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Episode-1492- Listener Feedback for 1-5-15

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Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails

Today on the Survival Podcast I take your emails on permaculture, plant propagation, ducks, bitcoin, philosophy, Oathkeepers, automation and more.

Make sure if you submit content for a feedback show that you put something like “comment for jack”, “question for jack” or “article for jack” in the subject line to assure proper identification for my screening process.

Please understand I receive several hundred emails a day and can’t get them all on the air.

I also do put out a lot of information on Facebook from emails that I can’t fit on the program though so keep em coming.

Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On

  • Something really BIG is coming from PermaEthos
  • How long do prescription meds really last, the answer may surprise you
  • Thoughts on Permaculture partnerships combining wealth and knowledge
  • How do you propagate Sea Berry
  • An easy way to grow hundreds or thousands of chestnuts and hazel nuts cheaply
  • How you collect duck eggs vs. chicken eggs
  • How to manage comfrey you are growing indoors
  • California now officially recognizes digital currency like bitcoin
  • Advice to take to heart from about 2300 years ago
  • Thoughts on hog eradication with helicopters from a permacutlure view
  • More on the rise of automation and robots
  • Who and what are the Oathkeepers, my current view as a founding member
  • Thoughts on attracting birds to your property
  • SpaceX is hiring a farmer, the reality vs. the potential lesson and the ethic of “earth care”
  • Consider making GenForward part of your new year resolutions

Resources for today’s show…

This Monday’s Prepper Scenario

You are in a large shopping mall.  Some sort of panic breaks out and you have no idea why.  All you know is that people are freaked out and screaming stuff like, “we have to get out of here”.  The situation is getting worse by the second, being trampled to death is a real threat.  The thing is you don’t know if the internal threat of staying put is real or imagined, you have no clue as to the danger.  To make matters worse you are pretty far from any exit and a child is in your care, the child is about 80 pounds, small enough to be at greater risk of injury but large enough to make carrying him/her difficult.  What steps should you take in advance and when entering any large public building to be best prepared to react to this scenario.

Last Monday’s Prepper Scenario

You are in a public building and someone starts shooting at people randomly. This is a public building that does not allow concealed carry and you have followed the law. How do you assess the threat, attempt to survive and help others (if you can) in this situation.

Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.

Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.

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Comments

Episode-1492- Listener Feedback for 1-5-15 — 57 Comments

  1. Regarding the history segment and Jack’s contention that the complaints of the sailors were bogus… I judge that the story I was taught as a kid was total BS and the bottom line is that the information we have about what exactly happened has the taint of CYA reports. We can make intelligent guesses but ultimately, the Indians didn’t write anything down. All we have are the reports of the Spaniards. Take everything with a gain of salt.

    Did the sailors really complain? Probably. Mutiny was a day-to-day worry of ANY captain going ANYWHERE. These sailors were pressed into service. It is reasonable to suggest that the Pinta was sabotaged and once the Pinta reached the Caribbean it “got lost” for a while. You can read between the lines. That doesn’t make them craven barbarians huddled in fear of falling off the edge of the world. Many of them had been to the Azores. No one fell off.

    Were the Indians actually hostile? It’s possible. In later history segments we will discover that these Indians were very unhappy with the Europeans so they will use pepper bombs (gourds filled with ash and ground pepper) to attack the colonists and they attempt to starve the Spaniards out.

    Were ALL the Indians against the Spaniards? No, but they were MOSTLY against the Spaniards. I’d say, three-fourths are against the Spaniards but it’s just a guess based on what I’m reading.

    Finally, you should distrust every report… even mine. The info that come to us are letters written to Queen Isabella and the ship’s logs. These tend to read like CYA reports to the boss, if you know what I mean. They are saying that the situation is tough… but not their fault, so send more money, men and weapons. See what I mean? But because they are BS’ing, we can only make educated guesses about what really happened.

    BTW, the Queen has gold doubloons dancing in her eyes so she’s fooling herself initially, but don’t think she can’t read between the lines. Eventually Columbus will be pushed aside because, frankly… he’s a moron when it comes to organizing a colony.

    Alex Shrugged

    • What I was taught in the government schools (this was the 70’s in elementary school) about Columbus was that he did the sail to the new world thing and the usual nonsense about falling off the edge of the world and mutiny. When he arrived, he was hoping to find gold in Asia but didn’t. He did find various fruits and things, and brought them back but they rotted during the trip. They were disappointed that he just brought back rotten fruit, so they put him in jail. Am I the only one who was taught this version of events?

      Unfortunately, every story I’ve ever heard about Columbus is vastly different than every other story I have heard. So, I have no idea what to think about it anymore or what’s correct.

      • To be charitable, it is very easy to delude one’s self when studying these events.

        I’m paraphrasing an academic that I read. However, we can noodle this out a little ourselves.

        Did Columbus try to bring back fruit to Spain?

        No idea but *I* would have tried. Wouldn’t you? BUT, when I pulled into port, if the fruit looked rotten I’d dump it over the side. Wouldn’t you?

