The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Today features a pair of videos that explain how nuclear bombs work, but in language that a person can truly understand.

How Nuclear Bombs Work

I was looking for a short tutorial on how nuclear bombs work when I ran across this two-hour lecture series on YouTube. People understand how normal explosives work and the fear factor just isn’t there because there isn’t much “unknown”. But with regards to nuclear bombs, that “unknown” factor is often off the charts. While the politics in this two part lecture are somewhat dated (2013), the technical stuff is brought down to a reasonable level and you walk away with a rudimentary understanding of how they work, how they are made, and what the significant dangers are.

As an example, it becomes apparent that enriching uranium 235 to the low yield of 4.5% required for peaceful nuclear reactors is actually about 75% of the work required for weapons grade U-235. Bringing it to 20% is about 90% of the work to get it to weapons grade quality. At this stage, the uranium is stored as a gas called uranium hexaflouride and can be enriched to weapons grade with comparatively very little effort. When a country acquires the ability to have “peaceful” nuclear reactors, the remaining industry to build nuclear bombs is relatively minimal. You don’t even need “weapons grade” to build a bomb either. The series also points out that if your delivery system is a container on a ship or a truck, you don’t even have to worry about the miniaturization required to fit it on a ballistic missile. This is a very informative series on the difficulties (and simplicities) of building nuclear weapons.

Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 1/2 – Making nuclear bombs

Nuclear 101: How Nuclear Bombs Work Part 2/2 – Making the material for nuclear bombs

Companion Planting

By this time, we’ve all heard of companion planting – the method of plantinig certain garden plants together to gain a synergistic benefit. Sometimes that benefit is in the areas of pest control and sometimes the benefit is growth or fruit/seed production. But did you know that some plants should never be planted together because the opposite happens? Reader H.L. sent in this interesting article on plants that should never be planted together (or even in the same area as you rotate your plans around your garden.)

Oregon Claims Your Kids

Reader T.Z. sent in this article on how the state of Oregon is now claiming authority over all children. They have become the first state to enact a law that mandates home visits of all families with new born children. We are wondering what happens if you refuse to let them in your home too. Do they get a warrant? Will they take your kids away? Progressive socialists used to be satisfied with controlling your kids once they reached school age, but now, they are apparently going after them right after they are born.

Airbnb Privacy

Reader DSV sent in this article on protecting your privacy when using alternatives to hotels. The author of the article explains how more and more people are finding hidden cameras in areas of the home where you would reasonably expect privacy. While Airbnb will support you if you find a camera in your bedroom or bathroom, they generally will not if you find a camera in the living room. If one of the pictures you view when selecting the home has a security camera in it, Airbnb will tell you that you must assume that there will be more around the house. If you use these services, you should probably just assume that there are cameras everywhere. There are some things that you can do that will help you find hidden cameras, but there is no guarantee that you can find them all.

Firearms and Crime

Reader D.S. sent in this PDF article on a recent government study on the usage of firearms in crimes. Unsuprising to most readers of SurvivalBlog, the study points out that only 7% of firearms used in crimes were bought legally. All of the others were obtained illegally – methods in which gun control laws would have been totally ineffective in preventing access to the firearms. These are statistics that the gun control advocates wished didn’t exist and you can bet that you will never hear them from their lips.

Venezuela’s Gun Control

Speaking of gun control, reader H.L. sent in this article on the connection between gun control and Venezuela’s current economic and social crises. Venezuela has proven to be one of the most tyrannical governments in the world. They routinely, violate basic civil liberties such as free speech, they debase the currency at will, confiscate private property and create economic controls that destroy the countries productivity. Meanwhile, the population is basically helpless to resist because massive socialistic gun control was implemented before embarking on these practices. This article shows the political path followed that links gun control to the abuses over the past few years.

Survival Realty

Survival Realty has listed a beautiful log cabin sitting on 50 acres of Arizona property that you can own for less than $90,000. It has 1,400 square feet with a covered deck on two sides with some incredible mountain views.

o o o

Please send your news tips to HJL. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who watch news that is important to them. Due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” news. We often “get the scoop” on news that is most likely ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!




