Category Archives: Survival Skills

Urban Invisibility: Hidden Within Sight

2013-02-08 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

Most people are dubbed attention-grabbers, and they love it. Others, nonetheless, are just not too comfortable in being noticed. For someone lost in an unchartered territory, too much attention can be discomforting – dangerous, even.

Expatriates who braved their way to countries with political onslaught have had their stories told on how they were tried to be killed because of their skin color, nationality, economic status or religion. Foreigners who stuck out as being different and naive target are often the subject of crimes in countries with ongoing turmoil and riots.

These situations make it vital for anyone to know about the Grey Man Concept.

Who is the Grey Man?

The Grey Man Concept was formulated to be a survival tactic. It is devised to conceal the identity of armed man with handguns without looking distinct. The Grey Man would then move through crowds of people, unnoticed with his typical way of dressing and normal behaviour.

It might sound as if this is a pretty linear, but understanding the concept behind it may be a little too tricky for some people to digest.

Being the Grey Man would mean venturing in what has been coined as Social Camouflage. It involved hiding in plain sight in a subtle and unobvious method. In attempt to go unnoticed in a relatively new environment, it is imperative to be entirely “normal.” The Grey Man would strive to appear just like anyone else by mimicking the clothing and behaviour of people in a specific community.

How to be the Grey Man

Here is the tricky part: being a Grey Man means playing the part of a person who is forgettable, but definitely unapproachable. Military and gun men adopt this strategy to avoid having people approaching them and getting in the way of their operation. There are some contributing factors that need to be focused on when an individual transforms into a Grey Man:

Clothing – the most basic aspect of camouflaging. Experts suggest that Grey Men should wear dark colors including black, blue, olive green and khaki. These, according to studies, are the hues that usually go unnoticed in public places. Avoid wearing bright and bold colors like yellow, red, and orange that practically screams for attention (unless the community has this range of hues in their basic fashion).

In the same note, wearing fatigues gives away identities of being in the militia group or survivalist. Take this away from the wardrobe, and do not even think about wearing these clothes for the upper body. BDus, Realtree and multicam shirts may also get unwanted attention.

Alongside, it is also imperative to pay close attention to the style of dressing up. Notice the popular cuts of pants and shirts of the community, along with accessories and other add-ons to the ensemble, to effectively blend it.

Personal Grooming – Most people stereotype gunmen as filthy and unhygienic individuals. Take advantage of this misconception and avoid dressing the part. Maintaining an amiable grooming may also eliminate odors that may draw attention of people. Remember to appear presentable, but subdued. Stay away from whacky hairstyles and outlandish clothing.

Arms – question is, how can the Grey Man hide guns and other tactical gears? Maxpedition bags are popular among military men in that it can carry large arms and ammo. But taking them in public may not be a good idea for social camouflaging. The trick is to avoid taking bags with large pockets and too many zippers. It is best to have a big day pack or messenger bag.

Rigger belts are also recommended. They are sturdy in carrying around guns, plus they can be handy for unexpected rappelling. Be sure, though, to cover the buckle by not tucking in shirts.

Age – it helps to look as young as possible. The older an individual are, the more he is likely to be held to social conventions. Note that average people have distinct responses to clothing depending on who is wearing them. A camo worn by a 15-year old, for instance, only appears to be punk costume. On the other hand, a 40-year old man wearing the same clothing cannot be given this benefit of the doubt. Grey Men should then take this into consideration, and dress accordingly.

Shelter

Learn To Improvise Insulation

2013-02-05 Sandro Ponticelli 1 Comment

Practicing survival skills is important for preparedness, and one must always consider the worst possible case scenario. So envision for a moment that you are out for a hike on a beautiful day, and the weather dramatically drops to a sudden cold environment. You weren’t dressed for this, obviously, and have quite the distance between your current location and shelter. You’re worried about your survival… here’s what to do in this situation.

Utilize the natural vegetation around you as insulation, by stuffing it into your clothes and footwear. Look for light, fluffy fibers. Obviously you’re not bothered by fashion or looks, what matters is survival skills. Down from cattails or thistle, dead leaves or grass and even bark fiber will all work wonderful as insulation material to keep you warm.

