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Managing Back Pain When SHTF

May 5, 2017

In This Article

Top Risk Factors
Pre-Apocalyptic Treatments
Post-Apocalyptic Treatments
Back Myth Busters
An Ounce of Prevention …
Red Flags
About the Author

WARNING!

The information shown here is for illustrative and academic purposes only. Seek help from a licensed health professional before attempting any techniques and treatment discussed or shown in this story. This publication and its contributors are not responsible for any potential injuries or health problems.

It’s been a month after the big one hit. Out of food and water, you figure it’s time to hit the road for supplies. Despite the sad state of affairs, you’ve been feeling good for a long time now. Still, you can’t shake the nagging feeling that something is about to go wrong and — bang! — it happens. You hop into your rig and your lower back goes into lock-down. The pain takes your breath away. You’re now SOL and basically useless to your family and your community.

You’re not alone — about 80 percent of the population will experience a back problem at some point in their lifetimes. If it doesn’t happen to you, it may happen to someone you love or a member of your group.

Therefore, we’re delving into the topic of back pain. Whether you’re an outdoor adventurer who doesn’t want to get hobbled mid-hike or you’re a prepper looking to prevent a debilitating injury while bugging out, you’ll no doubt find some valuable information in these pages.

The bad news? Back pain is the leading cause of disability around the world. Behind only upper-respiratory infections (à la the common cold and the flu), people visit doctors for back pain more than any other reason. The back is a smorgasbord of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, discs, blood vessels, lymph, and nerves. You may strain muscles, sprain ligaments, bulge discs, misalign bones, compress nerves, or have a combination of injuries. Did you get all that? Add to this the complexity of “referred pain” (pain coming from a different area) and the back pain plot thickens.

The good news? The cause of most back pain is musculoskeletal in nature (think muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments) and rarely organic conditions like arthritis, infection, cancers, or fracture. There, go ahead and breathe your sigh of relief because back pain prevention and liberation is within your grasp.

Top Risk Factors

Age: Growing old is not for sissies. As we age, we lose muscle strength, ligament stability, disc height, and experience a loss of bone density — the perfect recipe for back pain. The first back pain episode often starts between 30 and 50 years old, becoming more frequent with aging.

Fitness (or lack thereof): This risk factor is like aging, but on speed. Without a strong and supple body from exercising, we lose strength, flexibility, ligament stability, disc height, and experience a loss of bone density. Poor fitness levels also predisposes people to injuries (traumatic or repetitive) and once injured, it prolongs recovery. [Editor’s note: This is why we have a Health column in every issue.]

Weight Gain: Gravity is a downer, and it’s even worse when we carry a spare tire. The extra pounds weigh down our spinal joints and discs (the cushions between your vertebrae), which leads to more stress and pain.

Occupational Hazards: Sedentary desk work leads to poor posture, tight muscles, and reduced blood flow. On the other end of the spectrum, heavy work from lifting, bending, twisting, pulling, and pushing can be traumatic. In the middle is repetitive work (performing limited motions over and over for an extended period of time), a major cause of disability. Just can’t catch a break, can we?

Bottom line: It hurts, and you need fixing. Let’s get to it.

Pre-Apocalyptic Treatments

Does civilization still exist when back pain strikes? Are you close enough to something resembling a city or town? If so, you’re in luck. Use the following recommendations.

Leave It to the Pros: Get thee to a licensed healthcare practitioner. There are experts who have spent years learning to take care of back pain. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Get experienced hands on your poor body, and relief will arrive more quickly.

As a chiropractor, my advice is to seek out natural and less invasive therapies first. For over 120 years, chiropractors have made the treatment of low back pain their bread-and-butter practice. Other practitioners to check out include acupuncturists, certified massage therapists, and physical therapists. Look online or get a referral from someone you trust. Finally, use drugs and surgery as a last resort, as they can have lasting side effects.

Ice, Ice Baby: Use the cool tool during the first 24 to 48 hours of a back bombardment. Get an ice pack or a pack of frozen vegetables, wrap it in a thin towel, and place on your back. Apply for 20 minutes, remove for 10 minutes, and reapply for 20 minutes. Do this two to three times a day. What can be easier? Icing will help:

Reduce pain: The cold reduces nerve transmission, causes endorphins to be released, and activates the pain gate (cold sensations can block out or override pain sensations).
Reduce muscle spasms: Because of the pain, muscles go into spasm to brace the injured area. Ice reduces the pain, which reduces the muscle spasms.
Reduce inflammation and swelling: Ice produces the Hunting Response; blood vessels start pumping the bad stuff out and the good stuff in.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: “Did you say fish oil?” Isn’t that for the heart and brain? Omega-3 helps reduce inflammation. Reducing inflammation reduces pain. I was a nonbeliever, but when I injured my knee, I tried it out. Lo and behold, the stuff actually worked.

The Journal of Surgical Neurology reported that omega-3 EFA fish oil supplements are a safe and effective alternative to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen, naproxen, and Celebrex). Unlike pharmaceutical drugs, the researchers noted no nasty side effects with omega-3. The participants in this study took 1,200 mg of omega-3 per day. If you’re allergic to fish, substitute with flax oil supplements.

Post-Apocalyptic Treatments

What can you do when crap has already hit the fan, and you’re without the comforts of civilization? You might not always have access to a medical professional, some fish oil or ice. It’s time to turn your attention to more self-reliant care. Naturally, these methods will work in times of normalcy, as well.

Stretch Out: Lower back pain can be so extreme that it may drop you to the floor. Floor-based stretching can help relax muscle spasms. Reducing muscle spasms will take the edge off the pain so you can be more functional. Since you’ll already be on the ground from intense agony, might as well start with these stretches and look for loose change or wild edibles while you’re at it.

Knee-to-chest stretch: Lie face up. Bend one knee, clasp it with both hands, and pull the knee toward your chest. Take long, deep, slow breaths, and pull a little more with each exhalation. Hold for 10 seconds, switch knees. Do five reps on each leg.

Lumbar rotation: While lying on your back, bend both legs with your feet in the air. With your knees together and shoulders flat to the floor, slowly bring your knees down to one side. Hold for 10 seconds and slowly bring your knees to the other side, keeping both shoulders on the ground. Do five reps on each side, or as many reps as needed to crawl off the floor.

