Category: Odds ‘n Sods

I find it interesting that Tom Hardy, the British actor who plays Max Rockatansky in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road movie (aka Mad Max 4) was born in 1977. That coincidentally was just one year before Mel Gibson was hired to play the original Mad Max. And Hardy was just four years old when the second movie in the series (The Road Warrior) was released. Mel Gibson reportedly has a cameo role in the new film as “The Old Drifter.”    o o o Pierre M. sent: Obama’s war: Afghan special forces commander defects with guns to insurgents    …

Reader F.B. suggested a useful aggregation site: The Liberty Mill.    o o o F.J. mentioned this useful info: Solar Camping on Steroids    o o o Antigua starts program to sell citizenship    o o o From G.G.: Researchers uncover holes that open power stations to hacking

Reader AmEx (American Expatriate) sent: What the Government Does with Americans’ Data o o o Over at my friend Commander Zero’s blog: Feds Say Possession of “Large Amounts” of Weapons May Indicate Terrorist Activity. JWR’s Comment: The linked article has a photo of what could best be described as a “starter” gun collection (a couple of ARs, a FAL, an AK, and a few handguns.) If that constitutes a “weapons cache”, then the agents must be from some gun-deprived eastern Nanny State. They would surely have a fit of apoplexy if they walked into JASBORR. This somehow reminds me of …

Reader E.B. suggested this movie review: Dragon Day: Red Dawn for Intellectuals    o o o H.L. sent: Bitdrop app beats NSA surveillance with anonymous encrypted file transfers    o o o Fascinating photos: 10 Unique Ocean Landscapes    o o o File Under F Troop Follies: Sacrebleu! ATF threatens French-style firing squad for agents who leak secrets    o o o Andrew Dickehage hospitalized after being attacked by three coyotes in Boulder County. Just imagine if this had been three wolves, instead.

Reader C.D.V. spotted this: 93-Year-Old Homesteader Living It Up In The Wilderness    o o o Former Army Captain William Swenson to receive Medal of Honor at White House    o o o Colorado Governor Hickenlooper tells gun-control groups to ‘stay away’    o o o Cato Institute: The NSA: Future Crime Unit (interview with Jim Harper)

Reader H.L. sent: Drastic moose die-off puzzles scientists, but they have one main suspect    o o o B.B. forwarded this: US Senate Decisively Rejects U.N. Arms Trade Treaty    o o o Non-Participation As An Effective Weapon Against Tyranny    o o o Dry Ice Goes Boom.    o o o A Guide for Guarding Personal Information in the Workplace. (Thanks to R.B.S. for the link.)

A man who is a living legend wrote this review: Reading List: Expatriates. I feel honored that this brilliant man enjoyed my book and took the time to write a review. (John Walker is the founder of Autodesk, Inc. and co-author of the widely-used AutoCAD software.)    o o o A reminder: On November 16, 2013, I will be a featured guest speaker (via teleseminar) at the Charlotte, North Carolina Back To The Basics convention. (Formerly known as Charlotte PrepCon.)    o o o Reader Rich R. mentioned this in The Washington Post: NSA collects millions of e-mail address books …

Reader Arthur S. sent the link to an interesting “clock” showing worldwide births and deaths, in real time.    o o o Randy F. wrote to note: “As if made by the TEOTWAWKI crowd,  National Geographic is going to premiere the [docudrama] movie Blackout on October 27, 2013. It is about the effects of a total grid failure blackout in America after a cyber attack.  They follow the travails on a young family expecting a second child any minute, a yuppie couple in NYC, a group of college students stuck in their dorm, a prepper family of four, a teenage …

SurvivalBlog’s Poet Laureate G.G. suggested this at CBS News: This ain’t your average survival shelter.    o o o Randy F. wrote to mention that a large prepper conference is scheduled in Mesa Arizona on Oct 18th and 19th, 2013. It has been extended to the 20th due to the high expected turnout.    o o o There is also a preparedness show in Atlanta the same weekend.    o o o    o o o The next Life Changes. Be Ready! Preparedness and Gun Expo will be held in in Lakeland, Florida on November 2 & 3, 2013. Advance …

There are some tasks here at the Rawles Ranch that are mundane but remarkably satisfying. For me, one of these is burning tree limb slash piles, which I do nearly every fall and spring. I usually try to position the piles over buried stumps, in the hope of burning up a stump in the process. But accomplishing that usually requires adding more wood and days of subsequent fire tending. (Depending on the size of the stump.) I’ve found that this process is a great excuse to burn up a few pieces of bucked firewood that have such thoroughly twisted grain …

California Governor Jerry Brown Vetoes Seven Gun Control Bills, Signs Seven Others. (Californians have until July of 2014 to get every 11+ round magazine “rebuild kit” that they own out of California, or face charges. There is no grandfather clause. This confusing legislation–part of which was dependent on enactment of another law that was not signed by Brown–is discussed at length at a CalGuns forum.)    o o o Just two days remaining! Until October 15th, the SurvivalBlog 2005-2012 Archive DVD is sale priced at just $11.99.    o o o Emily Miller: Smoking gun exposed- D.C. police chief covers …

Reader Jan S. forwarded novelist Matt Bracken’s mention of a upcoming fit of generosity: “‘I’m going to put each of my Enemies trilogy novels into the Amazon Kindle free download deal, starting with Enemies Foreign And Domestic next Monday, October 14. Then Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista on Monday the 21st, and Foreign Enemies And Traitors on October 28th.” For anyone who has not yet read Matt’s novels, I highly recommend them! Jan S. notes: “You can download the Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac free to your computer, even if you don’t have a Kindle reader.” Mark your calendars, …

Billy R. sent: Portable 12V power supply in an ammo can    o o o James W. liked this: Why use suppressors in combat, illustrated by a “ruined” video    o o o Reader P.W. wrote to ask if any blog readers know who makes the [woodstove chimney-mounted] Baker’s Salute Oven that is sold on the Lehman’s web site. (“They say made in the USA but Lehman’s will not tell me who the manufacturer is.”) A lot of the products sold by Lehman’s come from Amish cottage industries.  Many of these families don’t have telephones, so it might be hard …