tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35294629437082752142024-03-13T21:34:28.110-07:00Philosophizing with a HammerSelf-reliance, preparedness, woodcraft, bushcraft, camping, canoeing, kayaking, foraging, hunting, fishing, modern homesteading, sustainable food production, staying connected with nature, outdoor and survival skills, participating directly in life, the mental toll of urban living, simple pleasures, and poking holes in icons.Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-62232493624088086042020-11-15T14:02:00.000-08:002020-11-15T14:02:43.266-08:00 Preserving Eggs with Limewater<p><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36);"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">The best way to keep eggs fresh is to keep them in the chickens. This is one of the benefits of having your own backyard flock, along with pest control and entertainment. </span></span></p><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="clnlp" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;">One of the problems with home flocks, though, is that you get too many eggs in spring and not enough in </span></span>winter. A consistent supply requires a method of preservation. </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0">Two primary things cause eggs to go bad: bacteria penetrating their shells and causing decomposition; and liquids inside the egg evaporating out through the shell.</span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Fresh, <u>unwashed</u> eggs have a cuticle, or membrane, called the “bloom”. It helps seal their porous shells, slowing down bacteria going in as well as liquids evaporating out. </span></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white;">Cool temperatures will further slow down </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">bacteria. </span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">Assuming that you are starting with eggs collected from your own nesting boxes on the day they were laid, and that they are clean but not washed, you can reasonably expect them to last well over</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> a month at room temperature, and around six months in a </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">refrigerator</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So, refrigeration is the obvious solution. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But perhaps there isn</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">t room in your refrigerator for twenty or thirty dozen eggs</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">. Or perhaps electricity is unreliable where you live. What a pity it would be to lose your annual stock to a power outage. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;">In 1898, Canada’s Department of Agriculture began a 15-year experiment with 25 different methods of preserving eggs, and concluded that immersion in limewater was “the most satisfactory". </div><div><br /></div></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Two other methods were nearly as effective: </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">coating with Vaseline, and </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">immersion in </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">waterglass" (s</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 34); white-space: pre-wrap;">odium silicate)</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">Vaseline, however, tended to impart its own flavor, and who wants Vaseline and bacon for breakfast? And w</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">aterglass is somewhat expensive and unpleasant to work with. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">So if you want to preserve eggs, and you don</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">t have refrigeration, limewater is your best option. </span></div><div></div></span></div></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span class="py34i1dx"><span data-offset-key="4t4us-6-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span class="py34i1dx"><span data-offset-key="4t4us-6-0">“Limewater</span></span><span data-offset-key="4t4us-7-0">"</span> is the common name for a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide,</span> Ca(OH)2<span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0">. </span>It is strongly alkaline, which will inhibit bacteria, but it won’t react with the egg shell and affect taste. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A saturated solution can be made by mixing one ounce (about three tablespoons, or two heaping tablespoons, or 28 grams) of calcium hydoxide with one quart of water. (It</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">’</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">s easiest to make a paste first. Then pour the </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">milk of lime</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> into the remaining water, and stir it, or shake it in a jar.) </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep it well-mixed for a few hours, then allow it to settle. Some solids will precipitate out of the solution. The liquid left above is saturated. This is your </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">limewater", ready to be poured off to cover your eggs. </span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A quart of limewater is about the right amount for a half-gallon container once the eggs have been added. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0">Use clean-but-unwashed eggs fresh from your nesting boxes. (</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36);">Dirty eggs should be washed and used rather than preserved. </span>Store-bought eggs won’t keep well because they’ve been washed, which removes the protective “bloom” from the shells. Besides, they may already be weeks old by the time you buy them.) </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Place the eggs in a wide-mouth jar, fill it to the top with limewater, which should be quite cold, and screw on the cap to prevent dehydration. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">A half-gallon jar will hold up to 18 eggs depending on size; a gallon jar up to three dozen.</span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Make sure all the eggs stay completely submerged. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Store in a cool, dark place. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Rinse the eggs when you take them out for use. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After six months the yolks will be flatter and the whites runnier than fresh, but the taste will still be almost as good. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After about eight months, quality seems to degrade. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">After a year, there will be a noticeable difference in flavor and texture, but they’ll still be okay fried or scrambled. You won’t notice the difference in baked goods. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Eventually the whites will darken slightly, and the eggs will take on a slightly stale - but not rotten - smell. But they will still be useable for at least baking. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Use only the highest quality, freshest, unwashed eggs. You get clean eggs by keeping your nesting boxes clean.</span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Date your containers, and try not to move them - if one egg cracks, it’ll ruin the whole batch.</span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); direction: ltr; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0">Duck eggs will keep longer than chicken eggs due to their thicker shells. </span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); white-space: normal;">Do not re-use limewater; make a fresh batch every year. </span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><br /></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span>When in doubt about the edibility of an egg, do the “Sink or Swim” test. If</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); white-space: normal;"> the </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); white-space: normal;">eggs</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); white-space: normal;"> sink in water and lay flat on their side, they're still fresh. If t</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36);">hey sink, but stand on one end at the bottom, they're not as fresh but still edible. Eggs that float have gone bad. </span></span></span></div></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><br /></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><br /></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><br /></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><br /></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="co8ne-0-0" style="direction: ltr; position: relative;"><br /></div></div><div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="clnlp" data-offset-key="4t4us-0-0" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-74067785431029664622017-06-01T06:40:00.002-07:002017-06-01T07:04:49.312-07:00Suitable Woods for Axe Handles<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3dh06" data-offset-key="9vc8v-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="9vc8v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The properties desirable in a handle for a striking tool are:</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e407g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3dh06" data-offset-key="4ls7k-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="4ls7k-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">1. Hardness. (Don’t want the handle deforming inside the eye or getting too many dents where we grip it.)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="98ggl-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="42vdn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">2. Modulus of rupture - how much of a load the wood can withstand perpendicular to the grain. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="27p4d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5h57c-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">3. Modulus of Elasticity. This is the stiffness - how much the wood will bend perpendicular to the grain. In other words, how much shock it will absorb rather than transmit to your hands.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bs4qm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6el5d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Of these, modulus of rupture is probably the most important consideration for an axe handle. This is usually measured in pound-force/square inch (lbf/in2) or a metric pressure unit called megapaschals (MPa).</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ai5im-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cf0l0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Bear in mind that individual pieces of wood can vary greatly, but: </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bepnv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="40vpc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The gold-standard wood for axe handles has long been shagbark hickory, at 20,200 lbf/in2 (139.3 MPa). </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4cfvm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="7kat6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">White oak is 14,830 lbf/in2 (102.3 MPa). It was commonly used during the golden age of lumbering in the northeast, because it was the best of what was locally available in commercial quantities. Obviously it worked. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="10v70-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="l4ip-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">White birch averages 12,300 lbf/in2 (84.8 MPa). It was almost exclusively used in far northern lands simply because that’s all there was. While not optimum, it was clearly adequate.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6o44v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Other North American woods, in descending order, that would seem to be very suitable:</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6hga2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Black locust: 19,400 lbf/in2 (133.8 MPa)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="ahqpi-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Osage orange: 18,650 lbf/in2 (128.6 MPa)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="f14d3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d0e7j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">American Persimmon: 17,700 lbf/in2 (122.1 MPa)</span><br />
<span data-offset-key="d0e7j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span data-offset-key="d0e7j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Yellow birch: </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">16,600 lbf/in2 (114.5 MPa)</span><span data-offset-key="d0e7j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e7idc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="7800e-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sugar (hard) maple: 15,800 lbf/in2 (109.0 MPa)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a4sjj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1fbsn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">White ash: 15,000 lbf/in2 (103.5 MPa)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fe7ld-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="1bs31-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">American Beech: 14,900 lbf/in2 (102.8 MPa)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="emkev-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">A few more interesting tidbits:</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2g94j-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="db5j4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Grain orientation is important with ring-porous species (which have pores in the spring growth rings between the summer growth rings, such as ash). This is why ash baseball bats are wielded with the trademark up, so that the edge grain is what makes contact with the ball. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="d7u1s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="6toom-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Grain orientation is much less important with diffuse-porous woods (where the density is even across both spring and summer growth rings, like sugar maple). Such woods actually resist impacts on the flat grain better than on the edge grain. This is why the best orientation for maple baseball bats is the opposite of that for ash baseball bats. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="e8oqr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
</div>
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<span data-offset-key="fn0uv-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">With ring-porous species, faster-growing wood (second growth, fairly young trees, which are characterized by a low number of rings-per-inch), is stronger than relatively slow-growing wood (old growth, large trees, with many rings-per-inch), because they have fewer pores. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5umr5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div>
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<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="3dh06" data-offset-key="fme38-0-0" style="color: #1d2129; font-family: 'San Francisco', -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, '.SFNSText-Regular', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.23999999463558197px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="fme38-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span data-offset-key="fme38-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">With diffuse-porous species, rings per inch make no difference in strength.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="b4d1s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">With any type or species of wood, the overwhelmingly important consideration for use as a handle is slope-of-grain, or run-out. The closer to parallel the grain of the wood is with the longitudinal axis of the handle, the stronger it will be. This is why split billets make stronger handles than sawn billets. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="cv1u4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Bottom line: while many woods make suitable axe handles, shagbark hickory is king, at least among what’s readily available. It’s a ring-porous species, so young, second-growth trees are strongest. The grain should follow the handle as closely as possible, and the edge-grain should take the impacts rather than the face-grain.</span></div>
