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”. Today contains a great link on dehydrating chicken.
Facial Recognition
According to this article sent in by reader R.K., a group of Amazon employees is asking Jeff Bezos to stop selling facial recognition to law enforcement. The group claims that the software will be used to harm the most marginalized ethnic groups. Of course, the letter notes that the police are targeting black activists and those who would be deported. While I certainly agree that the spread of facial recognition is troubling, I find it equally disturbing that those willing to stand against it’s use are the same ones who support illegal activity by those who they claim it is targeting. Oh, the web that we weave! In the end, the letter will probably have very little impact on Amazon. It’s just kind of interesting to see the left eating its own.
Dehydrating Chicken
Reader H.L. sent in this article on storing chicken for survival. Chicken is a relatively inexpensive source of protein and is easy to raise just about anywhere in the world. Chickens also generally don’t take a great amount of care to raise and can be brought from hatchling to butcher age in as little as six weeks with some breeds. They can also forage for their own foods if you don’t live in an arid location. This article covers three different methods of preserving this protein source. Of the three methods presented, dehydration or chicken jerky is probably the most known. I would add that freeze drying is also a viable alternative and probably my favorite method, though the equipment required to freeze dry foods is a significant investment.
Harvest Right Freeze Dryer
Speaking of freeze drying, reader K.Y. wrote in with this comment:
I have had mine for 4 months and have been thrilled with it. I considered several places in my downsize house (I’m old and retired) and moved much furniture before I settled on a dresser top in the guest room. My kitchen is too small. Since loading and unloading is something done at most every other day, walking to and from the guest room is no hardship, and I don’t use it while I have guests. I worried about noise, but it’s across the short hall from my bedroom, and I sleep right through it with both doors open.
What I would warn buyers about is to not get the crazy idea that four of you are going to go together and buy one and “share” it. You know loads take 2-3 days, by the time you do the oil maintenance and drum defrosting. And they weigh a lot. Nobody would be happy sharing one and getting it for a load every other week. My advice is save and buy one’s own. I do 2-3 loads a week and have been known to use the hairdryer to defrost the drum faster to get the next load in, keeping 2 pots of oil going so one can be cleaned and then filtered and cooled while I am using the other. Message: Buy your own. Put it wherever you can fit it into the house. Doesn’t have to be the kitchen.
Doxing ICE
A dangerous database created by an antifa activist that contains ICE employees’ publicly available personal information and job history scraped from LinkedIn was published by WikiLeaks. The article fails to mention that the creator of the database was a prominent member of antifa, though the anti-authority attitude is pretty apparent. The fear is that the database will be used by protesters to target the families of the ICE employees as the political battle over immigration heats up. One more reason to keep your personal information off of social media!
13-Year Old Charged
Illinois law has struck again. A 13-year old student decided to use his cellphone to record a meeting with his principal after failing to attend a number of detentions. When he informed the principle that the conversation was being recorded (as the conversation escalated) the principle immediately ended the conversation and told the student he was committing a felony. Several months later, the principal had the student charged with one count of eavesdropping – a class 4 felony. If convicted, his life will be dramatically changed.
It should be noted that this law is rife with the opportunity for abuse. The student was not provided an advocate as he was talking to the principle and since the school doesn’t allow those meetings to be recorded, there is no other way to protect yourself. At a minimum, the law should be changed to permit the recordings of meetings if at least one participant knows it is being recorded. Better yet, get your kids out of public school!
Illegal Immigration
Reader D.S. sent in this article on Mexican presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Obrador has called for mass immigration to the United States during his speeches and this week declared it a “human right” for all North Americans. While the election is not until July 1, Obrador is the front runner in the election by a wide margin. He is the former mayor of Mexico City and holds a progressive populist view. He has previously called for amnesty for Mexican drug cartels and has declared that America is now Mexico’s social safety net. Very scary stuff.
Underdogs
For those who think that fourth generation warfare (4GW) is a lost cause, reader H.L. sent in this interesting article that outlines three significant wars in which a severely outmatched opponent managed to pull victory from the overbearing larger power. The author attempts to use examples that are not well known to a large part of the U.S. population as well. I was already familiar with all three examples, but many will not be. In all three cases outlined, the smaller opponent did not necessarily win any major battle, but made the occupation and/or invasion of their land so unpalatable to the invader that the taste for war was quickly lost.
