Odds ‘n Sods:

Drug-resistant “white plague” lurks among rich and poor. (Thanks to Michael W. for the link.)

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Jim W. recommended this thread over at ARF: Street robberies and you.

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Wood you believe it? The tent you pitch in the trees designed to help survivors of natural disasters. (Thanks to Kevin S. for the link.)

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I spotted this over at The Drudge Report: No Kugel for you! Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s homeless-gift ban

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Dumb & Dumber Faster & Furiouser: Gun-tracking operation caught top suspect, then let him go

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." – C.S. Lewis

A Different View of Alaska as a Retreat Locale, by G.T.

SurvivalBlog’s Editor James Wesley Rawles (JWR), lays out his arguments against choosing Alaska as a Retreat Locale in this static web page.

While I fully agree with him that Alaska is probably not a viable retreat destination for most people, for a variety of reasons it is precisely the area that my family has selected. We have a particular advantage here in that I’m a second generation backwoodsman and prospector, and I and my three sons have been prospecting in Alaska for 16 years, so we understand the various regions of Alaska and their strengths and weaknesses from a survival perspective. In the “Recommended Retreat Areas” page of your blog you’ve listed your specific reasons for rejecting Alaska, with a few of which I’d like to take issue.

The last thing that I want to do is produce a “land rush” to southeastern Alaska, so readers should understand that this approach is viable only for a highly experienced and close-knit small group that’s carefully considered all the implications.

“A year ago, I heard one ‘expert’ on the radio recommend Alaska as a retreat destination because it has the lowest population density of any State, and has low taxes. IMHO, he couldn’t be more wrong!”

Not only has it low population density and low taxes, but also some of the least restrictive gun laws, home schooling laws, and zoning requirements of any State, with some of the least exposure to natural disasters. Alaska is earthquake-prone, but hasn’t had a major one since the 1960s. Also, at least in the region to which we’re relocating, vulnerable to forest fires and mega-tsunamis caused by landslides into the ocean (although not to ordinary tsunamis– we’re protected from that by barrier islands). Furthermore, the region of Alaska that we’ve selected is remote from “Golden Horde”-type activities. This is an aspect of survivalism that, IMHO, has received far too little attention. If it shows anything at all, then the Hurricane Katrina experience indicates that all communities within about 300 to 400+ miles of a major metropolitan area that gets hit with a significant disaster will be literally inundated with city-types, many of whom will be hardened gang-bangers of a kind that smaller communities are ill-equipped to deal with. Crime in the satellite cities of Houston, DFW, Memphis, and Birmingham in the aftermath of Katrina all registered significant upticks that were attributed predominantly to displaced New Orleanians.

“The biggest problem is that from an economic standpoint, Alaska is essentially a big offshore island. Many essential items are shipped or flown in.”

Absolutely correct, with resulting higher prices. But as you’ll see a little farther along, we’ll be self-sufficient in food and power generation. Our major shortfall will be in clothing, but that will apply to everyone everywhere once the manufacturing and transportation networks shut down.

“Ironically, although it is the most lightly populated state, Alaska has the second highest crime rate in the country!”

In the area to which we intend to relocate– the southeastern Panhandle– people don’t lock their houses or even their cars, and I’ve seen people go shopping while leaving expensive rifles in the rear window rack of an unlocked vehicle.

“There is insufficient refinery capacity to meet Alaska’s ‘domestic’ needs, and insufficient transport to get refined fuels where they are needed.”

Absolutely correct. We therefore considered alcohol fuels, methane, wind power, water power, steam, solar– and then we heard about wood gasifiers. We downloaded the free FEMA plans for a system, bought another from The Mother Earth News, and picked up a couple of others until we had a total of four. We’re presently in the process of learning how to build a system from the plans, but it looks like we’ll be able to generate enough power from wood chips to operate a house. This will require a wood chipper, a gasifier, and a gasoline generator to burn the wood gas and provide the electricity. Once we’ve got that system up and running we’ll build a smaller unit to power our boat.

“In a long term collapse, the residents of Alaska’s densely populated coastal cities will likely starve and/or freeze to death.”

Unfortunately true. That’s why we’ve chosen an island southeast of Ketchikan. Even near Anchorage, where land is much cheaper due to the government’s sale of public lands, they’ve got a 6-month winter with nearly a foot of average snow cover lasting for 4 months, and average minimum temps Dec. thru Feb. of about 10º F. In the Ketchikan area they’ve got a three-month winter with the month of highest snowfall being January, with 2 to 3 inches of accumulated snow cover, and average minimum temperatures from Dec. thru Feb. of about 30º. Average accumulated snow in Dec. and Feb. is only about an inch. We won’t freeze.

“Meanwhile, those in inland towns, albeit better fed, will be geographically isolated so that commerce with the coast will be difficult if not impossible.”

In southeastern Alaska there are virtually no roads, so seasonal buckling of the roadbeds and consequent road maintenance aren’t issues. Transport is by bush plane, or by boat. You’re right that the planes will be grounded by lack of fuel, which will also depress boat traffic; but our power boat by the onset of TEOTWAWKI will be powered by a wood gasifier, which we also intend to make money by designing and building for paying customers. By then we also hope to have a sailboat. The question is whether or not by then we’ll want to visit any of the cities, where things may be getting pretty desperate.

A SurvivalBlog Reader in Alaska Adds: “Even if land were available, most of it is inaccessible if you can’t afford a helicopter or float plane.”

True, but that doesn’t apply in the southeastern portion of the state, where access is by boat.