Relief At Your Fingertips: Pressing and rubbing on areas of the body to relieve pain has been around since the beginning of our species. It’s instinctive to rub and massage areas of pain. Generation after generation of observance and experimentation culminated into the science of acupressure (the usage of acupuncture theory, without the needles — good news for those who faint at the sight of needles).

Behind the knee: In a sitting position, find the point (called Urinary Bladder 40) behind the knee where the skin folds at the joint. Then simply stick your thumb into the fold and press until there is discomfort. Release and repeat two more times. You can press both sides at the same time.

On the ankle: In a sitting position, find the point (called Urinary Bladder 60) just anterior to the Achilles tendon and behind the lateral malleolus (the bony protuberance at your ankle). Grip this point with your pointer finger and thumb. Squeeze until there is discomfort. Release and repeat two more times. You can squeeze both ankles at the same time.

Science of acupressure? Indeed, my friend. Research on acupressure and acupuncture continue to surface from both the United States and Asia on how it helps everything from headaches to heartburn. For lower back pain, the British Medical Journal discovered that, “acupressure conferred an 89-percent reduction in significant disability compared with physical therapy.” Not bad for natural and free. The only thing it’ll cost you is knowledge. Here are two points that can ease lower back pain.

Back Myth Busters

There are a lot of old wives’ tales floating out there. Here are the top three:

Myth #1: Surgery is Always Effective

The Truth: Back pain surgery may not always be effective and certainly shouldn’t be the first choice for noncomplicated, mechanical back pain. For a few patients, it’s a godsend, but for others, a nightmare. According to a 2011 study in the Journal of Spine, back surgery (in this case, fusion) showed an abysmal 74-percent failure rate. (The researchers said if surgery was avoided, there was a 25-percent increase in the patient’s chances of returning to work.) Add to this the complications of infection, anesthesia, and post-op drug dependency, and you can see why surgery may be the answer only in the most dire of circumstances.

Myth #2: Get a Hard Mattress

The Truth: Unfortunately, if the mattress is too firm, there will be increased pressure where our bones stick out, mainly shoulders and hips. Too soft, and there’s no support. Studies have concluded that a medium-firm mattress is best, providing enough support without the pressure.

Myth #3: Bed Rest is Best

The Truth: Staying in bed for one or two days may be advised in extreme cases, but prolonged rest will only make things worse. Lower back pain leads to a vicious cycle of muscle spasms and joint fixations in the spine and hips. The best thing to do is get up and walk around to your tolerance. Although counterintuitive, gentle movement will reduce muscle spasms, joint fixations, and break the lower back pain cycle.

An Ounce of Prevention …

Preventing back pain is not difficult. A strong, stable, and pain-free back can be had for just a few minutes a day of activity and a dash of awareness. Here are quick and simple steps you can take right now to avoid future spinal beat-downs.

Back Extensions: Working the abs is a common and very important method to strengthening the core. With the goal of the all-elusive six-pack, the back is often neglected. And who can blame you? All the good stuff is found in the front anyway. Unfortunately, this leaves weak back muscles that spasm and give out.

Opposing Arm and Leg Lifts: Lie face down on your stomach with your arms extended overhead like Superman. Lift only your right arm and left leg off the ground simultaneously. Do 10 reps, switch sides, and do 10 more reps.

Sky Divers: Lie face down and extend both arms overhead. Lift both arms and legs off the ground. Do 10 reps and call it a day.

The Three S’s: Having the knowledge and being aware goes a long way in preventing back pain. The following is what you need to know to cover your own back.

Sitting

Sit up straight (mom was right all along).
Use a back cushion to maintain your lumbar curve.
Keep your hip above your knees to maintain good posture and allow blood flow to the feet.

Sleeping

Lying on the side is best. Use a pillow between your legs if you need to.
Lying on your back is second best. A pillow behind your knees will relieve lower back pressure.
Lying on your stomach is the worst. Wear a T-shirt with a front pocket, place a golf ball in the pocket, and safety pin the pocket. The golf ball will cause discomfort every time you try to lie on your stomach, breaking the habit of stomach sleeping.

Standing

Proper posture will shift weight off your overworked muscles and places the stress on the skeletal structure, where it belongs. From the side view, your head should be over your shoulders, shoulders over hips, and hips over knees.
Avoid forward head posture and shoulder hunching. Think Denzel Washington and not Quasimodo.

Proper Lifting: Use the following steps to prevent back sprain and protect your spinal discs.

Get your core as close to the object as possible.
Keep your back straight, bend at the knees into a squat position.
Lift the object and bring it as close to your core as possible. Use your legs to push off the floor and rise to the standing position.
Move your feet and bring the object where you need to. Keep your torso neutral and avoid twisting.

Don’t let your back become a pain in the butt. No matter if you’re hauling your kids from a burning building or just desk jockeying at work, back pain can strike at any time. But having the knowledge to take care of your spine can save you loads of medical bills … and possibly even help you save your mates.

Red Flags

The following are warning signs of serious conditions that require a trip to a licensed healthcare practitioner or emergency room ASAP:

Severe trauma
Unrelenting pain for more than four to six weeks
No alleviation of pain, even during rest
Pain worsens at night and wakes you up
Abdominal pain associated with the back pain
Numbness or tingling inside the thigh (saddle-like paresthesia)
Weakness in the legs and feet. Not able to stand on heels or ball of foot.
Loss of bowel and/or bladder control
Unexplained weight loss (5 pounds or more a week)
Radiating pain past the knee

About the Author

An outdoors enthusiast, Dr. Conrad Bui is a chiropractor with more than 20 years of experience. His offices in Denver have helped thousands of patients recover their health naturally. A former lower-back pain victim since high school, Dr. Bui is proud to say he has conquered this condition. Since graduating from chiropractic school, he has gone on to earn his doctor of naturopathy degree from Trinity College along with certifications in acupuncture and auto-collision injuries. He enjoys the outdoors, teaching martial arts, and practicing chi kung in his spare time.

www.mydenverchiropractor.com

Looking Back: 5-Item Survival Kit for $5

Patrick McCarthy

May 4, 2017

We’re always hearing requests for budget-oriented gear guides — this has led us to implement our “Best Value” awards in the magazine, and feature more affordable items in our buyer’s guides. However, there’s obviously a fine line between getting a good deal on a much-needed item, and wasting money on something that’ll break the first time you use it. Much like expensive doesn’t always mean excellent, cheap doesn’t always mean good value.

