News & Information

News & Information

One of our best friends, Mike Brown, passed from this earth last December 23rd. We didn’t know because he was visiting his kids in Oregon. Mike masqueraded as a Brooklyn tough guy who had a barely hidden heart of gold under that New York attitude. He was the lead mechanic at the Reno-Tahoe Airport for many years and that was his persona…he fixed things. He bought and sold old cars, he built houses and, for me, he helped build an AM transmitter site which is the hardest thing in broadcasting to get right. He got it right. One of his favorite times was Reno’s annual Hot August Nights classic car festival. The highest praise I ever got from him was when we did a four hour remote broadcast from one of Adam Laxalt’s Basque Frys. He helped us set up, declined an invitation to stay and then called me when I was on my way home afterwards to tell me he had listened to the whole event and enjoyed every minute of it. The pancreatic cancer started to get to him a few years ago. At first—in his Brooklyn persona—he wouldn’t say the word cancer. Recently, he mostly went to lunch with us as part of the ritual because he couldn’t taste much. Our favorite place was Red’s 395 Grill in Carson City. As Christmas approached this year, I told him that I was assuming his normal gift—a bottle of Jack Daniels—was out of the question on his doctor’s orders.…
Now this may not seem to be related to The Paracast, or UFOs, but it does. Back in 1989, when I first brought an Apple Macintosh into my home, I was the oddball. Whenever I visited a local computer store to buy some software, and told them it was for a Mac, the salespeople would give me a strange look and dispatch me to the back of the store.I wasn’t surprised to see a few dusty boxes that, when I looked them over, after blowing on them to see the lettering, I found to be mostly out of date.In those days, the Mac was the plaything. You did serious work on a PC. Period. The computing world has changed a lot in the past 31 years, but that’s another story.Now as a preteen, I first became interested in UFOs when I borrowed a book from my brother — one he had borrowed from the public library — that was entitled “Flying Saucers From Outer Space” by Major Donald Keyhoe. Little did I know that I would still be chasing the saucers decades later.When I brought the book home, my dad barely noticed. My mother never asked; she had already realized that I was a different sort.I had the benefit of not being terribly social. My few friends, oddly enough, were also interested in the subject. So Marty would talk about a book he bought for one dollar at the closeout racks of a bookstore, “The Expanding Case for the UFO”…
On Sunday morning, two people were killed by a gunman at the West Free Church of Christ in White Settlement, Texas. Thankfully, the church had a team of armed volunteer security and within seconds of the initial attack, Jack Wilson, head of the security team, drew his weapon, fired a single shot and killed the attacker. The church service was being live streamed at the time and the entire attack was caught on video. The video was removed from the church website but it was captured and posted to multiple sites. The video is shocking but I think it’s worthy of viewing. It does show the gunman killing two innocent people but it also shows the heroic actions by multiple parishioners. The video, which you can watch here on offgridsurvival.com, is from a camera across the room, I want to point out that it’s not a close up of horrific violence. Just so you know what you are getting into. (If you click the link above you have to scroll down a bit to Video 1, in order to watch it). Jack Wilson, the man who killed the gunman, is a reserve deputy sheriff and a firearm instructor and a volunteer security officer at the church. The gunman has been identified as 43 year old Keith Thomas Kinnunen who has had several run ins with law enforcement but, due to his death, Kinnunen's motivation for attacking the chruch remains unclear. The names of the two victims have now been officially…
TO AVOID FAILING AT ONE’S NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS, START BEFORE RETURNING TO WORK AS VACATION TIME ALLOWS ONE MORE FLEXIBILITY TO KEEP TO ONE’S GOALS Updated 12/17/19 Nothing is more of a buzz kill, enjoying the biggest party of the year, than the discussion of New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s be honest ...what are these resolutions anyway? They’re a promise to do the right thing in exchange for no one nagging us while we abuse ourselves over the holidays. So it’s no wonder most New Year’s resolutions fail. If your heart’s not it and if the goals aren’t realistic, resolutions won’t be met. Moreover we wait until January 2nd to give up smoking, or sweets, and struggle as we are returning from vacation and need to hit our work schedule head on. So I suggest starting your healthy habits during your holiday vacation week(s) where you can go through withdrawal or be grumpy without the boss seeing. The resolutions may stick longer and they will be easier to do once the new work week/year begins. The most common (and commonly failed) New Year’s Resolutions are: To lose weight To stop smoking To drink less To make more money To spend more time with family To perform better at work To save more money To eat healthier To go to church/temple more often Get a boyfriend/girlfriend Spend less time on the internet/smartphone To watch less porn Look how general and insurmountable some of these can be. They’re too broad and if these…
Since 2010 the Madison based website Murfie has been an internet based business that digitizes your audio CD’s, vinyl and cassettes. You mail in your collection, Murfie rips them to the cloud and digitize your music for your listening pleasure. Then, for a monthly fee, Murfie storied the actual hard copies of your music collection. Okay. Seems like a decent idea. Except of course, after several years of business as usual, as of late November, the Murfie website has this message: “Murfie has ceased operations. The company's senior debt holders are working together to develop a process in which customer-owned physical media can be retrieved. If you are a customer with media at Murfie, you will be receiving information by email on how to arrange for the retrieval of your physical media. Thank you, once again. -- The Murfie Team (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)” Suddenly, thousands of people who were paying their monthly fee to Murfie’s all had the exact same question in mind, “Ummm … how the F am I going to get my CD’s / vinyl / cassettes back?” And there’s the rub. It sounds as if customers were blindsided with the news, too. Apparently, as late as November 17th, Murfie charged folks to their monthly membership and then, not even one week later “ceased operations.” Hence the message above. Seems shady to me. Now, Murfie does have one page still functioning, their “Terms of Service” page. It says: “Every CD and vinyl record you store at Murfie HQ is your…