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-70305455658885342172014-12-29T19:13:00.000-08:002018-08-29T05:11:21.363-07:00What it is like to shoot an elephant:<div style="color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There was a young bull elephant in Zimbabwe named Buddy, who had been fed when he was little. He grew up to be the African equivalent of a nuisance bear in Yellowstone Park. He began chasing cars. A professional hunter named Sam was tasked with executing him. I was to back up Sam. He had me study elephant anatomy and read books by the famous Great White Hunters: Selous, Ruark, Selby, Corbett, Bell, etc. An elephant's brain is the size of a loaf of bread, surrounded all the way around by about 18" of bone. I practiced every day with a .458 Winchester Magnum. The recoil was very unpleasant. Every shot knocked me backwards two steps, and after five shots I'd have a headache for the rest of the day. </div>
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We baited him with alfalfa cubes, trying to get him downwind from the rest of the herd so that they wouldn't get involved. After three days we finally got him alone in neck-high elephant grass. I was facing him from about seventy-five yards away. Sam worked around to his side to get a lateral brain shot. I was looking through my rifle's scope head-on at Buddy when Sam fired. The impact was incredible. His whole head bounced like Jello, and dust came off all around. He spun 180 degrees and started running away. I should have been shooting by then, but I was stunned and simply couldn't believe that he had survived that impact. Sam shot him again, in the ass. Buddy slammed on the brakes, spun back around, and started scanning the grass like a radar. The only thing sticking up above it was me, like the idiot in one of those Far Side cartoons. I heard the trackers behind me take off running. Buddy locked onto me and started coming. </div>
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When elephants charge, they fan out their ears and trumpet. It's difficult to stand your ground, but it's the only viable option. If you run, they will catch you. If you climb a tree, they'll pick you like an apple. If you hide, they'll sniff you out. My rifle felt tiny, and I wished that I had a larger one. </div>
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I willed myself to be deliberate and pulled off a shot that seemed perfect. I knew it was beautiful when the trigger broke. Right between the eyes. Buddy didn't react at all, and kept on coming. Sam shot him in the side of the head again. He kept on coming. I had this sense of disbelief, that it just wasn't possible for him to absorb that much energy. I still wonder how many people have had that as their last thought. Buddy put his head down to use his tusks, and I shot him farther up his forehead. He came down like a falling building, and a cloud of dust rolled over me. We measured the distance at 27 yards, but it seemed like half that at the time. Turned out that all the head shots but the last had angled up over his brain without penetrating it. </div>
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Shona who we hadn't even realized were watching started popping out of the bush with axes and knives. They dragged out the innards and were running around inside the rib cage. Scores of huge dung beetles arrived. Fascinating bugs that look like flying turtles. They each rolled a grape-fruit sized ball of dung away. The trackers started a fire and cooked Buddy's heart. We ate it to get elephant magic. They call it "muti". The local chief staggered away carrying the trunk. We filled a pickup truck with meat. In a few hours, everything was gone. </div>
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On the flight back to the US a couple days later, the movie was "Godzilla". Japanese soldiers were shooting him with bazookas as he crossed a bridge, but he just wouldn't die. I knew exactly how they felt. </div>
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I told some flight attendants that I'd shot an elephant. Some shunned me like an Amish apostate. Others confronted me to share their (negative) opinions. I've discovered that flight attendants don't appreciate my elephant muti as a rule.</div>
Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-18046607215771277442014-12-29T11:30:00.000-08:002014-12-29T11:41:02.053-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Last Witches:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">There are many biblical passages dealing with witchcraft, such as Exodus 22:18 (“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”). In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII ordered the Inquisition to move against witches as well as heretics. The fever for witch hunting reached a peak between 1560 and 1630, then slowly faded.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Dutch Republic executed its last witch around 1613. </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #141823; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><br />In Denmark, Anna Palles was the last, in 1693.<br /><br />Scotland: Janet Horne had a daughter with deformed hands and feet. Neighbors accused her of using her daughter as a pony to ride to the Devil. Horne was stripped, tarred, paraded through the town on a barrel and burned in 1727.<br /><br />England: Mary Hickes and her nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth were hanged in 1716, for taking off their stockings in order to raise a storm. Janet Wenham was accused of flying and bewitching a servant in 1712. A magical potion was found under her pillow. She was searched and "witch marks" (blemishes obtained when a pact is made with Satan) were discovered. She requested the swimming test, in which hands and feet are bound and the accused is cast into water. (Since witches spurn baptism, water - a pure element - rejects their bodies and prevents them from sinking.) She was instead ordered to recite the Lord's Prayer. (Witches are unable to do so without mistakes.) She stumbled. Fortunately, a sympathetic aristocrat secreted her in a cottage on his lands until she died in 1730.<br /><br />France: Louis Debaraz in 1745.<br /><br />Germany: Anna Schwegelin was convicted in 1775, but her sentence was not carried out.<br /><br />Switzerland: Anna Göldi was a maidservant reported to have put needles in bread and milk through supernatural means. She confessed under torture to having a pact with the Devil, who appeared to her as a black dog. She withdrew her confession after the torture ended, but was beheaded in 1782.<br /><br />Poland: two women with inflamed eyes, who were said to have enchanted their neighbor's cattle, were burned in 1793.<br /><br />Europe's witch hunts ended with the execution of Barbara Zdunk in Prussia. She was a 38-year-old woman with a teenage boyfriend and a fondness for magic. Her conviction was upheld through several appeals, including to the King. She was burned at the stake in 1811<br /><br />In the New World, Indians were commonly thought to be devils, or at least devil worshippers. Colonists first turned on themselves in Connecticut. Witches were executed in Windsor, Fairfield and Hartford. Connecticut sniffed out its last witch in 1697.<br /><br />In Massachusetts, witches were executed in Boston, Charlestown, Dorchester, Cambridge and Springfield. The largest hunt was in 1692, when 24 were executed at Salem, Massachusetts.<br /><br />Most of the witchcraft trial records for the southern colonies were destroyed during the Civil War, but accusations seem to have been taken less seriously than in Puritan New England, and penalties were less severe. In Virginia, Grace Sherwood was accused of bewitching pigs and cotton. The swimming test was administered. She floated. "Witch Duck Creek" is named for her. She was imprisoned until 1714.<br /><br />The last formal witchcraft trial in the mainland colonies was probably that of a woman named Mary, also in Virginia, who was whipped 39 times in 1730 for using magic to find lost items. That same year, Benjamin Franklin published a satire that helped shift American perception of sorcery from terrifying reality to puritanical fantasy.<br /><br />Witches are still being hunted on a small scale in New Guinea and northern India. They are being hunted on a large and growing scale in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Nigeria. The practice is spreading rapidly with the Pentecostal movement there. The accused have traditionally been the elderly, the disabled, and albinos, but children are increasingly being targeted.</span>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-16398650157966408012014-04-08T17:58:00.000-07:002014-04-08T17:58:07.297-07:00My Squirrel Jihad
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Squirrels empty our birdfeeder every day. And they eat every peach on every tree, every summer. They
don't eat the whole peaches, they just take one bite out of each of them. They do the same thing with
the tomatoes. They chew down the corn and drag the whole stalks into the woods. They even dig
underground to take a bite out of every potato. They carry off every blueberry and every gooseberry.
They don't stop when they have enough for the winter. They're like those magic brooms in Fantasia
who won't stop carrying water.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I whack them from the kitchen window with a silenced .22.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">Scores of them. It started as a jihad. But it's become more performance art. The dogs run to the window
and whine to alert me of their malevolent presence. Slowly, silently, I crank the window open, freezing
for long moments when necessary to avoid detection. I settle the crosshairs, take a deep breath, let it
halfway out, and concentrate on sight alignment and trigger control until the shot breaks.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">When I go out to retrieve my trophies, I carefully step around the overripe persimmons splattered all
over our driveway. Joggers come by and see me tip-toeing in zig-zags, barefoot and in a bathrobe,
carrying a silenced rifle. I go back inside and wait for the police to arrive.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">My record is 24 in one day. But it's like taking buckets of water out of the lake. More just keep coming
to fill the vacuum.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">They shouldn't go to waste, especially since they're made of the finest black sunflower seeds and
organic, tree-ripened peaches.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I'm from South Carolina, where squirrels are a natural part of the diet.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">I have a recipe for squirrel sausage. I am not making this up. An empathetic friend who makes venison
sausage gave me a bag of spices to use. Liz can't remember where she put it.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">She doesn't seem very motivated to look. I think she's trying to sabotage my squirrel sausage project.
I am passive-aggressively filling the freezer with squirrels until her memory improves.
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<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'TimesNewRomanPSMT'; font-size: 12.000000pt;">The dogs, on the other hand, are completely with me on this, enthusiastic about both squirrels and
sausage. Dogs understand me. </span><br />
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-58810499145434818482014-02-28T09:53:00.001-08:002014-12-29T15:39:55.415-08:00Civil Disobedience in Connecticut<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">By some estimates, more than 300,000 previously law-abiding Connecticut citizens </span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">who believe the Bill of Rights applies to them</span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">are now felons. They've refused to comply with the state's new gun registration law. </span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">So far, most Connecticut gun owners have quietly gone underground, like California's and New Jersey's before them. But some outraged politicians and the editor of the Hartford Courant are demanding aggressive enforcement. If Connecticut does choose to get heavy-handed with the 'potential domestic terrorists' who have called their bluff, here's some fun hypothetical math:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Let's be really conservative and say that only 100,000 Connecticut citizens are disobeying the order to line up and register like sex offenders. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">And let's further say that 90% of them will eventually be intimidated into complying. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">That still leaves 1,000 doors for SWAT teams to kick down in the middle of the night.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Let's say 90% of those homeowners submit and quietly go to jail when their dogs have been shot and they're looking down the barrel of a police "patrol rifle". (Have you noticed that AR-15's are "assault weapons" when citizens possess them, but "patrol rifles" when police do?)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">That still leaves 100 who will resist. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Let's say 90% of those who resist are killed before they can defend themselves.</span> </div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">That still leaves 10. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Remember the hysteria ONE cop-killer (Chris Dorner) had the entire west coast in not so long ago? Nervous, trigger-happy cops riddling houses and parked cars and innocent people as they somehow mistook hispanic women and a white man for the black suspect?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">If there are 1,000 middle-of-the-night, no-knock raids, how many of them will hit the wrong house, or the wrong guy? </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">Even if every single raid goes "well", how many people will be gunned down in their own homes in front of their families before even the most naive lefty realizes something is wrong?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">If the Connecticut State Police start attacking the homes of citizens they suspect of being armed, America is a totalitarian police state. If armed Connecticut citizens start defending themselves from the Connecticut State Police, the next revolution is on. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The police and DHS have shiny new military assault vehicles, but sooner or later they have to get out of them. </span></span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">When was the last time the US won an insurgency?</span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> </span><span style="color: #3f4549; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">The enforcers in the tanks have homes and families among the 'insurgents'. The politicians who passed this legislation and who will order the raids live among the 'insurgents'. They have homes and families among the insurgents. They may become active participants, willing or not.</span></div>
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<b>CT State Senators voting Yes on "An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety, also known as Public Law 13-3 or Connecticut Senate Bill No. 1160," 3 April 2013. List includes home addresses. Photos and home phone numbers of these tyrants are available here:<a href="http://www.cbia.com/ga/CT_State_Senators_List/-AZSENATE" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cbia.com/ga/CT_State_Senators_List/-AZSENATE</a></b></blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
John W. Fonfara, 99 Montowese St., Hartford 06114-2841</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Eric D. Coleman, 77 Wintonbury Ave., Bloomfield 06002-2529</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Andrea Stillman, 5 Coolidge Ct., Waterford 06385-3309</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Gary LeBeau, 501 Canyon Ridge Dr., Broad Brook 06016-5602</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Kevin Kelly, 240 York St., Stratford 06615-7952</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Steve Cassano, 1109 Middle Tpke, E Manchester 06040-3703</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Anthony J. Musto, 15 Maymont Ln., Trumbull 06611-2111</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Beth Bye, 99 Outlook Ave., West Hartford 06119-1432</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Andres Ayala, PO Box 55106, Bridgeport 06610-5106</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Terry B. Gerratana, 674 Lincoln St., New Britain 06052-1833</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Michael A. McLachlan, 47 W Wooster St., Danbury 06810-7731</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Bob Duff, 50 Toilsome Ave., Norwalk 06851-2425</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Toni Boucher, 5 Wicks End Ln, Wilton 06897-2633</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Paul Doyle, 38 Thornbush Rd., Wethersfield 06109-3554</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Carlo Leone, 88 Houston Ter., Stamford 06902-4449</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Toni N. Harp (no longer in the Legislature, she is now the Mayor of New Haven, CT).</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
