On November 13 2019 the Victorian Parliament heard detailed debate (page 93) about Industrial Manslaughter laws but without resolution. Many of the points raised were familiar and along political party lines but of particular interest was the insights provided into how that State’s political leaders perceive occupational health and safety (OHS).
Each of the speakers reiterated the importance of OHS and how all workers deserve to go home at the end of the shift – you know the cliches and the debate held plenty of them. There was also a fundamental misunderstanding by many speakers though.
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We live in a world where we outsource many things that used to be done in the home. After all, if people are working jobs away from home and commuting great distances, who has the time, let alone the skills … Continued
You can see all of the chapters (in descending order) here. Ned Crankston awoke on the couch the next morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. “Good morning neighbor” Steve said from his seat at the table. “Breakfast is almost ready. You have just enough time to wash up if you like, first.” “Thanks, I’ll just be a minute.
Even before the Victorian Parliament (maybe) passes the Industrial Manslaughter amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Premier Daniel Andrews is promising new, targeted investigative resources. Even though Andrews acknowledged that the laws may not pass, he seems super-confident and we know that politics is littered with cases of over-confidence.
If the opposition Liberal/National Party coalition wanted to seriously embarrass the Premier and this Labor Government, it could nobble the changes in the Legislative Council in a move that would be popular with the major business organisations, agricultural industry groups and farmers.
Many of the issues Andrews’ raised at the Victorian Labor Party conference on 16 November 2019 make a lot of sense, but why jeopardise a crucial vote on the Industrial Manslaughter laws? And how will he bring commercial vehicles into the occupational health and safety statistics, as he has promised?
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I was fortunate enough to present a talk at the Layer8 OSINT and Social Engineering conference in June 2019. Below are the notes to the demo I executed during that talk so that you can follow along.
Talk title: Getting the Good Stuff: Understanding the Web to Achieve Your OSINT Goals
Abstract: As OSINTers we need to look beyond what is rendered in a web browser. Much like an ocean, the web pages we visit contain a wealth of data under the surface. If you understand how to access that information, you can find pivot points to continue your research.
Come and learn how to decode web traffic using simple tools, to retrieve Google Analytics codes and social media IDs from web content, and how to interact with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to grab your OSINT data. This will not be a “use this tool and it’ll do all the hard work” talk but instead, will give you the confidence and understanding of how the web works so that you can develop your own techniques to harvest OSINT data.
You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Morpheus, The Matrix
Most of us have seen or at least heard of the quote above from The Matrix movie. It holds true within our OSINT work as well as the fictional dystopia of that movie. We can look at what appears on our screens, in our web browsers, and smile and nod to ourselves that that is all the data about a person or from a site or we can choose to look beyond what is rendered in our browsers and seek other sources of data.
This talk is about being OSINT Curious and breaking free from the rendered world.
Live demo
HTML Source Code Data Harvesting
Sometimes we can find interesting information inside the HTML source code that is sent to our web browsers. Remember that only some of that code gets rendered in the web browser that you look at while other content helps load additional page content or has comments that may be interesting to you as an OSINTer. Let’s take a look at a couple of HTML pages with fun things in their source code.
In a browser, go to view-source:https://www.smule.com/ and examine the HTML comments (see the ASCII art?)
In a browser, go to view-source:https://keybase.io and examine the HTML comments (there is a note to you in there…see it?)-
In a browser, go to view-source:https://www.flickr.com/ and examine the HTML comments. Flickr also has ASCII art but a message “You’re reading. We’re Hiring.” Let’s see if other sites have that message in their pages. Perhaps we can connect multiple web sites using this string?
Do you see that several other sites have that content? Looks like some other Flickr sites and then one called permission.io. Load that web site and look at the source code for the string “You’re reading”.
Find same string in there? Yeah…it is there but a little different format (comma instead of period). These strings can sometimes be used to find links between seemingly-distinct websites.
Look at the source code for permission.io again. Right below the string you searched for above is a section that has a “<!–” that starts it. This code is commented out and will not render in your browser and yet we see it references the forum.permission.io site.
