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Today I share the next author interview in the Backdoor Survival Fall Book Festival.  Joe Nobody, the author of The Home Schooled Shootist: Training to Fight with a Carbine as well as numerous other popular books, shares his answers to my questions and is also providing one of my readers with a free copy of his book.

Before we begin, I would like to announce the winner of last week’s giveaway.  “Bill K” has won a copy of Broken Web The Coming Collapse of the Internet.  Congratulations!  I have contacted you by email with instructions for claiming your prize.

There were a lot of great questions asked last week and I will be forwarding them on to George so that the two of us can answer them for you in an upcoming article.  Be sure to check out the details of this week’s giveaway below.

The Home Schooled Shootist

To set the tone for my interview with Joe, here is a short video to set the scene and get you in the mood.

A Chat with Joe Nobody

Tell me about your book, The Home Schooled Shootist. What is it about?

Shootist is an instruction guide that addresses many different aspects of fighting with a carbine. It was written for preppers who are interested in improving their shooting skills for defensive situations. The book includes some very unique practice exercises and drills, as well as hundreds of tips and tricks to improve the operator’s combat effectiveness with a shoulder fired weapon.

What type of research did you have to do while writing Shootist?

With this work, very little new research was required. The hard labor involved documenting what I’ve been teaching for years and presenting it in a fashion that could be digested in book form by the average prepper. Teaching someone in person, face-to-face is completely different than instruction via printed media. We worked very hard to get it right.

How long did it take to write?

That’s difficult for me to answer because I always have four or five books in progress at any one time. I started on Shootist over a year ago, but didn’t work full time on the project. In the last 18 months, I’ve released four instruction guides and three fiction novels. How-to books take more time to write because you must have all the details correctly noted. For Shootist, the ballistics and reloading sections took the longest to pen.

Every book, fiction and non-fiction, includes a message. What message do you hope my readers will take with them after reading Shootist?

My primary aim (pun intended) with this work was to show preppers some advanced firearm training methods specifically tailored for civilian shooters in defensive roles. Gun fighting has evolved drastically over the last 10 years. The weapons, optics and ammunition currently available have changed the game. Engagement distances are expanding, and combat power is increasing. Virtually every aspect of shooting is advancing at an accelerated pace. If you don’t know how to properly train and drill, you could be underutilizing potential and lowering the chances of survival.

Can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

I’m a prepper – a strong believer in self-reliance. I’ve been married to the same wonderful girl for 25 years and have two teenage children. I’m really a Joe Nobody – just an average guy.

I’ve always received a tremendous amount of gratification from helping others, and that’s why I started writing books. I’ve had a lot of positive feedback, so my intent is to continue putting out product that people find helpful.

Do you have plans for another book?

Yes. A new, full length novel titled Apocalypse Drift will be hitting the shelves soon, as well as the fourth in the Holding Their Own series with everybody’s favorite preppers – Bishop and Terri.

Apocalypse Drift is a departure in many ways from the typical Joe Nobody novel. It is a story about a family that survives the collapse on a boat. In addition, I have five other works in various stages right now. My goal is to publish six books in 2013.

Is there anything else you would like to share with my readers?

I want to thank you for giving me a chance to share a little bit about my work. I wish every single person out there the best of luck with their preps!

The Book Giveaway

A copy of The Home Schooled Shootist: Training to Fight with a Carbine has been reserved for one lucky reader.  To be eligible to win, leave a comment below that has something to do with defense.  It could be a tip, a suggestion or a question and does not necessary have to be about firearms.

A winner will be selected next Friday at random using tools on the random.org website.  Good luck!

The Final Word

I feel so honored to have had so many great authors participate in my Fall Book Festival.  With just a couple of weeks to go, I will soon be announcing my “Winter Book Festival” with more authors and more giveaways.

It is very exciting to me to see so many quality print books and e-Books being published for our prepping community.  As I frequently say, knowledge is power, and the wealth of information gleaned from both fiction and non-fiction entries in the survival niche is gratifying.  For all of you authors out there, keep them coming!

Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!

Gaye

Spotlight Item: Naturally, today’s featured book is The Home Schooled Shootist.  One thing I though I would mention is that the book includes a detailed bonus section on nutrition and shooting written by Mike Adams, The Health Ranger.  It is an interesting discussion and definitely worth more than passing consideration.