5 dollar store survival budget cheap bug out gear 2 — Beggars can’t be choosers, but this $5 survival kit is a whole lot better than nothing.

But, if you want to throw caution to the wind and save money at all costs, just how little can you spend on a basic survival kit? YouTube channel Corporal’s Corner set out to answer this question. With $5 in hand, Corporal Kelly strolled into his local dollar store, and selected a 5-item survival kit. This kit is based on one school of thought for essential survival gear, known as “the 5 C’s”:

Cutting – A knife, machete, ax, or other blade
Combustion – A fire-starter, such as a ferrocerium rod or lighter
Cover – A waterproof tarp or rain fly that serves as the basis for your shelter
Cordage – 550 paracord in a perfect world, but twine or string will do in a pinch
Container – A vessel for water, ideally one which is heat-resistant and can be used to cook and boil

Cpl. Kelly demonstrates his 5-item/$5 survival kit in the video below:

First of all, that knife — yikes. It’s obviously trying very hard to be a Spyderco Delica, with a chunk of plastic shoved into the round thumb hole to skirt trademark infringement. And the side-to-side flex is horrifying. But it’ll cut the jute twine, so that’s something.

The dollar store knife bears a sliiiiight resemblance to a Spyderco. You may have to squint to see it.

Speaking of cordage, the jute is a solid choice. It can be braided into rope, as Cpl. Kelly shows, or can be shredded and used as tinder. It also provides a way to suspend the shelter, which is a humble PVC shower curtain. That may sound ghetto, but it’s designed to repel water, so while it’s not the most durable item, it’ll keep you dry.

With a ridgeline and two guylines tied to weights along the base, the tarp can be secured into a small lean-to shelter. As for the water container, Kelly has some good points about that as well. The metal spray bottle container can be useful for boiling water, but it’s too small to carry a substantial amount of water. Alternatively, a larger plastic vessel and a few drops from a $1 bottle of unscented bleach can provide an alternate method of water purification, but you won’t be able to use it for cooking or boiling. That’s a trade-off you’ll have to consider.

So, while $5 isn’t the optimal budget for a survival kit, Cpl. Kelly shows that it can provide the 5 basics you need to get by. What items, if any, would you change in this kit? Add a comment below.

Primitive Technology: Monjolo Hydraulic Hammer

Patrick McCarthy

May 3, 2017

Short-term survival is often a battle to overcome nature and accomplish small feats — building a shelter, starting a fire, purifying water and obtaining enough food to stave off starvation. However, if you think back to studying the gradual development of societies in ancient history, you may recall that long-term survival is mainly about efficiency.

Primitive Technology water hydraulic hammer tool flour machine 1 — The Primitive Technology host blows on coals to carefully hollow out a log.

Instead of remaining nomadic hunter-gatherers to provide calories for the day, cultures began to grow crops next to their settlements. Rather than painstakingly retrieve buckets of water each morning, we built dams and aqueducts to bring the water closer to us. These advancements meant less time and energy spent on menial repetitive tasks, and more time and energy to develop other cool stuff — like metallurgy, literature, medicine, and art. If we were still spending 90% of our time scavenging for food in the wilderness, we never would have progressed as far as we have.

A pivot and hammer head will be added to the hollowed-out log.

One major advancement in technology was the realization that flowing water could power machines. We call this technology hydraulics. Today’s massive hydroelectric dams harness the energy, but it can also provide power for small primitive machines. In the following video, our favorite barefoot YouTube survivalist Primitive Technology builds a device known as a monjolo in Portuguese or karausu in Japanese. In English, it could be called a hydraulic hammer. This machine functions as an automated mortar and pestle, using flowing water to lift and drop a hammer head, pulverizing substances into a fine powder.

The main purpose of this tool is to produce flour from grain or other starches, like dried cassava. Once you have flour, it’s possible to make simple bannock bread over a fire, or to get more creative and begin producing all sorts of delicious recipes. Toss some flour in with meat drippings and a little water, and you’ve got gravy. You get the idea.

Alternatively, the hydraulic hammer can be used to crush natural clay chunks into fine dust for pottery production, or to make activated charcoal powder for water filtration or medical treatment. The video description states, “A stone head might make it useful as a stamp mill for crushing ores to powder. It might pulp fibres for paper, even.” None of this requires hard manual labor — the water powers the monjolo hammer and does all the work. It’s an ingenious device, and this Primitive Technology video does a great job of demonstrating the build. If you’re feeling adventurous (and patient), get out there and try building your own!

Infographic: The Growth of Computer Processing Power

Patrick McCarthy

May 2, 2017

Have you ever heard of Gordon E. Moore? This name may not have entered the common lexicon like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, but Moore made some monumental changes to technology and the world as we know it today. He is the co-founder of a little company called Intel Corporation, and today he has an estimated net worth of over $7 billion. However, aside from founding one of the largest computing companies on Earth, Moore proved to be almost clairvoyant about the future of technology.

Processing power graphed on a logarithmic vertical scale via Wikipedia. — Processing power over time, graphed on a logarithmic vertical scale. Source: Wikipedia

During an interview in 1970, Moore was asked to estimate the growth of computer technology. In a claim which would later become known as Moore’s Law, he stated that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every two years. That statement may not mean much to you, but in layman’s terms, this effectively means that the processing power of computers will double every two years. This brazen prediction has been proven true for decades, and despite many claims that it is dead and obsolete, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stated in January 2017 that “Moore’s Law is alive and well and flourishing.”

To those of us looking to prepare for the future of technology, this is an important principle to understand, since it shows that computer development will frequently exceed our expectations.

The processing power of a computer processor (or CPU) can be measured in Floating Operations Per Second (FLOPS). In the following infographic from Experts-Exchange.com (good thing for that hyphen), comparisons are drawn between the most powerful computer processors from 1956 to 2015. Over that time period, the authors claim that there has been a one-trillion-fold increase in FLOPS of computer processing power. (Click here to download a full-size version of this graphic.)

Planning an Ultralight Bug-Out Bag

Andrew Schrader

April 30, 2017

In This Article

Bedding and Shelter
Clothing
Hydration and Nutrition
Tools
Minimizing Empty Space
About the Author

The concept of packing light is not a new idea. Horace Kephart, one of the men who helped establish Great Smoky Mountains National Park, had this to say about it in his 1916 classic book Camping and Woodcraft: “This is the hardest problem in outfitting. To equip a pedestrian with shelter, bedding, utensils, food, and other necessities, in a pack so light and small that he can carry it without overstrain, is really a fine art.”

