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”. North Korea continues to make headlines and keep nuclear fears alive. Do you have your EMP stuff lined up?
Wild Horse Fire Brigade
This has been a tough fire season in the Western United States and Canada. With the past history of total fire suppression, and the current dry conditions in much of the area, wildfires tend to explode into major conflagrations with the slightest provocation. Capt. William E. Simpson II was interviewed on the Lars Larson show recently about his novel approach in dealing with two major problems. 1) The fire conditions, and 2) the 50,000 wild horses corralled by the BLM at tax payer expense. Why not let these horses graze the at-risk land to eat the tall grass before it burns. That would save the tax payer millions in care costs for the horses. At the same time, it would provide much needed pre-fire management at the same time.
Smart Meters
Reader DSV sent in this article asking a very unpleasant question. In this day and age of “The Internet of Things” and the propensity of those same items to be hacked, who will pay the ransom when the smart meters get hacked? The article references a few high profile cases where hospitals and infrastructure had to pay or shutdown because of ransomware hacks. It’s a fair question.
Reason #4097 to Remove Your Child from Public School
Reader D.B. notified us of this California first grader that was sent to the principals office this week after “misgendering” a transgender student. Apparently the little girl new the transgender student as a “him” from the previous year and called him by his original name. Unknown to the girl was the fact that the parents decided to re-gender the little boy into a girl over the summer. The confused child complained to the teacher and the little girl was also sent to the principles office to determine if it was intentional or accidental. Note that the girls parents were never notified officially of the office visit. They found out when the girl returned home and told her parents.
EMP stuff
You knew that it was too good to be true when North Korea’s Kim Duck Soup Jong-un backed down from his threats of nuking Guam. While it is still undetermined if he actually has the capabilities that he claims, it is certain that if he doesn’t, he will acquire them. North Korea fired multiple missiles towards Japan territory, but the U.S. military claims one failed on launch and two others failed in flight. Not much is known about the launches at this time, other than Guam was not their intended target. Remember, every failure provides critical data to improve the performance.
o o o
Speaking of EMP, you need to see Portable Solar LLC’s newest video on EMP tests that they have conducted. They use simple, single-layer Faraday bags, A simple metal trash can Faraday cage and also unprotected electronics to test analog and digital radios, LED flashlights, bulbs, drones and a home phone. These tests are invaluable in putting myths to bed as well as verifying simple protection ideas. This is definitely worth a view. (approximately 3 minutes.)
o o o
Reader D.S. found this little diddly from The Kingston Trio (1959) called The Merry Minuet. While quite humorous, it is still completely relevant today.
Eclipse Reports
I’ve read, watched and listened to quite a few reports on the Eclipse. One of the ones I enjoyed the most was sent in by reader T.P. YouTuber SmarterEveryDay and his friends did the calculations and figured out where the best location to view the eclipse with the International Space Station traversing across it’s face would be and set up in a farmers field. They actually got some amazing photographs and videos of the phenomena.
News Tips:
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!
Double bavk on the NK missile launches because now they say they were successful. That in itself seems squirrelly to me.
If/when the smart meter is hacked I believe it can just be removed and replaced. They are designed to do so every few years anyway
And how many new meters are on the shelf? Not a practical way to fix a problem, these things can simply be reprogramed remotely, which brings up the question of what are you going to do without power, they can be shut off remotely, are you ready to go to war with the power company to be compensated for the loss of food, production of work, etc. Most power companies have to allow you to use the old meters but you pay a small cost to have your meter read. Something else to think about when prepping. Better yet have several alternate power sources, “one is none, 2 is 1”
Re: North Korea, Nuke / EMP
I still have suspicions about the two satellites Lil Kim put into orbit last year. Or have those become non-issues?
Worry more about the “smart meters” catching on fire and burning your house down(utilities claim they aren’t responsible for damage) or collecting and selling information about you from your energy use patterns. The parents of the “resexed” child should be jailed forchild abuse and mental evaluation and the child placed in a safe environment.
Catherine J Frompovich has a long series of articles on smart meters and their problems.
Very worth while checking out her work.
My “smart meter” sends power toward (or receives from) my solar panel system. If the smart meter were hacked, I would simply pull the disconnects and my house become grid-free and runs off the solar system. Or the generators. Or whatever. The return on investment for solar in my area, and my tax bracket, is way way better than bonds and only somewhat inferior to stocks…..a no-brainer.
Portable Solar — Great Demo’s! Dispels a lot of myths. So far, I think what I put in my book is still correct. I You CAN protect equipment with reasonable actions. They have done their homework; one hopes their testing waveform is similar to what a nuc attack actually causes….but they probably did better than any of us are likely to do!
The techniques to protect CONNECTED gear boil down to filtering, gas discharge arrestors ($2 each) and MOV’s (quite slow, suitable only for AC line at best). Electro-static discharge protection is becoming more common; there are significant numbers of commercial systems out there in various fields labeled as EMP-tested.
I’m sure their product is a fine one. If you have something different, I’d strongly urge you to try and protect with overvoltage devices such as gas discharge tubes / filtering. Filters are made of inductors/capacitors and they aren’t magic, hams and others have used them for decades. Getting electrical engineering advice might guide you to make more effective protection efforts….but do SOMETHING.
I’m not sure turning a bunch of horses loose is such a good idea. There are several studies indicating that wild horses have a negative impact on other species at waterholes. In arid areas this could be a serious problem for game and other species.
If it’s a state agency hit with ransomware how will they pay? There’s no state payment mechanism to get tax dollars to criminals.You gonna ask Ivan Hacker in West Russostan for his tax ID number?
I work for the State of Idaho. I asked this question of IT managers and got “duh. Hope it never happens”