“The economy of Alaska is driven by oil income and government spending, both of which would cease if the U.S. economy collapsed. There is very little local manufacturing… even most natives have lost the ability to live off the land…”

All true. In our region one of the main challenges is that most of the land consists of exposed bedrock, so that we’ll have to do most of our gardening in raised beds. Eventually, if we have time before TSHTF, we’ll cover these beds into greenhouses. A compensating advantage of this approach will be higher yields. Between this, keeping chickens and turkeys, and hunting and fishing, we’ll be self-sufficient in food. Although your reader says that game isn’t as plentiful as most people think, I’ve never gone more than a week without seeing deer, moose, bear, and other game, and usually a lot more frequently than that. Fish are even more plentiful. Feeding the gasifier with wood chips will be labor-intensive, which is why we’ll invest in a powered wood chipper as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we have plenty of kids to make wood chips and keep the thing fed.

“Home heating is a huge expense in Alaska; $6,000 or more per winter for some households.”

In southeastern Alaska, because of the Japan Current, the climate averages as mild or milder than where I presently live in Wichita, Kansas. You get only 4 to 8 weeks of what we in Kansas would call “summer”, but you get much longer spring and fall seasons. 

The point is this: I know of an extended family of survivalists similar to ours that farms a secluded hollow in the mountains of W. Virginia, producing plenty of food to feed themselves with enough left over that they sell the surplus. They’re ‘way outside the States that you’ve recommended for preppers, but they’re also far enough off the beaten track to be difficult to find, and they’re better-prepared than 95% of the other preppers I’ve seen. In a TEOTWAWKI situation they’ll do fine.
 
In almost any State, there are micro-climates and small-scale situations that make for suitable environments for survivalism. I’m sure that you’d be one of the first to agree, it’s probably better to find and develop a situation in an area with which you’re thoroughly familiar than to travel far afield looking for the mythical “ideal”.

Preppers Afloat, by Captain Cathar

Thank you for creating your wonderful SurvivalBlog site; it is a much-needed voice of sanity in a world of foolishness and denial. We value your site for the shared experiences of your contributors and the working knowledge that many have volunteered. I hope we can also contribute in some small way, but maybe from a different perspective.

My wife and I have been full time live aboard boaters in the northeast for the last 20 years or so. The core tenants of prepping have always been near and dear to us – not just because we have a special interest in prepping, but because long distance sailors and other self-reliant mariners use the same pepper concepts, not just when the SHTF, but as constant concerns of every day life when underway.  Provisioning, access to potable water, communication, navigation, maintenance, weather, sanitation, protection from the elements, first aid, safety and physical security; expertise in all these areas is needed in order to remain self-reliant and maybe even to stay alive when cruising. The names and implementation for preppers and sailors may be different but the basic concepts are the same. For instance a preppers “G.O.O.D.” bag is our “Ditch” (boat sinking) bag. Maybe we can share insights between our different prepper/cruiser cultures and learn from each other’s experiences.

I’d also like to present a case that if you live near the coast in a congested area, then a well-found sailing vessel can represent an excellent bug out location, and in many ways it may be the only viable option for continued survival if some truly horrific event occurs. But first, let me give you an overview of where we live and some of the problems a typical prepper might face in our area.

The northeast where we reside is very crowded, with much of the population concentrated along the shore. In many ways it is a fragile place. Power is generated locally, but fuel and food have to be shipped in continually and the process can only be interrupted for a short amount of time. As far as I can tell none of the states in the region have any sort of rational, long-term emergency measures in place. Most of the people here, just like everywhere else it seems, do not have even a bare minimum of emergency supplies on hand. If some condition or event were to upset our delicate supply chain, electrical grid or communication system for more than even a few days, the resulting cascading “systems failures” would quickly convert our affluent and well ordered society into a chaotic, lawless place. Many of the cities here have rotting cores filled with thoughtless, brutal people, and these would be the first to take advantage of the situation. Concern would quickly give way to panic and even the typical law abiding citizen might be given to reckless and even irrational acts. The order of events in a severe emergency are not hard to imagine if you consider that most people would be living off of body fat and pond water within a few short weeks.

The fact of the matter is that there are just to many people here. You might be ready to bug out, but to where? The roads are often a congested mess even on a good day, let alone in an evacuation emergency (as an example, the Long Island Express is often affectionately referred to as “the longest parking lot in the world”). Unless you are in the northern parts of these north eastern states, such as upstate New York, your only other option would seem to be to bug in, not always the best option while the world is disintegrating around you.

So what could cause such a catastrophe? Many things, and readers of this blog probably already have a pretty good idea what they are. For me, a coronal mass ejection (CME) or a deliberate electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by a high altitude nuclear device heads the list of my nightmares; these are followed closely by a deliberate ground level nuclear event or a Category 5 hurricane hitting the coast (at high tide). Once the power goes out many of the nuclear reactors in the area, deprived of adequate cooling, would meltdown in the same fashion as Japans Fukushima Daiichi plant. This would poison vast areas of the most densely populated parts of our country. Deadly flu, economic collapse, social upheaval, loss of imported fuel – all seem tame in comparison, but experience has taught many of us never to underestimate the power of “chaos and cascading failures”. Especially in power, communication and supply systems created to work as cheaply as possible but with little thought to resilience or redundancy.

Because of these challenges along any crowded coastline. I’d like to suggest that your readers consider a small sailing vessel as your bug out retreat. The greatest advantage is that you could get away in short order and with a minimum of sophisticated technology. The power of the wind can take you anywhere in the world. There are many cheap, capable smaller sailboats out there, but just as one example I’d like to present the sturdy little Pearson Triton. At 28 feet this is just about the smallest boat one can use for long distance cruising. Designed by the venerable Carl Alberg this well built little boat is fully capable of safely crossing an ocean (if not quickly or comfortably), and is small enough that it can even be rowed under dead calm conditions. 750 Tritons were made in the 1950s and 1960s and most are still around. In almost every way these “classic plastic” boats are much better than their contemporary counterparts and much less expensive too. In good condition with useable sails and a fairly new diesel engine the Triton can be had for $8,000 to $10,000 USD and sometimes much less. Maintenance, dockage and haul outs might be another $4,000 a year. This isn’t chump change, but it is still much less than a land-based bug out retreat in this area.