John McKinney, 986 S Pine Creek Rd., Fairfield 06824-6348</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Martin M. Looney, 132 Fort Hale Rd., New Haven 06512-3630</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Donald E. Williams, Jr., 41 Malbone Ln., Brooklyn 06234-1563</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Edward Meyer, 407 Mulberry Point Rd., Guilford 06437-3204</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Dante Bartolomeo, 167 Reynolds Dr., Meriden 06450-2568</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Gayle Slossburg, 14 Honeysuckle Ln., Milford 06461-1671</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Joan V. Hartley, 206 Columbia Blvd., Waterbury 06710-1401</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Leonard Fasano, 7 Sycamore Ln., North Haven 06473-1283</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Joseph J. Crisco, Jr., 1205 Racebrook Rd., Woodbridge 06525-1822</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
L. Scott Frantz, 123 Meadow Rd., Riverside 06878-2521</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
<b>CT House members voting Yes on "An Act Concerning Gun Violence Prevention and Children's Safety, also known as Public Law 13-3 or Connecticut Senate Bill No. 1160," 3 April 2013. Photos and home phone numbers of these tyrants are available here:<a href="http://www.cbia.com/ga/CT_State_Representatives_List/-AZHOUSE" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">http://www.cbia.com/ga/CT_State_Representatives_List/-AZHOUSE</a></b></blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Catherine Abercrombie, 64 Parker Ave., Meriden 06450-5945</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Ernest Hewett, 29 Colman St., New London 06320-3558</blockquote>
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Peter Tercyak, 150 Belridge Rd., New Britain 06053-1008</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Brenda Kupchick, 85 Liberty St., Madison 06443-3258</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
William Tong, 99 Chestnut Hill Rd., Stamford 06903-4030</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Gary Holder-Winfield, 480 Winchester Ave., New Haven 06511-1920</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
James Albis, 369 Coe Ave., Apt 14, East Haven</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
David Alexander, 277 Pearl St., Enfield 06082-4368</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Bryan Hurlburt (Stepped down to take a position with the USDA's Farm Service Agency.)</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Diana Urban, 146 Babcock Rd., North Stonington 06359-1334</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Gail Lavielle, 109 Hickory Hill Rd., Wilton 06897-1135</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Claire Janowski, 263 Hany Ln., Vernon 06066-2740</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Edwin Vargas, 141 Douglas St., Hartford 06114-2422</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Angel Arce, 248 Franklin Ave., Hartford 06114-1841</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Susan Johnson, 120 Bolivia St., Willimantic 06226-2818</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Joe Verrengia, 160 Colonial St., West Hartford 06110-1814</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
David Arconti, Jr., 141 Great Plain Rd., Danbury 06811-3844</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Tom Vicino, 92 Carter Hill Rd., Clinton 06413-1230</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Joe Aresimowicz, 248 Lower Ln., Berlin 06037-2231</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
David Kiner, 5 Cranberry Hollow, Enfield 06082-2200</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Toni Walker, 1643 Ella T Grasso Blvd., New Haven 06511-2801</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Patricia Widlitz, 12 Island Bay Cir., Guilford 06437-3058</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Timothy Larson, 33 Gorman Pl., East Hartford 06108-1450</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Christina Ayala, 506 Brooks St., Bridgeport 06608-1303</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Terry Backer, 125 Jefferson St., Stratford 06615-7810</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Roland Lemar, 6 Eld St., New Haven 06511-3816</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Roberta Willis, PO Box 1733, 30 Upland Meadow Rd., Lakeville 06039-1733</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Tom O'Dea, 37 Holly Rd., New Canaan 06840-6406</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
David Baram, 5 Warbler Cir., Bloomfield 06002-2233</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Matthew Lesser, 1160 S Main S.,t Apt 110, Middletown 06457-5034</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Christopher Wright, 35 Ruth St., Apt 49, Bristol 06010-3218</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Arthur O'Neill, 617 Bucks Hill Rd., Southbury 06488-1952</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Brian Becker, 14 Candlewood Dr., West Hartford 06117-1009</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Rick Lopes, 208 S Mountain Dr., New Britain 06052-1514</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Elissa Wright, 51 Pearl St., Groton 06340-5732</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Elizabeth "Betty" Boukus, Legislative Office Bldg., Rm 4017, Hartford 06106</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Geoff Luxenburg, 45 Chatham Dr., Manchester 06042-8522</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
James Maroney, 22 Saranac Rd Milford 06461-9401</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Larry Butler, 70 Blackman Rd., Waterbury 06704-1203</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Juan Candelaria, 28 Arch St., New Haven 06519-1511</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Brandon McGee, 43 Warren St., Hartford 06120-2117</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Robert Megna, 40 Foxon Hill Rd., Unit 54, New Haven 06513-1166</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Charles "Don" Clemons, 130 Read St., Bridgeport 06607-2021</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Michelle Cook, 499 Charles St., Torrington 06790-3420</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Patricia Miller, 95 Liberty St., Apt A4, Stamford 06902-4732</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
John Shaban, 29 Ledgewood Rd., Redding 06896-2916</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Bill Aman, 878 Strong Rd., South Windsor 06074-2006</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Philip Miller, 24 Bushy Hill Rd., Ivoryton 06442-1108</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Victor Cuevas, 17 Keefe St., Waterbur,y 06706-1616</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Mike D'Agostino, 575 Ridge Rd., Hamden 06517-2519</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Russ Morin, 495 Brimfield Rd., Wethersfield 06109-3209</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Richard Smith, 25 Jeremy Dr., New Fairfield 06812-2109</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Prasad Srinivasan, 268 Grandview Dr., Glastonbury 06033-3946</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Bruce Morris, 315 Ely Ave., Norwalk 06854-4619</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Stephen Dargan, 215 Beach St., West Haven 06516-6133</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Paul Davis, 335 Smith Farm Rd., Orange 06477-3127</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Ted Moukawsher, 48 W Elderkin Ave., Groton 06340-4933</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Mitch Bolinsky, 3 Wiley Ln., Newtown 06470-1812</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Stephen Walko, 7 Charter Oak Ln., Greenwich 06830-6911</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Mike Demicco, 6 Deborah Ln., Farmington 06032-3031</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Mary Mushinsky, 188 S Cherry St., Wallingford 06492-4016</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Patricia Dillon, 68 W Rock Ave., New Haven 06515-2221</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Sandy Nafis, 49 Whitewood Rd., Newington 06111-2133</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Larry Cafero, Jr., 6 Weed Ave., Norwalk 06850-2224</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Terrie Wood, 50 Saint Nicholas Rd., Darien 06820-2823</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Joe Diminico, 26 Finley St., Manchester 06040-5616</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
David Yaccarino, 1804 Hartford Tpke., North Haven 06473-1248</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Elaine O'Brien, 1321 Hill St., Suffield 06078-1024</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Kim Fawcett, 234 Collingwood Ave., Fairfield 06825-1877</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Chris Perone, 8 E. Rocks Rd., Norwalk 06851-2919</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Christie Carpino, 29 Sovereign Rd., Cromwell 06416-1136</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Lonnie Reed, 60 Maple St., Apt. 44, Branford 06405-3562</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Andy Fleischmann, 25 Sherwood Rd., West Hartford 06117-2739</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Mae Flexer, 452 Main St., Danielson 06239-2104</blockquote>
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Emmett Riley, 150 Yantic St., Unit 160, Norwich 06360-4248</blockquote>
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Daniel Fox, 14 Carter Dr., Stamford 06902-7013</blockquote>
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Matt Ritter, 169 N Beacon St., Hartford 06105-2246</blockquote>
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J. Brendan Sharkey, 600 Mount Carmel Ave., Hamden 06518-1606</blockquote>
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Jason Rojas, 128 Langford Ln., East Hartford 06118-2369</blockquote>
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Gerald Fox, III, 66 Fairview Ave., Stamford 06902-8129</blockquote>
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Mary Fritz, 43 Grove St., Yalesville 06492-1606</blockquote>
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Livvy Floren, 210 Round Hill Rd., Greenwich 06831-3357</blockquote>
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Henry Genga, 5 Elaine Dr., East Hartford 06118-3515</blockquote>
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John Frey, 2 Copps Hill Rd., Ridgefield 06877-4013</blockquote>
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Linda Gentile, 158 Hodge Ave., Ansonia 06401-3236</blockquote>
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Robert Sanchez, 269 Washington St., New Britain 06051-1024</blockquote>
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Minnie Gonzalez, 97 Amity St., Hartford 06106-1001</blockquote>
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Ezequiel Santiago, 991 State St., Bridgeport 06605-1504</blockquote>
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Jeffrey Berger, 134 Gaylord Dr., Waterbury 06708-2181</blockquote>
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Auden Grogins, 155 Brewster St., Apt 5L, Bridgeport 06605-3111</blockquote>
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Hilda Santiago, 86 South Ave., Fl 3, Meriden 06451-7624</blockquote>
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DebraLee Hovey, 296 Fan Hill Rd., Monroe 06468-1329</blockquote>
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Bob Godfrey, 13 Stillman Ave., Danbury 06810-8007</blockquote>
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Antonio Guerrera, 194 Catherine Dr., Rocky Hill 06067-1096</blockquote>
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Brian Sear, 11 N Canterbury Rd., Canterbury 06331-1209</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Elizabeth Ritter, 24 Old Mill Rd., Quaker Hill 06375-1319</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Tony Hwang, PO Box 762, Fairfield 06824-0762</blockquote>
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Joseph Serra, PO Box 233, Middletown 06457-0233</blockquote>
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Gregg Haddad, 28 Storrs Heights Rd., Storrs Mansfield 06268-2322</blockquote>
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John Hampton, 33 West Mountain, Simsbury 06092</blockquote>
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Charlie Stallworth, 35 Wickliffe Cir., Bridgeport 06606-1929</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Themis Klarides, 23 East Ct., Derby 06418-2640</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Noreen Kokoruda, 85 Liberty St., Madison 06443-3258</blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">
Jonathan Steinberg, 1 Bushy Ridge Rd., Westport 06880-2104</blockquote>
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Jack Hennessy, 556 Savoy St., Bridgeport 06606-4125</blockquote>
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-54262972368683377442014-01-06T18:54:00.000-08:002014-01-06T18:55:30.790-08:00Fire-starting Practice in the Rain<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Today was a day made for hypothermia, just above freezing and raining fairly hard. A foot of slushy snow on the ground. Since the paradox of fire is that the more you need one the more difficult it is to build, I figured I'd take a hike and practice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I took a small tarp, a knife, a ferrocerium rod, a matchsafe with 25 stormproof matches, and three pieces of "Tinder Quik" tinder. Way more than enough, right?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">By the time I found a good flat spot with a rock that would serve as a reflector, I was overheated from post-holing through the heavy snow. By the time I rigged the tarp to give me a place to work out of the rain, I was wet and fairly cold even with a poncho on. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I collected some birch bark and broke off some 'squaw wood' from white pine trees and carried them back to the tarp. I split the wood and carved some feather sticks, but even sheltered from the rain it was impossible to keep things dry. It took all three of my tinder pieces to get even birch bark burning. I nursed it very carefully and got some shavings and twigs burning, but ran out of kindling before I could ignite enough larger wood for the fire to be self-sustaining. I ran off to collect more. By the time I returned, the fire had gone out. There was plenty of birch bark and beech leaves on trees all around, but everything was too wet to light with a ferrocerium rod, so that left the storm matches. I used about half of them just to get the birch bark dry enough so that I thought I'd be able to light it when a large stray raindrop landed right on the matchsafe's striker strip. That was the end of that.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So I feel like the 'Cheechako' in Jack London's "To Build a Fire", or 'Hatchet Jack' from 'Jeremiah Johnson'. (Well, except that instead of freezing to death, I hiked home and my wife made me soup and pie...)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The tarp was one of those reflective types with a grommet at each corner. I've had it in my daypack for several backcountry trips in case of emergency, but had never used it before now. Even though I was careful not to string it too tautly, all four grommets had torn loose by the time the day was over.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I have an elk hunt planned for this fall in a very remote area, and I realize that I need to be much better prepared and equipped. I'd like to confidant of reliably starting a fire not just in rain and wet snow, but also in darkness and wind, and preferably one-handed. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Lessons learned (or more accurately, things I already knew reinforced):</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Use and test your gear before you really need it.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Carry more firestarters and especially more tinder than you think you'll need.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Process more kindling for your fire than you think you'll need.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Never miss an opportunity to fill your pockets with dry birch bark.</span>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-43216592012267108492013-11-06T17:28:00.000-08:002013-11-06T17:28:24.609-08:00On Making Cider<br />
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For much of human history, the safest things to drink had alcohol in them. "Hard" cider was very popular in England, and early emigrants from there brought apple seeds to New England.<br />
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Grains required for the production of beer don't thrive in the northeast's soil and climate, but apples do. Before long every homestead had a small orchard and a cider "press", or "mill". Cider, both sweet and hard, became the most popular drink in America. Cider houses were ubiquitous. Sometimes cider was also made from pears and peaches. Children drank ciderkin, a weaker version made from soaking apple pomace in water and re-pressing it. Sometimes a little molasses and ginger was added.<br />