These survival skills can be practiced in other environments as well. If this emergency situation were to happen in the city, you would simply use newspaper or cardboard for the same insulating effect.

The trick behind emergency insulation is to use material that creates dead air space which will keep your body warm, even better if that warmth can be maintained when getting wet is unavoidable. Maintaining body heat is one of the most important concerns with survival skills, and understanding how to create insulation in an emergency is an important step.

Make an insulated vest

This will require repurposing two old t-shirts. Simply cut off the sleeves and sew the remaining portions together to form a double vest, leaving an opening near the neck which you can use to stuff with cattail down before sewing up the top. In the spring, you’ll want to dump out the old stuffing, wash, and re-stuff but you will have an effective insulated vest for… free.

Survival Shelter: How To Make A Teepee

2013-01-29 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

To assemble rapidly a teepee shelter you need to have the following items:

rain poncho or tarp,
hand axe or knife,
at least 3 saplings or branches 1.5-2 meters long,
rope

Step By Step Instructions

Cross one of the samplings ends over another and lash together loosely.
Lash the third sapling to the others loosely. The poles should stand on their own by forming a tripod as soon as they are secured with each other.
Set up the tripod so that the saplings are evenly spaced.
Add more saplings to make a more compact structure.
Cut some pine boughs and bundle grasses utilizing rope, lasth these bundles to the saplings. Pine boughs if laid with the needles pointing down will shed water.
Place your poncho or tarp over the sides, covering the peak.
Bundle much more pine or grasses and place them on the floor inside the teepee to provide an insulating ground cover.

Procurement

How To Make A Fishing Spear

2013-01-22 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

The easiest method of obtaining food is by fishing. You can make a fishing spear by cutting a small sapling and employing several pieces of wire to fashion a pronged fishing spear. Sharpened wooden spears even though they work often crush smaller fish, which ends up in losing the fish.

Cut 3 or 4, 15 cm pieces of wire and using another section of wire to secure the pieces to the end of stick between 1.5 and 2 meters long. This provides you with a pronged end that will pierce and secure the fish with no damage to edible parts.

You can divide the end of the stick and put in the wire for a better hold. Wrap wire around the split end to secure the prongs in place. Attach the spear to your wrist with sufficient cordage to keep from losing the spear after thrusting.

Observation

Improving Your Sense of Smell is a Real Possibility

2013-01-15 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

Believe it or not, but you are actually able to work on improving your sense of smell and this is something that is often quite surprising to people. It can of course be useful in a number of situations and the following are a number of things that you can start doing straight away in order to start working on developing this particular sense.

The first thing you need to do is actually pay attention to your sense of smell as the more you use it the more trained your nose will become. Learn to identify things just by their smell and one particular exercise that is worth trying is to be blindfolded and work out what an item is just by smelling it.

One exercise you should try to do in order to improve the sense is to pay attention to how cats and dogs sniff as they tend to use a series of short sniffs rather than a prolonged one and this is something that we often do ourselves. By taking their approach you will slowly increase your ability to actually pick up a scent much more easily, but do not expect to be turned into a bloodhound.

Pay attention to your environment as this is going to make a difference when it comes to your ability to pick up a scent. Look at using a humidifier in a room as the more moisture there is in the air the more moisture in your nose. This then means it is going to be more receptive to a scent; however, do not do this if there is a bad smell around as prolonged exposure to a bad smell is only going to numb the sense over time.

Apart from training your nose you should also try to avoid eating as much food that results in you creating more mucus as this will impair the sense and make it harder to distinguish different smells. This makes sense as you will have already noticed how things change when you have a head cold and this is due to congestion in the membranes of the nose which has an impact on the sense. Look at, therefore, cutting down on the amount of dairy products you eat, including ice cream and cheese as they can really promote a more stuffy sensation in your nose.

