Dave Canterbury

Survival expert Dave Canterbury has yet again blessed us with a great series of videos about survival techniques. This time he has come up with a series of videos called “survival clinic”.

In these videos Dave provides us with many tips on what to take with you on any outdoor trip to be prepared. Using his “multipurpose” philosophy, he runs us through many aspects of survival and the survival mindset.

Please note that Dave has announced that these videos will appear on a DVD he is in the process of producing and that the videos he puts up may be taken down without notice. If you do not have the time to watch all videos, I suggest you try to download them using one of many tools that can do this for you. You can find out about downloading YouTube videos using Google.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New year

Without Rule of Law wishes all its readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We hope to bring you lots of new stories and other content in 2012. Thanks for supporting us and hope to hear from all of you soon!

Editor in Chief,
Without Rule of Law

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Survival expert Dave Canterbury

Survival and outdoors expert Dave Canterbury from the Pathfinders School LLC, is currently making a great video series on YouTube about living outdoors, called “Journal of the Yurt”.Watching these videos is highly recommended as Dave touches many very useful survival and outdoors subjects.

A “Yurt“, is basically a portable, bent wood-framed tent like structure that is traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia.

Although they are meant for a nomadic live-style, meaning they are built to be moved around frequently, they could be a bug-out style environment where one can stay longer than just a few days.

As such, Dave decided to try out if he can live and survive for a longer period in a Yurt. As he does he shows us how he survives, what tools he uses and spends time to educate us in bushcraft, wilderness survival, personal hygiene in outdoor conditions, as well as preparing food and repairing things.

All in all an excellent series of videos.

For you convenience they have been added to a playlist below:

Related (External) Links:

• Dave Canterbury on FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dave-Canterbury-Pathfinder/142229423061

wikiHow Survival Kit for Chrome

If You use Google Chrome as your main browser, you might have noticed that Google has this Chrome Web Store where you can download many cool extra’s for your Chrome browser. Basically they are what “apps” are for your iPhone/smartphone. Among them is an interesting one: the wikiHow Survival kit. What it is? “The wikiHow Survival Kit is a collection of wiki articles that will help you get through life’s most difficult situations.”

Sounds interesting right? Well here is what it is about:

From the description of the application:

 It includes Survival information on a variety of topics: :

•  The survival kit contains articles on First Aid, CPR, Choking, Animal Attacks, Vehicle Emergencies, Escapes and Rescues, Natural Disasters, Party Emergencies, Self Defense, Wilderness Survival, Home Emergencies, and more.
•  Several “unexpected scenario” articles: Including How to Escape from a Bear, How to Land an Airplane in an Emergency, How to Survive in Prison, How to Survive a Kidnapping, How to Escape a Car on a Cliff, How to Take a Punch, How to Survive a Riot, and more.
• Quizzes for each category: Put your survival skills to the test and see how you’d fare in various emergency situations.
• Search: Search for how-to articles in the survival kit and on the wikiHow.com wiki.

Articles and quizzes can be viewed with or without Internet access, because you never you know where you’ll be when you have an emergency.

Download the app and be ready for just about anything.

If you have Chrome you can download the app here from the Chrome Web Store. If you don’t have Chrome (you can get Chrome here), you can still read the articles but you will have to search them yourself at the wikiHow website.

The main advantage of this web application is that all information is neatly organized and categorized in your browser:

wikiHow interface showing different catgories

One of the cooler features is the fact you can take a quiz about a certain category:

wikiHow quiz

Like Wikipedia, wikiHow is a wiki, in that anyone can write or edit a page on the site. As with all “public information” (Wiki’s in general) you do need to make sure information is accurate before you act upon it.

Bottom line: if you want the wikiHow articles on survival topics neatly organized in you browser, this cool Chrome extension is for you.

Best of all: it’s free!

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Survival Tools

A little preparation goes a long way. Which is why it is smart to always carry some useful survival tools/items on you (in a kit). In this article we’ll explore the top ten useful items to have on you (and some more) in case of a survival situation.

To start off the list: the number one survival tool would be – off course –  you.

It’s your mindset and skill-set that is the most important tool of all. Can you improvise, adapt and overcome adverse situations? Do you have what it takes?

To find out you might want to go through some basic training, for instance at the Pathfinder School by Dave Canterbury (famous from the Discovery Channel TV-series “Dual Survivor”.

