Odds ‘n Sods:

Facebook to Use Image Recognition Software to Crackdown on Gun Sellers? – And we continue to use these social media giants, freely giving them that which is most valuable to them.

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Scientists Fear ‘the Big One’ is COMING as FOUR Major Earthquakes Strike in 48 Hours – Sent in by DSV.

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SurvivalBlog reader DMS writes in: “An odd piece of equipment for your preps. A tens unit. I use one almost daily and see many uses in TEOTWAWKI, especially instead of pain meds you don’t have. They can be bought at any pharmacy, but if you can get a doctor to prescribe a medical grade one…..even better. I will say, unfortunately, they run on 9v batteries and I was hoping for AA. All my rechargeable are AA. Sigh. Also, buy Scotch double-sided tape and you can make an electrode last a year!”

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It’s all your money: US aiding business start-ups — for illegal aliens – Sent in by B.B.

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From the desk of Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog Editor At Large: WWII German arms cache found – I might tell a museum, or not, but I wouldn’t handle old explosives, and I wouldn’t unload artifacts onto the ground.

Notes for Saturday – April 16, 2016

April 16th is the birthday of two notable novelists– J. Neil Schulman and Samuel Youd.

Agorist-Libertarian activist J. Neil Schulman (born April 16, 1953) is best known as author of the novel Alongside Night.

The late Samuel Youd (born 1922, died February 3, 2012) was the British novelist who was best known for his science fiction writings under the pseudonym John Christopher, including the survivalist novel Death of Grass(titled No Blade of Grass, in the American edition) as well as the Tripods Seriesof young adult sci-fi novel series. A fascinating man, Youd wrote prolifically, using eight pen names. He was a good friend of sci-fi novelist John Wyndham, and both of them were famous for writing what are often called cozy catastrophes.

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SurvivalBlog has had several readers tell us that emails to “editorATsurvivalblogDOTcom” are being returned as undeliverable. We are currently looking into the situation to find out why some are receiving that message.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 64 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)
  9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 64 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

“Recycle, Repurpose, and Reuse”, by Regan and Hawk

My husband and I fall into the category of people known as “preppers”; we store food, weapons, supplies, and money for when it will be needed in the not too distant future. We track our stores and make sure that we won’t be caught short on many different things. However, one thing both of us have found is that all this prepping is not really enough. What do you do when something breaks or wears out and the stores are closed or it just can’t be found? What happens when you need something out of the norm for a project? The prepping sites just don’t go that far into the how-to.

We have found that in order to make it through and beyond hard times, we need to be much more prepared for the everyday and special needs we will have to see us through. My husband and I are not rich by any means, nor are we in the middle income ranges. Actually, we are just at or slightly below poverty level, and we have found that going out and buying what we need isn’t always possible. Our family has one gold rule– reuse, repurpose, and recycle. That’s it. This has served us well now for almost 11 years.

Let me give you some examples. We live on what they call a sand ridge, which is great for when it rains as we’ll never flood, but when it comes to gardening it’s another story. So, we went to the local tire store and got them to give us the throw-away tires for free. These tires when stacked up two or three high make wonderful planters for various vegetables. Filled with the right composite of soil for that particular plant, it holds the heat during the winter and allows great drainage while keeping a small backup supply in the wells of the tires.

When my husband and I met 11 or so years ago, I wish I was versed enough to describe the look on his face when I suggested that we stop and check out a dumpster we had just driven by, because I had spotted a nice batch of lumber near and in it. Truthfully, I think that’s when he fell in love with me. We took home a nice supply of lumber to put up for some miscellaneous projects we had in mind. Over the years, there has been no place safe from our collecting. Furniture store dumpsters supply the plastic we use for our winter greenhouses for plants, and home centers like Lowes and Home Depot supply the lumber in their throw away piles to build the cold frames. Most people don’t know that pallets make beautiful fences and furniture at no cost. About two years ago, my son needed a bed and we just didn’t have the funds to buy one, even at the thrift store. My husband went out to look at what we had stored up in various supply areas around the property, and from pallets, drawers that had been dumped by a furniture store, and a few other odds and ends two weeks later my son had a new bed. All we had to buy was the mattress. I wish I could show pictures of it, as it is a truly awesome sight. It’s queen size with two shelves at the head, six drawers along one side, and a door at the foot of the bed for storage.

