The Armageddon Blog

Category: Found on the Internet

  • Found on the Internet: How to Choose the Perfect Survival Knife

    If you’ve ever browsed knives, you’ll know there are more features to consider than you would expect.  Which ones are serious considerations? Which ones are superfluous?  Which ones are marketing ploys, just trying to snag the uninformed?

    On The Art of Manliness blog, Creek Stewart outlines the six most important criteria for selecting a survival knife:

    • Size
    • Fixed Blade
    • Full Tang
    • Sharp Pointed Tip
    • Single-Edged Blade with Flat Ground Spine
    • Solid Pommel

    A survival knife is not a magic wand nor does it have inherent magical saving powers. The true value is in the skill of the one who wields it. Skill only comes from practice and repetition. You don’t buy a survival knife to decorate your man cave–it is a tool that’s meant to be used. Since the beginning of mankind, the cutting blade helped to shape how our ancestors hunted, fought, built, and survived. From cavemen with sharp rocks to a soldier in modern warfare, there will never be a relationship quite like that between a man and his blade. Choose yours wisely.

    How to Choose the Perfect Survival Knife via [The Art of Manliness]

  • Found on the Internet: Misconceptions and Applications of the Mini Survival Kit

    I’ll admit it, I’ve fallen into this trap: assuming that a mini survival kit was more than it actually was, or a reasonable replacement for an emergency/disaster kit.  The best thing you can do in regards to a survival kit is to understand what’s in it and what its limits are from a disaster situation:

    The mini survival kit is often misunderstood. I’ve seen some information put forth that might lead people to believe that a mini kit is useless. Yet people like Ron Hood, Doug Ritter and myself, among many others, have recommended them for years — and for good reason.

    Misconceptions and Applications of the Mini Survival Kit via [It’s Tactical]

  • Found on the Internet: How to Make Pace Count Beads

    When performing land navigation, it sometimes becomes difficult to remember everything you need to.  The most vital information being your pace count.  Your pace count gives you an estimate of how far you’ve traveled since your last waypoint.  It gives you an idea of where you are and how far you have to go to the next waypoint.  Trust me when I say that losing your pace count can completely ruin your day, you either have to backtrack to the last waypoint, or completely recalculate your location from a more difficult location.  Having pace count beads, also known as ranger beads, helps you keep track of your pace count and is an immeasurable help in a land navigation scenario.  You can purchase these if you’d like, but in the case that you don’t have them when you need them, yours break inconveniently, or you’re like me and are too cheap to pay for something this easy to make yourself, Instructables.com has an article on how to make your own beads from three simple materials, though you can feasibly fabricate these out of any reasonable material.

    Army Ranger Beads via [Instructables.com]

     

  • Found on the Internet: Thermos Cooking

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMR0rO3bWr4&w=640&h=360]

    Cooking over an open camp fire isn’t exactly the most predictable way to cook.  It’s easy to char the outside of a meal, while leaving the inside raw or under cooked.  Cooking in a pan is even more unpredictable, plus you constantly have to monitor your meal to ensure it doesn’t burn.  However, boiling water over a campfire turns out the same result every time – boiled water.  If you have a thermos, you can add boiling water to your ingredients, let them simmer for a while and when you come back, you’ve got a properly cooked (read unburned) meal waiting for you.

    http://www.thermoscooking.com/

  • Found on the Internet: Homemade, Single Use Antibiotics

    Antibiotics will become an important commodity in the P.A.W.  They can mean the difference between life and death in a world where 1st World medicine isn’t readily available.  Carrying around a full tube of antibiotics can be unwieldy and cumbersome.  Also, if antibiotics are scare/valuable enough, you won’t want to be seen carrying around a large tube of it by anyone else.  There are single use antibiotics commercially available but they are more expensive than it’s worth.  Brian Green, from Brian’s Backpacking Blog, writes a post on how to make your own single use antibiotic packs.

    DIY – Single Use Antibiotic Packs via [Brian’s Backpacking Blog]

  • Found on the Internet: Six Ways to Never Get Lost in the City Again

    Tristan Gooley is a writer, explorer and navigator. He is renowned as a “Natural Navigator,” and he recently wrote an article for BBC News outlining six basic steps for getting your bearings in an urban environment without any instruments.  While his guide is geared towards citizens of the U.K. the principles remain the same and the details of what he writes need only be modified to make it work for wherever you are in the world.

    Six Ways to Never Get Lost in the City Again via BBC News

  • Run For Your Lives!

    Do you like running?  Do you like obstacle courses?  Think you could outlast fast-moving zombies through one for 5km?  Well here’s your opportunity!  Run For Your Lives is a 5k Obstacle course with an added twist – zombies.  Spread throughout the 5k course are 12 obstacles that have to be overcome by the participants while they run away from zombies.  Each participant has a belt with a number of flags attached representing health.  For only $67 you too can test your mettle in a zombie survival situation.

    5K Obstacle Course Zombie Race – Run For Your Lives

  • Found on the Internet: How to Make a Bow from Hardware Store Items

    Having the right tools is important to survival.  Having a bow could be the difference between “making it” and starving to death.  You may not be able to get your hands on a fancy compound bow, but Instructables user dejapong shows us how to build a makeshift bow for less than $20 worth of materials from a hardware store.

    Make a Bow for Under Twenty Bucks [via Instructables]

  • Found on the Internet: How to Survive a Gunshot Wound

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Medical treatment is something we take for granted and we really shouldn’t.  Even a simple cut in the P.A.W. can be life-threatening if you don’t treat it.  For something more serious like a gunshot wound it is imperative that you know how to stop the bleeding and treat the wound in order to survive, whether you’re the one shot or not.  The OutdoorLife Survival blog has an article on how to survive being shot.

    While most of you will likely never be in the position that Reeson found himself, the question is worth asking: If, god forbid, you are ever shot, what should you do to survive?

    The short answer is that you survive getting shot with a little bit of luck, some skill, ample trauma first aid supplies, a degree of stubbornness and maybe a little divine providence. 

    How To Survive A Gunshot Wound via [OutdoorLife Survival Blog]

  • Found on the Internet: Use an Orange Peel to Cook an Egg over a Fire

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoIebNv-bug&w=320&h=240]

    This video addresses a very interesting point that I hadn’t thought of before.  How do you cook an egg over a fire?  Because the orange peel is moist, the egg won’t burn as easily and it will keep the egg moist.  Bonus: The orange peel will imbue a little bit of orange flavor into the egg, giving it an interesting flavor.  The underlying reason that this works is because the wrapper is thick and moist and as it cooks the moisture is released keeping the egg from drying up.  Ostensibly, you could use anything that is naturally moist to reproduce this effect: onions, other citrus, banana peel, melon, etc.