Other than yourself, the following items/tools have been proven to be very useful:

1. Water purification/treatment/filter. You can survive a lot longer without food than you can without water. So be sure to pack water purifier tablets/solutions. Make sure you have filtration and purification capabilities.
2. Fire starter. This is a no-brainer; you need fire to stay warm, cook your food and/or signal for help. Being able to start a fire is very important. So you probably think lighters and matches might do the trick; think again. Lighters depend on fuel and and matches need to be water and storm proof. Get a flint and steel or better yet: a magnesium fire starter, and a small magnifying glass lens.
3. Survival knife. After the two previous items this should be high on your list. A knife will help you with all kinds of things. For instance shelter making and hunting. Go with a knife that includes a blade that is 4 to 6 inches long, 5/32 to 8/32 inches thick, and made of high carbon or stainless steel.
4. 

   MacGyver multitool

   Multi-tool. Ah, the handy multi-tool. Essentially you could regard it as a beefed up version if the proverbial Swiss Army Knife. Whole websites can – and are – actually filled with information on this item. They come in all shapes and sizes, but usually have at least a flat and Phillips head screwdriver, poker, saw blade, bottle and/or can opener. Other models come with scissors, serrated knives, metal files and even Allen wrenches. Sometimes you can also choose between pliers or scissors. Carefully consider which one you get, based on size and weight considerations/constraints (or “SAWC” as YouTube Guru Nutnfancy calles it).

5. Rope. You can try to make a rope yourself with natural fibers or animal tendons (provided you have items #3 or #4 on the list), but it’s easier if you just bring your own. For all-round versatility its hard to beat the well-known 550 para-cord, which gets its name from its 550-pound test strength. It is not enough to go rope climbing, but for making shelter and even traps  it will do nicely. Also it is easy to pack since it does not have a lot of volume. Other than that consider taking some 20-feet thick rope with you if you can.
6. Survival blanket. Speaking of shelter: a survival blanket is something you really need to consider taking along. Modern survival blankets look more like bivvy sacks and/or small tents. You need to be able to stay dry and warm,  and these blankets are pretty good at doing so. Plus they are light weight and easy to pack.
7. Compass. Forget GPS: it depends on batteries and you will find that they are out of juice when you need it the most. A good, old-fashioned compass will solve that problem. Look for a tough and unbreakable Lexan model. Some models even come with extra benefits like a mirror (see next item on the list) or a magnifying glass. Make sure however, that you learn how to use your compass in combination with a map. Going into a general direction is something anyone can do, but reading a map and navigating is a bit more of a challenge if you are used to your Garmin or TomTom.
8. Mirror. Visibility is key when you want to be rescued from a dire situation. You have a couple of options to become more visible when you are stranded somewhere. Smoke and fire are good for that but you can’t always start a fire (even if you do have fire starting capabilities on you). A signaling mirror will help under certain conditions and doesn’t require much space. If you do not have a mirror just remember that literally anything that is shiny can still help: there are even references of people even being rescued by signaling with the hologram on their credit-card.
9. First Aid Kit.This is a tricky one. Because it behoves you to actually follow some form first-aid training to be actually able to apply more than a band-aid or treat blisters. Having a first aid kit is nice, but if you have no clue how to use its contents, you are equally lost as the person you’re wanting to help.  Also: what to pack in your kit? Again: the Internet is full of good information on this. To educate yourself go have a look at USNERDOC’s YouTube channel, as it is filled with practical information. He also started to make ready-to-go medical kits that are filled with items that come from his years of experience as an emergency medical doctor: Amp-3. Highly recommended!
10. Lighting. Being able to see in the darkness is nice. In fact: without light you can’t use the other tools on the list, can you? If you decide to go with anything using batteries, make sure you have spare batteries on you at all times. Modern LED-lights are more energy-efficient and should use less batteries but still have a lot lighting power. Personally I won’t depend on anything with batteries so I always pack an old-fashioned  hand-cranked light.

So, that’  the top-ten list. And these items would be a minimum on my list. The bare-essentials.

Murphy’s Law

Web-tex Combat Survival Kit

Remember this chap called Murphy and his “Murphy’s Law”? Well here is some very important advice: make sure you carry these top 10 items on your person! There have many, many accounts of people going really prepared into the wilderness or on hiking trips with their backpacks full of gear but loosing all of it in an accident.

