A post-Christmas guest mentioned the 4 fours, and stated that it was a good way to plan for survival in any situation. The 4 fours are the necessities for life and refer to an approximation of how quickly adults die without them -

1) Oxygen - 4 minutes

2) Heat - 4 hours

3) Water - 4 days

4) Food - 4 weeks

Just a little something to keep in mind when an emergency hits :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 02, 1999

Answers

How about common sense?

-- z (z@z.z), January 02, 1999.

Who's version of common sense?

-- Evan Cowart (evan@cyberramp.net), January 02, 1999.

How can the value for "Heat" be quantified in the absence of an ambient temperature? At 75 deg. F. it's surely much longer than 4 hours. At 212 deg. F. (100 deg. C.), probably somewhat less. At minus-60 deg. F. definitely much less than 4 hours.

But those four are the key items, for sure.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 04, 1999.

z@z - common sense is good, but uncommon. I thought I would post a simple reminder for newbies and those of us who are tempted to impulse buy so that if we give in to impulse, we at least have something useful to show for it. I guess I should have explained in more detail. However, I thought that people here would take what they needed, using their common sense...

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 05, 1999.

If you're interested, check out this page from Conniry's Native Skills & Wilderness School (scroll down to "The Four Basics")

The Four Basics

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), January 05, 1999.