British Government Plans Drastic Measures for Potential Asian Avian Flu Pandemic

The Times of London reports that planners in the British Government are anticipating shutting down or curtailing traffic on their Underground system, and detailing dedicated security for health care workers, in the event of an influenza pandemic. See:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C25149-1853843%2C00.html Just some food for thought and ground for further research (FFTAGFFR.)

Eskimo Sod Huts–60°F Inside and Minus 50°F Outside

SurvivalBlog reader “KonTiki” sent the following article excerpted from the Duffy’s Law web site: http://www.duffyslaw.com/current14.htm
The following is from a collection of random notes from the 1913 book My Life With The Eskimos by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. For serious research, one should read the unabridged edition.

Eskimo Housing
Eskimo houses were constructed with a hole in the roof to allow in light. The hole which was most often left open was covered with Bear intestine. The base of the house was five to six foot thick made of earth and sod and tapered and thinned out towards the top which was about six foot square. The top had about six inches of earth on it. The center of the house was about nine feet high and the walls at the edge were about five feet high. The opening on the roof was about three foot square. 3 or 4 lamps burned continuously and one of the most important duties of the wife was to make sure they didn’t smoke or go out. The entrance to the house was a twenty to forty foot shed-covered tunnel about four feet lower than the floor of the house.  The cold air in the tunnel would not rise into the house which was kept warm by the four lamps at a temperature of sixty to seventy degrees Fahrenheit even when the outside temperature was fifty below zero! They would sit with only shorts on in the house. So they would be bare below the knees and above the waist. After five months Stefansson began to enjoy the boiled fish they would eat for supper. The entryway and the hole in the roof were kept open most of the time, but especially during cooking. The only time the entryway would be covered would be to prevent a baby from falling into it or puppies coming in from outside and this was only rarely. Stefansson would usually sleep next to the tunnel entryway to get more fresh air. Each corner of the room had an elevation for sleeping that was covered by skins as was the floor. The houses at first smelled bad but soon you realized that it was the cooking of food that gave the smell to the house. The lamp is a half moon soapstone about two or three inches deep kept almost full and the wick is a powdered ivory (walrus), sawdust, dried moss ground in the fingers, manila rope from the whalers with a strand taken and chopped into tiny pieces. The wick is made from the powder laid in a strip which the oil soaks. A piece of fat is suspended over the flame and when the wick dries the flame gets brighter and hence hotter and more fat drips into the half moon lamp bowl which then fills and wets the wick more which cuts down the height of the flame and this works by itself for about six or eight hours.  The open center of the house was like a club pip on playing cards it was twelve foot square with an alcove in each corner which sometime would lead to another house. The entire compound accommodated 23 people.

Letter Re: A Source for Storage Barrels

Hey there! Congratulations on the site. There is not a day that goes by that I do not read it. As such, I just thought that I would tell you to check out the following website… http://stores.ebay.com/The-Barrel-Company (The Barrel Company, out of Nevada). After checking it out, if you desire, you may want to put it out on your website. I get all of my 55 gallon steel and water barrels from this site. I provide you with this information not because I have any personal relationship with this company but simply because you can get CHEAP, HIGH QUALITY barrels from here. Originally, I purchased new barrels from this site, but then began purchasing their used ones. Due to the price, it was just as easy to clean the barrels myself. In terms of the steel barrels, I found these to be great upon receipt. Again, I clean them but find that the 55 gallon steel barrels need very little cleaning due to the fact that the food products were in a bag liner. To date I have purchased ten 55 Gallon Plastic Water Barrels and three 55 gallon steel drums. No complaints what so ever. Again, this is simply food for thought and I thought that you may like to pass this information on to others through your website if you find it helpful. (Note: If purchasing used drums that it is important that you clean them). Take care and continue the good work! – “Mc”

Letter Re: OPSEC Precautions When Dispensing Post-TEOTWAWKI Charity

Jim,
I can’t remember if you covered this scenario in your Patriots book so here’s a thought. In a SHTF or a TEOTWAWKI and we are giving away Charity to a small refugee group with OPSEC being done. The refugees move on in their quest for a better place and run into a “foraging group” of folks. A”foraging group” will most likely want to know where the little band of refugees got some of their new stuff. Any ammo that was given in charity more than likely will be liberated from the refugees along with pretty much everything else they have of value. In an effort to save their own skins the refugees will more than likely tell the foragers where they got this stuff from. They will probably all be killed anyway. That’s my point of this email. We have just created a very potential future threat to our retreat and it’s inhabitants.

