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 features and interesting article on the ultimate survivor – a Japanese man that willing walked away from civilization.
Florida Gun Control
Reader Tim J. sent us this: Alachua County Commissioners vote on gun ordinance.
JWR’s Comment: It is safe to predict that this will be stricken by the Florida courts, since Florida has reserved State Preemption over all firearms laws for many years.
6.5 Creedmoor
According to this article sent in by reader G.P., U.S. Special Operations troops will soon be fielding sniper systems in the 6.5 Creedmoor caliber. The round is slated to replace the venerable 7.62×51 and has superior long-range ballistic performance. This caliber has long been a favorite of civilian long-range precision shooters. This move by the pentagon will give it more main-stream acceptance. The article also states that Homeland Security will follow suit in the caliber change for their snipers. I’m curious about this move though. It was my understanding that while the military sniper specialized in long-range targets, Homeland Security tended towards shorter range.
Austrian Police
Reader C.D. notes that while the progressive/left here in the U.S. keeps trying to get open borders “like in the EU”, members of the EU are discussing closing their borders. Hungary is busy building border walls and the Austrian Interior Minister is quoted as saying “A state which, if things come to a head, can’t protect its borders effectively, loses its credibility.” In this article, Austrian police and army are shown performing a migrant exercise at the border. While it’s only an exercise with 200 police cadets playing the part of immigrants, it shows that the countries are moving away from the open border polices that have nearly buried their countries. Even the German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under heavy pressure from conservative allies in Bavaria to turn migrants who come through other European countries back at the border.
Asleep at the “Wheel”
It just keeps getting worse. Employees with the Hawaii state agency that created a nationwide panic when they released an emergency alert reporting that there was an incoming missile are in trouble. Emails released by the state show that employees were seen multiple times watching movies or TV shows and were usually sitting around looking unoccupied. One report has all three State Warning Point (SWP) staff asleep while on shift. The employee who issued the false alert was fired and another employee quit rather than face disciplinary action. This should be a wake-up call to all agencies tasked with early warning to get their act together.
More Walking on Water
Reader N.C. wrote in about the earlier “Walking on Water” entry that featured a roll up mat supporting up to 1200 pounds:
Very interesting. It appears to be a slightly different version of the dense foam mats used in wrestling; if so, since those are available in much larger sizes, there might be size options available. Is there any information regarding the possibility of larger, or thicker, mats which could support more weight? I can envision one of the existing mats, perhaps somewhat longer, as a “security tool” to control foot access; roll it out across a body of water, gain access, roll it up and take it ashore to prevent interlopers. A version – or perhaps a joined, or adjacent, pair of double-thickness mats to allow access by light vehicles; A permanent bridge must be secured, probably even guarded, but a relatively inexpensive temporary access tool could be quite useful.
The Ultimate Survivor
Reader W.A. sent in this article on a naked hermit who spent 29 years in solitary living on a deserted island. The man “escaped” civilization in 1989, choosing to live on an island that was rarely visited, even by fishermen. Japanese authorities found him in what they called weak condition and moved him back to the mainland after permanently banning him from the island. His wish was to die as a castaway on the island, but was denied by the authorities. Note that he wasn’t completely self-sufficient though. The article says that he used money sent by his relatives to travel to a nearby island to get water and his staple food of rice cakes. Water for bathing and shaving came from rain caught in a system of battered cooking pots.
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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!
My son is presently in the Austrian Army, and he took part in that exercise on the Slovenian border. It was purely political, organised for the press and politicians. They are building a fence there, but there is a lot of opposition from farmers who have fields on both sides of the border. This is particularly a problem with the vineyards.
There is a lot of public pressure to do something about it, although opinion is very divided.
Boom/Bust! Life in West Texas oilfield. Well, it’s here again and more crowded than ever. People gouging prices for housing, because they can! As an owner of a small service company, we have lived thru many many of these. But they always have a little more twist than the last. During the boom around 2011-2012, people were excited about the opportunity of getting ahead. Then the bust came around 2013-2014, the man camp trailers moved out and you did what ever to keep your small business going. Then here comes the boom again last year, only I have noticed that getting your money from these drilling companies is like pulling hens teeth!! One man dodged us every time we tried to collect on invoices from October of last year!! My husband finally tracked them down and the secretary said he was out of the office. My husband asked for his cell number and she said she couldn’t give it to him but would have him call. Well, we’ve heard that story before. Finally my husband told her to tell him that he was going to go around to all the places that sell parts and service and tell them to put his company on COD. Cut him off! Now that doesn’t seem very professional, but this oilfield town is the biggest little town in the Permian Basin. It is worse than beauty shop gossip! And we aren’t the only people not getting paid!! That’s the new norm? What’s up with that. The secretary’s response was,” Do what you gotta to do!”!!!!! Seriously!!!! Check the pecking order and you will find that these drilling companies are owned by investors! Hmmmm Watch out Redoubt states for these new companies coming in. Thanks for letting me vent.
