Monthly Archives: January 2012

Admin – Commenting

Posted on by
Reply

Yeah, I know that there seems to be a problem with leaving comments. Again, I’m not sure what the story is but I suspect it’s part of the lingering issues that seem to be hanging on from the database problems last week. I think it’s all still on Yahoo’s end of things but I’m checking around trying to see if it’s anything that needs attention on my end.


01/27/12

07:45 AM PST: Errors accessing your web site or blog

Some customers are reporting various types of errors when attempting to access their Yahoo! Site Solution web site, blog, or other pages that utilize a MySQL database.

If you are receiving an error, you may be able to fix it yourself by repairing the database from your Web Hosting Control Panel. Please review our help pages titled ‘How do I repair a corrupt database?‘ for more details.

If repairing the database does not fix the error, please contact us.
01:57 PM PST

(1/28/2012) Our engineers continue to work towards resolution for this problem.
01:39 PM PST

(01/30/12) We are actively working to fix this problem as quickly as possible. We will post more updates once they are available. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The folks I meet

Posted on by
Reply

So I have an apartment to rent. I meet a potential renter today. I ask him where he’s living now. He says he’s living with his folks on a 200-acre ranch where they are “doom n’ gloom” all the time, stockpiling the place with generators, food, “and stuff” because “they think they’re the only ones who are going to be self-sufficient enough as the world collapses” and he “just had to get away from that”.

I bit my tongue.

The really weird thing is, I think it might have been this person.

Video – American Experience: The Great Famine

Posted on by
Reply

Watched a fascinating little documentary off of Netflix the other day…it was a documentary on the American Relief Administration and their work in the Russian Famine of 1921. (PBS’ American Experience: The Great Famine) A very interesting story and certainly one that makes you want to pull up the floorboards and hide a lot of food. Like many famine stories, there were tales (True? False?) of children being snatched away and sold by the pound in butcher shops, graveyards having to be guarded to prevent the digging up and consumption of the freshly buried, mothers killing their children for food, etc, etc. Real National Enquirer stuff, but, probably on some level, true.

One of the more interesting parts of the documentary was how the ARA had to work around a reluctantly cooperative, but highly suspicious, Soviet government that was keen to keep the food and administer it to it’s allies while withholding it from it’s enemies…a practice that continues today in just about every famine-by-government nation…. Somalia and parts of Haiti being prime examples of this.

The documentary had nice things to say for Herbert Hoover and his actions to save the starving Soviets, although his humanitarian actions would be largely forgotten and overshadowed by the Great Depression.

Apparently you can watch the video through PBS’ website at the link above. It’s an interesting watch, as I said, and although the conditions and circumstances (as well as logistical challenges) are different today, it’s still an interesting and informative reminder about what a famine looks like in the twentieth century. It was fascinating to watch interviews with people who were children at the time and survived only because of the US aid…one gentleman said that although virtually no one remembered what the Americans did for them, in his family they made sure to remember since it was the only reason they were still around.

I suppose that history really does repeat itself..the DPRK is a Soviet-style nation that wound up eating it’s children a few years back and might have to do so again soon. The attitude about aid, for better or worse, is a bit different than Hoover’s altruistic “forget the politics, help the people” attitude.

Still, in my opinion, it’s a worthy watch and it’s always a good thing to have some historical perspective and impetus for food storage. It is also a reminder that even when aid is available, there may be those that want to keep it away from those who need it for their own reasons….a very good reason not to rely on aid and instead to try and be as prepared as possible.

Chemlights

Posted on by
Reply

I was chatting with someone the other day and he said that he’d been reading some survivalist forum somewhere and that some guy was going on about the contents of his bugout bag and that the bag contained several chemlights. He thought this was a waste and a poor choice. “I can get the same light, longer, and in less space with an LED flashlight and a couple spare AA batteries”, he said. I disagreed that one was better than the other, and that both had their place and that the chemlights had some unique properties that made them more useful than an LED light in some situations. The fella I was chatting with looked a little disappointed that I didn’t agree with him. It wasn’t that he was necessarily wrong, it’s that he didn’t envision the outside-the-box possibilities afforded by either lighting device.

