Had a hiccup with the PayPal button for the Hardigg cases. Check the post if you’re interested, still have a few left.

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I’ve always been fascinated, in a macabre way, with ‘extreme’ survival stories. When I was a kid I repeatedly read and re-read the account of the Chilean soccer team that crashed in the Andes and had to go all Donner Party.

My dad sent me a book the other day that he said he couldn’t get interested in, but maybe I’d enjoy it. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is about Louis Zamperini who crashed his bomber in the Pacific during WW2, survived 46 days in a raft, got strafed repeatedly by the Japanese, washed up on a Japanese-held island, was interred as a POW (with all its attendant brutality), shipped to an ‘interrogation/high value prisoner’ camp in Japan, and survived (barely) four years in captivity that would have killed just about any one of us reading about it.

One of the many interesting parts of the book was details about how poorly stocked the survival kits in the liferafts were. Meant to be upgraded, they were neglected and when the time came that they were needed they were woefully underequipped. (Some military survival kits with their contents can be found HERE).

The book details the trials of the survivors in the raft, the unbelievable brutality in the camps (including this very sad and depressing tale about 9 Marines marooned and eventually executed by the Japanese) and the eventual end of captivity when Japan surrendered.

Tough book to get into because it starts with his childhood and upbringing and, honestly, that’s not very compelling stuff. But, once his bomber hits the water the book is tough to put down. POW ingenuity and mindset abounds and it makes for a very interesting read. If, like me, you’re fascinated with true stories of people surviving against impossible and brutal odds, I think you’ll like this book.

From the scene shortly after a child-killer is executed by hanging:

That night I tried to figure out how such things could be kept from happening. Of course, they hardly ever do nowadays—but even once is ‘way too many. I never did reach an answer that satisfied me. This Dillinger — he looked like anybody else, and his behavior and record couldn’t have been too odd or he would never have reached Camp Currie in the first place. I suppose he was one of those pathological personalities you read about—no way to spot them.

Well, if there was no way to keep it from happening once, there was only one sure way to keep it from happening twice. Which we had used.

If Dillinger had understood what he was doing (which seemed incredible) then he got what was coming to him. .. except that it seemed a shame that he hadn’t suffered as much as had little Barbara Anne — he practically hadn’t suffered at all.

But suppose, as seemed more likely, that he was so crazy that he had never been aware that he was doing anything wrong? What then?

Well, we shoot mad dogs, don’t we?

Yes, but being crazy that way is a sickness—

I couldn’t see but two possibilities. Either he couldn’t be made well in which case he was better dead for his own sake and for the safety of others—or he could be treated and made sane. In which case (it seemed to me) if he ever became sane enough for civilized society. .. and thought over what he had done while he was “sick”—what could be left for him but suicide? How could he live with himself?

And suppose he escaped before he was cured and did the same thing again? And maybe again? How do you explain that to bereaved parents? In view of his record?

I couldn’t see but one answer.

…..

I wondered how Colonel Dubois would have classed Dillinger. Was he a juvenile criminal who merited pity even though you had to get rid of him? Or was he an adult delinquent who deserved nothing but contempt?

I didn’t know, I would never know. The one thing I was sure of was that he would never again kill any little girls.

That suited me. I went to sleep.

 

:shrug::: Crazy people do crazy things because…they’re crazy. When someone commits a heinous crime all the hand-wringing in the world about why and how are pointless – they do it because they’re insane. It’s really that simple. You cannot prevent someone from doing it, but you can prevent them from doing it twice.

Heinlein gets a rough rap about Starship Troopers but, much like Ayn Rand’s stuff, if you can get through it you certainly do wind up doing some thoughtful examinations about the philosophies within. Might not agree with them, but at least you think about things in ways you hadn’t before…that, to me, is the sign of good literature.

I was going to purchase a copy of ,Rawles’ new book the other day,( Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse ), but am seeing some not-so-good reviews on Amazon. Has anyone read it yet and can tell me if it’s worth shelling out the greenbacks? I enjoyed his first book and was hoping he might catch lightning in a bottle again.

As many of you know, the recent re-make of ‘Red Dawn’ was tweaked ‘slightly’ in post-production. The original bad guys were changed from Chinese to North Korean. Nevermind that those two countries have a vastly different level of military capability. The change was, ostensibly, to make the movie more marketable in the lucrative Chinese market. The more likely reason is that when the original outfit that made this movie went under, it was bailed out by another outfit that had some close financial ties to the Chinese. In short, they didn’t wanna offend the new owners.

Anyway……

I was reminded of a book with a very similar premise – ‘Invasion‘ by Eric Harry. In the book, the Chinese invade the mainland USA in a conventional-weapon operation after isolating the US from it’s allies. The book is full of the things that make an ‘Invasion USA’ scenario interesting – the Special Forces stay-behind doing his one-man war in the captured South, quislings, super-weapon designers, political intrigue, etc, etc. Realistic? Probably more so than Red Dawn. A good read? Well, entertaining, certainly. It isn’t exactly Tom Clancy but it’s a step up from your average post-apocalyptic novel (no cannibal looter army, for example).

Like a lot of books I found fun to read, this one is outta print but used copies abound. If you want something to read to warmup to the new Red Dawn remake, this would be an excellent choice.