        Was Columbus jailed after the first voyage?

        He was held in jail after his THIRD voyage until the king and queen could make a judgement about him. By that time he was very ill and needed help governing. But after the first voyage? I doubt it. We can noodle this one out because we know what happened next. A few months after the first voyage (the quickest turn-around possible in those days) Columbus returned to the New World with 17 ships and over 1200 men. You don’t jail a guy that you are trusting to lead a major colonization effort like that so I doubt he was jailed then.

        Did Columbus find gold?

        Yes. He found enough to whet the appetite. He will never find as much as he hopes but in the next century, they will find enough silver to DOUBLE the total amount of silver in Europe. This will cause terrible inflation. It will also make Spain embarrassingly rich… so rich that they will have to declare bankruptcy several times! (Ask Donald Trump how many times he has declared bankruptcy and you’ll see what I mean.)

        I think it was Charles C. Mann who said it would be like depositing several billion dollars into your personal account at your local credit union. They would be totally unprepared to handle such a deposit and would start investing the deposits in all the usual things first but there are only a few normal things they could invest in (logistically speaking). Then they would move on to all sorts of strange ventures and those would likely fail big time, causing them to declare bankruptcy.

        Did the crew come close to mutiny?

        Maybe. Mutiny was normal back then. There is evidence that the crew may have sabotaged the Pinta before they reached the Canary Islands. They had to stop to make repairs. Also the Pinta went missing for a while as they explored the Caribbean.

        HOWEVER, I doubt any grumbling was due to fear that the ships would sail over the edge of the world. Columbus had been to the Azores with the Portuguese. That is half way to North America. No one whined about falling off the edge of the world then. Maybe centuries earlier but not at the time of Columbus.

        BTW, Columbus didn’t use the Azores as a jumping off point because he would have to beat to the wind (tacking). It would have taken months to cross that way so he went south and crossed at the Canary Islands where the Trade Winds carried him quickly across. Then he returned along the northern route where the winds were in his favor. He was a very smart navigator but that was about all that was smart about him.

        People want to make Columbus into a fool and in some ways he was. He was an imperfect man, but kings and queens don’t place ships and their personal fortunes into the care of obvious fools. They trusted in his navigational skills and that trust was well-founded.

        People want to make Columbus into an evil man and if incompetence as a governor is evil then fine but the initial evil done in his name was more from his neglect and that caused the Indians to fight back, and then they were put down and so on and so on. Most of the initial problems could have been avoided if they had sent a competent person dedicated to establishing and administering a colony.

        FYI, everything I’ve written here is based on my reading and that reading is based on accounts from the Spaniards. The Indians didn’t write things down so any thing we know of the period is necessarily biased for various reasons, not least of which is that the Spaniards didn’t want to look like lunkheads in front of the Queen of Castile.

        Alex

        • What was the worst thing that Coumbus did ? I may have missed something and didn’t read every detail

          Alex, look further down the blog, I posted a message for you about the Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok

      • Worst thing Columbus every did? Well… he was a captain and an administrator. Punishment in those days on ship and just about anywhere was harsh. Minimum was three days in stocks. Cutting off the nose was certainly heard of (I read about it) though I haven’t read too much about common punishments.

        The real crime of Columbus was his incompetence and neglect. He would let the colonists get out of control and then he would have to implement harsh measures to get things back under control.

        It’s sort of like not disciplining my kids until they do something incredibly terrible. Then I jump all over them and take an inch stripe of hide off their backsides. It would have been better if I had disciplined them early and often so that I wouldn’t have to go caveman on them later. Whose fault is it if I have to go caveman? In a situation where I could have predicted what would go wrong if I did nothing… I am to blame.

      • Good for Oatmeal!

        Now… corrections to Oatmeal…

        The Indians did not come to America 14,000 years ago. That is too soon. It must have been much earlier but the 14,000 number was the original estimate and it has been proven wrong again and again. Sorry.

        And… Columbus was focused on gold but he was also focused on a route to China. These are conflicting goals and his administration of the colony suffered from these divided goals causing him to neglect the colony.

        Regarding Columbus returning on his second voyage and making demands of the Indians and cutting off noses… I distrust accounts of a man acting out of character and I don’t see Columbus as acting outside the normal confines of behavior at the time for a leader. Cut off noses? Sure, but only for cause. When Columbus returned he found the original fort empty with the Indians explaining that the Caribs killed the local tribe and all of his men because they were murdering and raping the Indians. Columbus had nothing to do with this. He was in Spain. Later, the new colony at La Isabella went out of control due to starvation… again by neglect and incompetence of Columbus. When Columbus was gone the colonists began stealing food from the Indians. The Indians fought back. Blood. Death. Destruction… mostly for the Indians… but in the end the colony failed.