Go back to the main permission.io page…this subdomain for “forum” is not referenced. We discovered it through using the HTML source code
Analytics and Tracking Codes
Tracking and analytics codes can help us show the relationships between seemingly unrelated domains and web sites.
Huge number of related sites based on Google Analytics code but also other trackers, tags, and IP addresses
Has a dynamically generated graphic showing the time when each other domain used the trackers or had a similar IP address
Summary HTML Source Codefor OSINT
Find hidden content not referenced in the rendered web page
Pivot on content discovered to find other hosts/web sites with it
Find commented-out or deprecated references to pages that are still live
XHR (XMLHttpRequests) and JSON
Sometimes web pages load a main portion, the HTML, and then use JavaScript within your web browser to make successive calls to web sites to pull data that is used in your browser. Developers can use an XMLHTTPRequest (XHR) to make these additional requests from your browser.
These XHRs usually use a data format called JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which is easy for JavaScript and other programming languages to parse. Let’s see an example.
Select some content that is displayed on that page such as “Select a category” and copy it.
Right click on the page and view page source
Look for that string you copied in the page source. You see it? Nope? Let’s look for an XHR.
Launch the developer tools (press F12 on most modern browsers)
Press the Network tab in the developer tools window
Reload the page (using F5 or the reload/refresh button)
Look at all the resources that are loading in the network pane. To filter for the XHR, just click on the “XHR” option in the filter bar. This should leave you with 2 entries…one named m6XQ08.json and settings.
WARNING: While Firefox has a built-in JSON decoder, Chrome does not. If using Chrome, there are Extensions like JSON Viewer that can “prettify” the JSON.
Look for that string you copied in the page source. You see it? Yes! It is there. The developers of the start.me pages use JSON files (called via XHR) to retrieve additional data for the pages.
Do you see data in the JSON file that is not present in the web page when it is rendered?
Technisette’s email address?
The unique “owner id” for her account
Timestamps for page creation and modification
Neat example…but how would we use these for OSINT? OK, let’s go to the social media platform called TikTok.com.
Putting It Together: TikTok
The social media site TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/en/) allows users to post short videos on its site. Other users can comment on those videos. Let’s examine how it all works to cement our understand of looking in the source code, examining XHRs, and decoding JSON.
Look at the number of followers that you person has. In the case of the above user, in June 2019 they had “2.3k following, 507.8k fans, 6.9m hearts”. See how these values are rounded? Let’s see if we can get more details.
Paste the JSON you copied into the Input field on the right.
On the left, in the Operations panel, type: “json” (no quotes) in the Search… field.
Click and drag the JSON Beautify operation from the blue section under the search field to the Recipe pane in the middle. Drop it in there by letting go of the mouse button.
Once you do that, JavaScript in your browser performs the JSON decoding of the input and places content in the Output pane. This should be human-readable. If not, you may be copied too many characters or not enough.
Scroll down in the output pane until you see the “userData” item. That has the data about the user. Scroll down a little further and you will see the exact number of followers, fans, and hearts instead of the rounded numbers we saw earlier.
So, we have some detailed profile data. Now let’s switch to a TikTok video and harvest the JSON data.
It is not there….is it? Let’s launch our Developer Tools (F12) and see if this site uses XHRs.
Go back to the regular video page and press F12 then reload the page.
Select the XHR filter (if it is not already selected). You should see a bunch of XHR requests. Two of them are probably for the list?id=6698401324473519366 resources. We want the one that has the count right after the id. Right click on that entry and Open in New Tab (works in Firefox and Chrome)
Now search for the “Can u sing without me by Harley” string. You find it? Yup. This JSON page has ALL the video comments along with who made them, profile IDs, date and time stamps (in UNIX/Epoch time), and more! OSINTing!
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
We now understand that this JSON and XHR data can have vast quantities of data we want for our OSINTing. Let’s shift to another place that has JSON, APIs.
We may have already introduced APIs to you in the TikTok example above as there is most likely an API or Application Programming Interface) that services the TikTok XHR requests. In other words, when programs (think mobile devices and scripts like Python) make requests for data to web sites, they often make these requests to APIs so that they get data returned in a format that is easily digestible by the script or app. Inside of this data can be content that is not found in the comparable web page that you’d see in your web browser.