Chemlights also are referred to as snaplights, lightsticks, cyalumes, glow sticks and a few other names but they’re all similar (if not identical) in function. Two chemicals are kept separate until the user mixes them, usually by breaking an ampule, and when the two chemicals mix a reaction takes place that causes a bright glow. No heat is generated, no flame, no noise, no thermal signature. The relatively low price of an individual chemlight makes them easily disposable and perfect for applications where recovery of your illumination device may not be possible (leaving a trail, for example). Since the light is provided by a chemical reaction, rather than an electrical or thermal one, you can use them in pretty much any envirionment…underwater, in explosive atmospheres, around flammables, etc, etc.

Of course, no good deed goes unpunished, right? Being a chemical reaction you can sometimes have aged lightsticks ‘go bad’ and not function when you need them. The light is hardly focusable, very short range, and usually omnidirectional. They can be bulky, rough handling can damage them or prematurely activate them, below freezing temperatures you may have some problems, etc, etc.

Advantages? Well, a bunch. As I said, they’re pretty disposable so they’re great for fast emergency short term lighting. I keep one in each room of the house. This way if the power goes out I can just grab one and use it to find my way to where the flashlights and candles are. It’s less expensive and less bulky than having a MagLite in every room.

In the field, their biggest attraction is for marking things. You can tie a piece of paracord to one and hang it at a trailhead, tie it to the antennae of your vehicle, or hang it from your pack so that you can be found or followed. For leaving a trail in the dark for others to follow you can cut off the end of a couple lightsticks and dribble the glowing liquid or ‘paint’ an object with it to leave a trail. (Although, for that purpose, the ‘matchstick’ sized chemlights are perfect.) They even make round, marker-shaped chemlights with an adhesive backing for marking trails, targets, and pathways…just the ticket for leading folks down a darkened staircase in a tall building or marking doors and entryways.

For those times when you dont need 360-degrees of light, or just want to turn the damn thing off, they make special holders that allow you to conceal all or part of the stick’s glow and clip it to your gear.

Since the sticks come in different colors, it’s pretty easy to use them for pre-arranged color-coded signals. When you’re puttering down the street in a boat in the aftermath of Katrina, you can swing buy your cousins place, see the blue glowstick hanging from the second floor window and know that, according to your pre-arranged signals, he and his family have left and are at your uncle’s place. Or tie a green one to the drag handle on a pack as you kick it out the back of a vehicle in the middle of the night, knowing that the folks watching you from the treeline will recognize the green means that you weren’t followed and that a safe pickup can be made. No limits, really, if youre creative.

My purposes for them? I keep them in my bag in case I need to leave some portable light with someone in an emergency, or mark my way back to someplace, or mark an object for others to find. I’ve found them to be terrific for hunting season if you need to mark either something like a carcass or the truck when it looks like returning at dusk/dark may be in the cards. And, as I said, I keep them in most rooms of the house in case of power failure.

Does that mean that they replace a good LED flashlight? Nope, not at all. Chemlights are perfect for some tasks, and not others….same for conventional flashlights. My point that I was trying to make to the fella at the begining of this post was that you can’t just discount one product/item because, on first face, it seems less useful than another. You need to really think through the situations and applications under which they’d be used and, nine times outta ten, I think you’ll find that when you ‘have to’ choose between two items doing similar functions you’ll find that you might be better off with both rather than just choosing one.

Silver back up

Posted on by
Reply

Well that was interesting. Apparently the problems were all on Yahoo’s end of things. Apparently it started shortly after they did a scheduled maintenance. Regardless, I’m hoping the worst of it is over. It was, though, a reminder that I need to keep backups around. The stuff I post isn’t exactly literary gold, but it’d be tough to have to manually replace almost ten years worth of posts.
=-=-=-=-=-=
At the moment, silver is >$33/oz. which means if you bought it on that dip below $30, you’ve realized a gain of 10% in less than a month….a return that I think you’d be hard to find in any other ‘conventional’ investment. Of course, selling off and pocketing the 10% is completely out of the question for me…I don’t buy it to sit on and turn around for a fast profit. I buy it to hold on to for the time when a $100 bill won’t buy me a tank of gasoline, but an ounce of silver will. As I’ve said before, I get my silver from a buddy in the business and if you want to accumulate the stuff in a painless, simple, and automatic way his ‘subscription plan’ is the way to go. Tell him I sent you, get free snark with every purchase!
I suppose this opens the question of “how much to have” in regards to silver/gold. I suppose that like ammo, porn, lasagna and arable land, you can’t have too much. But, realistically, the more prepared you are in other areas, probably the less of the stuff you’ll need. I mean, if you have absolutely no food then you’re probably going to need a lot more gold/silver than the guy who has five years of food, a herd of cattle and a section of prime farmland. If you think of precious metals as a form of insurance, then the more ‘self insured’ you are, the less you need. Of course, compact wealth is also kinda handy too. Especially if you need to sew something into the collar of your coat to later use to bribe a border guard or something.

