U.S. Dollar Collapse Could Occur at Any Time
Very good and succint article on the impending collapse from Inflation.us
You should bookmark and add to your sources of collapse indicators.
Highlights from the article is below; please go to http://www.inflation.us/ to read the article in it's entirety.
China this morning reported 4.9% price inflation for the month of February
China was at least smart enough to raise interest rates last month by 25 basis points to 6.06%, while the Federal Reserve continues to leave interest rates near zero with there being absolutely no talk of the Federal Reserve ever raising interest rates again.
China will be successful at containing inflation, as U.S. inflation spirals out of control and becomes the greatest economic crisis in American history.
China this week reported a $7.3 billion trade deficit for the month of February, its largest trade deficit in seven years, which surprised many global economists. NIA believes China 's trade deficit is temporary and that China will quickly return to having a trade surplus.
The Federal Reserve's QE2 along with China 's destructive monetary policies, which artificially devalue the yuan, have led to a massive rise in China 's raw material costs this year. NIA believes that in the upcoming months, Chinese manufacturers will raise the prices of their products that get exported to the U.S., to counteract rising commodity prices.
With most products used by Americans today having been manufactured in China , this will mean Americans will soon see massive price inflation in just about all consumer goods they use. NIA projects that by the end of 2011, we will begin to see the U.S. CPI increase by 4.9% or higher on a year-over-year basis, with real U.S. price inflation rising north of 10%.
The mainstream media is proclaiming that China 's trade deficit will silence calls for the Chinese to allow their currency to strengthen against the U.S. dollar. The fact is, China 's government has for long been making the major mistake of printing too many yuan in order to artificially prop up the U.S. dollar. Their fear was, if the U.S. dollar was allowed to decline too rapidly, prices of Chinese goods would rise in terms of U.S. dollars and Americans would no longer afford to import them.
The truth is, if China allowed the yuan to strengthen, the Chinese would have enjoyed a much higher standard of living. Sure, prices would rise in dollars and Americans would import less, but the Chinese would have the ability to consume more of their own products. Now, as a result of China expanding its own money supply in order to keep the yuan pegged to the U.S. dollar, Americans will be forced to pay a much higher price for Chinese goods.
The U.S. government has been successful at temporarily paying off Americans into not rioting in the streets like in Arab nations. It was just announced a few days ago that the number of Americans on food stamps in the month of December of 2010 was a record 44,082,324, up 13.1% from one year earlier and 1.1% from one month earlier. That is more than 14% of the total U.S. population!
Combined with President Obama extending unemployment benefits up to 99 weeks, American citizens are too busy and distracted playing with their iPad 2s and gossiping on Twitter about Charlie Sheen, to have any time to protest in Washington, DC.
NIA believes the U.S. government's entitlement spending is currently having the unintended consequence of making Americans dependent on government. It is like when you take wild animals into captivity and you feed them, teach them to do tricks and take care of them for a period of many years; if you just dump them one day back into the wild, it will be very difficult for them to survive. Americans who have become dependent on unemployment checks and food stamps will likely soon abruptly find out that they must begin to fend for themselves without any help from the government. The result will be many Americans turning into wild animals and becoming so desperate that they will have to rob and burglarize their fellow neighbors who were smart enough to prepare, or else they will risk starving to death.
This is what UrbanSurivalSkills has been saying, that we will have 80-120 million people that can't feed themseleves - this is a recipe for anarchy.
The U.S. budget deficit in the month of February reached a record $222.5 billion or $2.67 trillion on an annualized basis. With the Federal Reserve now monetizing our debt in full swing, a complete and total loss of confidence in the U.S. dollar could be imminent.
Just like how nobody in the mainstream media was calling for the collapse of Egypt's government a few months ago, almost nobody in the media believes a collapse of the U.S. dollar could possibly take place anytime soon.
NIA members are educated enough to see that the writing is on the wall. The Federal Reserve can deny all it wants that the U.S. is experiencing inflation, but with the cost to print a single U.S. dollar paper note rising by 50% since 2008, massive inflation is here right under Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nose.
So few Americans are presently preparing for hyperinflation that if hyperinflation broke out today, approximately 90% of Americans won't have the means to put food on the table or put fuel in their automobiles. During the upcoming hyperinflationary crisis, food stamps will no longer have any value at all and all U.S. entitlement programs will come to a complete halt. Americans will take to the streets like the world has never seen before.
The biggest question NIA has today is, will the U.S. government resort to firing at its own citizens?, if major riots take place in Washington, DC. On Thursday, police in Saudi Arabia shot and wounded three protesters. The price of oil rose by a few dollars per barrel as soon as this news hit the wire, which shows just how nervous the world's financial markets have become in recent weeks and the Dow Jones has declined significantly in recent days.
From April to August of 2010, the last time the Federal Reserve allowed its balance sheet to shrink, the Dow Jones fell by over 1,000 points. If we see a major sell off in stocks, we could see gold and silver rise along with the Dow Jones falling.
NIA believes the worst decision any American can make is to sell their gold and silver and go long U.S. dollars, hoping to buy their precious metals back at a lower price in the future.Amen to that!
You can become a member of NIA for free at: http://inflation.us/
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Urban Survival Planning - Basic Message Encryption (Secure Your Communications)
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has received several requests for information on encrypted radios or otherwise an ability to code messages.
The security of communications is dependant upon who you want to protect it from and how much money you want to spend doing so.
Non-encrypted radio communications are vulnerable to handheld or larger scanners. Privacy codes can be easily overcame by hand held scanners. Inversion of verbal communications - same thing,...easily decrypted with a plug in SD card.
Verbal communications can be protected to a degree through the use of brevity codes. This is nothing more that anticipating what you need to verbalize on the radio and condensing that to a pre-planned brevity.
An example of a brevity code would be an element from your survival site is conducting a security patrol around the survival site. Maybe you use a brevity code like this: ALPHA = Situation normal, conducting patrol; BRAVO = in Sector One; CHARLIE = in Sector Two; DELTA = in Sector Three; ECHO = conducting short term halt; FOXTROT = have eyes on armed group; GOLF = <10; HOTEL = <20; INDIA = >20; JULIET = moving back to camp; KILO = 15 minutes from re-entering Survival Site. So with this brevity code, if the patrol sends a "DELTA, FOXROT, GOLF" it means they are in patrol sector three and are observing an armed group of less than 10 people. This keeps transmission times down and protects the information you are sending over the air.
So the bottom line on brevities is that a one or two word phrase has an elaborative meaning to condense transmission times. However, continued use of the same brevities would allow a intercepting station to piece together your code.
Another, much more secure method, abeit time consuming method of encrypting messages is through letter transpositions using a tri-graph. See the diagram below:
You need a key to encrypt your message against. A book is a good example, and in some circles this is called a “book code”. Let’s say you and your survival partners decide on a book, and a method of ensuring the other party knows which page to use to decrypt. At the beginning of each message you can say or write “ONE THREE HOTEL FIVE XRAY”. The end user knows to remove the letters to get 135 and that would be the page to start on.
You are part of a survival group that is Bugging Out tomorrow night to a Bug Out Location and you want to let the people in your group at the BOL to know to expect you. You want to send the message “WE ARE MOVING TOMORROW NIGHT, TUES NIGHT, TO YOUR LOCATION”. You add “ONE THREE HOTEL FIVE XRAY” to the message to tell the other group that this is the page they should be encrypting from.
From page 135 of the book, you writes the text from the book in groups of five letters. In this case “Out in the meadow was a blue van with all four tires flat and all windows busted,….” In groups of five letters and underneath those letters you write the message “We are moving tomorrow night xx Tues night xx to your location” (note 1: use double x to indicate a commo or repeat - or to fill up spaces; use triple x to indicate a break or period). (note 2: writing out the book code in groups of five letters just makes it easier to encrypt with tri-graph).
(from book)
OUTIN THEME ADOWW ASABL UEVAN WITHA LLFOU RTIRE SFLAT ANDAL LWIND
(message to be encrypted and sent)
WEARE MOVIN GTOMM ORROW NIGHT XXTUE SNIGH TXXTO YOURL LOCAT IONXX
From here you use the Tri-Graph to transpose the letters. From the Tri-Graph find the “O” on the top line then the “W” in the left column then see what letter intersects,.... it should be the “K”. From the “U” and the “E” you should get a “Y”, and so on.
Your final encrypted message would be: KYTZR FVZUR GQCII OJRPH HMBHG TFMBE DYNUB KQFKS QTFRE LBFAE TKVKA
You would send that via e-mail, text or voice communications,....if by voice then you would phonetically sound out each letter,… “KILO YANKEE, TANGO, ZULU, ROMEO, etc.
At the other end your encrypted message would be written underneath the same phrase, it would look like this:
(from book)
OUTIN THEME ADOWW ASABL UEVAN WITHA LLFOU RTIRE SFLAT ANDAL LWIND
(message to be de-crypted)
KYTZR FVZUR GQCII OJRPH HMBHG TFMBE DYNUB KQFKS QTFRE LBFAE TKVKA
It would be decrypted at the other end by locating the “O” on the Tri-Graph, going horizontally across to the “K” then looking across the top of the Tri-Graph to see what letter than pertained to, and in this case a “W”. The same for the next letter, which is a “U”. Locate the “U” on the left hand column of the Tri-Graph, go across to the “Y” then up to the top of the Tri-Graph and you should get a “E”, and so forth.
Messages using this manual encryption could be written on paper and passed either face to face or through a dead drop if you are in a situation where a threat has the ability to intercept and direction find your phones or radios, and the telephones are either down or monitored. If a occupation force or a nearby threat has intercept and DF capability, then talking in an obvious code would spin them up and draw attention to you.
The security of communications is dependant upon who you want to protect it from and how much money you want to spend doing so.
Non-encrypted radio communications are vulnerable to handheld or larger scanners. Privacy codes can be easily overcame by hand held scanners. Inversion of verbal communications - same thing,...easily decrypted with a plug in SD card.
Verbal communications can be protected to a degree through the use of brevity codes. This is nothing more that anticipating what you need to verbalize on the radio and condensing that to a pre-planned brevity.
An example of a brevity code would be an element from your survival site is conducting a security patrol around the survival site. Maybe you use a brevity code like this: ALPHA = Situation normal, conducting patrol; BRAVO = in Sector One; CHARLIE = in Sector Two; DELTA = in Sector Three; ECHO = conducting short term halt; FOXTROT = have eyes on armed group; GOLF = <10; HOTEL = <20; INDIA = >20; JULIET = moving back to camp; KILO = 15 minutes from re-entering Survival Site. So with this brevity code, if the patrol sends a "DELTA, FOXROT, GOLF" it means they are in patrol sector three and are observing an armed group of less than 10 people. This keeps transmission times down and protects the information you are sending over the air.
So the bottom line on brevities is that a one or two word phrase has an elaborative meaning to condense transmission times. However, continued use of the same brevities would allow a intercepting station to piece together your code.
Another, much more secure method, abeit time consuming method of encrypting messages is through letter transpositions using a tri-graph. See the diagram below:
You need a key to encrypt your message against. A book is a good example, and in some circles this is called a “book code”. Let’s say you and your survival partners decide on a book, and a method of ensuring the other party knows which page to use to decrypt. At the beginning of each message you can say or write “ONE THREE HOTEL FIVE XRAY”. The end user knows to remove the letters to get 135 and that would be the page to start on.
You are part of a survival group that is Bugging Out tomorrow night to a Bug Out Location and you want to let the people in your group at the BOL to know to expect you. You want to send the message “WE ARE MOVING TOMORROW NIGHT, TUES NIGHT, TO YOUR LOCATION”. You add “ONE THREE HOTEL FIVE XRAY” to the message to tell the other group that this is the page they should be encrypting from.
From page 135 of the book, you writes the text from the book in groups of five letters. In this case “Out in the meadow was a blue van with all four tires flat and all windows busted,….” In groups of five letters and underneath those letters you write the message “We are moving tomorrow night xx Tues night xx to your location” (note 1: use double x to indicate a commo or repeat - or to fill up spaces; use triple x to indicate a break or period). (note 2: writing out the book code in groups of five letters just makes it easier to encrypt with tri-graph).
(from book)
OUTIN THEME ADOWW ASABL UEVAN WITHA LLFOU RTIRE SFLAT ANDAL LWIND
(message to be encrypted and sent)
WEARE MOVIN GTOMM ORROW NIGHT XXTUE SNIGH TXXTO YOURL LOCAT IONXX
From here you use the Tri-Graph to transpose the letters. From the Tri-Graph find the “O” on the top line then the “W” in the left column then see what letter intersects,.... it should be the “K”. From the “U” and the “E” you should get a “Y”, and so on.
Your final encrypted message would be: KYTZR FVZUR GQCII OJRPH HMBHG TFMBE DYNUB KQFKS QTFRE LBFAE TKVKA
You would send that via e-mail, text or voice communications,....if by voice then you would phonetically sound out each letter,… “KILO YANKEE, TANGO, ZULU, ROMEO, etc.
At the other end your encrypted message would be written underneath the same phrase, it would look like this:
(from book)
OUTIN THEME ADOWW ASABL UEVAN WITHA LLFOU RTIRE SFLAT ANDAL LWIND
(message to be de-crypted)
KYTZR FVZUR GQCII OJRPH HMBHG TFMBE DYNUB KQFKS QTFRE LBFAE TKVKA
It would be decrypted at the other end by locating the “O” on the Tri-Graph, going horizontally across to the “K” then looking across the top of the Tri-Graph to see what letter than pertained to, and in this case a “W”. The same for the next letter, which is a “U”. Locate the “U” on the left hand column of the Tri-Graph, go across to the “Y” then up to the top of the Tri-Graph and you should get a “E”, and so forth.
Messages using this manual encryption could be written on paper and passed either face to face or through a dead drop if you are in a situation where a threat has the ability to intercept and direction find your phones or radios, and the telephones are either down or monitored. If a occupation force or a nearby threat has intercept and DF capability, then talking in an obvious code would spin them up and draw attention to you.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Urban Survival - Scavenger Mindset After the Collapse
On a early morning drive yesterday I was thinking how much things are going to change when the collapse hits, whether it is full blown anarchy or a gradual decline (linked the growing costs of fuel and subsequent increase in all commodities). I imagine how a mass population migration, from the city were food will be scarce and the environment more dangerous, into where I live and how that influences my plan to Bug In as long as I can.
