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* [[http://www.zombiehunters.org Zombie Squad]] is a disaster preparedness organization that uses the ZombieApocalypse concept as a metaphor for the importance of preparing for a natural disaster, on the precept that if one is prepared for the total collapse of civil order due to an invasion of the living dead, one is prepared for ''anything''. People being prepared for a zombie invasion is completely justified since no rational human being could scrape together a plan of action while being chased by the ravenous undead, and thought experiments like this can help people think on the fly for when real unplanned trouble starts. [[http://failblog.org/2011/06/12/epic-fail-photos-probably-bad-news-legitimate-concerns-fail/ Leicester City Council]] could learn a lot from them.
* The Center for Disease Control, a part of the U.S. government, launched a [[http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp zombie preparedness campaign]].
* In recent years, many people have taken to building bunkers or underground rooms in their backyards and gardens. While some people believe the end is nigh, most people have ended up building them, realising that the future is (mostly) safe, and have used them to make awesome hideaways.
* UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton used this method to prepare for her debates and it showed, mixing [[WittyBanter laser-guided barbs]] with traditional debate prep to show she could back up her precision attacks with deep and comprehensive knowledge on any number of subjects. She also had over seventy ''thousand'' words' worth of comprehensive policy proposals on topics both foreign and domestic, ranging from animal welfare to the Syrian civil war, available to the public on her website -- something unprecedented in modern American political history.
* High school debaters. They have to know their case inside and out and be ready to deal with anything and everything the opposing team can and will throw at them. The most common flaw in these teams is expecting their opponents to be too clever, which leaves them [[CripplingOverSpecialization less]] [[RockBeatsLaser prepared]] to deal with the basics. Truly prepared debaters have files on their laptops containing research on the topics that ''might'' come up (usually major news items).
* [[http://www.alpharubicon.com/index2.html Alpha Disaster Contingencies]] a.k.a: The Rubicon take a more CozyCatastrophe approach to disaster preparedness. Even the basic guides on the publicly available part of the website are impressive in terms of demonstrating a lifestyle which is reasonably comfortable, yet still viable in the event of a major disaster.
* This is sort of TruthInTelevision: the U.S. government does, in fact, pay people to come up with plans for any possibility -- global flooding, alien invasion, etc. One of their contingency plans addresses the possibility of an attempted takeover of the United States of America by the ''[[GirlScoutsAreEvil Girl Scouts]]''. Seriously... how would ''you'' plan to convince an army to start firing on elementary school girls, even ones that are undeniably murderous?
* Anything onboard a yacht. Justified, since reaching a harbour with supply shops or repair facilities may mean weeks' sailing.
* All modern militaries will do this (perhaps not for the most extreme examples, but still). Well into the 20th Century the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom maintained plans for war between Canada and the U.S., the U.K., and the U.S., or the U.K. and Canada against the U.S., even when the actual possibility of anyone actually considering such a war seemed stupid. On the other hand, the Pacific War in World War II largely proceeded in accordance with plans the U.S. had in place since the 1920s for just such a situation. To a large extent, these are the results of training courses in various military command colleges, since the best way to teach officers how to draw up plans is to [[ShapedLikeItself have them draw up plans]], and the best way to teach them to think outside the box is to confront them with highly unlikely, or even completely absurd scenarios. Once you have the plans, well, it doesn't cost anything to hang on to them, and you never know; even if the specific event is ludicrously impossible, there might be aspects to it that turn out to be useful - provisions for fighting in cold climates could help in an attack on Canada as well as the defense of Alaska, for instance. Also, the plans for the U.S. going to war with Canada most likely weren't done so much because they anticipated it, but to make the more seriously-made plans (those involving Germany and Japan) less controversial.\\
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The US ''had'' gone to war with Canada (or, rather, some bits under the rule of the British Empire that would ''become'' Canada later on) in 1812, and burnt its capital to the ground. Due mostly to a failure to plan, prepare, and consider who and what was really on the opposite side, the US failed in the invasion, and the US itself was subsequently invaded by British regulars who did surprisingly well (including burning down Washington, D.C. and attacking Baltimore and New Orleans). However, Admiral Sir David Milne wrote to a correspondent in 1817 that should the US declare war again, the British couldn't afford to even try to defend Canada.