Want an example? OK. Let’s use the OpenCorporates.com site:
Did you see the extra information in the JSON data from the API? Lesson here is always check for an API and compare the data in it to what is rendered in your browser. Look for the word JSON or API in the web site.
In fact, the word JSON appears at the bottom of the regular web page. If you were OSINTCurious and clicked it, you would have been rewarded with this extra data in the JSON API!
Unlinked Web Files
When some people use a search engine like DuckDuckGo, Google, or Yandex, they might think that these applications will show them any file that exists on a crawled web site. That simply is not true. Web site owners can tell search engines to ignore certain files or directories by putting those forbidden resources in a file called robots.txt and placing it at the root of their domain. For more info about this file, visit http://www.robotstxt.org/robotstxt.html.
Let’s look at some of these robots.txt files as they reveal directories and files that, as OSINTers, we may WANT to visit and that are not indexed by search engines.
Yup. We get Ricardo Murillo’s profile as the first result (https://www.codementor.io/rcjmurillo). This then takes us to his profile on the CodeMentors site.
Check out the http://www.dailymotion.com/robots.txt page and see how each search engine “bot/crawler” has different content that the site allows it to index. What would your OSINT investigation look like if you only used one of these engines? The word “incomplete” comes to mind.
So why does this matter? Web site owners can prevent search engines from indexing certain resources. When you search on specific term, pages that are available on these sites will not come up because of the robots.txt files. A gentle reminder that search engines don’t index the entire internet!
Wrapping It Up
This blog post and companion conference talk are meant to show:
As OSINTers, the more we understand about platforms, web applications, and how they work, the greater our collection opportunities.
We should not rely solely on what we see rendered in our web browsers.
Diving deeper into source code, APIs, and XHRs help us gather more data in an easy to understand/parse format (JSON).
OSINT can be REALLY fun! There are “Easter Eggs” (surprise gifts) in many of the sites you might use daily.
Be OSINT Curious and click on things, look for and use APIs, and examine source code!
Seek to understand the platforms you are using…not just harvest data from them.
Now that you know these places are out there and have valuable OSINT data, you will never be able to go back. Welcome to the “OSINT Matrix”.
Note: This is part 3 of our three-part series on Civil War Preparedness. Click here to read part one, or click here to read part two. Cities are taking over the world, so to speak. More people live in them than ever and more of them are popping up all over the world. Learning to […]
In the summer, we were contacted by the British start-up company Apex International which specializes in water bottles for outdoor sports. The company currently only offers one insulated water bottle (500 ml) in two different colors, but after checking technical specifications and product description we were excited to test the water bottle. Thus we got a sample in return for an unbiased review.
We received the Apex International water bottle at the end of the summer which was perfect because we were then able to test it in both warm and cold conditions. For the last couple of months, we’ve been using the Apex insulated water bottle on hikes, for everyday use and while travelling. We used it not only for water but also for tea, coffee, soup and other beverages. Below is what we learned about the Apex International insulated water bottle.
The Apex International water bottle is suitable for:
Hiking
Mountaineering
Backpacking
Travelling
Everyday use
Materials
The Apex International water bottle is a so-called vacuum bottle (also called vacuum flask) which means that it consists of two bottles – one is placed within the other. The air in the gap between these two bottles is then extracted which creates vacuum. This minimizes heat transfer as vacuum is the world’s best insulator and if a vacuum bottle is constructed well (i.e. very little contact between the two bottles), it can keep beverages hot or cold for many hours.
When I unwrapped the package, I immediately noticed that the bottle is robust and made of high-quality materials. It performed well keeping cold drinks chilled in warm weather but I was really curious to see how it would work in colder weather. So, one evening when the temperature had dropped below 10° C, I poured boiling water into the bottle and left the bottle outside for 12 hours. The night temperatures were between 5° and 8° C and 12 hours later the water in the bottle was still very hot – actually the perfect temperature for drinking without burning your tongue. So, the bottle also passed being tested in colder weather.