With GPS built into just about everything, most folks don’t put much effort into land nav anymore. I’m not saying you have to get uber-geek about it, but you should be able to read a map and figure out simple things like azimuths, bearings, etc, etc. Someday you might need to leave someone a message (ideally it would be encoded) saying something like “12 U 300015.6 539714.70″ or the more cumbersome “48 41 43.07377 N 113 43 3.95584 W”. (Who is gonna be first to leave a comment telling me whats at that location?) Without at least a background in basic land nav (and perhaps a small map overlay), you’d have a hell of a time finding that on a map. More importantly, when you hide something somewhere out in the boonies…a cache, a body, a bunker…you wanna be able to tell people how to get there and nothing conveys precise locations like grid coordinates.

Be Expert with Map and Compass – This is the classic book on the subject and, really, it’s very good. It is also probably a bit overkill and intimidating for many people. No mistake, it’s an awesome book and one that should be right there in your library. I like the thoroughness of it, but it can be kind of daunting…it’s the War and Peace of land nav. However, you should have it because you can always learn just what you need at the moment and then come back later and learn more.

Map Reading and Land Navigation: FM 3-25.26 – I don’t come across many military maps but it’s still good information to have. Much of the information is fairly dated, which means if you’re just planning on navigating with a simple magnetic compass and maybe a protractor, then this is a great book to have. I don’t know if there’s a more modern version that covers GPS systems, but still, this book is a good one to have as well.

Compass & Map Navigator – This is actually my favorite book, which is kinda odd since this book is sort of a ‘Fisher-Price’ version of the previous two. However, it is terrifically illustrated, concise, and explains things quite well.

Although these aren’t books, they sorta segue in there. There are plastic overlays for use with regular topo maps and UTM coordinates. This is the one I use: Improved Military UTM/MGRS Reader & Protractor “Super GTA”. These things are awesome. When using the UTM system it lets you locate positions on a map down to the meter, although I usually just go down to a 10m^2 level of detail. If you havent used the UTM system, it’s wonderfully simple and since it uses regular numbers instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds, it allows easier calculations. My favorite example is finding the distance between two points on a map – point A and point B. With UTM you find the difference between the two axes, slap on a little pythagorean theorem and – presto- theres your distance. Good luck doing that with longitude and lattitude.

What, you thought I was done?

• Zinn & the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance – There are three bicycle books listed here,  in order of recommendation. The first two are very good and cover almost everything, but they’re illustrated with b&w photos or line art….useful, but not perfect. The third book isnt as detailed, although still a very good book, but is lavishly illustrated with color photos to show how things are done. If you’re on a tight budget, get the Zinn book, if you can spend a bit more get the Haynes book as well. I’d recommend all three if you can afford it…with these three you should be able to build a bicycle out of nothing but a pile of junked parts.
• The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair: For Road & Mountain Bikes – Extremely detailed. Like aMerck Manual for bikes.
• The Bicycle Book (Haynes Automotive Repair Manual Series) – Excellent photos and great details about the specialized tools needed. The book is a bit simpler than the other two, but is an excellent companion to them.
• Cottage Water Systems: An Out-of-the-City Guide to Pumps, Plumbing, Water Purification, and Privies - A well-illustrated but basic text on how water systems work…heavy on explanation but not very heavy on how-to. Worth reading before you start trying to dam up the creek and bring water to your BOL.
• The Home Water Supply: How to Find, Filter, Store, and Conserve It - Much more intensive than the previous book. This one goes into greater detail about interior plumbing and other things not covered in the previous book. Definitely a better choice for it’s overall completeness, but not as well illustrated and not as easy to understand.
• The New Create an Oasis with Greywater: Choosing, Building and Using Greywater Systems – Includes Branched Drains – Very crunchy…reminds me of a bunch of articles clipped out of Mother Earth News. But, if you can ignore the hippy feel to it, this is a good source of information, with diagrams, on how to dispose of greywater in a manner that isn’t wasteful and winds up saving youw ater in the long run.

I must say, its kind of a pain to pull books off the shelf, look ‘em up on Amazon, link ‘em, put ‘em back, etc. I think I might have to do this in a more orderly fashion..five books, once a week or something…………

More off the shelf……

• McGee & Stuckey’s Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers – This and Square Foot Gardening are my two favorites on growing stuff in small spaces. I like growing stuff in 5-gallon buckets. Lets me move stuff in/out of shade and makes watering more efficient
  
• Edible Container Garden – Another really good one on container gardening
• Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work
• Herbs: Their Culture and Uses
• The Herb and Spice Companion – Lavishly illustrated. Good read.
  
• Gardening in Your Greenhouse (Greenhouse Basics)
• The Montana Gardener’s Companion: An Insider’s Guide to Gardening under the Big Sky (Gardening Series)
• The Gardener’s Home Companion – Excellent book.
  
• Putting Food By (Plume)
• Saving the Seasons: How to Can, Freeze, or Dry Almost Anything
• Edible Container Garden

I’m a big fan of container gardening. Growing stuff in containers has a lot of advantages. For one, I very much like being able to move stuff in or out of the shade as necessary. It also makes watering much more efficient since the water has virtually nowhere else to go but to the root system of the plant (which also makes fertilizing easier). I grew some awesome pepper plants in five gallon buckets a couple years ago and it convinced me that this was the way to go.