** William Tecumseh Sherman's famous "March to the Sea" took the same route as a military inspection tour he had undertaken years before the war. Only this time from North to South rather than the other way around. On the other hand, UsefulNotes/JamesBuchanan is usually harshly criticized not only for his doing nothing in the time between the 1860 election and March 1861 (when Lincoln was inaugurated). While he could arguably claim to not want to start a war his successor would have to fight, the accusation that he did not fire his treasonous Secretary of War or remove major ammunition and weapons depots from the South "just in case" goes to show how harmful an aversion to this trope can be for military situations.
** Winfield Scott's famous "Anaconda Plan" was made during a time when it was believed the war would be won (or lost) in one single big battle and consequently ridiculed for taking three years and only being effective slowly (hence the name, strangling the foe like an Anaconda). However, after the first Battle of Bull Run[[note]]known to Confederates as the First Battle of Manassas; the fact that there was a second should be enough to tell you how little the South could capitalize on that victory[[/note]] it became painfully clear that the war would last more than mere months and the plan was dusted off and used to great effect.
* In the 1890s or 1900s, one British officer decided to combine a cycling holiday in France with some amateur spying in case war ever came between Britain and France. His preparation ended up being useful in ''defence'' of France in World War I.
* While researching for ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', Max Brooks consulted with a great number people in various areas of emergency planning, and to his surprise, nearly all of them had in mind at least some type of zombie contingency plan (even if not official). More in the "Literature" section above.
* As referenced in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Color-coded_War_Plans Wikipedia's page on Scotland]], the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red plan to invade Canada]] evolved during a time when Canada was still part of the British Empire. It was feared that a successful conquest of the British Empire would require an occupation of Canada to prevent an invasion by a [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany hostile military force]].
* There are training exercises involving an assault by ''ghosts.'' The purpose is to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and to teach command initiative in a surprise situation where no one has any idea what to do by the book.
* One example of the "alien invasion" preparations was shown on a Discovery Channel special. One federally-issued emergency services manual includes directions on how firemen and paramedics should respond to a flying saucer crashing into a kindergarten. The manual also apparently warns about [[MindRape psychic assault]], [[FastKillingRadiation radioactive materials]], etc.
* NASA has created several sets of plans for dealing with the impact of a large meteor. They can't determine which response is appropriate until they actually know something about such a hypothetical meteor's size structure or trajectory. But in 2022; the agency and international partners ran the DART spacecraft into a small asteroid that cannot impact Earth and changed its orbit, to be sure that they could build another spacecraft to stop an actual impact if they had to.
* Freeman Dyson's son has been in contact with people in NASA that keep the knowledge on [[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3c2.html#orion Orion]] systems around. Turns out a project he was working on compiling interviews and data from the now mostly dead scientists had over 2,000 pages of documents purchased by NASA just in case. Project Orion was a project to use [[RocketJump nuclear bombs, several per second, to propel a space craft]]. Nuclear ''bombs'', plural. [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill Just in case]] there should be an impactor where nothing else would work. Carl Sagan noted it to be the best possible use for our current stockpiles of weapons.
* This is actually official policy of the United States Coast Guard, mainly due to their extremely broad set of responsibilities: Everything from enforcing pollution restrictions and inspecting vessels for safety compliance to fighting heavily-armed drug smugglers and responding to shipwrecks, hurricanes, and every other conceivable maritime emergency. And that's just its peacetime responsibilities; in wartime, it can be made part of the Navy. It's all summed up in their BadassCreed ''Semper Paratus'', Always Ready.
* An [[http://everything2.com/?node_id=865883 extended discussion]] on what to do if you went back in time and had to prove your identity to your past self was held on E2, and the consensus was to, at that very moment, think of a password. Your future self will then tell you it, since he is from the future, and probably remembers that day people from the future showed up. That only works if time travel runs as a StableTimeLoop. Otherwise, the appearance of your time traveling future self changes history; any password you think up after he appears is not part of his own past.