Admin – Wonkiness

Posted on by
Reply

Having some issues with the website database. Working on resolving them and backing things up. (Although not in that order….pillage first , THEN burn.) If you get a 404 or other error, don’t panic. I’m not going anywhere. At least, not intentionally.

Medical reading

Posted on by
Reply

Obviously I haven’t read every book on the subject, but I’ve read quite a few. The ones I turn to most for information and that I think are most worth having:

Where There Is No Doctor – This is one that tops everyone’s list. It’s written for the Peace Corps type who finds himself in a Third World country trying to provide medical aid. The most valuable part of the book, in my opinion, is the appendix at the back listing medications and their uses, brand/generic names, and recommended dosages. This is the sort of info you need when you’re scrounging through burned out pharmacies, wrecked ambulances and abandoned nursing homes looking for medications to keep you or someone you love going. You can usually find a .pdf of this book for free online, but it’s always good to have a printed copy handy. Number one title on pretty much everyone’s list of medical reading.

Wilderness Medicine, Beyond First Aid, 5th Edition – This book has been around a while. An excellent source of information. Many first aid manuals basically treat every situation with “…seek professional medical help immediately.” Well, yeah, that’s great when the power is on, the roads aren’t jammed with cars, and tracers aren’t crisscrossing the night like fireflies. This book addresses the notion that it might take a while before you can get to the emergency room. What makes this book so useful, in my opinion, is that the author recommends and lists out the contents of various ‘modules’ that make up a kit. For example, there’s a topical bandaging module (20 different items), Non-prescription oral medication module (ten items), etc, etc. If you like to have someone else make up a list for you of where to start when it comes to packing a kit, this is a good one. Even if you have your own ideas, the lists are an excellent starting point. A very useful book.

Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to Emergency Medical Procedures and First Aid, 5e (Medicine for the Outdoors: The Essential Guide to First Aid &) – An excellent companion to, and possibly slightly better than, the previous text. This is a densely packed trove of information. Being more of an ‘outdoor adventure’ scenario-based book there’s plenty of stuff on the perils you run into camping (poison ivy, poison oak, bad mushrooms, altitude sickness, blisters, etc) but sometimes part of the apocalypse is going to , in fact, be like a long, drawn-out camping trip.

Surgical Knots and Suturing Techniques third edition – Unfortunately, when it isn’t like a camping trip, the apocalypse is going to look a lot like a cross between Mad Max and North Korea…plenty of violence with plenty of shortages of essentials. I’m a big fan of closing a wound with something that doesn’t involve needlecraft on my skin, but sometimes Dermabond and butterfly bandages just aren’t going to do it. This book gives you the basics on taking that surplus surgical kit you picked up at the gun show and actually using it. It’ll be a grim day when you need the info contained in this book, and the next one I list, but better to have it than not.

Ditch Medicine: Advanced Field Procedures For Emergencies – When you need the information in this book, you’re in a situation where it’s going to take a lot more than bandaids and aspirin to pull you through. This is another book that is not for the squeamish, but even if you are a bit sensitive to things like traumatic amputation and flaps of muscle and skin waving in the breeze you should force yourself to read through it anyway so you at least have some ideas of whats going on. It’s not pretty, but if nothing else it’ll make you think twice before doing something stupid that could get you maimed or injured.

The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, 18th Edition – An excellent reference that covers just about everything that could go wrong in normal times. By that, I mean it doesn’t really cover things like gunshot wounds, radiation poisoning, or anthrax exposure. But for figuring out what that clicking noise in your wrist is, or what that thing growing between your toes is, this book is tops. Also an excellent, excellent text for familiarizing yourself with medical terms, body part nomenclature, nutrition and a few other things. It’s kinda like a Chilton manual for the human body.