12 Comments

  1. Airbnb privacy – As my wife more once stated, ” do you know how many nights we can stay in a motel / hotel for what you will pay for a travel trailer or a class c motorhome ? yea, I do . but that being said, thin walls in between rooms, bed bugs, no hidden cameras, etc. # 2 On gun control, I read someplace ( maybe it was here ), ” the founding fathers practiced the rule that good men didn’t need gun control and criminals wouldn’t pay any attention to gun control “. another saying that I read is something like this ” a gun, a firearm is a symbol of power and authority, how it is to be used is all in the minds of man “. Intro to the 1950 movie ” Colt .45 “

  2. Nic Machiavelli on the relationship between the armed and un-armed:

    Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
    Ch. 14
    Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one disdain and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work well together.
    Ch. 14; Variant: There can be no proper relation between one who is armed and one who is not. Nor it is reasonable to expect that one who is armed will voluntarily obey one who is not.

    Hence it comes that all armed prophets have been victorious and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.”

  3. Companion Planting.
    We do need to pay attention to the direction of sunlight and other things.
    It also makes sense that certain plants would compete for resources.
    We tried planting onions with our potatoes last year. My thought was onion flavored potatoes might save us a step in the kitchen.
    The potatoes were smaller than expected and the onions just made nice vegetation topside.
    We have had success with the 3 sisters method of corn, beans and squash.
    We also experimented by planting 3 jalapeño pepper plants around the outside of a large pot. We put a habanero plant in the center of the pot.
    Those jalapeño peppers picked up a lot of heat through the roots of the habanero. That was a fun experiment.
    Time to plan our gardens is now. God Bless.

  4. Airbnb:
    The very best and foolproof way in dealing with hidden cameras, is very simple, do not use their service, problem solved. How can anyone vacation or decompress knowing that they are being videotaped?

  5. As an Oregon resident I oppose the idea of sending social workers to the homes of new born children. But on a related issue: When my grandchildren’s mother became deeply addicted to hard drugs and their father became less and less effective a parent and the state stepped in and took the kids; we asked the state to let us care for them. Since it had not yet reached a specific legal threshold the state allowed the father (who was still the legal guardian) to give us temporary guardianship. Kind of a strange legal loophole but a good one because the state worker told us that once the full force of the state was involved we would have to petition and it would take months to years and we had no priority simply because we were grandparents. Within three days of bringing the three grandkids into our home a state worker showed up for a surprise visit just before dinner. We welcomed her into our home, the children were sitting watching TV, I was making dinner. We talked, answered any and all of her question and were pleasant and even joking with her. She left and no one ever checked again.

    I am happy to say that 6 years later the three are back with mom. Mom did spend three years in jail and got here act together. we are still close to the kids and love them more like our own then our grandchildren. But fingers crossed that the system worked and I think the state did the right thing.

  6. Non enforcement, no compliance, and sanctuary cities will become the norm should these anti-second amendment measures be passed by our socialist legislature!

  7. Nuclear Warfare,

    Radiation’s Effects And Materials To Mitigate Them
    Posted by JC Dodge
    Jan 15, 2019
    American Partisan
    https://www.americanpartisan.org/2019/01/radiations-effects-and-materials-to-mitigate-them/

    Personal Protective Gear For A Nuclear Threat.
    Posted by JC Dodge
    Jan 18, 2019
    American Partisan
    https://www.americanpartisan.org/2019/01/personal-protective-gear-for-a-nuclear-threat/

    Types of and Effects of Nuclear Weapons on Humans and The Environment
    by Ron G
    (2019, January 19)
    MD Creekmore
    https://www.mdcreekmore.com/effects-of-nuclear-weapons-on-humans-2/

  8. I have question? I know my husband has FLIR sights for his guns but someone mentioned that there are adapters for your smart phones/IPhones. Do you see this as added security for a family? The prices seem to be less expensive than the other models. Thanks.

  9. Iowa tried that visit thing, and fortunately they got rid of it almost immediately. Although, as one commenter noted, state workers CAN be decent, some are not, particularly if they get a bounty for adopting kids out of the system. (Yes, that’s a real thing.)

  10. I just tried to pull up the PDF on gun stats from the Department of Justice website and got this error message.

    Please be advised Internet usage is monitored and logged.
    A communication error occurred: “Connection refused” —VA99

    I always use TOR browser and am logging in from Germany so maybe that’s whey they blocked me….

  11. Re:Air /BNB-this is why everyone should own some sort of “escape pod”, also known as an RV. You can buy used ones quite reasonably that are still in good shape. They make different sizes and layouts and classes for 99% to be happy with. You only have your own dirt to contend with; no bedbugs, no unwashed sheets, and no over-the-top fees to bring your dog along. And……..you don’t need to worry about unauthorized taping in areas of personal hygiene. I’d never go back to staying in hotel rooms or some strangers home.

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