More reasons to keep up with your water preps.  All it takes is for one bad actor to find a back door into a critical system. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/28/federal-government-investigating-multiple-hacks-of-us-water-utilities-00128977

Fear is a healthy thing but you may not be able to avoid getting on the roof.  Embracing the suck is just part of the prepper mindset.  The real issue is learning how to safely get on the roof and work, even by yourself, before you’re forced to do it in a stress situation.

Back in the day folks would break off car antennas to use during street fights because the tip end can slice exposed skin like a knife (especially if the tip is jagged).  Training (including sparring with it) is an absolute must for this type of weapon.  You’ll quicly learn it’s limitations: You probably won’t be able to deploy it before the attacker is inside your range of motion since most attacks are up close, sudden, and violent. Its effectiveness is greatly reduced if the attacker is wearing thicker clothing (e.g., loose jeans and a hoodie sweatshirt). It won’t intimidate someone used to getting cut and beaten (and possibly shot). It is not going to help distance yourself from an attacker with a firearm. Better to maintain awareness and stay out of situations where someone can suddenly attack you.  Pepper spray is probably a better non-lethal option as it’s easily kept in your hand and useful when your attacker is outside arms length as well as close quarters if necessary.

Sorry, I haven’t been following this thread.  It’s generated some interesting responses.  Thank you, Eric, for the detailed discussion (with graphics!). My comments were based on your two initial assertions and your first assumption: 1. everyone on the planet will probably get COVID many times over their lifetime; 2. every time someone catches COVID there is cumulative probability that they will develop Long COVID. 3.  every person catches COVID, on average, once per year going forward. Your article implies that your chance of contracting Long COVID is based on the number of times you get COVID.  You use terms like “probably”, “many times”, “cumulative probability” and “on average” but your references don’t really support your foundational assertions.  For example: Are your conclusions based on global or US population?  You start out with global population but references are primarily based on US population. What are your constraints that bound your assumptions?  At least one of the researchers in your references said their data is based on patient surveys, and subjective data isn’t as trustworthy as clinical data.  Is this really based on the number of COVID infections over your lifetime?  Your references indicate that contracting Long COVID is more related to the severity of your COVID infection, both initially and subsequently.  The severity of the infection is related to the patient’s overall health, and the ones with comorbidities (e.g., obesity, diabetes, heart/lung disease, etc) and especially multi-morbidities (e.g. COPD) are more likely to develop severe COVID infections than otherwise healthy individuals. Your assumptions may be valid, but I can’t tell.  If I can’t rely on them then I can’t really accept your conclusions, regardless of the math.  This is unfortunate, since Long COVID is definitely real and we need to know how much it’s going to end up costing us over time.

This site has great articles on “the best survival knife” that covers the gamut – folders up to Rambo-style knives.  There’s a lot of considerations, not the least of which is local laws.  I have a BK2, Morakniv, multitools, and folders.  The BK2 is a bonafide tacticool beast.  It can easily baton petrified wood, dig a trench through solid granite, and stop a charging bear just by pulling it out of the sheath.  Unfortunately it’s not something you would want to carry on you.  It’s heavy, and folks at Applebee’s may take issue with you cutting your steak with it. The Morakniv Companion is inexpensive and looks it, but it is pretty much indestructable.  I’ve used it to do pretty much everything from cutting cord, making kindling, starting fire with a ferro rod, food prep (make sure you use food-grade mineral oil on carbon-steel blades), etc.  It’s light enough to carry all day, but it’s still not something I’d want hanging off my belt in the conference room during a team meeting. Multitools are jack-of-all-trades.  Thousand and one uses.  You can fix stuff that you broke trying to fix stuff.  The pliers come in handy.  Still a bit heavy, so it’s going to sit in a belt sheath.  The tools are nice in a pinch, but I’ve also destroyed many a screw head with the screwdrivers.  The scissors are nice but sharpening them is just, well, forget it. Folders are just that: a folding knife.  Again, depending on where you live, you may not be able to walk around with anything more than a 3″ non-locking blade.  It’ll be light, easily carried, generally easy to sharpen, and can do 90% of what you need to do in a survival situation.  I’ve carried a folder since I started wearing pants with pockets. Personally, my go-to “survival knife” is a Swiss Army Tinker knife.  It’s light, sharp out of the box and easy to keep it that way, has the basic tools like can opener, slot and phillips head screwdrivers, etc.  The toothpick is a game-changer, trust me.  I can pretty much carry it any where except on a plane, so it’s always available.  It does 90% of the things that you would do in normal life and at least 75% of the things you would do in a survival situation.  And for $25 you can easily afford a couple of them – one to keep on you, one to put in your go-bag.