There have been so many things that we have built over the years that have filled needs for our family and have cost us nothing but the time it took to scavenge the bits and pieces and build the item, from Dutch door fence gates to actually building a barn out of scrap lumber that we scavenged from local supply stores. A year or so after we met, we started a business. At the beginning it was to help my son get into the rabbit breeding arena, but for some reason we have yet to figure out, it exploded into a full animal farm where we supplied any animal that people needed. Whether we had it on the property or not, we could come up with whatever creature was needed. In the process of building this business, we managed to create quite a variety of enclosures and pens for the animals on the property, and that meant we had to increase our scavenging runs. We found that we needed to house birds, like turkeys, guineas, and peacocks, as they were in high demand, so off we went and two weeks later my husband had built an aviary that at the peak of business was housing over 140 birds of various varieties. This aviary was made from scavenged wood, purchased wire for the enclosure, and hold on to your socks, the whole roof of the enclosure was made from recycled billboard vinyls. To give you an idea of how large this thing is, it still stands today at 10 years old now and is 40 feet across and built in an octagon shape with a height in the center at 16 feet. At the lowest area, it’s seven feet tall. As our business grew, so did our imaginations; an old fiberglass satellite dish became the pond for the ducks and geese we had for sale. Old throw away PVC pipe 4-inch round or better became feeders and water devices for livestock. Simply seal each end, cut it in half lengthwise, and there you go– you have a feeder. A scavenged trucker’s tarp found on the side of the road became a gigantic pond liner for the geese. The real imagination came through in the chicken compound. We couldn’t afford nest boxes, so old tossed out dressers became the nest boxes. With a 4-drawer dresser, you could house about a dozen chickens nesting. Culled out lumber became the breeding boxes for the rabbits, and recently because the rabbits are now gone the boxes have been repurposed into bird feeders and houses that have cut the number of irritating bugs in half around the house. Old barrels– the plastic ones that used to hold washing liquids and such– got cut in half lengthwise and cleaned out to became the larger livestock feeders. We were coming home from a rare night out to dinner and I hollered for him to pull over; he looked at me like I had lost my mind, because there was nothing he could see as the reason, until I pointed out an old tossed out slide from a child’s play set. Yup, that became a slide for the pygmy goats, and they loved it. Customers would stand around for hours watching them climb up the tire jungle gyms we had built and slide down the kiddy slide. A friend of ours had not covered up their bags of concrete well enough and they got wet and solidified, useless for them and our benefit, but those 14 bags became my new fire pit, and it still serves us well to this day. Here’s a good one for defense; this works great if you live in the south. Find some clump bamboo and start growing it, make sure that you cut it back fairly frequently and plant it around you perimeter. In less than five years you will have a border of punji sticks that no one is getting through, along with a beautiful privacy fence. We found that out by accident, but it works great.

When we see something on the side of the road, we don’t see garbage; we see possibilities. Recently my husband spotted a couple of roadside headboards that someone had tossed out for the trash collection; he snatched them up, and they are well on the way to becoming a beautiful gun rack for all our long guns. Most of the time after the recycling process is done, you really can’t tell what it was to begin with. For instance, we wanted a privacy fence around our above ground pool (also scavenged), so we brought in as many wood pallets as we could find. After they were nailed together and put up, my husband cut the top of the boards into pikes that will definitely make anyone trying to climb it have second and third thoughts.