As I was driving there was relative low traffic and could not occupy my time with phone calls and everyone I called did not answer, I thought, “this is probably like when a collapse hits with very minimal vehicle traffic and no cell phone connectivity.”
As I continued on I thought all Survivalists will have to develop a “scavenger mindset” to rapidly spot and assess material and objects for use in their survival plan.
I am not condoning outright stealing or looting. I think a reasonable person could rationalize the temporary borrowing of material with the intent of returning it or paying for it when conditions allow. I would think that familial or survival group safety would outweigh a non-violent/no victim, technical criminal act. This would not be a material confiscation for the intent of barter or selling, only for personal/group use. In the event of full blown anarchy, this may be a different story.
Some of the things I notice along my route and how I could use them in my survival plan:
RR ties. Good use for stacking inside the house underwindows to make a covered position for observation and defense. Can be used for above ground growing beds as well as vehicle obstacles.
Sand bags. I saw traffic and construction signs anchored with stacked sandbags. Sandbags can provide dirt for grow beds and/or used as they are to fortify walls and fighting positions. The highway signs are a source of wood for fires or can be used to build things like chicken coops, rabbitt hutches, etc.
Barbed wire rolls. Saw these inside a open lot leaning up against a chain link fence. Barbed wire is good to lay in obstacles to channel attackers to where you want them. To create a defense in depth that would take attackers time to work through. Can be used to livestock fencing for any goats, pigs or sheep that you barter for, or raise. Can be used to protect crops against varmints, both four legged and two legged. Note to self - Need heavy duty gloves.
Used car lot. A lot of cars for sale, potential for gas, tires, lights and parts. Note to self - need siphon kit (hose and container), screw driver, tire iron and jack.
Pallets stacked up next to a dumpster. Possible source for wood for fires or lumber to build animal cages and even raised crop beds.
Stacked used tires. Tires configured in triangles filled with dirt make good defensive position or vehicle barriers.
Stacks of cardboard boxes next to dumpster. Source for more fire material; maybe for insulation in walls.
Piles of gravel. One use may be as a bottom layer in crop beds for drainage; putting gravel along windows or other secondary accesses to make intruders tread lightly or make noise. Not to self - need shovel and containers.
The next time you are traveling look around, do a mental exercise or inventory on what may be abandoned that you could use and how would you use it.
As I was driving there was relative low traffic and could not occupy my time with phone calls and everyone I called did not answer, I thought, “this is probably like when a collapse hits with very minimal vehicle traffic and no cell phone connectivity.”
As I continued on I thought all Survivalists will have to develop a “scavenger mindset” to rapidly spot and assess material and objects for use in their survival plan.
I am not condoning outright stealing or looting. I think a reasonable person could rationalize the temporary borrowing of material with the intent of returning it or paying for it when conditions allow. I would think that familial or survival group safety would outweigh a non-violent/no victim, technical criminal act. This would not be a material confiscation for the intent of barter or selling, only for personal/group use. In the event of full blown anarchy, this may be a different story.
Some of the things I notice along my route and how I could use them in my survival plan:
RR ties. Good use for stacking inside the house underwindows to make a covered position for observation and defense. Can be used for above ground growing beds as well as vehicle obstacles.
Sand bags. I saw traffic and construction signs anchored with stacked sandbags. Sandbags can provide dirt for grow beds and/or used as they are to fortify walls and fighting positions. The highway signs are a source of wood for fires or can be used to build things like chicken coops, rabbitt hutches, etc.
Barbed wire rolls. Saw these inside a open lot leaning up against a chain link fence. Barbed wire is good to lay in obstacles to channel attackers to where you want them. To create a defense in depth that would take attackers time to work through. Can be used to livestock fencing for any goats, pigs or sheep that you barter for, or raise. Can be used to protect crops against varmints, both four legged and two legged. Note to self - Need heavy duty gloves.
Used car lot. A lot of cars for sale, potential for gas, tires, lights and parts. Note to self - need siphon kit (hose and container), screw driver, tire iron and jack.
Pallets stacked up next to a dumpster. Possible source for wood for fires or lumber to build animal cages and even raised crop beds.
Stacked used tires. Tires configured in triangles filled with dirt make good defensive position or vehicle barriers.
Stacks of cardboard boxes next to dumpster. Source for more fire material; maybe for insulation in walls.
Piles of gravel. One use may be as a bottom layer in crop beds for drainage; putting gravel along windows or other secondary accesses to make intruders tread lightly or make noise. Not to self - need shovel and containers.
The next time you are traveling look around, do a mental exercise or inventory on what may be abandoned that you could use and how would you use it.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Survival Rifle - M4 carbine versus SKS
UrbanSurvvialSkills.com received an Anonymous said... Do I really need an M-4 rifle? I can get an SKS for $339. I know the ammo is more expensive and much harder to obtain, but how much better off am I going to be with an M-4 than an SKS? Thanks.
UrbanMan replies: If you are asking me what weapon would be the better choice for survival and protection, I would say, hands down, the M-4 carbine especially a gas piston version rather than the gas tube version. However, I would not feel slighted in the least with an older gas tube version. In fact, I have several of those.
The reasons I would choose the M-4, or even an AR-15 variant, is that this platform is more accurate than the SKS or the gun that replaced it, the Kalashnikov (AK-47, AKM and variants). Other reasons include: The M-4 in .223 Remington has great ammunition availability; good choice of different bullet configurations from 45 grain frangible, to 55 grain FMJ and tracer, 62 grain steel core penetrator (green tip), and heavier bullets to include the 64 grain PSP, 69 grain JHP and 77 grain JHP; the M-4 uses a detachable box magazine in 20 and 30 round variations and the magazines are plentiful; and, there are wide range of accessories available for this gun.
The SKS is a great gun but not nearly as accurate as the M-4/AR-15 platforms. It’s semi-fixed box magazine allows 10 rounds and then is not as easily to reload and get back into the fight as an M-4. It is a reliable weapon with a great round, the 7.62x39mm also known as the M43 Russian round.
But to really give the best answer I can I would have to know more, such as: Is the SKS or M-4 going to be your only weapon? Are you on a small budget and procurement of the M-4 would take all your funds, not leaving any for other survival equipment or material, particularly food procurement? If the answer is yes, then it would make sense to buy an SKS and an adequate supply of ammunition, say 1,000 rounds, then use the rest of your money to stock food and buy other essential kit for surviving the coming collapse.
I think the best approach for survival on a budget is to spend what you can on immediate needs (these are food, water, shelter and protection) then make future purchases as you can, working off a prioritization list. A firearm is a big purchase. If you procure food in small increments you may not even notice it much. A bag of rice and beans here, a box of bullion there,…..oatmeal, peanut butter, honey are all pretty cheap as well.
So in case I’m confusing you, I would buy the M-4 providing you have the funds to procure in other areas. If not, the SKS may make sense if it allows you to retain money for immediate procurement of food, survival equipment and material and maybe even start buying silver bullion.
Good luck to you and prepare well.
The SKS is a great gun but not nearly as accurate as the M-4/AR-15 platforms. It’s semi-fixed box magazine allows 10 rounds and then is not as easily to reload and get back into the fight as an M-4. It is a reliable weapon with a great round, the 7.62x39mm also known as the M43 Russian round.
But to really give the best answer I can I would have to know more, such as: Is the SKS or M-4 going to be your only weapon? Are you on a small budget and procurement of the M-4 would take all your funds, not leaving any for other survival equipment or material, particularly food procurement? If the answer is yes, then it would make sense to buy an SKS and an adequate supply of ammunition, say 1,000 rounds, then use the rest of your money to stock food and buy other essential kit for surviving the coming collapse.
I think the best approach for survival on a budget is to spend what you can on immediate needs (these are food, water, shelter and protection) then make future purchases as you can, working off a prioritization list. A firearm is a big purchase. If you procure food in small increments you may not even notice it much. A bag of rice and beans here, a box of bullion there,…..oatmeal, peanut butter, honey are all pretty cheap as well.
So in case I’m confusing you, I would buy the M-4 providing you have the funds to procure in other areas. If not, the SKS may make sense if it allows you to retain money for immediate procurement of food, survival equipment and material and maybe even start buying silver bullion.
Good luck to you and prepare well.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Survival Planning - Dollar Collapse Will Shock the World
Today King World News interviewed James Turk out of Spain and Turk issued the following warning regarding the US dollar, “I am looking at the weekly chart for the last 2 1/2 years and my conclusion is that the dollar is forming a massive top. If we stop to consider that gold was rising while the dollar was basically going sideways during this period of time, imagine how rapidly gold will rise when the dollar starts falling.”
Turk continues: “What I’m watching here very carefully is how the dollar is reacting to events in the Middle-East and higher commodity prices. Brent crude is presently $115 and that is signaling higher inflation. It’s a signal that everybody around the world is watching. So watch the dollar index closely. It broke below 77 and the chart is starting to look heavy. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: The chart below from Bloomberg.com depicts the falling value of the dollar, and trends from the part five years, based on the dollars relative value compared to other main currencies.
"The dollar isn’t bouncing and it now appears the dollar is ready to fall off of the edge of a cliff. The dollar collapse is going to be the next big story. If I am right and the dollar really starts to dive, the implications are global in nature and I truly believe this event will shock the world."
When asked about gold Turk responded, “To me the most important thing is this huge base that we now have in gold under $1,400. I see it as a major launching pad that could easily take gold to my $1,800 target for this year. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: Other analysts say Gold will climb well in the $2,000 a ounce range and not come down.
When asked about silver specifically Turk stated, “I think the major message in silver is that every dip is well bid for. The shorts and other big players may gun for stops from time to time, but they can’t change the underlying trend, or the very bullish fundamental picture.
When the gold and silver markets start becoming disorderly, then we will know the metals are going to take a breather. But everything at the moment says we should be focusing on higher prices for both gold and silver.” UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: Better get some Gold or Silver while youstill can. Remember OPSEC. Use mail order and delivery to your house as a last resort.
71 to 74 is seen as the last support if the dollar heads lower. If that support fails and the dollar breaks 71, then a waterfall decline with panic selling could come into play. Turk is right, that event would shock the world. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: The US Dollar will be worth nothing as major currency holders overseas, which account for a significant percentage of US Dollars, will sell all dollars. Gold (and silver) will skyrocket. Fuel will go through the roof and food prices will greatly increase as will all commodities. Get Prepared Now.
Turk continues: “What I’m watching here very carefully is how the dollar is reacting to events in the Middle-East and higher commodity prices. Brent crude is presently $115 and that is signaling higher inflation. It’s a signal that everybody around the world is watching. So watch the dollar index closely. It broke below 77 and the chart is starting to look heavy. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: The chart below from Bloomberg.com depicts the falling value of the dollar, and trends from the part five years, based on the dollars relative value compared to other main currencies.
"The dollar isn’t bouncing and it now appears the dollar is ready to fall off of the edge of a cliff. The dollar collapse is going to be the next big story. If I am right and the dollar really starts to dive, the implications are global in nature and I truly believe this event will shock the world."
When asked about gold Turk responded, “To me the most important thing is this huge base that we now have in gold under $1,400. I see it as a major launching pad that could easily take gold to my $1,800 target for this year. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: Other analysts say Gold will climb well in the $2,000 a ounce range and not come down.
When asked about silver specifically Turk stated, “I think the major message in silver is that every dip is well bid for. The shorts and other big players may gun for stops from time to time, but they can’t change the underlying trend, or the very bullish fundamental picture.
When the gold and silver markets start becoming disorderly, then we will know the metals are going to take a breather. But everything at the moment says we should be focusing on higher prices for both gold and silver.” UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: Better get some Gold or Silver while youstill can. Remember OPSEC. Use mail order and delivery to your house as a last resort.
71 to 74 is seen as the last support if the dollar heads lower. If that support fails and the dollar breaks 71, then a waterfall decline with panic selling could come into play. Turk is right, that event would shock the world. UrbanSurvivalSkills.com remark: The US Dollar will be worth nothing as major currency holders overseas, which account for a significant percentage of US Dollars, will sell all dollars. Gold (and silver) will skyrocket. Fuel will go through the roof and food prices will greatly increase as will all commodities. Get Prepared Now.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Winchester 223 Remington Warning and Recall
PRODUCT WARNING AND RECALL NOTICE on WINCHESTER® RANGER® LAW ENFORCEMENT 223 Remington 64 Grain Power-Point®, dated March 1, 2011
Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling six (6) lots of its RANGER® 223 Remington 64 Grain Power-Point® (PP) centerfire rifle ammunition (Symbol Number RA223R2).
Lot Numbers (last four characters): DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41, and DK51
Through extensive evaluation Winchester has determined the above lots of RANGER® Law Enforcement ammunition may contain incorrect propellant. Incorrect propellant in this ammunition may cause firearm damage, rendering the firearm inoperable, and subject the shooter or bystanders to a risk of serious personal injury when fired.
DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® RANGER® 223 REMINGTON 64 GRAIN POWER-POINT® AMMUNITION THAT HAS A LOT NUMBER ENDING IN DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41 or DK51. The ammunition Lot Number is ink stamped inside the right tuck flap of the 20-round carton, as indicated here:
To determine if your ammunition is subject to this notice, review the Lot Number. If the last four characters of the Lot Number are DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41 or DK51 immediately discontinue use and contact Winchester toll-free at 866-423-5224 to arrange for replacement ammunition and free UPS pick-up of the recalled ammunition.
This notice applies only to RANGER® 223 Remington 64 Grain Power-Point® centerfire rifle ammunition with lot numbers ending in DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41, and DK51. Other Symbol Numbers or Lot Numbers are not subject to this recall.
If you have any questions concerning this RANGER® Law Enforcement ammunition recall please call toll-free 866-423-5224, write to Winchester (600 Powder Mill Road, East Alton, IL 62024 Attn: RA223R2 Recall), or visit our website at www.winchester.com.
Olin Corporation, through its Winchester Division, is recalling six (6) lots of its RANGER® 223 Remington 64 Grain Power-Point® (PP) centerfire rifle ammunition (Symbol Number RA223R2).