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By the turn of the eighteenth century, the average New Englander was drinking about 35 gallons of cider a year. John Adams started every morning with a tankard. Wages, taxes and debts were sometimes paid in cider.<br />
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In the early 1900s, huge numbers of German immigrants insisted on drinking beer instead. The barley-friendly soil of the Midwest and the advent of mechanical refrigeration made beer production easier than it had been. The popularity of cider waned.<br />
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Then the temperance movement and Prohibition almost put an end to it. The Volstead Act limited production of even sweet cider. Prohibitionists burned countless orchards.<br />
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By the time Prohibition was repealed, Americans had forgotten their love of cider. Barley could be brought back into production faster than trees, so beer became the predominant alcoholic beverage.<br />
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To make hard cider:<br />
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Add yeast, stir, then seal and affix an airlock. Keep in a dark place with a temperature close to 60 degrees.<br />
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Within a day or two you'll see carbon dioxide bubbles in the airlock, indicating fermentation. This bubbling should subside within two weeks. Let the cider sit another week to allow the yeast to settle out.<br />
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Bottle and let it sit for at least another couple weeks. Your cider will probably be “still” (not fizzy) unless you let it age for several months. Flavor improves with age.<br />
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-9970153129600799482013-03-29T16:21:00.000-07:002013-03-29T16:21:10.712-07:00Favorite Axes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Starting from seven o'clock and proceeding clockwise:<br />
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A military axe from a surplus store, made by Hults Bruk and marked with the Swedish three crowns. It's about a 2 1/2 pound head on a thirty-inch handle. Light enough to carry on a camping trip, large enough to do serious work.<br />
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A Wetterlings full-size felling axe. I didn't like it at first because the handle was thick enough to paddle a canoe with. After it sat around mostly unused for several years, I slimmed and 'octagoned' the handle. Now it's one of my favorites.<br />
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A Granfors Bruks splitting maul. We heat with wood and it's been splitting about three cords per year for a long time. It has a steel collar to protect the handle, and it's still on the original one. It's an indispensable tool on our homestead.<br />
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A Stanley double-bit on a 36" handle. Made by the Mann Edged Tool Company, I think, back in the days when quality axes were still forged in the US. I mostly use it to split kindling, by driving one edge into a stump and then batoning small sticks over the other. The head is too slender for anything other than what it's designed for, felling, and I don't like felling trees with an axe. But it's fun to use once in a while. I have a lot of respect for lumberjacks who swung axes like that all day.<br />
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Last, at four o'clock, another Granfors Bruks, a limbing axe with a light 2-pound head on a 25" handle. It's a good camp axe, small enough to choke up on one-handed for carving, and large enough to get a powerful two-handed swing with. The grain in the handle runs exactly the wrong way, so I figured I'd use it hard until it broke and replace it with a proper one. I haven't been able to break it. That hickory is very tough stuff.<br />
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Granfors Bruk axes are good quality, but after being featured on some survival TV shows, they've become almost "boutique" tools, with prices to match. Fortunately I bought mine a long time ago. I like that the shape of the heads shows the medieval roots of European axes.<br />
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I usually duct-tape a strip of leather to the leading edges of handles to protect them from overstrikes. My theory is that pink is easy to see in the snow and leaves, and less likely to 'walk away'. What self-respecting woodsman would swipe a pink axe?<br />
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<br />Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-25727882331606734342013-03-24T17:31:00.000-07:002013-03-24T17:31:00.150-07:00Duct Tape Axe Sheath<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every axe needs a sheath. Duct tape and paracord aren't as classy as leather, but they're almost free. You're less likely to lose them in the leaves or snow, and won't feel as badly if you do. </div>
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This is my daughter's axe. I duct taped a strip of leather on the leading edge of the handle beneath the head to protect it from overstrikes. </div>
<br />Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-10274847959777500322013-02-16T13:51:00.000-08:002013-02-24T15:45:44.760-08:00My Favorite Rain Gear<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've written before about military surplus rain capes (also known as zelts, zeltbahns, plasch-palatkas, palatkas, cloak-tents and shelter-halves) being my favorite foul weather gear.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;">Centuries ago, armies discovered that soldiers performed better if they slept under shelter, and began issuing individual tents to be carried on the march. Inevitably, soldiers began wrapping their tents around them as shelter from the rain as they walked. Commanders took notice, and modifications were made so that the tents would be more useful as cloaks. </span></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">These are what evolved by the early 1900's. They're more effective than ponchos, and more convenient and versatile than rain suits. I've collected German, Swiss, French, Swedish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Czech, and now Polish versions. The latter is the best of the best.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">The Polish army issued these in three different sizes to accommodate different heights. They're made from a very nice light cotton canvas. Breathable, but thanks to an extra layer over the shoulders, also very water resistant. The olive-drab color is perfect. Good camouflage without being Rambo-ish. I appreciate that there's no brown in it - I'm paranoid about wearing brown during deer season. It doesn't look too stupid to wear in public. (Okay, it looks pretty stupid, but not as stupid as most, and not as stupid as being soaking wet.) They're cut in the shape of a six-sided polygon, with no "tail" to either button up or drag in the mud as with square rain capes. Grommeted corners are reinforced with an extra layer of material. Unlike with most rain capes, though, there's no annoying grommet at the peak of the hood. </span></div>
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Buttons are sewn-on, so they're easy to replace. They're plastic rather than the usual metal, so they make less noise, won't rust, and they're easier on cold fingers.</div>
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One cape can be pitched as a minimal shelter, and two can be buttoned together to make a small pyramid tent, 4'8" high. That's more stretching room than any similar military shelter I'm aware of and more than a foot taller than the U.S. shelter halves that I spent my military career using. And it's lighter and more versatile. </div>
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Each rain cape was issued with two sections of the four-section center pole, and four ingeniously curved stakes that fit inside the pole sections without rattling. Veteran infantry tends to quickly "lose" such excess weight. But no matter, your walking stick and some improvisation will do. The thin stakes are meant to go through the grommets on the lower edge. I tie loops of biodegradable baling twine to the grommets so that larger stakes (usually sharpened sticks) can be used. When camp is broken, I can simply cut the twine if necessary. (Anyone whose tried to chip a frozen tent out of the snow without damaging it will understand what I'm talking about.)</div>
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When worn as a garment, there's a drawstring to take in some tucks and keep it from falling over your shoulders. A second drawstring forms the hood. It can be worn over equipment or under a belt. Unlike separate jacket-and-pants rain gear, it's not a big production to put on and take off. It's large enough to drape over your legs when canoeing or sitting on a deer stand. You can even relieve yourself inside one without taking it off and getting wet. Make yourself a comfortable seat, light a candle lantern between your legs, and it's an instant heated deer blind that disguises your human shape. If you leave it mostly unbuttoned, you can keep your rifle under cover but ready for use. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Here it is pitched singly as a minimal shelter. Not something I'd like to face wind-driven rain in, but I did spend an afternoon of moderate rain in it with no trouble. It's better than any other single half-shelter I'm aware of, and as good as TWO shelter-quarters such as the smaller German-inspired zeltbahns. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Here are two buttoned together make a tent. I doubt that many soldiers would take the time and trouble to make a tent other than in training. Exhausted men are much more likely to simply wrap up in them and wiggle under a vehicle or something. But they do make admirable tents. The flaps and the peaks overlap in such a way that there's much less wind-driven rain leakage than with most of these sorts of tents, and no need to put a helmet on the peak to keep water from coming through the grommets - as I mentioned above, there are no grommets at the peak. Pyramid tents are my all-around favorite. they go up easily with only one pole, and there are no guy lines to trip over. The only downside is that the door isn't vertical, and you lose some useable floorspace to rain when it's open. </span></div>
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The tent is startlingly dark inside, nice for sleeping and an indication of how weather-tight it is. That should make it an excellent ice-fishing bob house - you can see right down into the water when there's no light reflecting off it. It's surprisingly easy to heat with just a candle. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Relatively light considering how roomy and rugged it is. Two shelter halves, four tent pole sections and eight stakes weigh 7.5 pounds/3.4 kilograms. One rain cape alone weighs about 3 pounds.</span></div>
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Like a poncho, a rain cape is comfortable to hike in, with good ventilation for warm weather, and easier to put on and take off than separate pants and jackets. Even better than a poncho, it provides closer coverage and doesn't flap around so much in the wind. It may be worn over a pack or under a belt. It's full enough to cover your legs when you're canoeing or sitting on a deer stand. </div>
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To carry it like Civil War Johnny Reb's carried their blankets, roll it and tie with a clove hitch, then a series of half-hitches, and finish with another clove hitch. Then tie the ends together and wear it <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; text-align: left;">wear it across your torso like a bandoleer. </span>During deer season you'll have rain gear, an emergency shelter, a drag rope, something to sit on, or a pillow, whichever you want at the moment.</div>
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-43874233542917861202013-02-05T06:02:00.001-08:002013-02-05T06:02:41.962-08:00Great Moments in Real Man History: Mad Jack Churchill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, AKA "Mad Jack", 1906-1996</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Mad Jack was a British officer who carried a longbow and a Claymore sword into battle. Not the Highland Rebellion of 1745, World War II. And he used them. He ambushed a German Sergeant in France with his bow, and led charges with his Claymore in Norway, Sicily and Yugoslavia. In his last action, every Brit who wasn't Mad Jack was ki</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">lled by mortar fire. When the Germans captured him, he was playing "Will Ye No Come Back Again?" on his bagpipes. He also carried bagpipes into battle. They didn't call him "Mad Jack" for nothing. He was sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but crawled under the wire and through a drain and was walking towards the Baltic coast when he was recaptured. He was sent to another concentration camp, but escaped again and walked 150 miles until he was picked up by an advancing American unit. They sent him back to England, where he was bitterly disappointed to learn that the war had ended while he was en route.<br /><br />"If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years."<br /><br />After the war he became a passionate surfer. The character of Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore in the film 'Apocalypse Now' is partially based on him.<br /><br />In later years, Churchill served as an instructor at a school in Australia. He threw his attaché case out of the train window each day on the ride home when passing by his house so that he wouldn’t have to carry it from the station.<br /><br />Every war brings out some remarkably eccentric personalities, but most of them don't survive for long. Mad Jack lived to be 90.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">Notice the dude on the far right with the sword. That's Mad Jack. All the sissy-boys with rifles are behind him.</span>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-4492182133705840902012-12-04T09:15:00.000-08:002012-12-04T09:15:53.424-08:00Gear that Works: Military Bread Bags<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Before the days of C-rations and MRE's, the soldiers of many countries were issued 'bread bags', also known as 'ration bags'. The primary source of calories for fighting men is no longer hearty loaves of carbohydrates, so these are now being sold off as surplus. (Having eaten many C-rations and MRE's, I don't think they're an improvement over a canvas sack of bread, cheese and sausages.) Like most military gear, they are heavy and rugged. I only paid a few dollars for each of the bags below. One of them has a name written on it. Interesting to wonder about the last guy who used it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is a Polish bread bag. It's a perfect fit for my Swedish mess kit, Trangia alcohol stove, and a liter of fuel. It has a clever compression-strap arrangement to keep things from rattling. I use another one as a 'possibles bag' for my muzzleloader. There are interior pockets that keep the powder charges, bullets, and accouterments organized. And there's still plenty of room for lunch. If you have kids, they'd make a good school bag or a funky purse, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">These are Swiss bread bags. They're designed to be fastened to bicycles as well as to be carried over the shoulder. If you're the sort of retro-cyclist who has a leather Brooks saddle, you'll love these as handlebar bags and panniers. They seem like an odd design until you use them a bit and figure things out, and then they seem ingenious. Very sturdy. Sturdy as in, like, you could issue them to soldiers during a war or something. They're made of heavy canvas with two inner pockets and quality leather straps. There's a leatherette cover that the canvas bag folds into so that one side is waterproof, but the other side still breathes. When unfolded, the waterproof cover serves as a place to put cutlery and food as you eat, to keep them from getting dirty or lost. </span></div>