* The motto of the Boy Scouts of America, as well as several other Scouting organizations (up to and including U.S.S.R. Pioneers), is "Be prepared." -- derived from the original British Organisation's motto. The founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, was once asked: "Be prepared for ''what''?" His reply was "Why, for any old thing." Hence, many troops will occasionally have the odd scout that is prepared for ''anything''. Ran out of lighter fluid for the camp stove? Don't worry, this guy brought another lighter. Did a boy break his arm while playing on the rocks? Don't worry, this guy ''happens'' to have splints and gauze in his day pack.
** To a great extent, Eagle Scouts and their equivalents. To reach this rank, they have to be an educated layman in ''twenty-two'' fields of study, including basic first aid, fieldcraft, and emergency preparedness, plus run a community service project from the ground up. There's a reason that of the Americans who walked on the moon, all but ''one'' were Eagle Scouts.
* Norway has taken this to heart with the construction of the '''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_vault Svalbard Global Seed Vault]]''', which stores seeds of various plants in the event of a major regional or worldwide catastrophe. [[WesternAnimation/WallE Wall-E]] would be proud.
* There's a book out there that details how to deal with a robot uprising, with information from experts in robot technology.
* Asimov actually created the three laws of robotics and mandated that they be used in his fictional repertoire to eliminate the possibility of this. Said possibility of robotic uprising is discussed many times in the course of his many books and short stories.
* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the British government had Clan [=MacLeod=] prepare to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Flag summon a magical army of wish-granting fairies to save the world]] in the event of amphibious German invasion. Because why not?
* In the same vein, the British Government had a load of witches go up above the cliffs at Dover and perform a ritual known as a Pyramid Of Power to (somehow) stop the expected sea-borne invasion. It can't hurt, right? And letting people who are inclined to believe in such things take such measures ensures they're ''not'' panicking or spreading morale-destroying rumors, instead.
* "Portable" applications for flash drives seem like a digital version of this trope. While hauling around an anti-virus, computer diagnostic tools, web browser, and IM messaging software is sensible if you use public computers often, the full [[http://portableapps.com PortableApps.com]] app catalogue includes ''a digital planetarium'', ''web server'', and a ''DVD menu authoring tool'' "on a stick."
* Portable Apps is not Crazy Prepared enough. How about a full operating system with all that plus diagnostic software, password recovery, and all other hacking tools? [[http://www.slax.org/ Slax]] is all you need.
* Explorer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Amundsen Roald Amundsen]] was famous for his preparations, which tends to make his part of the "race to the pole" seem a little dull. In addition to carrying and stashing far more supplies than he would need (and setting out flags ten miles to either side of his depots), before he ever left Norway he developed a recipe to use "just in case" he had to feed his dog's food to his men. He also had a plan to [[EmergencyFoodSupplyAnimal feed his dogs themselves to his men]] (and the other dogs); this, unfortunately, was not "just in case," but was his intention all along and he did eventually carry out the plan. Hey, don't look at his [[Website/TheOtherWiki Other Wiki]] page like that. Dogs are a good source and biological factory of certain vitamins since they produce them naturally while humans need an external source. By intending all along to eat the dogs, you need to bring along fewer supplies (but still, apparently, an excessive amount) and also provides extra insurance against scurvy (vitamin C deficiency). Both of these helped Amundsen succeed where those before him had failed, died, or, usually, both. It's also worth noting that most of the expedition was made with what sums up to a stolen ship and a kidnapped crew (he had both on the condition of going to the opposite pole and changed course underway).
* Robert Falcon Scott, on the other hand, did not prepare as well. Well, he prepared, but he was carried away by the romantic ideals of the gentlemen explorer and sincerely believed that at the end of the day, it would be his indefatigable British spirit and on-the-fly thinking that will carry him through to victory. What really came back to bite him during his fatal trip was that he somehow felt that the expedition would be considered invalid if he and his men did not bodily haul most of their gear: that having too many pack-animals was cheating. Amundsen, who presumably has taken note of Shackleton's voyage, had no such ideas and simply planned for survival. Nowadays, Scott's case is generally taught as what not do do when planning a mission. He also died ''11 miles'' away from his first (or last, depending on your definition) supply depot. A bit more "crazy-preparedness" and he would've made it back alive.