Kephart’s idea of “light” varied with the individual and the performance expectations, as you might expect. “If you are a middle-aged city man, soft from a year or more of office work, about 20 pounds on your back is all you ought to carry. A younger man, or one who gets a good deal of daily exercise in the open air, can do the same with 30 pounds, until he gets in training, and then go considerably more.”

Bugout bag pack gear emergency backpack — Items from the author’s lightweight bug-out bag inspired the plan for an even lighter version.

His ideal mild-weather loadout was around 25 pounds, still a reasonable number even by today’s standards. But his dream bag was closer to 10 pounds, what he called a “featherweight kit” made from specially manufactured materials and products. One hundred years after Kephhart published his recommendations, we wanted to see how close we could come to his ideal weight, using modern-day equipment while keeping one eye on his recommendations.

Keep in mind that the production (and upkeep) of a bug-out bag is a dynamic process, not a one-and-done creation. The contents are going to change over time based on your evolving skillset, gear preferences, budget, and even your interests and hobbies. There’s no single way to build a featherweight bag. There are dozens of approaches — the following is one potential combination. Don’t just copy the list of gear we provide, use it as food for thought to plan your own ultralight bug-out bag.

Bedding and Shelter

“Don’t bed down on the cold, hard earth,” Kephart recommends. We tend to agree with this advice. Trying to tough it out by sleeping on hard ground can short-circuit your decision-making ability, and directly impact your stamina the next day.

Ultralight bug out bag tent shelter sleeping pad — Top: the Q-Core SLX sleeping pad. Bottom: the Corus HD Technical Quilt.

His choice for bedding was a lightweight cloth bag stuffed with leaves, and a smaller leaf-stuffed bag for a pillow. Without the leaves these bags weighed in at 1.2 pounds. Primitive by today’s standards, but it got the job done in the early 1900s. Fast-forward to 2017, and we’d favor the Q-Core SLX Insulated Sleeping Pad from Big Agnes, weighing in at 1.1 pounds. For warmth, a Corus HD Technical Quilt from Thermarest only weighs 1.4 pounds more. So far, so good.

To Kephart, a tent was only feasible if two or more people were hiking together. When going alone (at least in moderate temperatures), a shelter cloth and mosquito netting worked just fine and weighed about 2.5 pounds. It could be rigged between two small trees or forked stakes as necessary. The modern day version of this idea would be the Thru-Hiker 70 Wing Shelter paired with a Thru-Hiker Mesh House 2 from MSR. The shelter weighs just 12 ounces while the mesh weighs 14 ounces, for a total of 26 ounces or just over 1.5 pounds.

©Earl Harper — Trekking poles support a rain fly over the Mesh House shelter. Photo courtesy of MSR / Earl Harper.

This mesh-shelter system can still be rigged using trees or forked stakes, as Kephart did. But we like the idea of using trekking poles for covering long distances, in order to minimize strain on our legs and increase our daily range. So with that pound we saved by using ultra-light materials, we’ll add one more pound back and throw in a pair of lightweight trekking poles. We’ll use them all day and at night when it’s time to set up shelter, we don’t have to waste time looking for suitable trees or sticks since we can just anchor the poles into the ground to use as shelter supports.

Clothing

“Footwear is the most important item,” Kephart says. “When you seek a guide in the mountains he looks first in your eyes and then at your shoes. If both are right, you are right.”

There are lots of places to try and skimp on weight, but when you’re long-distance trekking, your footwear is not that place. Whatever boots you decide on, make sure they fit you perfectly without having to use tricks like very thick or thin socks. We’ve had great luck with hiking boots from Keen such as the Targhee II Mid.

Kephart recommended against carrying a heavy waterproof jacket, instead electing to layer with a lightweight waterproof jacket coupled with a medium-weight sweater. These days we’d find a midweight fleece and couple it with the Airshed Pullover from Patagonia. This soft-shell jacket, weighing in at a ridiculously minimal 3.7 ounces, converts into its own stuff sack with a built-in carabiner loop so that you can always keep it within reach.

Ultralight bug out bag jacket rain coat — The Patagonia Airshed pullover packs down into a stuff sack for compact storage.

We won’t get into pants or shirts in this article, as the requirements vary so widely based on an individual’s circumstances. However, we will talk to you about your underwear. Carry spares. As Kephart says, “When on a hike, take your bath at close of day, instead of in the morning; then change to fresh underwear and socks, and put on your sweater and trousers to sleep in. Fresh dry underclothes are as warm as an extra blanket would be if one slept in the sweaty garments he wore during the day — to say nothing of cleanliness.”

Hydration and Nutrition

Kephart’s cooking kit revolved around a frying pan, aluminum utensils, a broad shallow pot (to boil water faster), and a little tin cup he hooked to the outside of his pack. His kit weighed about 2.1 pounds.

Of course, he was planning on cooking over an open fire. And if you’re in the woods like he was planning to be, then cooking fuel is literally growing on trees. However, what if you’re bugging out to an arid region, or a ruined urban area where old-growth forests and wild game are the kind of thing you only see in museum dioramas? And how far away will the smoke from your campfire be visible, broadcasting your location?

Personally, we’re not trying to cook Instagram-worthy blueberry flapjacks in a frying pan. This isn’t Memorial Day Weekend at the lake, and we’re not trying to impress anyone here. We’re focusing on what can give us a head start on survival and can stay fresh in our packs for years.

Coconut-flavored lifeboat rations are compact and ready-to-eat food source. — These coconut-flavored lifeboat rations are a compact and ready-to-eat food source.

We thought of packing a small butane camp stove with fuel and a bunch of freeze-dried meals, but then reconsidered. The stove and fuel add extra weight. And cooking the meals will require lots of water that we may or may not need to conserve for drinking. So with that in mind, we’ll just pack our coconut-flavored lifeboat rations. They are, surprisingly, not horrible. Nor do they make you thirsty like a salty freeze-dried meal would. Six days’ worth of rations will only set you back 2.2 pounds, so we’re all set.

Ultralight bug out bag tent water bottle — The Platypus water bottles collapse and roll up when empty, and they weigh virtually nothing when dry.