Lot Numbers (last four characters): DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41, and DK51
Through extensive evaluation Winchester has determined the above lots of RANGER® Law Enforcement ammunition may contain incorrect propellant. Incorrect propellant in this ammunition may cause firearm damage, rendering the firearm inoperable, and subject the shooter or bystanders to a risk of serious personal injury when fired.
DO NOT USE WINCHESTER® RANGER® 223 REMINGTON 64 GRAIN POWER-POINT® AMMUNITION THAT HAS A LOT NUMBER ENDING IN DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41 or DK51. The ammunition Lot Number is ink stamped inside the right tuck flap of the 20-round carton, as indicated here:
To determine if your ammunition is subject to this notice, review the Lot Number. If the last four characters of the Lot Number are DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41 or DK51 immediately discontinue use and contact Winchester toll-free at 866-423-5224 to arrange for replacement ammunition and free UPS pick-up of the recalled ammunition.
This notice applies only to RANGER® 223 Remington 64 Grain Power-Point® centerfire rifle ammunition with lot numbers ending in DK01, DK11, DK21, DK31, DK41, and DK51. Other Symbol Numbers or Lot Numbers are not subject to this recall.
If you have any questions concerning this RANGER® Law Enforcement ammunition recall please call toll-free 866-423-5224, write to Winchester (600 Powder Mill Road, East Alton, IL 62024 Attn: RA223R2 Recall), or visit our website at www.winchester.com.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Breaking Survival Preparation News - Utah Considers Return to Gold, Silver Coins
UrbanMan's comment: Can you imagine this? Even this news, just breaking, should raise the price of gold.
Utah took its first major step Friday toward bringing the gold standard back to the U.S. when the state House passed a bill that would recognize gold and silver coins issued by the federal government as legal currency.
The House voted 47-26 in favor of the legislation that would also exempt the sale of gold from the state capital gains tax and calls for a committee to study alternative currencies for the state.
The legislation now heads to the state Senate where a vote is expected next week.
Under the bill, the coins would not replace the current paper currency but would be used and accepted voluntarily as an alternative.
If the bill passes, Utah would become the first of 13 states that have proposed similar measures. The others states are Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington.
The U.S. used the gold standard from 1873 until 1933, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlawed the private ownership of gold amid the Great Depression. President Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard altogether when he announced in 1971 that the U.S. would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value.
Critics of the gold standard say it limits countries' control over its monetary policy and leaves them vulnerable to financial shocks, such as the Great Depression. But supporters argue that the current financial system's dependence on the Federal Reserve exposes the value of U.S. money to the risk of runaway inflation.
UrbanMan's comment: I think it really remains to be seen how this affects us in prepping other than most probably raising the price of Gold and therefore Silver. What I do know is that I won't be the guy without any previous metals. In the meantime our advice, from when Gold was $900 an ounce, is still the same,....buy it while you can. Don't wait for the price to dip, although it may dip for a sort period, but will most certainly go up and up as the dollar falls.
Survival Planning - Gold Confiscation Possible?
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received this analysis from one of our financial advisors on what he thinks is likely to happen this calendar year:
There is much talk on the internet about possible Gold confiscation by the U.S. Government. A series of factors will influence this: the devaluation of the U.S. Dollar due to excessive printing of this fiat currency in a misguided attempt to increase the monetary supply and supposedly the economy; the ever increasing debt of the U.S. Government; the International Monetary Fund (IMF), France and China (among other countries) working to remove the U.S. Dollar as the World’s currency; and, the fact that oil commerce today is accomplished using the U.S. Dollar as the mean trading unit. Once the Dollar is not longer the World’s reserve currency, the U.S. will not be able to purchase crude oil at the prices we are seeing today.
Other factors may be what the new world’s reserved currency will look like. Will it be the Chinese Yuan or a conglomeration or mix of many different currencies? Will the new world’s reserve currency be forced to hold physical assets, such as gold, in a sort of escrow to ensure it’s credibility and ability to hold value? Will any new U.S. currency be linked to gold?
There is good theory out there that predicts that once gold hit’s a certain value per ounce, say $2,000, then the U.S. Government will move quick to avert full fledged slide of the U.S. dollar by requiring an exchange of privately held gold for U.S. currency, albeit at a rate they determine, Enforcement measures have already been put in place with Obamacare’s new 1099 form requirements which mandate gold/silver vendors to place all precious metals transactions over $600 on an 1099 form.
Additionally, confiscation implementation will probably also come from confiscatory taxes. High taxes, 80% to 90% on any profit from precious metals will discourage investment and holding of PM’s.
So what am I saying?
One – Inflation is going to hit and be severe; all commodities will increase in price and decrease in availability.
Two – Congress will be half stepping to avert forfeiture of the U.S. gov’t on the debt and the U.S. Dollar from being removed as the world’s reserve currency.
Three – Gas will hit $5 without the U.S. Dollar being removed as the world’s currency; $7 a gallon is the IMF and China get their way.
Four – Gold will hit near $2,000 an ounce and the U.S. Government will be forced to secure or confiscate Gold to avert a total disaster and will set the new gold price, relative to the existing U.S. Dollar or a new currency, around the $250 per ounce mark.
Five –Ensure you have silver is your survival planning; silver is much more harder to confiscate however see the part of 1099’s!
Six – If you have precious metal assets you should think about not having them if someone from the Government comes to your door.
This is the Counter Confiscation Argument:
What UrbanMan thinks: I think Gold and Silver will continue to climb. I think the U.S. Dollar will continue to plummet and prices for commodities will rise, particular fuel - this will skyrocket. When this gets to the tipping point, the economy will tank. The USG will not confiscate Gold. They may heavily tax gold and bar future private ownership, but will not confiscate gold. The USG may interview people, reference to tax code from 1099's on Gold and other PM acquisitions on abeyance in reporting. But don't look for confiscation. Even then, be prepared for all threats.
There is much talk on the internet about possible Gold confiscation by the U.S. Government. A series of factors will influence this: the devaluation of the U.S. Dollar due to excessive printing of this fiat currency in a misguided attempt to increase the monetary supply and supposedly the economy; the ever increasing debt of the U.S. Government; the International Monetary Fund (IMF), France and China (among other countries) working to remove the U.S. Dollar as the World’s currency; and, the fact that oil commerce today is accomplished using the U.S. Dollar as the mean trading unit. Once the Dollar is not longer the World’s reserve currency, the U.S. will not be able to purchase crude oil at the prices we are seeing today.
Other factors may be what the new world’s reserved currency will look like. Will it be the Chinese Yuan or a conglomeration or mix of many different currencies? Will the new world’s reserve currency be forced to hold physical assets, such as gold, in a sort of escrow to ensure it’s credibility and ability to hold value? Will any new U.S. currency be linked to gold?
There is good theory out there that predicts that once gold hit’s a certain value per ounce, say $2,000, then the U.S. Government will move quick to avert full fledged slide of the U.S. dollar by requiring an exchange of privately held gold for U.S. currency, albeit at a rate they determine, Enforcement measures have already been put in place with Obamacare’s new 1099 form requirements which mandate gold/silver vendors to place all precious metals transactions over $600 on an 1099 form.
Additionally, confiscation implementation will probably also come from confiscatory taxes. High taxes, 80% to 90% on any profit from precious metals will discourage investment and holding of PM’s.
So what am I saying?
One – Inflation is going to hit and be severe; all commodities will increase in price and decrease in availability.
Two – Congress will be half stepping to avert forfeiture of the U.S. gov’t on the debt and the U.S. Dollar from being removed as the world’s reserve currency.
Three – Gas will hit $5 without the U.S. Dollar being removed as the world’s currency; $7 a gallon is the IMF and China get their way.
Four – Gold will hit near $2,000 an ounce and the U.S. Government will be forced to secure or confiscate Gold to avert a total disaster and will set the new gold price, relative to the existing U.S. Dollar or a new currency, around the $250 per ounce mark.
Five –Ensure you have silver is your survival planning; silver is much more harder to confiscate however see the part of 1099’s!
Six – If you have precious metal assets you should think about not having them if someone from the Government comes to your door.
This is the Counter Confiscation Argument:
What UrbanMan thinks: I think Gold and Silver will continue to climb. I think the U.S. Dollar will continue to plummet and prices for commodities will rise, particular fuel - this will skyrocket. When this gets to the tipping point, the economy will tank. The USG will not confiscate Gold. They may heavily tax gold and bar future private ownership, but will not confiscate gold. The USG may interview people, reference to tax code from 1099's on Gold and other PM acquisitions on abeyance in reporting. But don't look for confiscation. Even then, be prepared for all threats.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Reader Question on Survival Prepping (without Family Support)
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an the following comment on the post – The Urban Threat – Why the Need for Urban Survival Prep”: “ I am SO overwhelmed right now. It is sad because I come from a family of people who have always been somewhat prepared and interested so I'm not completely new to the concept but I've spent my time being lost in depression and complacency. Hoping that things will just 'be okay' as I fought stupid battles with my ex husband and tried to keep my head above water.
Now, it feels too late. I have joint custody with my ex husband. If two of my four kids are with him when it comes down to hunkering down, bugging out or whatever is on the menu, I won't be able to leave them. He has never cooperated with me on anything, choosing instead to use any moment to extract often oddball methods of revenge...meaning, I can't trust him. My oldest daughter is off living with her bf. I love her but she is a huge flake and cannot be counted on not to talk too much. Do I prepare for her just in case? My stupid dogs bark at everything and I even have a rooster that crows literally all hours of the night and day although the night thing has tapered off since I told my mil that she absolutely had to turn off her bedroom light at night instead of leaving it on all hours...her light faces the coop and was confusing the rooster.
Don't even get me started on my mil. There is absolutely NO WAY I can even begin to afford to prepare for her in a hunker down situation and when bug out becomes the game, I could not take her. My parents live behind me, they are both in their early 70's but are tough as nails, country folk, armed and proficient.
My husband is not nearly as serious as I am so it feels as if I carry this alone but I realize it isn't quit that way. He has a daughter, ex wife and her two little boys that he would want to get to. They live a long enough distance that it seriously bothers me as they are NOT the kind you can talk to about this stuff ahead of time, so no preparation on their part, no monetary aid in making food preparations etc and then having to either wait on them or go get them which reduces the efficiency of my planning and my family's strength. Plus again, their health needs run insulin dependent diabetes and morbid obesity? WTH am I supposed to do with stuff like this? How do I pick a place to try to go to? Oh, did I mention that I have very little money to work with? It's a tiny piece at a time and I hope to god I'm not too late. –Lost at the End (Stephanie)
UrbanMan replies: Stephanie, I am going to use a post format to reply to you as used the comment box rather than the e-mail function to contact me. A lot of us can see ourselves in your comment. In fact when I read your comment the first time I saw a friend of mine in my mind’s eye who also had a divorce type scenario with three children. His ex-wife was a pain for him in keeping the kids for a weekend and told everyone that my friend was crazy, trying to ruin his rep around town. When these kid’s were in their early teens, he constantly stressed to them that his house was the safe haven, from all threats. He wanted them to have a pre-programmed response to get to his house if anything happened. He exposed them to firearms and shooting, and they were trustworthy enough to know where he kept the guns and could get to them if necessary.
My friend also exposed his kids to his survival food supply which, back then, mainly consisted of cases of canned soups, and dried pasta, rice, beans. His Bug Out plan was to get his family to his new wife’s boss’ farmhouse about 4 miles outside of town….where a well, pond and above ground swimming pool existed,……you gotta have water! The kid’s were brought to the farm several times, knew the route to it, and told this was the backup place to go. My friend’s kids are now beginning college and one is in the last year of high school, which is a lot of my friends back, but do parents ever really stop worrying about their children? I took all this as building trust between him and his kids and developing a response to come to him in an emergency.
A little note on diabetes: Adult on-set or Type II diabetes is controllable through nutrition…until you get to the point at your pancreas does not produce any insulin. Insulin dependent diabetes, even type II,……well, sucks because you have to have diabetes. In a post collapse world where a lack of processed foods and sugar, the diabetes rates will plummet, as will obesity. The novel, “One Second After”, by William Forstchen has a character with insulin dependent diabetes. This is a good book to read as it clearly displays the consequences of no survival planning.
Really the only things you can do is to continue dripping the necessity of survival (or disaster) prepping. My wife, who was initially put off and scared that I was a loon, is now much better about it. I think you can also continue to prep, whatever your budget allows. I would just continue on. That’s what I do. When I reached my goal of stocked food for six months, then my goal shifted to nine months and so on. Also ensure you cover all necessities. The list is endless so the objective is to get better across the board, incrementally as you can.
I would assume you are in charge of the house. If your current husband gives you any grief over prepping then give him the LOOK,….you know,…..that LOOK women give men to get them to back off. Good luck.
Now, it feels too late. I have joint custody with my ex husband. If two of my four kids are with him when it comes down to hunkering down, bugging out or whatever is on the menu, I won't be able to leave them. He has never cooperated with me on anything, choosing instead to use any moment to extract often oddball methods of revenge...meaning, I can't trust him. My oldest daughter is off living with her bf. I love her but she is a huge flake and cannot be counted on not to talk too much. Do I prepare for her just in case? My stupid dogs bark at everything and I even have a rooster that crows literally all hours of the night and day although the night thing has tapered off since I told my mil that she absolutely had to turn off her bedroom light at night instead of leaving it on all hours...her light faces the coop and was confusing the rooster.
Don't even get me started on my mil. There is absolutely NO WAY I can even begin to afford to prepare for her in a hunker down situation and when bug out becomes the game, I could not take her. My parents live behind me, they are both in their early 70's but are tough as nails, country folk, armed and proficient.