When looking at buying food try to use your nose more than your eyes so if you are walking past the bakery work out the bread that smells the most appealing and then look at sniffing out items that would go best with it. By doing this you are actually buying items your body is craving and it also strengthens the connection between smell and taste and you will be aware of how different food can be when your nose is blocked up. By understanding, and working on, the link between the two you can actually improve both senses at the same time with both being heightened as a result.

One pretty obvious way to improve the sense is to avoid any substance that has been shown to impair it in some way. Smoking is one thing to look at avoiding as is drinking as much alcohol due to the well known fact that as your blood alcohol levels begin to rise your ability to smell things decreases. Do also be warned that some medicine, especially that for colds, can also make a difference so do look for those items that contain a decongestant.

Finally, a lack of sense of smell, which has the medical term Hyposmia, can sometimes be attributed to low levels of zinc in your diet. You should, therefore, look at getting some more either through a supplement that you can take every day or by eating foods that are known to be high in the mineral. This means eating the likes of lentils, oysters, and pecans to name only a few examples or if you are taking the supplements, then try to make sure you are getting around 7mg of zinc per day.

So by doing the exercises mentioned above you should find that your sense of smell will start to improve. It does require some work, and for you to continue doing it, but you will begin to notice a gradual difference and will probably wish you had started the exercises earlier in life.

Edible Plant, Food

An Excellent Food: Pine Pollen

2013-01-08 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

The pine pollen anthers are the small, yellow or light green mini cones that grow in the spring and early summer. Usually they are covered with a bright yellow-colored dust.
They are an excellent source of food since they’re full of nutrients and healthy proteins.

Frequently you will see a yellow dust on vehicles that are left under pine trees, or you will see a yellow area of dust over the road. These signs will inform you that the pollen season is started. Try collecting some pollen any time you can and taste a pinch: it’s very palatable!

You can collect the pollen anthers or it is possible to shake the pine pollen out by tapping it into a container such as cloth bag, tightly woven basket or bowl. In regions with plenty of pines, you can gather it quite easily.

The pine pollen is extremely fine, and you can add it to soups, stews as thickener, or to breads as a flour supplement or you can eat raw.

Water

How To Collect Drinking Water From Morning Dew

2013-01-01 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

What is dew?

Dew is just atmospheric moisture that’s been warmed by solar radiation throughout the day. As night comes, surfaces cool and the moisture begin to accumulate on those surfaces near the ground including grasses, metal, glass, tree leaves, plastic sheeting, rain ponchos and so on.

Usually, dew won’t settle on the ground itself or on boulders and rocks since they’re still conducting heat, which does not allow the moisture to condensate. The change in temperature is what makes the moisture to accumulate. This is just like filling a glass with cold water. Drops of moisture will quickly form on the outside of the glass.

If there is a heavy cloud cover during the night, dew will not collect on surfaces. Clouds reduce radiant heat loss, which will limit moisture condensation on surfaces because they will not cool quickly enough to create condensation.

Dew Collection

To gather dew you can put a sheet of plastic or a poncho over some vegetation. Leave small depressions for the moisture to collect. You may also absorb the moisture from grasses, bushes or any other surfaces employing a clean cotton cloth, and when the cloth has absorbed as much as it can squeeze the moisture into a container or straight into the mouth.

The water obtained is generally safe to drink if the surfaces are not contaminated. Be careful when collecting dew from vegetation. You don’t wish to get dew from poison ivy or poison oak for self-evident reasons.

Observation

How To Heighten The Sense of Taste

2012-12-25 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

Some people will say that we eat to live, and while that is technically true, many more people will tell you that we eat to taste. Cooking shows, that teach us how to blend great tasting food together, are becoming increasingly popular as we discover the wonder of taste when food is perfectly balanced. However, even though we are all seeking the ultimate taste from our cooking, very few of us are actually using the sense of taste to its full advantage!

We can sense five basic tastes. They are sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and savoury. Certain combinations, such as sweet and sour or sweet and salty, work really well together and thrill our sense of taste.

Where Does Our Sense of Taste Come From?

Our sense of taste comes from the papillae (where taste buds live) on our tongue. There are three primary papillae.

