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”. A reader submitted a fascinating review of the politics of Starship Troopers today.

Polio-Like Disease

According to this article sent in by reader H.L. there have been 62 confirmed reports of “acute flaccid myelitis” (AFM) across 22 states in the U.S. This is a disease very similar to Polio. The CDC says that states are not mandated to report the numbers to the CDC so the number of cases could be higher. While the disease currently remains fairly rare, the similarities to Polio are causing concern. The disease affects the spinal cord and can cause partial paralysis. It mostly affects children and young adults and can be caused by a variety of causes like toxins in the environment, genetic disorders or other viruses like West Nile or adenovirus.

The State of the American People

True to form, criminals are having a heyday in Florida. While anyone with any sense and/or compassion are concerned first about life saving and then about survival, criminals have other thoughts. According to this article sent in by reader G.P., armed looters are targeting homes and businesses that remain without electricity. Deputies have arrested quite a few looters who started just as soon as the storm abated. In some cases, the occupants are actually home, but the normal security of locked doors and alarms are non-existent. So far, there have only been reports of theft, but with the looters being armed, it’s only a matter of time before someone gets shot or stabbed.

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A SurvivalBlog reader sent in this link to Western Rifle Shooters Association on a conversation that occurred during Hurricane Michael. The exchange happened as several men were trying to lash doors shut while winds were howling at 140 mph through the school hallway. The author and his daughter were the only people who had a leatherman to cut rope with. Even during this desperate life-saving tactic, there were those who were appalled the author had a knife at school. While not descriptive of all Floridians, I fear that the U.S. is filled to the brim with people like those described. This story is actually reprinted from the comments of another article on masculinity. Both are worth a read. Note that there is foul language in this article.

Clandestine Bitcoin Mining

Reader DSV sent in this article on hackers using your computer to mine bitcoin. It’s called cryptojacking and entails hackers placing clandestine software on your computer that uses the computer’s spare CPU cycles to mine bitcoin for them. Cryptojacking has grown in popularity because it is hard to detect and reasonably passive. You may not even know that your system has been hacked and is being actively used. The hackers have various ways of getting you to download the software that even include viewing some ads. This should be another warning that you shouldn’t open strange e-mails from people you don’t know, nor click on any link within your e-mails or browser that you aren’t sure of. If you notice that your computer is constantly working when you are not doing anything on it, you should have it checked.

Personal Library Tool

Reader G.P. sent in the link to a personal library tool that looks interesting. The tool is called Polar Bookshelf and is capable of reading PDF and HTML along with several other formats. It will store online sources offline allowing you to read the subjects without an Internet connection once you’ve stored them. You can also annotate the documents with the built-in features. We’d be interested to know if any SurvivalBlog readers are currently using this tool, and if so, how well it works for you. Having a unified document archive is appealing.

The Politics of Starship Troopers

Reader T.J. sent in this interesting video on the politics of Starship Troopers. The author compares Heinlein’s personal political values with those of Gene Roddenberry and with those of current America. Fair warning though, this is a long video at nearly and hour and a half long. If you like hardcore science fiction and are leaning conservative, it is a very interesting listen. While it is in video format, I found that you don’t actually have to watch the video. The format allows you to listen to it as a podcast or in the background while you do other things on your computer. The analysis is complex and thorough, but very interesting. In particular, the video hooked me right up front when it brought out the realization that it is about a society that depends on war for survival.

Survival Realty

Survival Realty has a new listing of 92 acres in Montana with a subterranean abode complete with a well and a solar generator. The views from the property are spectacular and the underground shelter looks very comfortable. This is a ready-made survivalist property where you could survive just about anything.

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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!




21 Comments

  1. RE: pdf library section, I use the free version of Evernote to save articles I find on the internet into pdfs on my own devices. I have an icon in my browser bar that allows me to save into various formats. I typically choose ‘simplified article’, which is formatted for easy pdf-creation. I then open my free Evernote app on my PC, sync, rename/tag the article and ‘Save as PDF’ in my computers directory/library.

  2. re WRSA link on Florida hurricane scenario,
    What a sad example of a herd of sheeple and how they react when things get dicey and life threatening . Gee, I hope the school district doesn’t file charges for having a knife on school property. Just unbelievable , Lord help us .