My husband is not nearly as serious as I am so it feels as if I carry this alone but I realize it isn't quit that way. He has a daughter, ex wife and her two little boys that he would want to get to. They live a long enough distance that it seriously bothers me as they are NOT the kind you can talk to about this stuff ahead of time, so no preparation on their part, no monetary aid in making food preparations etc and then having to either wait on them or go get them which reduces the efficiency of my planning and my family's strength. Plus again, their health needs run insulin dependent diabetes and morbid obesity? WTH am I supposed to do with stuff like this? How do I pick a place to try to go to? Oh, did I mention that I have very little money to work with? It's a tiny piece at a time and I hope to god I'm not too late. –Lost at the End (Stephanie)
UrbanMan replies: Stephanie, I am going to use a post format to reply to you as used the comment box rather than the e-mail function to contact me. A lot of us can see ourselves in your comment. In fact when I read your comment the first time I saw a friend of mine in my mind’s eye who also had a divorce type scenario with three children. His ex-wife was a pain for him in keeping the kids for a weekend and told everyone that my friend was crazy, trying to ruin his rep around town. When these kid’s were in their early teens, he constantly stressed to them that his house was the safe haven, from all threats. He wanted them to have a pre-programmed response to get to his house if anything happened. He exposed them to firearms and shooting, and they were trustworthy enough to know where he kept the guns and could get to them if necessary.
My friend also exposed his kids to his survival food supply which, back then, mainly consisted of cases of canned soups, and dried pasta, rice, beans. His Bug Out plan was to get his family to his new wife’s boss’ farmhouse about 4 miles outside of town….where a well, pond and above ground swimming pool existed,……you gotta have water! The kid’s were brought to the farm several times, knew the route to it, and told this was the backup place to go. My friend’s kids are now beginning college and one is in the last year of high school, which is a lot of my friends back, but do parents ever really stop worrying about their children? I took all this as building trust between him and his kids and developing a response to come to him in an emergency.
A little note on diabetes: Adult on-set or Type II diabetes is controllable through nutrition…until you get to the point at your pancreas does not produce any insulin. Insulin dependent diabetes, even type II,……well, sucks because you have to have diabetes. In a post collapse world where a lack of processed foods and sugar, the diabetes rates will plummet, as will obesity. The novel, “One Second After”, by William Forstchen has a character with insulin dependent diabetes. This is a good book to read as it clearly displays the consequences of no survival planning.
Really the only things you can do is to continue dripping the necessity of survival (or disaster) prepping. My wife, who was initially put off and scared that I was a loon, is now much better about it. I think you can also continue to prep, whatever your budget allows. I would just continue on. That’s what I do. When I reached my goal of stocked food for six months, then my goal shifted to nine months and so on. Also ensure you cover all necessities. The list is endless so the objective is to get better across the board, incrementally as you can.
I would assume you are in charge of the house. If your current husband gives you any grief over prepping then give him the LOOK,….you know,…..that LOOK women give men to get them to back off. Good luck.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Survival Preparation - Big OPSEC Violation Example
We often talk about trying to get our family and friends to be Survival Prep oriented. We discuss hints and approaches basically because we want these people to be prepared and to not be a burden on those of us who have prepared but not prepared to the extent to take in a bunch of stragglers.
Some of us undoubtedly keep quiet as to not appears as some loony, camouflage clad, rifle toting extremist (my apologies to those of you who wear cammies). Some of us are also careful for another reason, as to not advertise the fact that we have stocks, even substantial stocks. of Survival gear, material, food, firearms and in some cases precious metals.
The Operational Security (OPSEC) effort required to protect the knowledge that you are preparing in any way is a huge undertaking. Risks may come from the UPS or FEDEX delivery man noting one time or multiple deliveries of ammunition, precious metals, and other survival oriented material simply from the shipping tags or the warning labels (ammunition); maybe a loose conversation from your wife to a friend,…”My husband is scaring me,…buying all this silver, food, sleeping bags, water purification stuff. He thinks the world is going to end!” Knowledge and innocent remarks can be very real violations of OPSEC. Please warn, brief and train your family and friends to use discretion.
If you cannot stock your supplies in a hidden manner, be prepared to use disinformation or just plain excuses. I recently had a plumber fixing my hot water heater and he stood in my garage looking at shelves of stacked boxes of dehydrated foods. He asked “Is that all food?”. I said "I got the boxes at work, but I have excess clothing in them that I collect for good will and the salvation army.” I said it nonchalantly, and he just replied “Oh”. Maybe I fooled him, maybe not. For the people I don’t fool and who intend to take what I have, I have motion lights, entry sensors, several dogs, constant situational awareness and the final option, flashlight equipped firearms within arms reach.
Below is an article from Canada detailing the silver bullion robbery of someone who did not have tight OPSEC.
Article from Resource Investor.com, by Roman Baudzus, Feb 2011
Robbers Make Off with $750,000 in Silver Bars
A man who decided to store his precious metals in a vault at his home in Chilliwack, Canada, was robbed of US $750,000 worth of silver bars in broad daylight. This case, which was first published about two weeks ago, shows that storing large amounts of precious metals at home is a very risky undertaking.
The 52-year-old victim is still traumatized after burglars intruded into his house where he had stored his life savings in silver bars. Based on the current silver price at the New York Comex, the silver was valued at about US$750,000.
Two burglars entered the house and attacked the man with a knife before tying him up. One of the thieves also carried a gun. The intruders were dressed in fake police uniforms and told the victim that they were investigating a crime and needed to ask him some questions. Once inside the house, they attacked the man and forced him to provide the combination for his vault. They then headed directly for the vault, which contained several thousand ounces of silver. After they had emptied the vault of the silver bars, the two robbers disappeared without a trace.
The victim is now wondering who could have provided the intruders with hints about the silver bars stored at his house. Friends, neighbours and relatives are the main suspects. Someone might have mentioned something to the wrong people, thereby letting the burglars find out about the silver bars, or they might have been informed by a third party.
The culprits are expected to try selling the metal to various precious metals traders. The victim did not say how much he paid for his silver stocks. Within one year the silver price has almost doubled from US $17 to US $33. A bank had refused to arrange for the storage of the silver for practical reasons, since it did not have enough space to store several thousand ounces. Moreover, the silver was not insured because the insurance cover had been too expensive.
This incident clearly demonstrates the importance of secure and insured precious metals storage to efficiently protect your precious metals from risks such as theft.
Some of us undoubtedly keep quiet as to not appears as some loony, camouflage clad, rifle toting extremist (my apologies to those of you who wear cammies). Some of us are also careful for another reason, as to not advertise the fact that we have stocks, even substantial stocks. of Survival gear, material, food, firearms and in some cases precious metals.
The Operational Security (OPSEC) effort required to protect the knowledge that you are preparing in any way is a huge undertaking. Risks may come from the UPS or FEDEX delivery man noting one time or multiple deliveries of ammunition, precious metals, and other survival oriented material simply from the shipping tags or the warning labels (ammunition); maybe a loose conversation from your wife to a friend,…”My husband is scaring me,…buying all this silver, food, sleeping bags, water purification stuff. He thinks the world is going to end!” Knowledge and innocent remarks can be very real violations of OPSEC. Please warn, brief and train your family and friends to use discretion.
If you cannot stock your supplies in a hidden manner, be prepared to use disinformation or just plain excuses. I recently had a plumber fixing my hot water heater and he stood in my garage looking at shelves of stacked boxes of dehydrated foods. He asked “Is that all food?”. I said "I got the boxes at work, but I have excess clothing in them that I collect for good will and the salvation army.” I said it nonchalantly, and he just replied “Oh”. Maybe I fooled him, maybe not. For the people I don’t fool and who intend to take what I have, I have motion lights, entry sensors, several dogs, constant situational awareness and the final option, flashlight equipped firearms within arms reach.
Below is an article from Canada detailing the silver bullion robbery of someone who did not have tight OPSEC.
Article from Resource Investor.com, by Roman Baudzus, Feb 2011
Robbers Make Off with $750,000 in Silver Bars
A man who decided to store his precious metals in a vault at his home in Chilliwack, Canada, was robbed of US $750,000 worth of silver bars in broad daylight. This case, which was first published about two weeks ago, shows that storing large amounts of precious metals at home is a very risky undertaking.
The 52-year-old victim is still traumatized after burglars intruded into his house where he had stored his life savings in silver bars. Based on the current silver price at the New York Comex, the silver was valued at about US$750,000.
Two burglars entered the house and attacked the man with a knife before tying him up. One of the thieves also carried a gun. The intruders were dressed in fake police uniforms and told the victim that they were investigating a crime and needed to ask him some questions. Once inside the house, they attacked the man and forced him to provide the combination for his vault. They then headed directly for the vault, which contained several thousand ounces of silver. After they had emptied the vault of the silver bars, the two robbers disappeared without a trace.
The victim is now wondering who could have provided the intruders with hints about the silver bars stored at his house. Friends, neighbours and relatives are the main suspects. Someone might have mentioned something to the wrong people, thereby letting the burglars find out about the silver bars, or they might have been informed by a third party.
The culprits are expected to try selling the metal to various precious metals traders. The victim did not say how much he paid for his silver stocks. Within one year the silver price has almost doubled from US $17 to US $33. A bank had refused to arrange for the storage of the silver for practical reasons, since it did not have enough space to store several thousand ounces. Moreover, the silver was not insured because the insurance cover had been too expensive.
This incident clearly demonstrates the importance of secure and insured precious metals storage to efficiently protect your precious metals from risks such as theft.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Reader Question on Body Armor for Survival
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following e-mail request: ”Hey urban man. just thought I'd drop you another line. I was wondering if Kevlar vests would be a practical piece of your survival kit. I seem to be one of the few in my circle to think so, I made the argument it weighs close to nothing and will quite literally save your life on multiple occasions, but nobody thought it was worth spending the extra money on it. I’ve done a little research on it and come to find out a plain old kevlar vest that stops up to a high velocity 5.56 FMJ bullet is only around 350$-650$, so I guess is do you think its worth it? Get back to me man and stay prepared.”
UrbanMan replies:Before I answer that lets review the levels of body armor under the National Institute of Justice Ratings for Body Armor,.....NIJ Standard 0101.03, 0101.04:
NIJ LEVEL I: This armor protects against .22 caliber Long Rifle Lead Round Nose (LR LRN) bullets with nominal masses of 40 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1050 fps or less and 380 ACP Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets with nominal masses of 95 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1025 fps or less.
NIJ LEVEL IIA: Lower Velocity 9mm, .40 S&W. This armor protects against 9mm Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets with nominal masses of 124 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1090 fps or less and .40 S&W caliber Full Metal Jacketed (FMJ) bullets with nominal masses of 180 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1025 fps or less. It also provides protection against Level I threats. Level IIA body armor is well suited for full-time use by police departments, particularly those seeking protection for their officers from lower velocity .40 S&W and 9mm ammunition.
NIJ LEVEL II: Higher Velocity 9mm, .357 Magnum. This armor protects against .357 Magnum jacketed soft-point bullets with nominal masses of 158 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,395 fps or less and against 9mm full-jacketed bullets with nominal velocities of 1,175 ft/s. It also protects against most other factory loads in caliber .357 Magnum and 9mm as well as the Level I and IIA threats. Level II body armor is heavier and more bulky than either Level’s I or IIA. It is worn full time by officers seeking protection against higher velocity .357 Magnum and 9mm ammunition.
NIJ LEVEL IIIA: .44 Magnum; Submachine Gun 9mm. This armor protects against .44 Magnum, Semi Jacketed Hollow Point (SJHP) bullets with nominal masses of 240 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,400 fps or less and against 9mm full-metal jacketed bullets with nominal masses of 124 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,400 ft/s or less. It also provides protection against most handgun threats as well as the Level I, IIA, and II threats. Level IIIA body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available from concealable body armor and is generally suitable for routine wear in many situations. However, departments located in hot, humid climates may need to evaluate the use of Level IIIA armor carefully.
NIJ LEVEL III: High-powered rifle. This armor, normally plates of hard or semi-rigid construction (steel, composite armor, ceramic), protects against 7.62mm full-metal jacketed bullets (US military designation M80) with nominal masses of 150 gr. impacting at a velocity of 2,750 ft/s or less. It also provides protection against threats such as .223 Remington (5.56mm FMJ), 30 Carbine FMJ, and 12-gauge rifled slug, as well as Level I through IIIA threats. Level III body armor is clearly intended only for tactical situations when the threat warrants such protection, such as barricade confrontations involving sporting rifles.
NIJ LEVEL IV: Armor-piercing rifle. This armor protects against .30–06 caliber armor-piercing bullets ( US military designation APM2) with nominal masses of 166 gr. impacting at a velocity of 2,850 ft/s or less. It also provides at least single-hit protection against the Level I through III threats. Level IV body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available. Because this armor is intended to resist “armor piercing” bullets, it often uses ceramic materials. Such materials are brittle in nature and may provide only single-shot protection since the ceramic tends to break up when struck. As with Level III armor, Level IV armor is clearly intended only for tactical situations when the threat warrants such protection.
You can see that to protect against 5.56 (.223 Remington) you’ll need Threat Level III protection. Very few companies offering Level III armor under $650. You need to check your state laws. A lot of disinformation out there on whether or not body armor is legal to own. Best to get your local and state laws. Another issue is many that companies will not sell armor to people without a law enforcement nexus or certification,...... and possibly require a supervisors approval on agency letterhead, although Level IIIA (one step lower than Level III and will not stop 5.56mm) is commonly available but starting around $400.
A lot of personnel are wearing Level IIIA armor with Level III plates in an insert over the chest and in the back. There has been a lot of technological improvement in body armor from steel plates, to composite plates to ceramic plates. In the old days, we used to cut steel and use that as surrogate armor for our vehicles, even then 5.56mm ball and tracer would penetrate one-quarter inch mild steel. When we used a harder steel, such as T1 or T520, 5.56mm ball and tracer were defeated, but not 5.56mm SS109 steel core penetrator, whic punched right through unless you went to a thicker and much heavier chunk of steel. We used to buy pepper popper targets and IPSC sized steel target as they fit behind our seats for rear protection from small arms fire coming from our six.
It's probably more common for personnel to wear Level IIIA or even the lower rated Level II, under their shirts, then wear a plate carrier Molle platform to carry plates and gear pouches. It will be hard to buy plates. They are expensive. An enterprising individual could make his own plates, buying the appropriate hardness steel plates then having them cut to size to fit the plate carrier pocket. You could even coat them liquid rubber coating which hardens to a rubberized surface for easier handling. These field expedient plates are necessrily going to be heavy.
Body armor has an expiration to it, usually 5 years if stored correctly. After that it is de-certified, therefore hard to get second hand as nobody wants the liability. I think if you store it correctly (flat and in a humidity controlled environment) that it can be viable years after,..hell I’m counting on it.