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Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-6366150222796045372012-08-09T18:47:00.002-07:002014-12-29T15:39:20.559-08:00Crayfish, Crawfish, Little Lake Lobsters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">It’s fun to forage wild edibles, especially when the catching is even better than the eating. With crayfish even little kids can do the hunter-gatherer thing. They're an under-utilized food source, and they're as delicious as lobster and shrimp.</span><span style="color: #555555; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">They're eaten all over the world, boiled, fried, smoked, and sun-dried. My favorite recipe is the simplest: get a couple inches of water boiling, and drop them in headfirst to make it quick. Steam for five minutes, then serve with butter and perhaps a squeeze of lemon. The edible part is the tail. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The green goo you'll see when you pull it off is an organ that performs the function of our liver and pancreas. It's edible too.</span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">There's a "vein" -actually the intestine - along the tail that you can strip out. Some people don't bother. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Sometimes, if they're exceptionally large, the claws are worthwhile. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">If you want to save some crayfish for later, pop them - whole or just the tails - into a plastic container, cover them with water, and freeze them. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Crayfish have been around for 115 million years or so. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">They prefer clean, oxygenated, warm water. They're most active at night. They move to deeper water and become torpid in winter. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">They're like canaries in the a coal mine, in that they don't tolerate </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">pollution or low oxygen levels. You can judge the quality of water by the crayfish in it, like you can judge the health of a garden's soil by its worms. </span><br />
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This is a run-of-the-mill minnow trap, available in almost any hardware store. They work well for crayfish, too. They'll catch all sizes, so if you want small ones for bait in addition to large ones for eating, this might be your best option.<br />
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This is a very expensive welded-trap that gets a lot of hype on the internet. They do catch very well, probably better than any others I've tried, but unfortunately they rust away quickly. Maybe there's something corrosive about our New Hampshire water.<br />
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These traps are from Sweden. Because of the size of the holes in them, they only catch large crayfish. The plastic one on top works very well and has been durable. If I could only have one type of trap, this would be it.</div>
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The lower trap is collapsible, so it's nice if you're going to hike into a pond. It catches okay IF you pull it up every two or three hours. Crayfish can get out of it relatively easily, so once they've eaten their fill, or if the sun is coming up, they simply leave. </div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Don't try to keep the crayfish you've caught in a bucket full of water unless it's aerated - more than a couple will run out of oxygen quickly. Just keep them cool and moist in your refrigerator or a cooler and they'll last for a day or two. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">For bait I use fish heads and offal, or fish-based cat food. The oilier the better, like salmon. Bait should be fresh. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Contrary to popular belief, crayfish are picky eaters. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">When I clean fish, I put the heads, skins and etc. in plastic or wire bait boxes, which are in turn put into plastic bags and frozen. Then I just pop a box into each trap when I set them out. Bait boxes aren't just convenient, they're important because they keep the crayfish from eating the bait from the outside of the trap. If they can access it without going in, they will. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Some waters have amazingly large populations of crayfish while seemingly similar ones a short distance away have almost none. If there are a lot of crayfish in a pond or stream, you should be able to see some by overturning a few rocks. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">In order to learn more, I sometimes place traps very precisely, using a mask and snorkel, and observe them several times a day. I find that traps need to have good contact with the bottom. If they hang up on rocks or sticks, crayfish will have to climb up to enter them, and they don't like to expose themselves to predators. They should also be in water deep enough so that waves won't rock them. I tend to catch only small crays near shore even when the water is still. The larger ones seem to prefer ten or fifteen feet of water. They also like the cover of plants and rocks. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">If you can find a shoreline that's been protected from erosion with large rocks, try there.</span></div>
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<br />Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-75749613614953897672012-08-08T14:55:00.000-07:002012-08-10T14:34:17.979-07:00Gear that works: rain capes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">After years of experimenting, rain capes have become my favorite rain gear, and specifically military surplus rain capes, because they're rugged and versatile. They haven't caught on in the Americas, but many European armies use them. This one is Hungarian. They call it a "plasch-palatka", which I am told translates as "cloak-tent". </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Like a poncho, it's comfortable to hike in, with good ventilation for warm weather. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Even better than a poncho, it provides closer coverage and doesn't flap around so much in the wind.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">It's easier to put on and take off than separate pants and jackets. It may be worn over a pack or under a belt. It's full enough to cover your legs when sitting on a deer stand or canoeing. And unlike a poncho, you can swim in one if you have to, as long as it's mostly unbuttoned or your arms are out of the holes. You can even relieve yourself while wearing one without making a big production out of it. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">There's a button arrangement that takes in some tucks to keep it from falling over your shoulders, and a drawstring to form a hood. The grommeted corner that remains at the peak of the hood is tucked under. Some rain-capes have a "tail" that is buttoned up inside so that it doesn't drag on the ground, but the cut of this one is such that it isn't necessary. There are arm holes, but it's typically worn unbuttoned with arms inside. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; font-family: Arial;">Here it is rigged as a minimal shelter. It would block some wind and provide some shade, but wouldn't do for much more than a gentle rain. Two can be buttoned together to make a small tipi-tent, but wind-driven rain will still come in at the arm holes. They button shut, but unlike some rain-capes, there's no overlapping flap arrangement. The Hungarians designed it to be more of a garment than a shelter. By the way, it's nearly impossible to pitch any sort of tent with the dog helping. He's constantly going in and out, and not necessarily via the open side. </span></div>
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Here's an East German version. Similar design, much poorer quality.Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-19963849491156880162012-05-26T03:04:00.002-07:002012-05-26T03:04:29.777-07:00Big Brother is Watching.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;">Official list of words that Homeland Security monitors on social media (Facebook, Twitter, news article comments, etc.):</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;"><table style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-collapse: separate; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.4em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static; vertical-align: middle; width: 645px; z-index: auto;"><tbody style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Domestic Security</h3>
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<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Assassination<br />Attack<br />Domestic security<br />Drill<br />Exercise<br />Cops<br />Law enforcement<br />Authorities<br />Disaster assistance<br />Disaster management<br />DNDO (Domestic Nuclear<br />Detection Office)<br />National preparedness<br />Mitigation<br />Prevention<br />Response<br />Recovery<br />Dirty bomb<br />Domestic nuclear detection</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Emergency management<br />Emergency response<br />First responder<br />Homeland security<br />Maritime domain awareness<br />(MDA)<br />National preparedness<br />initiative<br />Militia<br />Shooting<br />Shots fired<br />Evacuation<br />Deaths<br />Hostage<br />Explosion (explosive)<br />Police<br />Disaster medical assistance<br />team (DMAT)<br />Organized crime</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Gangs<br />National security<br />State of emergency<br />Security<br />Breach<br />Threat<br />Standoff<br />SWAT<br />Screening<br />Lockdown<br />Bomb (squad or threat)<br />Crash<br />Looting<br />Riot<br />Emergency Landing<br />Pipe bomb<br />Incident<br />Facility</td></tr>
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HAZMAT & Nuclear</h3>
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<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Hazmat<br />Nuclear<br />Chemical spill<br />Suspicious package/device<br />Toxic<br />National laboratory<br />Nuclear facility<br />Nuclear threat<br />Cloud<br />Plume<br />Radiation<br />Radioactive</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Leak<br />Biological infection (or<br />event)<br />Chemical<br />Chemical burn<br />Biological<br />Epidemic<br />Hazardous<br />Hazardous material incident<br />Industrial spill<br />Infection<br />Powder (white)</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Gas<br />Spillover<br />Anthrax<br />Blister agent<br />Chemical agent<br />Exposure<br />Burn<br />Nerve agent<br />Ricin<br />Sarin<br />North Korea</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Health Concern + H1N1</h3>
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<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Outbreak<br />Contamination<br />Exposure<br />Virus<br />Evacuation<br />Bacteria<br />Recall<br />Ebola<br />Food Poisoning<br />Foot and Mouth (FMD)<br />H5N1<br />Avian<br />Flu<br />Strain<br />Quarantine<br />H1N1<br />Vaccine</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Salmonella<br />Small Pox<br />Plague<br />Human to human<br />Human to Animal<br />Influenza<br />Center for Disease Control<br />(CDC)<br />Drug Administration (FDA)<br />Public Health<br />Toxic<br />Agro Terror<br />Tuberculosis (TB)<br />Tamiflu<br />Norvo Virus<br />Epidemic</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Agriculture<br />Listeria<br />Symptoms<br />Mutation<br />Resistant<br />Antiviral<br />Wave<br />Pandemic<br />Infection<br />Water/air borne<br />Sick<br />Swine<br />Pork World Health Organization<br />(WHO) (and components)<br />Viral Hemorrhagic Fever<br />E. Coli</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"></td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Infrastructure Security</h3>
</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Infrastructure security<br />Airport<br />CIKR (Critical Infrastructure<br />& Key Resources)<br />AMTRAK<br />Collapse<br />Computer infrastructure<br />Communications<br />infrastructure<br />Telecommunications<br />Critical infrastructure<br />National infrastructure<br />Metro<br />WMATA</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Airplane (and derivatives)<br />Chemical fire<br />Subway<br />BART<br />MARTA<br />Port Authority<br />NBIC (National<br />Biosurveillance Integration<br />Center)<br />Transportation security<br />Grid<br />Power<br />Smart<br />Body scanner</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Electric<br />Failure or outage<br />Black out<br />Brown out<br />Port<br />Dock<br />Bridge<br />Cancelled<br />Delays<br />Service disruption<br />Power lines</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Southwest Border Violence</h3>
</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Drug cartel<br />Violence<br />Gang<br />Drug<br />Narcotics<br />Cocaine<br />Marijuana<br />Heroin<br />Border<br />Mexico<br />Cartel<br />Southwest<br />Juarez<br />Sinaloa<br />Tijuana<br />Torreon<br />Yuma<br />Tucson<br />Decapitated<br />U.S. Consulate<br />Consular<br />El Paso</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Fort Hancock<br />San Diego<br />Ciudad Juarez<br />Nogales<br />Sonora<br />Colombia<br />Mara salvatrucha<br />MS13 or MS-13<br />Drug war<br />Mexican army<br />Methamphetamine<br />Cartel de Golfo<br />Gulf Cartel<br />La Familia<br />Reynosa<br />Nuevo Leon<br />Narcos<br />Narco banners (Spanish<br />equivalents)<br />Los Zetas<br />Shootout<br />Execution</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Gunfight<br />Trafficking<br />Kidnap<br />Calderon<br />Reyosa<br />Bust<br />Tamaulipas<br />Meth Lab<br />Drug trade<br />Illegal immigrants<br />Smuggling (smugglers)<br />Matamoros<br />Michoacana<br />Guzman<br />Arellano-Felix<br />Beltran-Leyva<br />Barrio Azteca<br />Artistic Assassins<br />Mexicles<br />New Federation</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Terrorism</h3>
</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Terrorism<br />Al Qaeda (all spellings)<br />Terror<br />Attack<br />Iraq<br />Afghanistan<br />Iran<br />Pakistan<br />Agro<br />Environmental terrorist<br />Eco terrorism<br />Conventional weapon<br />Target<br />Weapons grade<br />Dirty bomb<br />Enriched<br />Nuclear<br />Chemical weapon<br />Biological weapon<br />Ammonium nitrate<br />Improvised explosive device</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">IED (Improvised Explosive<br />Device)<br />Abu Sayyaf<br />Hamas<br />FARC (Armed Revolutionary<br />Forces Colombia)<br />IRA (Irish Republican Army)<br />ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna)<br />Basque Separatists<br />Hezbollah<br />Tamil Tigers<br />PLF (Palestine Liberation<br />Front)<br />PLO (Palestine Liberation<br />Organization<br />Car bomb<br />Jihad<br />Taliban<br />Weapons cache<br />Suicide bomber<br />Suicide attack</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Suspicious substance<br />AQAP (AL Qaeda Arabian<br />Peninsula)<br />AQIM (Al Qaeda in the<br />Islamic Maghreb)<br />TTP (Tehrik-i-Taliban<br />Pakistan)<br />Yemen<br />Pirates<br />Extremism<br />Somalia<br />Nigeria<br />Radicals<br />Al-Shabaab<br />Home grown<br />Plot<br />Nationalist<br />Recruitment<br />Fundamentalism<br />Islamist</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Weather/Disaster/Emergency</h3>
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<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Emergency<br />Hurricane<br />Tornado<br />Twister<br />Tsunami<br />Earthquake<br />Tremor<br />Flood<br />Storm<br />Crest<br />Temblor<br />Extreme weather<br />Forest fire<br />Brush fire</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Ice<br />Stranded/Stuck<br />Help<br />Hail<br />Wildfire<br />Tsunami Warning Center<br />Magnitude<br />Avalanche<br />Typhoon<br />Shelter-in-place<br />Disaster<br />Snow<br />Blizzard<br />Sleet</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Mud slide or Mudslide<br />Erosion<br />Power outage<br />Brown out<br />Warning<br />Watch<br />Lightening<br />Aid<br />Relief<br />Closure<br />Interstate<br />Burst<br />Emergency Broadcast System</td></tr>
<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td colspan="3" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><h3 style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0.6em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Cyber Security</h3>