* Turned on its head in the real-life anecdote of King Mithridates. Fearing poisoning, Mithridates began [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity systematically dosing himself]] with every known poison, a little at a time until he could eat and drink in ease as his would-be assassins looked on. Unfortunately, he was eventually deposed and imprisoned, where he tried to commit suicide by, you guessed it, poisoning. As the poem goes, [[http://www.bartelby.net/123/62.html "Mithridates, he died old."]]
* Many Australian [=4WDers=] are crazy prepared when it comes to fuel and repairs, often making space for a decent chunk of a new engine should the need arise. Justified when you consider that the last vestige of civilisation was last week, and you're still a day from the nearest fuel stop.
* Also seen in places in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic. It's not unusual to see someone heading out of a community for a quick fishing trip to a lake 45 minutes away with their all-terrain vehicle loaded down with a rifle or shotgun, or both (cause, y'know, {{bears|AreBadNews}}), a tent, extra fuel, food, a satellite emergency beacon, change of clothes, GPS... and this is going to a place with no trees and terrain flat enough that ''you can still see the community'' from whence you came. Although, in the Northwest Territories you're expected to be at least a little CrazyPrepared. To the point where if you are stuck without gas a "reasonable" distance from a community, you have to cover the costs of emergency services to save your lazy self. "Reasonable" distance can be a couple of hours drive. Also in these regions, a storm can blow up from nowhere and keep you pinned down for days at a time. You'd BETTER be prepared to tough it out wherever you happen to be.
** In 2023; the entire city of Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, had to be evacuated more than 1000 km due to wildfires. They had a plan for that ready to go.
* Catholic priests are trained to be prepared for anything that happens during Mass. There are guidelines on every eventuality, from what to do in case of gunfire to what to do in the event of an insect plopping itself into the Precious Blood. Probably a consequence of SeenItAll. Also probably in part because priests are expressly forbidden to pause a Mass once it's progressed past a certain point for ''any'' reason until it's over. It makes perfect sense to give them some idea of what to do should cases of events like the above occur. Or, in the case of medical emergency in the Church, the priest is permitted to pause the Mass for such time as is necessary to administer the Last Rites. If the priest himself is the subject of the medical emergency, the Mass will be paused until another priest can finish it.
** Leaders of other religious services also often rely on a combination of being CrazyPrepared and XanatosSpeedChess, depending on how experienced they are and what kind of restrictions they're under.
* [[http://www.survivalstraps.com/ These]]. Hey, you never know when a couple dozen feet of rope will come in handy!
* Most American states now have "shall-issue concealed carry" laws, allowing ordinary people to get a license to carry a concealed handgun. Every day there are ''tens of millions'' of regular folks in the U.S. walking around in grocery stores and shopping malls with loaded guns, just in case.
** Sixteen states even have what is known as "Constitutional carry" or "right-to-carry" laws, which allow any non-prohibited adult to carry ''without any permit''.
** Millions of regular folks in the United States have also taken first aid training on packing gunshot wounds and using tourniquets; because of what can happen when someone uses any of those guns.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6yjmEOfvg This guy]] taught himself how to play his favourite piano piece with only two fingers, should he ever lose any in an accident.
* During Q&A after a book reading, [[Literature/TheNameOfTheWind Patrick Rothfuss]] was asked about his views on circumcision. [[http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2010/04/concerning-circumcision/ It just so happened]] that he had an article he'd written years ago as a university student.
* Creator/WaltDisney had the first seven seasons of ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'' filmed in color, even though ABC only broadcast in black and white at the time. After color television became more common, networks could air the color versions of these episodes when showing reruns.
* The U.S. Food & Drug Administration, in charge of food safety in the U.S., is remarkably more prepared for all sorts of things than one might initially expect. ''Series/MythBusters'' discovered this when they went to test the myth that one could use explosives to [[MundaneUtility tenderize meat]]. Not only had the FDA heard of it, but they approved a method of doing so, with precise proportions of explosives, meat, and size of a water tank in which to perform this.
* This trope is why everyone who lives in areas susceptible to natural disasters and/or far from population centers advocate having a survival kit.
* The ''International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems'' lists diagnostic codes used for medical billing. The 10th revision (ICD-10), due to go into effect October 1, 2014, includes unprecedented levels of specificity, including a code for [[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/30/technology/medical-billing-nears-a-new-era-of-ultra-specific-codes.html being attacked by an orca]].