To answer your question, yes, body armor is essential item of kit. Just usually outside the procurement capability of most people. I particulary like wearing II or IIIA soft body armor ovr my t-shirt and under my work shirt, then adding a molle plate carrier.
UrbanMan replies:Before I answer that lets review the levels of body armor under the National Institute of Justice Ratings for Body Armor,.....NIJ Standard 0101.03, 0101.04:
NIJ LEVEL I: This armor protects against .22 caliber Long Rifle Lead Round Nose (LR LRN) bullets with nominal masses of 40 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1050 fps or less and 380 ACP Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets with nominal masses of 95 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1025 fps or less.
NIJ LEVEL IIA: Lower Velocity 9mm, .40 S&W. This armor protects against 9mm Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets with nominal masses of 124 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1090 fps or less and .40 S&W caliber Full Metal Jacketed (FMJ) bullets with nominal masses of 180 gr impacting at a minimum velocity of 1025 fps or less. It also provides protection against Level I threats. Level IIA body armor is well suited for full-time use by police departments, particularly those seeking protection for their officers from lower velocity .40 S&W and 9mm ammunition.
NIJ LEVEL II: Higher Velocity 9mm, .357 Magnum. This armor protects against .357 Magnum jacketed soft-point bullets with nominal masses of 158 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,395 fps or less and against 9mm full-jacketed bullets with nominal velocities of 1,175 ft/s. It also protects against most other factory loads in caliber .357 Magnum and 9mm as well as the Level I and IIA threats. Level II body armor is heavier and more bulky than either Level’s I or IIA. It is worn full time by officers seeking protection against higher velocity .357 Magnum and 9mm ammunition.
NIJ LEVEL IIIA: .44 Magnum; Submachine Gun 9mm. This armor protects against .44 Magnum, Semi Jacketed Hollow Point (SJHP) bullets with nominal masses of 240 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,400 fps or less and against 9mm full-metal jacketed bullets with nominal masses of 124 gr. impacting at a velocity of 1,400 ft/s or less. It also provides protection against most handgun threats as well as the Level I, IIA, and II threats. Level IIIA body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available from concealable body armor and is generally suitable for routine wear in many situations. However, departments located in hot, humid climates may need to evaluate the use of Level IIIA armor carefully.
NIJ LEVEL III: High-powered rifle. This armor, normally plates of hard or semi-rigid construction (steel, composite armor, ceramic), protects against 7.62mm full-metal jacketed bullets (US military designation M80) with nominal masses of 150 gr. impacting at a velocity of 2,750 ft/s or less. It also provides protection against threats such as .223 Remington (5.56mm FMJ), 30 Carbine FMJ, and 12-gauge rifled slug, as well as Level I through IIIA threats. Level III body armor is clearly intended only for tactical situations when the threat warrants such protection, such as barricade confrontations involving sporting rifles.
NIJ LEVEL IV: Armor-piercing rifle. This armor protects against .30–06 caliber armor-piercing bullets ( US military designation APM2) with nominal masses of 166 gr. impacting at a velocity of 2,850 ft/s or less. It also provides at least single-hit protection against the Level I through III threats. Level IV body armor provides the highest level of protection currently available. Because this armor is intended to resist “armor piercing” bullets, it often uses ceramic materials. Such materials are brittle in nature and may provide only single-shot protection since the ceramic tends to break up when struck. As with Level III armor, Level IV armor is clearly intended only for tactical situations when the threat warrants such protection.
You can see that to protect against 5.56 (.223 Remington) you’ll need Threat Level III protection. Very few companies offering Level III armor under $650. You need to check your state laws. A lot of disinformation out there on whether or not body armor is legal to own. Best to get your local and state laws. Another issue is many that companies will not sell armor to people without a law enforcement nexus or certification,...... and possibly require a supervisors approval on agency letterhead, although Level IIIA (one step lower than Level III and will not stop 5.56mm) is commonly available but starting around $400.
A lot of personnel are wearing Level IIIA armor with Level III plates in an insert over the chest and in the back. There has been a lot of technological improvement in body armor from steel plates, to composite plates to ceramic plates. In the old days, we used to cut steel and use that as surrogate armor for our vehicles, even then 5.56mm ball and tracer would penetrate one-quarter inch mild steel. When we used a harder steel, such as T1 or T520, 5.56mm ball and tracer were defeated, but not 5.56mm SS109 steel core penetrator, whic punched right through unless you went to a thicker and much heavier chunk of steel. We used to buy pepper popper targets and IPSC sized steel target as they fit behind our seats for rear protection from small arms fire coming from our six.
It's probably more common for personnel to wear Level IIIA or even the lower rated Level II, under their shirts, then wear a plate carrier Molle platform to carry plates and gear pouches. It will be hard to buy plates. They are expensive. An enterprising individual could make his own plates, buying the appropriate hardness steel plates then having them cut to size to fit the plate carrier pocket. You could even coat them liquid rubber coating which hardens to a rubberized surface for easier handling. These field expedient plates are necessrily going to be heavy.
Body armor has an expiration to it, usually 5 years if stored correctly. After that it is de-certified, therefore hard to get second hand as nobody wants the liability. I think if you store it correctly (flat and in a humidity controlled environment) that it can be viable years after,..hell I’m counting on it.
To answer your question, yes, body armor is essential item of kit. Just usually outside the procurement capability of most people. I particulary like wearing II or IIIA soft body armor ovr my t-shirt and under my work shirt, then adding a molle plate carrier.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Survival Planning - Advice from Sovereignman - Simon Black
At UrbanSurvivalSkills.com we have written many times about having multiple sources of financial and economic information in order to assess the timeline of the coming collapse and not let it hit you by surprise. One more source of information is Simon Black's Sovereignman.com
Simon's motto immediately intrigued me,....."There are two ways to sleep well at night,....be ignorant or be prepared." I think I'll choose the be prepared method.
And while Sovereignman's primary advice is unrealistic for most Americans (including me) which is to send money overseas to protected bank accounts and either re-locate now to different countries or to be prepared to on short notice, I do think Simon has other good advice and forecasts which should be considered.
One of Simon's latest posts, on February 17, 2011:
Recent headlines,......
“World Bank: Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels”
“Sysco declares force majeure, raises grocery prices”
“The J. M. Smucker Company Announces Coffee Price Increases”
“Kraft warns on price increases”
“Kellogg says it will raise prices”
“Sara Lee to raise prices again on higher commodity costs”
“Bridgestone To Raise Prices”
“Goodyear will raise tire prices up to 6%”
“Allstate rates rise; patience with execs runs thin”
“State Farm wants 28 percent rate increase in Fla.”
“Blue Shield to delay Calif. health rate hikes [for only 60 days]”
“Wellmark [Midwest division of Blue Cross] Rate Hike Approved”
“Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says retailer will have to raise prices”
“Sprint bumps up its smart-phone data plans $10 a month”
“Xcel Energy customers to see rate hikes”
And then there’s this quote to tie it all together:
“Overall inflation is still quite low and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.” — Ben Bernanke, February 9, 2011
If it wasn’t perfectly clear before, it should be now. This man (Bernanke) is either completely out of touch, or he’s a conniving liar. In either case, you should not allow him to be responsible for your well being.
Don’t let the rising stock market fool you into thinking that everything is back on track. It’s impossible to read these headlines and not see at least half of the things that you use frequently– food, coffee, electricity, mobile phone, insurance…
Here’s the bottom line– failing to properly protect your savings, seek alternate sources of income, and diversify your sovereign risk gets you a free one-way ticket on the economic Hindenburg.
Inflation begets economic trouble. Economic trouble begets social unrest. Social unrest begets political instability… and as we saw in Egypt, political instability (and social unrest) begets a police state.
If you don’t want to be around for it, I’d suggest taking action immediately. The quick start guide is this:
1) Open a foreign bank account. Even if you don’t fund it yet, at least have the means to shovel your money overseas in a hurry. UrbanMan's comment: Good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck.
2) Park at least a portion of your savings in stable, inflation-proof assets, preferably overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck. Better to get what you can in Gold and Silver.
3) Look for alternate sources of income– don’t rely on the traditional job market or wait for the government and central bank to create jobs… everyone is good at something, most likely a lot of things. Think about how you can add value, how you can solve problems. UrbanMan's comment: This is called the multiple streams of income strategy. I use it and have solid contingency plans if I lose my job as losing one stream of income won't put me on my back.
4) Look at your own personal vulnerabilities. What would happen if you lost your job? If food became extremely expensive? If gas prices made normal commuting and errands cost prohibitive? If your healthcare became unaffordable? Consider lifestyle changes to reduce these vulnerabilities. UrbanMan's comment: I have a list of savings measures to be implemented upon various layers of inflation, such as cutting my landline telephone and cutting satellite television, reducing gasoline use, etc. I am already growing my own food, not in a quantity to completely feed myself by any means, but a fairly significant amount and plan to trade or barter vegetables for material and services when the collapse is significant enough.
5) Begin researching, in earnest, places overseas where you can go and can live comfortably with the right opportunities you’re looking for. Frequently, the lifestyle changes you need to make can be easily found overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's, but what is realistic is a Bug Out Plan to a Safe location. A must have is a safe place where you have a year round water sources and ability to grow your own food.
Look, if the skies open and some white knight comes riding in to save the day and stave off any major crisis, you won’t be any worse off for increasing your self-reliance and making preparations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being cautious.
More than likely, though, the miraculous white knight will never come, and just a few years from now, people will be wondering, ‘how the hell did we ever reach this point?’
I think at that point, a few years from now, people will look back today and wonder why they didn’t see the warning signs… in the future, when hindsight is 20/20, it will seem to have been so obvious today.
Stop listening to national leadership and start listening to your instincts. They’re telling you that something’s wrong, and the clear, obvious facts confirm those suspicions. The only people who don’t get it are the ones pulling the strings.
Simon's motto immediately intrigued me,....."There are two ways to sleep well at night,....be ignorant or be prepared." I think I'll choose the be prepared method.
And while Sovereignman's primary advice is unrealistic for most Americans (including me) which is to send money overseas to protected bank accounts and either re-locate now to different countries or to be prepared to on short notice, I do think Simon has other good advice and forecasts which should be considered.
One of Simon's latest posts, on February 17, 2011:
Recent headlines,......
“World Bank: Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels”
“Sysco declares force majeure, raises grocery prices”
“The J. M. Smucker Company Announces Coffee Price Increases”
“Kraft warns on price increases”
“Kellogg says it will raise prices”
“Sara Lee to raise prices again on higher commodity costs”
“Bridgestone To Raise Prices”
“Goodyear will raise tire prices up to 6%”
“Allstate rates rise; patience with execs runs thin”
“State Farm wants 28 percent rate increase in Fla.”
“Blue Shield to delay Calif. health rate hikes [for only 60 days]”
“Wellmark [Midwest division of Blue Cross] Rate Hike Approved”
“Abercrombie & Fitch CEO says retailer will have to raise prices”
“Sprint bumps up its smart-phone data plans $10 a month”
“Xcel Energy customers to see rate hikes”
And then there’s this quote to tie it all together:
“Overall inflation is still quite low and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.” — Ben Bernanke, February 9, 2011
If it wasn’t perfectly clear before, it should be now. This man (Bernanke) is either completely out of touch, or he’s a conniving liar. In either case, you should not allow him to be responsible for your well being.
Don’t let the rising stock market fool you into thinking that everything is back on track. It’s impossible to read these headlines and not see at least half of the things that you use frequently– food, coffee, electricity, mobile phone, insurance…
Here’s the bottom line– failing to properly protect your savings, seek alternate sources of income, and diversify your sovereign risk gets you a free one-way ticket on the economic Hindenburg.
Inflation begets economic trouble. Economic trouble begets social unrest. Social unrest begets political instability… and as we saw in Egypt, political instability (and social unrest) begets a police state.
If you don’t want to be around for it, I’d suggest taking action immediately. The quick start guide is this:
1) Open a foreign bank account. Even if you don’t fund it yet, at least have the means to shovel your money overseas in a hurry. UrbanMan's comment: Good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck.
2) Park at least a portion of your savings in stable, inflation-proof assets, preferably overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's living pay check to paycheck. Better to get what you can in Gold and Silver.
3) Look for alternate sources of income– don’t rely on the traditional job market or wait for the government and central bank to create jobs… everyone is good at something, most likely a lot of things. Think about how you can add value, how you can solve problems. UrbanMan's comment: This is called the multiple streams of income strategy. I use it and have solid contingency plans if I lose my job as losing one stream of income won't put me on my back.
4) Look at your own personal vulnerabilities. What would happen if you lost your job? If food became extremely expensive? If gas prices made normal commuting and errands cost prohibitive? If your healthcare became unaffordable? Consider lifestyle changes to reduce these vulnerabilities. UrbanMan's comment: I have a list of savings measures to be implemented upon various layers of inflation, such as cutting my landline telephone and cutting satellite television, reducing gasoline use, etc. I am already growing my own food, not in a quantity to completely feed myself by any means, but a fairly significant amount and plan to trade or barter vegetables for material and services when the collapse is significant enough.
5) Begin researching, in earnest, places overseas where you can go and can live comfortably with the right opportunities you’re looking for. Frequently, the lifestyle changes you need to make can be easily found overseas. UrbanMan's comment: Again a good idea but unrealistic for most American's, but what is realistic is a Bug Out Plan to a Safe location. A must have is a safe place where you have a year round water sources and ability to grow your own food.
Look, if the skies open and some white knight comes riding in to save the day and stave off any major crisis, you won’t be any worse off for increasing your self-reliance and making preparations. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being cautious.
More than likely, though, the miraculous white knight will never come, and just a few years from now, people will be wondering, ‘how the hell did we ever reach this point?’
I think at that point, a few years from now, people will look back today and wonder why they didn’t see the warning signs… in the future, when hindsight is 20/20, it will seem to have been so obvious today.
Stop listening to national leadership and start listening to your instincts. They’re telling you that something’s wrong, and the clear, obvious facts confirm those suspicions. The only people who don’t get it are the ones pulling the strings.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Reader Question on Water Purification
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following email from Norman,..I scored some points with my wife during that recent big storm as a public notice went out in our city telling people to boil their water before drinking as there was damage to the city water company's back flow preventers due to several broken water mains. And we had several power outages so we couldn't boil water consistently if we wanted to. Didn't need to anyway, as I had four cases of bottled water in the garage and some water purification tablets. I think now my wife is more inclined to listen to me about Survival readiness since she has now seen the value in being ready. Now I need to buy some more water purification products just in case I don't have enough bottled water next time. What do you suggest? Should I rely on the pills?