Next up is a hydration plan — even more important than food. We’ll add dual 2.0 liter collapsible water bottles from Platypus (1.8 ounces each) and a TrailShot Pocket-Sized Water Filter from MSR (5 ounces) so we can pump clean water into the bottles. This brings us to a total of 2.7 pounds for our hydration gear and rations. Our choices here are a little bit heavier than Kephart’s, but he also only carried about two to three days’ worth of rations. In our case, we like a bit more caloric leeway.

Keep in mind, a liter of water weighs 2.2 pounds. So if you fill up both of those big Platypus bottles you’ll have nearly 9 extra pounds on your back. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since 1 gallon (3.8 liters) of water is a good minimum estimate for how much you’ll consume each day. But if you know you’ll be encountering good water sources, you might consider leaving one of the bottles empty, or even dumping one out if you’re certain you’re getting close.

Another way to save on water weight is by “topping off” as much as possible before leaving any water source. If you’ve got a stash of water in your car and you’re about to set out on foot, make sure to take a few extra swallows before stepping off.

Tools

Hand tools are the downfall of many an aspiring survivalist’s light-weight rig. We love tools. And usually we have so many that we can’t wait to stuff our pack with them. Especially when they’re small and light, it’s easy to simply toss one more tool into the bag. I might need that mini titanium prybar. You never know!

That’s true, you never do know. But unfortunately, we also don’t know if we’ll even get a chance to use this lightweight bag. If we want to keep it packed and ready that means we probably won’t be using it on an everyday basis. So if it’s just going to sit somewhere, then we won’t plan on stuffing a lot of every-day-use tools in there. Tools, after all, have a habit of never returning to the bug-out bag.

Trust us, we know. If you invest in high-end gear, you’re going to want to use it. But if you’re going to raid your bug-out bag on a regular basis, at least create a packing list for it detailing everything that’s inside once you consider it completed for the first time. Then have a logistics day on a regular basis (at least yearly) where you unpack the bag, review the list, and make sure everything that you assumed was going to be available is actually still present and accounted for.

Speaking of gear lists, most of them start with a knife. And the knives that many people carry are over-sized in relation to what they actually end up using them for. With that in mind, we’ll start with the Ultralight LST from Gerber.

This is an inexpensive, diminutive, and somewhat plain-looking American-made knife that will perform a myriad of tasks without complaint. It is a folder, but it’s of the tough lockback variety, so the mechanism shouldn’t be much of a weak point. As with the cooking, we’re not trying to impress anyone here. And we’re still waiting on that phone call from Delta Force to use our Chuck Norris reflexes and help them take out the leader of ISIS in an epic knife fight. So until that day arrives, we’ll get by with this simple yet functional 1.2-ounce knife.

Tools for Survival - Axe — A heavy cutting tool like this ax would put us way over our ultralight weight goal. So we’ll make do with a small blade.

Actually, since we’d be in serious trouble if something should happen to our only cutting tool, we’ll throw in a spare. These two knives provide redundancy, and still weigh far less combined than a single outdoor fixed blade and sheath. You may opt for a single heavier fixed blade, like the 4.3-ounce Mora Basic 511, but then you’ll have no backup if you lose or damage it. That’s a choice you’ll have to consider.

When you enter ultralight territory, even a handheld flashlight can be far too heavy to include. We’ll need something smaller.

We’ll take the same “two is one and one is none” approach to a light source as we do to our knife. As much as we’d love to bring our behemoth Coast HP17 flashlight, which we may (or may not) have used to transmit profane Morse code signals to the International Space Station, we just can’t afford to haul the extra two pounds (three with its D cell batteries). Instead we’ll pack two compact Coast G19 Inspection Beam Penlights, with the batteries stored reversed to prevent terminal corrosion. They sip power, using a single AAA battery, and weigh only 1.5 ounces each (2 ounces with the battery inside).

Ultralight bug out bag flashlight — This tiny Coast G19 runs on a single AAA battery, but provides enough light for basic tasks at night.

We don’t go anywhere without carrying some type of first aid kit. In this case we’d choose the Micro IFAK from North American Rescue. It weighs 12 ounces and gives us the ability to treat anything from abrasions and cuts to bleeding in major extremities. The kit comes vacuum-sealed, helping to prevent deterioration of the contents, improving its shelf life, and making it that much easier to stick into our pack and forget about — until we need it.

We also want a basic, no-frills compass that still includes scale tools for easily reading distances off a map. The Brunton TruArc 3 Base Plate Compass fills that role, weighing only 1.1 ounces yet remaining reliable and easy to read.

Last, we’ll add a few small necessities into our pack, including stormproof matches and a mylar space blanket. These are detailed in our packing list table below.

Minimizing Empty Space

So where’s the rest of the stuff, you say? Great question. We’re keeping both empty pack space and weight to a minimum for several reasons.

First, you’re fooling yourself if you think you won’t be tempted to impulsively grab a few less-than-necessary items around the house, in the car, or wherever you happen to be when you need to grab your pack and go. These items might include the half-eaten box of Oreos on the kitchen counter. The extra pair of sneakers. A second firearm in addition to your EDC. The framing hammer? Seriously? If there’s a ton of extra room in your pack, it’s possible you’ll fill it up with hoarded gear once panic sets in, defeating the purpose of this project.

Ultralight bug out bag gear table — Here’s a run-down of all the items we included in our ultralight bug-out bag setup.

Second, having everything we might possibly need just isn’t the point of our ultralight bug-out bag. The point is to have the bare minimum of necessities so that we can stay mobile, walk all day, and even run if we have to. We’re looking for a head start, not an Ark. Otherwise we’d bring a bug-out diesel generator and a bug-out big green egg BBQ grill — we might even save up for a bug-out RV so we don’t have to walk.

Ultralight bug out bag backpack — The light 30L Ascensionist pack will serve as the vessel for our gear.

With this minimal philosophy in mind, each of these items will get stuffed into an Ascensionist 30L backpack from Patagonia. At 1.6 pounds, it’s small and extremely light. We want a small pack for this type of ultralight loadout. It helps keep us from inadvertently over-packing, and falling into the trap of adding more gear just because we have more room (like we mentioned above). As shown in the detailed list, our total weight at this point is just under 14 pounds which we think is a great start.