I have used the water bottle on hiking trails, and I am satisfied with it in general. The bottle provides good insulation and it always kept my drinks hot/cold. Since it’s made of stainless steel, it doesn’t absorb flavor, so you can easily use it for coffee, soup and other beverages without re-tasting them the next time you use the bottle for a different beverage. Stainless steel bottles can be inconvenient for sports because they are slippery, especially when your hands are sweaty. However, the Apex International bottle features a rubber coating on the outside which provides good grip. I was very satisfied with this little detail as it makes handling the bottle much easier and safer.
The bottle cap is not attached to the bottle which I found a bit disappointing. On trails it’s easy to lose such a small item and if you lose it, you have no option but to buy a new bottle. Otherwise, the bottle cap is well-made, and I haven’t encountered any leaks during the testing period. In case I do in the future, I will of course update this article accordingly. I also missed the cap functioning as an integrated cup. Some insulated bottles come with a cup which is very convenient because you obviously can’t drink boiling hot beverages directly from the bottle. Nevertheless, you can simply put a recyclable cup into your backpack to solve this problem.
Functionality
The Apex International water bottle has a capacity of 500 milliliters, which I find perfect. The bottle is not too big for the side pocket of my Osprey Talon 22 daypack and it holds enough liquid to get a cup of warm tea during each pause on longer hikes. It weighs 290 grams which is very similar to the weight of competitive products of the same volume. Now, I’m into lightweight hiking and thus I typically use insulated water bottles only in very cold conditions. In warm and moderate conditions, I prefer to use my hydration bladder not only because it’s lighter, but also because it allows me to drink on the go.
Care
I was a bit disappointed when I read the instructions and noticed that the bottle should not go in the dishwasher. The bottle has a very narrow opening and thus it’s really hard to clean it on the inside – there is no way you’ll get a sponge in there. I did a bit of research and many competitive products are dishwasher safe which is a great advantage. I believe that the problem is in the rubber coating which would probably get damaged if exposed to high temperatures. Nevertheless, if that’s the case the opening should be wider for easier cleaning.
Verdict
So, let’s start with the good things. I was very satisfied with the quality of the bottle. During the testing period I haven’t noticed any leaks or other defects. The bottle provides good insulation and keeps drinks hot/cold for very long time. I was also very happy with the rubber coating which provides a good grip even if your hands are sweaty – nobody wants to drop their drinking bottle while standing on a steep mountain side. The biggest downside is that the bottle is very hard to clean. According to the instructions, you shouldn’t put it in the dishwasher and the opening is so narrow that you can’t reach more than a couple of centimeters into the bottle. Hence, cleaning is limited to pouring hot soapy water into the bottle, rinsing it and hoping you get everything out. Besides that I really liked the bottle and I will continue using it for hiking as well as everyday use.
If you have any questions about this product, drop me a line in the comments below.
Apex International Water Bottle – The capacity of 500 milliliters is perfect in terms of size and weight
Apex International Water Bottle – Rubber coating provides good grip
Apex International Water Bottle – Stainless steel does not absorb flavor
Apex International Water Bottle – The bottom of the bottle
Apex International Water Bottle – The bottle cap is not attached to the bottle and thus it’s easy to lose it
Apex International Water Bottle – The opening is too narrow for efficient cleaning
Outdoor enthusiast with experience in all types of hiking and mountaineering. Hiked in the Alps, Iceland and other countries. In love with via ferrata trails and snow-covered slopes. Check out my hikes.
Bullies are weaklings who pretend to be tough. Snowflakes are weaklings who prefer to be weak. They both represent extremes of dysfunctional and maladaptive behavior. They can also be viewed as a circular rather than linear model.
Snowflakes do plenty of bullying by their incessant whining and reporting their outrage to sympathetic third parties They use their victim stance to gain power and force their will on others. Bullies use a cruel and counterfeit model of strength to force their will on others. Neither does well under stress.
The short version: I don’t want the company of either. I would rather be by myself. However, you may not have that choice. In the workplace, you will have to deal with bullies and snowflakes.
You may have them for neighbors. You may have them in your family. Alternatively, you may find yourself in the company of both if things go sideways and land shit-side up.
Bullies
Bullies are cruel, angry, and sadistic. They are among the most despicable human beings. They may have antisocial or narcissistic personality disorder. They are miserable people who can only feel good when they are hurting others.
