New show on Discovery called The Colony.
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/the-colony-the-experiment-begins.htmlA new program on The Discovery Channel, The Colony is a reality TV show that puts several people in a simulated post-apocalyptic environment. The official website describes the show this way:
What would you do in the wake of a global catastrophe? How would you find food? Water? Shelter?
The Colony is a controlled experiment to see exactly what it would take to survive and rebuild under these circumstances. For 10 weeks, a group of 10 volunteers, whose backgrounds and expertise represent a cross-section of modern society, are isolated in an urban environment outside Los Angeles and tasked with creating a livable society.
With no electricity from the grid, no running water and no communication with the outside world, all the volunteers have to work with are their skills and whatever tools and supplies they can scavenge from their surroundings.
Episode One focused on establishing the setting, as well as introducing the cast. The "survivors" include a martial artist, a doctor, and a computer engineer, among others. So far, they've had to scavenge for supplies at a destroyed shopping mall, defend their stash from marauders, find shelter, and find water. As we all know, water is one of the most important things any living creature needs to survive, and the nearby L.A. river's water wasn't at all safe to drink. Not until computer engineer John Cohn rigged a filtration system using alternating layers of sand and charcoal in a plastic trash can. From there, the survivors were able to boil the filtered water, making it potable.
When the show was in production, Paladin Press provided the producers with a good supply of books dealing with survival topics. One, Ragnar's Urban Survival: A Hard-Times Guide to Staying Alive in the City by Ragnar Benson, has a chapter specifically about finding, collecting, storing, and purifying water in an urban environment once society has collapsed. It includes a diagram of a sand filter that anyone can make, not at all unlike John's construction, as well as how to purify water with bleach. Being prepared doesn't mean waiting until a disaster has already happened to act: it's about having a plan, supplies, and the knowledge to get yourself and your family out of a jam.