  3. I was teaching a hands-on high school History of Technology class in which kids made projects involving cutting wires, etc. I had no funding and financed everything out of my own pocket. One day I was called to the office and told I could no longer use my Leatherman because ‘kids can’t have knives, so you can’t either’. When I explained that I needed tools for the class, I was told I could request tools in next year’s budget, but that I had to stop wearing my Leatherman immediately ‘to be fair’.
    Coincidentally I was also teaching Medieval History at the time, and had permission to keep a sword in school….

    1. Not to mention that NO license or permit is needed in FL to have a !oaded handgun in your vehicle, as long as you can legally own one. (must be ‘ secured’, usually means in a container with a lid, not fully accessible to anyone)
      You might be surprised how many older women have one in their purse,
      (spotted in the cash registers)

  4. Back in the mid 70’s I was in Junior High School. I had a metal shop class where we learned how to use metal brakes to bend sheet metal, how to oxy acetylene and spot weld, and how to make decorative scrolls with soft band iron. A couple of the guys on the sly were making knives with the band iron. Making wood handles with rivets and sharpening the edges with the metal grinder wheels. The shop teacher discovered what the guys were doing. Did they get sent to the principal? Did they get expelled? No…the teacher pointed out the band iron was too soft to make a good knife. He went into his locked cabinet and brought out some good stainless steel blanks and walnut and showed us how to make good strong knives with handles. Boy, times have changed!

    1. Heck I remember making a muzzle-loading black powder cannon in shop class in the mid-1980s. The barrel had a 1 inch bore and was about (IIRC) 16 inches long. I never shot any projectiles out of it but it sure made a heck of a bang when loaded with powder and wadding.

      Time have changed….. and not for the better.

  5. Re: Personal Library Tool

    I’ve been using Calibre for several years now. It is a cross-platform, many-format library tool. Looks like Polar Bookshelf is limited to HTML and PDFs, but has nice annotation functions. Calibre is more oriented towards being an all-in-one library for ebooks and documents.

  6. What would you do with a caravan of 5000 aproching our southern boarder ???

    FIRST: cut off all aid to Guatemala and Honduras….NOW, (Yesterday would have been better)
    SECOND: give the aid taken from Guatemala and Honduras to Mexico if Mexico stops the caravan from passing through their country.
    THIRD: If Mexico allows the caravan to continue through Mexico cut off all aid to Mexico and abort the Mexican part of NAFTA LIGHT agreement which has just been reached.
    FOURTH: If the above fails the president should declare the War Powers Act as a marching column of approx 5,000 military age personnel made up of mostly males(I know that is a sexist remark) seems like an invading force to me (and now we hear that as of a week ago over 100 of that number is ISIS related.)
    FIFTH: Double rows of concertina wire 12 feet high seperated by 100 feet (that would allow room for the dogs to get some exercise.
    SIXTH: Any person making it over the concertina wire and dogs should be met with ANY type of force necessary. And for the libturds/ snowflakes that doe mean lethal force. I know the argument that some of them are just children, well we did not invite their parents to bring them and also realize that in Nam a goodly # of US personnel were killed by ‘children’.
    A POINT FOR SNOWFLAKES TO PONDER: Assuming you have a home , residence, do you leave your doors open or unlocked and allow any person that wishes to come in and wander around??? HUH Well do you???

      1. It isn’t murder if you’re defending yourself. Any uninvited individual breaking into a locked space deserves whatever consequences they encounter. Don’t wanna get shot? Then don’t be a criminal doing criminal stuff. Crossing the border illegally is a criminal act. Harsh as it may seem, too bad, but yes, shoot them. Because they’re obviously not getting the message otherwise. But I guarantee they’d listen if a hundred or so of them fell dead before our rifles. Don’t come here illegally. Petition and wait to be legally invited. Or suffer the consequences.

        1. It is Cold blooded murder under a figleaf, Cold blooded murder of Children included, Children who didn´t even try to “steal” an apple from the tree.

          There´re not many reasons i consider valid for killing, self defense or defense of others.
          All else is manslaughter or murder, in this case it´s murder and the murderer should be dealt with accordingly.