Suggestions:
If you have to give out charity [during a “worst case” situation with widespread lawlessness] I would suggest no charity be given anywhere near your retreat. Have a predetermined spot away from the retreat. Then, with the appropriate warnings as you gave in your book, send them on their way. Waiting till they are out of sight before moving back to the retreat. It sure seems like a big effort.

Handing out charity in front of your property is simpler but really bad OPSEC. That’s a NO-NO in my thinking. Another idea is to not hand out charity at all to passing refugees. This will be difficult to do. You might not even see any if your retreat is off the natural drift lines of refugees. If you do see refugees and they haven’t seen you then just let them pass and be gone. Charity with your neighbors should be easier since they should be part of your retreats OPSEC anyway. If not, it’s a good way to bring them into the fold. Mutual support will make it more secure for everyone in question. – Larry in Kansas

Letter from Mr. Bravo Re: .40 S&W to 9mm Conversion Barrel for a Glock Model 23?

Jim,
The first source I would use for replacement pistol barrels (not just for Glock) is http://www.kkmprecision.com/index.asp. Kevin’s company produces arguably the most accurate barrels available, and that is only a part of his superior capabilities as a firearms designer and manufacturer who is well regarded at the highest levels of military purchasing. He actually produces some of the specialty pistol barrels that are retailed under other brands. Go to the source for the best value. I know him personally as a good and honest man, and BTW I would also consider him my first choice for a custom rifle. -Mr. Bravo

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples’ money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.” – William F. Buckley, Jr.

Retreat Areas – State Level Data Now Available in Excel Spreadsheet Format

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Very special thanks to “Wise Tioga”, who out of the goodness of his heart laboriously converted my data on 19 western states into a handy Excel (.xls format) spreadsheet. He has even added some more data on home schooling and home birth regulations. I have posted it as a sub-page to the Retreat Areas static page. (Just click on the Retreat Areas button in our home page top button bar.)

Letter Re: Earth Bag Construction

James-
The latest Mother Earth News (#212) has an article on building a home from earth-filled bags. Looks like a cheap, fast way to build a home with good protection against attacks with weaponry. Might also be a good plan for a secondary place to serve as an emergency shelter against radiation. Or as a way to build up an existing area in a cellar as a Safe Room. – B.B. in Hawaii

 

Letter Re: Information on Various Fire Starters (SAs: Wilderness Survival, Primitive Skills, Fire Starting)

Jim,
Been a long time reader of your site. Just wanted to drop you a note to say there is an article up on Treknologies.com that fits Survivalblog’s content. It’s all about different methods of ignition sources that people should be aware. Good info for those building survival packs. The direct link is http://www.treknologies.com/archives/2005/11/portable_igniti.php   Keep up the good work Jim! – J.G.

Three Letters Re: .40 S&W to 9mm Conversion Barrel for a Glock Model 23?

Sir:
A question was posted on your site about the ability to use a Glock 23 with a 9mm barrel. It has been my (limited) experience that all that is needed to shoot the gun in 9mm is a replacement barrel and a 9mm magazine. I first heard of this from a friend of mine who is a part time gun writer. I was skeptical but, given the source, I gave it a try. I am not a Glock fan but my then girlfriend was. She shot her Glock 23 more as a 9mm than as a .40 because it was cheaper. In her experience the gun was fully reliable in 9mm. She used .40 for carry and in the home but most of her practice was 9mm. I would guess that in the time we were dating she fired 2,200-2,500 rounds of 9mm and only 300-350 .40. All without any failures. I believe the barrel was made by FAC (Federal Arms Corporation). To avoid any confusion she used the orange Glock magazines in 9mm so she wouldn’t confuse the 9mm mags with the .40 mags. – Jake