When we think of prepping, we look at the possible needs we will have to fill beyond those that most people think about. We look at the needs of the house and the what-if’s, and then we keep a sharp eye on what we see tossed away as trash. Many people have this capability to think outside the box but have fallen out of practice as they grew to adulthood and fell into the throwaway society we live in. To be a true prepper, I think we need to nurture that skill again. We need to be able to see how torn or outgrown clothes can become a nice thick quilt for those cold nights, how an old aluminum mesh satellite dish can become the thermal dome cover for a pool, or how gathering up bubble wrap from furniture store dumpsters will keep your plants alive during the freezes in the winter. We need to be able to see that sturdy boxes can be broken down and stored in case we need a splint for a broken limb. We need to see the possibilities that we used to see as children, when a couple of chairs, a few boxes, and blankets all put together can build a fort or a pirate ship. For our family, prepping isn’t only about putting away for when it’s needed; it’s also about seeing the possibilities of things that can be used to make our lives easier. So, start cruising the free section on Craig’s list, go to the yard sales in the neighborhoods, and check out the piles of throw away items on the larger trash collection pick-up days. Always remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Letter Re: Backup Electric Power Design Considerations

Hugh,

The largest draw on your power is for the refrigeration of both you and your food. These guys have some interesting solutions that are direct connect DC. They seem to be fine folks, but the solutions are pricey. Danzer makes an interesting refrigerator that runs on 24 volt. I get the idea from numerous articles that you really should not have just one solar system in your house. I have bought components and run my Ham radio off a panel and a couple of deep cycle batteries, but I have a long way to go.

www.wholesalesolar.com has some great products and great prices if your “puzzler” needs something to study. Ready Made Resources, a SurvivalBlog advertiser, has well-priced, quality, turn-key solutions if your “puzzler” is otherwise occupied. – RV

Economics and Investing:

The US faces a perfect economic storm – G.G.

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Taxpayer advocate warns taxes could kill the 2nd Amendment – DSV

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Wall Street is Edging Toward Win on Derivatives Capital Rule (Bloomberg) Excerpt: “The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision on Wednesday proposed a new method for banks to assess their exposure to derivatives, which could wind up lowering the amount of capital lenders need to meet restrictions on leverage.”

6 Reasons I’m Worried Derivatives Could Take Down the Economy Again (Yahoo! Finance) Excerpt: “A number of years ago, Warren Buffett referred to derivatives as ‘financial weapons of mass destruction.’ Since then, Wall Street has tried to pooh-pooh this description, but the facts speak for themselves.”

American Executives’ Names Surface in Panama Papers (USA Today) Excerpt: “The names of hundreds of Americans have surfaced in the Panama Papers, including a handful of U.S. businessmen accused or convicted by U.S. authorities for ties to financial crimes or Ponzi schemes.”

US Judge Orders Deposition of Bernard Madoff (CNBC) Excerpt: The judge “restricted questions to the meaning of more than 91,000 transactions recorded as ‘profit withdrawal’ on the books of the former Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC.”

International News

Panama Papers Scratch the Surface of Global Shell Game (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “But as the Panama Papers leak has shown this weak, these business tactics can lead to gross distortions of the rules.”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

How to Avoid Getting Crushed by Stock Fraud (CNBC) Excerpt: “If it feels like you’ve heard this story before, it’s because you have.”

Securities Fraud Awareness & Prevention Tips (FBI) Excerpt: “The term Securities Fraud covers a wide range of illegal activities, all of which involve the deception of investors or the manipulation of financial markets.”

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Twitter Kills Pro-Second Amendment Ad Campaign. It’s not the fact that Twitter censors free speech on their network that bothers me; it is, after all, a private network. No. What bothers me is the fact that we keep using it, knowing that they do this. – DSV

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As we continually discover, it’s hard to “one-up” nature: A Massive Solar EMP Could Do More Damage Than A Nuclear EMP! – RBS

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More nonsense from the institution of higher learning: Clinical Law Prof Questions Indoctrinating Students With Social Justice Morality And Requiring Pro Bono By Students, Not Faculty And Administrators – Sent in by PLC

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Russian pilots are known for doing stupid things, and this is how wars start: Good photo of the SU-24’s CLOSE buzz job on the U.S.S. Cook

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A decent primer on carrying: The Mindset You Must Have For Concealed Carrying A Handgun

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“They arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Arameans; when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had caused the army of the Arameans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.” Therefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys, even the camp just as it was, and fled for their life. – 2 Kings 7:5-7(KJV)

Notes for Friday – April 15, 2016

April 15th is dreaded as Income Tax day in these United States, but it is also Patriot’s Day.