So when and how do we use your little bug out boat? Well that depends. If the power is out and is not going to come back on as with a CME or EMP then you would have little choice other than to leave, and the sooner the better. If emergency conditions are less severe, then your choice of whether to leave or not may not be so simple. You can always stay on the boat until things settle out, one way or another. You don’t have to leave on an impulse, after all the open ocean can be an uncompromising taskmaster especially to the novice sailor. But at least you can leave when you want. Just as a side issue, a small sailboat like the Triton can be great fun to sail even if the world is not coming to an end.

So how would you prepare your little Triton for TEOTWAWKI and how might the order of events unfold? Lets run through a possible scenario. Imagine that one morning there was an impossibly bright spark in the southern sky and now nothing works. The power is off and the car wont run, even the radio is dead. The neighbors are all scratching their heads in confusion, where you understand what just happened along with the grave implications. You and your family fill your backpacks with essentials and then peddle your bicycles like crazy heading to the marina where the boat is kept. Once there you set your priorities and prepare to bug out.

First and foremost, the greatest overriding concern for all small cruisers (and preppers in general) is availability of potable water. Your little ship only carries 20 gallons of fresh water in an internal tank, supplies for a few days at best. On deck you lash an other half a dozen or so 5 gallon plastic jerry jugs, this is the tried and true method used by all small boat cruisers. Still not enough water, every drop counts. The wife sends the kids up to raid the trash for any other bottles, cans or buckets, anything that can hold water including ziploc bags and trash bags. You’ll sterilize everything later with bleach once you are underway. Finally fill the cockpit, bilge and galley sinks; even fill your old sea boots with fresh water. Better a pair of wet feet than a dry mouth. The scuppers (deck drains) have already been rigged to collect rainwater, but you can’t count on a rainy day to save your life.

At the beginning of the season you squirreled away dozens of cans of food in the bilge, but what exactly is down there now is a bit of a mystery, as the water and high humidity have freed up and dissolved away all the labels. No matter, the calories are still in there, even if you are not really sure what is what. You’ll have some interesting meals ahead, and not just because of the anonymous cans in the hold. There is almost always something to eat in and around the sea, especially in the biologically rich northern waters. Most people only think in terms of game fish like striped bass or bluefish, but for every large fish there are a hundred smaller ones. We are also surrounded by dozens of types of “unconventional” protein. Crabs, shrimp, clams, snails and other mollusks, as well as sea grass and seaweeds are all edible – palatability is another matter. Just remember, hunger is the best sauce. How about Minnows with rice and seaweed anyone?  A seining net and simple hook and line fishing gear are cheap and essential.

Food and water – check, now for security. Instead of buying something like a single AR-15 you spent your gun budget on three AR-7s. This is the survival rife that you first read about as a kid. The barrel, receiver and even two 8 round magazines all stow within the stock, and most of the parts are even Teflon coated, a great plus on a small boat in a salty ocean. When you first picked them up you thought that maybe the gun dealer was playing a trick on you. Each gun weights only two and a half pounds and is a little over 19 inches long when the parts are stored in the stock. The AR-7 looks a bit like a toy but it will kill just like any other .22 rimfire gun. Chambered in .22 LR, you can hold a thousand boxed up rounds in the palm of your hand and those thousand rounds are easy to stow in a watertight container. (Now just where did you put that spare ammo?). The philosophy here is that three small semi auto weapons firing at close range will trump a single weapon of higher caliber. Longer-range weapons would also be much less of an advantage while pitching and rolling about in the open ocean. Frankly, anything beats fending off desperate pirates with a boat hook and harsh language. [JWR Adds: Another advantage of the AR-7 is that it is is one of the few guns that float if it is dropped in the water.]

Suitable clothing and foul weather gear are already stored aboard and the meds kit is ready including a good selection of fish antibiotics and a minor surgery kit. You are ready to go (a relative term), but go where? Your first thought is to head toward Bermuda. At 700 nautical miles away it is relatively close. But on second thought, perhaps not. An EMP powerful enough to take out the eastern seaboard would probably get Bermuda as well. Maybe you could head north. The Canadian Maritimes are far enough away that the power is probably still on. There is only one problem, if the nuclear reactors along the eastern seaboard begin to meltdown, then he prevailing winds will carry this nuclear material to the northeast. You would be sailing into clouds of radioactive smoke and dust. The wife consults the Pilot chart for the north Atlantic and places her finger on a tiny dot that is two thirds of the to the way to Europe. “The Azores? That’s over 2,000 nautical miles away!” You give her a sick grin. The GPS is properly packed away in a shielded box, but if it didn’t make it you’ll have to find your way using the sextant (and luck). Many of the GPS satellites have probably been destroyed in any case. “How is your celestial [navigation]?” you ask. “About as good as yours,” the wife replies, with the same sick grin. Celestial navigation is not one of our competencies and we don’t even have a working timepiece in any case. “Well, you always wanted to have a sailing adventure” the wife continues.  True, but this isn’t exactly want you had in mind.

Five Letters Re: The FBI’s Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative

JWR:
Can you let your readers know what the names, identifying characteristics, and other information is that we can use to check and see if we have the FBI installed cookies on our machines? Thanks, – J.V.

Web Forensics Expert Mr. X. Replies: First let me explain how to look for cookies.  The easiest way IMHO (there is more than one way to skin a cat, my favorite method involves using high-pressure air…) because it is easy and anybody can do it with little or no chance of [accidentally] nuking their own machine:

In Internet Explorer, go into the File –> Import and Export setting.  You are given a choice of three actions – import from another browse, import from a file, or export to a file.  Choose export to a file and hit “next.”  You are given three options to export — favorites, feeds, and cookies.  Export cookies by selecting the box and clicking next.  Save the file in a location that you can then find.

