Category: Odds ‘n Sods

SurvivalBlog reader J.K. mentioned that FEMA has a very informative booklet available, “Taking Shelter From The Storm” See: http://www.fema.gov/fima/tsfs02.shtm. This booklet includes case studies and engineering drawing for several different safe room locations. o o o SurvivalBlog reader Overhill spotted this Asian Avian Flu planning guide from Uncle Sugar: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/planguide/ o o o And you thought that the U.S. 1994 “Assault Weapons” ban was dead and buried–or at least “sunsetted”? Guess again. The ultra-liberal wing of the U.S. Senate has re-introduced it, as new legislation. (S. 645) The sponsors are mostly “the usual suspects”: Lautenberg, Corzine, Schumer, Boxer, Kennedy, Durbin, …

A BBC crew is filming a documentary on life at a Fairhaven Hutterite settlement near Ulm, Montana. See: http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/03/03/news/state/55-hutterite-filming.txt o o o Col. Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries are now available at: http://harris.dvc.org.uk/jeff/ o o o Fox News warns of housing bubble pinprick: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,187831,00.html o o o I just heard from Vic at Safecastle (one of our advertisers) that there has been a rush of large orders for Mountain House freeze dried foods because of Asian Avian Flu preparations. Order fulfillment timetables are now two months out, as many of the Mountain House foods are now out of stock. However, Vic can …

A 50/50 chance of mutation and then up to 50% of the world’s population dead?Yikes! This one is a must read: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/AvianFlu/story?id=1724801 o o o Arab Central Banks Switch Some Assets from Dollars to Euros. See: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article351127.ece o o o I just heard thatReady Made Resources has received some scarce late issue digital TA -1042A/U U.S. military field telephones, brand new in the box. This is the current issue type requires a four conductor wire (or two runs of standard WD-1 commo wire.) The good news is that you can talk in full duplex! Any 12 volt power source works …

Check out the outdoor survival and land navigation resources at Survival Monkey. This is are also a site where you can read the full text of the EMP web novel “Lights Out.” See: http://www.survivalmonkey.com/ (OBTW, Survival Monkey is not to be confused with Trunk Monkey. I love those commercials!) o o o Mr. Bravo mentioned that prices are falling on lithium batteries for Surefire (and similar) high-performance flashlights and lasers. The batteries do not have to be expensive (up to $10 each at the camera department!) There are many discount online sources that sell them in bulk for not much …

I’m down in Reno this weekend for the The Big Reno Show. Quite a gun show! All quality gear–no flea market Schumer. I dropped by the table run by Darryl Holland (of Holland’s of Oregon), and sent him home a Browning A-Bolt bolt action rifle for “the usual” treatment:  I have him thread the muzzles of all of our hunting rifles with 1/2″ x 28 threads for a Holland’s muzzle brake. The same threads can also be used for Smith Enterprise Vortex flash hiders. This way the rifles can serve double duty as tactical guns. I highly recommend that you …

Rourke mentioned this cool site about hidden storage and passageways. (Best viewed with a broadband connection.) See: http://www.hiddenpassageway.com/    o o o A firm in Utah that offers the ultimate in off-site records storage–inside a solid granite mountain: http://www.perpetualstorage.com/index_home.htm    o o o Bulk ammo shortage?  See; http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm    o o o Doc at Big Secrets  (www.bigsecrets.cc) recommends this site on how to build your own small battery charging generator: http://theepicenter.com/tow02077.html    o o o Talk radio host Steve Quayle cites this piece from the Washington Post:: http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/06_Money/060309.retirement.fund.html    o o o SurvivalBlog reader “gman” recommends this source for inexpensive …

Late last year, a buck goat reportedly attacked Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe. This was during a gas station stop while the presidential motorcade was en route to the mountain resort of  Nyanga. The attack injured Mugabe’s scrotum and lower bowel. Apparently, the local livestock has more gumption than the local populace.  The citizens of Zimbabwe should learn from this goat.    o o o I just heard that George at The Pre-1899 Specialist just got in another small batch of pre-1899 Turkish contract 8 x57 Oberndorf Model 1893 Mausers. He says that these are in the nicest condition 1893s that …

The Army Aviator spotted this one for us: The Sun’s next 11-year cycle could be 50 percent stronger. See: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-03-06T204858Z_01_N06327000_RTRUKOC_0_US-SPACE-SUN.xml&rpc=22   o o o This page is very nicely done:  An on-line survival quiz: http://www.spicolisbarleybin.com/games/survival.swf   o o o Walter Jefferies at NoNAIS.org found an article in which the FDA admitted that the measures already in place are enough to protect against BSE. See: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/bsefaq.html

