If you're not fluent in Ancient Roman, today we'd say "Knowledge is power".

As a survivalist preparing for the post-apocalypse, it behooves us to learn as many useful skills as possible. Despite my general billing as a "Jack of All Trades (Master of None)", no one individual can specialize in everything, which is where the survival "group" comes in. Beyond that, or in the absence thereof, reference material becomes a vital resource. Having the right bit of information can mean the difference between muddling through and failing catastrophically.

Knowledge vs. Information vs. Data

Let's begin with a few definitions. I started to define these myself, then turned to the vast resources of the internet, where I found this article entitled Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Go ahead, take a moment to digest that.

Done? Great! I found it very interesting... Occupational hazard, I guess. Let me summarize for those of you who just come here for the thin survival content and naked girls with guns (hello, search engines!):

- Data is raw, unstructured facts with no context, meaning, or intent.
- Information is structured data.
- Knowledge is the application of information, which allows us to take action or make decisions.
- Wisdom is the ability to extrapolate events based on knowledge and experience.

The Internet
Clearly one of the best sources of both data and information is this wonderful internet. There is a myriad of readily accessible "stuff" on any topic, available for the taking, much of which was not available to the public just a decade prior.

Take, for example, Google Maps. Simply by typing in the address, you have immediate access to high quality satellite photography, and in many cases street level photographs. It wasn't too long ago that you needed to work for a three letter agency to have access to satellite imagery, yet I used it to evaluate properties for purchase. Sites like Terraserver allow you to order poster sized, laminated copies of these images - instant map table for defending your BOL!

Unfortunately, the internet of the post-apocalyptic world will likely be pretty bleak, so we must consider alternatives. The timeless fallback of stains applied to dead trees seems the easiest solution.

The Survival Library
My survival library contains books on a wide array of topics, including
- gardens and orchards
- raising, butchering, and preserving livestock
- cooking and storing food
- navigation and wilderness skills
- construction and vehicle maintenance
- first aid, emergency medicine, and firefighting
- shooting, reloading and tactics.

I've got staple texts such as Carla Emery's Encyclopedia of Country Living. I've got military field manuals and books on guerrilla warfare and counter-insurgency. I've got survival fiction. I've got atlases and maps. I've got political treatises and manifestos, and the foundational documents for this great nation. I keep subscriptions to appropriate magazines, and store the back issues after I've read them. I've tried to cover a broad spectrum of things that interest me, not just today, but also for the future I want to experience.

Now obviously, having a book on emergency medicine does not qualify me to perform abdominal surgery, nor does having a book on firefighting qualify me to rush into the nearest raging inferno. Reading a book on snipercraft does not mean I can make a 1200 yard cold bore shot on an 8" target. A book on square foot gardening does not guarantee I will feed my entire neighborhood on just 64 square feet of soil. Ability comes with training, experience, practice, success and failure. Further, the time to read has passed once an appendix has burst or the goat is kidding.

These books provide information, and the benefit of someone else's experience. There is a lot of value in that. I try to read everything cover to cover. Frequently, I end up taking a book off the shelf and just browsing for 10 or 20 minutes, or however much time I have instead.

Here are some recent additions to the library:

Data in Real Time
Lately I feel that I've been missing a lot of activity around me, specifically that of public safety and emergency crews. I used to run a scanner almost around the clock, and always had a very good feel for what was going on in my town and county. I could usually anticipate when I would be called upon as an emergency responder, based on chatter on the radio. Eventually I gave that device to someone just entering the emergency services.

I've now decided to replace it, with a Uniden Bearcat BCD396XT. This is a small portable scanner, capable of storing many more frequencies than the base station I had just a few years ago, and capable of monitoring most of the traffic in the area (damn OpenSky system!). I selected it over another base station because I think the ability to have the information on the move could be vital in an emergency. I can easily attach it to an external antenna to use as an extended range base station.

Another option is to stream scanner feeds from the internet. Radio Reference hosts many live scanner feeds, for many areas. Downsides are that you can only listen to one feed at a time, and you are limited to what the person hosting that feed is monitoring. But, it provides another option, like listening to police activity near my home when I'm at the office in the next county over.

Summary
Having the correct information to influence your decisions and action is a good thing. Having a well stocked survival library is a big step in that direction for when the lights go out.

Article on Fox News this morning regarding their new express lane entry into the state capitol. Just show your CHL permit and walk right in. This is how it should be!

A gentleman in my department at work recently had a late night knock at the door that left him a little rattled. As a result, he decided to acquire a handgun. He made the rounds of the department asking people's opinions on what to get. This had the effect of shaking several closeted gun owners out into the light. As a result, several of us hit the range after work last week to turn some money into noise.

