Zombie survival riverboat

Essential weekend reading: Are You Ready?

Keeping in vein with the previous survival post topic, here's the ultimate guide in stockpile-like-hell, kick-out-the-weakest-member-of-your-group, be-more-prepared-than-the-next-guy kind of survivalism: the brochure Are You Prepared?, published by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).

FEMA: Are You Ready? An In-depth Guide to Citizen Preparedness

Survival vehicles

Jalopnik readers created a nice list with the best survival vehicles. It has some good suggestions but most of these will not be easy to come by when in a pinch. Therefore, I will stick to the trusted Unimog, which is easily available (if you know where to look).

The Ten Best Post-Apocalyptic Survival Vehicles - Buffalo - Jalopnik

Rodent recipes

The complete guide to catching and cooking rodents. From Hammyburgers to Chipmunk Chili, Porcupine Stew and Groundhog Pie, this leaves out hardly any rodent species and also teaches you how to hunt, skin and cook your prey. Will be extremely useful when the only food source left is rats!

Rodents, one of several kinds of vertebrates included in the human diet, are very suitable as human food. More than 71 genera and 89 species of rodents, mostly hystricomorphs, have been consumed by man. Some have even been domesticated for private or commercial production of food for human consumption. Rodents in the temperate world serve only as a supplement to the regular diet of humans; but in the tropical world, they are widely accepted and a popular source of protein.

18 Delicious Rodents - How to Cook Rodents - Rodents as a Food Source

The Guidestones

Monolithic stones set in place with instructions for the civilization that comes after ours:

The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it's hard not to think immediately of England's Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.

Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the "guides" themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).

I'm fascinated by the idea that someone actually went ahead and took the massive effort to build this monument. Instead of some general messages, I would have preferred some actual advice however. How to build a hut or a spear or how to make fire or something--skills without which some higher guidelines to rebuild Earth are not much use anyway, when the local mutant animals start wiping out you and the other survivors.

American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse

Survival realtor

If you need to find a secure and defendable retreat, you have to look no further than this survivor's realty web site. Here's an opening:

Enjoy 'the good life' in year round sunshine on this easily defensible 38 acre Survival Retreat 28 miles east of the quiet little ranching town of St Johns, Arizona (population 3,300).Great southern exposure to make the most of the Southwest's sunshine to power your retreat. The 38 acres is very easy to defend, located high on a bluff with a panoramic view overlooking the valley below. You can see a vehicle approaching your location 30 minutes before they reach you! (This would allow plenty of time to be get in on 'on guard' position, if desired) Yet, due to the gently rolling lay of the land and trees, your home would not be visible from the road. (These are two of the most important things that Jim Rawles recommends for retreat criteria) The bluff is protected by sheer cliffs on three sides making access next to impossible by all but foot traffic and even then very difficult for foot traffic on two sides. Most of land is wooded with scattered open grassy meadows of 5-10 acres each. Property has a lifetime supply of firewood, both living and well seasoned. Bordered on one side by one full section (640 acres) of BLM land to provide ample privacy and hunting opportunity.

**Asking Price $48,000**

SurvivalRealty.com

Check out the thermal damage caused by a nuclear explosion

This little widget allows you to check out the blast radius of different sizes of nuclear bombs on any given location. It uses Google maps, so make sure to check out your hometown, too. Would be too bad if you camped inside the blast-radius, wouldn't it?

Ground Zero: Google Maps and Nuclear Weapons

More selfmade weapons: selfmade knife

Here we go again with even more weapon technology from "postapokalyptica". These guys teach you how to make your own knife!

I started with some leaf spring from a 57 Dodge half ton pick-up. Leaf spring from US made cars and light trucks from the 1950s and 60s are made of a high carbon steel alloy called 5160. This alloy is an excellent choice for almost any kind of knifemaking. 5160 has 0.56 - 0.64 carbon, 0.75 - 1.00 manganese, 0.15 - 0.35 silicon, 0.70 - 0.90 chromium. It has great edge holding abilities and can withstand prying sideways better than most high carbon steels. I heat the steel in the forge to a non-magnetic state and hot cut a chunk about 7 inches long and about 2 inches wide...