* To become an official London cab driver, one must pass "The Knowledge" - a test of every street and building within six miles of Charring Cross. [[http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/london-taxi-test-knowledge/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 Completing this test usually takes multiple years]]. It's been called the hardest test of any sort. To study for it, applicants spend hours daily riding on London's streets on scooters with mounted maps, taking in every landmark they can. When applicants take each of the three tests, they are asked to call out the best possible route between several sets of locations, with illegal actions (making an illegal turn, going the wrong way down a one-way street) being an automatic fail. Even Sat-Nav ([=GPS=]) systems pale in comparison with the navigational prowess of an official London cabbie.
* Laws, in general, need to cover every possible variation of events that might occur, which is why most laws are so long. The United States Copyright law, for example, includes a section specifically addressing works created by animals or ''deities''. (In short, they won't copyright such works, but the fact that they have a plan in place in case someone tries to register one is impressive.)
--> '''Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition:''' The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants. Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings...
** Though the "divine beings" bit can actually make sense when one considers that certain holy texts in different religions are said to have been written by deities.
** In 2011, nature photographer David Slater set up a camera and selfies were taken with it by a crested macaque. He tried to copyright it (and file claims for damages for violation of copyright) until he was told by the copyright offices of Britain and the United States that since he had not taken the picture, he did not hold the copyright.
** These provisions in US copyright law are now being applied to image- and text-generation software. You can copyright the software, but not the output. This neatly avoids people having copyright fights because they put the same prompt into Chat GPT and got the same (or nearly the same) text as output.
* Creator/{{Netflix}} is insanely committed to uptime, building [[https://github.com/Netflix/SimianArmy/wiki software robots]] to intentionally create failures on its own servers so they can fix them under real-world conditions. This is why the service has had few major outages. The one outage it suffered on Christmas Eve 2012 was due to a failure on Amazon Web Services' part that took out a number of other major websites.
** This is fairly standard with most software services, as the nature of hacks and attacks changes software companies are constantly attacking their own creations to ensure their anti-virus software, firewalls, and other defences work properly.
* Highway designers will often plan roads with the intent of future expansion, no matter how ambitious. For instance, an exit may be graded out or even completed for a road that doesn't even ''exist'' yet (such as a DummiedOut cloverleaf exit on M-52 north of Clinton, Michigan which would have connected to a never-built US-112 [now US-12] expressway, the only portion of which was built all the way on the other side of the state near Niles); a freeway ending at a surface street may have its junction planned in such a way that the freeway may easily continue beyond that point (such as the end of the US-23 freeway south of Standish, Michigan, where "stubs" exist for the freeway to be extended beyond that point; this was built in TheSixties, and the plan to continue was finally scuttled near the end of TheNineties); or an existing exit may be built with future traffic capacity already considered (such as the exit between I-75 and Big Beaver Road in Troy, Michigan, which was built as a "diamond" interchange, but with the ramps far enough apart that it easily underwent conversion to a higher-capacity cloverleaf as the area grew around it).
* Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, features statues of several of the team's legendary players behind the outfield wall, including Al Kaline attempting to make a leaping catch. The statue artist put tiny metal spikes in the open glove so that in the off chance a player hits a home run there, Kaline's statue will actually catch it.
* This is the principle of redundant systems in engineering. Indeed, it's a legal requirement in the Process Safety Management regulations for American industrial safety. Each possible catastrophic event (such as an explosion of a plant) is required to have enough systems in place to prevent it from occurring so that the chance of everything failing is no more than once in a million years. For example, if losing power happens once a year, a pressure vessel will need to have a pressure relief valve to a flare. That is estimated to have a 1% chance of failure. You then have to have two more completely independent relief valves in order to reduce the chance of all three failing at the same time as a power outage to the acceptable levels. Process Safety Engineers spend their entire careers going through scenarios to be crazy prepared enough for any possible combination of failures.
* Poland built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grodzisk_Mazowiecki–Zawiercie_railway a rail line]] to a maximum design speed of 250 km/h in the 1970s - when no train in revenue service in Europe reached that speed, no signaling equipment in Europe could handle that speed, Poland did not have nor could it ever hope to have the foreign currency reserves to buy such a train from a Western bloc supplier and no Eastern bloc supplier was forthcoming. But hey, just in case...