First, the vallate papillae form a v-shape on the back portion of the tongue and detect bitter and sour tastes.
Second, the foliate papillae are on either side of the tongue, and they detect sour tastes.
Lastly, the fungiform papillae are located on the tips and surface of the tongue, and they detect sweet and salty tastes.

Inside papillae is our taste buds. It is interesting to note that our taste buds actually transfer messages to the brain about what we taste, and our brain has the final say in the taste experience. You can even trick your taste buds with your mind. For example, if you convince yourself that the banana you are about to eat will taste bitter, and you are really convincing, then you may experience a bitter taste!

Taste buds are not the only things that play a part in determining how food tastes. Chefs and scientists alike know that, in reality, all of our senses play a part in our sense of taste. Flavor physiology, and how the combination of taste, smell, texture, temperature, appearance, and our mind can help to determine taste, is part of the curriculum for chefs in training. Even your memory can affect the way that apple crisp tastes to you. Knowing all of this information gives us a good indication as to how to heighten the sense of taste.

Tips To Heighten The Sense of Taste

First, and probably most importantly, you have to limit sensory distractions. Many of us will eat supper in front of the TV, and before we know it our food is gone, and we barely even tasted it! Distractions cause us to use our senses for things other than taste. Therefore, if you are using your mind and sight to watch TV, and your taste and smell get put on the backburner, then you are not going to taste your food to its full-potential taste. It is best to eat at a table without any distractions.
Second, you have to be willing to smell your food. About 95% of what we think is taste, is actually smell! You can experience this for yourself by plugging your nose while you eat. You will notice that you barely taste your food, if at all. This is why when we are sick, with a stuffed up nose; our taste also seems to be sick. So, make sure you are eating food that smells appealing to you and contributes positively to your overall experience of taste.
Thirdly, make sure that your food is visually appealing. If you are eating something that looks like a pile of poop, it can be very hard to allow your mind to convince you that it is something that tastes good.
Fourthly, you may want to try a fast of sorts. Our pallets are dulled because of all the high additive and high-salted food we eat. If you allow your palette some time in between eating, and then experience a whole, fresh food after some time has passed, you will notice that the taste is exceptionally good, even if it is just a tomato. A fast is great, but if you can cut out food that over stimulates your taste buds altogether, like processed food, then you will notice that food starts to have unique and special taste again, and not just fried or salty.
Lastly, to heighten your sense of taste during a meal, you may want to cleanse your palette in between courses. This is something that food judges often do to bring their palettes back to life, and experience the full taste of food without the previous food affecting the taste. You can clean the palette by having a drink of sparkling water or a citrus flavored drink that is not too sweet. You may even want to have some lime, grapefruit or mint sorbet on hand. This trick is used in fine dining restaurants.

In the end, if you want to heighten your sense of taste, then you have to remember that all of your senses are responsible for the flavor you experience. Limit sensory distractions, smell your food, eat food that is visually appealing, and clean your palette in between foods. This will all help you to experience the taste of food as you never experienced it before!

Health

Ayurvedic Home Remedies: The Ultimate Organic Solution

2012-12-19 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

The increasing numbers of ailments have led to the advent of Ayurvedic home remedies. These remedies strive to provide a natural way of curing these ailments. Ayurveda is basically word from Sanskrit origin. It stands for “Ayus” that is life and “veda” that stands for science. Hence, Ayurveda is nothing but Science of life or rather way of living a healthy life.

Ayurveda is an organic way of treating the mind as well as the body. Our mind has great influence over the body. For a body to function properly, the body needs to build a healthy metabolic system along with proper digestive system. This state of body can be achieved by regular exercise along with yoga and meditation and nutritious diet. The divinity of life can be reached by improving physically as we as psychologically.

To start with the wide application of the Ayurvedic home remedies let’s consider the acne problem that most of us have faced while growing up. Acne, blackheads tend to grow time to time. The best Ayurvedic solution for this problem is having non spicy food along with tea intake. By shifting to plain food, the body gets detoxified as a result the body gets cleaned internally.