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Today, we present another entry for Round 64 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)
  9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 64 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Controlling UAV Drone Intrusions, by B.I.

I see much interest in the emerging technology of drones. It seems natural for survival groups that wish to band together, and perhaps develop community compounds, to consider drones, which are also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), to surveil and protect their environment.

Drones can be either individually controlled by an operator with a “radio control” or pre-programmed to fly a specific pattern and then return to a point of origin. Usually, they send data– telemetry, either digital or video/audio– back to the controller, for whatever purpose the drone has been deployed.

This author is not a drone technician, although he is a long-retired electronic technician. What struck my interest is not so much the exploding technology of drones, which are at the point of becoming a nuisance, but the almost total lack of technology to protect against intrusion by drones from either either the government or private parties. It is a technology that is just starting to emerge, and there are questions as to any effective UAV countermeasures.

The Washington Times reported in an article dated August, 2015, that research on anti-drone technology is at an early stage. To this author’s view, the problem presented can be stated to be in these stages: Detection, Interception, Intervention, and Resolution.

Detection

Detection is a large hurdle to overcome, especially with small, private drones, which may be no larger than perhaps a half dollar. Some obvious methods of detection are radar and radio or sound detection. Radar is limited economically to fairly large objects; sound is limited to reasonable close-proximity; radio signal detection has proven productive but is easily foiled by the UAV and its controller using a prearranged sampling of various frequencies.

Much attention was drawn in the Spring of 2015 to a UAV countermeasures system called Anti-UAV Defence System (AUDS). Developed by a trio of British companies, AUDS claims to use a highly accurate radar tracking system with an unsurpassed ground clutter suppression technology for effective near-horizon detection of flying objects. It then employs the very latest electro-optic infrared day and night cameras and state-of-the-art digital video tracking technology to automatically track any UAV intrusion and classify the target. The system then uses a “smart radio frequency inhibitor to selectively disrupt various command and control communication links employed by the UAV”.

On the face of it, this appears to be a working system. It has been tried in the DMZ between the two Koreas. Unhappily, for small local groups, it sells for about £800,000, or about $1.2 million. It is sold in the U.S. by Liteye of Centenniel, Colorado.

Also in the Spring of 2015, Popular Mechanics Magazine highlighted a sound detection system developed by DroneShield, a Washington, D.C.-based startup company. The system uses weather-proof microphones and digital algorithms to discern distinct acoustic propeller patterns, which it must isolate from all other background noises. The company claims it can detect these sounds from as much as 1,000 yards away from the sensor. When an intrusion is detected, the unit sends an alarm over the local Wi-Fi/cellular network as a text message or e-mail. As many detection sensors as desired can be deployed; DroneShield says that can run the costs from about $1,000 to more than $100,000.

The system was deployed at the Boston Marathon in 2015. While DroneShield has not mentioned any specific intervention method, they refer to the possibility of portable net guns.

A Berlin company, Cyborg Unplug, makes a device that plugs into a local electrical receptacle and connects into the local wireless network. When an unauthorized signal touches that network, it shuts down the video, audio, or other information the device is capturing. In “Territory” mode, it monitors an individual’s network; users simply plug in the Cyborg Unplug device and select which devices they want banned from the network. In “All Out” mode, Cyborg Unplug disables any wireless surveillance technologies in the Cyborg Unplug’s range on any network.