Of the six of us, one had never fired a gun before; one, only once before; one only had hunting shotguns; two each had a pistol that they shot on occasion (a SIG 228, and a 9mm S&W); and me. I ended up in the role of coach for the new shooters, which worked out quite well. I brought a handful of pistols for people to try. No surprise (to me), the Glock 20 was a big hit. Everyone was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to shoot, and how accurate it is. Personally, I put less than 50 rounds downrange. That was easily made up for by the new guys having a great time.

The unintended consequence here was that I tipped my hand a little too far in regards to just how much I know about firearms. I've never hidden the fact that I shoot "recreationally". However, now I'm getting questions from many people about carry permits, C&R FFLs, self & home defense, opinions on different firearms, what ammo to use, and recommendations for local gun shops. Depending on the tone of the conversation, I usually manage to slip in a little history of gun control, some information on current gun politics, and recommendations for good training.

Every little bit helps the cause!

I was poking around the internet this morning, reading some blogs that I've not visited in a while. Ryan @ TSLRF has a post up reviewing his goals for the year, and the progress made so far. It made me stop and take stock.

We've had a lot going on this year, with the baby transitioning to a toddler, selling a house, packing a house, buying a house, moving between houses, and subsequently taking care of all of the things that go with moving into a new house - painting, fencing, new schools, new doctors, setting up utilities, acquiring things we were lacking to maintain the new place, et cetera, ad nauseum.... It made me realize that I've been in a whirlwind phase, working with a very vague plan of things that need to be completed. Fortunately, I can see an end to the whirlwind.

What I need to do now is get my ducks in a row - establish a list of tasks to complete and get cracking. I can get back on track here, I think...

Ruling on McDonald v. Chicago, SCOTUS incorporated the Second amendment under the 14th. Good news for gunnies! Full opinion is here.

I recently sent an AR-15 receiver out to Orion Arms to be engraved with SBR markings. I was very happy with the results, the price was excellent, and the turn around was very fast - just 9 days door to door. I highly recommend them, and will use them again in the future.

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As a rather funny aside, when I shipped the receiver, I wanted to make sure that I didn't need to make any special declarations. I approached the woman behind the UPS counter, handed her a box about the size of a paperback book, and asked if I needed to do anything special to ship a rifle to a manufacturer. She looked at the box, looked at me like I had 3 heads, and asked "This is a rifle?". I went through the whole spiel: non-functional, just the regulated part, shipping to a manufacturer. She said, "So there's a rifle in this box?". I found it funny. At any rate, no ammo so no declarations & no problems!

Our move went off largely as planned. We are in the process of getting unpacked and settled in. I'm still coordinating assorted immediate improvements: fence installation and the like. Tractor has been ordered. I think I have an idea as to where the new garden will go, although I put a small tree in the ground today and found the soil very rocky. I'm hoping that was just fill from the original excavation of the basement that was graded out into the yard. By the time I reach the garden areas, I'm hoping for something a little softer. If not, raised beds again!

We're just a week away from finally moving to a new home. We are in the midst of a packing frenzy, which has created a great opportunity to share with the wife. Overheard while packing the bunker:

Wife: What's in these buckets?
Crazy Survivalist Husband: Food.
Wife: Really? What kind of food?
Crazy Survivalist Husband: Dry stuff. Rice, pasta. All packed in mylar. It's for the end of the world.
Wife: At least we're prepared.

A little bit later:
Wife: What's that pile?
Crazy Survivalist Husband: Things the movers won't take.
Wife: Like?
Crazy Survivalist Husband: Ammo mostly.
Wife: How much ammo do you have?
Crazy Survivalist Husband: Ummm... A lot.

I recently placed an order with LA Police Gear for some clothing items. On a whim, I added a Gerber Guardian knife to my cart. It arrived yesterday:

It's a nice little dagger, double edged with a very sharp point. The blades were not as sharp as I would have liked out of the box, so I immediately went to work on them with diamond and Arkansas stones. Reprofiled to 20 degrees, it now borders on scary sharp. It comes with a nice rigid sheath, with metal clip and adjustable tension.

Not surprisingly, carrying a rigid sheath in a boot is not that comfortable. It might work well in-waist band, or small of back. I'm not sure how useful a boot knife really is, so at the very least it is a nice addition to the collection.

By the way, I recognize that if I'm resorting to fighting with a knife, I'm pretty well screwed.

There's was a story in the news yesterday about a religious militia in Michigan getting raided. It sounds like they were going to do some bad things, and got caught. Great, I'm all for locking them away.

The part of this that has me somewhat concerned are the multiple videos of them training posted all over the internet, which were picked up by the media. The good citizens of the United States were bludgeoned with scary video of armed and camouflaged men, who were not Soldiers, practicing things that Should Only Be Practiced by Soldiers.

Clearly, I'm a believer in civilian training. My concern stems from similar videos posted on the internet by reputable trainers. While you and I know that these are Good Guys, many will not be able to make the delineation. Guns have been largely off limit to politicians for a while, but civilian training would make a sweet target for the gun grabbers. It has me concerned.