        Regarding enslavement, certainly those who owed money for damages were indentured for a minimum of two years. As time went on, Indians were used as real slaves but I don’t recall Columbus doing this initially as Oatmeal makes it sound. Nope. It sounds more like Cortez. I would believe it of Cortez.

        Bartolome De Las Casas did undergo a transformation. He became a priest as I recall and he opposed the terrible treatment of the Indians. HOWEVER in 1492 De Las Casas was EIGHT YEARS OLD!

        8-year-olds don’t know much except what they are told and by the time De Las Casas underwent his transformation Columbus was long dead.

        You know how politics go. If you can’t defend yourself your detractors go hog wild.

        So… I’m not saying Columbus was a sweetheart, but.. no one can be certain about what happened then because so many people were doctoring the books for their own purposes.

        Regarding smallpox… millions of Indians died of various diseases from Europe. I don’t see how this could have been avoided. The Europeans came ashore to what they thought was the East Indies… a place where other Europeans had come with no particular problems with disease… more than normal anyway. And they didn’t know how disease was spread. Oatmeal implies that somehow if the Europeans had NEVER come to America then no disease would have ever come to America… but was that possible? It would have happened some time. When, exactly would Oatmeal have rather it happened? The 20th century?

        Would that even have been possible? No. So it had to happen some time. The Europeans are blameless in that regard.

        Alex Shrugged

      • FYI, I wanted to write to Oatmeal to let him know I was responding to him here but apparently he is not accepting email or messages on Facebook. Of course, I welcome his response here. I want to learn more and I’m glad to discuss these issues. Just remember that they are tough issues with few definitive answers. Logic often helps though.

      • Wow I knew Columbus was a douche but I didn’t know he was that big of complete scum bag. Wow.

    • Ha, man that guy needs some help his videos…makes me laugh just watching how amateur it is but thats the point and he makes it look real easy. I think I will have to test out the compost bag technique some time soon, thanks for the links.

  3. Regarding farming on Mars… I suggest reading the novel “The Martian” by Andy Weir.

    I was listening to a recent interview of Rob Manning, Mars Curiosity’s Chief Engineer. He has come out with a new book, “Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity’s Chief Engineer.” He mentioned reading the novel “The Martian”. I won’t say he is using it as an outline for Mars exploration but he and his colleagues were intrigued. It includes solving the problem of farming on Mars.

    The story of “The Martian”: On the first manned mission to Mars, an astronaut is lost in a dust storm and presumed dead. The mission orders call for returning to Earth so the remaining astronauts launch, leaving all their equipment behind, including the habitat. The problem is that the lost astronaut isn’t dead. He must survive on Mars, developing water and growing food (potatoes) until a rescue mission can come. Unfortunately he’s going to run a few months short of food, air and water so he has to figure out how to stretch what he has and grow the food that he will need.

    I read the novel. Great story. Also a great interview of Andy Weir. He explains how to came to write the book and how many times he killed his main character until he finally figured it out. The initial few pages are BS but the rest he worked real hard to make as realistic and accurate as possible. The narrative is bare bones and right to the point.

    You can find the interview of Rob Manning here:

    http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/178

    You can find the interview of Andy Weir here…

    http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/163

    Alex Shrugged

  4. Prepper scenario: When I go to a mall, I first make note of where I parked so I have no trouble getting back. This involves looking for the nearest letter/number on a post in the parking lot, e.g. “2B” plus remembering the names of the stores/restaurants by the exit that I’m entering through. For this scenario, I’d make sure I understand the general layout of the mall (if its not one I go to often enough to already have it memorized) and where its exits are, as well as whether the “back” of all the stores in the mall have those special employee-only entrances. Most people would consider fleeing a mall through the main entrances, where everyone else is fleeing. Also, if I had a child, I’d make sure that child understands the importance of staying right by me and not running off.

    I know you said just say what I’d prepare in advance, but there’s not a lot else I’d prepare for. If the scenario started to happen, I’d make a quick glace to see where the main exits are and approximately what the crowd is doing overall (all running one direction, etc.), and if the main exits still looked like a good option, I might use them. If not, we’d duck into the nearest store where people are NOT likely to be panicking yet (how could a whole mall of people both in the causeways and in the stores panic at the same time for an unknown reason? There’s doors that block the sounds). Then, we’d go to the back of the store and exit out the special back entrance. e.g. if it was Foot Locker, there’s usually only 3 people in there… we won’t get stampeded there and can quickly exit.

    • I second the part about making note of stores with back entrances. Even if it just goes to an access hallway I imagine it’s better than the stampede. Not much else I can think of. May be good to get a sense of how the kid will listen to you and whether it would be better to pick them up or tell them to run with you in advance.

  5. Alex: “The Martian” by Andy Weir… I second that. Excellent novel.

    Jack – You’re approaching episode 1500. I’d hoped that you’d do another “This is how you’ve changed my life” episode – but so far, you’ve not told folks to call in.

    I’m sure to some extent that you’ve enjoyed knowing that you’ve made a positive impact – however, don’t forget that those were awesome episodes – seeing how folks changed their lives. One person can make a difference in so many ways – when their goal is to help.