When you open the file all of the cookies you’ve used will show up.  And since its a text file it is searchable.  You can do a search on “FBI” … I did this and found:

fbi.gov    TRUE    /    FALSE    1394696342    __utma    158289773.903355577.1331260742.1331260742.1331260742.1

fbi.gov    TRUE    /    FALSE    1331626142    __utmb    158289773.3.10.1331260742

fbi.gov    TRUE    /    FALSE    1347392342    __utmz    158289773.1331260742.1.1.utmcsr=dogpile.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/search/web

So what this tells you is that there is a tracking cookie from the FBI on your machine.  In this case this tracking cookie comes from dogpile.com (see the last line) which is a search engine that I use frequently.  The problem is that you never know what they will call their cookies.  The aforementioned example has nothing to do with your web site at all.  And I’ve picked up in the past few hours since its Monday here (I scrub down each weekend) just doing searches for topics at work.

There is a similar method in Firefox but given the number of add-ons for Firefox and the different platforms it is on putting directions for each possible combination in would just confuse most people. 

To eliminate the cookies and history you do that via the Tools –> Internet Options option and check off the “Delete Browsing History On Exit” box and/or hit the “Delete” button in the same space (should be on the opening tab of the Internet Options). 

Yes, the only reason I noticed this was because they have not done anything to try to hide what they are doing.  So the obvious stuff is well pretty darn obvious.

There are tools out there like Spybot Search and Destroy that will automatically eliminate the bulk of “bad” tracking cookies that are hidden as well.  There are a number of things you can do to scrub your machine and get very paranoid about your browsing but they are not things that most people should do simply because if you don’t know what you are doing you have a good chance of [inadvertently] nuking your machine. 

 

James:
I read your blog post about the FBI’s cookie caper and it brought to mind an overview article about The Onion Router (Tor) that I came across a while back

Here is a quote from the Tor web site:

Tor is a network of virtual tunnels that allows people and groups to improve their privacy and security on the Internet. It also enables software developers to create new communication tools with built-in privacy features. Tor provides the foundation for a range of applications that allow organizations and individuals to share information over public networks without compromising their privacy.
Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them and their family members, or to connect to news sites, instant messaging services, or the like when these are blocked by their local Internet providers. Tor’s hidden services let users publish web sites and other services without needing to reveal the location of the site. Individuals also use Tor for socially sensitive communication: chat rooms and web forums for rape and abuse survivors, or people with illnesses.
Journalists use Tor to communicate more safely with whistleblowers and dissidents. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) use Tor to allow their workers to connect to their home website while they’re in a foreign country, without notifying everybody nearby that they’re working with that organization.
Groups such as Indymedia recommend Tor for safeguarding their members’ online privacy and security. Activist groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) recommend Tor as a mechanism for maintaining civil liberties online. Corporations use Tor as a safe way to conduct competitive analysis, and to protect sensitive procurement patterns from eavesdroppers. They also use it to replace traditional VPNs, which reveal the exact amount and timing of communication. Which locations have employees working late? Which locations have employees consulting job-hunting websites? Which research divisions are communicating with the company’s patent lawyers?
A branch of the U.S. Navy uses Tor for open source intelligence gathering, and one of its teams used Tor while deployed in the Middle East recently. Law enforcement uses Tor for visiting or surveilling web sites without leaving government IP addresses in their web logs, and for security during sting operations.
The variety of people who use Tor is actually part of what makes it so secure. Tor hides you among the other users on the network, so the more populous and diverse the user base for Tor is, the more your anonymity will be protected.

Regards, – D.D.

 

James Wesley:
Thanks for the post on the FBI cookie caper.  It is distressing, but enlightening about the times we live in.

I’m writing about your change of heart on posting the foresee-alive.js script.  The FBI posts this code on their fbi.gov site. It is available here.

I thought that link might be helpful to some.  I guess maybe those people that are savvy enough to read the script and interpret the code are probably already savvy enough to find it on their own, but I thought just in case I would send this on to you.

Also, I agree with your decision that it’s probably wise to not post the code directly, but I believe that since they did not post any copyright information it is therefore public domain like any other government publication.  Otherwise, they would have to indicate it as a protected work from an outside party.  But that’s my non-professional opinion, and “you’re the doctor” as they say.

Thanks for keeping the flame of freedom burning! – B.C.

 

Dear Mr Rawles;
I read your announcement about “The FBI’s Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative”. Thanks very much for your candor. However, I believe some of your information is mistaken or missing. Here are the most important points I saw:

Disabling cookies will not remove others’ ability to track you. At best, disabling cookies only makes it a little harder. There are plenty of other ways to track you, including data collection and silent install of malware on your computer to record your keystrokes. Here is an example.

Using a paid VPN does not ensure your security. Here is a good explanation as to why this is true.
A better solution is to use The Onion Router (Tor) and/or Tails and their associated applications. There is also Orbot, an Android app to allow Tor Anonymity browsing on an Android phone. I have and use these. Granted, they are not always the simplest in terms of user friendliness, but once set up they should rarely need changes due to their structure. The Tor Browser, however, is about as simple as it gets on the web.

Not all of the listed browsers are safe to use. Some are outdated (Netscape), and others are inherently flawed from a security standpoint (such as Internet Explorer). More importantly, only two that I know of offer Anonymous Browsing – Firefox and Chrome. Please add the Tor Browser to this list, which is by far the best method for anonymous browsing available to the average user.

SurvivalBlog.com [has a working encrypted https address, but] is not yet HTTPS Everywhere enabled. This means that even if the visitor is using the Tor network, traffic between a Tor server and SurvivalBlog.com is still unencrypted, and vulnerable to spying and/or attack. Please join the HTTPS Everywhere project.