Another great reference is Physicians’ Desk Reference 2011 (Physicians’ Desk Reference (Bookstore Version)) (you can sometimes get these free as doctor’s offices update them and discard the old ones. Another source for this book? Law firms that deal with malpractice.) If you’re doing the wrecked-ambulance-looted-pharmacy thing this book is going to go a long way towards making sure that those pills you grabbed are the right ones.

There are some other recommended texts that I haven’t gotten yet but that I’ve heard excellent things about. For now, these are the best books I have on the subject. I have several other books but they’re all on the same subject. However, much like how you should always consult more than one reloading manual when working up new loads for your gun, I have no problem with having three or four books on advanced first aid or medical treatments since there is no such thing as too much knowledge. (I lamost said ‘too much information’, but there is a difference between knowledge and information.) The information contained in these books is also handy in figuring out what you should stock up on for yourfirst aid kits and home medical kits.

Speaking of….there’s a school of thought that says you should never stock any medical supplies that you don’t know how to use. The idea is that if you have them, but don’t know how to use them, you may wind up using them and doing more harm than good. This is true, that is a possibility. But you know what else is also a possibility? That there will be talent (a doctor, a nurse, an EMT, a PA, etc.) who you’ll run into who does know how to use that stuff and can provide the talent if someone will supply them with the gear. Don’t think so? How many times do we read about car accidents, airline flights, and similar events where someone is hurt and a doctor or nurse happens to be nearby or passing by and offers aid? So, the way I see it, go ahead and stock things you don’t know how to use…just don’t use ‘em. Leave that for the folks with the talent (or for trading to the folks that need it.)

Article – How The Glock Became America’s Weapon Of Choice

Posted on by
Reply

Today the Glock pistol has become the gun of choice for both criminals and law enforcement in the United States.

In his book Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun, Paul Barrett traces how the sleek, high-capacity Austrian weapon found its way into Hollywood films and rap lyrics, not to mention two-thirds of all U.S. police departments.

I remember years ago when the Glock first appeared, the NYPD banned it from being eligible for pistol license holders to have. They said it was a terrorist gun that would go through metal detectors and blah, blah, blah. Then, during an interview with the chief of police, he was asked “What gun do you carry?” and he replied “I carry this machine gun right here” and pulled a Glock 17 out. The Glock was quietly approved for civillians very quickly after that.

Soulless, impersonal, disposable, and indistinguishable from one another, they are the Bic Lighter of handguns. But, thats the point….reliability and performance at a bargain price.

Icy streets, WalMart .223,

Posted on by
Reply

Well, it did eventually stop snowing here. Of course, now the problem isnt so much the snow that is falling but rather the snow that is on the ground….that has been packed down…and turned to ice. Since falling down and breaking bones aren’t high on my To-Do list, I usually keep a pair of Yaktrax
clipped to the outside of my pack. I don’t use them too often, so I can’t really say much about durability, but when I have used them they work quite nicely….especially since when I’m walking around on ice these days I usually have the BioWeapon with me and he seems to find it entertaining to try and pull the Big Human off his feet. I haven’t found them to be much use out in the sticks, since invariably the snow is way too deep and uncompressed to cause traction problems, although if you like following frozen creeks and streambeds, they’d be perfect for that. Regardless, walking aroudn at the moment without them is a bit of a risk.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I did some checking, and while the .223 for sale at WalMart ($149/420 rds.) seems reasonable, I can buy Federal for around $137/500 at a local ammo outlet. However, the advantage to the WallyWorld deal is that the ammo comes in an ammo can, and is already packed on stripper clips. I have plenty of ammo cans, and I’ve a shopping bag full of stripper clips, so for me it makes more sense to not buy the WallyWorld ammo and get the Federal ammo at the local outlet. However, not everyone has an ammo wholesaler nearby, and not everyone already has a stash of ammo cans and stripper clips…so, for some folks, the WallyWorld deal may be the way to go. The deal they had on primers ($3.10/100) was definitely not the way to go for me. Their powder prices were a bit erratic, usually all the powders of one brand are the same price..these were all over the map, but $20 for a pound of Unique is a pretty good deal these days. Your mileage, of course, will vary but you may find it worthwhile to check out the gun counter at the WalMart and see if it really is a deal or not.