We’re also not going to strap a bunch of stuff to the outside of our pack, looking like some casting reject from Call of Duty: Future Infinity Galactic Warfare VII. For the same reason we probably won’t go around making campfires — we want to maintain a low profile. Kephart himself pioneered this Gray Man concept years ahead of his time. “The whole equipment, except the few light articles worn on the person, stows inside a pack sack of moderate dimensions. There is nothing exposed to advertise your mission; so you give the idle curious something to puzzle and fret over — which is good for them.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Cheers to you, Mr. Kephart. And cheers to producing an ultralight bug-out bag that won’t slow us down when the time comes.

To learn more, check out our 12 Tools for Survival, our buyer’s guide to bug-out hammocks or even learn how to love backpacking in the rain.

About the Author

Andrew Schrader is a licensed professional engineer and is certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Structures Specialist. His company, Recon Response Engineering LLC, advises state and federal government organizations on the subject of urban search and rescue and building collapse. He recently assisted the U.S. Department of State’s Italian Consulate in the development of their post-earthquake response and rescue protocol. You can follow him on Instagram at @reconresponse.

Looking Back: NRA Show 2017

Patrick McCarthy

April 29, 2017

In This Article

Ruger Silent-SR ISB for 10/22 Takedown
TOPS Knives El Chete
INFORCE APL-C for Glock

Like many other shows we attend — SHOT Show, Blade Show, and Outdoor Retailer — the NRA Annual Meeting can be overwhelming due to the sheer amount of products on display. Everywhere you turn, there’s a sea of booths, signs, displays, brightly-colored lights, and eager sales representatives. And despite what those reps may tell you, not every product on the show floor is the best invention since sliced bread.

So, during our time on the show floor yesterday, we selected three new products which seemed particularly interesting from a survival perspective. We could see each of these products coming in handy during a survival scenario for one reason or another.

Ruger Silent-SR ISB for 10/22 Takedown

Ruger 10/22 Takedown owners have a lot to be happy about lately. First, there’s the very cool MAGPUL X-22 Backpacker stock, which we featured after its unveiling at SHOT Show. Now Ruger has stepped up with a drop-in integrally-suppressed barrel (ISB) unit called the Ruger Silent-SR ISB.

This integrally-suppressed barrel means you won’t need to carry a separate suppressor, or extend the length of your gun just to keep it quiet. The Silent-SR ISB snaps right into place where the normal takedown barrel would sit, and uses removable internal baffles to drop the average sound level of a standard .22 LR round to 113.2 decibels. The overall legal barrel length is 16.12 inches with the ISB unit installed.

The ISB design would be beneficial in survival situations due to its versatility. If you don’t need a suppressor, you can install the standard barrel that came with your gun. If you want to quiet your shots and stay undetected, you can snap on the ISB in seconds without making your gun longer or more unwieldy. The baffles are also able to be disassembled with a single screw for easy cleaning.

MSRP for the Silent-SR ISB is $629. For more info, check Ruger’s web site.

TOPS Knives El Chete

TOPS has been hinting at the release of this big fixed-blade chopper since SHOT Show, but we’re told that the time has finally come. The “El Chete” is huge and hefty, longer than a user’s forearm with a smooth upswept blade shape. However, it’s also nicely balanced, and the large forefinger groove provides a secure grip.

We could see this blade making short work of thick brush, or splitting firewood like a heavy kukri or parang. It’s large and heavy, but paired with a smaller blade for delicate tasks, it could be very useful for backcountry survival.

Each El Chete comes with a fitted kydex sheath with a retention strap, and will retail for about $300. That’s all the info we have right now, but TOPS tells us that a press release with more demails will be out early next week. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

INFORCE APL-C for Glock

We’re definitely fans of the INFORCE APL pistol flashlight. It won our “Top Pick” award in our pistol light buyer’s guide in Issue 18, due to its excellent controls and ruggedly simple design. However, the original APL is a bit bulky, and extends well past the muzzle on most compact and subcompact guns. This can make it obtrusive for concealed carry use in some cases.

INFORCE has noticed these weaknesses, and released a new pistol light for smaller guns. It’s called the APL-C (as in compact), and it produces 200 lumens from a single CR2 battery. Fortunately, it also retains the ambidextrous paddle controls and simple design we liked so much. This light is designed specifically for use on Glock models, but we imagine a universal model will be released later on.

On a Glock 19, the APL-C sits flush with the muzzle. That should make it a good choice for carry guns, and provide lots of clear white light for any nighttime self-defense situations which may arise. The company tells us the first of these lights shipped to dealers on Monday of this week, so we hope to get our hands on one for testing in the near future.

More info on this light should be available soon on the INFORCE web site. We’re told MSRP will be $140.

Which of these new products interests you the most? Let us know in the poll below.

Still Relevant? The Growing Influence of Artificial Intelligence

Patrick McCarthy

April 27, 2017

The term artificial intelligence typically evokes thoughts of science fiction movies and the far-off future, and it’s true that we haven’t yet created self-aware AI in its purest sense. There’s no murderous HAL 9000 or army of Terminators trying to wipe us out — this dystopian side of AI remains in the fictional realm, and hopefully always will. However, a smaller degree of artificial intelligence exists today, and it’s developing quickly to influence our daily lives.

Fortunately, we’re still a long way from having to worry about killer AI like HAL 9000.

There’s a technological arms race raging between industry giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, and the goal is to develop software that learns, adapts, predicts, and does so autonomously. This cutting-edge tech is being incorporated into our smartphones, vehicles, city infrastructure, and even our homes.

The following infographic from Interquest Group shows how AI has been used in the past, is currently applied in the present, and will likely be implemented in the near future. Click here for a full-size version of this infographic.

While these advancements clearly have the potential to make our lives easier and more productive, it’s also wise to be aware of the potential downsides. As we’ve said in the past, it’s reasonable to embrace beneficial technology, but we must always be prepared to live without it. If you someday become over-reliant on your intelligent GPS, self-driving car, or AI personal assistant, you’ll be in trouble if all that technology suddenly grinds to a halt.