Much of this may sound like an advertisement for the Tor Project, but the reason for that is that the Tor Project is the best method I have found to secure your privacy online, if used properly. (Never identify yourself on the Tor Network.)

Thanks for your consideration in these matters. Sincerely, – I Am John Galt   

 

Dear Mr. Rawles,
I just took your advice on setting up a VPN.  I have been using an anonymizing proxy for some time and living with the speed decrease, but it’s just so easy to turn it off for something and then forget to turn it back on.  At any rate, I went looking for a VPN provider that is (A) domestic and (B) accepts bitcoin.  It’s just one less way to be trackable since the payments won’t show up on any bank or credit card statement.

At any rate, I found one: based in Chicago, I am now using CamoList VPN and have had a very nice conversation with the proprietor about bitcoin.  Service is $5 a month.  Bandwidth is up to 5 mbps, but that actually doesn’t matter to me since I live in the boonies and have to make do with 1 mbps on my end.  Just thought I’d pass this along for anyone else who might be interested. – Buckaroo

Economics and Investing:

Cadet D. sent this: The Four Biggest Downside Risks To The Global Economy: Nouriel Roubini

CBO: Exploding debt under Obama policies. The article begins: “The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that President Barack Obama’s tax and spending policies will yield $6.4 trillion in deficits over the next decade, more than double the shortfall in CBO’s own fiscal baseline — even after taking credit for reduced war costs.

G.G. suggested this, over at Jesse’s Café Américain: Episodes of Hyperinflation from Diocletian to Bernanke – How It Might Unfold Today

The U.S. Economy Is Running On Borrowed Money and On Borrowed Time
 
Do They Ring A Tinker Bell When Stock Market Indices Reach A Top?

Odds ‘n Sods:

Linda U. sent this news link from Wyoming: Fear & reloading: More people are buying guns amid worries about Obama’s re-election and predictions of the world’s impending doom.

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Mary F. liked this piece, which she described as “Prepping as performance art”: Building a Better Apocalypse

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Ulysses Press (one of my publishers) sent me an update on the printing history for “Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse”. I was amazed to see that there are now 122,000 copies in print:
Nov. 2011 –    20,000 copies
Apr. 2011 –    24,000 copies
Aug. 2010 –   18,000 copies
Sept. 2009 –  12,000 copies
May 2009 –   8,000 copies
Apr. 2009 –    20,000 copies
Mar. 2009 –    11,000 copies
Feb. 2009 –    9,000 copies

(For comparison, a typical American novel sells between 5,000 to 10,000 copies before going out of print in less than a year.) It is now obvious that there will have to be at least one more printing of “Patriots” before my third novel (titled “Founders”) is released in October, 2012 by the Atria Books Division of Simon & Schuster.

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Greg P. mentioned this fascinating invention: Chumby co-founder designs open-source Geiger counter

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Eric Holder 1995 Video: “…really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way”. (Thanks to The MSIV for the link.)

Important Message From JWR: The FBI’s Cookie Caper and the VPN Imperative

It has come to my attention that from August of 2011 to November of 2011, the FBI secretly redirected the web traffic of more than 10% of SurvivalBlog’s US visitors through CJIS, their sprawling data center situated on 900 acres, 10 miles from Clarksburg, West Virginia. There, the Feebees surreptitiously collected the IP addresses of my site visitors. In all, 4,906 of 35,494 selected connections ended up going to or through the FBI servers. (Note that this happened several months before we moved our primary server to Sweden.) Furthermore, we discovered that the FBI attached a long-lived cookie that allowed them to track the sites that readers subsequently visited. I suspect that the FBI has done the same to hundreds of other web sites. I find this situation totally abhorrent, and contrary to the letter of 4th Amendment as well as the intent of our Founding Fathers.

I recognize that I am making this announcement at the risk of losing some readers. So be it. But I felt compelled to tell my readers immediately, because it was the honorable and forthright course of action.

Working on my behalf, some volunteer web forensics experts dissected some cached version histories. (Just about everything is available on the Internet, and the footprints and cookie crumb trails that you leave are essentially there for a lifetime.) The volunteers found that the bulk of the FBI redirects were selected because of a reader’s association with “Intellectual Property” infringing sites like the now defunct Megaupload.  But once redirected, you were assigned a cookie.  However, some of these were direct connections to the SurvivalBlog site (around 4% of the total.) So if they had kept this practice up long enough and if you visited us enough times then the FBI’s computers would have given you a cookie. This has been verified with sniffer software.

Bad Cop, No Donuts Cookies

For your privacy, I strongly recommend that you disable cookies when web browsing. Here are some detailed instructions on how to do so for the most popular web browsers:

But beyond that, more must be done to protect your privacy. You need to be proactive.

Install and Use VPN!

I am now imploring all SurvivalBlog readers to immediately install and use Virtual Private Network (VPN) on their computers. This will allow you to surf the Internet anonymously. Anyone that tries to track web site visitors e-mails will see your visit as originating from one of dozens of anonymous URLs in Europe, or elsewhere in the United States. (With most VPN services, you may pick the city of your choice.) With VPN active, your connection to the Web is “tunneled”, emerging at a far-distant IP address, and it it would be very difficult to track back to your home IP address. Setting up VPN takes just a few minute to accomplish. Once installed, you can set VPN to turn on automatically by default when you start your PC, Mac, or Linux computer. Most VPN providers charge $5 to $20 per month. You can toggle off VPN with the click of your mouse. (You will find this necessary if you visit any of the few web site that disallow overseas IP addresses, such as Netflix). But I recommend that you leave VPN turned on, as much as possible. Set it up to turn on each time that you start up your computer. It is crucial that you use VPN whenever you visit web sites, blogs, and forums that are deemed politically incorrect, or whenever you purchase storage food or firearms accessories on the Web. For those of you that are not tech savvy, ask a friend or relative under age 25 to set up VPN for you. It is not difficult.

