Category: Odds ‘n Sods

F.J. found this at The Blaze: This Hobbit house is an honest-to-goodness man-sized home. Not only does it fit a family of four, but it cost just over $4,650 to build.    o o o The Prepper Website has begun incrementally posting a review/synopsis of my novel “Survivors”. (Warning: lots of plot spoilers.)    o o o Nic recommended this video primer by STRATFOR’s Fred Burton: How to Stay Safe in an Urban Environment.    o o o Kevin A. suggested an essay by John Silveira of Backwoods Home magazine: The threat of electromagnetic pulse    o o o And …

Mat Stein’s new non-fiction book “When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide for Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival”has been released! Yours Truly wrote the Foreword. Let’s do our best to push it into Amazon’s Top 10.    o o o I heard from Mark Baciak of PNW Arms that his company’s relocation to The American Redoubt is almost complete. They have moved their ballistics division over and should have their weapons division moved by January, 2012. They are moving to Potlatch, Idaho. They have also announced a “Black Friday” sale with a 25% discount on all in-stock merchandise. I should also …

Doubling Up Gets Popular: Tight budgets boost house-sharing. (Thanks to John in Ohio for the link.)    o o o JRH Enterprises is running their annual “Black Friday” sale going on now that includes genuine AN/PVS-14 night vision monoculars for $2,695 and Thermal imaging units that take “AA” batteries available as low as $2,775. They are also offering deep discounts on water filters, medical kits and other preparedness products.”    o o o F.G. mentioned some wasteful, hoplophobic stupidity in Cleveland.    o o o G.G. was the first of several readers to send this: Survival Shop Reports Jump In …

Over at Mish Shedlock’s blog: EU Bans Claim “Drinking Water Can Prevent Dehydration”; Expect More Such Stupidity if European Nanny-Zone Fiscal Union Forms    o o o K.A.F. sent this: Police Departments Look to Tune Out Scanner Hobbyists    o o o The Survival Mom asks: Could you survive TEOTWAWKI in your state? Here are the Best 5 States and the Worst 5 States for Survival    o o o Ham Radio Purchases on the Rise. The disaster preparedness factor is no doubt a strong contributing factor.

This was posted at Alt-Market.com: A Message To The SPLC From A Montana “Extremist”. It bears special mention that the SPLC‘s slam piece was their oh-so typical blathering, with a mix of fact, innuendo, and myth. They cleverly mixed in mentions of racists and radicals alongside references to level-headed folks, including myself. When they slandered me, they didn’t just use the time-proven “guilt by association” technique. They took it a step further and employed guilt by lack of association. They also slandered Pastor Chuck Baldwin, up in Montana as well as Stewart Rhodes, the head of The Oath Keepers. I’ve …

My old friend Rob L. wrote to mention: “A reminder to pass on to your readers in the U.S. that they only have about six weeks left to purchase Primatene Mist Inhaler(s) over the counter. After December 31, 2011 they will no longer be sold [even with a prescription.] As most of you know, this is an Epinephrine inhaler and can be used for any type of anaphylaxis. Cost is around $21.” JWR Adds: Other inhalers still on the market will require a prescription. Am I now to feel safer on January 1st, knowing that there is an infinitesimally smaller …

Thankfully, a swift retraction, after public outcry: Shooters Heard: Interior Will Not Ban Target Practice. (A hat tip to Lee M. for the link.)    o o o Jan S. recommended some interesting commentary on Smart Meters.    o o o And speaking of privacy risks, reader F.S. mentioned that all Android phones have a root kit called Carrier iQ that allows all functions to be logged without user knowledge.  It can be used as a key logger, location log, app use log, etc… He sent links to a short summary analysis and a full article that describes this huge …