* It's very common in construction, particularly if it involves tunneling or major earthwork to do several things at once "just in case". For example, if a new subway line is built and there is a station where it is conceivable another line might cross in the future, the station is often built in such a way that the crossing can already be implemented. There is a street in Berlin, that was refurbished sometime in the 2000s and as it was planned for the Berlin ''Straßenbahn'' (tram) to eventually reach there, tracks were laid even though they did not yet connect to anything. The tracks are still there and still unconnected.
* The German Basic Law of UsefulNotes/TheBonnRepublic initially lacked provisions for a state of emergency (due to way such provisions had been abused by [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler some guy]] back in the 1930s). When those provisions were added in the 1960s, they were ''very'' thorough in covering all potential events, including what happens if the parliament cannot convene or what happens if the chancellor dies in such a case.
* Top level professional chess players have to memorize thousands upon thousands of opening lines, analyzing each one with the strongest computer engines before every match. It's not unusual for the first new move in a game to not appear on the board until 20 or 30 moves have already been played. Part of the preparation also involves anticipating what lines your opponent will be studying, and coming up with theoretical novelties to catch them off-guard. Many games between grandmasters are effectively won, lost, or drawn this way before the players even sit down across from each other at the board.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Brask Hans Brask]] was a bishop who, in 1517, was forced into signing a very unpopular parliamentary decision he didn’t agree with. Knowing this could potentially destroy his reputation with the public, [[WriterRevolt he snuck a note into his seal saying "To this, I am forced and compelled."]], just in case he needed proof of that fact. It ended up saving his life; when [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Bloodbath the Stockholm Bloodbath]] happened, Brask was one of the many people put on the stand, and only escaped execution because of that note. To this day, "brasklapp" ("Brask’s note") is a common Swedish term for "hedging your bets".
* A combination of this and ChekhovsSkill saved the lives of 185 people aboard United Airlines Flight 232. Following the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123, a 747 that crashed after losing all hydraulic systems, a DC-10 instructor named Denny Fitch studied the accident and began devising strategies by which one might control a DC-10 in the event of a similar incident, even though the chances of that happening were about one in a billion. Fortunately for everyone involved, Denny Fitch happened to be aboard United 232 when that exact one in a billion chance came up, and he was able to help the pilots pull off about as good an outcome as anyone could have.
* Finland, because of its proximity to Russia and its dependence on Baltic Sea trade, has been maintaining [[https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/finland-prepper-nation-of-the-nordics-isnt-worried-about-masks/ a national stockpile]] of -- among other things -- medical equipment since the end of World War II. This stockpile was tapped into during the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, and Finland never experienced shortage of protective masks or disinfectant. The other Nordic Countries also once had similar stockpiles, but abandoned them after the end of the Cold War, preferring to rely on international supply chains. This worked well for them... until said supply chains stopped working properly during the pandemic.
** Finland also maintains bomb shelters throughout the country - about [[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/finland-counted-its-bomb-shelters-found-50500-them-2023-08-29/ 50,000 of them]]. They are mostly integrated into the basements of larger buildings, and used for things like indoor gyms during winter months. But they are kept up to code. Just in case.
* Preppers practically make it a lifestyle to prepare for in case [=SHTF=][[labelnote:*]]Short for Shit Hits The Fan, a theoretical scenario where society collapses, or you have to otherwise live off the grid, or have to otherwise survive when conditions are terrible.[[/labelnote]]. They treat it like having a spare tire, you don't want to have to use it, but you'll be happy you have it when you need it. Not to mention the Prepper mindset includes keeping yourself physically fit and knowledgeable about off-grid living, so it's still good for daily life, or if you want to go camping.
* In 1882 Italy and Austria-Hungary, until then embroiled in a territorial contention, signed the Triple Alliance with their common ally Germany, ending the contention. Both countries maintained and even ''expanded'' the fortifications at their common border, much to Germany's chagrin. Then came UsefulNotes/WorldWarI... And, to the surprise of the entire world except Austria-Hungary, Italy first declared neutrality and then declared war against Austria, at which point the existing fortifications became useful.