Some recommended VPN service providers include:

  • StrongVPN ($55 to $240 per year. One of the most flexible in reassigning the far end of your tunnel on the fly. Superior speed.)
  • 12VPN ($79 per year.)
  • AceVPN ($55 per year. A bare bones service, but one of the least expensive.)
  • VPNHQ. ($84 per year.)
  • PureVPN. ($75 per year for their basic service.)

(Some reviews of the various services are available here. )

Note that some of the lower cost services might see your connection speed suffer. Your Internet connect will seem noticeably slower than using your original ISP, alone.

It is my hope that in the next two months SurvivalBlog’s site visit map will shift substantially, giving the appearance that most of my readership has moved to Switzerland. Say “Ein Glück, dass wir den los sind” to the FBI’s snooping! It would warm my heart to soon see SurvivalBlog ranked as one of the most popular web sites for readers with Swiss IP addresses.

Beyond VPN

Because government agencies have access to lots and lots of computing power, VPN is not completely impenetrable. It is vulnerable to penetration during the key exchange phase. With the resources available to a state actor, sniffing the entirety of the traffic into and out of a web site is trivial these days. (They can use massively scalable horizontally-scaled virtual sniffers — i.e. using a visualization engine and a template they can keep adding more virtualized instances of a windows or Linux based sniffer program and not even impact the performance of the connections.) I believe that the next loop of the threat spiral in the privacy wars will be Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). But I must clarify that this will become important only for the most high profile media commentators, bloggers, and activists. This is because all the spook legions with all of the mainframe computers in the world simply cannot backtrack everyone’s VPN tunnels. (And, as VPN becomes more and more popular, this supposed goal will become even more elusive.) And if you are high profile, don’t worry. Some very bright people are already working on QKD. Stay tuned.

Our Liberty is Stake

I want apologize for the cost, inconvenience and time required in implementing the foregoing security measures. But you can sleep a little better, knowing that you’ve added a layer of anonymity to your Internet presence. We need to recognize that the early 21st Century is a delicate time for individual liberty. Technology is leapfrogging while at the same time databases are filling at an alarming rate. These databases could provide dossiers on demand, for nefarious purposes. How you vote and how you “vote with your feet” (physically or virtually) are both of tremendous importance. Pray hard. Choose wisely. Act accordingly.

P.S.: For those who are web software savvy, I had originally planned to post the latest version of the actual “foresee-alive.js” Javascript code that the FBI used to attach the cookies. But then it was pointed out to me that ironically, revealing this might constitute copyright infringement, opening me up to a intellectual property lawsuit. That has an odd sort of irony that got me thinking. This predicament somehow dovetails with two bits of history. The first instance is from the First World War: I have read that the U.S. Government paid patent license fees to Mauser before and during the hostilities of the Great War with Imperial Germany. This was because the M1903 Springfield rifle was correctly adjudged a patent infringement on the Mauser Model 1898. During the war, the patent payments continued, conveniently handled by Swiss bankers, acting as middlemen. The U.S. taxpayers paid Mauser of Germany about $1 per rifle plus additional penalties that would have eventually totaled $250,000 USD, up until the U.S. entered the war. It has also been rumored that some payments continued to arrive even after the U.S. Congress declared war on the Kaiser’s Germany. (We’ll have to wait for the release of Jon Speed’s next Mauser book to read the details.) This historical tidbit is just once notch below what happened two decades later when Germany’s Nazi regime had the temerity to sell full fare train tickets to some Jews, to cover the costs of their forced relocation to the designated ghettos before their planned extermination. Oh, but the Nazi bureaucrats were so conciliatory. They only charged children half fare to be sent to their deaths. (If you doubt this, then read the book Fathoming the Holocaust by Ronald J. Berger.)

Mike Williamson’s Product Review: ATI AK Strikeforce Stock

I like the AK platform, but I’ve never liked the standard military issue stock.  I’m too tall, and the shape of it means I can’t get my head low enough for a good sight picture, so I have to scrunch and contort to shoot.

ATI sent me their AK-47 Strikeforce Stock Package to try.  I’ve heard criticism of their products over the years, but, while I’ve made some of my own regarding functional details, I’ve never had a problem with their workmanship or reliability.

The instructions are clear, and you should pay attention to them.  The lower handguard, for example, goes on slightly differently from the factory guard.  They’re easy enough to follow, and an Allen wrench, Phillips and Torx screwdrivers are all that are needed for installation.

The buttstock assembly bolted right in place.  Due to variances in manufacture, you may need to shim the receiver tang slightly.  The stock is made of  DuPont® Extreme Temperature Glass Reinforced Polymer, and feels solid.  The castle nut is steel, not cheap aluminum.  There is a locking tang to prevent the tube from rotating loose.

With the six-position stock collapsed, it has the same length of pull as the factory AK stock, but, I was able to get a much more comfortable cheek weld and stance.  Two clicks out was a perfect, comfortable fit, leaving four more clicks for people even taller than me. (I have 1.5″ extensions on my AR15A2 stocks, for reference.)  There is a cheek rest with stick on rubber padding, but I didn’t need it.  The cheek rest attaches with four screws. The AK isn’t a hard recoiling gun, but it can be a bit brisk with the metal buttplate and mount angle.  The recoil pad is just thick enough to take out any bite.  The rubber material is made by 3M.

The grip is large and comfortable.  The backstrap is cushioned, and the finger grooves felt right.  My finger pad dropped exactly onto the trigger.

There are rail sections for the upper and lower handguards, that install with screws.  If you decide not to install them, there are covers for the slots, that insert easily, remain in place, but remove from inside without difficulty.