Hi Jim,
Enjoy the blog immensely. Read it every day. Regarding barrels for conversion from one model of Glock to another (i.e. .40 S&W model 23 to 9mm model 19), there are a number of manufacturers of barrels for such purposes. Topglock (http://www.topglock.com/catalog/barrels.htm) sells conversion barrels from several manufacturers. Federal Arms also makes them, but I don’t know if they sell directly or only through dealers. As I recall, from what I have picked up from the web, no change in slide or extractor is necessary for the conversion. The original .40 S&W mags will work for the 9mm, most of the time. But if I was going in harms’ way, I’d order the mags for the same size 9mm Glock to use in the .40 S&W.  I’m sure the staff at Topglock or Lone Wolf Distributors (http://www.lonewolfdist.com/products.asp?prod=4&curRecIdx=1#Barrel%20Access
ories) could answer any questions people have. Thanks for the site, – Jim H.

Jim:
There are barrels available to convert .40 to 9mm, but they are NOT 100% reliable. Bar-Sto and Jarvis make them [JWR adds: So do Federal Arms and Olympic Arms], various places like Glockmeister carry them. You simply replace the barrel but use the same slide, and this is the cause for it not being 100%. There are ejector/extractor issues. These are okay to train with but not to fight with. To convert to 9mm with full Glock reliability requires you to simple swap slides with a 9mm gun. Thus the 23 can shoot both 40 stock and 9mm. The M23 frame is essentially the same as the M19, just beefed up to handle .40 cal. The downside is price, since a complete 9mm slide costs as much as the used trade-in Glock 19s now. This same “trick” is available for Beretta, SIGs and others. Drop a Beretta 92 slide on a 96 and you have a convertible gun, in fact Beretta sold this combo at one time. DO NOT take a 9mm frame and drop a .40 slide on it. It will function but it (the 9mm frame) isn’t beefed up enough to handle the .40. Almost forgot, .40 cal mags hold 9mm with no modification. Back in the High-cap magazine ban days [Sept. 1994 to Sept. 2004], you could always take a 10 round 40 cal mag and put 9mm in it to have a 12-13 round “high cap”, it functions fine in every case I have tried. HTH,  – Mike, M.D. in MO

Letter Re: Radiation Protection Factors for Dummies

James:
Just read Radiation Protection Factors for Dummies – by L.H. on your blog. These types of articles always talk about shielding of radiation. Is there any substance that REFLECTS radiation instead of absorbing it?

JWR Replies: It has been nearly 20 years since I took the Army NBC Defense Officer’s course, so forgive me if any of the following betrays my faulty memory:  Any of the materials described will reflect or absorb alpha or beta radiation, and absorb highly energetic gamma rays. Because they are a ray (think of it as a flash from a flash bulb, or the beam from an x-ray machine), virtually nothing will reflect gamma rays. Once gamma rays have been stopped by shielding, they are no longer a threat. But the gamma ray emitter–typically a fallout dust particle, continues to emit gamma for a very long time.

