The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Big Brother is back with a vengeance today.

YouTube Attacks

We’ve almost grown accustomed to YouTube automatically shutting down channels that deal with firearms, but the attacks in the past have mostly been targeted at individuals or smaller operations. This Saturday, they attacked industry giant Brownell’s. When YouTube announced changes to their user agreement in regards to firearms, Brownell’s spent an enormous about of time to edit and alter their offerings so that they would be in compliance. That apparently didn’t matter. Today, if you attempt to navigate to https://youtube.com/brownellsinc you are greeted by the message “This account has been terminated for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.” marking the first time we know of that they have gone after a major player.

Home-Built Mortars

It’s been a few years since we’ve heard much news coming out of Nicaragua, but that seems to be changing. The country has seen a significant uptick in unrest since about April 18th and at least 135 deaths have been linked to this political unrest this year. Opponents of the Ortega government have been deploying homemade mortar rounds from homemade launchers in the face of government fire. Though not as deadly as the commercially built rounds, the homemade ones are in demand and sell for about $12 USD for a dozen. The man interviewed builds the launchers and the rounds, but remains anonymous. Note that it is illegal to own weapons in this country. The only force allowed to own weapons is using them on their own citizens. Thanks to G.P. for the link.

Homicide Rate

Facts don’t care about your feelings. This chart published over on The Burning Platform shows the marked decline in homicides over the last 30 years and it doesn’t match the media narrative – At all. The decline began 1993 and was sharpest through about 1999, but continues a general overall trend. Nothing to see here. Move along… Thanks to reader H.L. for the link.

Big Brother(s)

Reader DSV sent in this article on how Newark, New Jersey is already under a surveillance state similar to what you see in dystopian future movies. But many of the official camera feeds have been made publicly available. Anyone with a computer or smart phone can tap into these video feeds. While the public release of these feeds has been hailed as a positive move in a city where there is significant mistrust of the police, others are concerned. There is no vetting of anyone on these feeds and they can be used by muggers, stalkers and would-be burglars to track their potential victims. As one person puts it: “It’s not just Big Brother. There’s an infinite number of siblings here.”

Eye in the Sky

Speaking of police surveillance, drone maker DJI has partnered with Axon to make police owned drones capable of streaming their pictures and video feeds to Axon’s AI servers in an attempt to preemptively identify violence. Already there are complaints about the methodology used though. Since the researchers did not use actual violence to train the system, complaints have arisen that merely having your exposed hands or feet in the air classifies you as violent. Also incorrectly identified is play-fighting, swiping a bug off of someones shoulder and grabbing someone who is falling. Most disturbingly, it would appear that police are getting the green light to use off-the-shelf drone technology in their daily activities. Thanks to G.P. for the link.

Water Collection Tech

Wired Magazine has published an article that outlines some of the more innovative ways to derive drinkable water from air. Of particular interest is the use of electric charges to attract water particles from fog. There is an animated GIF that demonstrates the process in a laboratory and it is quite impressive. Typical passive collection is on the order of 1 or 2 percent efficient. But this new process promises to greatly enhance that number. There are lots of uses for this technology and it looks like implementation of it is pretty easy and inexpensive. This is something to keep an eye on. Thanks to G.P. for the link.

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Please send your news tips to HJL. (Either via e-mail of via our Contact form.) These are often especially relevant, because they come from folks who watch news that is important to them. Due to their diligence and focus, we benefit from fresh “on target” news. We often “get the scoop” on news that is most likely ignored (or reported late) by mainstream American news outlets. Thanks!