Book Review: “Cyber Mercenaries: The State, Hackers, and Power”
Intro to SDR: Software Defined Radio
Steganography: More than Meets the Eye
Emergency Applications of Software Defined Radio (SDR)
Cyber Threat Awareness: How to Prepare for a Cyberattack on the Grid

DIY Flowerpot Smoker & Grill

Patrick McCarthy

April 26, 2017

We love re-purposing trash into treasure. With the right mindset and a little ingenuity, it’s possible to turn discarded junk into useful items. These quick DIY projects can boost morale in a survival situation, and also yield useful tools for the long-term. Take for example the soda can alcohol stove, bicycle generator, PVC pipe bow, or plastic bottle cordage.

Clay flowerpots are plentiful in most urban areas — you may have some in your own backyard already, but if you don’t, you’ll find stacks of them at any hardware store or garden center. This means that they should be easy to find, even in a SHTF scenario.

The heat-resistant properties of these pots would make them a good candidate for cooking vessels, but most of them are designed with drainage holes at the base. So, we can make use of this ventilation and turn them into a DIY flowerpot smoker and grill. Being able to smoke food is especially useful, since it adds flavor, kills bacteria, and acts as a natural preservative for long-term survival situations.

The video below from Cook with Meat shows the technique — just prepare your ears for a loop of upbeat guitar and synthesizer, or get ready to mute the audio.

Here’s a checklist of the materials you’ll need for your flowerpot smoker/grill:

Two large clean terracotta clay flower pots, identical diameter
Perforated metal pan to hold coals
Round grill grate to fit inside pot (this could be made from wire if pre-welded grills are unavailable)
Drill or awl to add air holes to the pots
Fireproof gasket material, such as nomex or high-temperature silicon RTV (found at hardware stores)
Charcoal fuel and wood chips for smoking
Optional: foil pan heat deflector, meat thermometer, handle

Video: “5 Days Without a Truck”

Patrick McCarthy

April 25, 2017

Today’s society offers many conveniences. If you need food, you drive a few miles to the store and buy some. If your car needs gas, you stop by the local gas station and fill up. When your trash can is full, you take it out to the curb, and it gets emptied the next morning. If you want to buy something on the internet, you click the “free shipping” option, and it arrives on your doorstep a few days later. Unfortunately, we rarely think about the infrastructure that makes all of these conveniences possible — each of these systems relies on trucks.

Trucks are responsible for delivering fresh food to your grocery store, refilling the gas station’s reserves, taking your trash to the dump, and delivering those packages to your home. If for any reason the trucks ground to a halt, so too would these services. Now imagine what your city would be like with no food in the grocery stores, no fuel at the pumps, and rancid trash piling up on the sidewalk. Our civil society would quickly spiral into chaos.

A disabled transportation infrastructure would also mean no access to fire trucks or emergency services. — A disabled transportation infrastructure could also mean no access to fire trucks or emergency services.

A documentary called Be Prepared to Stop examines the potential consequences if every truck in America stopped rolling. Check out the clip below, which lists a rough timeline of the day-by-day effects a catastrophic shutdown of America’s highways might have:

“Basically, to the general public, we are invisible unless something goes wrong.” – Stephanie Klang, a truck driver

Like many documentaries, it appears that there may be a political motivation behind elements of this film. However, the core message holds true: our current system of roadways, trucks, and truck drivers is essential to many of the conveniences we enjoy. If something interrupts that system, things could go downhill quickly, so it’s important to support that infrastructure and prepare ourselves for the worst.

To learn more about Be Prepared to Stop, or watch the full-length documentary, go to BePreparedtoStop.org.

5 Threat Identification Tips from a Surveillance Professional

Patrick McCarthy

April 23, 2017

In This Article

The Principles of Observation
1. Watch for Countersurveillance
2. Identify Clothing and Wearables
3. Spot Visual Cues of Anxiety
4. Look for Atypical Activity
5. Notice the “Frequent Flyer”
Conclusions
About the Author

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” — Sun Tzu

This ancient quote from The Art of War reminds us that if you know the enemy, and are aware of your own abilities, you’ll never be in fear of the dangerous situations you may encounter. However, part of the problem with knowing your enemy is identifying who the enemy might be. Day after day, one could go through life with the proper training, mindset, and tools to protect oneself, but distinguishing a wolf in sheep’s clothing from an innocent bystander can be a challenging task for the untrained eye. That’s why threat identification is an essential skill.

The Principles of Observation

Human nature has always been, and continues to be, exceptionally difficult to decode. Trying to predict a random stranger’s actions is nearly impossible upon first sight. To add to the difficulty, the philosophical debate of whether humans are inherently good or evil is still raging to this day. Regardless of what side of that argument you’re on, one thing is undeniable; bad guys exist in plain sight everywhere.

There’s no class, piece of gear, or handbook that can teach someone to become an expert at predicting a person’s next move. The best way to improve at threat identification is to expose oneself to different locations and settings, and observe what people do. Identify those who might look unsavory. Why did you pick that person? What were they doing that made them stand out? If you don’t know the answer right away, continued observation of that particular mark will reveal more about what they’re doing, or why a particular action stands out to you.

As one observes longer, that mark may become nothing more than a passerby who was lost or confused. On the flip side, the threat level may also escalate and trigger you to start making decisions to leave the area or take another course of action. All of these factors are important in assessing your vulnerability to danger. As said before, real-world practice is essential to threat identification training, but these five tips can hammer home the fundamentals of what to look for to initiate the threat identification process.

1. Watch for Countersurveillance

Countersurveillance — that is, actively attempting to avoid observation — is important to perpetrators because it acts as an investment for the attack they plan on carrying out. Someone who partakes in countersurveillance will often have some sort of skill allowing them to identify and possibly avoid surveillance measures that would otherwise impede their plan. Lucky for you, this is not always the case.

In order to identify someone running countersurveillance, you have to capitalize on their mistakes. Observe their actions, and catch the individual slipping up and revealing their true intentions. Someone who is constantly looking up towards the corners of buildings or above doorways may be looking for cameras, perimeter lights, or motion detection devices. One who checks doors by leaning casually on handles to see if they’re unlocked, or overtly asks odd questions about security and business processes could be quietly running a countersurveillance operation. The overly-inquisitive person may simply be curious, but repetitive actions should certainly raise both suspicion and your personal threat level.

2. Identify Clothing and Wearables

As simple as it may seem, clothing can tell you a lot about a person, and how much of a threat they could be. Simple identifiers, such as raggedy, worn out, dirty clothing may easily suggest that the scruffy guy approaching you in a back alleyway is homeless. Statistically, a homeless individual may be more likely to commit crimes of desperation, so this should be an easy threat identification flag for anyone, as long as you can prioritize your safety over your sense of compassion.