UrbanMan replies: I have water purification means in depth. Meaning I am not relying just on one technology or one means. I have individual and group water filters, as well as water purification tablets (which I think you are calling "pills"), and can build field expedient water filtration methods when necessary.
I have several Aquamira Water Bottle and Filter units which is like a sports drink bottle with a filter,..just fill up with questionable water then drink. Best to run dirty water through cloth before hand to help prolong the filter. The filter removes 99.9% of Giardia, Cryptospordium and other contaminants as well as removing the chlorine taste. Each bottle filters up to 50 gallons.
I have several larger, group sized units, one a Katadyn hand pump unit and another a Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter System which uses a gravity feed water filter system, which I really like. It can filter 200 gallons or more.
For my Bug Out Bags, I have added the Frontier Pro Ultralight Water Filter, which is approx 6 inches long and one inch in diameter. This uses a straw not shown in the picture (right) so you can directly drink water from a bad source. You can also remove the bite valve and gravity filter water from common bottle. It comes with 4 replacement pre-filters that will extend the internal filter life. This will filters up to 50 gallons.
Click here for prices and more information
UrbanMan replies: I have water purification means in depth. Meaning I am not relying just on one technology or one means. I have individual and group water filters, as well as water purification tablets (which I think you are calling "pills"), and can build field expedient water filtration methods when necessary.
For my Bug Out Bags, I have added the Frontier Pro Ultralight Water Filter, which is approx 6 inches long and one inch in diameter. This uses a straw not shown in the picture (right) so you can directly drink water from a bad source. You can also remove the bite valve and gravity filter water from common bottle. It comes with 4 replacement pre-filters that will extend the internal filter life. This will filters up to 50 gallons.
Click here for prices and more information
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Urban Financial Survival Planning - Gold Confiscation Start
As Mike Dillard of the Elevation Group writes: "The US Government is broke. They need your money, and whether it's through taxes, inflation, the seizure of your precious metals, or the nationalization of your retirement accounts, they are going to take it from you. And when governments get desperate for money, they turn to the one thing they're best at... They start writing new laws."
The Zero Hedge article:
Prepare To Give Up All Private Data For Any Gold Purchase Over $100
A week ago, when we reported on a move by the Dutch central bank that ordered a pension fund to forcibly reduce its gold holdings, we speculated that "this latest gold confiscation equivalent event is most certainly coming to a banana republic near you." And while we got the Banana republic right, the event that we are about to describe is not necessarily identical. It is much worse. A bill proposed in the State of Washington (House Bill 1716), by State Representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia, whose alleged purpose is to regulate secondhand gold dealers, seeks to capture "the name, date of birth, sex, height, weight, race, and address and telephone number of the person with whom the transaction is made" or said otherwise, of every purchaser of gold in the state of Washington.
Furthermore, if passed, Bill 1716 will record "a complete description of the property pledged, bought, or consigned, including the brand name, serial number, model number or name, any initials or engraving, size, pattern, and color or stone or stones" and of course price. But the kicker: if a transaction is mode for an amount over $100, which means one tenth of an ounce of golds, also required will be a "signature, photo, and fingerprint of the person with whom the transaction is made." In other words, very soon Washington state will know more about you than you know about yourself, if you dare to buy any gold object worth more than a C-note.
How this proposal is supposed to protect consumers against vulture gold dealers we don't quite get. Hopefully someone will explain it to us. We do, however, get how Americans will part with any and all privacy if they were to exchange fiat for physical. And in a police state like America, this will likely not be taken lightly, thereby killing the gold trade should the proposed Bill pass, and be adopted elsewhere.
While we are confident that representatives Asay, Hurst, Klippert, Pearson, and Miloscia have no clue why they are even proposing this bill, we would also be delighted to find out which moneyed interests they represent, and what happens to precious metal trading in America should Bill 1716 become a legal precedent which is effectively the first step before the final implementation of Executive Order 6102 version 2.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Reader Question - What We are Planning For?
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received an Anonymous comment in reference to a recent post entitled: Survival Preparation - Getting Others to Prepare..........."Okay, this blog warns us about what exactly? What the he** am I supposed to do now? I am not afraid, so I will not go out and buy a gun. I already have "food" stored. It's called a pantry. Can you please be more explicit about the so-called threat that you are warning against?" Thanks.
UrbanMan replies: Fair enough question. Maybe one that those of us who have been preparing for years ought to revisit from time to time. The short answer is that bad times are coming and the most likely catalysts, not in the order of likelihood, are:
* Economic collapse
* Infectious Disease Pandemic
* Terrrorist attack with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) such as nuclear or biological weapons
* Terrorist Cyber or Electro Magentic Pulse attack
* Nuclear attack by a Nation-State.
* Natural Disaster on a National scale
Think of families who live in Hurricane country. They have bottled water, food, plywood cut for windows, tarps, rain gear and a plan to pack up and go somewhere safe. Planning for the possible/probably threats I mentioned in the above paragraph just require Hurricane planning x ten.
There are near 300 posts on this site. I would think at least 30 of them articulate a particular threat,.....giant recession into hyper inflation then into a greater depression; terrorist attacks with nuclear or biological weapons; conventional nuclear attack; etc.
By most accounts the economic collaspe model is most probable, given our current state. Look at various financial analysis sites and what their advisors are saying,....Sandy Leeds, Gonzalo Lira, Chris Martenson, Peter Stansberry, Robert Kiyosaki, Simon Black and many, many others. These are mainstream advisors not some nameless blooger (like me). All are predicting a super collapse of the economy. I have even seen predictions for a collapse beginning the end of this month. However it may not be a day (time period) or recognized event that marks the beginning,...it may just be a gradual collapse and if so, then we are in it now. Look at the the giant price increase in consumer goods. Look at the strength of the dollar against foreign currencies. Look at the never before reached levels of people in poverty. The world is looking to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency,........
Many states (California, Wisconsin, Illinois and others can't pay their state workers, can't pay their creditors nor even balance the budget when their survival is on the line. The Middle East and North Africa is in turmoil, placing our oil supplies in jepordy. Fuel at $5 even $7 a gallon will destroy this economy.
Our financial infrastructure is electronic in nature. A significant cyber attack or an attack on our power and utilities infrastructure could devastate our economy. However it may be unnecessary as we are doing to ourselves,.....massive federal borrowing; deficit spending;....
So we are preparing for a time when food is not as available as it is now,...we are preparing for a time when our security will be our responsibility to a much larger extent than it is now.
We are preparing because it is an individual responsibility, and we are preparing by planning to cover the four basic areas of food, water, shelter and security.
To be certain there are people out there that equate survival planning with guns, more guns and camouflage fatigues. To be more certain, a portion of security, therefore guns, is the mean to protect yourself and your family. The reader's comment: "I am not afraid, so I will not go out and buy a gun. I already have "food" stored. It's called a pantry," begs the question, how long will your pantry food last? and are you neighbors going to protect you?
UrbanMan replies: Fair enough question. Maybe one that those of us who have been preparing for years ought to revisit from time to time. The short answer is that bad times are coming and the most likely catalysts, not in the order of likelihood, are:
* Economic collapse
* Infectious Disease Pandemic
* Terrrorist attack with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) such as nuclear or biological weapons
* Terrorist Cyber or Electro Magentic Pulse attack
* Nuclear attack by a Nation-State.
* Natural Disaster on a National scale
Think of families who live in Hurricane country. They have bottled water, food, plywood cut for windows, tarps, rain gear and a plan to pack up and go somewhere safe. Planning for the possible/probably threats I mentioned in the above paragraph just require Hurricane planning x ten.
There are near 300 posts on this site. I would think at least 30 of them articulate a particular threat,.....giant recession into hyper inflation then into a greater depression; terrorist attacks with nuclear or biological weapons; conventional nuclear attack; etc.
By most accounts the economic collaspe model is most probable, given our current state. Look at various financial analysis sites and what their advisors are saying,....Sandy Leeds, Gonzalo Lira, Chris Martenson, Peter Stansberry, Robert Kiyosaki, Simon Black and many, many others. These are mainstream advisors not some nameless blooger (like me). All are predicting a super collapse of the economy. I have even seen predictions for a collapse beginning the end of this month. However it may not be a day (time period) or recognized event that marks the beginning,...it may just be a gradual collapse and if so, then we are in it now. Look at the the giant price increase in consumer goods. Look at the strength of the dollar against foreign currencies. Look at the never before reached levels of people in poverty. The world is looking to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency,........
Many states (California, Wisconsin, Illinois and others can't pay their state workers, can't pay their creditors nor even balance the budget when their survival is on the line. The Middle East and North Africa is in turmoil, placing our oil supplies in jepordy. Fuel at $5 even $7 a gallon will destroy this economy.
Our financial infrastructure is electronic in nature. A significant cyber attack or an attack on our power and utilities infrastructure could devastate our economy. However it may be unnecessary as we are doing to ourselves,.....massive federal borrowing; deficit spending;....
So we are preparing for a time when food is not as available as it is now,...we are preparing for a time when our security will be our responsibility to a much larger extent than it is now.
We are preparing because it is an individual responsibility, and we are preparing by planning to cover the four basic areas of food, water, shelter and security.
To be certain there are people out there that equate survival planning with guns, more guns and camouflage fatigues. To be more certain, a portion of security, therefore guns, is the mean to protect yourself and your family. The reader's comment: "I am not afraid, so I will not go out and buy a gun. I already have "food" stored. It's called a pantry," begs the question, how long will your pantry food last? and are you neighbors going to protect you?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Urban Survival Planning - Growing Your Own Food
Growing your own food. Our ancestors, or at least their neighbors, did it. Doesn’t sound too hard, does it? After all, most of us are planning on being able to grow our own food and most of us stock plenty of non-hybrid seeds to achieve that goal. I sure have a good stock of non-hybrid seeds. Plus I always buy a pack or two other vegetable seeds when I am in the local hardware store. Been doing that for so long, I now have a large ammunition can full of hybrid seeds packages. I plan to use the hybrid seeds first and especially at locations that I may have to vacate (Bug Out from) so I won’t waste the seed generating capability of the non-hybrids. I can also use the hybrid seeds as barter material.
Many people I talk to are basing their stockpile of food, e.g.. dehydrated – vacuum packed – canned goods,....on what they feel is a necessary 6 months supply. Their reasoning is that, worst case, food supplies will dry up in the fall – too late to plant, so they only need six months supply to get them through to where they can grow their own food in the spring.
I have two comments to that:
1. Growing food is not as easy as you think. I would not base my existence and my family’s survival on being able to grow all the food I need.
2. Growing food is so important, and if successful, allows you to save at least some of your stockpiled food, that starting to grow food need to be immediately when a collapse hits, if not starting now. You need to be able to preserve your crops as well, through canning and dehydration.
Starting now allows you to do a rehearsal for when you really need it to survive. And the simple fact is that growing some of our own food is enjoyable and rewarding. Note: I have had some people tell me “I ain’t no farmer! I’ll barter with someone for the food they grow”. I say okay and good luck. I’m thinking in the back of my head,……if you’re hungry enough to eat another person, I think you’d be hungry enough to grow your own food.
Being prepared to start growing food immediately when a collapse hits means you need the ability to erect and grow crops out of a green house as in many places the growing seasons may even be a short 3 months. On my immediate purchase list when indicators are strong that a collapse is imminent, are materials to build a green house. It would be great to have an acre crisis garden under glass, but the simple reality is that this is just not affordable without multiple survival families putting up the funding and effort. But what is possible is a small enough green house that you can afford to build or purchase and maintain.
Probably a lot of you have heard about Northern Tool and Equipment with all their excellent deals on solar panels, wind generators, fuel storage units and such. Northern Tool also offers a wide variety of greenhouse kits. I am now looking at buying one these kits and either erecting it now, or building it when the time makes it necessary.
Much like the novel “One Second After” where the people started much too late in planning for a continued food supply…..don’t get caught like this. It is obviously much better to be ahead of the curve, especially where you you help other people and keep them from becoming a burden on you.
Northern Tool advertises this hobby greenhouse as having a strong aluminum frame that supports UV-stabilized twin-wall polycarbonate panels. These 4mm-thick walls provide excellent heat retention and create even, diffused light that your plants will love. The corrosion-resistant aluminum frame is easily assembled and stays sturdy thanks to bolt-together connections. This kit includes a galvanized base kit to anchor the greenhouse to a concrete or wood foundation. With an adjustable roof vent and sliding door provide it provides ventilation.
There are many other models to choose from. The fact remains if you buy a greenhouse kit or build your own, this will come in handy unless you have many years of stocked food in your supply.
Many people I talk to are basing their stockpile of food, e.g.. dehydrated – vacuum packed – canned goods,....on what they feel is a necessary 6 months supply. Their reasoning is that, worst case, food supplies will dry up in the fall – too late to plant, so they only need six months supply to get them through to where they can grow their own food in the spring.
I have two comments to that:
1. Growing food is not as easy as you think. I would not base my existence and my family’s survival on being able to grow all the food I need.
2. Growing food is so important, and if successful, allows you to save at least some of your stockpiled food, that starting to grow food need to be immediately when a collapse hits, if not starting now. You need to be able to preserve your crops as well, through canning and dehydration.
Starting now allows you to do a rehearsal for when you really need it to survive. And the simple fact is that growing some of our own food is enjoyable and rewarding. Note: I have had some people tell me “I ain’t no farmer! I’ll barter with someone for the food they grow”. I say okay and good luck. I’m thinking in the back of my head,……if you’re hungry enough to eat another person, I think you’d be hungry enough to grow your own food.
Being prepared to start growing food immediately when a collapse hits means you need the ability to erect and grow crops out of a green house as in many places the growing seasons may even be a short 3 months. On my immediate purchase list when indicators are strong that a collapse is imminent, are materials to build a green house. It would be great to have an acre crisis garden under glass, but the simple reality is that this is just not affordable without multiple survival families putting up the funding and effort. But what is possible is a small enough green house that you can afford to build or purchase and maintain.