Once set up, the rifle was easy, almost instinctive to handle and mount, balanced better and shot great.  Furniture can’t directly improve accuracy, but operator comfort and handling certainly does.

Criticisms:  The lower handguard was very tough to get in place.  I’ve seen this before with ATI products, though I don’t know if there’s a fix.  Snug is good, and increases strength and reliability.  Just be advised you may have to work at it to get it in place.

The grip was comfortable for me, but may be overly large for some small shooters.  I’d also like to see the internal space exploited for storage. 

The stock assembly should have a somewhat heavier screw, in my opinion.  The single 8-32 seems a bit light.  A 12-24 at least would be my recommendation, or a 6mm x 1mm.

If I were to offer one improvement, that empty buffer tube should have a plug or screw thread at the rear, so it can be used for storage.  It’s right there, waiting.

If you like the AK, but are a taller shooter, this may be exactly the accessory kit for you.  It looked a bit odd at first, but I’m quickly getting used to it, and plan to leave it on one of my AKs for the future.

The kit retails at $144.99, or, if you prefer to buy just the stock, the MSRP is $79.99, on par with most six- position stocks.  Both are available discounted at several outlets.

ATI Stocks are made in the USA.

Disclosure:  ATI furnished me the stock set through a promotional firm for test and evaluation.  It is understood that I keep this sample, regardless of the review I write, and that I offer feedback on any problems I identify.

– Michael Z. Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large

Rabies – Coming Your Way? by Dr. Cynthia J. Koelker

Rabies – a legitimate concern or fear-mongering? 
As I watch my pet Golden Retriever “Doodles” cautiously sniff at the curb sewer, I believe the threat is real.  A family of raccoons lives in the sewer pipes, and just a few months ago a local dog died of raccoon rabies.  Could my children be next?

Ohio is on the frontier of raccoon rabies, but despite yearly aerial and ground baiting programs for oral rabies vaccination, the uniformly lethal infection is moving westward.  Bat rabies, the other common threat, is distributed more evenly across the United States.  (If you’re wondering about your own state, check out the maps at Rabid Raccoons Reported in the United States during 2010 and Rabid Bats Reported in the United States during 2010. 

Odds are you’re unaware of anyone who’s died of rabies. That might not be the case if you live in India.  In the U.S., human rabies is so rare that every case is investigated by the CDC (only 2–4 per year). In India, annual deaths top 20,000, with someone dying of rabies every 30 minutes. (Read this article.) This is largely due to under-vaccination of the dog population.  Per the World Health Organization, 15 million people worldwide are treated with post-exposure vaccination, which is estimated to prevent 327,000 rabies deaths annually.

So what would happen in America if the vaccine became unavailable and the population of stray dogs exploded? This could well occur in a true end-of-life-as-we-know-it scenario.  Though our population density is not that of India, clearly the number of cases would skyrocket. 

The next logical question is: what can be done about it?  Avoiding contact with bats, raccoons, wild canines, skunks, and suspicious dogs is obviously indicated.  Even pacifists may be motivated to acquire a gun and the knowledge to use one safely.  Clearly you should vaccinate pets and other domestic animals now. 

But what about pre-exposure vaccination in humans?  This is already recommended for veterinary students, spelunkers, and travelers to endemic regions where dog contact is likely.  In 2009 a Virginia physician diagnosed his own subsequently fatal case of rabies a few months after returning from India – and without suspicious animal exposure! His agonizing end is detailed at the CDC web site. 

If you ask your family doctor whether you should be vaccinated against rabies in case of widespread disaster, the answer will likely be no.  At a cost of up to $800 for the series of three shots, your insurance is unlikely to cover immunizations without a clear indication. However, if you visit a travel clinic, perhaps at your local health department, you may be able to obtain the vaccine, especially if you fall into one of the high risk categories mentioned above.  The low-risk state of Indiana has a nice summary regarding vaccination on their web site. Your own state should offer something similar, or read the CDC’s guidelines on Human Rabies Prevention.

If you do desire vaccination, how long is immunity expected to last?  Unfortunately only a few years.  Current recommendations for those at high-risk include blood testing for effective immunity every 2-3 years, followed by re-vaccination if titers are low. (Pets simply receive repeat vaccination.)

I have also investigated the question of using canine rabies vaccination on humans.  This has not been tested and likely never will be.  I expect the likelihood of allergic reaction might be increased.  However, per the doctors I consulted, they felt canine rabies vaccine has a good chance of effectiveness in humans.  If I were bitten by a bat or suspicious raccoon, skunk, or dog, and the only thing I had available was animal vaccine, I would certainly use it.  Curiously, some states, including Ohio, allow purchase of veterinary rabies vaccine by non-medical personnel, although most states limit sale to veterinarians only. The same dose is used for dogs of all sizes, with twice as much administered to horses.

So where does this leave us?  As a family physician, stockpiling human rabies vaccine is cost-prohibitive.  On the other hand, at $20/dose, stockpiling dog rabies vaccine is a consideration, both for professionals and laymen.  Vaccines do require refrigeration and commonly list a shelf-life of only a year or two, but having something on hand may be preferable to having nothing.  

While I cannot offer a one-size-fits-all answer on this topic, rabies vaccination is a valid question for serious preppers.
—

Dr. Koelker is the SurvivalBlog’s Medical Editor and hosts the popular medical prepping site ArmageddonMedicine.net.   

Letter Re: TEOTWAWKI Is Now

James Wesley:
It has been said that you can boil a frog to death by putting it in a pan of water then putting the pan over a burner. However, if you drop the frog into a pan of boiling water, it will instantly jump out. I’ve never tried this experiment, but the metaphor for The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) seems appropriate.

Too many of us fit the first scenario. We’re “comfortable,” even though we recognize that the water is getting hotter and hotter. By the time we realize it is way too hot, it will be too late.