In short: carrying all your basic survival gear in a backpack is actually a good recipe for disaster. You would not be the first one staring at your backpack being swept away in a flood, or seeing it drop into a ravine.

If you have more room to spare, here are a few extra items that I find pretty useful and actually are favorites of mine:

1. Duct tape. Handy for repairs and constructions. Your imagination is the limit. In fact check out these fun items from Mythbusters.
2. Plastic bag(s). Ideally you have a water canteen on you or hydration bag or at least a Nalgene bottle. But in case you get separated from your water holding device a simple plastic bag  might be a real life-safer. Of course it goes without saying that they need to be a bit more sturdy than your average grocery bag. Think more like a Nalgene mylar water container.
3. Whistle. This is an item that is easy to carry and can help you in situations where visibility is very low and you need audibility instead. By the way: the international help signal is six blasts repeated at 1 minute intervals.
4. Fishing kit. Some fishing line, hooks and sinkers are not that big and difficult to carry but give you some options to hunt for food. The fishing line can be used to make snares as well.
5. Candle/waxine light. A small waxine/candle light can warm up a small tent considerably (and I’m not talking about the heat if you burn down your tent/shelter). Off course you need to be careful with any open flame, but you’ll be surprised how well it works. I once had to stay in a standard PUP tent in freezing conditions (14 fahrenheit/-10 celsius) and just two waxine lights kept the whole tent well above 50 fahrenheit (10 Celsius) for over 8 hours.
6. Bandana, handkerchief. You can protect your head but also your lungs with a good bandana as you can cover your mouth with it. And you can make them wet and help cool down in hot conditions (provided you have water at hand).
7. (Mini) pry-bar. This (surprise) item is last on my list, but in the top 10 if I have to be in an urban environment. A 5″ mini pry-bar will help a lot if you want to open elevator doors (if you’re stuck) and even will open most office doors/windows. In case of an urban disaster it will come in handy.

Redundancy

A final word on this list. Ideally you carry the aforementioned items on you. But you should also have the same items in your backpack. You should make sure that you have at least 1 extra version of every item on your list. That’s right: have two of everything. And don’t use those items

Again: Murphy’s Law is lurking everywhere and chances are it strikes at the worst time. With that in mind: be prepared.

Also realize that this is in no way the end-all list to every survival situation. There are many more items one can come up with, but the top-ten list here has proven itself under many circumstances and is relatively easy to acquire and carry around.

Last but not least: as mentioned in the beginning of the article: never forget your mind is the best tool of all.

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New York, September 11, 2001

It is kind off surreal to me, that 9/11 is already 10 years ago! It was a Tuesday afternoon for me (6 hours of time difference with New York) and I was at my work at my former employer; Internet company Lost Boys (Business Solutions). Around 15:10, which was about 20 minutes after the first plane hit the North tower of the WTC, the news trickled in at my work.

The initial reports where that a “small airplane” had hit the WTC. My first thought was, “wow, that’s a freak accident.” I also thought about the fact that in 1945 a B-25 bomber hit the Empire State  Building.

In 1996 I had first visited New York with two buddies of mine. We all went to see the WTC and went all the way to the top to enjoy the view from the roof. We also peaked inside “The Windows on the World restaurant” on the North tower. I was very much impressed with the view and the building. I thought it was a modern marvel. At one of the vending machines I flattened a penny and imprinted it with the outline of the Twin Towers.

Five years later, when I revisited NYC in may 2001 with my girlfriend Carrie and her son Zach, we only visited the Empire State Building, which was just around the corner from our hotel.  I told my girlfriend that the view from Empire State was a lot cooler, because you can see more of Manhattan. In that sense I didn’t think it was worth paying for the WTC as well.

Instead, we just walked around the area of the WTC and gazed up those two gigantic towers that we also admired from the water some days before when we took the famous tour around Manhattan in one of those tour boats; something I always recommend to do whenever I hear someone is going to visit the Big Apple for the first time.

I was thinking about this while going on with my business as usual, when some minutes later the news of a second plane hitting the South tower of the WTC came in (in reality the second plane had hit at 9:03am (or 15:03 CET) already: the news just was delayed). Also the reports changed to both planes being commercial aircraft’s.

Everyone hearing that news at my work was in shock because we all knew immediately that it was a terrorist attack. No doubt about it.