It’s the more technical aspects of observation that allow you to quickly ID someone who may be up to no good, rather than trigger other senses like compassion, or plain curiosity. Someone acting suspicious while wearing the stereotypical hat and sunglasses may seem a bit odd, but this tactic actually has a pretty good chance of thwarting any surveillance cameras and facial recognition from identifying them by appearance alone. This sentiment also goes for the lone repairman or maintenance worker. They may seem normal at first glance — they have an excuse to be in a secure area, and they can get around with ease due to their job function. But if it appears they’re toting unused tools, wearing clean shoes, and donning a freshly-pressed uniform, something may be off.

As many would guess, large, heavy clothing in late spring or summer could signify someone who is trying to conceal something, such as a weapon or goods that they have lifted off of unknowing victims. But what about the tougher observations? Very light clothing, such as only a t-shirt in the winter, should raise just as much suspicion as baggy clothing in the summer. Factor in why a person would approach you while not wearing a jacket in the winter. They may seem in distress, and that will get them within feet of you. Maybe they just told you they were robbed and need your phone to contact police? Just like pulling over to help a motorist on the side of the road, it’s tough to separate the desire to be a good Samaritan from the risk of being taken advantage of. So, make sure to use caution when identifying someone based on clothing, but also use common sense.

3. Spot Visual Cues of Anxiety

Most people would argue that nervousness is the tell-tale sign of suspicious activity. Contrary to the popular belief, anxiety itself isn’t the warning sign — it produces the warning signs. A nervous individual will often display some visual “tells” that something may be up, but anxiety is the root cause of the sweating, shaking, and skin tone change associated with an individual that is about commit an act of aggression. Rubbing fingers together rapidly, clenching a fist, tightening of the jaw, and pacing will also give that individual away almost instantly, just in time for you to formulate a plan of action.

Aside from acts of aggression, thieves and petty criminals will appear extremely anxious if they aren’t experienced in the act of stealing. Look for that person to furtively glance around with spurts of paranoia, sit and put their head in between their legs, and tap their feet vigorously before they decide to either flee or go for the steal. A seasoned thief won’t think twice when shoplifting or snatching a purse, but they may very well display one of our other 4 threat identification behaviors, so pay close attention to your surroundings.

4. Look for Atypical Activity

Another key starting point that can escalate depending on location is the observation of atypical activity. These behaviors will appear unusual, regardless of your location. Avoiding eye contact at all costs in a crowd of people can be classified as atypical activity, due to the effort involved in milling around without as much as a look, nod, or smile to passersby. An abnormally chatty or outgoing individual can also be a red flag, depending on the setting.

Another atypical activity that we have had the unfortunate chance to observe was the method that the Tsarnaev brothers used to bomb the Boston Marathon in April of 2013. Even though there were plenty of people at the marathon wearing backpacks, the brothers set their concealed bombs down and nonchalantly walked away. No one noticed this as strange, even though it would be highly unlikely for someone to abandon their bag in a large crowd at the marathon. They assumed correctly that everyone was watching the marathon, thus distracting them from the atypical activity of dumping large backpacks on the sidewalk.

Lastly, observe the individual who seems to try hard to stay unseen. Ducking behind visual obstacles can seem easy, but someone who has perfected staying out of the way should escalate your threat level immediately. Standing near a blind corner of a building or hallway, behind a pillar in a low-traffic area, or even actively avoiding areas with windows inside of an office building can be initial signs of someone being up to no good.

5. Notice the “Frequent Flyer”

One of the easiest possible threats to observe is someone who seems to be making rounds in a particular area. Not to be confused with countersurveillance, someone who classifies as a frequent flyer doesn’t typically care who is watching, but rather who they are going to harm, and when they plan to strike. This individual will leave an area after a period of observation and return on a schedule to check up on their target.

This method of threat identification is more ambiguous than the others in that the schedule of the individual can vary from minutes to hours. The frequent flyer is usually a thief, pickpocket, or petty criminal who is out for a quick score, not thinking of the repercussions that could be avoided by using countersurveillance. Quickly taking stock of the area of mischief, the individual will identify the target or item they desire, make sure they are able to succeed, and go all-in. This person may also follow a target after observation, depending on the level of success they believe they may have. This is why it’s important to be able to spot the threat quickly.

The best way to avoid being the target of a frequent flyer is to identify their repetitive behavior and get out of the way before things get dangerous.

Conclusions

Practicing these tips can be as easy as going to the local shopping mall and engaging in people-watching. There are potential threats everywhere, even if we’d prefer to remain blissfully ignorant. An unsavory individual who commits small thefts is still a threat, although you may not be the intended target.

Applying these principles can be a bit harder. Hopefully, you won’t find yourself in a situation where you’ll need to escalate the threat level enough to take any sort of action, but the reason to practice threat identification is to be able to bail out before the strike. By keeping these five tips in mind, you can keep yourself and your family safe, and also protect those around you from falling victim to the dangers you observe.

About the Author

Jim Henry is a physical security and surveillance expert who has spent all of his adult life working to keep people out of places they shouldn’t be, and locating individuals who need to be found. Prior to his current employment in the private sector, where he works as a government contractor, Henry was a Surveillance Investigator for The Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, PA. He also worked in Erie, PA in a similar role. Before that, Henry was busy building a diverse portfolio of education, studying countersurveillance, critical infrastructure protection, and threat detection. Even though most of his current work remains secret, Henry is very vocal about his love for firearms, writing, EDC gear, hiking with his dog, and spending time with his family.

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OFFGRID

Top Risk Factors

Pre-Apocalyptic Treatments

Post-Apocalyptic Treatments

Back Myth Busters

An Ounce of Prevention …

Red Flags

About the Author

Bedding and Shelter

Clothing

Hydration and Nutrition

Tools

Minimizing Empty Space

About the Author

Ruger Silent-SR ISB for 10/22 Takedown

TOPS Knives El Chete

INFORCE APL-C for Glock

Related Posts

The Principles of Observation

1. Watch for Countersurveillance

2. Identify Clothing and Wearables

3. Spot Visual Cues of Anxiety

4. Look for Atypical Activity

5. Notice the “Frequent Flyer”

Conclusions

About the Author

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