Probably a lot of you have heard about Northern Tool and Equipment with all their excellent deals on solar panels, wind generators, fuel storage units and such. Northern Tool also offers a wide variety of greenhouse kits. I am now looking at buying one these kits and either erecting it now, or building it when the time makes it necessary.
Much like the novel “One Second After” where the people started much too late in planning for a continued food supply…..don’t get caught like this. It is obviously much better to be ahead of the curve, especially where you you help other people and keep them from becoming a burden on you.
Northern Tool advertises this hobby greenhouse as having a strong aluminum frame that supports UV-stabilized twin-wall polycarbonate panels. These 4mm-thick walls provide excellent heat retention and create even, diffused light that your plants will love. The corrosion-resistant aluminum frame is easily assembled and stays sturdy thanks to bolt-together connections. This kit includes a galvanized base kit to anchor the greenhouse to a concrete or wood foundation. With an adjustable roof vent and sliding door provide it provides ventilation.
There are many other models to choose from. The fact remains if you buy a greenhouse kit or build your own, this will come in handy unless you have many years of stocked food in your supply.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Survival Preparation: Medical Skills - Continuous Chest Compression CPR
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com has been asked to devote more posts to Survival Preparation across the medical skills and material spectrum. I think people realize that in a worst case collapse scenario, the ability to access a competent wide variety of medical care will be greater reduced or non-existent unless we provide it ourselves.
In a perfect pre-collapse world, all members of your survival group would have a robust amount of medical training, with certifications or not, and may include up to EMT-Paramedic training. It may be possiblle for you to recruit a Medical Doctor, specialist or not, into your survival group.
Do you know where Doctors, Nurses, Veternarians, Dentists and other medical professionals live in your vicinity? If not, then maybe that would be a good idea to know where they live. And while you may not want to knock on their door and ask them to be a part of your survival group now, after the life changing events of a collapse this may be a much more viable concept. Certainly you could barter for their services.
Even if medical professionals and their services were available to your survival group after a collapse, it would be not only a great idea but an essential requirements that members of your survival group possess base line, first response medical training at a minimum.
The ability for all your survival group members to be capable in CPR is a basic skill. Guidance and procedures for CPR change from time to time. Continuous Chest Compression CPR, developed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, is a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more easy to learn and more likely that it would be employed when needed.
In a perfect pre-collapse world, all members of your survival group would have a robust amount of medical training, with certifications or not, and may include up to EMT-Paramedic training. It may be possiblle for you to recruit a Medical Doctor, specialist or not, into your survival group.
Do you know where Doctors, Nurses, Veternarians, Dentists and other medical professionals live in your vicinity? If not, then maybe that would be a good idea to know where they live. And while you may not want to knock on their door and ask them to be a part of your survival group now, after the life changing events of a collapse this may be a much more viable concept. Certainly you could barter for their services.
Even if medical professionals and their services were available to your survival group after a collapse, it would be not only a great idea but an essential requirements that members of your survival group possess base line, first response medical training at a minimum.
The ability for all your survival group members to be capable in CPR is a basic skill. Guidance and procedures for CPR change from time to time. Continuous Chest Compression CPR, developed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, is a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more easy to learn and more likely that it would be employed when needed.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Survival Preparation - Getting Others to Prepare for the Collapse
I was listening to Glenn Beck this morning and a caller was asking for advice about his wife whose beliefs about the coming collapse were described as “ostrich like” – meaning she was putting her head in the sand. The caller said that when he mentioned to his wife about buying additional food or maybe buying some precious metals she would freak out.
The caller also asked Glenn Beck how he can get his wife to see the need to prepare. Glenn said something to the effect that “how can anyone not see what’s coming?” – a rhetorical question to be sure. He then further asked the caller if his wife had any friends that saw the future the way the caller did. When the caller replied yes, Glenn then suggested he get the friends to help get the wife to see the aspect of “preparing for the worst, hoping for the best”.
When your wife or family doesn’t want to listen to your perspective on Survival prepping, this is called “There is No Expert in the Village” syndrome. Where because of the simple fact you are so close to your family and friends, they think you cannot possibly know much more than them. It doesn’t help your credibility for them to have seen you crap faced drunk on occasion (come on that’s a joke).
But what is not a joke is that if your family and friends do not prepare they will be a burden on you come collapse time. Plus if you cannot get your immediate family to see the need to prepare, even just a little, then it could even lead to a break up of the family unit. I have a friend who follows what I say,....he bought an M-4 carbine and his wife freaked out. They are currently separated and heading for divorce court where I’m sure the wife will paint her soon to be ex-husband as a Survivalist Loon.
If you have a wife or even close family members who are in the "denying the coming collapse camp", then you need to be in a careful hurry to get them to see the light. Short papers or conversations on facts, and short videos may work the best. This is called “Dripping”. Sometimes if make take five, ten, maybe 20 drips for your intended audience to say “tell me more”. This may seem like a chore, but it is absolutely critical that you get the immediate family on board and build a survival team with your close family, close friends and even neighbors.
I recently got a close friend of mine not only interested in prepping but on a frenzied pace to prepare. All I did was call him up and say “Hey buddy, I know you go camping often, can you use a case of MRE’s that will expire in 6 months?” He replied “Heck yes, I would love a case of MRE's. Why are you giving them up?” I told him “I bought a bunch more long term food and am trying to make room.” He asked “Why are you buying a bunch of food?” and I simply said “mainly for insurance, but lately I’ve been thinking I’m going to need it.” He asked why and I went into some financial factors indicating a coming collapse,.....then I said, “on a lesser extent preparing for bad things such as terrorist nuclear events or pandemics is a good idea also.”
So I drop the MRE’s off and have lunch with this friend of mine where he proceded to ask me a laundry list of questions pertaining to survival prep....stocking food, building Bug Out Bags, buying cold weather gear, developing power supplies during a infrastructure collapse, etc. He had did some research on his own and he was prompted by “fear of loss or fear of being left behind” by me NOT trying to convince him. I then let him in on the fact that this website was mine - he was floored which even add fuel to his prep fire. The good news is that my friend is more than an avid gun collector,...he has a Class III license, owning some belt fed weapons, and many others. So he doesn’t have to prepare for that aspect. And in fact, part of my strategy on getting him focused on survival preparation was that he can be a big asset, as I can to him, when the collapse comes.
So if you’re having problems getting people to listen to you may try the short survival prep drips,...remember that there is no expert in the village,…use the fear of loss/being left behind concept. Some recent facts that can help are posted on the fuel price signs at your local gas station! with no reduction in price on the horizon; commodities such as Gold, Corn, Cotton and Sugar up 60%, 78%, 43% and 164% respectively in the last 12 months; Food stamp recipients up 35%; number of people in poverty up to 43.6 million an increase of almost 10%; and most importantly the National debt up 32% to a level that cannot be fixed – yes we are heading for at least an economic collapse.
Good luck, prepare well and preach preparedness to the extent you are willing to compromise your OPSEC.
The caller also asked Glenn Beck how he can get his wife to see the need to prepare. Glenn said something to the effect that “how can anyone not see what’s coming?” – a rhetorical question to be sure. He then further asked the caller if his wife had any friends that saw the future the way the caller did. When the caller replied yes, Glenn then suggested he get the friends to help get the wife to see the aspect of “preparing for the worst, hoping for the best”.
When your wife or family doesn’t want to listen to your perspective on Survival prepping, this is called “There is No Expert in the Village” syndrome. Where because of the simple fact you are so close to your family and friends, they think you cannot possibly know much more than them. It doesn’t help your credibility for them to have seen you crap faced drunk on occasion (come on that’s a joke).
But what is not a joke is that if your family and friends do not prepare they will be a burden on you come collapse time. Plus if you cannot get your immediate family to see the need to prepare, even just a little, then it could even lead to a break up of the family unit. I have a friend who follows what I say,....he bought an M-4 carbine and his wife freaked out. They are currently separated and heading for divorce court where I’m sure the wife will paint her soon to be ex-husband as a Survivalist Loon.
If you have a wife or even close family members who are in the "denying the coming collapse camp", then you need to be in a careful hurry to get them to see the light. Short papers or conversations on facts, and short videos may work the best. This is called “Dripping”. Sometimes if make take five, ten, maybe 20 drips for your intended audience to say “tell me more”. This may seem like a chore, but it is absolutely critical that you get the immediate family on board and build a survival team with your close family, close friends and even neighbors.
I recently got a close friend of mine not only interested in prepping but on a frenzied pace to prepare. All I did was call him up and say “Hey buddy, I know you go camping often, can you use a case of MRE’s that will expire in 6 months?” He replied “Heck yes, I would love a case of MRE's. Why are you giving them up?” I told him “I bought a bunch more long term food and am trying to make room.” He asked “Why are you buying a bunch of food?” and I simply said “mainly for insurance, but lately I’ve been thinking I’m going to need it.” He asked why and I went into some financial factors indicating a coming collapse,.....then I said, “on a lesser extent preparing for bad things such as terrorist nuclear events or pandemics is a good idea also.”
So I drop the MRE’s off and have lunch with this friend of mine where he proceded to ask me a laundry list of questions pertaining to survival prep....stocking food, building Bug Out Bags, buying cold weather gear, developing power supplies during a infrastructure collapse, etc. He had did some research on his own and he was prompted by “fear of loss or fear of being left behind” by me NOT trying to convince him. I then let him in on the fact that this website was mine - he was floored which even add fuel to his prep fire. The good news is that my friend is more than an avid gun collector,...he has a Class III license, owning some belt fed weapons, and many others. So he doesn’t have to prepare for that aspect. And in fact, part of my strategy on getting him focused on survival preparation was that he can be a big asset, as I can to him, when the collapse comes.
So if you’re having problems getting people to listen to you may try the short survival prep drips,...remember that there is no expert in the village,…use the fear of loss/being left behind concept. Some recent facts that can help are posted on the fuel price signs at your local gas station! with no reduction in price on the horizon; commodities such as Gold, Corn, Cotton and Sugar up 60%, 78%, 43% and 164% respectively in the last 12 months; Food stamp recipients up 35%; number of people in poverty up to 43.6 million an increase of almost 10%; and most importantly the National debt up 32% to a level that cannot be fixed – yes we are heading for at least an economic collapse.
Good luck, prepare well and preach preparedness to the extent you are willing to compromise your OPSEC.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Urban Survival - Fuel Emergencies: Making Gas From Wood
For some of you more technical or mechanically sound individuals, it is apparently possible to build a Biomass Gasifier Unit that can provide fuel for internal combustion engines for use in a Petroleum Emergency.
This technology is not recent. Fuel gas produced by the reduction of coal and peat (from Peat moss) was used for heating as early as 1840 in Europe . Although not common, nor widely used, it was familiar technology. During World War II, due to gas shortages for the war effort, these gas generators were much more common and even common to Korea into the 1950’s.
All internal combustion engines run off of vapor not liquid. All liquid fuels are vaporized before they enter the combustion chamber. The purpose of a gasifier is to transform solid fuels into a gaseous form to keep the engines free of particles. So think energy converter and filter.
FEMA,…yes the infamous FEMA, produces many publications, and one of the more interesting documents was a 90 page report entitled “Construction of a Simplified Wood Gas Generator for Fueling Internal Combustion Engines in a Petroleum Emergency”,..whew!,…that’s a mouthful even for a recently de-classified document.
The entire document is available here, and it may be a good idea to print a copy and put in your 3 ring binder of other Survival and Collapse information. You do have a 3 ring binder of good Survival information, don’t you?
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Reader Response on Sniper Rifles and Street Gangs
UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received a comment on the "Urban Survival Firearms - Sniper Rifle Necessity?" post,....I think most people who expect STHF have basic fire arms skills. and out of those (only) a few have basic long range fire arms skill. I don't think its a necessary piece of equipment but if you have the ability to use it then its going to be a primary tool when engaging hostile targets at 300 yards or more. Also it would be used with you team you need to build for cover and observation of the surrounding area. I myself have little knowledge of using a scoped rifle but I am learning and learning fast. with the world looking more and more like its going to in a sense turn in to a mad max world its good to have the ability to see and asses targets or bands of targets.
Also if you get a laser range finder and use it to set up range markers at your bug out base or even long term camp or "base" the sniper rifle would a tool worth its weight in gold. my opinion...its better to shoot someone who you deem a threat before he shoots you. also one thing I haven't seen this website talk about is street gangs. In a disaster such as massive black out or natural disasters street gangs go on massive offensives and like to kill rape loot and and start chaos. so in an urban or suburban area if you can find a suitable bug out location or temporary base camp with a nice field of vision set up range markers....subtle ones. maybe a group of rocks or tin cans every hundred yard going out to 700 yards or whatever you feel is decent.
UrbanMan replies: Good comment. Glad you are learning the art of the scoped rifle. Sniping is all together a different subject, but the ability to use a scoped rifle to increase your ability to engage at longer ranges, when your environment supports it or even necessitates it, can be huge. Laser Range Finders are good kit when taking a shot from unknown terrain, but the Survivalist can mitigate that need by prepping the terrain as you mentioned with range markers - way too many historic examples of that. A flag or way to determine wind value if helpful too.
Did you say Street Gangs? You mean like: Barrio Aztecas; Bloods; Crips; Folk Nation; Gangster Disciples, Mexican Mafia aka La EME; MS-13; SUR 13; Surenos; Texas Syndicate. If you count in the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG’s), then you can add the Bandidos; Hells Angels; Mongols; and Pagans...plus others. Where I live there
are over 70 Street Gangs. The vast majority of them are just a bunch of neighborhood punks,...but one has to respect the power of mobs and the capability of already existing organized groups of criminals.
Know your enemy or your potential threats. The way to begin is to understand their operational territory and boundaries; operational routines (the how of their criminal actions) then analyze how that can impact on you and your Survival Groups safety and mobility, especially Bug Out routes.
Getting tied into the local police through personal contacts or serving on a civilian advisory board; talking to other emergency providers, as well as reading the paper and talking to commercial vendors in the area can help you build and maintain a Situation Map, aka SITMAP (see the below map graphic as an example...this is a fabricated example and no way intends to depict real world conditions). The next step on a SITMAP is to keep track of criminal actions and events,..e.g..shootings, robberies, car jackings, etc. Eventually you will be able to see a pattern - this is called Pattern Analysis.....and lets you forecast with some degree of accuracy future criminal operations.
