SurvivalBlog reader “The Rabid One” mentioned that chemical light sticks can be set up with a discarded computer CD [1] as a reflector mount. This mounting arrangement can create very visible markers for trails. helicopter landing zones, et cetera. Employing infrared light sticks in this manner (for use with night vision goggles) opens up even more possibilities. You can even make them directional. “The Rabid One” quipped: “I knew I would someday find a use for all those free AOL CDs. [2]” (Some uses for CDs are not just comical. They do make effective reflectors for scaring birds from gardens and orchards.)
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Michael Z. Williamson [3] wrote me to say: “I want one!” From Russia with love: The ultimate up-armored SUV. [4] Here is another article about the same vehicle. [5]
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Speakers at the recent ASPO-USA [6] Peak Oil [7] conference in Boston warn: Global warming in the new century may be very severe. [8] Byron King, editor of the free Whiskey and Gunpowder e-newsletter [9] (one of my “must reads”) reported on the conference: “The first evening of the ASPO-USA conference kicked off with three lectures, and a question session, on the subject of global warming (GW). Why global warming? Because it is what you get when you burn up lots of fossil carbon-based fuels and load the atmosphere with otherwise excess levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). GW is the other side of the coin of Peak Oil. That is, in the process of rapidly depleting the Earth’s supply of fossil fuels, mankind is also playing a life-threatening experiment with the Earth’s atmosphere. Life-threatening? You had better believe it. If you are not worried, get worried. Dartmouth professor and climatologist Cameron Wake gave a presentation about the current buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere. Wake’s research includes reviewing more than a century of very accurate, chemical measurements of atmospheric CO2, a period that covers the vast majority of the industrial era. As one might expect, CO2 levels have increased dramatically over the past century as coal, oil, and natural gas have been burned in immense quantity and scope. Recent figures for CO2 releases, including the breakneck industrialization of China and India, yield charts that accelerate upward on a skyrocketing trajectory.”