Yeah, it was over 20 years and different states.  If you look at just Lyme Disease, it may be just 30K per year, but the CDC is also saying there’s something like 476K cases reported annually (based on insurance claims) of tick-borne diseases.  This may be new and ongoing treatments; I haven’t dug into the actual numbers.  While it seems negligible if you look at the total US population, it’s more prevalent once you narrow the population down to the folks that visit or work in the areas where they’d come into contact with ticks.  It’s enough of a risk to where I’d definitely keep DEET on my extremities and permethrin on my clothing while I’m outdoors.

A lot of news outlets are picking up the newly updated tick-borne Alpha-gal Syndrome (AGS) information from the CDC because of the increased number of reported cases. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/alpha-gal/index.html https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/alpha-gal-syndrome-red-meat-ticks-lone-star-rcna96636 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/health/alpha-gal-ticks-meat-allergy.html https://apnews.com/article/meat-allergy-lone-star-tick-alphagal-b0f4024e70c379cd553f003b149175e3 There’s been a few articles on here about them.  Most people that have spent any time in outside, not just “in the woods” but even in nature parks, have had some kind of experience with ticks.  I’ve found them on me and several family members have contracted Lymes Disease from them.  The ones that cause AGS are particularly disconcerting because of the healthcare implications once you’re unable to take common medications and even some vaccinations.  Not to mention that it’d be a shame to survive an EMP attack and the resulting golden hordes only to die from starvation because you can’t eat the food you stocked.  Talk about irony.

I was actually referring to the book.  It seemed out of place given all of the other books were about prepping skills.  To prevent tyranny, “good people” must first realize that tyrannical leaders came to power because “good people” don’t just allow it, they actively participate in and support their tyranny.  There’s a saying that people that don’t study history are doomed to repeat it, and those that do study history are doomed to watch them do it.

On Tyranny as a survival book?  Not a single mention of any bushcraft skill or gear, or anything useful once the golden hordes invade after an EMP strike.  I’ve seen this show up in your other lists.  Care to comment on why?  I have my own opinions (disregarding the political rants).

I work with statistical data all day, every day, so when I see an article like this it raises all kinds of red flags.  Let the reader beware as the information provided in that article is misleading at best, and most definitely meant to prove the author’s overly sensational point.

Takeaways:  I’m not going to cancel a trip to Florida because of this.  Armadillos are a fact of life in the South, but there’s little to no risk for 95% of the population.  It’s a low risk even for that segment of the population because you have to have prolonged contact with it.  And even if they do get it, it’s treatable with no long term impact if caught early enough.

I’ve purchased packs, pouches, and other gear online and got legit stuff.  The pack had been repaired, the strap keepers were a bit frayed, and even had an old energy bar wrapper shoved down in bottom for good measure.  Probably not a knockoff.  What would I avoid?  Keep in mind you’re buying stuff that the military is throwing away for multiple reasons, so if you wouldn’t use gear you bought from a sketchy flea market, I would avoid buying it surplus, too.  By surplus, I mean “issued”; things like hydration bladders, canteens, underwear, boots.  Nope, nope, nope. 

Keeping a firearm in your purse (backpack, etc) does keep it concealed, but remember that bad guys also tend to snatch said purse (backpack, etc) when you’re distracted.  And if it’s like my backpack, I’d have to fumble through a couple notebooks, some USB cables, and a partial pack of crackers to get to my weapon.  Hold on there guy, I got it somewhere.  Even then I’d end up yanking it out with my headphones dangling from it.  Take that, evildoer!

Situational awareness is not just out of the street.  Maybe I’m such a loner that family or circle of friends won’t call out of the blue for money.  However, if they did, chances are I’d also have their contact information and would be able to hang up, call them back and confirm they need the money and why.  Or call someone that does and call them back.  Even outside the US.

And now for the rest of the story… Interesting read on what might have happened to multiple US power grids and natural gas pipelines ahead of the invasion of the Ukraine last year.  Key points:  1) there is a growing concern of state-sponsored malware getting into the hands of non-state actors, 2) companies are behind the curve in protecting industrial systems, 2) malware is still out there and evolving. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/14/russia-malware-electric-gas-facilities-00082675 If you want a more technical discussion, follow the link to the Mandiant website: https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/incontroller-state-sponsored-ics-tool While the focus is on taking infrastructure down, this should be a warning about what could happen if bad actors take control of systems in a few critical industrial plants, such as food or chemical processing plants.