Of course, they do list my favorite example of the Finns in the Winter War. This was when the Soviets invaded Finland in the very beginning of World War Two. During this war, The Finns suffered 70,000 casualties, but inflicted over 350,000 casualties on the Soviets. The whole point of 4GW is to make the invader quickly lose the taste for war.
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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!
Well , there is the American Revolution, probably unfamiliar to most American kids today if they attend public schools. Farmers, shop keepers, stable boys fought the mightiest military (navy, too) in the world. Didn’t win too many battles, but dragged the expensive war on for seven years. It costs a lot of money to fight a war 3,000 miles from home. I suspect it wouldn’t have lasted nearly that long had the Lords in Parliament lived over here.
The Afghans have no satellites, aircraft carriers, submarines, national laboratories in which to develop new weapons, any species of medical care by our definition. Hell, they don’t even shoes much of the time. But they have rifles.
“Political power flows from the barrel of a rifle.” Mao Tse Tung
Worth mentioning that rifles had little to do with the US casualties in Afghanistan. Most damage was done by IED`s constructed from old Soviet shells. Point remains valid, but honestly, the 82nd Airborne does not care about your .30-.30.
Docosc, this is the same US military which hasn’t won a war in 73 years.
Never forget retired career Army officer Bill Buppert’s Law of Military Topography: “Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated”.
Again I will be the odd man out. But I see no problem with law enforcement using facial recognition. If it allows them to get more dangerous people off the street I’m all for it.
Doxing ICE? Good.
I see no problem with Americans keeping detailed records of all the known associations, locations, habits, pictures, and any other facts we deem desirable to record about federal, state, and local dot guv employees, especially police!!! Zero problems, at all. Who do you think is going to be taking the guns and putting you on rail cars, the tooth fairy? Well?
My only concern is that it’s the leftists who are enterprising enough to do this while the right slumbers on. Sleep well.
Anon, the problem that I have with facial recognition is the same I have with father in cell phone data and license plate readers… it’s becoming common practice to aggregate the data and comb over it to look for patterns. Ostensibly this then used to find evidence of criminal activity, however it can be used for so much more. Take, for example, the way that Facebook figures out your political leanings. Even if you join no groups, don’t post, and rarely browse. You only use it for its messenger features… based off of your friends and their activities it can extrapolate a good deal of info about you. Now, what is to stop someone from. building a list of gun owners or local preppers based off of their comings and goings from various stores? Or doing something more nefarious? Targeting people based on religion perhaps? I’m not a fan of giving the government any more power than it already has, and information is power.
You are correct this can be misused and we have seen the government misuse a lot of their power and authority over us. So you are opposed to it’s misuse. But if fear of that misuse keeps the police from using facial recognition it will not keep everyone else in the world from using it and likely misusing it. So all that will be accomplished is the police loose an effective tool to identify criminals and other wanted people.
Perhaps what you want, than, is to stop everyone from using facial recognition. Pass a law stopping any person, any corporation anyone at all from using it. Can you??? My gut tells me that you cannot. If we stopped big IT/internet companies from using any form of facial recognition I suspect that the ninth circuit court would overturn it. So in the end we will have facial recognition but it can’t be used to keep us safe. Is this a great country or what?
The problem has been, and always will be, the uncontested use of power in any form, by any individual, group, or government. To STAND is sometimes difficult, dangerous and may even deadly, but to surrender, is to die without honor.
Docosc, the 82nd may not care about my 30-30 or your 30-30 but if there are 30,000 30-30’s they’re gonna start to notice or a 130,000 or 1,300,000. Never underestimate an entrenched indigenous force with a will to resist.
“At a minimum, the law should be changed to permit the recordings of meetings if at least one participant knows it is being recorded.”
This is already the case in many states. In some it requires the knowledge of both parties, in others only one party and in some it’s best to get all parties consent in writing. It’s state by state.