Bargain Bin: Listed below are all of the books in the Backdoor Survival Fall Reading List. There are both fiction and non-fiction titles and a bit of something for everyone. Also, some of these books are Kindle e-books but you do not need a Kindle to read Kindle e-books. Simply download the free Kindle app from the Amazon site and you are good to go.

The Backdoor Survival Fall Reading List – Non-Fiction

Contact!: A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival
Disaster Preparedness: Urban Preppers with Kids, Pets & Parents; Disaster Survival for the Family
Survive Any Food Crisis
The Prepper Next Door: A Practical Guide For Disaster And Emergency Planning
Deep Web Secrecy and Security – Guide to the Deep Web and Beyond
Broken Web The Coming Collapse of the Internet
The Weekend Homesteader: A Twelve-Month Guide to Self-Sufficiency
The Home Schooled Shootist: Training to Fight with a Carbine

The Backdoor Survival Fall Reading List – Fiction

BOCA CHITA: Prepare. Escape. Survive.
299 Days: The Preparation
299 Days: The Collapse
A Survival Story: Part I
11 Steps to Living a Strategic Life

Want to support Backdoor Survival? Purchases earn a small commission and for that I thank you!

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The following excerpt appears in the new book Patriot Dawn – The Resistance Rises, by Max Velocity. Max has served in both, the British and the U.S. armies, and also as a high threat security contractor. He has served on six military operational deployments, including to Afghanistan immediately post-9/11, and additionally he spent five years serving as a security contractor in both Iraq and Afghanistan. During his career in the British Army he served with British SOF (The Parachute Regiment), to include a role training and selecting recruits for the Regiment. More recently, he has served in a Combat Medic and Civil Affairs role in the US Army Reserves. He is the author of two previous books: Contact! A Tactical Manual for Post Collapse Survival  and Rapid Fire! Tactics for High Threat, Protection and Combat Operations.

His latest book, Patriot Dawn – The Resistance Rises, is a step away from the user friendly tactical manuals he is known for, and combines the excitement of an action-packed fictional novel with real-world battle hardened experience in offensive, defensive and counter-insurgency strategies and tactics.

The United States has descended into Civil War. The storm was rising for some time, a Resistance in the hearts of American Patriots to the strangulation of liberty by creeping authoritarianism. The scene was set. It just took a little push.

A terrorist attack on the United States leads to war with Iran, followed by collapse, as the economy goes over the cliff. The final blow is a widespread opportunistic Chinese cyber attack, taking down the North American Power Grid.

From the ashes, the Regime emerges. Liberty is dead. What remains of the United States of America is polarized.

The Resistance Rises.

Jack Berenger is a former Army Ranger Captain, living in northern Virginia with his family. Following the collapse, they fall foul of Regime violence and evacuate to the farm of an old Army friend. Jack is recruited into the resistance, to train the fledgling forces in the Shenandoah Valley. The fight begins. Resist.

The following excerpt appears in the prologue of Patriot Dawn – The Resistance Rises and takes place just after a large-scale terrorist attack on Washington D.C.

The terrorist attackers were reported to have been recruited, abetted, directed and sponsored by Iran, although the details were unclear and it appeared that an investigation was not the top priority of the Administration.

How had the terrorists managed to charter this plane, which had apparently originated in Dubai on a one stop flight to the US, loading it with two hundred heavily armed fighters, without alerting any suspicion?

However, the focus following the attack was not international but domestic, and the priority was the ‘safety and security’ of the public by the accelerated implementation of the massive domestic surveillance and policing drive.

Fear was paramount and the masses were even more convinced that giving up their freedom and rights was in their best interests for their ‘safety and security’. Many internet bloggers and alternative media sites were describing the attack as a ‘False Flag’, abetted by the ‘Powers That Be’, but those crackpots were soon shut down by the Department of Homeland Security, in order to prevent further ‘panic mongering’.

The attack also provided the justification for war against Iran. However, that war was prosecuted by the Administration in the form of a primarily naval and air campaign that limited the involvement of ground troops.

This limitation allowed for the deployment of troops as convenient to the agenda of the Administration and the military-industrial complex, but ensured that sufficient active duty units remained available for domestic operations.

The attack on Iran was however the final straw that preceded the total meltdown of the Middle East.

As part of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, measures were in place to allow Posse Comitatus laws to be ignored domestically. This was activated by executive order and active duty and reserve U.S. Army units were used to reinforce the National Guard in operations against domestic terrorists and sleeper cells.