    I’ll never run a podcast, I’m not a speaker – but if you can help so many, perhaps I can help a few. Listening to those episodes – was a huge encouragement.

  6. Coach Spiko,
    Your thoughts on the eradication of ferill hogs really got me thinking. I was feeding my dogs as you talked about using them for dog food. From the Permaculture concept of the problem is the solution, do you think more dog food cannerys processing them could help with the problem?
    This company is priced at $3 a can
    http://m.petco.com/product/118748/Natural-Balance-Limited-Ingredient-Diets-Wild-Boar-And-Brown-Rice-Formula-Canned-Dog-Food.aspx

    • Are there ferill hogs in the northeast ? I had heard there may be, but I have never heard of anyone seeing any or shooting some.

      Recently I heard some buffalo escaped a farm in Maine and have been seen up in the hills many months after they escaped

  7. RE: “Thoughts on Permaculture partnerships combining wealth and knowledge” question.

    First, thanks for responding to my question.

    Yes, my question was very important to me, not necessarily for myself wanting to be on either side of that partnership, but I like you, want to see permaculture grow for a number of reasons – healthy food; local businesses; career choices; like-kind communities; etc.

    As an original founding member of PermaEthos, me, and obviously some 1,299 others want to see the rapid expansion of permaculture farms. I am highly interested in the details, including the all important financials regarding or flagship Elisiah’s Spring farm.

    As you indicated in your on-air answer, the PermaEthos farm expansion details, including financing, may have to be tweaked.

    Your answer delved into some of the additional aspects of my question, that I purposely kept from becomming a number of related questions including tax implications for both parties; Schedule F farm status implications; complementary endeavors on the same property; etc.

    When I learn about many young people who HAVE put in the sweat equity and HAVE the permaculture knowledge and experience HAVE done it like a business, IT PAINS ME to see them struggle on often small, relatively insignificant (in the overall impact) farms, when all it would take would be a truly business partnership with written performance standards to make a larger impact for all concerned – let alone the wider world.

    Jack, I feel a whole show, or more, could be devoted to this subject, including the various possibilities. The likes of Joel Salatin and Mark Shephard and others have worked extremely hard (particularly physically in the early years). They have been coming up with ways, with the limited time they have to expand permaculture.

    I hear permaculture founder Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton bemoan how long permaculture has taken to catch on and how Mark Shepherd reluctantly is turning to large corporations to expand permaculture when he would much rather see it in the hands of, and for the direct benefit of ordinary people.

    I feel they understand the urgency, of making the transition to permaculture ASAP. The way this country is going, I feel you do as well.

    Permaculture communities with locally produced goods and services with their associated career and business opportunities as well as creating more tight-knit relationships and communities so people can “…live a better life if times get tough, or even if they don’t.”

    Jack, if your podcast with some 100,000 downloaders can raise $300K from 1,000 listeners in two hours and 47 minutes because we believe in permaculture and all the benefits it can bring to individuals and communities, what kind of impact could you have by sharing specific, real-world, viable business-based strategies for doing so?

  8. I am a bit of a space nerd and have followed spacex for some time. They are profitable, and even have a contract to resupy the ISS using their Medium sized Falcon rocket. Who knows if Spacex will ever get to mars, but they are on the gov gravy train. They have a massive test facility in McGregor TX. It consists of a big test stand for their rockets, surrounded by vacant land. (There is a running joke about some cows that get spooked in one of their test videos). That may be the property in question. They also recently purchased some land on the TX coast for a new launch facility.

  11. Jack, you are dead on the aspirin. I’ve ingested 12 year old aspirin pills that were packaged individually and they were effective. However, I’ve had aspirin in a bottle smell vinegary after a couple of years.

    • It’s the moisture. Aspirin is actually acetylsalicylic acid (it’s common to stabilize chemicals in medicines by adding something to them- usually making them a salt, even cocaine is made into a salt to make it more stable and snortable). When you add water to acetylsalicylic acid it hydrolyzes and forms acetic acid (vinegar) and salicylic acid. Once you open a bottle, you introduce moisture – with individually packaged pills, only the one you take is exposed.

  12. Jack, correct me if I am wrong, as BitCoin as a system still confuses me, but you keep talking like BitCoin transactions are private, but I do not think that is the case.

    All BitCoin transactions are completely public and recorded in the block chain. This needs to be the case to avoid double spending. So the only thing that would stop governments from being able to tax transactions would be the anonymity of the participants. So if the government figured out my account number, they could track all transactions and possibly tax me on all of them. I would guess that you could have multiple accounts but I would think that even shuffling money between even a nearly infinite number of accounts would be reasonably easy to track since all the transactions are visible.

    I believe there is a BitCoin alternative called DarkCoin which is trying to add anonymity but the coding isn’t finished. Again I don’t claim to understand BitCoin, but what little I do get, is that the public nature of the transactions seems key to the working of the system, so I don’t understand how they can hide it behind hashes, but luckily there are smarter people than me out there.