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<tr style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Cyber security<br />Botnet<br />DDOS (dedicated denial of<br />service)<br />Denial of service<br />Malware<br />Virus<br />Trojan<br />Keylogger<br />Cyber Command</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">2600<br />Spammer<br />Phishing<br />Rootkit<br />Phreaking<br />Cain and abel<br />Brute forcing<br />Mysql injection<br />Cyber attack<br />Cyber terror</td><td style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;">Hacker<br />China<br />Conficker<br />Worm<br />Scammers<br />Social media<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;">Source: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">“Analyst’s Desktop Binder”, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act suit, which also revealed that </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;">analysts were scrutinizing online comments that “reflect adversely” on the federal government.</span></div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-64930194929872624552012-04-14T10:40:00.006-07:002013-03-07T16:07:29.319-08:00Favorite Fire Starters<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size: 130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">I've given up on butane lighters, from disposables to the very expensive Brunton Helios. They've let me down too many times. These are what I've settled on, clockwise from the top:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;">"S</span>tormproof" matches - REI markets these, and they're the best matches I can find. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Pros: can be used to light candles and lamp wicks; once the match is struck, no amount of wind or water - not even a dunking - will make it go out until it's run its course.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: require two hands; matches and strikers affected by moisture; impractical to carry more than a dozen or two in your pockets.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">The aluminum K&M match case is very high quality, holds about a dozen matches plus a couple strikers, and has a compass inletted into the top. A good thing to have in a pocket on any hike. The yellow UCA match case holds about two dozen matches plus strikers, and also has a convenient striker on the outside. It's too big for pockets, but good to keep in packs. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Ferrocerium rods, or "Firesteels" - alloys of iron, magnesium and rare earth metals extruded in various diameters. The top one shows the magnesium rod and scraper kept with it. Most firesteels are manufactured by JX Metals in Shanghai, then branded and marked up (sometimes dramatically). To use them, you literally scrape particles of metal off the rod, and if done quickly enough, heat generated by friction will ignite them. An impressive shower of very hot sparks is the result. With a little practice, you can usually ignite tinder consistently with one scrape. Don't use the sharp edge of your knife, use the squared-off back of the blade, or better yet, a dedicated scraper. Anything that's very hard will work well. Tool steel is excellent. Tungsten carbide is even better - buy a carbide sharpening tool when they're on sale at your hardware store. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">You can also buy soft magnesium rods to go on a lanyard with your firesteel and scraper so that you'll always have a source of waterproof tinder. See the paragraph on magnesium tinder below for how to make use of them.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Pros: thousands of lights; unlimited shelf life if protected from corrosion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: require two hands (well, you can do it with one hand and a foot, but it takes some coordination you might not be capable of it if injured); can break if dropped; impractical for lighting candles and lamps; corrosion can be a problem in salt environments - paint them with your wife's nail polish if you aren't going to use them for a while.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Sparklite:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Pros: very tiny and compact, almost weightless - you can stash several of them in pockets and packs; can be used with one hand; work even after being immersed in water; unlimited shelf life if protected from corrosion.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: won't ignite most natural tinders, so you'll need to bring along vaseline-impregnated cotton balls or buy more of the "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Tinder-Quik"</span> tabs that come with them; impractical for lighting candles and lamps; corrosion can be a problem in salt environments</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Blastmatch:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Pros: can be used with one hand; unlimited shelf life if protected from corrosion.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: bulky in your pocket; impractical for lighting candles and lamps; corrosion can be a problem in salt environments; fragile (the metal striker fell out of the plastic it was molded into).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Doan magnesium: these combine a small ferrocerium rod with a block of magnesium. They get a bad rap because people don't understand how to use them. Their advantage is that you always have a waterproof source of both sparks and tinder. Scrape a little pile of magnesium shavings into a depression (see the paragraph below about magnesium tinder), then strike sparks from the epoxied-on ferrocerium rod into the pile. The shavings will burn hot enough to ignite rubber from a tire if that's all you have. Don't waste your money on the knockoffs from Coughlans or China. The strikers of the former break off easily, and some of the latter aren't even magnesium - I think they're aluminum. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Pros: waterproof ferrocerium rod and waterproof tinder always available. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: impractical for lighting candles and lamps; corrosion can be a problem in salt environments</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Magnifying glass - Pros: never wears out; can be used with one hand; has multiple uses like reading fine print, identifying mushrooms, finding tiny slivers, etc. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">Cons: only works in bright sun, impractical for lighting candles and lamps.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">Of all the above, my favorite firestarters are Stormproof matches, Sparklites and Firesteels.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">Sparklite says their lighters should last for "more than a thousand strikes". Let's assume a 50% marketing exaggeration just to be on the safe side, and call it 500. I'm sure that I've lit more than 500 fires with mine, and it's still working.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">Firesteels of 1/4" diameter are advertised as lasting "up to 3,000 strikes". (Those of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">3/8" diameter are advertised as lasting "up to 12,000".) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">Again, lets assume a conservative 50% BS factor, and call it 1,500. Let's further assume that it takes you an average of three strikes for a spark to catch, because sometimes they're difficult to aim. (Although after some practice, you should be able to ignite good tinder consistently with only one or two.) So conservatively figure 500 with those, too. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">For comparison, here's what a 1/4" firesteel and a Sparklite look like next to 500 Storm Matches:</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 130%; line-height: normal;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5731313602671852322" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--tJpz9fURNI/T4m3WxeeuyI/AAAAAAAAAbI/ep90HUhIHyM/s400/500Matches.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">As of today, 500 REI Stormproof matches cost $65 and weigh 6.5 ounces. That's 13 cents per fire.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">A Sparklite from Fourseasonssurvival.com costs $8, and for our purposes is weightless. That's less than two cents per fire from something that costs no effort to carry. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">A heavier-duty aluminum Sparklite with an extra flint costs $15. Three cents per fire not even taking into account that it'll last longer. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">A 1/4 inch diameter firesteel with a scraper from Firesteel.com costs $7.60 a</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">nd weighs one ounce. Less than two cents per fire.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">A 3/8 inch diameter fire steel with a scraper from Firesteel.com costs $14.50 and weighs two ounces. Using the same 50%-and-3-strikes math, that's less than one penny per fire. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">I almost always have a 3/8" firesteel with a scraper in my pocket, on an orange paracord lanyard looped through a belt loop. There are extras in my vehicles. There's one hanging by my woodstove. There are Sparklites and Doan magnesium fire starters in my hunting coat and floatation vest. I used to keep all of the above plus a Blastmatch in my pockets when I was flying fighters and bush planes. There are Stormproof matches in waterproof containers in canoe duffles and cot organizers, and magnifying glasses in medical kits. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">If a burning bush told me I could only have one fire starter, it'd be a 3/8" fire-steel on a paracord lanyard with a scraper and a rod of magnesium, all on an orange lanyard to make the kit more visible in the leaves. In addition to the advantages described above, they're just plain fun to use. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">A discussion of fire starters isn't complete without a discussion of tinder. Translating sparks or embers into flames can be difficult. I really like the commercial tinders marketed under the name "Tinder-Quik" that come with Sparklites. They're made of cotton impregnated with beeswax, petroleum and silicone. Small, light, convenient, and they'll work even after a dunking. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">You can cut them in half to make them go further. Just fluff up an end and they'll catch the tiniest spark.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 130%;">C<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">otton balls with a bit of petroleum jelly (not too much, just a tad) are my second choice. S</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">tuff them into a section of a fat plastic straw by pulling them into an elongated shape and then poking them in with a stick. Seal the ends of the straw by holding them shut with pliers and melting with a flame. To use, just cut off one of the ends, pull a bit of cotton out and fluff it up</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;">. (That'll get petroleum jelly on your fingers, which is almost always a good thing outdoors - my fingers and lips get dry and cracked.)</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">Magnesium burns very, very hot, and is completely waterproof - you could swim ashore from a capsized canoe and then ignite a rubber boot with it if you had to. It can be frustrating to collect a small pile of shavings if you aren't patient or don't have the technique, though. Rest one end of the rod or block on something solid, in a shallow depression in a boulder or scooped out of the dirt, or in the punched-in crown of your hat on the ground. Scrape with the squared-off spine of your knife or your dedicated scraper for a few minutes until you have a pile more-or-less the diameter and thickness of a quarter, depending on what you intend to ignite with it. Making shavings doesn't take much pressure, just patience. Protect them from wind, they're so light that the slightest breeze will scatter them.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 130%; line-height: 21px;">Natural tinders that work well for me are birch bark, Phragmite seed heads, thistledown, milkweed fluff, cedar bark, pine needles, grass, beech leaves that have hung on young trees through the winter, tinder fungus, cattail fluff, milkweed fluff, Old Man's Beard smeared with Balsam Fir pitch, and the insides of Oak leaf galls. As a general rule, anything you find on the ground will be too damp, even when the weather's dry, and any tinder that can be shredded should be. Sometimes wet tinders can be dried by carrying them between your inner and outer layers of clothing for a while. A single Phragmite seedhead with a single pinecone on top is all you need to quickly touch off a fire. </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5EhNGKW8nUQ/T4m3WfFLGuI/AAAAAAAAAa8/3EnFvHFDE3Y/s1600/Firestarters.JPG"></a>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-6627265078256843822012-04-05T15:03:00.007-07:002012-04-05T15:13:36.391-07:00Irena Sendler<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NwNdfIuxHcE/T34YE0cMTXI/AAAAAAAAAaw/R0oTj_dgmQY/s1600/867519228d1d5325856fc61d710ded0e_XL.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 303px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NwNdfIuxHcE/T34YE0cMTXI/AAAAAAAAAaw/R0oTj_dgmQY/s400/867519228d1d5325856fc61d710ded0e_XL.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5728042247137283442" /></a><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkmHsgONBwc/T34WsNxBVwI/AAAAAAAAAak/y3vjEBAWvaY/s1600/IrenaSendler.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HkmHsgONBwc/T34WsNxBVwI/AAAAAAAAAak/y3vjEBAWvaY/s400/IrenaSendler.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5728040724927174402" /></a><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska, AKA Irena Sendlerowa, Nom de guerre Jolanta), 1910 – 2008, was a member of the Polish underground during WWII.<br /><br />She worked for Warsaw's municipal department, and had a permit to enter the 16-block Ghetto cordoned off by the Germans to inspect sanitary conditions during a Typhus outbreak. She began smuggling babies and toddlers out, sometimes<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; "> sedated and disguised as packages. Their names were recorded in coded form and buried in jars under an apple tree. The Resistance recruited her, and the smuggling accelerated.<br /><br />In 1943, Irena was arrested by the Gestapo. In prison she was interrogated repeatedly, but gave up nothing of value and continued to resist with small acts of sabotage, such as cutting holes in German uniforms when doing laundry. During a final torture session, her feet, legs and arms were broken and she was sentenced to death. A bribed guard added her name to the list of executed prisoners and left her in the woods. She lived in hiding for the remainder of the war. When it was over, she dug up the jars and tried to reunite the children with their relatives. There were 2,500 names in the jars, but almost no surviving families.<br /><br />The post-war Communist government of Poland persecuted Irena because they were only aware of her involvement with the German army and not her efforts to save the children. Her family lived in poverty and public disgrace. Her children were expelled from the University.<br /><br />A year before her death at age 98, she was considered for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, but it was awarded to Al Gore instead. She didn't seem to mind: "What I did was not an extraordinary thing. It was normal."</span></span></span></div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-48804273111809320752012-03-27T19:08:00.007-07:002012-03-27T19:22:01.982-07:00"Key Response Planning Factors for the Aftermath of Nuclear Terrorism"<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prepared this report for the Department of Homeland Security. Here are the key points:</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:large;">"Despite hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests and data gathered from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the effects of a ground-level, low-yield nuclear detonation in a modern urban environment are still the subject of considerable scientific debate.<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ">The largest potential for reducing casualtiesA during the post-detonation response phase comes from reducing exposure to fallout radiation. This can be accomplished through early, adequate sheltering followed by informed, delayed evacuation.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; "><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; ">1. Find early, adequate shelter</span></span></div><div class="column" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ">It is important </span><span style=" font-style: italic; ">to be in the shelter when the fallout arrives. </span><span style=" ;">Fallout arrival times vary with yield and weather. If you are outside of the building-collapse area immediately surrounding the detonation, you should have </span><span style=" font-weight: 600; font-style: italic; ">several minutes </span><span style=" ;">before fallout arrives.</span><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">If you are outside or in a car, seek the nearest adequate </span><span style=" ;">shelter. Even an inadequate shelter is better than no shelter.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" font-weight: 600; font-style: italic; ">Adequate shelters </span><span style=" ;">are locations that have as much earth, building materials, or distance between the occupants and exposed horizontal surfaces as possible. Exposed horizontal surfaces accumulate fallout. Buildings do not have to be air-tight. Broken windows do not greatly reduce the protection offered by a shelter.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Examples of adequate shelter:</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Basements, usually against a basement wall (in the corner). — Multistory brick or concrete structures.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Office buildings (central core or underground sections).</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Multistory shopping malls (away from roof or exterior</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">walls).</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Tunnels, subways, and other underground areas.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" font-weight: 600; font-style: italic; ">Inadequate shelters </span><span style=" ;">include:</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Cars, buses, and aboveground rail systems.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Light residential structures, such as mobile homes.