The unit does not shut down the drone, only the camera or device that the drone is carrying. The company says that two plug-in units would cover a residence and cost about $112. The device may not yet be legal in the U.S., due to “jamming” regulations.

“Batelle’s DroneDefender™ is a rifle that shoots radio pulses at a drone, disabling it at a distance of 400 meters,” reported dronelife.com in October of 2015. The rifle is designed to confuse the GPS capabilities of the drone and disrupt its remote operations. The intent is to cause the drone’s automated systems to either return it to the point of origin or to land it. Battelle says that the rifle could disable any hostile armament mounted on the drone, such as explosives or chem/bio weapons. The rifle weighs about 10 pounds and can be operated from a fixed mount or as a portable.

Interception

Interception can take many forms, as already noted. Law enforcement is beginning to come to grips with this new technological threat. Reuters reports that the New York City Police used a microwave-based system in Times Square on New Years of 2015 to track a commercially-available drone. Their hope was to take control of the drone and return it to its base, thus neutralizing any possible threat and identifying the drone operator. Success was hindered by interference from nearby media broadcasts. The outcome is not clear.

Especially over populated areas, authorities are loathe to disable a drone or crash it, due to possible damage on the ground. They prefer to take control of the UAV and return it to its point of origin, thus identifying the operator. To shoot it down could activate any on-board weaponry. UAVs operated near airports present their own unique set of challenges for authorities to deal with.

Intervention

Domestic Drone Countermeasures (DDC), manufactured by APlus Mobile, Inc., uses a “mesh network” of detectors to triangulate moving transmitters. Network communications is via Wi-Fi and scans frequencies in the range of 1MHz – 6.8GHz in order to effectively detect all known drone transmitters. Base operations can choose from all detected transmitter signals as to what is acceptable and what should be rejected. Any signal that is not purposely ignored by base operations, the system assumes the rogue transmitter is hostile.

Like many UAV devices and countermeasure devices, the system operates with a Linux operating system. Wireless mesh networks are being increasingly used by local government operations and can be self-adapting to changing conditions. As many detector nodes can be added as needed to cover an expanding area. These expandable networks are attractive for outdoor events, such street fairs, outdoor concerts, and political rallies, where hard wire connections are difficult or impossible.

DDC suggests a countermeasures net over or around an area to capture small UAV’s, even a kevlar net with conductive elements woven into the sensor net. If any of the sensors woven into the net are broken or interrupted, the unit activates an alarm; the impact of a drone would sever a conductive sensor element, and thereby break the circuit.

DDC company president, Amy Ciesielka, told The Huffington Post that the system is not designed to disable the UAV or jam its signals; it is intended to neutralize the ability of an air-borne drone to aquire data, such as sound or video. Ciesielka said that the system was worth as much as a car, perhaps an Audi.

APlus Mobile, Inc., the parent company of DDC, makes and sells defense-level computer hardware systems. According to the company’s website, any buyer of the anti-drone system must sign a non-disclosure agreement and must be an American citizen.

Resolution

Christopher Samson– podcaster, writer, and producer– wrote on Linked in that the DDC system and some other UAV countermeasures may just be a money-making hoax. He calls them “untested and ineffective”, and points out that they are not comprised of new or cutting-edge technology.

Certainly the military and government agencies can afford advanced technologies, including finite radar systems, laser ‘guns’ and counter-strike UAV’s. The problem of the proper way to deactivate an intrusive drone and/or dispose of it certainly presents many challenges.

Letter Re: Grid Down Digital Library

HJL,

Downloading YouTube on Android. Remember micro-SD cards are interchangeable and inexpensive, so get a phone with a slot and make backups (and put them around various places). Often large (128Gb+, often U3 for GoPro) capacity cards will go on sale at least once a month, so I look for them and stock up. I’ve seen these as low as $15, limit 2. Sometimes there are excess stock or closeouts on prepaid, and I didn’t have to activate them though there was a trick to bypassing that screen. Most can be rooted. I have several, so it pays to look through the online bargain bin, particularly the refurbished section for things like tablets. One app to get is http://maps.me/en/home; they have OFFLINE maps (even if the Internet or GPS goes down, it works though it won’t track). It’s detailed and of the entire world. And change can be good for hiding them, which should also act as a Faraday cage.