    Am I missing something? Maybe I just misunderstood you?

    • While what you’re saying is true its not practical by any real stretch. (That I know of). Most wallets are setup to have rotating/changing addresses. So often times addresses exist for a single transaction.

      Your bitcoin is likely at many addresses (because your wallet takes care of that). You would have to do some sort of analysis that based off where the bitcoin came from (likely only one node back) and where its going. Unless somebody online says “This is my Address” or posts it, its quite anonymous. Even then those addresses can pass it to any other addresses you might have control of. So all it really looks like is bitcoin moved from A to B.

      • I would not deny that bitcoin can probably help people make money in the short term, but I feel in the long term it can be used to get us used to digital currency and to move towards a system where there is no cash and no anonymity. The powers that be can always find a way to alter the whole digital currency thing and how it works farther on down the line and play various games with what they say about it in the meantime but never really revealing what the truth may be or the higher up elite plans

    • Mike answered you well but I will add this simple fact.

      Bitcoin transactions can be a private or public as you choose for them to be.

      I won’t say more because frankly I am tired of mythbusting anti bitcoin false propaganda.

    • Come on Jack, I may be wrong but at the very least it is an honest mistake. You said: //Bitcoin transactions can be a private or public as you choose for them to be.//
      But per Bitcoin’s website: https://bitcoin.org/en/protect-your-privacy
      “All Bitcoin transactions are public, traceable, and permanently stored in the Bitcoin network.”
      So I think it is a little unfair to say I am spreading false propaganda, if I am echoing data from their website.

      Mike, first just read the second paragraph from my link as it seems to contradict what you said.

      From what I get from that paragraph, if I want anonymity, I should create lots of accounts and only use each for a single transaction. For example lets start simple and say I have 26 accounts labeled A through Z. And I am selling “Digital Widgets” for 1 Bitcoin a piece. Any time I accept a Bitcoin I would accept it into a unique account in order A, B, C, etc. Let’s say the government bought one of my widgets by transferring a Bitcoin into account C, so know that Account C is mine and has 1 Bitcoin in it. If I decide to buy an expensive digital widget which costs 5 Bitcoins, I could transfer from accounts A-E to purchase it but that would signal that those accounts were all mine or that I had 4 nice friends that pitched in with me to get the expensive widget. It just seems to me that any exposure allows traceability or as they say “once addresses are used, they become tainted by the history of all transactions they are involved with. ” Which to me states that one could then trace the motion of any Bitcoin all the way back to the account that mined it.

      Please don’t take this as anti-Bitcoin, but I think it is important to mention these things so that people know what is exposed when you give someone an Bitcoin account number. For example, here is a link to the FBI’s $100M Bitcoin wallet from a Wired article: https://blockchain.info/address/1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH

      Again, as I mentioned, unless I am missing something.

        • Very interesting. My only question about would be about practicality. I guess so long as you trust them it wouldn’t be so bad. In order to be usable you have to have bitcoins transfered to your account. Now technically you could (if you have internet connectivity) transfer what you need to the account, wait the appropriate waiting time, then use your card.

          But that’s kind of a pain in the ass, so you’d have to have bitcoin in your account. No real way around that one. Which of course is naturally one of the most common “do not dos” in bitcoin.

      • It is anti bitcoin propganda you just don’t know it. As Mike said the TRANSACTION is pubic the parties are not. It is like saying since you can intercept a TV show you can tell who watched it.

        • @Richard, to put it another way you said,

          “Jack, correct me if I am wrong, as BitCoin as a system still confuses me, but you keep talking like BitCoin transactions are private, but I do not think that is the case.”

          Okay I am going to correct you, you are wrong in the context in which you said the above. I have explained why too many times to do so again, if you want to know, use google the answer is out there. I can only answer the same question so many times before I wear out. Go to a BTC forum, ask for a thread that explains it if you really want to know.

          You might see this as me being a dick, it isn’t, I am just tired and can only put so much effort into doing the same thing multiple times.

      • “I want anonymity,”
        By being part of the network you are. Unless you specifically desire it so there is nothing about bitcoin transactions that identify who the participants are. I should point out that private and anonymous are not the same things. Nothing about the physical nature of moving 0 an 1s with bitcoin is private.

        It works in a very similar manner as tor really. Tor for all intensive purposes is completely anonymous. The content that passes between individuals is another story and without it being encrypted, it definitely isn’t private. Just like Tor being able to do network analysis and attempt to understand its participants is AT BEST a theoretical discussion.

        There is nothing I said that contradicts the link you posted. In fact it’s just echo exactly what I said. =) Jack gave a decent example with the tv signal.