Alpha radiation has a very short effective range and is rapidly attenuated by passage through the air. That makes it a non-issue for your survival planning. Beta has longer range, but just a sheet of cardboard will stop beta radiation. (Beta radiation mainly causes injury to the skin that looks much like a sunburn–commonly called “beta burns.”) It is mainly the gamma radiation that you have to worry about.  That requires a lot of thick shielding. (You need mass—any mass–and a lot of it!) Fallout dust itself continues to emit alpha, beta, and gamma rays for many, many months. That is why, assuming that you will be using a shielding-improved basement type shelter, that it is important to close and seal your house windows after the blast wave(s) passes. If they are shattered by the blast wave, you should cover the broken windows with sheet plastic and tape seal them before taking shelter in your basement shelter, during the brief time available in the “King’s X.” (The short period between the blast/shock wave and the time that the fallout dust begins to settle.) After shelter emergence, it is possible to decontaminate your roof and sidewalks by hosing the fallout dust away (while wearing the proper protective gear, naturlich), but it will be almost impossible to decontaminate the interior of your house if it has been coated with fallout dust. Read the book Nuclear War Survival Skills–available for free download from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine web site, for details.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"One of these days, one of these (rogue) governments fabricates one or two nuclear weapons, and gives them to a terrorist group…The group brings one of these bombs into Baltimore by boat, and drives another one up to Pittsburgh. And then the message comes into the White House. Adjust your policy in the Middle East, or on Tuesday you lose Baltimore, and on Wednesday you lose Pittsburgh. Tuesday comes and we lose Baltimore. What does the U.S. do?" – Ambassador Robert Galucci, Former U.S. Arms Negotiator, Dean of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service

Note from JWR:

Don’t forget to send your entries for the SurvivalBlog writing contest. The prize is a transferable four day course certificate, good for any course at Front Sight. OBTW, I recently heard from Naish Piazza that the prices for all of the Front Sight courses will be increasing by 25% in 2006, so this will make the contest prize even more valuable–as much as $2,000 for a four day course. Oh, by the same token, you might want to buy some course certificates or a Front Sight membership to beat the price increases.  (And BTW, check out their new “Lifetime Challenge First Family Membership.”)

Please submit your non-fiction articles via e-mail by the end of November to be considered for the contest.

Heirloom/Native Seed Source

Thanks to Kirsten over at the Survival/Gulching Forum at The Claire Files for mentioning the Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank. See: http://www.nativeseeds.org/. Here is a quote about their specialized heirloom seeds for desert environments:
“Today, the Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank houses approximately 2,000 different accessions of traditional crops grown by Apache, Chemehuevi, Cocopah, Gila River Pima, Guarijio, Havasupai, Hopi, Maricopa, Mayo, Mojave, Mountain Pima, Navajo, Paiute, Puebloan, Tarahumara, Tohono O’odham and Yaqui farmers. Over one-half of the collections are comprised of the three sisters — corn, bean, and squash. An additional 48 species of crops and wild crop relatives wait in frozen storage, including amaranth, tepary bean, chile, cotton, devil’s claw, gourds, melon, sunflowers, tobacco, teosinte, watermelon and wild beans.”

David In Israel on “The Gray Man” Survival Approach

In a survival situation you must clear the military mindset from your head, since you are not backed by 300 million citizen western economy and trillions of dollars in supplies. Walking about the land with a AR-15 and BDUs could be one of the best ways to be shot on sight. To the causal observer you will be instantly branded as both clearly dangerous as well as covered in priceless gear.   What is the “gray man”? The gray man mode operates much like a spy, a recon team, or a sniper does. If the gray man is noticed he has lost much of the game. His best tactic is hiding in plain sight, while letting others be noticed. Tactically speaking, gray man is used when you are outnumbered and when a straight fight would be foolish. Dress is important, a fine suit may say rich, BDUs say maybe I may be armed, raggy means maybe I am homeless and likely desperate. Attitude is important, avoiding eye contact without being obvious is a good idea, aggressiveness will be taken as a challenge, stay cool but not so cool as to be cocky. The best gray man is exactly who people expect to see in a given setting: a UPS man in an office, or a mailman or meter reader walking through your neighborhood. Gray man works best when there are other people around to take up the attention of trouble makers. Let the hysterical woman or the angry man take the attention of the terrorist. Don’t let them even worry so much that they bother to search you. If you are carrying a weapon, then gladly surrender your wallet if asked, to avoid being searched and hence disarmed. What I am trying to get across is that in a survival situation you are not the big man, rather go to guerrilla mode wait until the battle can be fought on your terms,–sort of like when the police get a hostage taker in the middle of the night when he is less vigilant–and then escape. Assess the setting you are in. By blending in you will have a better chance of tipping the odds on a superior enemy and living to tell the story.