Hawaii has a problem. There written and unwritten rules/regulations require hiring native Hawaiian’s for public jobs. It result is people being hired who have no clue how to do the job and worse the normal mindset of native Hawaiian’s is at best uninterested in work or work ethics.
The 6.5 seems to be replacing many hunting cartridges while more than half of the couple hundred competitive precision shooters use the 6mm Creedmoor, not the 6.5mm.
Florida Gun Control In the Socialist Republic of G’ville:
For what it’s worth, there’s Alachua County, in middle of the county is the town of Gainesville, in the middle of the town is the University of Florida, in the heart of the university are the Marxist professors turning out Snowflake students, some of who get jobs locally and move into the county only to breed little snowflake children who vote for the County Commissioners.
I live in the next county west of Alachua which, to draw a comparison, only has one red light in the whole county. The difference between surrounding counties and that socialist hellhole is literally night day, it’s an island of blue in a sea of red. I use to have to go over there right before Christmas every year to shop but now with the ease of online shopping even that misery has been removed. If a giant sinkhole opened up under the entire city I doubt that I’d miss much sleep over it.
So, where did the Marxist professors come from?
Probably from the sixties Luv Children morphing into Yuppies reading the Gainesville Son, affectionally called the ‘Mullet Wrapper’, a subsidiary of the New York Times.
Moral: Perhaps stupid breeds stupid? Your guess is as good as mine.
History R’ Fun
Anon, it’s worse than that. According to statistics, if you were born on the island you’re native. There’s a lot of blond hair and blue eyed natives now. And true natives are unskilled at best. Many live like vagrants or resent working for howlies. ( I may have that spelling wrong.) They often consider working for the establishment a handout. Like welfare or unemployment.
Most of the academics in large Universities (University of Florida) live in an imaginary world, a creation of their own minds with little resemblance to the real world around them. But then they become surrounded by people that are part of the University, or are there to support it, or are supported by it. Then cities (Gainesville) grow and thrive around them. Eventually surrounded by and living in this bubble of mutually sustaining delusion they elect city councils and county commissioners (like four of the five Alachua County Commissioners) who are just as silly and deluded. So silly and deluded that they pass resolutions like this one believing that voters will think them bold and courageous, and will believe they are “making a difference” —- all a very sad waste,
I have a a number of clients that are university professors and believe it or not, not all of them are leftist….one that is a good friend says, “I really need to keep my political opinions close to the breast, it really does mean my job.” What a said commentary on the state of ” FREE SPEECH”!
This situation reminds me of people getting so involved in computer generated reality that it becomes so real to them they forgo human interaction.
earn, this is precisely why universities are rapidly becoming irrelevant. No longer centers of knowledge & development, they’ve devolved into pronto-soviet indoctrination centers where faculty attempt to ‘out-do’ one another with the latest fashionable delusions. I can easily see a time when you do people will realize there’s simply no reason to attend.
Unfortunately, community colleges are also effected. It used to be geared towards vocational skills such an eighteen month computer repair or nursing program. A plus was instructors who had real life experience or were currently working in the field you were interested in would teach if only for one semester or so. They were very good as they knew their stuff inside out and could tell you the mistakes they made so you didn’t have to repeat that experience. Outside of an internship that was gold as people in the trades are reluctant to share their ‘secrets’ to someone new.
Now there is a five year requirement, a Masters or more, to teach in a community college. That is an unnecessary burden, expense and time, to the instructor and a barrier to skilled crafts persons willing to share their knowledge.
Community colleges are also required to teach Remedial Courses. These are catch-up classes or for basic math, reading, etc. that were not taught in high school or elementary school. By basic math it is meant addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. While this is old news to some, I’m still amazed how someone in College doesn’t know or were not taught the basics and allowed to pass. How does the education system allow this? I attribute this to a top-down command structure that allows college students time off from classes to hug a stuffed animal in a zoned area because of troublesome MSM news. No joke.
It’s ironic that in exchange for a dumbed-down education one gets a huge student-loan debt and an uncertain job market.
If and when the SHTF occurs maybe after a thousand years or so there will be Guilds again.
Please note: I’ma rantin’ and-a ravin’ about the non-Engineering and technical degrees.