Make sure to learn how to make your own! This may be the advantage you'll need one day to survive ;-)

Selfmade guns & automatic weapons

If you ever find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world, with no weapons and electricity, you will probably ask yourself how all your knowledge helps you now. Well, these guys from Chechnya have an answer for that - check out their self-made weapons. I am not sure, but I believe they could build a "railgun" too! Fallout 3 goes reality (or vice versa?)

English Russia » Chechen Self-Made Weapons

How to set traps and snares

Position your traps and snares where there is proof that animals pass through. You must determine if it is a "run" or a "trail." A trail will show signs of use by several species and will be rather distinct. A run is usually smaller and less distinct and will only contain signs of one species. You may construct a perfect snare, but it will not catch anything if haphazardly placed in the woods. Animals have bedding areas, waterholes, and feeding areas with trails leading from one to another. You must place snares and traps around these areas to be effective.

For an evader in a hostile environment, trap and snare concealment is important. It is equally important, however, not to create a disturbance that will alarm the animal and cause it to avoid the trap. Therefore, if you must dig, remove all fresh dirt from the area. Most animals will instinctively avoid a pitfall-type trap. Prepare the various parts of a trap or snare away from the site, carry them in, and set them up. Such actions make it easier to avoid disturbing the local vegetation, thereby alerting the prey. Do not use freshly cut, live vegetation to construct a trap or snare. Freshly cut vegetation will "bleed" sap that has an odor the prey will be able to smell. It is an alarm signal to the animal.

You must remove or mask the human scent on and around the trap you set. Although birds do not have a developed sense of smell, nearly all mammals depend on smell even more than on sight. Even the slightest human scent on a trap will alarm the prey and cause it to avoid the area. Actually removing the scent from a trap is difficult but masking it is relatively easy. Use the fluid from the gall and urine bladders of previous kills. Do not use human urine. Mud, particularly from an area with plenty of rotting vegetation, is also good. Use it to coat your hands when handling the trap and to coat the trap when setting it. In nearly all parts of the world, animals know the smell of burned vegetation and smoke. It is only when a fire is actually burning that they become alarmed. Therefore, smoking the trap parts is an effective means to mask your scent.

Wilderness Survival: Food Procurement - Traps and Snares

Survival under atomic attack

1950’s Civil Defense Film to prepare civilians for military attack with nuclear bombs.

How to survive in prison as an innocent man convicted of a sex crime

You're one of the thousands of innocent men wrongly convicted of sex crimes in the U.S. every year. Won't it matter to your fellow prisoners that you are not a sex criminal and are completely innocent? Not in the least. It is possible, though, to make it through prison even though you were convicted of a skin beef. You can not only live through the prison experience, you can claim some degree of victory at the end of your unjust prison term. Life will be neither easy nor fun for the innocent man convicted of a sex crime and sent to prison. But, surviving prison is not impossible. [...]

Now that you have been falsely accused of rape or child abuse, been convicted in record time, lost all your assets along with your reputation, and been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a judge who couldn't care less that you are innocent, you would think your troubles are over. Think again. You not only have to make it out of the prison with your life and sanity, but with your self-respect, honor, and integrity intact. Let's face it. After being wrongly convicted of a sex crime, your sanity, self-respect, honor, and integrity is all you have left. Prison will not break you if you are a man— or learn to become a man, even though the main goal of prison officials is to sap the soul from men, and spit out castrated, submissive males. With all the odds against you, it is even possible to walk out of prison a better man with your head held high. Again, it will be neither fun nor easy, but what battle ever is easy? You can either walk out of prison with your manhood intact knowing you beat the corrupt prison industry or you can crawl out on your belly as a hated sex offender.

IPT Journal - How To Survive in Prison as an Innocent Man Convicted of a Sex Crime

Porsche crank radio

Excellent. When the world goes to hell, at least you're going out in style.

P´9110 Crank Radio - Porsche Design Studio