Many Preppers fixate on threshold events that will usher in TEOTWAWKI overnight. Whether asteroid impacts, super-volcanoes, or electro-magnetic pulses, we find the romance of extreme events irresistible. We imagine what we will do to survive when the lights don’t light, the faucets don’t flow, or there are marauders in our front yard. And, what if it is an even more likely event such as martial law (e.g.: New Orleans in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath) where U.S. soldiers arrive to confiscate your firearms or to tell you that your home has been commandeered?

These are exciting things to ponder, but the greatest threats are on our doorsteps right now. Hyperinflation, for example, doesn’t happen overnight, it starts with creeping inflation. The government says that inflation at this time (March, 2012) is about three percent, but anyone who buys groceries, pays rent, or puts fuel in their cars knows better. Look at the cost of peanut butter (and the size of the container) today compared to the same time last year. Hyperinflation is just one TEOTWAWKI journey that we are already starting.

Preparation is a wonderful philosophy. “Be Prepared” is the Boy Scout Motto. The part we often miss, however, is what we could be doing to avoid catastrophic events in the first place. We can’t stop a comet impact, an EMP, or a super volcano, but we can influence the affairs that lead to even more likely TEOTWAWKI events.

Are you involved in community affairs? Think of your school, church, and local government as your redoubt community. Do whatever you can by participating to keep your community strong.  Something as simple as organizing a community watch program for your neighborhood might keep the bad guys away from your door right now and make more extreme threats less likely.

The same principle applies to Federal government issues. Study the issues, understand the implications, and make your best efforts to keep our republic on a course away from TEOTWAWKI. It matters little whether you are Democrat or Republican, Liberal, Conservative, or Libertarian. Common sense is the standard.

Pay attention! And notice that the “World as We Know It” today is nothing like we knew even 10 years ago. We can only keep from boiling to death by turning off the fire or jumping out. Jumping out is a tough option that might work for dedicated preppers, but is awfully drastic unless there is no alternative. Let’s work on turning off, or, at least, turning down the fire. – K.L.F.

Recipe of the Week:

Notutopia’s One Pot Beefy Mac N’ Cheese

(Serves 6)

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground meat
1/8th cup dried diced onions
pinch of garlic powder
1 T parsley flakes
salt and pepper
1 lb. elbow macaroni or egg noodles
1 8oz. can Bega cheddar cheese cut in small 1/4 inch cubes, or 1/2 cup
of cheddar cheese powder

Directions:

In a 4 quart pot with a tight fitting lid, fry the ground meat with onions, seasonings and parsley flakes, until meat is browned. Do not drain oil from the meat. Add 5 cups of water to the meat mixture and bring to a rapid boil. Add the pasta, stir well and boil for 5 minutes. Cover the pot and turn off the burner. Allow the pasta to continue cooking and expanding and do not open the cover. In 10 minutes, open the cover, and stir in the cheese until melted. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:

“Cabinetman” over at The FALFiles Forums recommended this traditional cookbook: Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking published by J.G. Ferguson and Associates Chicago, 1953. Cabinetman’s description: “There’s a 77 page index to give you an idea of how comprehensive this book is. I can’t stress enough how valuable this book would become during as SHTF situation because it provides many alternatives to traditional cooking techniques as opposed to modern cookbooks which rely on microwaves and electronics and a lot of pre-packaged ingredients. In this book you start with picking the veggies from the garden, getting the feathers off a newly dispatched broiler, or carving up an elk. However, she also details more modern ingredients that may be frozen or butchered at a shop. It’s not a cookbook full only of rustic techniques but both old and newer ones. They are most certainly techniques that will help you adjust to a less-modern way of feeding a family.”

Reader Lee M. mentioned that there are some great recipes posted in the discussion forums at the Mrs. Survival web site.

Do you have a favorite recipe that you have tested extensively? Then please e-mail it to us for posting. Thanks!

Economics and Investing:

With the stroke of BHO‘s pen on a Friday evening (after most of the newsies went home for the weekend), all pretension of a free civil economy in the U.S. have been discarded. Read this: National Defense Resources Preparedness. In essence, if they want it, they can now take it. Under this executive order, all segments of the economy have been been put on a war footing, and unprecedented Federal power has been established, without the consent of congress. Refer to Section 201 (b), and you will see that the order applies to both emergency and non-emergency conditions. Under the terms of this fiat, anything and everything can be “allocated,” by executive decree. Reader Christopher C. wrote to mention that beyond simply taking the authority to seize food commodities, this executive order also includes: Section 502 which says they can make you work for the government without compensation, Section 302 which gives Department heads the ability to take loans without approval from congress, and Section 804 which removes our right to sue the government for the return of or compensation for what they steal from us under this executive order. [JWR Notes: There is a lot to dislike and perhaps fear in President Bolt Hold Open’s new decree. To explain: I sometimes jokingly refer to Barack Hussein Obama as “President Bolt Hold Open” because they both share the same acronym (BHO.) I think that Bolt Hold Open is a fitting moniker for our sitting President, because a rifle Bolt Hold Open lever is: A.) An Obstruction. B.) Only useful and noticed after the real work has been completed by another apparatus, and C.) A reminder that best is behind us, and that the fun won’t resume until Bolt Hold Open is slapped and disengaged. Coincidentally, the word ABHORRENT includes BHO.]

The power of compounding interest: Children born today will inherent a per capita share of the national debt exceeding $1.5 million, a new study reveals. (Thanks to B.B. for the link.)

F.G. sent this: In Sweden, cash is king no more

Michael Pollaro, writing in Forbes: Money Supply booming, seeds of the next Greater Recession

Items from The Economatrix:

Doomsday Survey:  51% of Americans Believe A Financial Collapse Is Imminent

Time To Accumulate Gold & Silver

Five Charts That Prove We’re In A Depression And That The Federal Reserve And D.C. Are Wasting Money