Two interesting articles on Ethanol: http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/trenddesk/2591  and http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/02/06/8367959/index.htm    o o o I heard that there are now just two slots left open for the Tactical Lifesaver course. It will be held on April 15-16, 2006, in Douglas, Georgia. A Iraq war vet Physician’s Assistant (PA) will teach you a lot of skills that the American Red Cross doesn’t. (Such as: how to prep an intravenous infusion, how to insert and orthopharyngeal airway, wound debridement, suturing, how to treat a sucking chest wound, and much more.)  Don’t hesitate. This course will be sold out, soon! See: http://www.survivalreportblog.com/Tactical_Lifesaver_Course.html    o o o …

America’s Sorriest Generation: http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin284.htm    o o o The latest in Lithium-Ion batteries: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/start.html?pg=9    o o o Doc at www.bigsecrets.cc spotted this web page for a “House in a Box”: http://quicksitebuilder.cnet.com/jpalibroda/    o o o SurvivalBlog reader Michael Z. Williamson (the sci-fi author) recommends the Goliath Expedition: http://goliath.mail2web.com — Karl Bushby’s amazing web journal. As Mike put it, this sporadically posted blog is written by “a nutcase British former Paratrooper who is walking 36,000 miles around the Americans and Eurasia. His journal and photos offer some interesting insights on travel in emergencies, and kit. The experienced reader will also …

Some interesting country rankings:  http://www.aneki.com/lists.html    o o o Rumors have started full scale salt and sugar hoarding in Russia: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/20-02-2006/76194-salt-0    o o o SurvivalBlog reader Lyn recommends: http://www.boatuscom/goodoldboat/pressure.htm (“A link about pressure cooking, good for newbies, that has a section at the end on how to make a water distiller using a pressure cooker. Also, 15 pounds of pressure is the minimum needed to sterilize hospital equipment. Plus of course food cooks quicker, saving fuel.”)    o o o I’m pleased to see that the Firefox browser has become so popular. The Secret Squirrels tell me that it is …

A “must read” article: Global Credit Ocean Dries Up by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. In this piece, Evans-Pritchard asserts that the global economy is reaching a dangerous tipping point. See: http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/02/24/cccredit24.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/02/24/ixcoms.html     o o o Some quiet Asian Avian Flu planning is going on in England. See: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2095-2058244,00.html    o o o FEMA is making plans for a major earthquake on the New Madrid fault.  See: http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=128430      o o o A paper on the Asian Avian Flu and the Grocery Industry: http://www.amrresearch.com/avianflu/H5N1PotentialImpact.pdf

Odds ‘n Sods: A source for greenhouse construction kits: http://www.growerssupply.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/StoreCatalogDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&division=GrowersSupply    o o o After an outbreak of H5N1 in India, the government killed all poultry within 10 kilometers of the affected town. If NAIS succeeds, our government here in the U.S. will know exactly what animals you have and where you are. If they decide to they can just come and take or kill your livestock. See: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006\02\26\story_26-2-2006_pg4_14 and www.NoNAIS.org    o o o I recently discovered that WorldNetDaily columnist Vox Day has his own blog:  http://voxday.blogspot.com

The USGS the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is an excellent resource when you are looking for specific areas on a map: http://geonames.usgs.gov/ You will want the underlined part–click on it: United States and territories. Enter the name of the place you want and the state (or any other information you have). It will give you several choices.    o o o Safecastle (one of our advertisers) is running a special on Mountain House #10 (1 gallon) cans of freeze dried foods at their on-line store–48 cans for $789 and free shipping. That’s a good deal, but for SurvivalBlog readers, …

Recombinomics has issued a new prediction and warning of a likely alteration in the avian influenza H5N1 hemagglutinin gene. Like the warning/prediction issued in October, 2005, this new alteration will increase the affinity of the virus for human receptors and lead to more efficient transmission of H5N1 to humans. For the full text of the press release see: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-17-2006/0004284283&EDATE=    o o o “Doc” at  www.bigsecrets.cc recommends this site on ethanol: http://www.standardalcohol.com/FFV.htm    o o o Ready for an ice storm? See some amazing pictures of this one from last year, in Geneva, Switzerland: http://www.markdaviesmedia.com/cold    o o o SurvivalBlog reader …