reformed, it has an opposite orientation (polarity) than the old one: this creates a 22-year cycle for the Sun, the so-called double-solar-cycle (DSC). Also the sunspot pairs reflect this change.
Sunspot number and latitude

The 11-year periodicity in the Sun's activity was first observed in the sunspot number (see the figure below). The sunspot number - and Sun's activity - is at maximum in the middle of a cycle, when the Sun's internal magnetic field is most chaotic. Although the total energy output of the Sun - solar constant - is only about 0.1 % greater at maximum years than at minimum years, the 11/22 year variability is reflected - via solar wind - in the geomagnetic activity.
http://www.oulu.fi/~spaceweb/textbook/cycle.html

Jan. 10, 2008: Hang on to your cell phone, a new solar cycle has just begun.

"On January 4, 2008, a reversed-polarity sunspot appeared—and this signals the start of Solar Cycle 24," says David Hathaway of the Marshall Space Flight Center.

The onset of a new solar cycle is significant because of our increasingly space-based technological society.

"Solar storms can disable satellites that we depend on for weather forecasts and GPS navigation," says Hathaway. Radio bursts from solar flares can directly interfere with cell phone reception while coronal mass ejections (CMEs) hitting Earth can cause electrical power outages. "The most famous example is the Quebec outage of 1989, which left some Canadians without power for as much as six days."

Air travel can be affected, too.

Every year, intercontinental flights carry thousands of passengers over Earth’s poles. It's the shortest distance between, say, New York and Tokyo or Beijing and Chicago. In 1999, United Airlines made just twelve trips over the Arctic. By 2005, the number of flights had ballooned to 1,402. Other airlines report similar growth.

"Solar storms have a big effect on polar regions of our planet," says Steve Hill of the Space Weather Prediction Center. "When airplanes fly over the poles during solar storms, they can experience radio blackouts, navigation errors and computer reboots all caused by space radiation." Avoiding the poles during solar storms solves the problem, but it costs extra time, money and fuel to "take the long way around."

Much of this is still years away. "Intense solar activity won't begin immediately," notes Hathaway. "Solar cycles usually take a few years to build from solar minimum (where we are now) to Solar Max, expected in 2011 or 2012."
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/10jan_solarcycle24.htm

http://solarcycle24.com/

This is supposed to be the most intense solar cycle in some time and peek in 2012...interesting as the Mayan calendar also ends in 2012...actually just the beginning of a new calendar...leave that for another night...