This is a beginning of Intellignce Prep of the Battlefield (IPB) or you can call it Intel Prep of the Area of Operations - doesn't much matter. It is simply the process of understanding the threat and how their intent, criminal operational routines, and capabilities can effect you.
The reader is absolutely right about the large threat from organized and armed street gangs especially in a degraded infrastructure - hence the necessity of being armed yourself, having a survival team for mutual support, having safe protocols for operating your patrols and performing all survival tasks, and utilizing rudimentary intelligence related practices to keep yourself safe.
In a total collapse, Street Gangs will sooner rather than later expend all the loot (food, water, etc) in their given original "gang territory" and will eventually expand to other areas, especially the areas that are 1 - easy targets and 2 - high yield targets.
Be smart, be prepared.
Also if you get a laser range finder and use it to set up range markers at your bug out base or even long term camp or "base" the sniper rifle would a tool worth its weight in gold. my opinion...its better to shoot someone who you deem a threat before he shoots you. also one thing I haven't seen this website talk about is street gangs. In a disaster such as massive black out or natural disasters street gangs go on massive offensives and like to kill rape loot and and start chaos. so in an urban or suburban area if you can find a suitable bug out location or temporary base camp with a nice field of vision set up range markers....subtle ones. maybe a group of rocks or tin cans every hundred yard going out to 700 yards or whatever you feel is decent.
UrbanMan replies: Good comment. Glad you are learning the art of the scoped rifle. Sniping is all together a different subject, but the ability to use a scoped rifle to increase your ability to engage at longer ranges, when your environment supports it or even necessitates it, can be huge. Laser Range Finders are good kit when taking a shot from unknown terrain, but the Survivalist can mitigate that need by prepping the terrain as you mentioned with range markers - way too many historic examples of that. A flag or way to determine wind value if helpful too.
Did you say Street Gangs? You mean like: Barrio Aztecas; Bloods; Crips; Folk Nation; Gangster Disciples, Mexican Mafia aka La EME; MS-13; SUR 13; Surenos; Texas Syndicate. If you count in the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMG’s), then you can add the Bandidos; Hells Angels; Mongols; and Pagans...plus others. Where I live there
are over 70 Street Gangs. The vast majority of them are just a bunch of neighborhood punks,...but one has to respect the power of mobs and the capability of already existing organized groups of criminals.
Know your enemy or your potential threats. The way to begin is to understand their operational territory and boundaries; operational routines (the how of their criminal actions) then analyze how that can impact on you and your Survival Groups safety and mobility, especially Bug Out routes.
Getting tied into the local police through personal contacts or serving on a civilian advisory board; talking to other emergency providers, as well as reading the paper and talking to commercial vendors in the area can help you build and maintain a Situation Map, aka SITMAP (see the below map graphic as an example...this is a fabricated example and no way intends to depict real world conditions). The next step on a SITMAP is to keep track of criminal actions and events,..e.g..shootings, robberies, car jackings, etc. Eventually you will be able to see a pattern - this is called Pattern Analysis.....and lets you forecast with some degree of accuracy future criminal operations.
This is a beginning of Intellignce Prep of the Battlefield (IPB) or you can call it Intel Prep of the Area of Operations - doesn't much matter. It is simply the process of understanding the threat and how their intent, criminal operational routines, and capabilities can effect you.
The reader is absolutely right about the large threat from organized and armed street gangs especially in a degraded infrastructure - hence the necessity of being armed yourself, having a survival team for mutual support, having safe protocols for operating your patrols and performing all survival tasks, and utilizing rudimentary intelligence related practices to keep yourself safe.
In a total collapse, Street Gangs will sooner rather than later expend all the loot (food, water, etc) in their given original "gang territory" and will eventually expand to other areas, especially the areas that are 1 - easy targets and 2 - high yield targets.
Be smart, be prepared.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Urban Survival Planning - The Aftermath of the Storm
Following up with the aftermath of the giant storm that gripped our nation, on the first day when temps went above 20 degrees, which is very cold for the desert southwest, I went to the local version of Sportsman Warehouse around noon and guess what material was flying off the shelves?
Sleeping Bags. I saw a crowd of a dozen or so people in the sleeping bag aisle picking over what was left, and that wasn’t much.
Ammunition. The clerks were telling me that .32 ACP, .380 ACP, .40 S&W and .45 ACP were flying off the shelves as was .270 of all things. They said they sold more ammunition that morning then in the previous 2 or 3 weeks.
Firearms. While I was hanging out around the firearms section, four people purchased guns - three of them 12 gauge pump shotguns and one a semi-auto handgun.
Battery Powered Lanterns. There were almost none left. However, flashlights were a slow seller. Most of the lanterns that were bought used D sized batteries which very few people have the capability to recharge – so I hope they bought enough batteries. This store still had a large amount of batteries of all types so it was hard to tell how many were bought that morning.
Several of the convenience stores I stopped at were out of cases of water.
I keep a running list of equipment and material that are on my short list for purchase/procurement once the collapse indicators start indicating the collapse is near term imminent. Some are things I can do without now, or just nice to have during a collapse, and others are items with a shelf life so I want to purchase them at a point where I’ll get the longest use out of them.
The below list of items was sent to me by a friend in North Dakota, relating to the most common things that are bought by people in panic,…preparing for a hurricane, storm or whatever. What do you think are the first things to go?
Water, Batteries, Flashlights, Ice, Candles, Matches, Toilet paper, Paper plates, paper towels, Heavy duty aluminum foil, Water filters, Flour, Sugar, Milk, Powdered milk, Coffee, Canned soup, Soup mixes, Bouillon cubes, Hand‐held can openers, Dry cereal, Diapers, Wet wipes, Baby food, Baby formula, Sanitary napkins & tampons, Bath soap, Laundry detergent, Waterless hand sanitizer, Disinfectant, Bleach, Trash bags,
Re‐sealable plastic bags, Toothpaste, Tooth brushes, Shampoo and conditioner, Shaving equipment, Lanterns, Lantern fuel, Lantern wicks or mantles, Butane igniter, Charcoal grills, Charcoal, Camp stoves, Propane for camp stoves, Pocket knife, Army knife, Vitamin supplements,
Antacids, Antibiotics, Rubbing alcohol, Hydrogen peroxide, Laxative and diarrhea remedies, Antihistamine, Epsom salts, Bandages, Sterile gauze pads, First‐aid tape, Portable toilets, 5‐gallon plastic buckets, Gas‐driven generators, Gasoline storage containers, Duct tape, Chain‐saws,
Cast iron Dutch oven, Cast iron frying pan, Bug spray, Mouse traps, Mouse bait (D‐Con), Thermal underwear, Insulated coveralls, Heavy work gloves, Boots / rain gear, Band saws, Axes, Solar panels, Hand‐crank radios, Canvas and nylon tarps.
While many of us involved with Survival Preparation had many of the above items, a lot of the aforementioned items on that list we are thinking WTF? If anyone wants a free copy of an e-book containing details on the above and other items, just e-mail me and I’ll send it to you. Depending upon the response, I may only be replying for the next two weeks.
Sleeping Bags. I saw a crowd of a dozen or so people in the sleeping bag aisle picking over what was left, and that wasn’t much.
Ammunition. The clerks were telling me that .32 ACP, .380 ACP, .40 S&W and .45 ACP were flying off the shelves as was .270 of all things. They said they sold more ammunition that morning then in the previous 2 or 3 weeks.
Firearms. While I was hanging out around the firearms section, four people purchased guns - three of them 12 gauge pump shotguns and one a semi-auto handgun.
Battery Powered Lanterns. There were almost none left. However, flashlights were a slow seller. Most of the lanterns that were bought used D sized batteries which very few people have the capability to recharge – so I hope they bought enough batteries. This store still had a large amount of batteries of all types so it was hard to tell how many were bought that morning.
Several of the convenience stores I stopped at were out of cases of water.
I keep a running list of equipment and material that are on my short list for purchase/procurement once the collapse indicators start indicating the collapse is near term imminent. Some are things I can do without now, or just nice to have during a collapse, and others are items with a shelf life so I want to purchase them at a point where I’ll get the longest use out of them.
The below list of items was sent to me by a friend in North Dakota, relating to the most common things that are bought by people in panic,…preparing for a hurricane, storm or whatever. What do you think are the first things to go?
Water, Batteries, Flashlights, Ice, Candles, Matches, Toilet paper, Paper plates, paper towels, Heavy duty aluminum foil, Water filters, Flour, Sugar, Milk, Powdered milk, Coffee, Canned soup, Soup mixes, Bouillon cubes, Hand‐held can openers, Dry cereal, Diapers, Wet wipes, Baby food, Baby formula, Sanitary napkins & tampons, Bath soap, Laundry detergent, Waterless hand sanitizer, Disinfectant, Bleach, Trash bags,
Re‐sealable plastic bags, Toothpaste, Tooth brushes, Shampoo and conditioner, Shaving equipment, Lanterns, Lantern fuel, Lantern wicks or mantles, Butane igniter, Charcoal grills, Charcoal, Camp stoves, Propane for camp stoves, Pocket knife, Army knife, Vitamin supplements,
Antacids, Antibiotics, Rubbing alcohol, Hydrogen peroxide, Laxative and diarrhea remedies, Antihistamine, Epsom salts, Bandages, Sterile gauze pads, First‐aid tape, Portable toilets, 5‐gallon plastic buckets, Gas‐driven generators, Gasoline storage containers, Duct tape, Chain‐saws,
Cast iron Dutch oven, Cast iron frying pan, Bug spray, Mouse traps, Mouse bait (D‐Con), Thermal underwear, Insulated coveralls, Heavy work gloves, Boots / rain gear, Band saws, Axes, Solar panels, Hand‐crank radios, Canvas and nylon tarps.
While many of us involved with Survival Preparation had many of the above items, a lot of the aforementioned items on that list we are thinking WTF? If anyone wants a free copy of an e-book containing details on the above and other items, just e-mail me and I’ll send it to you. Depending upon the response, I may only be replying for the next two weeks.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Survival Planning - Zero Hedge and Internet Access After the Government Shuts It Down
Ever heard of Zero Hedge? They are another multi-dimensional analytical entity keeping track of the financial, political and political factors affecting our Country,....our individual survival, ..and predicting the coming monetary-financial collapse. A smart person would add them to growing score of intelligence sources.
I like the Zero Hedge motto, which is: “On a Long Enough Timeline, the Survival Rate for Everyone Drops to Zero”.
Zero Hedge can be accessed, by clicking here,…..be sure to bookmark it.
One of my technical guys sent me the link to Zero Hedge due to a recent article entitled: “How to Maintain Internet Access Even If Your Government Turns It Off”
Driven or at least accelerated by the events in Egypt are efforts to combat a Government’s shut down of the Internet. Thanks to Zero Hedge re-printing an excerpt from Get Internet Access When Your Government Shuts it Down, by Patrick Miller & David Daw there possible solutions if mass civil unrest strikes a country, a government may respond by banning internet access and severely restricting information flow.
Here is the excerpt:
"Even if you've managed to find an Internet connection for yourself, it won't be that helpful in reaching out to your fellow locals if they can't get online to find you. If you're trying to coordinate a group of people in your area and can't rely on an Internet connection, cell phones, or SMS, your best bet could be a wireless mesh network of sorts--essentially, a distributed network of wireless networking devices that can all find each other and communicate with each other. Even if none of those devices have a working Internet connection, they can still find each other, which, if your network covers the city you're in, might be all you need. At the moment, wireless mesh networking isn't really anywhere close to market-ready, though we have seen an implementation of the 802.11s draft standard, which extends the 802.11 Wi-Fi standard to include wireless mesh networking, in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO laptop."
"However, a prepared guerrilla networker with a handful of PCs could make good use of Daihinia ($25, 30-day free trial), an app that piggybacks on your Wi-Fi adapter driver to turn your normal ad-hoc Wi-Fi network into a multihop ad-hoc network (disclaimer: we haven't tried this ourselves yet), meaning that instead of requiring each device on the network to be within range of the original access point, you simply need to be within range of a device on the network that has Daihinia installed, effectively allowing you to add a wireless mesh layer to your ad-hoc network. Advanced freedom fighters can set up a portal Web page on their network that explains the way the setup works, with Daihinia instructions and a local download link so they can spread the network even further. Lastly, just add a Bonjour-compatible chat client like Pidgin or iChat, and you'll be able to talk to your neighbors across the city without needing an Internet connection."
"[Another alternative is] FidoNet--a distributed networking system for BBSes that was popular in the 1980s. FidoNet is limited to sending only simple text messages, and it's slow, but it has two virtues: Users connect asynchronously, so the network traffic is harder to track, and any user can act as the server, which means that even if the government shuts down one number in the network, another one can quickly pop up to take its place."
"You could also take inspiration from groups that are working to create an ad-hoc communications network into and out of Egypt using Ham Radio, since the signals are rarely tracked and extremely hard to shut down or block. Most of these efforts are still getting off the ground, but hackers are already cobbling together ways to make it a viable form of communication into and out of the country. Given enough time and preparation, your ham radio networks could even be adapted into your own ad-hoc network using Packet Radio, a radio communications protocol that you can use to create simple long-distance wireless networks to transfer text and other messages between computers. Packet Radio is rather slow and not particularly popular (don't try to stream any videos with this, now), but it's exactly the kind of networking device that would fly under the radar."
"In response to the crisis in Egypt , nerds everywhere have risen to call for new and exciting tools for use in the next government-mandated shutdown. Bre Pettis, founder of the hackerspace NYC Resistor and creator of the MakerbotApps for the Appocalypse," including a quick and easy way to set up chats on a local network so you can talk with your friends and neighbors in an emergency even without access to the Internet. If his comments are any indication, Apocalypse apps may be headed your way soon. Tons of cool tech are also just waiting to be retrofitted for these purposes. David Dart's Pirate Box is a one-step local network in a box originally conceived for file sharing and local P2P purposes, but it wouldn't take much work to adapt the Pirate Box as a local networking tool able to communicate with other pirate boxes to form a compact, mobile set of local networks in the event of an Internet shutdown."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