        • I will reply by once again quoting Bitcoin’s own text from https://bitcoin.org/en/you-need-to-know
          =================================
          Bitcoin is not anonymous

          Some effort is required to protect your privacy with Bitcoin. All Bitcoin transactions are stored publicly and permanently on the network, which means anyone can see the balance and transactions of any Bitcoin address. However, the identity of the user behind an address remains unknown until information is revealed during a purchase or in other circumstances. This is one reason why Bitcoin addresses should only be used once. Always remember that it is your responsibility to adopt good practices in order to protect your privacy.
          =================================

          All I was trying to get across with the original post is stated in the above paragraph. The anonymity of an account is not like the anonymity of watching broadcast TV, as in that case transactions are not recorded. It is more like the anonymity of an email address. You can get an email account anonymously and you could send out email from that account that would be hard to trace back to you, but if you use that account or advertise that account, then you can loose that anonymity, such as sending an email with a signature at the bottom or using that email to create an account that has direct ties to your person like a Facebook account.

        • @Richard if you choose to not understand something you won’t. If you cling to a perception bias it will continue, that is all I can say to you at this point.

          Again a BTC transaction is as public or private as the parties wish it to be. The end, if you don’t believe that, fine. Just remember we are entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts.

        • @Richard.

          So not that the paragraph is in disagreement, the title of that paragraph. I don’t consider their statement to be factual at all. There most definitely is anonymous. The definition of the word no questions asked relates to the identity of a person, and the lack there of having it.

          The only thing technically right about the statement is that which address a bitcoin came from and where it went to is not anonymous. (Not speaking about the person just the address itself). This is an obvious no-brainer. Even more technically focused, the address itself is a disposable proxy. Therefore your personal anonymity in ensure only by what you personally make public.

          With this in mind, the essence of the question relates to a person’s identity and what transaction took place, but neither of those have anything to do with bitcoin or its implementation.

  13. Your scenario is very relevant to me as a mother of three daughters. A slightly paranoid mother might be more accurate. My youngest daughter is the size you mentioned in your scenario. To ease my paranoid mind, I have taught my daughter to always be within arm’s reach. In heavily populated areas and parking lots, we still hold hands or she holds my pocket so I can feel her presence even if I am distracted. An eighty pound child is still small enough for a kidnapper to pick up and walk off with in the right crowd.
    If I know I’m going to a large crowded place, I try to have my husband or older daughter with me. The other adult obviously has a cell phone and knows where to meet if we are seperated. She knows where to meet also. We always pick a tall, highly visible place as our primary meeting spot. This makes it easy for a short child to find. My daughter has actually seen the meeting spot before me when we were waiting on one of the teenagers. We also have a secondary outside the building in case of fire. This may seem excessive but we have had occasion to be grateful for the training the military gave me.
    I’ve taught my daughters to know all the exits in a location and use secondary exits rather than primary in most cases (situation judgement required) since the herd usually goes to the main doors.
    I dress my daughter in very bright colors so I can see her from a distance. It helps that she recently decided she loves neon colors.
    Finally, I try to avoid heavily populated and tightly confined spaces. I stay out of potentially bad situations as much as possible.
    Kids at that age are capable of being partially responsible for their own safety if they are taught to do so from a young age. If it is your own child, you can make them part of the process rather than just baggage that slows you down.

  14. When I was in the navy I have six friend killed in a fire. Only one of the four were killed during the original flash of fire. Four died trying to egress via the normal entrance even though they passed by two safe exits from the space and one panicked and and got wrapped un in his phone cords and could not escape.
    Ways to prepare is to be aware of all the exits and not just the main entrances. Most people will go to the ones they used to entering. So by being aware of the other exits could allow for a less obstructed exit path.

  15. I have to agree with you on the “shooting out of helicopters” part. In Oct of 2011, I visited Extreme Seal Experience in VA. ESE is part BUD/s prep school and part “give a taste to the average Joe what training for BUD/s is like”. On the last day, we all got into a helo, 2 at a time with shotguns. We were flown to spot on a river where some dummies with targets on them we set up on a boat. We each fired our 5 shots at the targets and then were flown back. It was just ridiculous amounts of fun. I have to imagine shooting ferrel hogs out of a helo would be just as much fun.

  16. I think you should have mentioned one other option in the shooter scenario which is to play dead. I think alot of people do that. Act like you where shot already

  17. Seaberry and sea buckthorn propagation with seeds. An important tip I found and successfully used was to soak te seeds and expose them to sunlight after the 90 days of cold stratification. Previously I had little and really no success with seeds sprouting. Also Jack was right about propagating from cuttings as I have 6 cuttings that are leafing out.

    My post on seaberry:
    http://regenfarms.com/propagating-sea-buckthorn-sea-berry-via-cuttings-and-seeds/

  18. I see that farmer job posting as an opportunity for someone to convince management to establish a permaculture farm, both as a tax exemption and good PR.

  19. TODAY’S SURVIVAL SCENARIO: My first step would be to pick up my child and head to the back of the nearest store, where the delivery entrance and often a fire exit are located and head out the back. Crowd, fire, real or imagined threat mitigated in all but the most dire threat which would be a gang of shooters covering every entrance and exit. If possible, I would tell others to follow me in ten seconds, thereby giving them a chance in case it’s a trap.