The terrorist attack had precipitated the final mortal blow to liberty and the destruction of the United States of America as a Constitutional Republic. It was true that the erosion of liberty and the Bill of Rights had been going on for some time; the Constitution was viewed by many as a dead document, and the measures had already been put in place for the implementation of a state of emergency.

The attack had been a terrible thing, but at the same time it was so convenient to the agenda of the Administration. Everything since the attack had been the death rattle of liberty as the police surveillance state was fully imposed.

Due process and Habeus Corpus were suspended, and the NDAA allowed arrest and internment without probable cause or trial on the simple suspicion by the authorities that someone posed a terrorist threat; a system that was easily abused.

Everything in society was now centered on compliance and obedience to authority. Questioning of the orders of those in authority positions was not tolerated. America was no longer the land of the free, but anyone with a mind had seen that coming for a long time.

Anyone with ideas counter to the official line, or who argued or challenged authority, was labeled a ‘domestic terrorist’, arrested and interned in ‘corrective and reeducation facilities’.

Following the activation of the NDAA by Executive Order, a state of emergency was implemented. It was necessary, because another terrorist attack could happen at any time, and anyone could be a terrorist. There was a lot of talk about sleeper cells and many citizens were arrested and interned without trial. ‘Extremist terrorist’ organizations, including Patriot and conservative organizations such as the Tea Party, were outlawed.

It wasn’t really clear to the general public exactly what happened next, given that they only got their information from the Administration via the heavily state directed mainstream media, and the internet was now under heavy lockdown. However, the economic dangers that had been looming and fueled by the continuous policy of ‘Quantitive Easing’, or money printing by the Federal Reserve, finally came home to roost.

The economy went over the cliff. There was much discussion that the actual precipitator of the plunge was the cabal of bankers who were the real power behind the Regime; they had pulled the financial plug, causing a massive run on the banks and hyperinflation, just like they had done in 1929 to cause the Great Depression. But who really knew, given the lockdown?

The effect was ultimately to cripple the economy, destroying the middle classes. What better way to turn the screws of citizen compliance when so many were now reliant on entitlement handouts?

The ‘progressive’ agenda of collective socialism was nearing its ultimate fulfillment; coerced redistribution of wealth, except now no-one was generating any wealth to feed the monster of the dependent welfare classes.

Statist authoritarian big central government was the order of the day, even though those policies spelled the death of the country. Many ‘progressives’ yearned for that, so that the ‘United Socialist States of America’ could rise from the ashes.

The government of the United States of America was no longer an ‘Administration’; it was a totalitarian Regime.

You can continue reading the remainder of this prologue at Max Velocity Tactical

Order your copy of Patriot Dawn – The Resistance Rises at Amazon.com or Create Space

Also available for Kindle

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A major theorem of cryptography is that anything that be done with a trusted authority can be done without1 a trusted authority.  This theorem can be applied to currencies, too. Anything that can be done by a central bank can be done without a central bank .  The central bank for the United States of America, as you probably already know, is the US Federal Reserve.  The stated dual mandate of the US Federal Reserve System is:
 
“The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Open Market Committee shall maintain long run growth of the monetary and credit aggregates commensurate with the economy’s long run potential to increase production, so as to promote effectively the goals of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates.”

To state this in other words, the dual mandate is:
1.  Stable prices
2.  Maximum employment
 
However, the real dual mandate for the US Federal Reserve during the past five years has been :
1.  Bail out the US Government.
2.  Bail out the Big Banks.

The US Federal Reserve System is the trusted authority that is now losing the trust of the average American and people worldwide.  The US Federal Reserve System has been monetizing the debt of the US Federal Government and buying the toxic mortgages being held by major US banks.  Debt monetization, quantitative easing, discount window lending, or whatever new name that the Federal Reserve comes up with, it simply means more money printing.  This results in price inflation for real things, such as food and gas. Debt monetization is advanced warning that a fiat currency is about to die or a government is about to go bankrupt and renege on its obligations.  The US Dollar is a fiat currency just  like all the other worldwide central reserve currencies.  Fiat currencies have no intrinsic value except the value that is forced by the government upon the people.  Sooner or later, all fiat currencies revert to their true value of zero.