They have a compulsion to dominate others, physically, or intellectually, or socially. They delight when their victim cringes, submits, is outraged, or simmers with suppressed rage, or acquiesces to their demands.
The only momentary relief they get from the psychological pain they hold inside themselves is when they make someone else hurt. Most bullies pick and choose their targets with care; weak men, women, children or animals. In addition, they are well represented among domestic abusers.
I have noticed that domestic abusers don’t do very well when their victims fathers, brothers, uncles and male friends intervene. They tend to fold up and suddenly become very humble and apologetic.
They are epidemic in elementary school, middle school, high school; they dominate the weak in venues from factories and offices, to correctional facilities.
They want to be in charge, but they have no leadership skills, and no concern or consideration for the good of the group. They tend to lack fortitude, character, and honor. They project a counterfeit strength to compensate for their weakness.
Some Reflections on the Complexity of Human Psychology
What does not kill us makes us stronger.
Friedrich Nietzsche, in Die Götzen-Dämmerung (Twilight of the Idols), [1895 ]
Now for a reflection on the complexity of human psychology. Some suggest that bullies serve to fortify and strengthen weaker people through their abuse.
If you have never experienced hardship, adversity, and challenges, if you have grown up sheltered and spoiled, how will you cope when life inevitably does not go your way?
The outcome of being bullied, like almost all experiences, will mostly depend on how we perceive it. It will wear you down and make you crumple, or train you and make you tougher and stronger. How we look at our experiences, how we perceive them will determine the degree of distress we experience.
This idea is rooted in Stoicism, the Greek philosophy which is the basis of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). CBT involves identification of maladaptive and dysfunction thinking.
Once these cognitive errors are identified, their validity can be rationally challenged. They can be discarded and replaced with more realistic and useful thoughts. In this way, we build mental fortitude and toughness.
Option A
Bullying can make one cringe from hardship and adversity and avoid challenges. A Bully’s cruel insults can be internalized by their victims, and they will see themselves as weak, ugly, stupid, a loser, or whatever else they are labeled as.
Bullying can make you submissive, always trying to please others and not make anyone angry so you don’t experience their wrath. Bullying can make you an emotional wreck, fragile and quick to yell in rage or burst into tears or shake with fear at the slightest threat. You may lose all sense of value, and spiral downwards, becoming even more submissive, and allowing others to dominate you even further.
Option B
Bullying can also be an opportunity to learn how to withstand hardship, and how to develop a deeper sense of self-worth when you are subjected to abuse that you do not internalize.
It can teach you how to be assertive, how to manage your emotions, and how to value yourself. You can gain self confidence when faced with later hardships, telling yourself that you have endured worse situations. You can decide with a deep determination that nobody will ever dominate you again.
Snowflakes
Snowflakes are sensitive, frail, fragile, and delicate. They tend to be physically weak, and have emotional breakdowns when challenged, and feel unsafe in response to words or ideas. Yet they can wield tremendous power in their victim role.
People tiptoe around them, try not to upset them, lest they have a dramatic meltdown, cause a public scene, and make everyone uncomfortable and embarrassed. Managers in the workplace indulge their complaints.
They have to have things their way or they have a breakdown and become hysterical. While Snowflakes make very attractive targets for bullies, as observed in the Introduction, they are ironically bullies themselves.
Building a Team
It can be hard to of any pros for either bullies of snowflakes. The cons are numerous, and mostly described above. However, a crisis situation can bring out the best as well as the worst in people. What to do if you are stuck with them?
First, anyone who wants to go out on their own, let them go. You may be better off on your own, or with a core group that intuitively realizes that in a crisis situation, mutual survival is dependent largely on teamwork.
Whoever sticks around, work to bring people together to function as a team. Small group dynamics will be acted out in pretty predictable ways whenever you get a small number of people together. There will be leaders and followers.
Someone will have to step up and get the group united and working together. One way to do this is the path of least resistance, and letting people default to the familiar. What do people in the group know best? Where is there familiarity and comfort zone?
Find Everyone’s Gifts
What I have discussed thus far is mostly about personality. From a different perspective, identify what people bring to the table in terms of abilities.