  20. Hey Alex Shrugged ..

    I was thinking, you had kind of written of Ariel Bar Tzadok as a kook rabbi in your mind in a discussion we had on here. I saw him on ancient aliens the other day.

    I found some info that seems to suggest he may be well connected with the orthodox community in Israel. You can have a look at these links. You seem to be a big history/information/religious buff so I was curious on what you would say about it, though I get some idea that maybe your a kind of modernist or something like that ..

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Adamgmoney

    http://koshertorah.com/about-the-rav.html

    I am not sure how to find you, so I posted this here.

    • @surfivor … I suggest you could contact me in the TSP forum.

      Regarding “kooks,” it is odd that you should use such a word. In Kabbalah (which I assume is what you are talking about) one of the prominent kabbalists of modern times is Rabbi Kook, now of blessed memory.

      I have not changed my mind about Ariel Bar Tzadok. I don’t think he is a kook. I would not take my lessons from him though. He seems unserious.

      Of course, the Orthodox community has it kooks in the normal sense of the word. Orthodoxy does not guarantee sensible people and Kabbalah can be misleading. Also there is a misimpression that all Orthodox are somehow intellectuals. That is incorrect. Some are intellectuals. Some are not. Just like every other group on the planet.

      Regarding what I am… I know people need labels so I generally call myself Modern Orthodox because that is closest to what I do.

    • I looked back at the other blog, you had said Ariel claimed the world was going to end on December 2012 but that it would then start back up again. Maybe he was making a joke or that is his way off saying things. I actually don’t agree with him on various things and have not studied his writtings much at all.

      You mentioned books by Laibl Wolf. I have read many kabbalah books, probably 15 or so back in those days. I read the book by David Shienkin and a few by Arey Kapplan plus a bunch of others.

      I mentioned Ariel Bar Zaddok because he is a kabbalist that I actually talked to or interacted with in real life. If I told people I read books, then sometimes they say “you only read a book”. I used to talk Ariel on a online Kabbalah forum mainly and once over the phone is all. He is conservative . I guess he has been on Ancient Aliens show, but I have only seen a couple of episodes of that.

      I was influenced by Kabbalah, but don’t read such books anymore. Yogananda an eastern mystic teaches Kriya yoga and his approaches are very similar to Kabbalah in some ways nearly identical I would say and I have been influenced by him a great deal.

      I looked up Modern Orthodoxy, it seems to be trying to reconcile secularism and the consumer society with Jewish law and I guess feels like the other orthodox groups have too much sway or what not.

      As far as intellectualism, it’s hard to say. that can mean alot of things.

      I think Jack had a segment on where it was suggested if you only believe what has been verified by science then maybe you are a slave. (or maybe if you don’t venture too far from that). I actually think there is alot of scientific research and historical information that is suppressed or largely ignored

      As far as meditation, there is alot of interesting things on that, but I think scientists actually shy away from it even if some act like they are studying it. There have been meditation masters in the east who can stop their heart and go into hibernation.

      • @surfivor: “Ariel claimed the world was going to end on December 2012 but that it would then start back up again. Maybe he was making a joke…”

        Indeed he was and if you read my original post carefully you will see that I address his joking manner. No one I trust makes jokes about Kabbalah. It is too difficult a subject with serious consequences to be joking around. Because he made a joke, I discount him. This is normal Jewish procedure. I’m sure he understands.

        @surfivor: “You mentioned books by Laibl Wolf.”

        I mentioned one book by Laibl Wolf entitled “Practical Kabbalah”. It seems reasonable. I’ve also skimmed an article by him on his web site. That also looks reasonable.

        You mention David Shienkin as an author. I don’t know of David Shienkin but going to Amazon.com and scanning his works, I would discount him as an author of Kabbalah until I could read his work or receive an endorsement from someone I know of. I’m sure he would understand.

        Regarding Aryeh Kaplan, of blessed memory, he is certainly well known in Kabbalah circles. I like his work but for general reading I would only recommend “Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide”. All his other works will be a waste of money unless you know some rudimentary Hebrew and have a background in Jewish study.

        I don’t know if you are aware of it, but you give me the impression that you do not have a firm enough grasp of normative Jewish studies to be studying Kabbalah. I suggest remaining at a general studies level.

        Regarding the TV show “Ancient Aliens,” I watched about 2 minutes of an episode I found on YouTube. It is an unserious TV show. It is somewhat akin to comparing “The Survival Podcast” to “Doomsday Preppers”. One is serious. The other is unserious.

        I do not teach Kabbalah and I certainly do not claim to be an expert but if I was an expert I would not allow myself to be associated with such a show as “Ancient Aliens.”