Now, because of the Internet, there is an alternative currency called Bitcoin.  Bitcoin takes the basic theorem that anything that be done with a trusted authority can be done without a trusted authority and applies the theorem to the combined fields of cryptography and currency, which is now known as cryptocurrency.  Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency that exists today. The best way to start learning about Bitcoin is to download the free application at the following link:
 
http://bitcoin.org/

A good definition of Bitcoin can be found in the Intro part of the readme file in the download.
   
Bitcoin is a free open source peer-to-peer electronic cash system that is completely decentralized, without the need for a central server or trusted parties.  Users hold the crypto keys to their own money and transact directly with each other, with the help of a P2P network to check for double-spending.   
 
The application costs nothing to download and it is available for the major operating systems (OS):  Linux, Windows, and Mac OS.  The download takes a short time depending on the Internet connection speed.  However,  it may take over a day for the application to fully sync up with the Bitcoin system. Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer application.  There is no central infrastructure, server, or database.  Each user is both the client and server.

In Bitcoin, blocks are the files that contain all the transactions. The first time a user downloads the app there will be tens of thousands of blocks to load. However, once these blocks are loaded, a user just has to load the recent transactions. On a average day, there are about 200 blocks to load. The app is fully synched when all blocks have been loaded. The green check mark reflects the app is in sync.
 
The units of currency are called bitcoins (BTC).  Bitcoins have value because work is needed for its creation.  Bitcoins are mined.  The mining is done virtually by miners throughout the world with computers that have fast central processing units (CPU) and powerful graphics processing units (GPU).  However, the average users can just buy bitcoins through various exchanges and sites located on the web just as one would buy gold or silver coins. One of the main benefits of Bitcoin is that a user can transfer cash from one user to another user.  A user can buy things from various vendors located anywhere in the world by way of the Internet.  All of this can be done without using a bank,  money order, Western Union, or even PayPal.  The file that holds the bitcoins is called wallet.dat in Windows.  The wallet.dat file is just like a real wallet. If a user loses the wallet or the wallet is stolen, then the cash is gone, too.  Multiple backup wallets can be created and stored; however, Bitcoin prevents double spending. In Windows, as seen in the screenshots below, wallet.dat is located under Users -Username – AppData -Roaming -Bitcoin. The backup copies of the wallet should be stored at various locations, such as on a secured cloud server or a on a flash drive. The wallet.dat file should be encrypted before its stored. Bitcoin advises that encryption passwords and the wallet passwords should be at least 20 characters long containing uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

“Your Bitcoin Address” that reflects the unique identifier for each Bitcoin owner. Each wallet can have multiple addresses. The benefit of anonymity is that a person can buy things or send money to people or organizations without anyone knowing their identity. Just for practice or as a learning experience, you can send bitcoins between two addresses on the same computer. Or download Bitcoin on two computers, and send money between the two addresses. Also, you will see that bitcoin transactions usually takes seconds to occur between the sender and receiver.

Bitcoin has now adapted to furnishing the app for Android cell phones. Now, users can transfer and make transactions with bitcoin using Quick Response (QR) codes. As seen below, QR codes are the checker board barcodes that also represent the Bitcoin address in a different format than the alpha-numeric format. An Android handset with the Bitcoin app can scan QR codes. 

Bitcoin is not just for computer nerds and crypto-geeks. Survivalists apply the basic cryptography theorem that anything that be done with a trusted authority can be done without a trusted authority to many aspects of daily living. Unfortunately, the US Dollar and the Federal Reserve System penetrate all areas of life for the average American. The average American struggles paycheck to paycheck, year after year, due to the actions of the US Federal Reserve System, which is creating more and more US Dollars every year. Bitcoin provides a viable alternative to the US Dollar and the US Federal Reserve Banking System. Year to date, Bitcoin has gained over 100% in value versus the US Dollar and the other major world currencies. Bitcoin was launched back in January 2009 by a person or persons named Satoshi Nakamoto. At this time, the total market value of all bitcoins is approximately $125 million. There are over 10 million bitcoins in circulation with each worth at around $12.25. The total amount of bitcoins that will be mined is 21 million and the mining operations will stop in the year 2140 by designed. Anyone can be a miner or a person can be a member of a mining pool like Bitminter. There are many mining pools on the Internet. Mining pools combine the computing power of individual miners in order to mine more efficiently. Mining can be costly due to the mining rig that a user may have to set up as well as the electricity to power the rig. So, each user will have determine if its cost effective to become a miner.
  