News was very sketchy at first: according to some sources there where more hijacked planes in the air and the US air-force was en-route to shoot them out of the sky.

As we didn’t have any TV’s at my work (we had moved to a new building just recently) we where depending on news that trickled in through the radio and Internet websites (as I worked at an internet company).

Within minutes however, it seemed like the Internet halted worldwide. There was so much data traffic (remember: it was 2001) that newspaper web-servers all over the world buckled under the sheer traffic. In Holland hardly any website could be reached.

Then, around 4pm we got the news that the Pentagon was hit as well. When I heard that news my first thought was “Wow, this is like a modern Pearl Harbour“.

I remember calling my girlfriend at her work and asking her if she was watching the news as well. Which was the case off course.

In fact, as she works and lives in Tallahassee, capital of Florida, there was quite a scare there as well: rumor had it that governor Jeb Bush (brother of president Bush) was a target as well and since the Governor’s mansion was just blocks away from her work, people were very anxious as well.

Off course the rest of the day we didn’t get any work done, as we where trying to get more news of what happened. Off course the CNN website was down and so where other news sources.

It wasn’t until around 6pm that day that I went to a friend’s home to watch the news with him and seeing – for the first time that day – what had happened on TV.

It dawned upon me that we were witness to a history – or better world – changing event. I knew for sure that the world would not be the same after 9/11 2001.

And now, 10 years later that notion has become truth. After 9/11 the world has changed in many respects.

And it’s not for the better if you ask me. But that’s another story.

Ps: to see some of the newspaper headlines of 9/11/2001 see this link.

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WROL strikes in UK

Again current events show painfully how the Western world – in this case England – is not prepared for large scale riots. The result: WROL on a local (neighborhood) scale and good-willing – but unarmed –  citizens left behind without any protection whatever. In fact the police were running away from the riots as they were totally outnumbered and unarmed themselves. The bad news: this can happen in any country where the government has taken away your personal right to arm and defend yourself against these mobs.

As all videos show, police were overwhelmed and had no answer to the increasing violence and looting going on in Londen and other UK cities. Entire neighborhoods got burned down in a “free for all” looting contest.

How sickening these looters are, can be seen in this video in which a wounded youngster seemingly is being helped to his feet by some “bystanders”, only to be robbed by them. Worst of all: no one is helping him.

YouTube guru Nutnfancy responded to these events as well, pending his recent video on the need to form communities in times of WROL. As he predicts this will again: especially in countries where citizens haven been disarmed by their own government. Sad times indeed.

Check out his view on current events.

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Gun free zone

Tea Party republican Bill Whittle made this interesting video on gun control and gun rights in the US. He brings up some interesting and thought-provoking ideas. Video after the break. (note: we do not support the Tea Party movement – or any other political movement but we do support legal gun ownership and the right to bear arms).

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WROL can occur anytime

Earlier this July I tweeted: “Prepping is always good but in the long run you will need to be part of a community. A community with several skill sets. What do you think?”. Interestingly, YouTube guru Nutnfancy (Richard Hewitt) just posted a 45 minute video on his YouTube channel about this subject (I can highly recommend his channel) .

When I tweeted this I had the current European and American economic situation in mind. The way I see it chances of an economical breakdown of the EU and US are bigger than ever. And if it does happen, I really believe there is a big chance we end up with a WROL situation on our hands. How are we going to overcome that?

The only answer I could come up with, are (micro) communities.

The big question off course is how long the WROL situation we experience might last. Are we talking about a temporary situation as a result of riots or are will we experience a long-term situation in which society as we know it completely collapses?

If we do end up with a long-term WROL situation you only have to look at some countries now to see what that is. Like Haiti after the earthquake. Or parts of Africa after civil wars. Even Central Europe was in dismay after the Balkan wars in the early 80′s.

How feasible is it that our society will be set back to a state it was in, let’s say a hundred years ago?

I say that is not so far-fetched as you might think.

In fact it will take less than you think.

Just take away modern conveniences like electricity, water, fuel, sewage, communications and electronics and you are  close to a situation that resembles the pre-1900 era.

Gone are community services a like garbage disposal. Stores won’t get supplies. Banks will seize to function so you won’t have any money. You won’t have gas for your car or heating/AC for your home.