          Crossing the border illegally may an criminal act, in this case the punishment should fit the crime after a legitimate court made the judgement.

          1. It’s funny how people always whittle things down to a “Child”. Sorry man, children don’t walk 2000 miles alone and make it. The percentage of children is very small. These are radicalized entitlement-adults tearing down barricades, throwing rocks and dangerous objects at police. They don’t respect the law, nor borders, nor will they respect the “no tresspassing” sign on your property. They will commandere anything the see fit to steal including your weapons, food, medicine and supplies and when they get in a mob like that rape and murder are not out of the question for some of them, and that some is more than you or I would like to allow. All it would take is one night for thousands of people to turn your lawn into a biohazard and you would be singing an entirely different tune. People carry diseases and can pass them on this way which could in turn swamp our healthcare resulting in the death of millions. I do not wish to spew hate, only reality and the gravity and the truth of the situation if it comes to pass. Our only option is to turn them back or route them into an internment camp and either way it’s going to get ugly. Repatriating them is the best option for all of us. They are not our responsibility, they have to make their own way in this world.

  7. Back in the early 70’s my friend and I made a skit for a class that involved bring in his 98K Mauser and my .30 M-1 carbine. No one said boo when we broght these fully functional weapons ( sans ammo of course ) into the school, put in our lockers until the appropriate time, and brought into the classroom. Now we would be assaulted by local SWAT and utterly vilified by the MSM. Again time have changed, and not for the better.

  8. These people are not armed as they were in VietNam, no matter the age. There will be no armed resistance of migrants and allow this current administration to survive the political storm. No, there must be a better and more moral way. If anything the migrant caravans reinforce the wall concept…even though still not fully effective and certainly a negative symbol of where the world is today, it’s far better than violence against the unarmed and frightened. The numbers I’ve seen (and I can’t quote them) suggest that our nation’s worst enemy is not China, Russia, or North Korea, but the economic impact of illegal immigration on our welfare, medical, educational and social systems in the USA. We simply can’t afford it, much less the welfare, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid obligations due our own citizens. We are facing a huge dilemma in our very near future with no easy answers.

  9. Honduran convoy…..remove the enhanced US Army division guarding South Korea, place them on the Mexican border to repel the invasion. We should never separate children from parents….send the entire family back to Honduras.

    When I was in shop class (1970AD), I made two cannons, a couple of knives, in addition to course projects. At lunch, in the parking lot, we were looking at a friend’s shotgun when the vice principle showed up and said, “You boys want to see a real rifle?” Of course! So we walked to his Stingray where he produced an FN/FAL 7.62mm rifle. We were impressed! We learned to use milling machines, lathes, welders, torches, saws of all descriptions…..no one died! The most useful classes I ever took….typing and shop class!
    A close friend at work (Raytheon) is a mechanical engineer (worked for Boeing designing jets for 21 years) admitted to me that he NEVER used algebra in his work. Yet academia is obsessed with it. Come on, guys, how often you you use a welder as opposed to algebra?
    Now for the best…..in fifth grade, Mrs. Davis, our English and music teacher, asked “How many boys in this room are carrying a knife?” Four of us slowly raised our hands (I had my trusty US Army stainless jack knife). Mrs. Davis then said, “I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a boy who didn’t carry a knife.” Now days, we’d have criminal records. Mrs. Davis often abandoned course material to develop character in her students….kids who would one day become men and women.
    I can only imagine the horrified wimps in that hurricane story if my wife had whipped out her six inch Cold Steel Voyager to cut that cord.

  10. I was a big Heinlein fan when I was a teenager. I believe his politics ran to the libertarian rather than classic conservative. I remember my excitement when the Starship Troopers movie came out only to be disappointed when I found it almost a spoof of his ideals. Also I really missed the powersuits!

  11. That video on the politics of starship troopers was excellent. I love the clips of Jordan Peterson. I’ve been a fan of his for years. The only distinction I would make is in the term “liberal democracy.” It’s obvious they mean classical liberty/ liberal, not the ideological nonsense of today. And it’s a republic, not a democracy. A classical liberal republic. Other than that one bit picky semantics detail, it was spot on. We’re gonna watch the DVD tonight.. c’mon you apes! You wanna live forever!!

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