Much has changed since yesterday when authorities were saying the gun fight started in a cemetery and moved several blocks away to randomly selected kosher market. Now, after viewing video footage of the attack authorities are saying that the gun fight in Jersey City, NY between police and two armed men holed up in a bodega was a targeted attack on that specific bodega (a small grocery store). The neighborhood the attack occurred in is mainly orthodox Jews, and authorities now believe the shop was specifically targeted. Video evidence clearly shows the attackers exiting a van and firing into the store. Two local police officers happened to be very close by, called the attack in and then rushed to the scene within seconds. Officers Ray Sanchez and Mariela Fernandez placed themselves between the attackers and civilians. Both officers, were shot and wounded but it pushed the attackers back into the bodega instead of allowing them to remain on the streets and fire indiscriminately at civilians. Within seconds more police arrived, pulled both wounded officers out of the line of fire and the long standoff gunfight occurred between the police and the shooters. Both Sanchez and Fernandez have been released from the hospital. Another officer, Detective Joseph Seals was killed but it's still a little unclear where or when. Authorities are saying he was "ambushed," which seems to imply he was killed elsewhere but as of yet, I'm unable to find out more. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said:…
Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 to encourage generosity and altruism. The holidays are an ideal time to share our blessings and fortunes with others who may be less fortunate. Many charities find this time the busiest of the year and funds are needed to help the great work they do, hence #GivingTuesday couldn’t come at a more opportune time. Donations of any size can be life saving. However, some of us may be on very tight budgets and unable to donate money. No worries …. Giving Tuesday is not just about monetary donations. There are TONS of meaningful ways one can give to help others. Blood Donation The winter season is a challenging time for many of our blood banks and every 3 seconds, someone needs blood. When one donates a pint of blood it can help save up to 3 lives. And it doesn’t cost a cent. The American Red Cross is accepting blood donations. Local blood drives can be found at redcross.org. Vitalant has locations throughout the country that can accept your blood donation as well. Contact Vitalant here. Food Drives Collecting non perishable food items from your pantry, neighbors or coworkers can be done quickly, easily and when taken to a shelter or organization can feed hungry and malnourished people in your community. Clothing Drives How many of us have saved our clothes from high school hoping we’ll fit into them again? Well we won't ...so why hold on to a lost dream. Tons of clothes…
In Michigan, a 33 year old man named Alex Lavell Rawls (our suspect) kicked down a door in search of his ex-girlfriend. Perhaps obviously, he wasn’t there to rescue her. After a series of harassment and threats of violence against her, he decided to go kick her door down. So, Rawls goes over to her place to due her harm, not knowing that - she had already moved to another state in order to get away from his lunatic ass! Cut to: Rawls gets to her apartment and pounds on the door. Enter Ben Ball, 36. Ben is a regular kind of guy who likes regular kind of things - he goes to work, he plays video games, he watches cool things on TV and … oh yeah, he collects and practices in the use of medieval weaponry! You see, on the weekends, Ball and friends choreograph and video live re-enactments of savage Viking-esq warrior combat. Ball has a wide collection of medieval weapons in his apartment up to and including, as he puts its, “my baby,” and in this case, his baby is a replica double headed carbon steel battle axe. By “replica” I don’t mean fake. I mean, it’s an exact recreation of a battle axe that had been specifically designed to injure an armored knight. Or cut off limbs of an unarmored person. Keep that in mind. Back to Rawls. He heads over to his ex-girlfriend's house for some more harassing and threatening. He pounds on her…
Weird, but delightful news! Buck’s T-4 Lodge in Big Sky, Montana (about 45 minutes from Yellowstone National Park) had an uninvited guest wander into the motel and take a nap. A young black bear made his way into the ladies bathroom, climbed up on the sink and hung out for a while. In this case, “hung out” means, “took a huge dump.” Which is kind of hilarious. Staff tried their best to coax the bear out but the little bear that could was unfazed and opted to climb onto the sink and chill. Apparently, staff had heard the bear banging around outside and one even saw him through the window but no one actually expected the bear to climb up an outside wall and slip through a window into the building - which is precisely what the crafty little guy did. Which is how he ended up in the bathroom - and that’s how he was stuck. He was unable to climb back out and obviously didn’t understand how to open a door. So he pretty much decided to just take a nap on the sink. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officers were called in and had to tranquilize the bear but it sounds like the little guy was unharmed in the process and so officers picked up the sleeping bear and removed him from the hotel. Officers then checked his vitals and released him in a remote area of Montana. Talk about "smarter than the average, bear!" 
I don’t know about you but I was hoping to have a relaxing weekend of BBQ, beer and games. Instead, Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a Category 5 and absolutely devastated the Bahamas. Dorian is expected to remain Category 5 and hit parts of Florida and Georgia but meteorologists hope a wind shift will push the hurricane a bit East and the two coasts will avoid the worst of the storm. Another mass shooting killing rampage happened, this time in West Texas. A 36 year old man was fired from his job and then, a few hours later started massacring citizens. At least 7 people were killed with another 20 wounded. It ended when police rammed the shooter’s vehicle and, as he tried to exit the stolen car, police shot him dead. A 75 foot boat called the Conception caught fire off the coast of Southern California. At least five people have been rescued but the ship was entirely ablaze and it looks unlikely rescuers will find other survivors. Approx. 30 people, maybe more, were on board. For thirteen weeks protestors in Hong Kong have been battle state authorities. That’s - thirteen weeks! Hong Kong is obviously a city in China but for more than a century it was a colony of the United Kingdom until 1997 when the British handed it back to China. The problem being is that Hong Kong still has a political and legal system based off British rule which is known as the Basic Law,…
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