If you are reading this blog and you are a fan of Nutnfancy’s YouTube channel, chances are you are prepared for WROL to an extend.

Some people are even preparing to completely live of the grid like YouTuber Wranglerstar who has an Off Grid Homestead Project (subscribe to his channel if you want to know more).

However: since we all live in a highly specialized society where people have specialized tasks (i.e. butcher, dentists, doctor, farmer, pharmacist) I think  it is impossible to do everything yourself and survive – in the long run – just by yourself.

Now, if we are talking about a local and temporarily collapse of society (i.e. a natural disaster like a hurricane hits an area), we know that the WROL situation will not last forever (or at least we hope).

But if we have a nationwide or even global situation in our hand, we do face a long-term problem. And chances are you will not be able to survive alone.

How are we going to negate that?

Well, I think we won’t make it on our own and that we will need to reestablish the kind of small/micro communities just like we had in the pre-1900′s (and even earlier than that).

Communities that will provide its inhabitants with food, shelter and security and where we can reestablish some form of Rule of Law.

Funny enough Nutnfancy’s addresses this exact concept in his latest video! He discusses exactly the kind of things that I was thinking about.

Saves me the time to write it down

As usual it is a long an thorough video, but if you are interested in finding out why we will need communities and a sense of community when we have WROL (or even if we just have a temporary problem), I advise you to watch it:

Without Rule of Law: “Resurgence of Community” by Nutnfancy

And what are your thoughts on the subject?

As always: feel free to comment!

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We need you to contribute!

Since our start in 2010 we’ve been trying to come up with good (gear) reviews and other articles that might be of interest to you.

But running a blog as this, isn’t easy: it takes time to research a subject and publish something noteworthy/interesting about it.

And we would like to publish more that just a few articles a year. We need help with that. After all: the Internet is about communities.

So the time has come for Without Rule of Law to ask you for your contribution! Because you can make things more interesting.

So what can you do?

We don’t ask for help in the form of money. We ask for your help with stories, articles, interesting links, or tips about noteworthy stuff..

What is it about? Well, as stated on our “About” pages we aim to publish reviews of:

• Gear
• Guns
• Knives
• Websites

And, among others, tips & tricks about:

• Gear
• Medical emergency skills
• Survival skills

If you have anything to share about any of these subjects, by all means do!

Did you come up with an article yourself and want to share it with our audience? Please do!

Have something interesting to share about gear? Please do!

Did you make a video about any of the subjects we publish about and need a place to show it? You’re welcome!

Some rules

Off course some rules apply to your contribution. We do want to keep some quality standards regarding contributions.

For starters we: are an independent, non-profit blog.

• This means we do not accept advertorials. Plain and simple. So if your “contribution” is just aimed at generating more traffic to your own website, promoting your own product or service etc., don’t bother sending it in: we will not publish it.
• The same applies to linking to your website: we won’t. Unless there is a good reason for it.

The only way we will publish about your products or services (or link to your website) is, if your product(s) or service(s) is offered/donated to us free of charge to review it.

• However: there will be no guarantee your product will be reviewed favorably!
• Your product might not survive the test we do so, do not expect it to returned in one piece.

Also keep in mind that although we are internationally oriented, we are physically based in Europe (The Netherlands).

• Sending us any kind of gear to review will mean that shipping it to us might be expensive (you need to be prepared for this).
• Also, due to difference in laws we won’t be able to review everything!

However: since we are in USA at least once a year, you can circumvent this problem by sending gear to review to our US based address. This will however, mean a considerable delay between sending it and us being able to review it (in general about 3-6 months).

When you do submit something:

• We do reserve the right to refuse your contribution (with or without a reason), shorten or correct your submissions (this will be displayed with the article); but most likely we will contact you about this so you can either change/correct it yourself;
• You must own the Intellectual ownership, copyrights and credits for all materials/media you contribute; we can/will not be held accountable/liable for any copyright infringements of 3rd party contributions;
• All Intellectual ownership, copyrights and credits for submitted materials/media will remain yours; we just publish it;
• Your credentials need to be submitted to us we need to know who’s contribution we are publishing
• You can, however, request to be published under a pseudonym;

Cool, I’m in. how do I contact you?

First: thanks for your enthusiasm. Second you can contact us using the nifty Contact Us page.

Just drop us a note and we will contact you asap!

Again: thanks for your time and effort!

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