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">— Single-story wood-frame houses without basements. — Single-story commercial structures without basements</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">(e.g., strip malls, retail stores, and light industry).</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:large;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:large;">2. Perform an informed evacuation of that shelter based on three key factors:</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:large;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">-The quality of the shelter.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">- Radiation levels at the shelter site.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">- Radiation levels and travel time along the evacuation route.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">Shelter for </span><span style=" font-style: italic; ">at least </span><span style=" ;">the first hour unless threatened by fire, building collapse, medical necessity, or other immediate threats.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Once you have decided to evacuate:</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Seek instructions and information on the location of dangerous </span><span style=" ;">fallout areas.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Identify the shortest possible evacuation route that avoids </span><span style=" ;">high levels of contamination. Consider tunnels, building lobbies, or other evacuation routes protected by earth, heavy building materials, and/or distance from fallout.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Seek local collection points (with adequate shelter) for </span><span style=" ;">evacuation by mass transit.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">- Consider evacuating by car if the roads have been cleared.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">3. Control contamination</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Avoid outdoor exposure during the first few minutes and hours </span><span style=" ;">after the fallout arrives—this is the highest priority. Exposure due to contamination depositing on clothing and skin, inhalation, and ingestion are secondary concerns. Simple respiratory protection, such as a layer of cloth over nose and mouth, can mitigate contamination.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Remove outer clothing and shoes upon entry to shelter. </span><span style=" ;">Alternatively (and less preferably), brush off contamination. If possible, wipe or wash hair and exposed skin to remove fallout particles.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Identifying features of a nuclear detonation (not all features may be present)</span></li></ul><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;font-family:arial;"></span></span></p><div class="column"><p></p><p></p></div><p></p><div><div class="column"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ">An abrupt blinding flash that is visible over a large area </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ">(particularly at night).</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span style=" ;">The widespread disruption of unprotected electronic devices </span><span style=" ;">(EMP).</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" "><span style=" ;">Thermal damage and burn victims well away from the blast </span><span style=" ;">location.</span></span><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Widespread high-level radiation readings.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A “mushroom shaped cloud” may not be generated or visible</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0026a4;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 600;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><i><br /></i></span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Take shelter before fallout arrives</span></li></ul><p></p><div><div class="column"><ol start="0" style="list-style-type: none; "><li></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The most significant exposures from fallout occur in the first</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">hour after fallout arrives.</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Seek shelter immediately if sand, ash, or rain starts to fall.</span></li></ol><p style="text-align: left;"><span style=" ;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Except in areas of major building damage closest to the </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:large;">detonation, fallout should take at least several minutes to arrive.</span></p><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Avoid the primary radiation hazard—external exposure to fallout</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">Fallout particles on the ground and other horizontal surfaces </span><span style=" ;">give off penetrating radiation; inhalation is only a minor concern.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">Shelter provided by heavy materials (concrete walls, earth, </span><span style=" ;">etc.) and distance from the particles on the ground are the primary sources of protection.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">The best place to find protection is in the middle or basement </span><span style=" ;">of a building.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">Even with broken windows, buildings can provide adequate </span><span style=" ;">shelter.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;"><br /></span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Areas of blast damage might NOT be contaminated with fallout</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Blast damage extends outward from the detonation in all </span><span style=" ;">directions, perhaps for several miles</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Fallout proceeds downwind, contaminating only a fraction of </span><span style=" ;">the blast-damaged area.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;"><br /></span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Hazardous levels of fallout will extend into undamaged downwind areas</span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 38, 164); font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style=" ;">- Levels of fallout that can induce sickness from an outdoor </span><span style=" ;">exposure may extend 20 miles or more downwind.</span></span></li><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The shockwave that breaks windows travels much more slowly than the bright flash of light. This delay, up to 30 seconds or more, can increase injuries if people approach windows to investigate the bright flash."</span></li></ul><ul><li><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: 600; font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">If you only remember one thing, this is what it should be: seek adequate shelter (think UNDERGROUND) for at least the first hour.</span></li></ul><p></p><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><span style=" ;font-family:MyriadPro;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"> </span></span></div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-64081573513674034992012-02-09T06:27:00.000-08:002012-02-09T06:28:13.024-08:00Mexico's Drug Cartels<div>"Plata o plomo" ("silver or lead"), is an expression meaning bribery or violence. Mexico's cartels have coalesced around the two most powerful, the Sinaloa and the Los Zetas, who tend to operate at opposite ends of that spectrum. They use the same set of tools, but they use them to different degrees.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Sinaloa leaders have been in "business" for decades, tend to take a more patient approach to things, and generally aim to own officials and politicians. Not that they aren't capable of ruthless brutality, it's just not usually their preferred Plan A. Like intelligence organizations, they often bribe low-level officials and then facilitate their promotions. Sinaloa has formed very long-term relationships with many police and military officers, politicians, journalists and judges on both sides of the border, paying some of them millions of dollars per year. </div><div><br /></div><div>Sinaloa head Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is an almost mythical figure who has been a fugitive for over thirty years. Having bought a great deal of goodwill, he is revered, even, among Mexico's poor. He was arrested in 1993, continued to run his empire from a very comfortable prison situation, and "escaped" when it looked like he might be extradited to the US. Since then, both Mexico and the US have been "unable" to locate him. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Los Zetas cartel was more recently formed by Mexican special operations soldiers, who have stolen and bought military weapons and know how to use them. It tends to apply a violent solution to any problem first. They bribe people, but find that it is faster, cheaper and easier to intimidate or eliminate them. Even those whom they choose to bribe tend not to stay on their payroll for years. </div><div><br /></div><div>As a general rule, when you think 'corruption', think Sinaloa. When you think 'piles of heads dumped in a public square', think Los Zetas. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mexican officials are under a great deal of pressure to "do something" as their presidential election approaches, and US officials as the "Fast and Furious" scandal gets ever dirtier. Stay tuned for exciting developments.</div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-72875466220893658972012-02-03T03:49:00.000-08:002012-02-03T03:50:44.316-08:00Biography of the Day: Tim Sullivan<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xm7q1R1yQqA/TyvKDTC0FnI/AAAAAAAAAaY/O2DqgoHxlOM/s1600/bigtim-190.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 258px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xm7q1R1yQqA/TyvKDTC0FnI/AAAAAAAAAaY/O2DqgoHxlOM/s400/bigtim-190.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704875510995359346" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 14px; font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" ft="{"type":1}" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal; font-size:11px;"><span class="messageBody" ft="{"type":3}"><div id="id_4f2bc5b3c58625785336230" class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" style="display: inline; ">"Big Tim" Sullivan, 1862-1913, was a New York state senator who controlled virtually all jobs and vice in lower Manhattan.<br /><br />He was born to Irish immigrant parents. His father, a Union Civil War veteran, died young of Typhus. His mother remarried an alcoholic laborer.<br /><br />At eight, Sullivan was shining shoes and selling newspapers. By his mid-twenties, he owned six saloons, with additional business i<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; ">nterests in theaters, boxing and horse racing.<br /><br />He married a childhood friend, Helen Fitzgerald, about whom little is known. Associates said that he never spoke of her, and that they were "wise enough not to ask".<br /><br />He rose to political power during the heyday of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party machine infamous for patronage and graft. His electoral base was New York City's poor, among whom he was extremely popular. He sponsored picnics and steamboat excursions for tenement dwellers in the summer, and had food, coal and shoes distributed in the winter. He aligned himself with the women's rights movement and legislated humane treatment for cart horses. Despite his emphatic denials, his involvement in prostitution, gambling, extortion, organized crime and street gangs was widely known. New York's strict gun control laws began with the Sullivan Act, which he enacted in order to disarm rival gangs as he politically protected his own. He became known as "The Tammany Tiger" as spectacular ethnic gang violence flourished, and he further expanded his power by incorporating Italian and Jewish gangs into his predominantly Irish organization. Rivals took to sewing their pockets shut so that the corrupt NYPD couldn’t plant firearms on them. Many gangsters stashed their weapons inside their girlfriends’ “bird cages”, wire-mesh fashion contraptions around which women wound their hair. Ordinary citizens were disarmed, which solved the problem of victims defending themselves. The FBI finally got involved and was able to put a lid on things in the 1950's.<br /><br />Suffering from tertiary syphilis, Sullivan slowly went mad and was committed to a sanitarium. He escaped, and his dismembered body was found on a train track. His family did not report him missing, and his body was unidentified for two weeks despite his fine clothes and monogrammed diamond cufflinks, prompting speculation of foul play.<br /><br />His estate was valued at more than two million, a huge fortune in 1913.<br />Sullivan had one child with his wife Helen, a daughter who died in infancy. He did, however, father at least six illegitimate children, mostly with actresses.</span></div></span></h6></span>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-56843995363017887272012-01-31T12:43:00.000-08:002012-01-31T12:44:53.042-08:00Biography of the Day: Nikola Tesla<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4oCx0l8LjxE/TyhSu5IkFrI/AAAAAAAAAaM/mJPB_uZ9hKg/s1600/tesla3.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4oCx0l8LjxE/TyhSu5IkFrI/AAAAAAAAAaM/mJPB_uZ9hKg/s400/tesla3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5703899893628933810" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; font-family:'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br /><br />Nikola Tesla, 1856 – 1943, was a complicated genius whose work, among other things, made possible our commercial AC electrical supply system, wireless communication, radar, remote controls, wireless power transmission, and spark plugs. Born in Serbia, he finished school early and went on to study electrical engineering in Austria. After three years, he dropped out and cut relations with his family. His friends believed that he had drowned. He moved to Slovenia, suffered a nervous breakdown, briefly attended a university in Prague, then went to work as an engineer in Paris and finally the US.<br /><br />Offered a great deal of money to solve a problem for Thomas Edison, he did so. Edison broke his word and refused to pay him, so he resigned and worked for a time as a ditch digger as he continued his experiments. One of them was seized and torn down because of suspicion that it was being used by German spies. He once ripped up a Westinghouse contract that would have made him the world's first billionaire, because he thought that power should be free, and because he didn't want to deal with creditors if Westinghouse went out of business. He and Edison feuded until the end of their days, and it probably cost both of them Nobel Prizes.<br /><br />Tesla was a sickly man with many quirks and phobias. He was fastidious about cleanliness and had a pathological fear of germs. He wore white gloves and declined to shake hands. He was physically revolted by pearl earrings, and obsessed with the number three (he circled buildings three times before entering, and wouldn't stay in a room without a three in its number) and with pigeons (he fed them daily with special seeds). He spoke eight languages, was a connoisseur of art, poetry, philosophy and food, was passionate about billiards, chess and cards. He was "sweet, sincere, modest and generous". He openly expressed disgust to overweight people, and sent employees home to change if he didn't like their clothes. He was painfully introverted, and yet a great showman. He memorized entire books. He never slept longer than two hours. He often spent more than two days straight at gaming tables, and once worked 84 hours without sleep. He was ambivalent about women, and none played a part in his life aside from a mysterious relationship with the daughter of J.P. Morgan. He claimed that chastity was an important component of his scientific abilities. He believed that man's sense of pity interfered with the workings of nature and advocated sterilization of the unfit to offset it.<br /><br />In middle age, Tesla became a close friend of Mark Twain, who spent a great deal of time in his lab. In his later years, he became extremely sensitive to light and noise, converted to vegetarianism, decided that women were the dominant sex, and predicted that humanity would eventually be ruled by "Queen Bees". He believed that he was visited daily by a specific white pigeon that gave his life meaning. When it died, his work stopped.<br /><br />Tesla died broke in a NY hotel room. His pallbearers were Nobel Prize winners. The US government seized his private papers and classified them Top Secret. He had been involved in a lawsuit claiming that he had invented the radio, not Marconi. Shortly after his death, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor.</span>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-3142340880150810322012-01-25T15:09:00.000-08:002012-01-25T15:15:51.014-08:00Who imports food and who exports it?