M-disc or even regular DVDs or blu-rays aren’t electronic themselves, so I tend to keep a second backup on them. Generally, it is better to keep backups on at least two different media types, so I use these. I also have a media safe, as normal safes will keep paper from burning, and these have extra insulation to preserve magnetic and optical media and electronics.

One final thing, for the price of the fancy Ziplock Faraday bags, you can buy enough aluminum foil at the dollar store or Amazon Prime Pantry to wrap a vehicle, much less phones. I can also get two 33-gallon galvanized steel trash cans for an extra layer of protection. If you are worried about screen scratching, use a soft cloth or lint-free paper towel. – T.Z.

Economics and Investing:

In a new video, Mike Maloney warns of dangerously high P/E ratios and predicts a massive rollover of the stock market in the near future. Any SurvivalBlog readers still holding stocks are warned: Get out now! – JWR

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The largest U.S. coal company just filed for bankruptcy April 13 – DSV

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Items from Professor Preponomics:

US News

Obama Builds a Corporate Tax Prison (Washington Examiner) Excerpt: “None of this would be necessary if the U.S. weren’t now such an inhospitable place to do business.”

Will the Last Company in America Please Turn Off the Lights (Fox News) Excerpt: “Obama wanted to stop the deal because it would have made Pfizer an Irish company. Ireland’s corporate tax is 12.5 percent versus a 35 percent rate charged in the USA.”

A Milestone in Federal Education Waste (My Gov Cost) Excerpt: “Conservatives have threatened to eliminate the department but none, including Ronald Reagan, managed to do so. The federal government continues to get bigger, not smaller.”

Flies on the Aviation Bill (Taxpayers for Common Sense) Excerpt: “One consequence of virtually no legislation passing Congress is that when something is likely to pass, every legislative Tom, Dick, and Harry is going to try to jump on board.”

Medicare’s Improper Payment Facepalm Continues Unabated (Citizens Against Government Waste) Excerpt: “Later this year, CMS will publish a more in-depth look at the improper payment rate data for Medicare FFS (FFS), but the appendices already show that the improper payments rate for 2015 was 12.1 percent, up from 8.6 percent five years ago, costing taxpayers $43.3 billion. “

International News

Senior Bosses at World’s Biggest Banks “Knew Libor was Rigged” (The Telegraph) Excerpt: “Because the bankers had never been told otherwise, the jury at Southwark Crown Court heard, they cannot be said to have acted dishonestly.”

Ex-Barclay’s Trader Told SFO His Bosses Knew About Libor Fix (Bloomberg) Excerpt: “The continuation of the conspiracy became increasingly too difficult toward the end of 2007 when the financial crisis hit….”

Personal Economics and Household Finance

The Only 6 Rules of Frugal Living You Need to Know (WiseBread) Excerpt: “Let’s scrap all the circular talk and bottom-line it. Here are the only six rules of frugal living you need to know.”

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

It was only a matter of time before this tool was used for the nefarious purpose of “casing”: Hillside residents report ‘Peeping Tom’ drone outside their windows – DSV

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Publicly funded education is dead – The Re-Education Camps We Call Universities – B.B.

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A governor who gets it: Maine Gov. Signs Bill Prohibiting Gun Bans in Public Housing – Sent in by H.L.

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How to Build a Storm Shelter – If you are going to the trouble of building the shelter, it might not be a bad idea to add EMP protection as well. – Sent in by G.P.

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Obama lawlessness: IRS says it’s OK for illegal aliens to use fraudulent Social Security numbers – The rule of law is dead. – B.B.

Notes for Thursday – April 14, 2016

Today, we present another entry for Round 64 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)
  9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 64 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.