        Regarding intellectualism and Modern Orthodox Judaism, you are correct that the word could mean a lot of things. It’s sort of like saying that a particular traditional Christian Church encouraged deep traditional faith melded with intellectual honesty. What the heck does that mean? I suppose it means something different to every person. Overall, though, it means that one thinks about how we can live in a modern world without losing our tradition. It also means not rejecting modern subjects out of hand.

        In a practical sense that is happening right now. I’m engaging with you in dialogue and considering your point of view. I’m not just blowing you off.

        Regarding possible suppressed scientific research… that sort of thing happens but nothing overt. Science tends to have popular trends. A good example is “Super Gravity.” An A&M professor suffered for decades (as I recall) in obscurity because Super String Theory was the popular way to look at the universe. Now Super String Theory is incorporating some aspects of Super Gravity. The professor was on the right track all along. (More correct than the other guys, anyway.) Yet for years his research was mostly done solo.

        I suggest reading “The Anthropic Cosmological Principle” by Barrow and Tipler. Good book on cosmology. Stephen Hawking addressed it in his book “A Brief History of Time” and discounted it. That is the kind of suppression we are talking about. Hawking mentions it and then says why it can’t be true.

        Regarding meditation masters who can stop their hearts and go into hibernation… I’d need to see hard evidence of that. No doubt they could slow their heart and breathing. I’ve suppressed my breathing but my breathing doesn’t stop. It is only reduced. I’ve not checked my heart but I assume it also slows.

        Don’t read too much into it.

        I suggest reading “Karma Kola: the Marketing of the Mystic East” by Gita Mehta.

        Here is a link to the book Karma Cola with the table of contents and a quote from the Introduction. It is a chilling quote.

        https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7350900M/Karma_Cola

        Alex Shrugged

  21. Jack
    You mentioned a place to get seaberries, sounded like Sheffield to me, but didn’t come up in a search. Could you put that in writing.

    Thanks

    Bob

  22. i think the comment abt 360 degs was in this episode jack says ” a new player gets on a new team and says that they are going to turn the team around 360 degs! ooooookayyy your college deg was honorary wasnt it? ” paraphrased, Well i got one to top that! check this out: http://360physicaltherapy.com/

    • Hah, but that actually might make sense. The goal of phyical therapy would be to get you back to where you were before the injury.

  23. Morning Jack,

    I just thought you might like a bit more insight into the kiva robots thing. Your assumption of what the kiva bots do to headcount is somewhat different than the actual impact. I put this out for information for you, since you are interested in the future work place like me, not to not pick in any way. Last year I had the great misfortune to work for Amazon for about a year as an outbound shipping manager, not in a kiva building, but I got to tour one.

    Your previous warehouse job used a picker, checker, packer (you), and a hauler (handtruck onto actual truck). Now one of those has already been eliminated by automation, the checker, as that’s all handled by 360 degree computer scanners and auto check weight scales. They know how much everything in the warehouse weighs, and if weight is off it kicks out. So that leaves picker, packer and shipping.

    The robots replace SOME of the pickers in a building, not all, this is true. However, what amazon found is that using the robots actually moved the weak point from the pickers to the packers. So before they could only pick so much in a building. Now they can only pack so much. What does that mean for jobs? It means that at least for now, amazon actually hired more new packers than they lost in pickers. So now you have more packing done, and then at amazon those get thrown on a conveyer and taken to the trucks. That packing and shipping process was what I ran.

    So again, not not picking, just supporting your point. Not all automation is bad, and if you are observant, you can take advantage of these shifts to better your own position. Either invent the next kiva, or figure out how to utilize this new tech. Calling back to before Christmas, figure out how to make a robot clean above ground pools and market that. Who says change is bad?

    Love the show man, keep rocking.
    Andy in Atlanta

  24. I am married to a Dominican and have lived in the Dominican Republic in the city of Santo Domingo. That is the city Columbus founded. They have a saying there that the place was discovered by a crook, Then settled by crooks and is run by crooks today.
    So yes he was a crook.

  25. Jack your commentary about the hogs hits a personal note. I have livestock and am on constant ” patrol” of predators to the livestock. If a fox, coyote etc. eats just one chicken that is 6 eggs a week for 40 weeks at $4.00 a dozen or $80 a year or $240 per life of a layer. I have people tell me “let wildlife be, their just doing what they do” People tell me its bad to trap or shoot predators. Lets have them give me $240 dollars for just a chicken, never mind a sheep or cow of a fruit tree that is destroyed from a deer. So many people are so insulated from the reality of food they have no clue. I don’t see those people having a problem setting a mouse trap inside their house but at a farm for predators “OMG”

  26. In regard to feral hog control, there is a company in south Georgia who is taking a very militaryistic approach to the problem. They have very sound methods that are based on their own scientific observations. They also post a good amount of content on Youtube. Entertaining to watch and possibly make a business out of if adapted to an environment such as Texas. All products and tactics are presented in a social marketing manner, so that one who wanted to use their system could do so.

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCADxoQ8N7KChuJdkcWGgH5g

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