<div style="font-family: Arial; ">This information was condensed from a report by 'Stratfor Global Intelligence'.</div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">Corn, rice, wheat and soybeans are the world's most important food staples. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><br /></span></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">Corn and soybean exports are dominated by the Western Hemisphere, and wheat by the Northern Hemisphere. Asia accounts for most rice, which is</span> the most easily destabilized of the key staples due to its sensitivity to rainfall. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">Ninety countries import corn, but only four export it in significant quantities: The United States, Brazil, Argentina and Ukraine. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">The largest rice producer by far is China, but they consume most of their production domestically. T</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">he top exporters of rice in order of rank are Thailand, Vietnam, India, Pakistan and the United States.</span></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; font-size:18px;">Most of the wheat export market is dominated by ten entities: the United States, Australia, Russia, Canada, the European Union, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey and Uruguay. China is by far the largest producer of wheat, but as with rice, consumes almost all it produces. </span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">The US, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina are the largest exporters of soybeans. China </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">imports more than 60 percent of globally traded soy, and has been stockpiling in anticipation of future supply fluctuations. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "> </span></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">Reading between the lines here, it's easy to see that America still "feeds the world". It's also easy to envision <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; ">domestic unrest in import-reliant China when future food shortages and price increases occur. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 25px; "><br /></span></span></div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-40433160948848583682012-01-23T12:35:00.000-08:002012-01-23T12:47:10.372-08:00Actual Emails from a Crazy Stepsister:<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"Sending God's Peace, Love and Forgiveness to open the hearts. Remember healing begins from within...when there is forgiveness, love moves in, when there is love, peace fills you ♥ Be open to receive...This is your gift!<br /><br />Meditation to open your chakras with energy ♥ Enjoy<br /><br />Imagine your energy body… see the energy flowing up and down your spine through your chakras.<br /><br />Visualize your chakras as lotus blossoms with their petals all upturned and the energy flowing strongly to the point between your eyebrows.<br /><br />Feel this visual increasing the flow of energy within you and all around you.<br /><br />Feel that it purifies the energy flowing through you.<br /><br />Now see the energy flowing down to your palms and out to the entire world."</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span><div><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"Feeling so alive, so awakened....moving further into a spirit of love and compassion...Inner peace and beauty...join me in this place of Oneness, you arewelcomed here. Shanti Shanti Shanti."<br /><br />"Everyday I am invisible to all forms of low energies and negative influences in all universes, dimensions and realities. Are you?"<br /><br />"I'm loving the road I'm on with God...inspiring, healing, peaceful ♥ Are you feeling the love? Breathe it into your being ♥ Send love to your day ahead and remember to stop and catch the miracles."</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"Any cancer can be cured in weeks. The quacks are the medical doctors that only see $$$$ for cures and treat symptoms, not the source of what caused the illness which is emotional and held in the cellular memory. if they really cared they would use eastern medicine's that are natural. Yes cancer caused by emotions (and poisions) and so are many other illnesses and it's not hereditary (western medicine doesn't want people to know, they'd lose a lot money). I know many who have been cured naturally with herbs and freed themselves emotionally and it hasn't returned, and I know others that haven't been freed emotionally and it returned elsewhere in their body because of anger that they can't let go ofEveryday I allow all my cells to be at the perfect frequency of health & natural balance, and in alignment with Source energy. (Repeat and feel your cells heal). Namaste." </span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div></div></div><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"I am in perfect alignment with Source energy with the correct frequencies of health for my entire well-being."</span></div><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:18px;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; display: inline !important; "><tbody style="display: inline !important; "><tr style="display: inline !important; "><td valign="top" align="left" style="display: inline !important; "><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; display: inline !important; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); display: inline !important; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:18px;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody"><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; background-position: 7px 8px; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"I've begun my journey, it is taking me to where I am suppose to be. My spirit soars. I hold my own key. I love."</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody"><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; background-position: 7px 8px; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><div style="text-align: -webkit-left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; display: inline !important; "><tbody style="display: inline !important; "><tr style="display: inline !important; "><td valign="top" align="left" style="display: inline !important; "><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; display: inline !important; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: tahoma, arial; display: inline !important; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; display: inline !important; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; display: inline !important; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "></table></span></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; display: inline !important; "><tbody style="display: inline !important; "><tr style="display: inline !important; "><td valign="top" align="left" style="display: inline !important; "><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; display: inline !important; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: tahoma, arial; display: inline !important; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; display: inline !important; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; display: inline !important; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"Everyday choose to vibrate at the high frequencies of love, peace, joy and gratitude. Love from the infinite-self to attract true love: You will allow the love of your life to enter into your reality, or it will further deepen the connection with the love you are with. If the one you are with is not aligned with your true self of purpose, you will joyfully attract one that is.To grow further into our higher selves it is necessary to learn all the lessons from past mistakes in all lifetimes no matter how hard it is. Through forgiveness and love you will rise. Peace." </span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div></div><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:tahoma, arial;"><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"God is leading me further down my path...moving forward as a Holistic Health Practitioner and into Bachelor of Spiritual Healing. Peace starts within us- we cannot bring to the world what we do not have to offer. Tears."</span></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxLight" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(215, 215, 215); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" face="tahoma, arial" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"My birthing into my higher self rises me out of the waters darkness into the light where I love myself and all creation unconditionally. ~~ Namaste"</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial;"><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: tahoma, arial; "><div class="quoteStyle" style="background-image: url(http://www.ar15.com/images/2008skins/icons/iconQuote.png); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; background-position: 7px 8px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"My morning routine was postponed and I'm felt out of sync. Totally gave myself a crystal chakra balance to make up for it....Ahhhhh! To enhance your quality of life, bring your vibrational energy into alignment with source energy. To have a transformation of consciousness and spiritual awakening is through God's love, peace, bliss and freedom. The Journey of Awakening is awakening to your full soul potential and to your Divine magificence...do you choose to awaken? Until you accept responsibility for where you are, your life will not move forward.<br /><br />You are where you are ––-emotionally, physically, spiritually, mentally and financially––-because of the choices you have made. Isn't it time to find out how you can improve your life? Message me if you are ready for a complete transformation. Shanti"</span></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="quoteStyle" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-attachment: scroll; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-right-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-bottom-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); border-left-color: rgb(136, 136, 136); padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; margin-top: 6px; margin-right: 6px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-left: 6px; background-color: rgb(206, 206, 206); text-indent: 20px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 7px 8px; font-family:tahoma, arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"Allow me to introduce you to your greatest enemy....meet your ego. EGO- Edging God Out Meet the devil."</span></div></div></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><table width="100%" border="0" class="postBoxDark" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(195, 195, 195); height: auto; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top" align="left"><div class="postBody" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; overflow-x: visible; overflow-y: visible; "><div class="forumTextBody" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: tahoma, arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">"It is said that one does not meet their Twin Soul or Twin Flame until they have learned many lessons of love, loss and forgiveness through close Soul Mate relationships, that the heart is made resilient and strong through pain and loss, and must be so to face the intensity of being with the other half of their soul. Peace ~ Shanti ♥"</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3529462943708275214.post-73666488014765729342012-01-18T08:46:00.000-08:002012-01-18T09:34:58.605-08:00Improvised Pack Frames<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: normal; font-size:18px;">At one of Mors Kochanski's wilderness skills courses some years ago, I made an improvised pack frame from three sticks. Such a frame is an ancient concept that was re-invented by Mors' friend and mentor </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 21px; font-weight: normal; font-size:18px;">Tom Roycroft, who was an instructor at a Canadian Department of National Defense survival school.</span><div><div><span style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div><div><span style=" ;font-size:18px;">'<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px; ">Ötzi the Iceman</span>', the 5,300 year-old copper-age man who popped out of a glacier in the Italian alps in 1991, had something similar. His was a U-shaped rod of hazel with two cross-pieces of larch, bound together with grass string and with a hide sack attached. </span></div></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WQdqB-0cWLM/Txb4TXR9oCI/AAAAAAAAAaE/t33aymIPZBI/s1600/IMG_0283.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 305px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WQdqB-0cWLM/Txb4TXR9oCI/AAAAAAAAAaE/t33aymIPZBI/s400/IMG_0283.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699015390034501666" /></a><div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;">This one's made from three Moosewood, or Striped Maple sticks. They're easy to work when green, and become quite strong when dry. You can see how the rope is routed to form shoulder straps and then hooked around the bottom corners to form a waist belt. This frame </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">worked pretty well, but I thought it could be improved. </span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suQozpnQ-Nc/Txb4S5c9v6I/AAAAAAAAAZ0/VXW8M3AUeB4/s1600/IMG_0284.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 278px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suQozpnQ-Nc/Txb4S5c9v6I/AAAAAAAAAZ0/VXW8M3AUeB4/s400/IMG_0284.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699015382027583394" /></a><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;">Here's version two. I found a nicely-curved persimmon branch (one of my favorite woods, beautiful as it ages and darkens) and a couple straight black spruce saplings. When I lashed them together with constrictor knots, I left the ends long to facilitate lashing on loads. The side sticks protrude enough beyond their lashing at the top to hang a canteen, pot or jacket from. A small crosspiece allows some adjustment for the shoulder 'straps' and adds strength and rigidity. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">My hiking staff (or any stick) fits in the small triangle it creates for carrying over-the-shoulder like a hobo's bindle-stick for variety. Haven't tried a tump-line, but that would undoubtedly work, too.</span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b5Agz0MKo9Y/Txb4Scfp4oI/AAAAAAAAAZo/oPJeEfg8dxw/s1600/IMG_0286.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b5Agz0MKo9Y/Txb4Scfp4oI/AAAAAAAAAZo/oPJeEfg8dxw/s400/IMG_0286.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699015374254236290" /></a>Here it is with my hiking staff run through the top triangle and propped up on a tree branch, ready to have a tarp thrown over it for a very quick shelter. Between the carrying rope and the lashing lines, there's plenty of cordage to secure things. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OOPryFp3lyY/Txb4R2EacsI/AAAAAAAAAZc/B7g93uWZYJI/s1600/IMG_0287.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px; height: 400px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OOPryFp3lyY/Txb4R2EacsI/AAAAAAAAAZc/B7g93uWZYJI/s400/IMG_0287.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699015363939431106" /></a><br /></div><div>Ready for a hike with a wool blanket, Tyvek ground cloth, and an aluminized G.I. casualty blanket wrapped up in a canvas 'Zeltbahn', and with a teapot hanging on top. (A Zeltbahn is a triangular German shelter quarter that also serves as a poncho.) </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iQR4OyUPGZA/Txb4RnccA-I/AAAAAAAAAZQ/yzpgJKu_Bww/s1600/IMG_0288.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iQR4OyUPGZA/Txb4RnccA-I/AAAAAAAAAZQ/yzpgJKu_Bww/s400/IMG_0288.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5699015360013665250" /></a><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;">If you load it so that a soft "bubble" protrudes on the inside, it's more comfortable against your back than just the sticks. Padding under the shoulder ropes also helps - I used an extra pair of socks on this hike. </span></div></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;">I'm pleased with this, although </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;">I may make a third one just to refine the dimensions a bit more and to shave off a few more ounces with smaller-diameter sticks.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:18px;"> The frame, groundcloth, tarp, wool blanket and aluminized blanket all together don't weigh much more than my winter hiking boots, and with a few Balsam tips as a mattress and a fire in front would make a very cozy shelter. I'll do an overnight in the near future and report back.</span></div><div style=" ;font-family:Arial;font-size:medium;"><span style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: Arial; "><br /></div><div><span style=" ;font-size:18px;"><br /></span></div>Oblio13http://www.blogger.com/profile/08437467759652591125noreply@blogger.com1