Another common ailment that we might suffer from time to time is cough. Ayurveda offers cough liquid syrup which is available online. The syrup provides relaxation of throat internal swelling. Kapha is another medicine available that increases immunity level of lungs and facilitates relieving breathing.

With the increasing work load in offices we tend to neglect our health. This leads to improper food intake and also untimely food intake which causes obesity. One of the major reasons for obesity is improper functioning of digestive system. The metabolic rate of obese people is inadequate; as a result there is constant weight gain. To reduce weight one should increase intake of fruits like papaya, pineapples and mangoes. Adding ginger in regular vegetables would also be effective. Other approaches to reduce weight would be drinking tea, sipping hot water. One of the other habits you need to develop is, most of us due to shortage of ample time, tend to swallow our food rather than nibbling the food. This bad habit lets huge chunks of food enter your body. Your stomach has to take much more efforts to digest this food. Chewing food adequate times would help in proper digestion and would solve of excessive weight gain. Also following certain yoga techniques in regular exercise regime would help to improve metabolic rate.

Ayurveda offers various remedies to hair loss problems too. Some of the people suffer with dry and itchy scalps leads to dandruff. Some of the natural ailments like hibiscus petals can be added in hair oil to provide the nourishment. You can take your own cautious steps by not using over heated water on head as it leads to dry hair and scalp.

With so many in hand techniques to take care the Ayurvedic way, well get started and boost your health the organic way!

Author Bio :
Dealsbell.com is among the top discount codes offering websites. Here, you can find all the latest coupon codes and discount codes to avail heavy discounts on your online shopping. For more detailed information regarding various Coupon Code and Discount Codes available on our site, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and also on Google+.

Tool

Survival Kit Component: Tarp

2012-12-11 Sandro Ponticelli Leave a comment

Natural and manmade disasters can occur at any time and without warning, so having a pre prepared survival kit ready to use immediately could be the difference between life and death. However, knowing in advance which essential supplies to pack can be difficult. A tarp, or tarpaulin, is one item that almost every survival expert agrees on as a key survival kit component.

What Is A Tarp?

Tarpaulin canvas texture — Tarp texture (Photo credit: net_efekt)

A tarp is essentially a large sheet of strong, flexible, waterproof material that can be used to provide protection from the elements in an emergency. Unlike a standard plastic sheet, tarps are made from super resistant materials like polypropylene, polyethylene, and canvas.

They also feature reinforced holes at their corners to make them more versatile when combined with ropes or supports.

Possible Uses Of A Tarp

Space in a survival kit is precious so choosing tools that have multiple uses is a good idea. A tarp is an ideal item because it is both light weight and compact. Here are just a few of the ways that it can be used in survival circumstances:

1) Shelter

Poncho-tarp-shelter — tarp shelter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In many situations creating adequate shelter is key to survival. The adaptable nature of tarp allows them to be fashioned into a wide range of shelters, including a lean-to, pup tent and tubular tent. They can be adapted to suit almost any space or terrain. They are not limited to protecting you from rain but can also be used as a wind break or for shade.

A lot of people assume that tents are the best choice for emergency shelter. While they do provide a much higher level of comfort, they are heavy and take up a large amount of space in your kit which could be better used for other equipment.

2) Rain gear

A tarp does not only offer stationary protection. By wrapping it around yourself, it will give you personal protection as well. This is an effective way to conserve body heat, and the thick material does not tear easily if you are using it on the move through rugged terrain.

3) Rain catch

No matter how much bottled water your survival kit contains, you are bound to run out eventually. Fortunately, tarps enable you to collect rain water and develop a sustainable way of keeping hydrated. The wide surface area of a tarp means that it is a highly effective method of funneling rain into a bucket or other container.

What To Pack With Your Tarp

If you are including a tarp in your survival kit, it is also worthwhile buying ropes and stakes to help you create a more stable structure.

If you find yourself without these items, then using branches to support the material and stones to pin it down is an alternative solution.

Preparing a well thought through survival kit is an ideal way to protect you and your family in the event of a disaster. A small and light weight tarp can provide you with shelter, water and personal protection making it the perfect multi-purpose item to include.

primalKB – Survival Skills for a primal world