Give everyone a job to carry out. The anxious snowflake may be the equivalent of a wound up five-pound yappy dog that throws a fit over the littlest noise. Make them a lookout.
The tough guy bully? Now is his chance to step up and show he has real courage. Can someone cook or bake? Or sew? Is someone strong enough to carry a heavy load? Does anyone have any medical training? Find out and be the glue that binds the group together.
Conclusion
Which are you?
Are you a bully? Do you get off on dominating and abusing others? Great way to hide and overcompensate for what a pathetic scared loser you are isn’t it.
Find a good counselor. Stop mistreating other people. Do you know what is going to happen to you if you don’t stop? You will wind up alone, and even more bitter, angry and resentful toward others and the world, and become even more filled with contempt and hatred for yourself.
Are you a snowflake? Why are you deliberately embracing weakness? You are just asking to be victimized, led, or dominated. I know there is a lot of power in being a victim. The need for power is a fundamental human need.
There are much better sources of power. Find one. Examine your irrational thoughts and understand you can’t always have things your way. Stop being so easily led by the leftist rhetoric you are bombarded with, and take the Red Pill.
I’m Jake Wyld, and I eat “gross” things, so you don’t have to. Check out my work with Creek Stewart’s Survival Kitchen here:
When It comes to eating bugs, the western world views it as something taboo. It could be blamed on culture itself or the fact that economics in the West tend to be a bit healthier, affording people the ability to not “have to” eat bugs to survive. In fact, I’d dare say that most of us in the West would consider bugs as a last-ditch food option, purely for survival. That thought pattern isn’t the norm throughout most cultures in the world. Large amounts of insects, cooked in various ways, are not only consumed, but considered delicious treats—something to be savored and enjoyed. So, what’s the deal with eating bugs for survival and beyond? I want to find out! Join me on this series of posts where I delve into the creepy, crawly, and delicious scoop behind SURVIVAL BUGS.
COCKROACHES!
I’ll be honest, I associate cockroaches with some pretty nasty things—decay, uncleanliness, and even disease. And to be honest, none of these associations are without merit. Cockroaches feast on rotting garbage and thrive in warm, germ-infested environments. Because of this, it’s logical that cockroaches can spread diseases to humans through defecation—things like salmonella, streptococcus, and staphylococcus—they can even carry the polio virus! In recent years, studies have shown that cockroaches even cause and agitate allergies.
Okay, so I’m not painting cockroaches in a positive light. But these bacteria-infested bugs, the ones that we know in the West (American Cockroach, Brown-banded Cockroach, Oriental Cockroach, and German Cockroach) are portrayed so negatively everywhere! Could there be any chance that cockroaches could serve, in a pinch, as a survival food?
DID YOU KNOW: Most cockroaches are considered beneficial. Roughly, only 1% are considered pests.
WHO EATS COCKROACHES?
Note: This is by no means anywhere close to an exhaustive list of peoples or places that consume cockroaches. It simply includes several examples.
China
China has a booming market that has just come about in the last decade or so—cockroach farming! China is exploring options to help minimize the cost of medical care for its large and aging population. Cockroaches are farmed and fed healthy, clean fruits and vegetables and then consumed as a cheap and sustainable source of protein. It’s believed that cockroaches have medicinal value, too.
How They Eat Them: Skillet-fried, or double-fried
Cockroaches and other insects are widely consumed in Asian Countries. In some places, they are so popular that they can be found in busy markets being sold a street food snacks.
Thailand
I had a friend in college whose parents were missionaries in Thailand, and he had spent some of his latter formative years there. I definitely heard some stories about the food and the “ick factor” it could have on someone with a Western palate. This includes the cockroach! He was adamant that people there LOVED them, and they touted that cockroaches were delicious. In fact, in Thailand, cockroaches serve as the base for many dishes considered “comfort” food in their culture.
How They Eat Them: Deep-fried; you can find lots of street vendors selling them on skewers. The Thai people love to cook their cockroaches with strong spices to give the cockroaches a pungent flavor.
Tangy and spicy chili salad with cockroaches and other insects.