SurvivalBlog’s Michael Z. Williamson was the first of several folks that forwarded me this ATF classifies Chore Boy pot scrubber pads NFA firearms    o o o Commentary from Michael Yon: Pocket Spies.    o o o Kevin S. found some fascinating reading: Source List and Detailed Death Tolls for the Primary Megadeaths of the Twentieth Century    o o o Reader P.N.G. suggested this case study: Building Your Own 20kW Hydroelectric Power Plant    o o o I heard that the movie Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 has been released on DVD. I missed it at the theater, so I’ll …

I had a couple of queries from SurvivalBlog readers about this news article: Google map mystery of giant lines spotted by satellite in Gobi desert. My guess is that it is a radar MASINT test field. (Note the variety of bistatic angles.) Without delving into the compartmented codeword realm, I can mention an open source reference to something analogous: the imaging target field at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Here, I’ll remind you that I wrote a series of articles about Fort Huachuca for Defense Electronics magazine, back in 1988. Hans Halberstadt, a well-respected and seasoned military photographer accompanied me there for …

By way of Tam’s blog: Superhydrophobic spray means no more clothes to wash. This somehow reminded me of the classic Alec Guinness movie The Man in the White Suit.    o o o George S. sent this: 22 Signs That The Thin Veneer of Civilization That We All Take for Granted is Starting to Disappear    o o os AmEx (American Expatriate) sent this: When the Cashier Asks for Your Zip Code. AmEx notes: “With your name and zip code they can do a reverse lookup and determine your address. That is a real breach of OPSEC.” JWR Adds:To minimize …

R.B.S. sent this: Swapping chicken pox-infected lollipops illegal.    o o o K. & D. recommended this: New urine powered fuel cell in Britain power to the people?    o o o Keeley was the first of several readers to mention this: Copper sword stolen from statue at Lincoln’s Tomb    o o o Nolan sent this article from Canada: Couple retires in Rimbey home built from 30 steel shipping containers    o o o Reader Bill N.was researching windmills and found a maker in Texas that has a short description of how the older generation water-pumping windmills worked. Bill …

Joseph L. sent a news item to file under “Emerging Threats”: Police impersonators carry out string of robberies: Crimes involve robbers posing as plainclothes officers, immigration agents.    o o o Camping Survival (one of our loyal advertisers) has just announced a great new product. It is a combination flashlight, electric firestarter, magnetic tool, and wound cauterizer (The latter by qualified medical personal only.) Since these are just past the prototype stage, the price tag is fairly high.    o o o SurvivalBlog readers in Norway will find this of interest: A paramedic in Norway, offers advanced emergency medical training …

The Greatest Truth Never Told #12. The Great Depression Is The Best Case    o o o Motorcycle Powered by Sewage. (Thanks to KAF for the link.)    o o o Spitfire redux: The WWII guns firing after 70 years buried in peat. (Thanks to Hope for the link.)    o o o Reader L.M.W. recommended a recent Day By Day cartoon strip on the Gunwalker scandal.    o o o Ron W. sent us this: Police raid Heckler & Koch in bribery probe

My buddy Pete in Switzerland mentioned a new marketing angle for oral rehydration solutions: Warrior Wound Care.    o o o Clearly, it is not safe to live near the Mexican border! SWAT teams dispatched as gun battle unfolds near Escobares.    o o o Kevin S. sent this: The Darknet Project: netroots activists dream of global mesh network    o o o The left-of center Mother Jones magazine recently posted this: Map: The Nuclear Bombs in Your Backyard. This map helps to confirm that the portions of The American Redoubt that are upwind (West) of Montana’s missile fields are …

I was recently chided by a fellow blogger, for encouraging people to relocate to a lightly-populated region in the western United States. He mischaracterized my retreat locale recommendations by referring to me as “…some novelist living in Idaho who has completely discounted every state east of the Mississippi as unfit for survival.”  For the record, I have never called the eastern states “unfit for survival”, but I have concluded that one’s statistical chances of surviving a grid-down collapse will be better in regions where the population density is low. I did not include any eastern states in my rankings of …