YouTube is a good source of information and education about Bitcoin from users around the world. Most of the content is very informative and straightforward. Be careful if a video, or some company, states that it can double your bitcoins if you just send your bitcoins to them. This is the equivalent of someone saying, “Send me an ounce of silver and I will send you back two ounces of silver the next day.” This is a common scheme which appeals to the greedy as well as the naive user of Bitcoin. Please remember, there is no chargeback system with Bitcoin as there is with debit and credit cards. Once the bitcoin is sent, then its gone. The below video is a good start for a beginner. There are more detailed videos at YouTube as you become more comfortable with Bitcoin and have more questions that need to be answered.
  
Cited Works:
Dan Boneh,  Stanford Online Cryptography Course:  Introduction-Course Overview (Stanford University)
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,  The Federal Reserve’s Dual Mandate, (October 2012)

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/01/the-case-for-the-bitcoin-cryptocurrency-by-j-mcg.html

In early 2012 the U.S. Congress authorized the FAA Air Transportation Modernization and Safety Improvement Act. Within this bill is a provision calling for the deployment of some 30,000 robotic drones over the skies of America by 2015, arguably the boldest overt domestic surveillance initiative to have ever been introduced in the land of the free. With an average of some 600 drones allocated per state, this future network of highly advanced surveillance systems promises to give law enforcement, military and intelligence assets unprecedented video and audio access into the lives of every single American.

Privacy advocates are justifiably outraged.

But whenever government attempts to institute a ban on contraband items, or pass draconian laws, or introduce new tracking and surveillance methods, rebellious elements within the target populace rapidly develop counter-strategies and technologies to marginalize the threat.

Oftentimes, billion dollar government initiatives and development projects are rendered almost useless by low-tech strategies and designs.

Artist and fashion designer Adam Harvey, who objects to the authoritarian nature of the global surveillance state, has done just that.

In an effort to  counter the high-tech integrated drone surveillance systems soon to be fused into intelligence networks across the country, Harvey and a group of partners have developed a line of clothing dubbed Stealth Wear.

Making its debut on January 17th, the Stealth Wear line will include hoodies, scarves, hats, and t-shirts that will make the wearer invisible to thermal imaging cameras widely used throughout the unmanned aerial vehicle community.

The idea is that the material blocks heat signatures, captured using infrared sensors, which give people away to surveillance helicopters or drones from the skies above. [link]

The flagship Stealth Wear line will include:

• The anti-drone hoodie and anti-drone scarf: Garments designed to thwart thermal imaging, a technology used widely by UAVs.
• The XX-shirt: A x-ray shielding print in the shape of a heart, that protects your heart from x-ray radiation
• And the Off Pocket: An anti-phone accessory that allows you to instantly zero out your phone’s signal

Via: Adam Harvey Projects

Harvey and his project team aren’t just limiting the scope of their work to anti-drone technology either.

They’ve introduced new techniques to counter computer vision (CV), also known as facial recognition.

CV Dazzle is camouflage from computer vision (CV). It is a form of expressive interference that combines makeup and hair styling (or other modifications) with face-detection thwarting designs. The name is derived from a type of camouflage used during WWI, called Dazzle, which was used to break apart the gestalt-image of warships, making it hard to discern their directionality, size, and orientation. Likewise, the goal of CV Dazzle is to break apart the gestalt of a face, or object, and make it undetectable to computer vision algorithms, in particular face detection.

Because face detection is the first step in automated facial recognition, CV Dazzle can be used in any environment where automated face recognition systems are in use, such as Google’s Picasa, Flickr, or Facebook

Source: CV Dazzle

They’ll also be launching a product called Off the Pocket for your cell phone, a technology that is capable of zeroing out your phone’s broadcast signal, making it invisible to GPS and mobile network triangulation.

Building off previous work with CV Dazzle, camouflage from face detection, Stealth Wear continues to explore the aesthetics of privacy and the potential for fashion to challenge authoritarian surveillance. Presented by PRIMITIVE at TANK MAGAZINE HQ will be a suite of new designs, made in collaboration with NYC fashion designer Johanna Bloomfield, that tackle some of the most pressing and sophisticated forms of surveillance today.

Source: Primitive London

Accompanying each project will be videos and tests revealing the process behind each technology and counter technology.

Author:
Mac Slavo
Views:
Read by 1,954 people
Date: January 11th, 2013
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

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