Anyone Who is Feeling Brave
I’d dare say many readers know of the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. It’s large, loud, and downright creepy looking. I saw them for the first time when I was 12 years old watching Joe Rogan host Fear Factor. They made this guy get in a glass box and poured them on him. He lasted a few seconds before involuntary high-pitched squeals ensued and he bailed out of the challenge. In recent years, with the rising popularity of things like Fear Factor-style contests and YouTube food challenges, the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach has had its 15 minutes of fame.
Madagascar Hissing Beetles in the wild.
Though they are only found on the island of Madagascar, off the cost of Africa, Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches are shipped and eaten all over the world. People even keep them as pets! That’s right, apparently these massive cockroaches are easy to care for, cheap to feed, and don’t need much space to have an enjoyable existence. Many places, including the United States, require permits to own a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach as a pet. There are strict limitations from fear of the species becoming an invasive one. They just need some warmth. Be forewarned, they are nocturnal insects, so unless you find the sound of their hissing the perfect white noise to fall asleep to, you may want to find a more agreeable pet.
How They Eat Them: Deep-fried, skillet-fried, boiled, or raw (Note: I’d NEVER recommend eating ANY insect raw).
Other Ways Cockroaches are Consumed Around the World: Roach Stir Fry, Roach Fondue, Roach Tacos and Burritos, and many more!
WHY EAT COCKROACHES?
It should be noted that I’m not suggesting anyone, anytime, or anywhere eat a cockroach. Particularly in the United States. Roaches in highly developed places tend to be what they eat, which is usually garbage and rot from urban areas. The cultures that consume cockroaches seem to either be attempting to farm them cleanly and healthily or eating them from the wild jungles and forests, where the diet of the cockroach consists of a lot of wild fruits and/or vegetation.
Cockroach farming has become popular in recent years for the same reason cricket farming has—done correctly, it’s a healthy and sustainable high-protein food that is cheap and easy to maintain. That’s huge for developing countries and poorer regions of the world.
Raising or farming clean-eating cockroaches ensures their place as a championed cheap and sustainable source of quality protein.
WHAT DO COCKROACHES TASTE LIKE?
I have eaten some weirdly disgusting things. I can’t personally speak to the taste of cockroaches, as I have never tried one. However, after researching and scouring videos and the internet for articles, I can confidently say that the consensus is that they are somewhat bland in taste, taking on the flavor of any strong spice or marinade they are cooked with. However, it’s suggested that alone, cockroaches have a slight shrimp-like flavor. I will say, having eaten a tarantula and a centipede cooked over a fire, I can imagine how that might be the flavor profile. Weirdly enough, the insects I have devoured do have somewhat of a fishy/shrimp-y taste to them.
THE VERDICT: NOT A SURVIVAL FOOD (FOR ME, AT LEAST)
When it comes to our bellies here in the West, it looks like we got the 1% on the cockroaches—purely pests. I’d say it’s the best and healthiest option to stay away from eating cockroaches, even in a survival scenario. I don’t deny that if hunger strikes, you might do whatever you need to fill up on calories and survive. But when it comes to eating the cockroaches that we know here in North America and other highly developed places where the cockroaches aren’t feeding on fruits and wild veggies all day, I think the risk of potential disease or sickness are enough to make me pass. Besides, if you’re in a survival situation and you eat something that will make you sick, you’ll end up losing more bodily fluids and doing more harm than good for yourself and your situation.
Disclaimer: Neither the author nor the publisher of this post advise that anyone, anytime, anywhere eat a cockroach.
Jake Wyld is a former chef, photographer, content creator, producer, avid writer, and a professional editor in the outdoor space. He currently operates as Senior Editor at DROPSToNE Press and works for Wilderness Survival Instructor and TV Host, Creek Stewart, as Director of Operations for APOCABOX (https://www.myapocabox.com/), SURVIVAL SKILL of the MONTH CLUB (https://www.survivalskillofthemonth.com/), WILD EDIBLE PLANT of the MONTH CLUB (https://www.wildedibleplantofthemonth.com/), SURVIVAL on the 7th (https://www.survivalonthe7th.com/), and OUTDOORCORE (https://www.outdoorcore.com/). Jake is currently working on his first fiction novel, due out in 2020. You can follow him on his Instagram and Twitter, both handles are @thejakewyld