* A very specific case of being prepared for any eventuality: the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey%27s_Resort_Hotel_bombing Harvey Resort Hotel bombing]], where one John Birges Sr. devised a ''wildly'' complicated bomb for the express purpose of making it impossible to defuse by practically every means imaginable. The letter placed with it warned that it was undefusable even by him, and the FBI was utterly stumped as he seemed to have accounted for every possibility.
** Wait him out? A timer mechanism trips, detonating the bomb.
** Pry off the detonator box? A foil failsafe layer will close the circuit the moment it's touched by metal, detonating the bomb--and wood/plastic/ceramic aren't tough enough to separate welded sheet steel.
** Open the boxes with a non-conductive wedge? Pressure failsafes in the lid trip, detonating the bomb.
** Try to unscrew the bomb? Spring-loaded metal contacts trip, detonating the bomb.
** Drill out the bomb's casing to see inside? Foil failsafe layers will close the circuit when touched by a metal drill bit, detonating the bomb.
** Neutralize the bomb's interior with liquids or gases? A toilet float failsafe will raise and close the circuit, detonating the bomb.
** Just move the bomb to a safe location to detonate it? A small metal pendulum inside a foil-lined pipe will jostle if moved too sharply and close the circuit, detonating the bomb.
** Try your luck with a combination of the 28 switches on the front of the detonator box? Some of these are failsafes that will close the circuit instead of disabling parts of the device, detonating the bomb.
** The FBI's final choice was to use a small shaped charge to try and explosively cut the detonator lines before they could trigger. They thought it would do a small amount of damage, but that it would work... except that Birges had planned for this too, and hid a stick of TNT in the detonator case. When the booby-trap TNT detonated from the shaped charge, the rest of the half-ton of explosives went with it, blowing a gaping hole in the Harveys Resort Hotel. This did not count as a successful bomb defusal for self-evident reasons, but not one to take a loss sitting down, the FBI trains its agents on a dummy version of Birges' obscenely complicated, prepared-for-anything bomb to this day as an object lesson.
* Comic book writer Creator/IanFlynn has, on multiple occasions, shown off his ability to have the exact story circumstances needed prepared ahead of time. When Creator/{{Sega}} and Creator/{{Capcom}} started discussing the creation of a crossover between the [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics Sonic the Hedgehog]] and [[ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics Mega Man]] comics, Flynn already had [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsCollide a script prepared]], having started work as soon as Archie obtained the Mega Man license just in case. When legal circumstances resulted in Archie's Sonic comic being abruptly cancelled and IDW later picked up the license, Flynn had an outline for the new comic's first few story arcs worth of material prepared after ''less than 24 hours''.[[note]]This one is admittedly less impressive than it sounds, as Flynn has stated that many of IDW's early storylines were reworkings of his plans for Archie, but that still means he had to rework the plots to work after all their leadup had been erased, have an introductory arc for the new world prepared, account for the loss of all the previous comic original characters, and create all of the new continuity's original characters.[[/note]]
* Creator/ZackSnyder plans to expand his ''Film/RebelMoon'' universe into various media. He created himself a detailed ''450 pages'' UniverseBible to follow to avoid {{Series Continuity Error}}s and {{Continuity Snarl}}s.
* Many reputable airlines' flight attendants, contrary to the SexyStewardess stereotype and the common trope of only really being on board to serve meals and drinks, actually have very extensive training on what to do in the event of mid-flight incidents - first aid, CPR, fire extinguishing, guiding passengers in an emergency landing, etc. All of this in formal uniforms that may not be quite comfortable to wear, much less on transoceanic and transcontinental flights that can take than half a day to complete. While these sorts of emergencies are quite rare thanks to evolving flight regulations to ensure that people in what's basically pressurized metal cans soaring through hostile-to-humans air miles above the ground stay safe (there are many people who fly several dozen times a year for business and have never been part of a major in-flight incident ever), when they ''do'' happen, the pre-training of the flight attendants can absolutely make the difference between [[EverybodyLives everyone on board making it out alive]], or the Wikipedia article for the incident saying "[[EverybodyDiesEnding Fatalities: All]]".
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